AoE3 DE - My First Game and Impressions

Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition is released on October 15, but during streaming week I can show some games and new features. This game is a 2v2 against the AI where I play as Japanese. We'll also see the new civilizations: the Inca and Swedes!
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Game: Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition.

[@vertabun427]

AoE3DE looks like the game that mobile game ads pretend to be

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

You mean Cossacks?

[@Cra3ier]

Holy Khan many! Rise of civ for example

[@petersmythe6462]

A lot of games pretend to be AOE2 . They often copy sprites in their ads.

[@ntrg3248]

I cant unsee this

[@jethex3542]

literally seen multiple mobile game ads that use screenshots from the original AoE3

[@geniusnel5418]

22:00 "oh, what's this, a fort? haha that's very unFORTunately timing"

[@musAKulture]

there are lots of cherry trees in vancouver so if you really stretch it...maybe they'll grow in the "yukon" area

[@maxmustsleep]

the reason why you don't need so many vills on wood is that you've built tons of shrines with lots of animals around them which you've set to produce wood.

[@solarranks7281]

your such a good youtuber I wanna support you but sometimes I get out of the age of empires groove and dont watch for a while keep it up bro

[@grantsolorio8646]

I just got this game and cannot figure out how to get my units to attack workers and buildings... what am I doing wrong?

[@123Sunwell]

So leveling is no longer a thing in DE?

[@ShahTalks]

All cards are unlocked so only asethic changes for the Home City needs leveling

[@mozarteanchaos]

@@ShahTalks and thank god for that

[@kevinxu3892]

Look up historia civilis' video on the iroquois confederacy to get that pronunciation right. Also really informative on the haudenonsaunee govt and society

[@volk551]

I wonder if we'll get Age of Mythology Definitive Edition next

[@andyklrhc]

Are you still limited to only selecting 50 units at a time?

[@Joe21345]

20:00 "My daimyo, gotta keep him safe" Shogun 2 players: "OUR GENERAL IS IN GRAVE DANGER MY LORD!"

[@availablehage]

Hahaha I laughed so hard...that voice in mid of battle..It got me so irritated I just kept my general in the jungle

[@silverlance6960]

Shamefur display

[@ayegame2424]

FOR THE SHOoOOooooGUN!

[@Kaarl_Mills]

*THIS IS A BRAK DAY, OUR GENERAL HAS FARREN MY RORD!*

[@Sivzram]

Shamefur Disprayy

[@tkpenalty]

...i think quite a few people won a bet that you were going to choose Japanese for your first game!

[@ShahTalks]

Yeah I guessed the same but Japan in AOE 3 is one of the best civilizations

[@Sprintzs]

@@ShahTalks hopefully they fix the French in de

[@radianceJR]

He should have went for the strat where you spam only ashigaru musketeer

[@CJonesApple]

Who would bet AGAINST him picking Japanese?

[@ShahTalks]

@@Sprintzs I heard the French are getting a well deserved which is great,their cav is too OP

[@obsidian5475]

" I'm gonna play as Japanese "- Spirit of the Law 2020

[@kwiiin_]

SotL 2014-2020 lmao

[@Longknife]

Spirit of the Weeb

[@planescaped]

I remember always playing Ivan The Terrible.

[@famtomerc]

Its how we know its still him

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Maybe he has a soft spot for Total War: Shogun 2.

[@21Arrozito]

SOTL, please consider continuing to make AOE3 DE content, there are sooo many of us AOE3 players who wish that there was a youtuber like you for AOE3 that does deep dives into the mechanics and units, civs, strats and such

[@McCleves]

what about SamuraiRevolution?

[@21Arrozito]

@@McCleves SR does good stuff but AFAIK most of SR's videos are just him giving commentary on matches he plays. He doesn't do a lot of stuff that SOTL is known for, figuring our how the game actually works, using the editor to test units, very careful analyses of units and techd in general. SR doesn't do a lot of that.

[@osprey2310]

@@McCleves All he does is say "Get rekt BROOOO".. Nothing he says betrays any knowledge or analysis of game mechanics. Its low-key annoying to watch him but that's just my opinion lol.

[@McCleves]

@@osprey2310 ever watched his strategy school videos with Dansil92?

[@osprey2310]

@@McCleves Well, I watched some of his videos and then gave up on him. I've been casually playing the game for 15 years now and I prefer to watch someone who can get into the nitty gritties of unit statistics, eco management etc. I'm not really looking to watch someone play a game against someone else.

[@flxdrv5020]

11:58 lmao i don't think i'm ready to get roasted this hard by the AI.

[@zeroyuki92]

I'm not sure if AoE3 DE would be good or not but boy for sure the roasts are great and I might play because of that alone lol

[@DiscoDumpTruck]

Frederick the Great is particularly savage

[@jayztar25]

I remember Akbar will diss you but he makes you think about your life choices

[@atsstaaatsssatss4501]

@Aleksa Petrovic ivan the terrible

[@cocox974]

procédure habituelle ?

[@Tiitra]

Then in a year or two's time, Age of Mythology: Definitive Edition. Spirit: Wait where are the Japanese?

[@michaelandreipalon359]

There's a Chinese civ, but they're horrendous... for reasons I didn't even expect.

[@NivMizzet89]

Maybe we can hope they'll add them as a new civ? I'd imagine the kami should give plenty of mythological things to work with.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@NivMizzet89 It would be nice for us to summon a doglike sun goddess.

[@nlmnx5763]

AOM needs a gallic/gallo-roman/continental-celtic civ

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@nlmnx5763 That's unlikely, but still interesting as well.

[@najarvis]

"ashigarus are working pretty well, I'll just keep going with them" -said every Japanese player ever

[@MrFacu809]

Yeah, ashigarus are insane

[@fatjuicymeatball2266]

Have you even heard of Samurai???

[@fernandoaburto7040]

Rival: I'll make skirmishers Every single japan player: I guess I'll make ashigaru musketeers

[@thedoubting2290]

even in shogun 2 ashigaru are the best

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@fatjuicymeatball2266 Have you heard of Fall of the Samurai?

[@xotl2780]

11:58 it's good to see that the AI is still the master of trash talk in this game.

[@Milidious]

And I freaking love it

[@michaelandreipalon359]

"Shut up, you stupid computer! I am a HUMAN, so I am SUPERIOR TO YOU!!!" *A.I. proceeds to slaughter you, with worser methods compared to Skynet and HAL 9000*

[@codiserville593]

@@michaelandreipalon359 noooooo!

[@TheCoreus]

Usually at the start there's an unguarded treasure, so that's a must pick up, it contains resources too. XP is super nice early game, for example that 16 xp would've allowed you to get Kami before making a shrine (in your case you were just a few second off). The passive income is good long term but the trickle rate is super low (non DE 0.14/s), it's better to build a market for some sweet gather tech or a dock and fish for food than use it to supplement the Japanese restriction of no hunting. Also it would've helped to grab a ec upgrade card for either wood or general income, this'll help you get the wood for shrines even faster.

[@adamdd09]

Usually some pelts that give you gold.

[@natosen]

Unguarded treasure? That's new

[@Ghorda9]

@@natosen no it's not, that's in the original.

[@natosen]

@@Ghorda9 what? I never found unguarded treasure Just kidding 😜

[@jem8317]

There is unguarded treasure, but that's not what's guaranteed. The treasure that is spawned near your start has a single guard that the explorer can kill via his skill.

[@HerralemanZyG]

"Starting new game" Pops intro with AOE3 shots

[@jyotsnasrivastava6373]

After seeing ur gameplay I feel how noob I was years ago and I am thinking why you are wasting so much time. U r supposed to place atleast 3 villagers on wonder in such games where u are rushing

[@shingamba]

The funniest part was the Hard AI roasting him from time to time. It actually kinda gives a human vibe. I wish aoe2de had ai giving comments on my moves.

[@vasu6494]

I love AoE 3 more than AoE2

[@andrewramadhanar]

really unfortunate AOE2DE dont have voice actor on that. And i need to admit, AOE2DE voice actor & narrator kinda sucks

[@punbug4721]

"An army of rams? How quaint." 10 yo me thinking I'm being spied on: _sweats nervously_ "Well I guess it's time to invest in pikes bc cavalry is probably coming."

[@alexandrearagao6050]

The games that were made by Ensemble and BigHugeGames (AoE3 and Rise of Nations) both had great taunts! AoE3's AI lines makes the enemy feel more alive, even though it changes nothing on the gameplay. A little bit of flavor is always good. But the Rise of Nations taunts ... godlike. An example? One of the resources in the game is 'knowledge' and they did not miss the oportunity for a fantastic "i need knowledge" taunt Dunno, found them simply fantastic overall. A link to a steam post to them (sadly, no VO here) steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=270326450

[@OpiatesAndTits]

Wood please!

[@thinkfact]

I'd love to see you do one with the Lakota and/or Haudenosaunee because they changed the Native Americans quite a bit. I'd like to get your impressions on them, especially considering they're so different than anything offered in the earlier Age games.

[@thessop9439]

What are the Haudenosaunee? I mean who... I mean why?

[@thinkfact]

@@thessop9439 That's the actual name for the Iroquois. What they call themselves, it's something along the lines of "people of the longhouse."

[@thessop9439]

@@thinkfact Wow! Good to know! Thank you!

[@jayztar25]

The only changes are the names, how the fire pit, now called the community plaza, looks and animated it still has villagers moving around and the boosters are still the same, and also how they collect gold which is pretty much the same as mining but with a extra step they have to building something next to a mine and the village can use the gathering animation on it

[@jamesshaw2545]

Are.tv

[@OneOnOne1162]

Not gonna lie, I kind of preferred Age of Empires III to Age of Empires II myself. Just my personal taste, no need to flay me alive, guys.

[@21Arrozito]

me too, I liked the fact that each of the civs had a very different play style

[@dominiccenteno1233]

You're not the only one, though I really liked AoE2 and I prefer its setting over AoE3. I just love the gameplay of AoE3 more.

[@annaairahala9462]

I prefer AoE2 personally (maybe DE will change that) but there were some things in AoE3 that I love siginificantly more.

[@sharilshahed6106]

I would've liked AoE3 more so, it definitely seemed like a noticable leap forward, if it wasn’t for a couple of things that really put me off.

[@codiserville593]

As someone who started playing a lot of 2 de this year, I really do appreciate how the civs in 3 are unique. It becomes much more exciting and interesting to me when it's not just "everybody gets knights" and "two handed swordsmen" but you have uhlans, cossacks, cuirassiers, doppelsoldat, coyote runners

[@ahstinfixsnhc9765]

Imagine if Microsoft bought the Stronghold series and either turned an existing Stronghold game or made a new one that was actually balanced and competitive

[@commander1935]

Ugh, I would be half tempted to brick my PC for that.

[@HOBIXpl]

Yes. Stronghold Crusader, but this time a strategy game, not a toy

[@jased30]

i bought it on steam last week. i am awaiting the release with baited breath. i really love the big lovefest that is the reborn AoE community. there is so much great energy surrounding these games. than you so much for working hard to make all your videos. they're really great.

[@ouboet9245]

I kinda liked AoE3 might give this a look as well.

[@9inchpp]

If you're playing japanese, the best foreign power to out on your consulate are the dutch (for their banks) then go for spanish for their 2x shipment and nanban trade before going for total isolation and unlock the fearsome (albeit extremely expensive) hatamoto samurai

[@rubendario4480]

Hatamoto samirai is broken, awesome unit

[@Vincrand]

I prefer to start wuth Spanish and then go Dutch because you can get all the Spanish stuff you want 1 age earlier.

[@fkabici967]

Loved spamming Hatamoto samurai + normal samurai as my only army composition against the AI and always winning. Truly broken indeed

[@NeverTilt96]

no. you go japanese so you can muster 10 units a time best upgrade

[@Vincrand]

@@NeverTilt96 The 10 units at a time isn't that great for the early game so I prefer Spanish-Dutch-Japanese. Out of those 3 the Japanese have also the passive bonus that is best suited for late-game compared to the other two.

[@DanielBerke]

I'd love to see a Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds remake/definitive edition that worked more like AoE 3, with more radically different civs, rather than the AoE 2 model they went with. It'll probably never happen, but a man can dream!

[@superchroma]

Yep, this. Get on it, Microsoft, you already have the engine!

[@ryanhennelly2122]

Star Wars empire at war definitive edition would be awesome. Check that game out

[@derkreuzritter6789]

@@ryanhennelly2122 Give us both!

[@codiserville593]

Whoa bro, I'd love to finally play that classic game I missed out on when I was a kid

[@pnutz_2]

I grabbed it a couple years ago on a may the fourth sale and I think my eyes started bleeding when I could only go up to 1024x768

[@T-West]

The Aoe3 Japanese are a great pacifist civilization ;)

[@TheBanzaiCharge]

AoE3 pacifists runs incoming? Are they even possible in any mission?

[@T-West]

@@TheBanzaiCharge I think I'll just play through the Aoe3 campaigns, don't think that would be possible for them.

[@somerndomguyzz3724]

This is the first DE to look really really similar to the original. I wonder what impact that will have.

[@sohamdas7314]

This is because there was not mich room for inprovement ..but whatever they di i am happy with it. It looks better and plays also better. They got away with the annoying level up system.

[@AaronMichaelLong]

I thought the AoE2 DE looked similar to the original. It just has higher resolution sprites than the original.

[@kevinwells9751]

@@AaronMichaelLong it's definitely more than that. They updated a lot of the movement animations, the way that buildings look when they are being built and destroyed, not to mention the quality of life improvements like showing how many villagers you have on each resource

[@jayztar25]

3D models of buildings/units may look somewhat like the original from a far, closer its noticeably better of course but the definitive part is the added content/ quality of life improvement, i.e 3 different HUDs to choose, Can zoom out way farther, Attack building like outpost/fort you can see the range, all home city cards are unlock from beginning, 2 new civs, more maps ofc, Historical Battles mode rather than new campaign, Buffs/Nerfs on existing units, Better Ai (apparently) , better pathfinding, Art of War.. and maybe even regular updates on balancing

[@AaronMichaelLong]

@@kevinwells9751 Well, AOE3 had those features already. This is mostly a matter of the original product being much closer to a modern game, so there's simply less to do.

[@tokagerkun]

practicing pronunciations off camera. that is weirdly adorable

[@RahulTheGameSlayer]

wars of liberty is still unique inca kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqnYZa1sgMh_m7M

[@hepsbok171]

I'm really excited for this! Can't wait to try out the Incas!

[@EyeOfEld]

Honestly, I would be pretty happy if you made a few analysis videos of AoE3, even if you make a second channel for it. But I would not be upset if you don't, because I enjoy your content already.

[@dragovern]

I only played a couple of scenarios in one campaign, never understood the cards system.

[@devilsolution9781]

@@dragovern you get xp for making and killing, xp allows you to send cards, cards are a passive bonus and hence so is xp

[@Guillidan]

Wrong channel, try SamuraiRevolution, instead.

[@AndiAOE3]

If interested i have some indeph analysis. I plan to do more, but they take really long to make :)

[@theowlogram888]

The AI still likes to spam spies. Some things never change 11

[@jacksons9546]

111 when he saw those and asked “what are they” I actually chuckled.

[@codiserville593]

Dang, their whole over reliance on mercenaries got annoying in complete edition

[@supermatx]

So when is your cross-over episode with SamuraiRevolution coming up? ;O

[@Kor88Di]

Before playing it, I used to just sit next to my brother quietly and watch him play it. And watching you play it reminds me a lot of him and those times.

[@AHappyCub]

The only thing i care about this game is that *I WAS CHOSEN BY HEAVEN, SAY MY NAME WHEN YOU PRAY, TO THE SKIES, SEE CAROLUS RISE*

[@berserker4940]

Sabaton

[@dogeofgreatness2222]

Gonna blast the album everytime playing the Swedes!

[@m00rtin4]

But its Gustavus

[@dogeofgreatness2222]

@@m00rtin4 lion from the north! LION FROM THE NOOORTTHHH!

[@danieliyoverde123]

No you are wrong, the correct answer is A TIME OF RELIGION AND WAR LEYENDS TELL A TALE OF A LIOOON

[@Frostnburn]

Did they fix an issue with allied AI where their villager would stand near the animals that's attracted to your shrines because they were trying to hunt it but couldn't, but still stood there doing nothing?

[@Obelion_]

the different civs seem really interesting in aoe3. wouldnt mind some videos explaining them. always thought aoe2s biggest weakness was that the civs are so similar

[@clovisthegreat7078]

The Iroquois rename is pronounced “hoe-da-na-show-knee” Edit: it is the name of the Iroquois confederacy in the Iroquois language (that stays the same). It means "people of the longhouse" for reasons aoe3 fans would likely know. Also, the "Caughnawaga" name is the name of a tribe of Mohawk peoples that lived in modern day NY. I'm not sure why they went with something so specific there, but I respect the accuracy when it comes to the name change from Iroquois.

[@MrlspPrt]

Hoe-da-Iroquois...

[@clovisthegreat7078]

@@MrlspPrt XD

[@MrlspPrt]

@@clovisthegreat7078 I like your explanation, to me is even harder try to pronounce a native name written in English when Spanish is my native language, here in México almost every native word is written as it sounds (in Spanish, obviously), so a Mexican can easily say "Huitzilopochtli" (an Aztec god), or there are Spanish variations for native words, like "axolotl" (which is, not hard to pronounce either), whose is commonly known here as "ajolote" ("aholote"). After several minutes I could say the renamed version, isn't as hard as the name of the main character on Assassin's Creed 3.

[@lukasg4807]

I'd rather just call them Iroquois.

[@Connnnor99]

They had real native representatives come on to help with development, and when it comes to acknowledgement they prefer to be referred to by their specific names instead of being generalized under broad terms like “Iroquois” or “Mohawk”. It’s a really nice change and great for indigenous representation since the original game had a lot of shortcomings in that department.

[@DuringDark]

22:01 very unFORTunate timing ;)

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

Goddamnit you beat me to it!

[@ancillarity]

I honestly feel AOE3 is a pretty deep game. There is so much going on, from the economy (more-or-less the same as AOE2), but there is also the card system and neutral creeping as well. Hopefully there is more attention to this game. There is probably a LOT about the game that have not been discovered yet.

[@Binarokaro]

Not gonna lie, this was pretty cool to watch. Tfw tho no cannons and units flying all over the place from cannon fire

[@AaronMichaelLong]

Glad to hear the new musket sounds are much better than the original weedy-sounding ones. Build more artillery. You built that forward castle, some flaming arrows would complement your mob of Ashugaru well; Ashis handle cavalry, the flaming arrows crush infantry and structures. Either that or churn out some Samurai, they're great at town wrecking, especially if you send the Onin War shipment, which boosts infantry siege. You *definitely* want the Shogunate, it's how you re-build your Diamyo and Shoguns if they get killed, plus the train time and cost benefits are incredibly good. Torii Gates is more of a Age 2 rush pick, as it gives you a free Barracks when you age up.

[@maximedurante7574]

Guess you only need to... ***HIRE A SAMURAI***

[@BIGmlems]

woah this looks completely different than the version i have downloaded from my still working cds.

[@JamesBond-lb3yr]

It seems to me that in therms of graphics it hasn't changed much. But it still will bring back some players to the game and it will be 2020 coding vs 2007. Much less game crash.

[@tongtong4077]

AoE3 was impressive for a 2005 RTS when it came to graphics already, 3D and effects were already properly implemented but textures were bad, now its fixed. I'm more concerned with the AI. Why were the Germans spamming spies ;-;

[@lukasg4807]

Graphics look much better

[@MrWuaandax]

Did you play aoe3 recently? The graphic looks wayy better

[@JamesBond-lb3yr]

@@MrWuaandax Yeah I did. I play it every single week.

[@Zeroyue622]

Why does people hate Aoe3? I felt dev add a lot of system to give the depth to the game. Other strategy game like Europa universalis, people jump from 3 right into 4 when 4 came out. Even though 4’s gameplay is a lot different from 3’a.

[@ddwkc]

I guess some type of RTS gamers are more resistant to certain changes. Same thing happens with Blizzard games. From SC to WC3, community got fragmented and some SC fans have strong negative feelings with WC3. Also SC to SC2 even if the core gameplay seems not radically changed, but there are a clear division inside the fanbase.

[@rainbowevil]

I think the main thing which turned me off Age 3 is how hard it is to distinguish what you’re fighting/where units are etc. It’s much less visually clear than Age 2. That, combined with all civs being much more unique in Age 3, means it can be a real struggle figuring out if you’re going into a fight you absolutely cannot win.

[@ConscriptDavid]

1) narrow setting at launch (North American colonialism with vague hints of other things) 2) less intuitive gameplay such as confusing counters, grinding for home city cards, overly complicated civs without truly being unique. 3) The game at launch was borderline unplayable on anything but the best computers, limiting its mass appeal among old school RTS fans. 4) more complicated engine and map creator led to less mods and user content, and a more limited setting also severely limited what kind of user content could be created. 5) Rather clunky in many ways compared to age of empires 2 - units path finding, animations, responses or just mechanics in general felt extremely clunky and unhelpful.

[@MrlspPrt]

I remember a guy who liked more Shogun 2 than other Total War games because the units there are similar between factions, many people think similar about AoE2 and AoE3 because "fair play" on competitive. I'm bad at online gaming, so I care less about all those things.

[@AnthanKrufix]

SotL did a video on that about a week ago in fact. TL;DR: Game is super short with no real connection to your economy or base roots... Wild differences between the civilizations with nothing much they share making it hard to pick up... Units don't look very intuitive and it's hard to know what counters what... ... Also you need to unlock features which gives bonuses to your Empire through playing, so a new player is at an objective disadvantage to people who've been playing longer, for more than just knowledge and strategy reasons (although this might be fixed in the new DE).

[@meghdaniellama1604]

Asian explorers are weak, that’s why there are two of them. When attacking a treasure guardian you need to use both explorers (scouts).

[@ShahTalks]

Indian Explorers with their healing is pretty tough though

[@jayztar25]

theyre weak early game, mid/late game they can be really good

[@meghdaniellama1604]

@@jayztar25 your Explorer does get upgrade as you progress thorough age but their only function us to build trading post. I don't see any other use.

[@badaboum2]

@@meghdaniellama1604 They're quite powerful in combat, mostly thanks to their crackshot ability, high hit points in later ages and their relative cost effectiveness. If you're not using your explorer in wars at all, you're doing it wrong.

[@jayztar25]

@@meghdaniellama1604 Sorry I meant the japanese explorers are good mid/late, the japanese monks has the Divine strike (15% chance to instant kill >30HP), Dodge (15% dodge damage), sabotage (1,500 damage to building) the smoke bomb (instant ship your explorer home) and if you use the Stream of Enlightenment home city card (enemies near japanese monks reduce attack and can stack effects).. if you can micro pretty well, cannons or any splash damage on a decent army the japanese monks with a few buffer units can take them out. They can be use for hit-n-run tactics. also they got healing so the 2 fully upgraded japanese monks are nice aggressive healers. I dont play Chinese and Indian enough so idk about them.

[@imtoolazyforaprofilepic4961]

As a Peruvian myself i am very excited excited about about about the Incas

[@codiserville593]

I'm not Peruvian but they were one of my favorites in 2de, I'm really hoping they still have the kamayuk with the extra long spear

[@nicolaspanain8374]

oh how I wanted to play the DE edition! unfortunately my computer is too old for that hahaha I loved playing aoe3 as a kid, that was actually what first inspired me to be a historian!

[@Kor88Di]

Some things that Aoe 3 is superior in to Aoe 2 is the atmosphere, variety and the feel.

[@MrPrajitura]

also, can;t beat people flying around from cannon balls :))

[@coloneljayce7630]

Subscribed. I love your content, hope you keep doing AoE 3

[@ProfNekko]

I found it weird that the caravan trading posts were flat out ignored. Those are some powerful resource trickles especially since you had 2 post points secured.

[@hesseldekraai]

Yeah I was really confused. I could remember them being quite nice but him not using them made me doubt myself

[@MrPrajitura]

@@hesseldekraai I mean, trading posts are pretty expensive (250w), and seeing as how he was spamming shrines and always with wood depleted, maybe he chose using that 500wood for something else

[@arshiaaghaei]

So, what I liked about the DE by this vid: - No more level-required cards - 4 teams - Cleaner UI - Tooltip and Unit stats What I don't like: - Bad place for scores (maybe customizable?) - Ally AI can be better - Ahigaru seemed to be still strong vs Cannons

[@juancruzmedina8363]

You can change the UI positioning with three presets, the one in the video (for AoE 2 players), the classic look and a third called 'definitive'. About the AI, there is a significant bump in its complexity between 'hard' and the last two, they may need to re-work that aspect.

[@arshiaaghaei]

@@juancruzmedina8363 Alright, thanks for the info

[@tadamaactual8214]

My beta is just downloading... Excited too.

[@wirew]

How did u get the beeetaaa

[@tadamaactual8214]

@@wirew signed up as an Age Insider!

[@leow193]

I'm kinda sad we didn't get a piece of the OST. That was one of the best things of AOEIII

[@anyoneanywhere8212]

I really loved the card system of aoe3, but the gameplay and graphics seemed too cartoony and lazy. The campaign was PURE CRINGE. Did they hire a kindergarten book writer for that garbage? Maybe next time a historian is more appropriate. Infantile. I hope aoe4 doesn't follow in its footsteps. Also the voice acting was significantly lower quality than aoe2 It's basically a mobile game for desktops. 2 stars for the card deck and other features which should be done right

[@Sholto_David]

Sad you chose a land map. One of the only things AOE3 does better is the ship combat IMO

[@PillowWillow007]

How exactly is the naval combat in AoE3? I'm genuinely interested as I love commanding navies.

[@thespudster7781]

Timo Murd it’s amazing, you have limits on the numbers of ships you can get but you can watch them literally blow giant chunks out of other ships you attack. There’s also a ship that like instantly blows up a building across the map

[@Sholto_David]

@@PillowWillow007 Yeah, the battles are pretty epic, they actually feel like warships rather than units that just happen to traverse water like in AOE2.

[@ariaangela3455]

@@PillowWillow007 you have the good old fishing boat, the caravel that can fish and attack the galleon that can train units, the frigate that's tanky, the monitor that is the equivalent of a long range ram, and the ironclad (we don't talk about that one)

[@06monz]

@@PillowWillow007 All battle ships can transport troops and shoot all their canons at once, some can produce infantry (don't remeber for cavalry) and each battle ships are limited in number. The control of the sea seems more important. I play didn't play with the extension so it only valid for the european civ

[@manyrandomnumbers]

AoE 3 Japan consulate start: - Put one villager each on the food and wood crates. Ignore coin crates unless you go for market. - Send explorers to scout around base while you finish handling your vills. - Start making a vill at the town center as soon as you get 100 food. - Place the cherry orchards. Make sure to check which direction the enemies are in, because you don't want 2 orchards on the front of your TC. (Try to place the orchards near trees and/or gold so you can rotate your vills between resources with little walking time if needed.) - Once the crates are collected, put 2 vills on building the consulate. Put remaining 4 vills on wood until you have 106 wood. - Check on your explorers, make sure they are scouting for a herd to build the first shrine. (Try to save your back herd for the Toshogu Shrine.) - Update the TC spawn point to a cherry orchard. - As soon as the consulate is finished, pick Portuguese. This gives you a discount on all non-coin building costs. It will make shrines 106 wood. - As soon as you have 106 wood, put all vills on berries. - Build the first shrine ASAP. - Queue up more vills at the TC once you have the population space. - Keep Ports at the consulate, so that you can advance to age 2 on 680 food instead of 800. Above build order should be possible to finish before you get population-capped. Make sure to have your monks ready to drop the first shrine, because a consulate start can get a little tight on time if you are unlucky. Also check out Interjection and ZutaZuta's channels for more Japan play/general tutorials/etc. Great videos, Spirit of the Law, keep it up.

[@mirinewman]

One of the things that bothered me most in AOE3 is there could only be two teams, is that still true? Or can you have 2v2v2 now?

[@AndrewKeeleymegaak3]

This is my question too. It doesn't look like it, but hopefully

[@LukeSchlenker]

You can have up to 4 teams now.

[@sohamdas7314]

Wasnt that issue already fixed in the expansion.

[@ZIGUS333]

Pretty sure it was fixed in some expansion cuz I remember playing 2v2v2v2

[@sohamdas7314]

@@ZIGUS333 ya me 2...samurai revolution has a video whete he plas 2v2v2

[@bennywolf1991]

I really like having French as AI enemy. Napoleon's taunts are just too good. His excuses when resigning are the best.

[@ijirving]

I think one of my issues with AoE3 is how empty your base feels. I think it's because villagers don't need to carry resources back to a gathering point, they just sit at the resource and farm endlessly.

[@rupen42]

It's funny that in AoE3 you need more farmers. It's the opposite of what happened in history and one of the defining characteristics of the time period.

[@phdbot4483]

I've enjoyed playing AOE3 mainly for the fact that it covers the time period of America's discovery and onward. That being said, I love playing Indians for their Elephants, so I've built my home city deck around them and camels. I also appreciate that the Definitive edition of this game let's you choose your deck after the game starts, so that you can more easily decide what build's needed based on the map, matchup, and so forth! Perhaps I'll have to get the game as well!

[@vojtagamercz3259]

Spirit when a scout dies hes gonna lay down for a few minutes and the get up scouts are immortal in Age 3

[@matt_9112]

Don't you need to ransom them or something like that? (It's been some time since I last played AOE3 so I might be mistaken/confused).

[@snowisthebestweather]

@@matt_9112 You can, and then you get them back instantly at full hp, or you can wait for their hp to regen up to a certain point (I believe it's 100) and then send another unit, and they'll stand back up.

[@vojtagamercz3259]

@@snowisthebestweather you got it right I am a AOE veteran I had the CD with two versions of AOE 1 and AOE 2 and I finished the AOE 3 campaign pretty quickly and strategically

[@Jubafree]

If thee scout dies u can either recruit him again in you hq or go near his dead body with a unit after his hp recovered a little on the ground than he stands up again.

[@Redeyes0815]

i remember i played the Japanese in AoE3 a lot, i like de Dojo-cards and that you can send most troop-cards twice so i send the two Dojos, let them train troops for free and boost that with additional troop-cards, but it needs time to build up^^ but hey Free units every minute (or faster if you upgrade the Dojo^^) is nice. Did they remove this card or you dont use it? (maybe you don't like it because it needs a bit too long to geth it?)

[@Zeru.]

I actually can't wait for this. I've always been better at AoE3 than any other.

[@MRRookie232]

4 minutes in and I’m the 22nd commenter! SOL’s content is on tap

[@Sovetskyz]

Spirit no longer types "GG" to AI opponents?

[@alanbareiro6806]

The AI was being rude. They are not worthy of his respect.

[@NecromancyBlack]

I just have so much trouble looking at the graphics of this compared to AoE2. WC3 and SC2 are both great games visually as in you can clearly see units and buildings stand out from the environments. This game and most of the fully 3D CnC games just hurt my eyes more with the units on top of the environments.

[@vladimirlagos2688]

As mainly an AoE3 player (although I do love AoE2) I can see that they have fixed many of the more annoying bugs, although I am still scared the faction balance may still be off. I hear Sweden is majorly broken. Hopefully this is just to attract people to it on outset and they'll dial it back later on. In my experience, faction balance is the grandest advantage AoE2 still has to date over AoE3.

[@yannickbiemans8946]

Why am I not surprised he's playing Japanese?

[@martytu20]

Are ashigarus still OP in AOE3 DE?

[@williamballangarry2995]

Because you’ve watched more than none of SotL’s videos 😂

[@thewanderingdoomed4883]

@@martytu20 they just fast

[@Vobgou2]

Imo it was cooler that you had to unlock some (most) of the shipments with leveling up. Gave me motivation and a sense of making progress through the game. And if you didn't like the grin you could just go into the file order and set you hometown to any level you want

[@Ahmadabdal_]

the game looks pretty beautiful

[@aibattlegrounds596]

I really love your Videos and voice. I even "watch" your Videos to sleep.

[@Jakalbow]

I’m probably in the minority here but I actually liked grinding through and unlocking all the cards. I just liked the challenge.

[@ukaszzawadka2678]

Once I've had 70 level Metropolis playing Portugese. It took many battles and as I remember 40 levels to unlock card called Genitours, which made my dragoons unstopable. Without unlocking all this seems too easy. I would like to play Portugese again anyway. Their aforementioned dragoons, cacadores and organ guns and extra buildings each age is reached, well basically all their stuff was avesome.

[@aballearemi7498]

Also it is fun in solo, I get this is completely counter-intuitive in multi. You don't want to grind against opponents that are better just thanks to their cards.

[@codiserville593]

Yeah, I feel like I'm going to miss that. There's one specific example that comes to mind. There's a card for the Germans where they can now build their settler wagons instead of always having to ship them. I believe it's a level forty card. Without leveling, how will the game balance every german player being able to readily produce more settler wagons?

[@Seduzed]

I would love to see you play The Swedes! Really looking forward to play something else than Vikings :D

[@laurenzkoeppler3013]

22:00 *fort comes out of tc* Spirit: „thats very unfortunate timing“ I see what you did there

[@ArtilleryAffictionado1648]

The art directIon is a bit weird and cartoonish, but nothing i can complain too much about. New graphical animations are cool. Everything else is just insulting to AOE3. I will get it probably but it's low priority. ALSO GERMANY IS NO LONGER (PRACTICALLY) PRUSSIA? FUCK OFF!! Just might aswell call it Bavaria or Austria and change the whole rooster.

[@TheDecree93]

I hope spirit makes civ review videos for this game like he did with aoe2:de

[@tomasshulman5294]

I've waited for this video (SotL playing age 3) for years, is this real?

[@JL-ti3us]

Bruh, I my dreams come true. All I want more than the updates to age of empires, is age of mythology definitive edition (just leave out the chinese).

[@FFunez]

We need the Chinese as well! They just need to be improved and balanced.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@FFunez What do we do with their campaign, though?

[@JL-ti3us]

F. Funez For AoM? I don’t feel they fit the aestethic of age of mythology. I’d prefer them introducing others like the Persian-Mesopotamian or a Celtic faction. The played off the well-known mythologies. I’m not sure they would’ve fit together has this not been the case. And the only reason the Norse fit it is for the above reason and because how well arkhantos campaign integrates them in.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@JL-ti3us How about the Aztecs or some Amerindian tribe?

[@JL-ti3us]

Michael Andrei Palon The Aztecs; Mayans or Incas could make a cool storyline. If they were being period specific though, the mesosmerican groups would be replaced with the Olmecs

[@republicofsandles]

If you get really into AoE 3, you'll have to start another channel and call it 'Letter of the Law'.

[@Xardas131]

There is something strange: they changed the sioux and other names to historical more accurate names. But their are still germans in the game?! The civ they ment was always prusia. Why they do not call them prusia in the game? Thus there is no constant germany in this time period but to 1918 there is prusia.

[@VossMarionette]

White empires don't deserve political correctness. They are all stinky evil nazi lovers

[@MPounnds]

I don't think "Germans" is actually wrong. It refers to the german people, which inhabited the various german states, and then immigrated to the Americas. They didn't bond solely to Prussia. Their ingame flag is also fictional, while other nations' are historically accurate (most of them).

[@varunmanjunath9123]

Oh wow, SotL in AoE3! Awesome! I really prefer AoE3 over AoE2 because it is more realistic and historically more meaningful... Wonder why majority of the AoE community sticks to AoE2... :/

[@angel_bunny]

First game ends by 2:30.. .so I guess this is 1st and second games xD..

[@imomushi9528]

I know it's unrelated to the gameplay, but as a Japanese I'm glad I stopped at AoE2 and never played AoE3 since the unit voices are so cringe. I thought the AoE2 Japanese unit voice was bad, but this is on a completely different level...

[@alexanderjones7769]

Hey SOTL have you thought of making your Romans V. Barbarians for AOE DE with accurate civs and time setting?

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

I've thought about it. I've modified a version so that the Romans build legions instead of Teutonic Knights. I had a few other ideas to upgrade it, but no idea what the timeline for that will be.

[@alexanderjones7769]

@@SpiritOfTheLaw like for AOE 1 DE?

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

Oh, I misread that. I meant for AoE2. I haven't thought about AoE1 for it.

[@alexanderjones7769]

@@SpiritOfTheLaw yeah np. That'd be really cool. Also thanks for replying alot of cc don't do that so this is really cool..

[@rahulgr3167]

The units are difficult to see in this map. The snow and fog effect is not helping either. A good contrast between map and units needs to be there

[@iforgot87872]

The game looks a lot better to me than the original. I remember people complaining that they didn't really change anything. People just complain it seems.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Apparently, those same people complain against Assassin's Creed III and Total War: Empire. Speaking of these games, why are colonial era games pretty much controversial? Why this strange pattern?

[@jamaly77]

Graphics were good enough already. The game has other issues. Criticism is more than valid. But people who only look at graphics probably don't understand that...

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@jamaly77 I see your point. Now, about the latter questions...

[@iforgot87872]

Jamaly I meant the complaints were saying they didn’t change it much graphically, but it looks like they did. I made an observation about the graphics, but other things obviously matter more. The complaints I specifically heard, were graphical.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@iforgot87872 I really don't understand why, to some players, graphics matter more than gameplay and storytelling. I prefer games like the Doom games (yes, even 2016 and Eternal), Quake, Unreal (alongside Tournament 1999 and 2004), and Counter-Strike 1.6 because of their enjoyability and completeness compared to Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and 4, and even Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

[@destinlynch7619]

I'm used to playing aoe 3 ,might have to get this addition. Cuz no one plays old Aoe3 online any more looks like they added abunch better detail too! Nice.

[@Thescott16]

The only custum setting they've added is whether or not it's a Deathmatch or Supremacy... Which isn't actually a new setting; it's just part of the change to the Home Cities. There's still no Population Limit. No Map Size. No Ending Age. No Starting Resources. No Reveal Map. No Victory Type. No Lock/Unlock Teams. No other game modes like King of the Hill or Nomads. And you still can't repeat civs or have more than 2 teams. AoE3 is still going to be second place to AoE2's custom games.

[@andrewk.5575]

Hold your horses there Mr. AOEII Fan, you might want to have read up on the version of the game from 2007, much less Definitive Edition, before drawing up that list: There are "normal" maps and "large" maps. There are other victory types (trade monopoly). You can play King of the Hill. You can play a Regicide map. You can play either Nomad (default) or start with a town center in any age you like. You can play free-for-all. You can play 10, 20, 30, or 40 minute treaty. Plus AOEIII has the "handicap" mechanic where one or more players can be given a percentage boost to their resource gather rate, something which no version of AOEII has ever had. And as I said at the top, this is all stuff that I found by asking my computer to rapidly rotate a thirteen year old plastic disk, so who knows what options will be available in the final version of the new game.

[@snowleopard3914]

They added multiple teams and the map sizing option is displayed in the map choices,eg: Texas and it's variation Lrg Texas. But I do certainly agree that there should be more options/settings that cater towards the games functionality. And I have also been playing a lot of aoe2 recently opposed to me playing aoe3 most of my life, so yes I may have to agree that aoe3 is second when it comes to that. Reading the comment above me has made me wonder if the final update will have more settings

[@Thescott16]

@@andrewk.5575 Your high-horse is a pile of lies and ignorance. Firstly; I still have the original version of the game in it's case _(all 3 CDs of it)_ and I have the Steam version too. I'm actually alt-tabbing in and out of the game to fact check as I correct your bull. Secondly; learn to read. Half of what you say is worded or framed in a way that doesn't represent what I actually said and the other half indicates that you completely misunderstood what I said. For example... King of the Hill and Regicide *are NOT gametypes* (which is what I said) in AoE3 they are MAP types. That means you can't play either mode on a Great Lakes themed map, or Bayou, or Carribean, or Amazon map, etc. You can only play them on the specially made pre-set maps. There are *no Map Size settings;* the "Large" maps are still sized according to the number of players; you're not actually setting the size of the map. A "Large" map with 2 players is only a 4-5 player sized map. If you want to play on an Giant map (8+ player sized map) you're forced to add more players, and if you want a _smaller_ map for faster action; well sucks to suck, go play another game. "Free-for-all" does NOT mean "more than 2 teams", in fact it means NO TEAMS at all. You cannot play with 3 or 4 or more teams, and you cannot mix some players having teams _and_ others not being on a team. It's *always* either 2 teams or free-for-all, nothing else... and you can't change teams either. AoE3's version of "Nomads" honestly doesn't count as Nomads. Your villagers and explorer are all near eachother, with the Town Hall caravan, and you'll always start in visual range of (or right on top of) an ideal town placement. This "Nomads" is so brain-dead easy to start you might as well not bother with it. It's like if, in AoE2, you just deleted your TC at the start of a game with High Resources (another setting AoE3 doesn't have) and then called it Nomads; it lacks the challenges of an actual Nomads game and therefore doesn't qualify to be called that. There are *no victory condition settings.* You can't say conquest, or set a score limit, and there are no wonder victories because this is the only Age of Empires game to have no wonders (what they gave the Asian Dynasties civs don't count because they are WAAAAAY cheaper, take far less time to build, and are _not a win condition)._ "Trade Monopoly" is the _ONLY_ other generic win condition (one that's not tied to the MAP TYPE like King of the Hill), you can't decide to turn it off unless you know that it's disabled by default if you're playing in "Classic" mode or set a Treaty of any length. But you still can't set that to be the main victory type. AoE3's Handicap mechanic is playing with fire. You're manually changing the game's balance with no way of rebalancing it if you were wrong unless you remake the match. And even if you're not wrong; it doesn't teach the player given the handicap how to play better. If anything it teaches BAD habits and leads to poorly optimized build strategies.

[@iforgot87872]

Yeah also Regicide will always be my favorite mode to play against the ai

[@iforgot87872]

Thescott16 maybe he’s saying they’re adding these game types and other things in DE? Yes they weren’t there originally, of course everyone knows that.

[@nicholasscott9672]

It's hard to appreciate the updated graphics because it looks just like I remember it as a kid. I'm sure if I had a look at the old version I'd be shocked

[@voldek32167]

i have never ever played aoe 3 . is DE good place to start? : P

[@aminazman9311]

Yes. I think the mechanics are pretty much the same plus with improve graphics. Tbh i like aoe3 more than aoe2 though aoe2 is my first pc game

[@ShahTalks]

There's Art of War tutorial in AOE 3 DE to help you get started

[@bilalcakir5750]

So, are you able to tell us any improvements or changes in game play apart from enhanced graphics? Such as extra shipment cards? Increased population cap?

[@fenistereinc.5797]

Change at the every age names is so dumb!!

[@martytu20]

Colonial and Discovery Age is very European centric. Exploration and Commerce makes more sense. Natives are trading fur for metal and guns, Chinese are trading silk for silver.

[@jayztar25]

only 2 were changed but because some history buffs were saying it was wrong in the original, who cares its just a name

[@fenistereinc.5797]

@@martytu20 Why they didn't change ages in Aoe 2? They are pretty eurocentric. Alos Vanilla Aoe 3 had only european civs. It made sense.

[@fenistereinc.5797]

@@jayztar25 why they didn't with aoe 2?

[@martytu20]

Fenistere Inc. No idea, the term dark ages is pretty Eurocentric. Feudal system was widespread across Europe, Eastern Rome’s theme system and Islamic World. Chinese, for example, have started to become more bureaucratic and centralized by that time period under the Tang/Song.

[@dradonie]

No postgame song? Im quite dissapointed

[@stooge_mobile]

First!

[@popczon]

@285 Mehakpreet Singh he knows best cheats, working even in old AoE 3

[@krityaan]

@285 Mehakpreet Singh Patreon supporters get to see videos early

[@therealbahamut]

New interface is definitely a step up; it conveys much more critical info AND takes up less screen space overall while being easier to read. That's how you do UI right there.

[@darrylcampbell4426]

Aoe3 is amazing can't wait for this. I actually preferred it to aoe2. Was always rocking the Dutch for factories so I could continually roll out gold costing troops

[@darrylcampbell4426]

@Ved Singh haha well, what will you say them when I tell you that Europa Universalis IV is better than them all? 😁

[@darrylcampbell4426]

@Ved Singh Ahh, you'll love it I am sure. But it's very different to CK2 (I can't comment on the others). Like on EU IV I can do anything, I'm very good at it. But then CK2 nope. I hear it's the same for people crossing from CK. Just two very different systems :D I really want HOI just haven't got around to it yet. Would you recommend it?

[@darrylcampbell4426]

@Ved Singh That's fair. Combat is much deeper than in CK2. That's probably why I don't understand how to play it.