First of all, congratulations on the recent Baltic DLC! It’s fantastic to see Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition receiving new official content again. The community has been waiting a long time for this, and the Baltic update proves that AoE3 still has a bright future.
I want to revisit an idea I proposed some time ago: a pirate-themed DLC. Back then, I suggested adding two civilizations — the Barbary States and the Republic of Nassau — along with pirate neutral factions around the world that players could ally with. With the game now back in active development, I’d like to renew that proposal, but with a much more cost-effective plan.
After replaying the campaigns recently, I realized something important: two pirate factions already have a very high level of completion in the existing game files. We’ve seen this before — the Mediterranean DLC turned the campaign-only Malta into a fully playable civilization. The same logic can apply here.
My revised proposal: keep the Barbary States, but replace Nassau with Zheng Yi Sao’s Red Flag Fleet.
I know the Red Flag Fleet wasn’t a “civilization” in the traditional sense, but historically it was an enormous naval power that could stand toe-to-toe with nations. At its peak, Zheng Yi Sao commanded hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of pirates, defeating Qing, Portuguese, and British forces alike. The Red Flag Fleet has a stronger claim to a place in AoE3 than many other pirate factions.
Here’s why this plan is so efficient:
· Barbary States: They already appear in the Historical Battles with a nearly complete unit roster — corsair ships, camel riders, Berber light cavalry, Moorish musketeers. Turning them into a full civilization requires minimal new assets.
· Red Flag Fleet: The Chinese campaign already features the Treasure Ship as a building model, which could serve as the pirate civilization’s Home City or flagship. For military units, we can base them on the Ming Dynasty military system — this makes historical sense, since Zheng Yi Sao’s fleet operated during the Qing dynasty but inherited many Ming-era naval and infantry traditions, and many of her crews were former Ming loyalists or coastal peoples with Ming military heritage.
·The Red Flag Fleet’s military could reuse existing Chinese civilization units and buildings models, with new additions limited to the flagship, pirate-specific units, and a small number of unique units. This would further reduce development work dramatically.
Priority and value:
I understand a pirate DLC and these two civilizations are not top priority. But the key point is: the completion level is already very high. Much of the work is done. This is not a request for a massive expansion — it’s a request to finish what’s already partially in the game.
Yes, there are excellent Pirate mods out there, like Age of Pirates. But many of their assets come from films and are not historically accurate. More importantly, I want to play as a pirate civilization in the Age of Discovery era within the official game — with proper balance, proper campaigns, and proper support.
A pirate DLC would fill a huge fantasy gap in AoE3: the age of sail, plunder, and lawless empires. The Baltic DLC showed that the devs still care. I hope the community and the developers will consider this proposal.
One last note: my English is limited, so the English version of this post was translated with AI assistance. I apologize for any awkward phrasing.
Thank you for reading.
