A Very Extensive, but Handy Guide for Picking Revolutions

[KarlosBR96]

The revamped revolutions is probably one of the best features of DE. However, choosing which revolution to pick on the spot can be very difficult due to the information overload at the decision screen, specially for newer players. Descriptions aren’t always concise enough or poorly describe what is that you’re going to get with that revolt.
With that in mind, I compiled all the bonuses and home city cards available to each revolutionary civilization and made it into this chart. I tried to be as clear and concise as I could, but there is a lot of information to digest here, so let’s go by parts.

Part 1 of the Chart shows all the bonuses and free units that you get immediately after revolting. It also shows which units will replace your settlers and what happens to your population space.
For making things easier to read at a glance, I color-coded each bonus. Green is for Economy bonuses, Red for Military bonuses and Blue for Naval bonuses.

Part 2 is for the shared Cards between the revolutionary nations. With the exception of Finland, all other nations share cards with each other. I listed here what cards each nation has access to and what are these cards’s effect on the bottom of the chart.
Some nations have variations of the same cards, which give different units of effects, those cases are stated on the chart.

Finally, Part 3 is for the Unique Home City Shipments/Cards that each civilization has. I listed every single bonus and units that you can request from the HC that is totally unique to them. Bonuses that can be requested infinity or that which effects stacks are stated as so in the chart.

And Here is the complete chart in one long piece for those that want all the info in a single page, without needing to flip trough multiple pages of the wiki. I hope that this is helpful, if something isn’t clear or anyone spot a mistake, please let me know.

[AoE2and3fan]

Absolutely awesome work!

There are just very small improvements that could perhaps be added. I didn’t doublecheck everything in-game, so take these with a pinch of salt, although I’m pretty sure it’s correct.

Very often it’s not written if a send unit from the homecity becomes trainable.

An annex information is where a revolution exclusive unit is or becomes trainable. The Chilean native for instance can be trained in stables. Egypt can train mamelukes in simple stables. Egyptian mamelukes might not carry in the long run the power of Ottoman imperial mamelukes, but only they can mass produce them (provided they’ve got the eco behind it of course).

Specifically:

• Argentinian comanchero attack doesn’t have a staggering effect.

• The Barbary states corsair captain is in fact a land shipment, so the back color should be red.

• The Canadian attack upgrade for villagers got buffed in DE’s first update from +13 to +17.

• The Chileans can train an unlimited number of mapuche bolas riders (notably in their stables, ie mass production).

• Hungary (Germans) have jaegers (pandours) trainable at once, without prior card.

• Hungarian revolutionaries (grenzer) can build outposts (after HC card) and become trainable there. Renegados (hajduks), stradiots and jaegers become trainable as well after their corresponding HC cards.
  The same applies to Romania.

• Mexican renegados (chinacos) cost 1 population, ie 5 population less, and become available.

• The US 16 militiamen and the upgrade that they can now be summoned from forts as well as not losing HP over time anymore is the same HC card.

[KarlosBR96]

@AoE2and3fan

An annex information is where a revolution exclusive unit is or becomes trainable.

When I wrote “X becomes available” it means that it can be trained at the stable/barracks/forts/docks or some other relevant building. I didn’t list this more explicitly because it would take even more space. If it’s not written “become available” assume that it can only be achieved via HC shipments.

@AoE2and3fan

Argentinian comanchero attack doesn’t have a staggering effect.

It does… According to the wiki. But yeah, there is a lot of conflicting information in tooltips, the wiki and the game itself.
Edit: I just tested this, the Gauchos do have a staggering attack, but it isn’t show on the units’s stats for some reason.

@AoE2and3fan

The Barbary states corsair captain is in fact a land shipment, so the back color should be red.

I should have checked that one… The wiki doesn’t say what a “Corsair Captain” actually is. I assumed it had something to do with ships.

@AoE2and3fan

The Chileans can train an unlimited number of mapuche bolas riders (notably in their stables, ie mass production).

I didn’t notice that when testing Chile, gonna check that one…

@AoE2and3fan

• Hungary (Germans) have jaegers (pandours) trainable at once, without prior card.
• Hungarian revolutionaries (grenzer) can build outposts (after HC card) and become trainable there. Renegados (hajduks), stradiots and jaegers become trainable as well after their corresponding HC cards.
  The same applies to Romania.

Compilling Hungary and Romania’s was such a pain, they have too much stuff going on.

@AoE2and3fan

Mexican renegados (chinacos) cost 1 population, ie 5 population less, and become available.

Renegados cost 5 pop normally, don’t they? I’m gonna double check it…

@AoE2and3fan

The US 16 militiamen and the upgrade that they can now be summoned from forts as well as not losing HP over time anymore is the same HC card.

I know that. For consistency, I kept free units and upgrades on separate columns, even when included in the same card. I wanted for it to be easier to tell which unique upgrades each civ has at a glance.

@AoE2and3fan

The Canadian attack upgrade for villagers got buffed in DE’s first update from +13 to +17.

Actually they don’t. At least in my tests. I’m going to double check it, but I was pretty sure that those +4 ranged attack added in the patch are bugged.

[AoE2and3fan]

@KarlosBR96

When I wrote “X becomes available” it means that it can be trained at the stable/barracks/forts/docks or some other relevant building. I didn’t list this more explicitly because it would take even more space.

Fair enough. I agree it’s the best solution. Perhaps just the mameluke trainable situation should be precised, because it’s one of the tankiest, if not best, units in the game.
( Aussie Drongo has used the mameluke icon for himself as admin on his discord channel! )
Egypt is overall less good than others, but mamelukes in stables is a significant bonus.

@KarlosBR96

If it’s not written “become available” assume that it can only be achieved via HC shipments.

The problem I have with this is the following: Hungary (Germans) can ship renegados (hadjuks) and they become available. They can also ship hussars but those don’t become available.
I would therefore suggest something along these lines:

@KarlosBR96

@AoE2and3fan

The Chileans can train an unlimited number of mapuche bolas riders (notably in their stables, ie mass production).

I didn’t notice that when testing Chile, gonna check that one…

No need, I just checked today. I’m not even sure if it’s balanced as there’s no other limit than eco (especially wood in the late game). (Considering it’s a native unit, the pop limit doesn’t apply). It’s a very strong bonus, that’s for sure.

@KarlosBR96

Compilling Hungary and Romania’s was such a pain, they have too much stuff going on.

+1 !!! Cool for gameplay, I’m happy all the slight differences are there (AoE II is full of subtil differences between civs.), but to check everything…
I Romania for instance has another name for their renegados, instead of hajduks (not 100 % sure though).

@KarlosBR96

Renegados cost 5 pop normally, don’t they? I’m gonna double check it…

Renegados cost normally 6 pop, 4 with the dancing hall card.
Perhaps you should just write, as in the launch changelog, “cost 1 pop” instead of “cost x pop less”, as this also makes clear the dancing hall card won’t stack with the revolution card, resulting in a 0 pop unit. (Just checked, it doesn’t, hajduks still are at 1 pop).

@AoE2and3fan

US 16 militiamen and the upgrade

KarlosBR96
I know that. For consistency, I kept free units and upgrades on separate columns, even when included in the same card.

May I then suggest you remove the barrier between both columns? Something like this:

@AoE2and3fan

The Canadian attack upgrade for villagers got buffed in DE’s first update from +13 to +17.

KarlosBR96
Actually they don’t. At least in my tests. I’m going to double check it, but I was pretty sure that those +4 ranged attack added in the patch are bugged.

Yup, you’re right. I looked just now and I didn’t see the buff, at least not on the unit’s stats.

In any case, you’ve done an incredible work! It’s the “revolution tech tree” I now always check!

[KarlosBR96]

@AoE2and3fan

Fair enough. I agree it’s the best solution. Perhaps just the mameluke trainable situation should be precised, because it’s one of the tankiest, if not best, units in the game.

I’m reworking the sheet to be more informative and consistent, I will mention whether new units can be trained or just sent from HC shipments.

@AoE2and3fan

May I then suggest you remove the barrier between both columns? Something like this:

I can’t do that on Google Docs, at least not like you showed, I will try to find another solution.

@AoE2and3fan

Yup, you’re right. I looked just now and I didn’t see the buff, at least not on the unit’s stats.

Apparently they fixed this with today’s update. Let’s hope this time it works.

@AoE2and3fan

In any case, you’ve done an incredible work! It’s the “revolution tech tree” I now always check!

I’m flattered!

[KarlosBR96]

I’m reworking the entire chart to be more accurate. I’m testing all revolutions combinations in depth one by one to make sure that everything is right. So far I learned that:

• The wiki has a lot of outdated or outright wrong information.

• Many of the shipments descriptions are needlessly confusing, often making it unclear what exactly they actually do. Units often have wrong stats or don’t even show certain habilities.

• There are minor inconsistencies between civs that make think that some features are bugged or haven’t been thought out very well. The Comancheros, and their variants, is a complete mess.

I’m going to re-release a full chart when I’m done checking all civs. But I can already make some comments about the first three civs:

• Argentina: No major changes, I did confirm that their Comancheros, the gauchos, have a staggering attack. I also added that they unlock the socket bayonet tech for the germans and where you can train Gauchos and Mounted Granaderos.

• Barbary States: This I had to basically re-do from scratch, because their wiki page is completely wrong. Their Privateers can’t train Faconets, nor Galleon units. They can only train Corsair Marksmen and Barbary Warriors. They can train falconets however in the artillery foundry.
  Their infantry doesn’t gain a bonus against buildings, in fact, only two units gain bonuses. The Corsair Marksmen and the Barbary Warriors. They can collect treasures and do 2x damage against villagers and 3x against guardians.
  If you revolt to the Barbary States as the Ottomans and then reactive your settlers, you must train them manually from your town center now.
  The Corsair Captain card has a lot of effects confusingly explained, but I tested them all. Here’s how it works: You get a hero unit, the Corsair Captain, he is a melee unit with lots of HP and strong special attacks, he doesn’t give any buff to nearby units. You also get two new bonuses when you active this card. You will now generate gold instead of XP when destroying buildings and ships, this works with any of your units. You will also allow that Explores, the Corsair Captain, Barbary Warriors and Corsair Marksmen to collect from enemy crates and collect treasures with doubled bonuses, this doesn’t with any other unit.

• Brazil: First, they unlock Socket Bayonets for the dutch. Second, it seems that the Tupi shipment got nerfed from 15 to 14 archers. Third, the Dragoon and the Ruyters have SEPARATE bonuses, unlike what the wiki and the tooltips claim.
  Dragoons: They are unlocked to the dutch and they get a new Lance Attack while in melee mode. They also get the free “guard” upgrade, but not the “jinete” upgrade as the portuguese.
  Ruyters: Are not unlocked for the Portuguese and they receive a +160%(10 to 26) damage boost in melee mode. They also lose their damage multipliers versus artillery, heavy cavalry and shock infantry. They do get their “carabineers” upgrade for free though.

[KarlosBR96]

The rework’s still on-going, time for another round of revised countries:

• Canada: No major changes or bugs found, except that now the +17 attack for villagers actually works as intended.
• Chile: Apparently the Devs accidentally replaced the “infinite Mapuche spam” bug with another one. For some reason you have two separate Mapuche Bolas Rider units, one that doesn’t have the elite upgrade and comes with the shipment and another that can be trained in stables, forts and native embassies and does have the Elite upgrade. Besides that, everything keeps the same.
• Egypt: Egypt got some new cards on the latest update, most are minor economic buffs. The most interesting one is the ability to train Nizam Fusiliers in forts, adding another option to complement the already pretty diverse Egyptian roster. No bugs have been found here.

That’s it for now, next up is Finland…

[KarlosBR96]

Another round of revisions…

• Finland:

@KarlosBR96

With the exception of Finland, all other nations share cards with each other.

I was wrong, Finland does a share a card with another civilization! It shares the “15 Elks” with Canada, it’s not the most interesting card, but its something. I had to completely reorganized and expanded their section to make it more clear.
I also noticed that despite what the wiki claims, the Karelian Jaegers don’t gather resources at the same rate as normal settlers after the Northern Wilderness Shipment. They gather at about 50%-85% the rate of a normal settler, depending on what the source of the resource is. All the Northern Wilderness shipment does is to allow Karelian Jaegers to gather from animals, bushes, mines and estates… But not mills for some reason.
PS: Their Blockhouse spam can be crazy fun against the AI, who needs walls when you can build back-to-back blockhouses?

• Gran Colombia: I listed all of Bolivar’s abilities, he:
  -GIVES +5% HP TO NEARBY UNITS
  -CAN TRAIN MUSKETEERS (INDEPENDENCE GUARDS)
  -CAN BUILD TOWN CENTERS AND TRANDING POSTS
  -CAN BE A HOME CITY SHIPMENT DELIVERY POINT
  -HAS A LONG AND A SHORT RANGE ONE HIT KILL ATTACK(WITH COOLDOWNS)
  -CAN’T BE KILLED(HE FAINTS INSTEAD)
  Pretty fun guy. There is also their Llanero, which is a melee version of the Comanchero that can deal with livestock. Despite being nearly identical, the Llanero is not a replacement for the Comanchero, at least not in my tests. I swear to God, this game’s 1 million different Comancheros is going to drive me insane. Otherwise, no new discoveries.

• Haiti: Three things:

1. I think that their Carib Blowgunners are bugged because there are 3 of them. There are the Carib Blowgunners that you can train if you build a Trading Post in a Carib Settlement. The “Ambush” Blowgunners that you can spawn from your Explorer after you buy an upgrade at their settlement AND the Blowgunners that you get from Haiti’s shipments. All three of them have the exact same stats and all receive their “Elite” upgrade with the Haitian shipment, but the Haitian blowgunners doesn’t show it. Instead of “Elite Blowgunner”, it just shows “Carib Blowgunner”, but the upgrade is there. The game counts each of these units as separate groups, so you can spawn like 50 of them in total and the game is fine. Anyway, I don’t think this was intended, but if you ever wanted to spam blowgunners, now you know how!

2. The Pirates ranged attack is really easy to miss. Once you unlock it, you need to remember to switch your Pirates to ranged mode or they will simply not use it. This is particularly annoying because of their auto-spawn, so you need to constantly switch the new Pirates’s stances.

3. Even with the ranged attack and all possible upgrades, Pirates and Privateers are very underwhelming. (cues the pirates of the caribbean theme on a bad flute recorder)

Anyway, Hungary, Indonesia and Mexico are next.

[AoE2and3fan]

Awesome job as usual!

Concerning the Karelian Jaegers:

• That mills are missing is obviously a bug.
• That they don’t gather at the same rate is probably also a bug, as according to the card’s description, they really should.

However, there’s one more thing I’ve checked: they are not affected by gather rate upgrades! (I tested this with wood - market & cards -, so I didn’t notice the thing with mills).

I’m not sure if this is on purpose or not. On the one hand, they are after all soldiers, so they represent a hard-to-raid eco. On the other hand, most cards carry their effect over (noticeably since the one before last update the medicine card), so the eco upgrades should also work post-revolution, at least when the Northern Wilderness Shipment has been sent.
As far as I’m concerned, I’d prefer the second option, the eco upgrades should apply to the Karelian Jaegers. Even though they’re harder to kill, they still are very vulnerable to hussar raids, and they cost wood, so replacing them in the late game can be an issue, offsetting the fact they’re soldiers.

Right now, I believe Haïti is the weakest revolution possibility. It’s probably not even viable. Especially their pirates are unusable.

[KarlosBR96]

@AoE2and3fan

However, there’s one more thing I’ve checked: they are not affected by gather rate upgrades! (I tested this with wood - market & cards -, so I didn’t notice the thing with mills).

I suspected that, but didn’t had time to properly check, thanks for confirming it. I think that the issue is that the game doesn’t count the Karelian Jaegers as “villagers”, so villagers upgrades don’t apply to them. They are military units that have the ability to perform villager tasks.
I too am not sure if this was intended or an oversight, but I don’t mind so much they having a limited gathering rate. The Finns have plenty of economic cards to balance that, you have prospector wagons, you can spawn trees and berry bushes near your houses/torps and you can summon elks and crates to your town. As long as you can get new shipments, you will always have a safe source of resources.
A free bush and a free tree for each torp, when you have 20 torps built can keep your eco going for quite a while without any active villager/karelian jaeger, plus you have factories and trading posts to complement your earnings.

@AoE2and3fan

Right now, I believe Haïti is the weakest revolution possibility. It’s probably not even viable. Especially their pirates are unusable.

I like their gimmick of being essentially a Pirate civ, but they really need some buffs. The Pirates should get their ranged attack as default as soon as you get the Letter of Marquee and maybe get a damage bonus against villagers and buildings. Privateers seriously need a buff, either make them much faster or give them some sort of stealth mode for surprise raids. They could also get Toussaint L’Ouverture as a Hero unit, similar to Peru and Colombia’s Bolivar.

[AoE2and3fan]

Finland has got one massive (!) problem: it can’t rebuild its base if it’s lost. Walls, church, mills, estates, etc. If the market is sniped, Finland is on the timer and most probably eventually screwed. Not to mention it’s not viable on water maps, as Finland can’t even build docks…

This should be fixed.

[KarlosBR96]

I assume that Finland’s gimmick is that you’re now supposed to rely more on “nature” for resources, so no more markets, mills and estates, you must use what is available on the map or the shipments. The dock however is a big oversight as it is a military building and Finland has no naval shipments at all.

[Aisharp]

@KarlosBR96

I think that their Carib Blowgunners are bugged because there are 3 of them.

I believe that every infinite native send from HC behaves this way on the original game. At least I remember that when playing Port on Amazonia creating Tupi and send the INF Tupi card, when selected they have 2 different groups but with similar stats. Another thing I found is the native from HC does not increase the limit of trading post native, as when I send the card the limit still states that it’s 0/15 despite already having 30 native from the HC.

[AoE2and3fan]

Hi, happy new year! Any updates?

[KarlosBR96]

Hey, I didn’t forgot about updating the chart, I was justing taking some time away from AoEIII. Expect more updates within the next weeks.

[KarlosBR96]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I finally finish Hungary after a two month hiatus. It was such a massive pain in the ■■■ to test all their units and bonuses thrice, one for Germany, one for Russia and one for the Ottomans.
They have 6 unique units, 7 if you count their version of the revolutionary and a ridiculous outpost/blockhouse spam. All their Uniques gain some sort of bonus over their generic equivalents and can be trained nearly everywhere. I would argue it’s borderline op.

[Aisharp]

Good job with the guide. I love the Hungary especially with the Ottoman. 20 range grenadier and 800hp hussar is crazy.

Edit: i think you forget the update 5208 about Egypt revolution

[KarlosBR96]

@Aisharp

Edit: i think you forget the update 5208 about Egypt revolution

I made the guide before that update, the updated version will have the new cards from the update.

[KarlosBR96]

More revisions:

• Hungary: As I mentioned earlier, tons of unique units and variables, kinda OP IMHO.

@KarlosBR96

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I finally finish Hungary after a two month hiatus. It was such a massive pain in the ■■■ to test all their units and bonuses thrice, one for Germany, one for Russia and one for the Ottomans.
They have 6 unique units, 7 if you count their version of the revolutionary and a ridiculous outpost/blockhouse spam. All their Uniques gain some sort of bonus over their generic equivalents and can be trained nearly everywhere. I would argue it’s borderline op.

• Indonesia: Has a small but fun group of unique units, the Javanese Spearmen is a cheaper and lighter version of the pikeman, Cetbang Cannons are basically re-skinned flaming arrows, Wokou Junks are a slightly improved galleon/fluyt with more units. The star of the show is the War Elephants which can be spammed infinitely with shipments since they don’t use population space.

• Mexico: They have two unique units, the Vaquero/Chinaco and the Charro(a side-graded Renegado) and they are both pretty underwhelming. The Native American Allies is always a nice addition, but the rest of their cards and bonuses are pretty run of the middle.

[AoE2and3fan]

Hi, any updates?