Australia

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Nobody asked for it, but I am back!

I thought it would be fun to try to design what some of my Australian units might look like.

I ran into the same issue a lot of you I think have been having, there is really no popular culture idea of what Australian colonial soldiers of the era looked like. If I didn’t include the classic meme slouch hat or just reuse British redcoat uniforms, it got hard to make something that looks of the era and obviously Australian. But I gave it a go!

convicts
Convicts! Free settlers you get from your home city in large batches that are slower and less loyal than normal settlers - they turn into outlaws on the enemy’s side if they are defeated! Convict uniforms are often shown as the crazy stiped magpie outfits with arrows on them, but those were only for repeat offenders and only late in the timeline. I tried to make my convicts more appropriately dressed but kept the classic arrows because everyone likes them. P.s. BO stands for board of ordnance, who were in charge of convicts between 1820 and 1855 and who put their initials on all the convict clothes they issued (before then convicts were just dressed in whatever they already owned).

troopers
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Troopers; Australian musketeers. So, realistically these should just be british redcoat infantry. But they’re already taken, so I worked off reference images of early colonial militias and came up with these uniforms. It was fun to look into what they used to wear, the militias were pretty slapdash and people just grabbed whatever they had that looked vaguely military :smiley:
I know the third unit is probably too late timeline wise for AoE3. Uniforms like that were actually in use in Australia in the 1860s - about the end of timeline - but the khaki and slouch hat just “feel” too modern, I know. I considered a pith helmet as well (which was also used) but it felt a little too British I think.

On second thought though… the unique besteiro crossbow man looks very similar…

horseman
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Light Horse, a unique lancer/dragoon unit (maybe?). Based on the absolutely beautiful uniform of the New South Wales Lancers. I should have probably done a de-tech’d version for an age 3 unit version as well, but I really just wanted to draw this version :smiley:

One thought I had about the uniform issue would be to do something odd with the unit choices for the civ. In age 2 instead of basic musket/skirm units (with strange skins), Australia would train Marines, who would have British naval uniforms of the 1700s. Those units could be expensive but very powerful defensively, sort of like a soldado/sentinal combo. So Australia would be crippled in their ability to rush and would have to wait for later ages in order to mass cheap units for attacking (with approriate uniforms!). But maybe that’s too restrictive.

Of course, any of these would work just as well as revoltion shipments instead of unique units for a civ :wink:

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I think the Convict card made me laugh a bit XD

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Even though thematically Australia could certainly fit as a Civ. I’d rather see Australia as a revolution, just makes more sense considering the timeframe.

Though I’d love to see some Indigenous Australian Civilizations. They never get representation in video games.

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Good effort, but Australia is already in the game : it’s the English.

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That didn’t stop the devs from Adding the US, though. Or Mexico, given there are Spanish in the game

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US are a legit split from the British as their own country.

Australia was part of the British Empire so is not the same thing.
It certainly would make a great Revolution civ (especially with that great artwork). Revolution, at least in the case of the British really just beens a self-governance, but still within the Empire.

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I got inspired and made another attempt at an Australian revolutionary deck, using the newer 25 card format from the recent revolution updates:

deck2

  1. First Fleet → ships a galleon with a TC wagon and 25 convicts inside
  2. Rum Rebellion → turns all infantry units into convicts, and grants 100 coin (50?) for each
  3. Bush tucker → villagers now gather some food as well while gathering wood
  4. Pastorialism (infinite) → 7 sheep and a homestead wagon
  5. 30 Convicts (infinite) → convicts are free villagers that defect into outlaws on the side of their foe when killed. They can’t be garrisoned and don’t have a build limit.
  1. Stockyards → allows cows to be trained
  2. Outback stations → ships 2 reskinned haciendas and allows them to automatically harvest livestock
  3. Merino wool → ships 10 sheep and makes sheep deliver coin instead of food when harvested
  4. Eureka Stockade → Ships 12 miners, improves their combat power, and allows them to build fortifications
  5. Victorian gold rush → allows miners to be trained, increases gold mine rates, and makes mines last longer
  6. Welcome stranger → ships a gold mine and crates of 1000 coin
  7. Bathurst Rebellion → all convicts turn into outlaws, increases outlaw combat stats
  1. 4x Gatling guns (infinite)
  2. 2x Ironclads (infinite)
  3. 1x fort wagon (infinite)
  4. 16x musketeers (infinite)
  5. 13x rangers (infinite)
  6. Queensland Volunteer Artillerymen (1,000 coin) → ships 16 guard grenadiers, enables them, and grants 15% combat buff to them (royal guard)
  7. Bushrangers (infinite) → ships 7 random outlaws
  1. New South Wales Lancers (1,000 food) → ships 12 powerful lancers and enables them at forts and stables
  2. Imperial Bushmen (800 gold) → ships 12 powerful musketeers and enables them at forts and barracks
  3. Inland Explorers → ships an explorer, reveals the map, and greatly improves explorer line of sight
  4. Battery Point Fortifications → 6 outpost wagons, grants outpost upgrades
  5. Federation → enables the capital to be built

what’s missing is some Aboriginal tech/alliance cards, but I didn’t really want to speculate on those unless/until we get some Aboriginal native sites in the game first

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Hi, one question, are you actually doing the civ (I mean, modding it) or it is just a concept?

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just a concept! I don’t have the time to make a mod like that myself at the moment

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I actually did a bit of research into what an Australian military roster might look like, and IMO, it really should look a lot like the British roster, but tweaked a bit and greatly expanded access to outlaws and Consulate troops. Consulate is, AFAIK, the game’s shorthand for most troops designated by “ships a number of powerful X” non-mercenaries or non-natives. This means things like Order Hussars, Japanese Blue Guards, Pulaski’s Legion Uhlans, and Haudenosaunee Canadian Loyalist Dragoons. When not trained at a Consulate, they are typically acquired via “Legion” cards.

INFANTRY:
Territorial Militia: Cheap skirmisher with low hitpoints and range that only costs Food. Good against infantry. (m Territorial Militia are modeled after the old Loyal Associations of NSW and will have identical stats to the Haudenosaunee Aenna, but will use a rifle instead.)
Pikeman: Archaic Heavy Infantry. Good against cavalry and buildings. (Australia’s Wars of Liberty incarnation was the only Anglophone civilization able to fully upgrade their pike equivalent, why not make the Aussies the only post-colonial civ, however the age up method works, with Imperial Pikemen?)
Musketeer: Heavy ranged infantry. Armed with a bayonet to beat cavalry. (National/Royal Guard Upgrade: Moonrakers, after the nickname of one of the actual British regiments that served down under.)
Sydney Rifle: Australian skirmisher with strong multipliers and increased range, but lower base damage. Strong versus heavy infantry.
[Consulate] Ranger: British skirmisher. Equipped with a rifle to counter Heavy Infantry more effectively, but has less range. (Sent 13x via Rum Corpsman Legion card: “The First Fleet ships a number of powerful Rangers and enables them to be trained at Forts.” )
[Outlaw] Bushranger: A dangerous outlaw with a musket. (Has the ability “Kelly Gang”, which provides 50% siege damage resistance and +4.0 attack range for 30 seconds)
[Outlaw] Swagman: An itinerant laborer armed with a rifle. (Has the ability “Billabong”, which is identical in statistics and effect to the Mexican Soldado’s Battle Bluster, but throws dynamite instead of a grenade.)

CAVALRY
Hussar: Hand cavalry armed with cold steel. Good against light infantry. (National/Royal Guard Upgrade: Governor’s Guard Hussar. A fully unique Stable roster does not appear amongst the post-colonial civilizations. Of the post-colonial civilizations, only the USA and Mexicans have any unique cavalry.)
Light Horse: Australian volunteer ranged cavalry with higher hitpoints and a slightly reduced cost. Counters cavalry. (Finding pre-1900 cavalry units is HARD, and honestly, this one’s the only one that works as the Australians’ unique Stable unit.)
[Consulate] Cuisrassier: Heavy cavalry with a trample attack. (Sent 5x via New Caledonia Occupation Legion card: “The French colonists of a nearby island chain ship a number of powerful Gendarmes and enable them to be trained at Forts.” References the abandoned French plans to colonize Western Australia, and increased British mobilization in response to the French annexation of New Caledonia.)
[Outlaw] Vandemonian: A dangerous outlaw on horseback. (Has the ability “Thunderbolt”, which is like Bull’s Eye, but deals 30 base damage, with a flat 30 at all times against Villagers. Yeah it’s just a mounted bushranger dude but like Australia pre-1900 is rather lacking in mounted forces both regular and irregular.)

ARTILLERY
Falconet
Culverin
Mortar
Horse Artillery
[Consulate] Rocket: Heavy artillery that fires a rocket and is good against infantry or buildings. (Sent 1x via Māori Wars Legion Card: “The foundries of Sydney build and ship a powerful artillery piece and its shells to use against enemy buildings and enable Rockets to be trained at Forts.” )

WARSHIPS
Sloop (Mexican and Americans field Sloops instead of the Caravels that Europeans and Indians train from the Dock, so Australians would train Sloops as well.)
Steamer (Trains Territorial Militia, Musketeer, Sydney Rifle, Hussar, Light Horse.)
Frigate (All Europeans, the Indians, and all post-colonial civs, including, I suspect, the campaign-only Peruvians, use this as their primary heavy warship.)
Ironclad (anti-building specialist with less damage but far more longevity than the European Monitor)
[Mercenary] Battleship (Sent and improved by the Gaselee Expedition card: “Sends a mighty Battleship! Australian Battleships have 15% more hitpoints and deal 3x damage to defensive buildings and 1.5x damage against infantry.”)
[Native] Canoe (Probably give this a Home City shipment as part of incorporating the Aboriginal peoples.)

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