Rework for British Civilization

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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Greetings to all forum members, given that support for the game is dead and the developers have no plans to release new content, I bring you some ideas for a rework of the British civilization, which our community modders can take up if they ever wish to carry it out.

1 - New unit added: Yeoman. This new unit replaces settlers in the town center and gains the ability to use longbows in battle, but is weaker than a longbowman. (The Yeoman are the counterpart of the coureur des bois French)

Longbowman removed from Barracks

Yeoman are the link between the peasantry and the nobility, forming the middle class in service to the king. These peasants are excellent farmers as well as skilled experts in English longbowman, making them a good option for defending against early enemy incursions. Although these Yeoman are not very effective in battle at first. Their stats can also be improved with the Volunteer Cavalry and Siege Archer cards and new tech Landed Gentry, which are now available in Manor Houses instead of the Metropolis.

HP: 170
Range Damage: 9
Melee Damage: 10
Siege Damage: 8
Speed: 4.2

Yeoman cost: (80 food / 25 wood)

Yeoman Farmer
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2 - Manor houses have been updated with a new architecture. They now house 15 units, Sheep can also be raised without the need for livestock pens. Mansions create a Yeoman for free when built, Six new technology have been added to the Manor house:

Age 1 - Selective Breeding (75 Wood / 75 Gold)

Age 2 - Spice Trade (145 Food / 145 Wood) *

Age 2 - Florence Nightingale (100 Food / 100 Wood / 100 Gold) *

Age 3 - Cavalry Volunteers (200 Food / 200 Gold) *

Age 3 - Siege Archery (150 Wood / 180 Gold) *

Age 4 - Landed Gentry (650 Wood / 650 Gold): Upgrade Yeoman into Landowners, granting them a title of nobility, improving their ranged bow damage by 15% and increasing their hit points by 15%, they also gain 10% more melee attack with a sword to defend themselves against enemies on foot. Manor Houses gain an aura that improves resource gathering by 10%.

All four cards * are removed from the Metropolis.

Terraced House Metropolis card of age 4 now slowly create Yeomans

Manor houses now cost: (120 Wood and 40 Gold) construction limit reduced to 14 houses

English Manor House
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3 - Rangers: the rangers can now be created by default in Barracks in the Fortress Age with their respective Guard and Imperial upgrades. Unit cost: (60 Food / 60 Gold)

The Baker Rifles and Ranger Combat cards have been added to the Metropolis to upgrade Rangers.

The effect of the Industrial Age Rangers card in the Metropolis has been replaced with a new one that grants 2.00 range points and improves Rangers’ ranged armor, card renamed border rangers

The Ranger technologies on the Glorious Revolution Church card in the Metropolis have been updated as follows: Rogers’ Ranger technology now only sends 5 Rangers in Age 2, while Queen’s Ranger technology now sends 30 Rangers and upgrades them to Guard status.

Ranger
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4 - British Grenadiers reworked, the new grenadiers use a musket to attack ranged units and their grenades to deal area damage to buildings.

HP: 200
Range Damage: 20
Melee Damage: 12
Siege Damage: 40
Speed: 4.25

Unit Cost: (80 Food / 100 Gold)

British Grenadier
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5 - Reworked Dragoons: The new regiment of light dragoons offers increased movement speed and melee damage at the cost of reduced ranged damage. Light dragoons wield a saber to more effectively counter melee units.

HP: 200
Range Damage: 18
Melee Damage: 22
Siege Damage: 12
Speed: 7.50

Unit Cost: (100 Food / 80 Gold)

British Dragoons
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6 - Beefeaters: The guards of the Tower of London protect the Crown Jewels and their rulers. Veteran soldiers who have served the Crown for many years, they use a halberd to counter enemies. This unit can only be deployed from the Metropolis.

New Cards:

Age 3 - Yeoman Warders: ship 5 Beefeaters

Age 4 - White Tower Guards: ship 8 Beefeaters

Age 5 - Queen’s Guards: ship 12 Beefeaters

Age 5 - God Save the Queen: The Beefeaters are knighted by the Queen and gain a powerful charged pistol attack.

Beefeaters:
HP: 220
Melee Damage: 29
Siege Damage: 35
Speed: 4.50

Stats increase with each age increase

British Albardier
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7 - The visual effect of the technology, the thin red line, is now present by default on British musketeers from the age of commerce to emphasize this unit in a more historical way.

musketeer
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With this, I conclude the rework of the British civilization. All these ideas were not chosen randomly and were studied for some time to give the civilization greater historical accuracy. As you can see, some Metropolis cards were moved to Manor Houses and transformed into technologies. This was done to encourage the use of these cards’ abilities more frequently, as they were commonly underutilized in games and remained unused for no apparent reason. Similarly, the Farmyard was removed and moved to Manor Houses to give more priority to animal husbandry and hunting, since few people use this mechanic in later ages. In this way, the mechanic of creating Manor Houses is more important, as it adds technologies that help the growth of the new British settlers called Yeoman, thus prioritizing a more fun way to play with the British civilization, I hope the community likes it. If there are any modders interested in continuing this rework
 I would be happy to collaborate with him to give him more information about the changes here.

3 Likes
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I don’t think house factories should be another civ bonus tbh, but I like the idea of militia defenders for a civ that tends to be very economical. A mid point between vill and cdb. Lots of interesting unique units.

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Yes, that sounds good to me
 you could make the British from AoE 3 more like the Lancasters from AoE 4
 I’d even change the Musketeer to the Highlander, who would no longer be a mercenary, since that way you represent Scotland more within the civilization
 and with that you’d have 4 UUs: the Yeoman (who acts as a crossbowman), the Highlander (who acts as a musketeer, and could appear as such in the Fire and India campaigns), the Ranger (who acts as a skirmisher), and Congreve’s Rocket (which is unique artillery)


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2 Likes
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Nice ideas.

How would you envisage Yeoman later on? Historically Yeomanry (not too mention the longbow) is dropped way before the end of AoE3’s time span (the US interestingly continued the term longer). The name of Yeomanry kinda lives on as a volunteer national cavalry force but these are actually folks far higher up on the societal ladder such as landed gentry (confusingly).

For Beefeaters, I’d suggest Yeoman of the Guard - these were the body guards, more numerous, and had proper military history (battle honours up to the late 18th century) - having been formed from bodyguards at the Battle of Bosworth (conveniently around the start of AoE3’s timeline). These were originally known as Beefeaters before that nickname went to the Yeoman Warders (Tower guards) who were more public.

In the context of Yeomanry history, a Beefeater (whether Guard or Warder) would also be your Yeoman unit as they were Yeoman as well :smiley:

For new (mod) unit suggestions, I’d give the British a Rocket Ship as a unique bombardment ship replacement over the Monitor. Salvos of Congreve rockets would be an awesome sight, balanced by a tedious reload.

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The Yeomans in AoE 4 are seen in the back, in front would be the Earl’s Guards (who would basically be Lancaster Pikemen), which we could modernize into Beefeaters for AoE 3 replacing the pikemen, and thus we would have the complete unique infantry roster


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I don’t think the British should get anything to replace the Pikemen. Historically English/British pikes were just your typical common garden pikes.

I agree with OP’s suggestions that Beefeaters (which I’ll continue to suggest Yeoman of the Ward) should be a Home City only unit, as they are purely a specialised bodyguard force. I’d also suggest them being Halberdiers as their weapon was generally a Partisan (short spear/swordlike polearm you can see in those above pics) and it gives the British a unit line they do not normally have, via the Home City.

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Yes, that sounds good
 the Ranger is also a unit that can only be obtained through Home City, so the Beefeaters would be the same


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All civilizations should adopt the two-card-per-age model, and Britain is no exception. Do you want a rework?

Give them the ability to choose whether to focus on archaic units like longbowmen or advance technologically with more “modernized” units like rangers.

Give them the ability to revolt in Scotland or Ireland during the Industrial Age, and give both revolutions the option to advance to the Imperial Age (just like the Napoleonic Revolution).

2 Likes
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The original civilization bonus can be left in place, so settlers (Yeoman) would still be free when building mansions and the resource generation bonus would be removed.

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I researched the history of the Yeoman, and they continued to be used until the 18th century, which wouldn’t interfere with the game’s historical period. Furthermore, with each age advancement, they can be given a new appearance to show how the unit is being updated through the ages. Let’s not forget that it’s better to have a historically more modern archer than to continue using longbows, which fell out of use in the 16th century and look far too anachronistic for industrial units. Additionally, the idea of ​​these longbowmen being farmers seems more beneficial to me because it leaves the use of the bow to the peasants, which makes more sense since they are hunters and not soldiers per se.

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You’re absolutely right, but the reason I chose that name (Beefeaters) was because I feel it has more impact. I know Yeoman Warders is historically more accurate, but let’s be honest, that name doesn’t carry much weight or have much impact. That’s why I went with the name (Beefeaters). Now, I don’t see any problem with the unit being called Yeoman Warders; it would just be a matter of making some modifications to the post to rename the unit.

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Yes, that would be an excellent idea
 the Scottish revolution would be based on the Jacobite revolt of 1745 and the Irish one on all those between 1569 and 1916 (Desmond, Tyrone, O’Doherty and those of 1641, 1798-1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916)


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Agree with you; for that reason, Beefeaters are halberdiers that can only be sent from the metropolis, as they fill the gap of not having halberds in the barracks. I used the Ottoman Spahi card mechanic, which can only be sent from the metropolis, covering the absence of heavy cavalry for the Ottomans.

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A revolution with Ireland would be great too; there’s a lot of material to draw from with the Scottish and Irish revolutions.

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The House of Lancaster is the best option for upgrading the British in Age of Empires 3. The Yeoman, Earl of Northumberland’s Guard, and Demilancer units are practically colonial units. Furthermore, mansions in AOE 4 are better represented since they contribute to the civilization’s economy, something that doesn’t happen in Age of Empires 3, where the use of mansions is practically unnoticeable and relegated to the background, contributing nothing more than the meager bonus of creating one settler per mansion.

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Yes, you have a lot. With the revolutions of the 16th and 17th centuries, you can receive units from Catholic countries (France, Spain, Italy, and Germany), and with those of 1848 and 1867, you can receive food crates due to the “potato famine”


So I made a deck like this


  1. Exploration Age (1542-1603): Tudor colonization and conquest of Ireland and first Ron products (you know that Irish loves the booze)

  2. Commerce Age (1607-1641): O’Doherty Rebellion, which improves your British explorer and allows your Irish Brigadiers to build military buildings and Catholic conspirators to seize power in Ireland (sends you spies and their agent upgrade to can be upgraded). Proclamation of Dungannon, which automatically destroys your enemies’ plantations/estates.

  3. Fortresses Age (1798-1867): Rebellions of 1798-1803 and the Act of Union of 1801, which allows you to return to your homecity with your standard deck. The 1000-piece food crate represents the Irish famine of 1848 and the Highlanders, the Fenian Brotherhood of the 1867 Rebellion.

  4. Industrial Age: Simply represents the fortifications in Ireland and the Mediterranean allies that Ireland received during its rebellions.

british-1770005231899
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Yes, that’s why you can rework the British from AoE 3 like the House of Lancaster from AoE 4 and simply modernize the units and you’re done


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The AoE4 version of factory houses are a horrible design. A villager per house is actually a very solid bonus that is far more balanced than a factory house.

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Hopefully someone in the community can create a mod adding these revolutions to British civilization.

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It’s fine to keep the settler creation bonus per mansion, but what’s non-negotiable is the fact that more mechanics must be added to mansions, as I suggested in the post. Adding technologies and livestock breeding is an excellent way to incentivize players to build more mansions and have something to do with them. The resource generation bonus in mansions can be removed, but livestock breeding mechanics and adding technologies are essential to give more flavor to the British civilization.

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Longbowmen simply shouldn’t have the Age 4 and Age V, and Rangers should be enabled by default from Age 4 onwards, with the option to enable them earlier with the Church card.

Some cards need to be modified so that the transition from Longbowmen to Rangers feels natural. It’s more historically accurate.

1 Like