Age of Empires III Definitive Edition How to Counter and Identify Units

Explanations & Rules of thumb about the tag-based counter system, covering exceptions and exotic units.

Preamble

Work in Progress:

Note: Most important aspects should be covered already, however it should be stated that:

Not Covered yet / To do:

• Resistances in various Stances
• Charged Attacks / Variing speed Attacks
• “Exotic” Units in detail (Own section)
• Most noteable “non-exotic” Units in detail (Own section)
• Outlaw Units (will be implemented in existing sections)
• Revolutionary Units (will be implemented in existing sections)

If you have any questions, suggestions, critics or found any mistakes, especially forgotten exceptions not mentioned above, please make liberal use of the comment section!

Introduction

I think its quite easy being said that one of AoE III greatest features and biggest bane is its continously growing variety of more or less unique units. (~200 I think)

Especially with the last update of October making anti-intuitive units easier accessable – this guide is proposed to aid new as experienced players to easier get along without knowing every single unit.

Assuming you are not able to completely out-micro, out-number, or out-tech your enemy, which will be the vast majority of the time, you will have to bother about what type of unit is best against what other type.

In AoE III units are defined by tags and so are most of their strenghs and weaknesses.
Tags are important, since most Units deal extra damage to specific tagged units.
Crossbowmen and Skrimishers deal extra damage (1.25 to 3 times) to Heavy Infantry and (2.0 times) Light Cavalry for example.

From all unit tags such as:

Infantry, Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Ranged infantry, Musket Infantry, Archaic Infantry, Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, Siege Units, Artilery, Native Units, Mercinaries,… – I could continue this further but I think you agree that there are many of them.

Not all Tags are equally important. In fact, you actually don’t ultimately have to bother too much with them, since there are some simple rules to easly see (by klicking on the Unit) what it is strong and what it is weak against.

Example (1)
In the tool tipp below you can see primary stats like
Health, Damage, Attackspeed, Movementspeed;

But also:

Resistance: Blue Bracket
Damage & Damage Types: Red Brackets
Range: Yellow Bracket
Multipliers: Rosa Brackets

This Musketeer for example got: Melee Resistance, Ranged Attack with no multipliers,
Siege Attack (Only usable vs buildings) with no multipliers and Melee Attack with [3x VS Cavalry] and [2.25 VS Shock-Infantry] multipliers.

By the way: You don’t need to know the symbols – simple mouse-over will tell you the meaning.

While being self tagged as:

(You can get this window by mouse-over the portrait of the previous tooltip screen)

Here we can see it is:
–Infantry
–Ranged Infantry
–Heavy Infantry

What does it mean?

• With its Melee-Resistance it should perform well against all units that deal Melee-Damage.
• Its Ranged Attack got no multipliers – so that is neither especially good or bad.
• Its Melee-Attack however got 2 different multipliers: 3x Cavalry – meaning it will deal
  3 times the damage to every unit tagged as Cavalry and 2.25 times the damage against as Shock Infantry tagged units.

So this is a unit that should do well against Cavalry and Shock Infantry in Melee – since it takes less Melee Damage and deals more to this type of units.
While on range it is more allround.

Note: Shock Infantry looks like Infantry but is technically not tagged as such, which fulfills the role of (mostly) Heavy Cavalry – and is usually also treated alike by other units -> Artillery deals less damage to Cavalry & Shock Infantry and so on. Shock Infantry is typical for Native American factions but in particular for the Aztec as they lack any type of classic Cavalry

Rules for easier identification of Tags & Unit-Types

Some Basic-Rules

• If it got a ranged attack – it is its primary attack.
• If it got a ranged attack it deals ranged damage with its ranged attack.
• If it got melee attack it deals melee damage with its melee attack

Some other Rules

• If it got a piky end (speers, bajonets, swords…) – It is Heavy Infantry or Heavy Cavalry
• If it shoots arrows – it is Light Infantry or Light Cavalry
• If it got a musket and is mounted – It’s Light Cavalry

Note: The Rules above are not reverse applicable (there is some Heavy Infantry without piky ends) and can only be applied for units in their standard stance, Longbowmen for example use swords if forced or set to melee stance but are still Light Infantry

Furthermore regarding Infantry:

• If it is only fighting in Melee it is Heavy Infantry or Shock Infantry and countered by Heavy Ranged Infantry but not only.
• If it got Melee Resistance it is Heavy Infantry
• If it got Ranged Resistance it is Light Infantry

For exceptions see the “Systematics of Units” section below.

Basic Counter-System: Rock, Paper, Scissors

In AoE III we got a fairly complex counter-system, consisting of many different types of units countering other units, what makes it sometimes possibly counter even mixed armies with a single type of unit.

However there are some rules applicable most of the time:

Rough Counter-Rules:

• Infantry kills Cavalry (neglecting light infantry like Bowmen & light Cavalry)
• Cavalry kills Artillery
• Artillery kills Infantry (neglecting some exotic units)

A little bit less rough Counter-Rules:

• Light Infantry kills Light Cavalry & Heavy Infantry
• Heavy Infantry kills Heavy Cavalry & Heavy Infantry
• Light Cavalry kills Heavy Cavalry & Artillery
• Heavy Cavalry kills Light Infantry & Artillery
• Artillery kills Light Infanrty & Heavy Infantry

Systematics of Units

Infantry

• Exceptions(1) Urumi (Only Infantry neither Light- or Heavy)
• Heavy Infantry
  • Attack: Ranged and/or Melee
    • Exceptions(1): Inquistor(Siege Damage on quasi Melee Attack)
  • Amor: Only Melee
    • Exceptions(5): Carolean(Ranged), Papal Guard(Ranged), Nizam-Fuslier(Siege), Yamabushi(Ranged), Desert Warrior(Switching)
      Note: The Carolean starts like a normal musketeer with Melee Amor and switches it only once and irrevesible to Ranged after the age IV homecity card: “Svea Lifeguard” is sent.
• Light Infantry
  • Attack: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions(2): Sudanese Dervish(Melee on range), Dhaomey Amazon(Melee on range)
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions(4): Arrow-Knight(Siege), Huraca(Siege), Darood(Siege), Pavisier(Switching)
• Shock Infantry
  • Attack: Only Melee
    Exceptions(1): Eagle-Runner Knight
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions (0): none

Note: Despite being here listed under “Infantry”, the tag Shock Infantry is mutually exclusive with Infantry and in general far more similiar to Cavalry

Cavalry

• Heavy Cavalry
  • Attack: Only Melee
    • Exceptions(1): Yojimbo
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions (2): Sennar Horseman, Lifidi-Knight
• Light Cavalry

• • Attack: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions (1): Berber Camel Rider
  • Amor: Majority Ranged
    • Exceptions (7): Cavalry Archer, War Wagon, Bow Rider, Black Rider, Manchu, Berber Camel Rider, Comanche Horse Archer

So in total out of ~200 units there are only ~24 “weird” combinations of Tags, Resistances and Attack Types