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.

Preámbulo

Trabajo en progreso:

Nota: 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
• «Exótico» 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)

Si tienes alguna pregunta, sugerencias, critics or found any mistakes, especially forgotten exceptions not mentioned above, please make liberal use of the comment section!

Introducción

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 sin 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 etiquetas and so are most of their strenghs and weaknesses.
Etiquetas are important, since most Units deal daño extra a specific tagged unidades.
Ballesteros y Skrimishers deal extra damage (1.25 a 3 veces) a Infantería pesada y (2.0 veces) Caballería ligera Por ejemplo.

From all unit etiquetas como:

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

Not all Etiquetas are equally important. De hecho, 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.

Ejemplo (1)
In the tool tipp below you can see primary stats like
Salud, Daño, Attackspeed, Movementspeed;

Pero también:

Resistencia: Blue Bracket
Daño & Damage Types: Red Brackets
Rango: Yellow Bracket
Multiplicadores: Rosa Brackets

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

Por cierto: 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:
–Infantería
–Ranged Infantry
–Infantería pesada

What does it mean?

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

So this is a unit that debería do well against Caballería y Shock Infantry in Melee – ya que takes less Melee Damage and deals more to this type of units.
While on range it is more allround.

Nota: Shock Infantry looks like Infantería but is technically not tagged as such, which fulfills the role of (principalmente) Caballería pesada – and is usually also treated alike by other units -> Artillería ofertas menos daño a Caballería & 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 Caballería

Rules for easier identification of Tags & Unit-Types

Alguno Basic-Rules

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

Alguno other Rules

• If it got a piky end (speers, bajonets, espadas…) – Es Infantería pesada o Caballería pesada
• si es shoots arrows – es Infantería ligera o Caballería ligera
• If it got a musket y es mounted – Es Caballería ligera

Nota: The Rules above are not reverse applicable (there is some Infantería pesada sin 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 Infantería ligera

Furthermore regarding Infantry:

• si es solo fighting in Pelea confusa es Infantería pesada o Shock Infantry and countered by Heavy Ranged Infantry but not only.
• If it got Melee Resistance es Infantería pesada
• If it got Ranged Resistance es Infantería ligera

For exceptions see the «Systematics of Units» sección a continuación.

Basic Counter-System: Roca, Papel, Tijeras

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:

Bruto Counter-Rules:

• Infantería mata Caballería (neglecting infantería ligera like Bowmen & light Cavalry)
• Caballería mata Artillería
• Artillería mata Infantería (neglecting some exotic units)

A little bit less rough Counter-Rules:

• Infantería ligera mata Caballería ligera & Infantería pesada
• Infantería pesada mata Caballería pesada & Infantería pesada
• Caballería ligera mata Caballería pesada & Artillería
• Caballería pesada mata Infantería ligera & Artillería
• Artillería mata Light Infanrty & Infantería pesada

Systematics of Units

Infantería

• Exceptions(1) Urumi (Solo Infantería neither Luz- or Heavy)
• Infantería pesada
  • Ataque: Ranged and/or Melee
    • Exceptions(1): Inquistor(Siege Damage on quasi Melee Attack)
  • Amor: Only Melee
    • Exceptions(5): Carolean(a distancia), Guardia Papal(a distancia), Nizam-Fuslier(Cerco), Yamabushi(a distancia), Desert Warrior(Switching)
      Nota: El Carolean starts like a normal musketeer with Melee Amor and switches it only once and irrevesible to a distancia después del age IV homecity card: «Svea Lifeguard» is sent.
• Infantería ligera
  • Ataque: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions(2): Sudanese Dervish(Melee on range), Dhaomey Amazon(Melee on range)
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions(4): Arrow-Knight(Cerco), Huraca(Cerco), Darood(Cerco), Pavisier(Switching)
• Shock Infantry
  • Ataque: Only Melee
    Exceptions(1): Eagle-Runner Knight
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions (0): ninguno

Nota: Despite being here listed under «Infantería», the tag Shock Infantry es mutually exclusive con Infantería and in general far more similiar a Caballería

Caballería

• Caballería pesada
  • Ataque: Only Melee
    • Exceptions(1): Yojimbo
  • Amor: Only Ranged
    • Exceptions (2): Sennar Horseman, Lifidi-Knight
• Caballería ligera

• • Ataque: 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 «extraño» combinations of Etiquetas, Resistencias y Attack Types