Monitor

"Monitor. Mortar ship good at bombarding buildings at great range."

- In-game description

The Monitor is a ship featured in Age of Empires III.

Overview
The Monitor has a mortar fixed on the front for bombarding beaches or fortifications, but is weak against other ships and anti-ship units. It has an ability where it fires a more powerful shot that covers more range. The Monitor is most effective against buildings, as it deals 10 times as much damage against them compared to units. It best works against Forts, though any building that is deemed a threat can also be targeted. Monitors may also be acquired via the TEAM Monitor cards.

The Monitor is generally considered better than the Ironclad for long-range attacks. With the European Cannons or Offshore Support cards, Monitors can outrange all other ships. However, this range bonus only applies to its basic attack; the long-range attack is a fixed amount and damage versus ships is low (unless modified via the tactics discussed below).

Fixed Gun
If a puddle of water is large enough to build a dock, then it can usually hold a Monitor. This can grant easier control over a large area of a landlocked map, and obliterate or severely weaken any enemy units that encroach on the territory. For Spanish players, a Russian ally who sends the TEAM Cheap Priests card can allow Unction to be used much earlier in a game to boost a Monitor. The presence of missionaries nearby however means they can not be utilized elsewhere on the map, but their speed might somewhat alleviate the problem. Furthermore, reaching the pinnacle of damage output for the ship requires many cards and upgrades. Skipping the Harbor cards as the Spanish, and only using the dock upgrades and Unction will still allow 648 damage per Monitor, if the puddle is able to hold more than one.

Water Dance for the Aztecs and Iroquois, and Fire Dance for the Sioux can not be used in this manner, as maps with such puddles of water do not support TEAM cards to allow them a Monitor, they lack a water delivery point.

4v4 Carpet bombing
The highest attainable damage for the Monitor's regular attack is 395.55 (3,995.5 vs buildings, 79.2 vs villagers), and the long-range attack is 989.55 (9,895.5 vs buildings, 197.91 vs villagers) in 4v4 games. It requires the Spanish with a British (Monitor Combat), Chinese (Improved Warships), and Indian (Shivaji's Tactics) ally sending their TEAM cards. With timing practice, such a team can use the ships to lay down endless bombardments in one area, nearly endless in two different areas at once, or in three areas with only short reprieves for the enemy. The use of the TEAM 1 Monitor card would allow China to assault a fourth area every 60 seconds, while the other three areas were hit by a long-range shot every 20 seconds, granted the shots were staggered.

Further statistics
As the Monitor can only be trained by European and Asian civilizations, only improvements available to them (including the campaign-only John Black's Mercenaries and United States, and native improvements) are listed here.

Home City Cards
As the Monitor can only be trained by European and Asian civilizations, only other civilizations' cards that affect them are listed here. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width: 100%;" ! sab="1148"| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Monitor Green : TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150"|

All

 * The 1 Monitor card is available at a level 25 Home City for the Indians.
 * The TEAM 1 Monitor card is only available to Dutch, Germans, Ottomans, Ottomans, Portuguese, Russians and Spanish.
 * The European Cannons card is only available to Asian civilizations.

Spanish

 * }

History
"Bomb ships or bomb ketches were made by removing the front masts of a warship to make room for one or more deck-mounted mortars. These ships could then bombard an enemy fortress from several miles away. The Star-Spangled Banner, the US national anthem, refers to such a bombardment."