Russians

The Russians were a European nation that controlled parts of north-east Europe and northern Asia, they appear as a major civilization in Age of Empires III. In the New World (Americas), the Russians took little land, but did occupy Alaska. They placed trading posts in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and as far south as Fort Ross in northern California, some 50 miles north of San Francisco. In Age of Empires II the Russians appear in the Genghis Khan scenario, depicted under the Goth civilization.

Overview
The Russians start out in the game with extra resources for their economy, but only a few villagers. So with the extra boost of supplies the Russians can turn their resources into more settlers or a large raiding army that might be useful later on in the game. The Russian infantry are only 4/5 the cost of other infantry, but only have 4/5 the hit points and attack, so they can't match an equal amount of enemy units of the same type (eg 20 Russian Halberdiers would lose to 20 Halberdiers from any other civilization). The Russians also has the Strelet which is the cheapest and weakest unit in the game.

The Russians can also train infantry and Settlers in groups, this allows the Russians to train them faster, but it costs more resources to group train. Thankfully, there is no 'squad tax' of charging extra for bulk buying, but it means you have to get the resources for the whole group before training begins, instead of buying one to put in a production queue and adding more as you get the resources.

The Russians also have a unique military building that replaces the Barracks called a Blockhouse, this building can train infantry units as well as defend territory such as the Outpost. This makes the Russians a tough opponent when attacking their colony. Since the Russian Barracks are also an Outpost, they can be built starting in age one, so the Russians normally have their Barracks up by the time they hit Colonial Age, making their rush very early and powerful.

In the campaign, Russia is involved twice. The Russian Ossus is the new center of the Circle, and is preparing to invade America through Canada. They are stopped by John Black, at the cost of his life. Ivan the Terrible, its ruler, is not involved, though the Russian Ossus is exactly the same civilization type as the normal in-game Russian civilization. They make a resurgence again in the Act III scenario Last City of the Inca.

Bonuses

 * Civilization Bonus: Settlers and Infantry units are trained in groups and low cost military.


 * Unique Units: Strelet, Cossack, Oprichnik


 * Royal Guard Units: Pavlov Grenadier, Tartar Cavalry Archer

Unique Techs/Cards

 * Polar Explorer - +2x attack bonus to Guardians, 5x normal damage
 * Reformist Tsar -
 * Westernization (Fortress Age, 900 Wood) Upgrades all infantry and cavalry to Veteran
 * Kalmucks (Fortress Age, 1000 Wood) ships 9 Kalmucks (Guard Dragoons with more attack)
 * Petrine Reforms (Industrial Age, 2500 Gold) Upgrades all infantry and cavalry to Guard (prerequisite: Westernization)
 * (Bashir Ponies) (Industrial Age, 1800 Gold) ships 8 Guard Hussars with extra attack

Home City upgrades
New World:
 * Cheap Priests (Prerequisite. Surgeons) - TEAM card, slashes Coin costs of Priests, Missionaries, Imams etc by 50% and those units train 75% faster (15% for Medicine Men).

Military:
 * Strelet Combat- (Prq. lvl 10 Home City, 3rd Strelet shipment) - all Strelets have +15%hp/attack, if you stack this with other cards (TEAM or non-TEAM) you can have very powerful, very cheap units.
 * Strelet Horde- (Prq. all Strelet shipments, lvl 25 city) - every Blockhouse you own will run out 5 Strelets. With the max of 7 Blockhouses, this means a free 35 Strelets. Strelet hitpoints are also increased by 10%.
 * Boyars- (Prq. all Oprichnik shipments, lvl 25 city) - all unique units (Strelets, Cossacks and Oprichniks) get 10% hp boost.
 * Unicorne Mortars- (Prq. all Mortar shipments) - 20% damage bonus, 50% less training time, 50% less gold cost for mortars. Your mortar (before howitzer upgrade) will cost 100w/175g, will train in half the time and do the same damage as a non-upgraded Howitzer.
 * Ransack- (Prq. level 25 Home City) Increases infantry siege attack by 50%.
 * Assassins- Spies do extra damage to normal units and higher bonus to Heroes and [Mercenaries].
 * TEAM Cold Water Port (Prq. Admiralty) - 15% off all (TEAM) warship costs.

In-game dialogue language
General dialogue
 * zdravstvuite / Здравствуйте (hello)
 * drovosek / дровосек (woodcutter)
 * ohotnik / охотник (hunter)
 * dobytchik / добытчик (miner)
 * fermer / фермер (farmer)
 * furazhir / фуражир (forager)
 * stroitel / строитель (builder)
 * chto? / что (what?)
 * gotov '/' готов (ready)
 * prikaz? / приказ (order?)
 * da / да (yes)
 * pravilno / правильно (correct)
 * sdelayu / сделаю (i'll do it)
 * budet sdelano / будет сделано (it will be done)
 * atakuyu! / атакую! (i am attacking)
 * v ataku / в атаку (to the attack)
 * v boy / в бой (to the fight)

Russian Explorer
 * Ya ranen, ne mogu idti. / Я ранен, не могу идти (I'm wounded, can't walk.)
 * Mne vozvraschaetsya sila. / Мне возвращается сила. (Power returns to me)
 * Spasibo, chto zaplatil za menya vykup. / Спасибо, что заплатил за меня выкуп (Thank you for paying ransom for me.)