Consulate

The Consulate is a building featured in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties which enables Asian civilizations to recruit units from a selected European civilization. However, these units cost a fifth resource type, Export, which is slowly generated over time and are available only to Asian civilizations.

In order to increase export generation, the player may choose to sacrifice a portion of their ordinary resources collection to be exported, increasing the amount of export. Export generation will automatically increase if you have more villagers at work collecting resources or if you advance an Age.

Overview
The player can select one of the available European civilization to ally with in the Consulate. Doing so costs. The European ally provides a passive benefit that lasts as long as the alliance remains. The player only have one ally at a time and may break the alliance anytime with the End Relations (End Isolation in case of Japanese Isolationism) button.

Consulate Shipments
The Consulate offers many one-off shipments that cost a certain amount of Export. These range from economical and military upgrades to free units to building wagons. These shipments usually take 30 seconds to research, although there are exceptions.

In the Imperial Age, the Brigade shipment becomes available, which ships a large number of the selected civilization's best units and takes 90 seconds to complete. However, they, like other shipments, can only be sent once.

Consulate Armies
Consulate troops are a set of units that are trained at the consulate for export. They can be trained an unlimited number of times. Consulate Troops are basically ordinary units with unique names that provide a much needed bolster to some Asian armies.

European troops available in the consulate are usually the civilisation's best units, for example, the British send Musketeers and Hussars, its royal guard units. Every time the player ages up, the consulate troops receive a higher bonus to their damage or their hit points. However, the Japanese Isolation feature enables the Japanese to recruit elite Japanese troops not available any other way. These units are recruited like normal Barracks/Stable units - they are directly trained in a single block.

Availability
The following is a list of consulate options available to each Asian civilization:
 * The Chinese: The British and Russians at a level 1 Home City, the French at level 25 Home City and the Germans at level 40 Home City.


 * The Indians: The British, Portuguese and Russians (Campaign only) at level 1 Home City, the French at level 25 Home City and the Ottomans at level 40 Home City.


 * The Japanese: The Portuguese and Isolationism at a level 1 Home City, the Dutch at level 25 Home City and the Spanish at level 40 Home City

Spanish
+0.8 XP trickle

British
Land units get +10% hit points

French
Villagers gather 5% faster

Portuguese
Buildings cost -15% Food and Wood

Dutch
+0.8 Coin trickle

Russians
Villagers train 10% faster

Germans
Banner Armies cost -15 resources per Export

Ottomans
Units and buildings get +10 LOS

Japanese Isolationism
Land units get +5% attack

Shipments
This is a list of shipments that benefit the Consulate in any way.

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width:100%; margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:1px;" ! sab="1148" | Click for a list of Consulate-related home city cards
 * - sab="1147"
 * - sab="1149"
 * sab="1150" |

Indians

 * }

History
"A consulate, also known as an embassy, or a diplomatic mission, is a group of people from one state or organization present in a foreign state to represent their state’s interests. A consulate is generally located in a busy tourist city, and takes care of minor diplomatic tasks such as issuing visas and diplomatic papers. The word “consulate” literally means “office of the consul,” who is a diplomat appointed to foster trade and take care of expatriates."