The Atlanteans are a culture that emphasize quality over quantity. As such, their units are more expensive than those of other cultures, but are generally better at everything. They use Citizens as the base of their workforce. These are slower, take longer to train and cost more than other villagers. However, they do not require drop-sites when gathering resources, build and gather significantly faster than the other villagers, and are tougher.
The Atlantean scout unit is the Oracle. They have small line-of-sight when moving, but keeping them still will gradually extend their line-of-sight.
By paying a cost, all Atlantean human units (including Citizens) can be transformed into Heroes, giving them a bonus against myth units and making them slightly better at everything they do.
Favor is gained by holding Town Centers. The more completed Town Centers a player owns, the faster they will earn Favor. Also, Atlanteans can build Town Centers in the Archaic Age rather than in the Classical Age like other cultures.
Unlike the other cultures in Age of Mythology, the Atlanteans can create Heroes from regular units, simply by clicking a button while the unit is selected. The change is instant, and these new hero units have all of the attributes of heroes from other cultures. However, it isn't free, the change to a hero costs a significant amount of resources for each unit and adds to the population cap. The heroes are simply created from regular units so they still maintain previous weaknesses while gaining an attack bonus against myth units and a slight increase in any other bonuses they possess. Atlantean heroes are the middle ground in the game. They are more expensive than Egyptian and Norse heroes but are not as weak to human soldiers. They are weaker than Greek heroes but are not limited in number as they are.
The Atlanteans gather favor similar to the Egyptians, except by building Town Centers instead of Monuments. Each Town Center an Atlantean player owns gives a steady trickle of favor, approximately 0.3 favor per second per Town Center. The more Town Centers the player controls, the higher the favor intake. To facilitate the Atlanteans' favor gathering, they are able to build Town Centers earlier, in the Archaic Age.
The Atlanteans control a giant lava golem with crystals spikes sprouting from its back and elbows. The crystals change color depending on the in-game player color. It is unknown which mythological being it represents.
The Atlanteans start with higher resource counts than the other civilizations, with 325 food, 300 wood, and 125 gold in addition to steady favor generation from the start with their initial Town Center.
Their starting units are one citizen and one Oracle, the Atlanteans' scouting unit. However, two more Oracles appear from the Town Center at ten-second intervals. Oracles don't work as other scouts do, they have an extremely low Line Of Sight while moving. But while they're standing still, their LOS gradually increases until it reaches its maximum range in 1 minute. Once it reaches its maximum range, the Oracle will send a "flare" to alert the player.
The Atlanteans are completely themed on "Quality over Quantity". Their units are extremely expensive, but far more powerful and effective than the units from the other civilizations. An example of this would be their villager, which costs 125 food, 25 wood, and 3 population slots, but are far more efficient than other villagers.
One attribute given to the Atlanteans through their superior villagers is the termination of resource dropping points. Instead, the Atlantean Citizens have donkeys, which follow them and act as personal resource gathering points; enabling them to continuously put resources into the stockpile rather than having to drop them off at a building. If a resource should become depleted, the Atlantean citizen will be able to move, by itself, to a similar resource elsewhere.
Another attribute is the ability to use god powers more than once, the amount depending on the power of the God Power being used. Though the Atlanteans can use most of their God Powers more than once, there is a 'cooldown period' between the usage of the God Power, which is dependent on the God Power, ranging from around one minute to five. Certain Mythic Age God Powers may only be used once.
Houses for the Atlanteans also have some changes. Unlike the other cultures of Age of Mythology, the Atlanteans have houses which are called 'Manors' that can garrison units and serve a population of 20 instead of 10. However, due to this increase in the population cap per building, the Atlanteans are only able to build five Manors. Each Manor costs 80 wood and 25 gold, considerably more expensive than a normal House. However it has more than double the HP of a house and can also garrison up to 5 units for protection.
Murmillo: The Murmillo is the Atlanteans' general infantry unit. it is strong against cavalry and decent against other infantry making it a fairly well-rounded unit. Like most infantry they are vulnerable to archers.
Contarius: The general cavalry unit for the Atlanteans; armed with a spear and fairly hefty armor. It has a decent speed and a high attack.
Arcus: One of the four true foot archers in Age of Mythology, alongside the Greek Toxotes, the Norse Bogsveigir, and the Chinese Chu Ko Nu. It is strong against infantry and weak against cavalry.
Katapeltes: The Katapeltes is the main Atlantean infantry counter against cavalry.
Turma: The Turma is a cavalry archer only good against other archers. It is very much like the Egyptian Slinger, though far more mobile. Their mobility could in theory be useful for raiding, as it can be; however, the Turma has such low hack armor and attack that using them for that purpose isn't very effective.
Cheiroballista: The Cheiroballista is a siege unit which is excellent against ships and infantry, but weak against cavalry and buildings.
Destroyer: An anti-building unit that has high pierce armor but is weak against other infantry.
Fanatic: The Fanatic fights very well against both infantry and cavalry due to their attack bonus against human soldiers, but are quite susceptible to archer fire.
Fire Siphon: A siege unit with very high pierce armor and a very high attack, but almost no hack armor. It shoots fire and is very strong against buildings.
Onager: A long-ranged siege unit which can be trained after reaching the Mythic Age.
Unlike the other cultures, Atlantean names are not taken from geography. Three of them seem to be taken from campaign heroes, four of them from deities and figures associated with the Atlanteans or the sea, and the rest seems to be fictitious
Osphoru (Appears to be named after Phosphorus, the ancient Greek personification of the Morning Star. He is also mentioned as being an Atlantean Theocrat in the encyclopedia entry of the Caladria myth unit.)
Unlike the Greeks, Egyptians, Norse and Chinese, the Atlanteans are a mythical civilization. However they do draw considerable inspiration from both the Mesoamericans (Aztecs or Toltecs were considered as civilizations originally) which can be seen in the Atlantean buildings (pointed roofs, and mostly stone construction), and the Romans (whom were also originally considered for the expansion). This can be seen in the:
Destroyer, based on the Roman Legionairy (circa 1st Century CE), and also based on the Retiarius gladiator.
Fanatic, based on the Dimachaerus, whom was a Roman gladiation that fashioned two swords, daggers or knives.
Murmillo, based on the gladiator of the same name. Their interservice rivalry with the Destroyers is a reference to the fact Retiarii gladiators were pitted against a "secutor", a gladiator armed similarly to the Murmillo.
Turma, gets it's name from a Roman Equite squadron.
Contarius, were Roman Cavalry Auxiliaries that wielded Lances.
Arcus, comes from the Latin word meaning Bow.
Katapeltes, comes from Catapulta, a roman Siege Engine that fired bolts and stones alike, which comes from the Greek word meaning Shield (peltē/πέλτη, a type of small shield, see Peltasts) Breaker (kata/κατά: against {preposition}).
Cheiroballistae are Roman Siege engines, essentially a large crossbow.
Similarly to Cheiroballistae, Onagers were Roman siege engines, more specifically a type of torsion catapult.
Fire Siphons and Fire Ships use the same technology that the Eastern Romans (or Byzantines) invented.
The clothing of the Atlantean Citizens resemble the traditional clothing of Basque people, who were part of the Roman Empire.
Another hint towards Amerindian inspiration for the Atlanteans lies in the presence of Llama Caravans and of the three tree species introduced in The Titans:
Tamaracks, the species of the marsh trees and the Gaia Forest Trees are all found in various biomes of North America.
All three of the above-mentioned tree species appear in various scenarios of The New Atlantis campaign, the Gaia Forest Tree appearing the most frequently (which represents a tree known as quaking aspen).
The Architecture featured in the Atlantean Mythic Age appears to have been based upon the Incan "Mortarless Polygonal Masonry" architecture.
Compared to most civilizations, the Atlanteans history section is mostly Lore-based, rather than historical or Mythology, similar to Amanra, Arkantos and many other campaign heroes history files.
The Atlanteans are implied to have been an imperialist kingdom according to their lore. This, along with the Destroyer's helmet resembling a 19th century British Army officer's helmet, is likely a reference to the real world British Empire, who would appear in Age of Empires III.
Furthermore, the Atlantean Citizens have the ability to gather resources without depositing them at a dropsite, much like the Settlers in Age of Empires III.
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