| “ | Russian combination of Barracks and Outpost. Can defend the frontier or train infantry in groups. Also provides 5 population. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Blockhouse is a military/defensive building in Age of Empires III that is unique to the Russians. It combines the functions of a Barracks and an Outpost by training and upgrading Russian infantry, attacking nearby enemies, and receiving Home City shipments, as well as supporting 5 population.
Tactics[]
Blockhouses are resource-friendly, with Russian players only having to pay wood for a fraction of the cost required for a Barracks and Outpost. "TEAM Cheap Barracks" will reduce the cost by 15%, while "TEAM Art of War" reduces it by 10%. If both cards are stacked, Blockhouses only cost 187 wood. However, using this method, Barracks and War Academies will be much cheaper than Blockhouses, at 40 wood and 90 wood respectively, drastically reducing their economic advantage.
Due to Blockhouses' dual-role, losing them will hinder the Russian player's defense and ability to train infantry simultaneously, which can sometimes lead to them being overwhelmed easily during an attack involving siege units.
In the Definitive Edition, choosing The Logistician to advance into the Commerce Age make Blockhouses support 15 population instead of 5.
Units[]
| Age | Unit | Cost | Pop. |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 10 Strelets
|
375 food, 100 wood |
10 |
 5 Musketeers
|
280 food, 95 coin |
5 | |
 |
 4 Halberdiers
|
200 food, 280 coin |
4 |
 Falconet
|
100 wood, 400 coin |
5 | |
 |
 Mortar
|
100 wood, 350 coin |
4 |
- Falconets and Mortars require the "Blockhouse Cannon" Home City Card to be trained at Blockhouses.
Upgrades[]
| Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
|
 Frontier Blockhouse
|
400 wood, 200 coin |
Upgrades Blockhouses into Frontier Blockhouses (+50% attack) |
|
 Fortified Blockhouse
|
800 wood, 400 coin |
Upgrades Blockhouses into Fortified Blockhouses (+50% hit points, +50% attack, +100% anti-ship attack and a bombard attack with an AOE of 3); requires Frontier Blockhouse |
Civilization differences[]
- In The Asian Dynasties, the Chinese in random map games can build Blockhouses by allying with the Russians at the Consulate, which provides the Blockhouse Wagon shipment that ships a namesake unit capable of building a Blockhouse for free, and allows Villagers to build Blockhouses. Unlike its standard counterpart however, the Chinese Blockhouse train War Academy and Castle banner armies, Flamethrowers, Hand Mortars, and have a build limit of one.
- The Indians in the Act III: India campaign can build Blockhouses in the same way as the Chinese in random map games, however, only (rescued) European Settlers can build extra Blockhouses after the shipment.
In the Definitive Edition, the "Castrametation" Home City Card allows the Explorer to build Blockhouses.
Revolution[]
- Revolting to Finland automatically upgrades Blockhouses to Frontier if they are not already for the Russians, and removes their build limit.
- Revolting to Hungary and Romania increases Blockhouses' build limit by one with each Home City shipment.
Further statistics[]
As Blockhouses are unique to the Russians, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
| Building strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Ships, infantry, weak cavalry |
| Weak vs. | Artillery, Siege units |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Flying Buttress (+20%)
|
| Attack |  Heated Shot (+1.5x multiplier vs. ships)
|
| Sight |  Gas Lighting (+4)
|
| Other |  Iroquois League (train Iroquois Tomahawks and Iroquois Mantlets, vanilla Age of Empires III only)
|
| Construction cost |  Cree Textile Craftsmanship (-25% wood) Tupi Forest Burning (-20% wood)
|
Home City Cards[]
As Blockhouses are unique to the Russians, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Blockhouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Europeans[]
Indians[]
Portuguese[]
Russians[]
Spanish[]
|
Changelog[]
Age of Empires III[]
- Blockhouses provide 5 population.
The WarChiefs[]
- Blockhouses cannot reveal stealth enemies.
The Asian Dynasties[]
- Blockhouses built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate, due to a bug, cannot train banner armies and cannot be upgraded into Frontier Blockhouses and into Fortified Blockhouses.
- Blockhouses built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate have a build limit of 4.
Definitive Edition[]
- Blockhouses built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate now can train War Academy banner armies, can be upgraded into Frontier Blockhouses and into Fortified Blockhouses through the Hill Castle and Mountain Castle technologies, respectively, and have a build limit of 1.
- With update 20322, Blockhouses provide 10 population.
The African Royals[]
- With update 38254, Blockhouses have been reverted to providing 5 population.
- With update 47581, Blockhouses can reveal stealth enemies.
- With update 61213, Blockhouses built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate now can train Castle banner armies, Flamethrowers and Hand Mortars.
History[]
| “ | A blockhouse is a military building that is often fortified for protection. A blockhouse is similar to a fort, but while a fort has multiple buildings, a blockhouse has only one structure. In the New World, blockhouses were used for defense on the frontier. Russian blockhouses built along the west coast were hexagonal in shape and usually had multiple stories. | ” |
Gallery[]
