Estate

Estate
Building information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Economic
Civilization	Europeans Native Americans
Age	Fortress Age Exploration Age (with "Advanced Estate" Home City Card)
Use	Infinite source of coin
Construction
Wood	600
Max. builders	10
Build time	20 seconds
Build limit	10 (Incas)
Statistics
Hit points	3,500
Line of Sight	12
Max. gatherers	10
XP build bounty	120
XP bounty	240

“	Slow, infinite source of Coin. Limited to 10 gatherers.	”
—In-game description

The Estate (Plantation before the Definitive Edition) is an economic building in Age of Empires III that is available once the Fortress Age is reached (if the "Advanced Estate" Home City Card has been sent, it can be built in the Exploration Age). It is an infinite source of coin that can be gathered by villager-type units and acts as a replacement to the trading system in previous games.

Each villager tasked to the Estate gathers 0.5 coin per second, which is lower than mines (0.6 coin) until improved by Estate technologies, Home City Cards, and/or native technologies. Up to 10 villagers can work on an Estate at a time, though due to collisions between units it is best to only use 7 per Estate.

Asian civilizations have Rice Paddy instead of Estate which combines the functions of a Mill and an Estate.

Tactics

Most civilizations who can build Estates have access to the "Advanced Estate" Home City Card, which reduces their cost by 31% and allows them to be built in the Discovery Age. The cost can be lowered by another 40% with the Land Grab card for a total of 71% cost reduction, but only if Land Grab is sent before "Advanced Estate" – when sending the cards in the other order the cost reduction is only 58.6%. This is due to the hidden, different discount types the two cards use.

3v3

The following requires the Deccan or Silk Road maps. It also requires a Japanese ally (TEAM Chonindo), and an ally with TEAM Rum Distillery; see Home City Card for a navigation box to individual civilization cards.

The gather rate cap for a Settler at an Estate is 88.25 coin per minute per gatherer, or 1.471 coin per second, which can be attained with the Economic Theory, TEAM Chonindo, Rum Distillery, TEAM Rum Distillery, Cigar Roller, Royal Mint, and Textile Mill cards, Excessive Taxation, Fasting, and Punjabi New Year upgrades.

The gather rate cap for the Coureur des Bois and Cree Coureur des Bois is 94.5 coin per minute per gatherer, or 1.575 coin per second, while the Settler Wagon is 194 coin per minute per wagon, or 3.233 coin per second with the Guild Artisan card.

Technologies

Age	Technology	Cost	Effect	Civ.
	Bookkeeping	300 food, 300 wood	Settlers, Coureurs des Bois, and Settler Wagons gather coin from Estates and Rice Paddies 10% faster	EU
	Earth Ceremony	185 food, 150 wood	Villagers gather coin 10% faster	NA
	Earth Gift Ceremony	380 food, 320 wood	Villagers gather coin 20% faster; requires Earth Ceremony
	Tezcatlipoca Worship	900 coin	Ships 1 Skull Knight for every 4 minutes the game has passed, up to 30 minutes	Aztecs
	Maple Festival	250 food, 250 wood	Ships 500 coin for every 10 minutes the game has passed, up to 30 minutes	Haudenosaunee
	Gun Trade	400 wood	Wakina Rifles and Rifle Riders get +25% attack	Lakota
	Homesteading	400 food, 400 wood	Settlers, Coureurs des Bois, and Settler Wagons gather coin from Estates and Rice Paddies 20% faster; requires Bookkeeping	EU
	Refineries	600 food, 600 wood	Settlers, Coureurs des Bois, and Settler Wagons gather coin from Estates and Rice Paddies 30% faster; requires Homesteading
	Coca Cultivation	500 food, 500 wood, 500 coin	Estates generate 0.8 coin/sec.	Incas
	Excessive Tribute	1,000 food, 1,000 wood	All coin gathering (but not shipments and Trade Routes) is 50% faster; requires Earth Gift Ceremony	NA

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Improvements
Hit points	Flying Buttress (+20%)
Sight	Gas Lighting (+4)
Construction cost	Cree Textile Craftsmanship (-25% wood) Tupi Forest Burning (-20% wood)
Other	Cherokee Basket Weaving (improvements except Excessive Tribute and Big Buttons cost no wood)
Penalties	Code Napoleon (+50% cost, French only) Customized Merc Weapons (+30% cost, John Black's Mercenaries only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Plantation

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team All Card Description Age HC level Improved Buildings Buildings get +40% hit points 10 Advanced Plantation Plantations get +100% hit points, cost -31%, and can be built in the Discovery Age 25 Land Grab Mills, Livestock Pens, and Plantations cost -30% to -40% and build time -75% 25 The Improved Buildings card is available at a level 1 Home City for the Sioux. The Advanced Plantation card is not available to Aztecs and Iroquois. Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Improved Buildings Buildings get +25% hit points 10 Native Americans Card Description Age HC level Agrarian Ways Farm and Plantation improvements (except Large Scale Gathering, Excessive Tribute, and Big Buttons) are free 25 Old Ways Big Button improvements cost -50% 40 The Agrarian Wars card is not available to the Sioux.

Changelog

Age of Empires III

• The building is called "Plantation".
• Plantations cost 800 wood and give 160 XP when built and 320 XP when destroyed.

Definitive Edition

• The building is called "Estate".
• Estates cost 600 wood and give 120 XP when built and 240 XP when destroyed.
• Originally, the Incas had no Estate build limit, like other civilizations. With update 3552, the Incas had a Estate build limit of 20. With update 20322, the Incas have a Estate build limit of 10.

Bugs and glitches

• In the original Age of Empires III, Estates placed too closely together (side by side with no space between them) may cause some villagers to "migrate" to the adjacent Estate. This bug also occurs with Mills and, to a lesser degree, Farms and Rice Paddies.

History

Age of Empires III

“

A plantation is a large farm where crops are cultivated. They were common in the southern United States as well as in parts of the Caribbean. Many historical plantations used slave labor. In the United States, plantations are associated with a distinct type of architecture known as the Plantation House.

”

Definitive Edition

“

An Estate is a large land holding where crops are cultivated. They were common across the United States as well as parts of the Caribbean.

”

Gallery

An in-game West European Plantation in the original Age of Empires III

Models of the Eastern European and Mediterranean Plantations in the original Age of Empires III