Factory

Factory
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Building Economic
Civilization(s)	Europeans Federal Americans Chinese
Age	Fortress Age (United States) Industrial Age
Use	Auto gather 5.5 food, 5.5 wood, or 5.5 coin, or automatically trains Heavy Cannons (Rockets for the British, Papal Bombards for the Italians, Great Bombards for the Ottomans)
Building
Built by	Factory Wagon
Cost	200 Wood 400 Coin
Build time	30 seconds
Statistics
Size	5x5
Hit points	5,000
Line of Sight	12
Kill XP	240

“	Generates resources or artillery automatically. Configure it to produce different things. Can only be sent from the Home City.	”
—In-game description

The Factory is an economic/military building in Age of Empires III that can only be built by Factory Wagons which can only be shipped from the Home City in the Industrial Age (Fortress Age for the United States). It generates 5.5 food, 5.5 wood, or 5.5 coin (7.15 with their respective improvements) per second depending on the configuration, or automatically trains a Heavy Cannon (Rocket for the British, Papal Bombard for the Italians, Great Bombard for the Ottomans) at no cost. The Factory also provides technologies to improve their resource gather rates and artillery train time, as well as the Imperial upgrade for Heavy Cannons/Rockets/Papal Bombards/Great Bombards.

Overview

Factories are best placed in a well-guarded position, because they cannot be rebuilt when destroyed.

Consider the opportunity cost of shipping a Factory as opposed to shipping crates directly. If the civilization has 1,600 crates available for the resource being produced, the Factory will be profitable after about 5 minutes. If the factory is used for less time, crates would be more effective. Likewise, as a rough guide, the upgrades would be worth it if that resource is planned to be made for 3 minutes or more. Consider reallocating Settlers to avoid this if necessary.

The Factory that players obtain through the Victorian Era technology is a separate version and does not share build limit with the Factories delivered through Home City shipments.

Special ability

• Configure this Factory to produce Food. (5.5 food/s)
• Configure this Factory to produce Wood. (5.5 wood/s)
• Configure this Factory to produce Coin. (5.5 coin/s)
• Configure this Factory to produce heavy artillery. (Rocket for the British, Papal Bombard for the Italians, Great Bombard for the Ottomans, Heavy Cannon for everyone else; see their articles for their spawning times)

Technologies

Age	Technology	Cost	Effect
	Cannery	250 wood 250 coin	Factory auto gather work rate for food +30%
	Water Power	250 food 250 coin	Factory auto gather work rate for wood +30%
	Steam Power	250 food 250 wood	Factory auto gather work rate for coin +30%
	Mass Production	300 food 300 coin	Heavy Cannon/Rocket/Great Bombard/Papal Bombard train time -25%
Imperial Age	Imperial Cannon/Rocket/Great Bombard/Papal Bombard	1,500 wood 1,500 coin	Heavy Cannon/Rocket/Great Bombard/Papal Bombard hit points and damage +50%

Civilization differences

• In The Asian Dynasties, the Chinese can build one (and only one) Factory by allying with the Russians at the Consulate, which provides the Factory Wagon that ships the namesake unit capable of building a Factory.
  • The Indians in the Act III: India campaign can also build a single Factory in the same way as the Chinese in random map games.
• In the Definitive Edition, the United States can ship one Factory in the Fortress Age by aging up with New Hampshire, but cannot research the technologies nor train Heavy Cannons until they reach the Industrial Age.
  • In addition, they are limited to having two Factories, despite having three Home City Cards that can ship a Factory Wagon.
• Revolting to California as the Mexicans allows them to ship and build up to three Factories, the only civilization capable of doing so.

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Improvements
Hit points	State Constitutions (+25%; United States only) Flying Buttress (+20%) Byzantine Legacy (+15%)
Line of Sight	Gas Lighting (+4)
Build time	Cree Textile Craftsmanship (-25%)
Resource generation	Cannery (+30% food) Water Power (+30% wood) Steam Power (+30% coin)
Other	Factory Wagon (delivers 1 Factory Wagon; Chinese only) Victorian Era (delivers 1 Factory Wagon)

Home City Cards

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

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

• Definitive Edition
• The Asian Dynasties

Shared

Card	Description	Age
Improved Buildings	Building hit points +40%
TEAM Improved Buildings	Building hit points +25%
Monumental Architecture	Building hit points +30%; Town Center and Command Post damage +35%
Factory	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon
Robber Barons	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon
Industrial Revolution	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon
Chipotle Tactics	Delivers 1 Huge Crates of Food (500 food); grants food when an enemy or own building is destroyed equal to 20% ~ 40% of its total cost

• "Improved Buildings" is available to Asians (except the Indians), Europeans (except the Maltese), Mexicans, and Native Americans (except the Inca).
• "TEAM Improved Buildings" is available to the Inca, Indians, and Maltese.
• "Monumental Architecture" is available to the Inca, and also Portuguese and Spanish upon revolting to Peru.
• "Factory" is available to Europeans (except Italians), Mexicans, Revolutionary France, and Rio Grande.
• "Robber Barons" is available to Baja California, Europeans (except the Maltese, Russians, Spanish, and Swedes), Revolutionary France, South Africa, and United States (upon reaching the Industrial Age).
• "Industrial Revolution" is available to the Russians, Spanish, Swedes, and United States (upon reaching the Industrial Age).
• "Chipotle Tactics" is available to the Mexicans and Spanish (upon revolting to Mexico).

Ethiopians

Card	Description	Age
Gondarine Architecture	Building hit points +25%; Town Center, Command Post, and Palace hit points +50% instead; Mountain Monastery hit points +100% instead; Wall hit points +225% instead

Federal Americans

Card	Description	Age
The Alamo	Delivers 16 Minutemen; when destroyed by enemies, your buildings spawn a number of Minutemen equal to 1.5% of their cost rounded up	Imperial Age

• "The Alamo" is available to the United States upon selecting the Texas Federal State, and Mexicans upon revolting to Texas, and spawns 17 Minutemen when a Factory is destroyed.

Indians

Card	Description	Age
Mughal Architecture	Building wood cost -20%, build time -30%; Wonder build time -10% instead, +1 Hindu Villager

Lakota

Card	Description	Age
Camp Movements	Delivers 2 War Hut Travois; building build time -25%; Town Centers, Community Plaza, Market, Corral, War Hut, Farm, Native Embassy, Estate, and Dock can be transformed into a Travois to be built elsewhere

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
Porfiriato	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon; Factory hit points +100%, and are repaired for free; Cannery, Water Power, Steam Power, Mass Production and Imperial Cannon are free; costs 500 food, 500 wood
Colegio de San Nicolas	Delivers 1 Large Collection of Books (500 XP); unit Line of Sight +4; building (except Wall) Line of Sight +8; reveals enemy units' positions for 20 seconds
Talavera Architecture	Building build time -30%, hit points +30%, grant coin build bounty instead of XP	Imperial Age
California Robber Barons	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon; Factory build limit +1
Maya Architecture	Building (except Fort) hit points +30%; buildings grant food as well as experience when built; grants Redoubts

• "Colegio de San Nicolas" is available upon selecting the Michoacán Federal State.
• "Talavera Architecture" is available upon selecting the Puebla Federal State.
• "California Robber Barons" is available upon revolting to California.
• "Maya Architecture" is available upon revolting to the Maya.

United States

Card	Description	Age
New Hampshire Manufacturing	Delivers 1 Factory Wagon; disables Heavy Cannon training until the Industrial Age; costs 250 food, 250 wood
Vermont Coppers	Estate technologies are free and research instantly; all coin incomes +5%
Connecticut Shipwrights	War ship train time -50%; building build time -35%; artillery train time -15%, Heavy Cannon train time -10% instead	Imperial Age

• "New Hampshire Manufacturing" is available upon selecting the New Hampshire Federal State.
• "Vermont Coppers" is available upon selecting the Vermont Federal State.
• "Connecticut Shipwrights" is available upon selecting the Connecticut Federal State.

Shared

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Improved Buildings	Buildings get +40% hit points		10

Europeans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Factory	Ships 1 Factory Wagon (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans)		1
Robber Barons	Ships 1 Factory Wagon (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans)		10
Industrial Revolution	Ships 1 Factory Wagon		10

• "Robber Barons" is not available to the Russians and Spanish.
• "Industrial Revolution" is available to the Russians (at Home City level 25) and Spanish.

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Improved Buildings	Buildings get +25% hit points		10

Changelog

The Asian Dynasties

• The Factory built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate use the Southern European architecture set and cannot research the Imperial Cannon upgrade.

Definitive Edition

• The Factory built by the Chinese by allying with the Russians at the Consulate now use the Northern European architecture set and can research the Imperial Cannon upgrade.

History

“

A factory is a large building that produces goods on a large scale and is usually associated with machinery, division of labor, and workers who are paid a wage. The first known factory was the Venice Arsenal, which began mass-producing ships in 1104. Factories came into common use in the eighteenth century and as the Industrial Revolution gathered steam, so to speak, factories cropped up in urban areas all over the western world.

”

Gallery

In-game Western European Factory

Factory image from the Compendium section