| “ | Ships carrying massive amounts of Coin, but has no attack. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Treasure Ship is a special, campaign-exclusive ship in Age of Empires III. It cannot be built, but is featured in the campaign and available in the Scenario Editor.
Overview[]
Treasure Ships are special Galleons whose purpose is to carry massive cargoes of coin.
In the missions they are featured, they are completely immobile, and behave functionally more like buildings rather than as proper units. They have no attack and no speed, as they have been landed ashore and moored.
Once captured by the player, they provide a trickle of 3 coin per second.
Campaign appearances[]
The first appearance of Treasure Ships is in the mission Spanish Treasure Fleet. Delgado ran his treasure fleet aground in Florida and Morgan Black needed to capture them. The main focus of the mission is for the player to capture six of the eight vessels.
A Treasure Ship will be captured once the Outpost or Fort protecting it is destroyed. There is very little coin to be mined on the mission's map.
In-game dialogue[]
The Treasure Ship speaks Spanish using the Spanish Caravel's dialogue files.
Wrecked Treasure Ship[]
Wrecked Treasure Ships are the only accessible source of coin for Amelia Black in the fourth scenario of Act III: Steel, The Lost Spanish Gold, where Villagers are not allowed to build Estates (Plantations), and the only two Silver Mines present at the beginning (exceptionally holding 5,000 coins each) are located inside the enemy's walls. These are the wreckages of the old Spanish Treasure Fleet once controled by the greedy Spanish conquistador Delgado, and captured by Amelia's Great-Great-Grandfather, Morgan Black, where once was the Lake of the Moon. Upon arriving on the coast of Florida, Amelia finds the lake turned into a swamp, and the riches from the ships being exploited by the Circle under the leadership of Pierre Beaumont. Defeating the military forces he keeps around the wreckages, allows Amelia's Villagers to approach and gather coin from them the same way they work on Mines. Wrecked Treasure Ships belong to the Mother Nature (they can't be "controled" by a player), and have 100 invulnerable hit points each. At the beginning of the scenario there are 14 of them, all initially holding 2,500 coins each. Just like Mines, these Treasure Ships simply disappear once they are depleted.
Chinese Treasure Ship[]
In Storming the Beaches, the second scenario of Act II: China, Captain Huang starts a new base on a small land with the economic help of a Chinese Treasure Ship. That's the first time it appears in the game. Unlike the other Treasure Ships, this vessel generates a 100-sized crate of food, wood, or coin each 30 seconds. The crates are dropped around the craft, and accumulate along the shore, requiring Villagers to gather them. The type of resource generated can be chosen by selecting the ship and clicking on the icon of the wanted resource. The ship has 6,000 hit points, and no special resistances. It can be destroyed by enemy units, which will grant an 80 XP bounty. In Storming the Beaches, if it is destroyed, the scenario is over. In Lost Ships, the third scenario, at least one Treasure Ship must survive. This ship is also featured as the Home City environment for the Chinese campaign (see gallery below), but with no cosmetic customizations before the Definitive Edition.
Trivia[]
- Although the ships that appear in the game carry gold, the real-life Spanish Treasure Fleet was not limited to carrying cargoes of precious minerals and metals. The convoys also transported agricultural goods such as sugar and tobacco to Spain, and goods from Spain to her colonies.
History[]
Although the Treasure Ships themselves lack a history file, the Spanish Treasure Fleet is indirectly mentioned in the Galleon's history files:
| “ | These square-rigged, three-masted warships were used primarily by European powers in the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. Well-suited for carrying cargo and for war, galleons made up the bulk of the famous Spanish Treasure Fleet that carried plunder from the Americas back to Spain's waiting coffers. They carried around 30 cannon, fired from two decks in broadsides. Adaptations to the basic galleon design yielded heavy Spanish Galleons and the lighter, more maneuverable galleons of the British and other European nations. They were eventually replaced as multipurpose ships by the clipper, a fast cargo ship, and the massive Man-of-War. Approximate weight: 500 tons. Length: 120 feet. | ” |
Gallery[]
