Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia
Revolutionary nation
Nation information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
Revolt from	Germans Portuguese Spanish
Revolt Age	Industrial Age
Continent	South America
Home City	Bogotá
Demonym	Colombians
Features/Characteristics
Unique units	Llanero
Unique upgrades	Independence Guard (Musketeer)

Gran Colombia is one of the revolutionary nations in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, available to the Germans, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Effects

• Sets population space to 200.
• Removes training Settlers, Settler Wagons, and Fishing Boats.
• Ships 2 Ironclads in the Home City naval shipment point; sets Ironclad build limit to 4.
• Upgrades Musketeers to Independence Guards (Veteran Musketeers that can be trained at Town Centers, with +10% hit points and attack, but -10% speed, and with a ×1.5 ranged attack multiplier against cavalry and ×1.3 against shock infantry).
• Turns all villagers into Independence Guards instead of Revolutionaries (and ships 1 additional Independence Guard for each Settler Wagon).
  • For the Germans, revolting to Gran Colombia allows them to train Independence Guards and upgrade them to the Guard level.
  • For the Portuguese, Independence Guards get an additional +5% hit points and attack.
• The in-game demonym changes to "Colombians".

Home City Cards

• Purple: Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times

Card	Description
Advanced Dock	Docks get +100% attack and heal ships 85% faster; warship train time -33%
Advanced Arsenal	Arsenals can be built in the Commerce Age; provides Arsenals with Flint Lock, Paper Cartridge, Military Drummers, Pillage, Professional Gunners, and Trunion
Improved Warships	Warships get +25% hit points and attack
3 Ironclads	Ships 3 Ironclads
Naval Gunners	Warships get +20% attack
Colombian Navy	Caravels are fully replaced with Sloops at Docks and on the map; Sloops get +15% hit points and attack; Imperial Men-o'-War and Imperial Monitor become available
Llaneros	Ships 10 Cows and 10 Llaneros; Cow train limit +10; Llaneros can be trained at Stables, Forts, Galleons, and Tavern, cost food instead of coin, can build Livestock Pens, train Cows, and gather from herdable animals
Cattle Drivers	Ships 8 semi-fattened Cows, 1 Llanero, and 1 Homestead Wagon; Cow train limit +8
Colombian Army	Imperial upgrades for Independence Guards, Cassadores, Skirmishers, Landwehrs, and Ordinance Riflemen can be researched at Barracks; Imperial upgrades for Independence Guards, Cassadores, Skirmishers, and Landwehrs cost -60%
4 Gatling Guns	Ships 4 Gatling Guns
2 Ironclads	Ships 2 Ironclads
2 Steamers	Ships 2 Steamers
1 Fort Wagon	Ships 1 Fort Wagon; Fort build limit +1
Citizenship	Ships 6 Citizens; Citizens can be trained at Town Centers for 70 coin; Settler Wagons can be trained at Mills for 100 wood, 70 coin (if Germantown Farmers was previously sent); Fishing Boats can be trained at Docks
16 Independence Guards	Ships 16 Independence Guards
Albion Mercenary Legion	Ships 2 Highlanders, 2 Jaegers, and 3 Harquebusiers
National Hero	Ships Simón Bolívar; Simón Bolívar can train Independence Guards
Factory	Ships 1 Factory Wagon
2 Covered Wagons	Ships 2 Covered Wagons; Town Center build limit +2

Strategy

Picking Gran Colombia can be a finishing move, like most other Revolutions in the Definitive Edition. In the case of Gran Colombia, it is preferable to pick them if playing naval maps or maps where fighting on land and sea is important, as Gran Colombia ships 2 Ironclads when revolting.

Like Peru, Gran Colombia can access the Simon Bolivar hero unit, but in this case, through a shipment. Simon Bolivar is able to train Independence Guards, receive shipments, has an aura that increases hit points of surrounding units, and has the "Eye of the Assassin" and "Heavy Strike" abilities. Their Settlers become Independence Guards, which are a bulkier and slower variant of the Musketeer. In addition, all currently created Musketeers become Independence Guards. Considering the bulkiness of Independence Guards and the aura Simon Bolivar provides, escorting this Hero unit with Independence Guards at all times is a good tactic.

On land, as Independence Guards are strong ranged anti-cavalry units, it's recommended to have a decent amount of anti-infantry units ready when revolting. Ideally, Skirmishers, which benefit from the Colombian Army card, which enables upgrading both to Imperial for a small amount of resources. This combination will take care of basically any unit except for artillery.

On water, it is important the player tries to make the best use of their ships. Moving the Home City Water Flag to a better location is a great way to improve the efficacy of the ships. Since moving the flag requires scouting the targeted area, the player should use land or water units to reveal a good one to plan ahead for the shipments. Supporting ships with cavalry and/or Culverins to counter enemy artillery is often a good idea. Additionally, players might try to build Docks to repair the ships (a Dock only needs to repair 18.18% of an Ironclad's hit points to be cost-effective). Ships tend to have extremely good stats, so are great when fighting land units.

Gran Colombia also has access to the Llanero, which is another iteration of the Comanchero with the ability to gather food from herdables (like Morochucos, Cuerudos, Gauchos, and Cowboys), only having a food cost, and taking up 1 population. The Llanero is a hand cavalry unit and has an attack multiplier of ×2.0 vs. infantry. Notably, it is still an outlaw, so it benefits from Wild West or Folk Heroes and has a 20% XP reward for training and killing (which is generally helpful, as revolts tend to have better cards than normal).

The Llanero's Trample ability is much stronger than normal, as it does not decrease attack damage (though it has a slightly lower dps versus 1 unit due to a slower Rate of Fire), also has the x2 multiplier versus infantry, and the unit is much more likely to suffer damage (Trample makes the unit take 50% of the damage it deals as damage to itself). Trample is best activated when the units are already next to their targets, as then the reduced speed does not really matter, then immediately deactivated if the units need to run away. This is most helpful when the Llaneros are fighting extremely dense groups and/or need to kill things quickly; for example, if light cavalry will reinforce the enemy soon. This most often happens when attacking light infantry and raiding villagers. If any Llaneros survive, they can be healed by healer units and/or be used for their livestock-related abilities.

Notably, the Homestead Wagon from Cattle Drivers can be used to build Estates, Haciendas, or Mills, which all give a considerably more valuable wood saving than building Livestock Pens.

While mercenaries tend to fall off in the late game due to not getting upgrades (though this is counteracted by them not needing new Houses), Albion Mercenary Legion can compensate, being worth 1,790 coin, or 1,376.92 coin when multiplying by 1/1.3 for the lack of a Guard upgrade. Which makes it about equal in value to other good infinite shipments. As there are mercenary shipments, if the player was previously focused on improving their mercenary lines, picking Gran Colombia is also a good option for revolting. 16 Independence Guards are better value in terms of raw total resources, though, if considering the lack of a Guard upgrade this way, albeit with pros and cons.

As usual for revolts, especially ones potentially good in the late game, xp is more important than normal. This adds an additional payoff for building xp-generating buildings, such as Trading Posts (both on Trade Routes and on minor civilization settlements) and Churches. This likely not enough to justify building them on its own. However, they tend to be usable on their own (Churches can train Priests to heal units), so adding more reason to use them can help make them even more appealing. Additionally, generating more total resources means more xp will be generated from training units and building buildings.

Synergistic shipments

General

• 1 Covered Wagon: Independence Guards can be created at Town Centers, so having an additional one helps to muster them.
• Fencing School: Improves the creation speed of Independence Guards.
• Riding School: This can facilitate the further creation of Llaneros once the Llaneros shipment has been sent.
• Ranching (for Germans) and Llama Ranching (Spanish and Portuguese): Having extra fattened herdable animals beforehand is helpful, since Llaneros can gather them, so economy may not be too constricted when revolting.
• Landgrab: Makes Livestock Pens cheaper, which synergizes with the Llanero ability of gathering from herdable animals.
• Industrial Revolution (Spanish and Germans) and Robber Barons (Portuguese): Since the economy stops when revolting (before the player ships Citizenship), having a trickle of resources is helpful.
• Stockyards (Germans and Spanish): Fattening herdables faster is helpful, as Llaneros can gather food from them.
• All resource and livestock shipments: Generates xp when using the gained resources to make units/buildings. Helps send as many base deck and Gran Colombia cards.
• Medicine: Generates xp when using the gained resources to make units/buildings. For the Germans, it makes for a very fast reboom with Germantown Farmers.
• 15 Sheep + 1 Homestead Wagon: Gives herdables for the Llaneros to gather from. It is advisable to choose to use the Homestead Wagon for an Estate, Hacienda, or Mill instead of a Livestock Pen to save on wood and have more immediate impact though.
• Musketeer shipments: Musketeers turn into Independence Guards, so having at least a handful of Musketeers before revolting is helpful.
• Water-related shipments. Especially economic upgrades like Fish Market to give more of a payoff for winning the water and have more of an economy immediately after revolting.
• Capitalism: (for the Germans and Spanish): Gives a coin trickle that is still active after revolting, so it can help to sustain the economy while revolting.

Spanish

• Unction: Missionaries increase the attack of nearby units; this of course can boost the Attack of Llaneros, Harquebusiers, Jaegers, Highlanders and Independence Guards.
• Royal Decree to Claim the New World: The Corselet technology provided from this shipments applies to Independence Guards and Highlanders, making Independence Guards even more bulky than they already, are but at the expense of making them even slower.
• Armada: Increases the hit points of Warships, and considering the bulk of Ironclads, this synergizes well.
• Peninsular Guerrillas: Increases attack of ranged infantry, benefiting Independence Guards and Skirmishers.
• Liberation March: Increases movement speed and decreases training time of Independence Guards and Llaneros.
• Caballeros: Llaneros are tagged as "Lancers", it also increases Llaneros' attack range and multiplier against all infantry.
• Cavalry Combat, Hand Cavalry Hitpoints, Hand Cavalry Attacks: These benefit Llaneros.

Germans

• Buergermeister: Buffs Simón Bolívar.
• Germantown Farmers: Generates xp. Synergizes with Citizenship, Makes for a faster reboom.
• TEAM Cavalry Attack: This benefits all German cavalry.
• Cavalry Combat: Benefits Llaneros.
• Spanish Riding School: Llaneros count as cavalry, so they will move a bit faster.
• Treaty of Westphallia: The technology Tilly's Discipline makes all infantry move faster at the expense of costing more, and this applies to the Independence Guards, Jaegers, Highlanders and Musketeers (which they get access to through Gran Colombia).
• Improved Mercenaries: It improves Jaegers, Harquebusiers and Highlanders.

Portuguese

• Bandeirantes: With this shipment and National Hero shipment, the player will have more heroes than anyone else.
• TEAM Gunpowder Infantry Hitpoints: Independence Guards, Highlanders and Jaegers are considered gunpowder infantry.
• Gunpowder Infantry Attacks and Gunpowder Infantry Combat: These benefit Independence Guards.
• Constable: This benefits Llaneros.
• 2 Covered Wagons and Donatarios: These shipments increase the Town center build limit as well as provide Covered Wagons to create them, and this synergizes in the sense that Independence Guards can be produced there.
• Musketeer shipments

Recommended politicians

Commerce Age

• The Logistician (Germans and Spanish): For the Germans, he ships 1 Arsenal Wagon, and Exploration and Commerce Age Home City Cards give one additional Uhlan. Uhlans can be a good pairing for Llaneros. For the Spanish, Exploration Age Home City Cards are shipped in 30 seconds, and also ships 150 food, 100 wood, 75 coin. This can make up for fast age advancements, and getting the shipments needed for preparing the Revolution early. The Portuguese may pick the Logistician, but for them it is not very synergic with this revolution.
• The Naturalist (all): She gives an early economic boost that may be used for a fast Revolution strategy. Also, since it is likely the player has a deck with improvements for herdable animals (like Cows) because of the advantages of this revolution, she synergizes quite well.
• The Philosopher Prince (all): Like The Naturalist, he can make up for a fast age advancement.
• The Quartermaster (all except Spanish): Since its likely the player is playing on a naval map, The Quartermaster gives wood for more ships.

Fortress Age

• The Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Portuguese and Spanish): Since it is likely the player is playing on a naval map, The Admiral of the Ocean Sea gives wood for more ships, and 1 Caravel.
• The Bishop (Germans and Spanish): The Covered Wagon provided helps to reach the Revolution, while also improving economy, and may help to reboom after revolting.
• The Exiled Prince (Germans and Portuguese): His fast aging-up bonus may help to save time and get the Revolution earlier.
• The Gentleman Pirate (Germans): Since it is likely the player is playing on a naval map, while Colombia also gives some mercenary shipments, The Gentleman Pirate may synergize, as he gives 1 Privateer and 2 Barbary Corsairs.
• The Mercenary Contractor (Portuguese): Since Colombia offers some mercenary shipments, having two more options at the Tavern may synergize.

Industrial Age

• The Viceroy (Germans and Portuguese): For the Germans, he helps to get resources for the revolution. Also, the two Settler Wagons will be turned into Independence Guards. For the Portuguese, he provides Fishing Ships that may help keep the economy running, and some wood for more ships.
• The King's Musketeer (Spanish): Since Independence Guards are a type of Musketeers, this politician may synergize, as the regular Musketeers and Independence Guards are affected by the same shipments.
• The Tycoon (Germans and Portuguese): He helps to skip the Industrial Age with his 1,000 coin crates.

Changelog

Definitive Edition

• Independence Guards are 20% slower than Musketeers.

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 13.58326, 16 Independence Guards (infinite), Colombian Navy, Improved Warships, Advanced Arsenal, Advanced Dock, 1 Factory, 2 Covered Wagons, and Naval Gunners was added to the Home City. Independence Guard is now only -10% slower than a Musketeer.

Trivia

• In the early versions of the beta, the Gran Colombian flag did not feature the coat of arms of Gran Colombia imposed over it. While this wouldn't be incorrect at first glance, it is worth noting that the Tricolor flag wouldn't be officially adopted until 1863, when Colombia reorganized into the United States of Colombia. Despite this, the flag was commonly used as a Battle flag for Bolivar's Patriot Armies.
• Gran Colombia's availability to Germany is a reference to the Klein-Venedig, as well as to Nikolaus Federmann, a German Conquistador that participated in the conquests of the territories of New Granada and Venezuela.
• Gran Colombia's availability to the Portuguese might reference the Iberian Union (which existed and controlled, during the time period the game is set in, the territories that would later become part of Gran Colombia).
• The availability of Ironclads to Gran Colombia would be incorrect, as the Colombian Navy never developed said ships. This is most likely due to it sharing several Home City Card's with Peru's Revolutionary Deck.
• The Albion Mercenary Legion Card is a reference to the British Legions of the Patriot Army, which were British, Irish and German Volunteers who fought under the command of Simon Bolivar and José de San Martín during the Wars of Independence. The name of the card comes from the name bestowed upon them by the Venezuelan Patriots.