Haiti

Haiti
Revolutionary nation
Nation information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition
Revolt from	British French
Revolt Age	Industrial Age
Continent	Central America
Home City	Port-au-Prince
Demonym	Haitians
Features/Characteristics
Unique upgrades	Maroon (Revolutionary) Picket (Pikeman) Buccaneer (Pirate)

Haiti is one of the revolutionary nations in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, available to the British and French.

Effects

• Sets population space to 200.
• Removes training Settlers, Coureurs des Bois, and Fishing Boats.
• Turns all villagers into Maroons (Revolutionaries with -15% hit points, +2 range, -1.5 XP train and kill bounty, and -10 food cost)
• Pirates can be trained at Barracks, Forts, Galleons, Privateers, and the Tavern, and take 2 population instead of 4.
• Town Center build limit +4; Town Centers and Tavern automatically spawns 1 Pirate every 48 seconds.
• Privateers can be trained at Docks with a train limit of 5 and train the same units as Galleons.
• The in-game demonym changes to "Haitians".

Home City Cards

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

Card	Description
Native Warrior Combat	Native warriors get +15% hit points and attack
Improved Warships	Warships get +25% hit points and attack
Naval Gunners	Warships get +20% attack
Pickets	Upgrades Pikemen to Pickets (Guard Pikemen which cost 60 food instead of 40 food, 40 wood and have -15% Rate of Fire)
Sevites	Maroons, native warriors, and villagers now regenerate hit points at a rate of 0.25% per second when idle; Yoruba Eso Rider hit point degeneration rate -60% and Militiaman hit point degeneration rate -10%, and for both stops at 25% hit points
1 Fort Wagon	Ships 1 Fort Wagon; Fort build limit +1
3 Falconets	Ships 3 Falconets
2 Covered Wagon	Ships 2 Covered Wagons*
15 Carib Blowgunners	Ships 15 Carib Blowgunners, upgrades then to Elite (if not already), and allows them to be trained at the Barracks and Forts
Louverture Liberation	Ships 6 Citizens; Citizens can be trained at Town Centers for 70 coin; Fishing Boats can be trained at Docks; native warriors get +20% train limit and +5% speed
Vodou Ceremonies	Ships 1 Settler; ships 1 addition Settler for each one lost so far this game (up to 15); costs 400 wood
3 Privateers	Ships 3 Privateers
Brether of the Coast	Ships 1 Battleship with 10 Pirates in it; Battleships can train outlaws and Pet Monkeys; costs 1,000 coin
Letter of Marque	Upgrades Pirates to Buccaneers, which get +12 Line of Sight, a ranged attack, and can gather crates; Privateers generate 0.5 coin/sec.; Buccaneers and Privateers get +3.0 attack multiplier against treasure guardians and can collect treasures with doubled resource and XP yield
24 Akan Allies	Ships 24 Akan Ankobias and upgrades them to Elite (if not already); costs 1,000 coin
African Roots	Ships a random selection of 6 West Africa units and allows to ally with the Akan or Yoruba in the Native Embassy; Akan infantry, Yoruba infantry and Maroons can now use Stealth mode; costs 1,000 food
Royal Dahomets	Dahomey Amazons get +15% hit points and attack, and can be trained at Taverns, Native Embassies, and Battleships
Blood Brothers	Upgrades native warriors to Elite/Disciplined/Veteran and Champion/Honored/Royal Guard (if not already); Native Embassies get +40% hit points and +5 build limit

Strategy

General strategy

Like most revolutions included in the Definitive Edition, picking it can be a finishing move, as their Revolutionaries have more hit points than normal and their Town Centers and Tavern spawn Pirates automatically for free.

The value of the Pirate spawning is 2.29 coin/second/Town Center. This effectively becomes more valuable with Letter of Marque, which makes Pirates much stronger. Pirates are outlaw hand shock infantry with unusually high siege attack for hand shock infantry. It is very important Folk Heroes is researched to upgrade them, as it is an extremely strong upgrade for how cheap it is.

Unlike other Revolutions, Haiti is focused on spamming Pirates and Privateers, which makes them a good option on naval maps or maps where fighting on both land and sea is important, as well as being a good option if the player previously focused on Tavern units (especially Pirates if they were available beforehand).

Pirates are greatly improved with the Haitian revolution, as it reduces their population cost, enables the player to muster the unit much more easily, and the shipment "Letter of the Marque" gives them some economic value, as this shipment enables them to collect from enemy crates and treasures (this last with increased yield). In that sense, picking Haiti can be a good choice if there are still some treasures on the map to take, especially if those treasures are the big ones.

With Haiti, Privateers can be trained at the Dock, and the shipment "Letter of the Marque" enables them to generate a coin trickle, giving them some economic value, which is good thing, considering most revolutions constrain economy, as they turn villagers into military units. Haitian Privateers are also able to train the same units as a Galleon, making this unit a multipurpose ship.

Haiti can upgrade Pikemen access to Pickets with the Pickets Home City Card (Guard Pikemen which cost 60 food instead of 40 food, 40 wood and have -15% Rate of Fire). This is approximately the same value as upgrading them to Imperial Pikeman (${\textstyle {\frac {1}{1-0.25}}~\times ~{\frac {1}{1-0.15}}~=~1.57}$), with upsides and downsides. Including the free unit upgrades, this makes Pickets powerful units.

A reasonable idea for Haiti's late game composition could be Pickets, light infantry (Skirmishers/Longbowmen/Rangers), and Pirates. Using Cover Mode, Stagger Mode, and the occasional Culverins to deal with the enemy protecting massed artillery with heavy infantry. These units will cover each other weaknesses, and Pickets and Pirates will provide the siege attack to counter buildings, most importantly enemy Trading Posts.

The "African Roots" card ships 6 West Africa units. It is randomly selected from the following units: Yoruba Oyo Legionary, Yoruba Eso Rider, Akan Ankobia, Dahomey Amazon, Kanuri Guard, Griot, Maigadi, Raider, Lifidi Knight, Fulani Archer.

Haiti has access to many unit and wagon shipments, so this is a comparison of them in value (subtracting their cost and multiplying to account for missing unit upgrades):

Non-infinite

• Louverture Liberation: 600 resources. Also, allows training Citizens. Also, native warriors get +20% hit points and +5% speed.
• Vodou Ceremonies: 1,100 resources at maximum.
• Brether of the Coast: 2,100 resources. Also, Battleships can train outlaws and Duber the Pet Monkey. Pets are good in the late game to tank in the frontline, due to being upgraded automatically and enemy units rarely having increased multipliers versus them. Duber is exceptionally good at this, with an extremely high hit point/unit cost (90 hit points for only 25 food at base).
• 24 Akan Allies: 1,044 resources. 2,010 if sent after allying with the Akan from African Roots, including the free unit upgrade.
• African Roots: Random.

Infinite

• 1 Fort Wagon: 1,100 resources. Effectively worth more because Forts are balanced around not being infinite.
• 3 Falconets: 1,500 resources.
• 2 Covered Wagons: 1,000 resources. Effectively worth more, considering each Town Center spawns Pirates for free. A good strategy might be to save some shipments before revolting and use them for getting extra Town Centers in order to make a swarm of Pirates. Alternatively, wood can be saved to make Town Centers with the Explorer.
• 15 Carib Blowgunners: 1,111 resources. 1,500 after Blood Brothers. Also, Carib Blowgunners can be trained at Barracks and Forts.
• 3 Privateers: 1,500 resources.

Carib Settlement strategy

On maps with Carib settlements, Haiti can do a completely different strategy and focus on Carib Blowgunners, since it has access to Carib Kasiri Beer, Carib Garifuna Drums, Carib Ceremonial Feast, and Carib Ambushers (a variant of Carib Blowgunners). Also, it allows Champion Carib to be gained without a shipment. This makes them considerably more powerful than they would be on a normal map, stacking with the effects of Louverture Liberation, Native Warrior Combat, and Sevites.

Carib Blowgunners have a large train limit (15 on their own and 12 for Carib Ambushers, which are almost the same unit), so make for a good native warrior to use as the player's main army.

Being effective against villagers, they can pair with light cavalry better than most light infantry units, as the composition will have strong offensive potential as well as being good defensively.

Synergistic shipments

General

• 1 Covered Wagon: Grants +1 Town Center before revolting and increases build limit by 1 to spam Pirates.
• Advanced Arsenal: Improvements allowed by this shipment benefit Revolutionaries, Carib Blowgunners, Falconets, and Pirates.
• Town Militia: Enables Town Centers to use Conscription, which can synergize with the infinite 2 Covered Wagons shipment.
• Advanced Dock: Since Privateers become available with Haiti, having better Docks is helpful, especially in naval encounters.
• Resource-generating shipments, like Distributivism, Colbertism, Factory, and Robber Barons: Having a trickle of resources is helpful when revolting.
• Native Warriors: Helps in making Carib Blowgunners from Carib settlements.
• Privateer shipments.
• Cavalry Combat: Buffs cavalry units to help them counter the counters to Carib Blowgunners.
• Native Lore: Helps reduce the cost of native improvements.
• Resource shipments to train more Carib Blowgunners, research their improvements, and Age up to improve them. Especially as the value/unit of Carib Blowgunners increases with the amount invested due to the cost of the improvements making up a smaller percentage:
  • 700 wood
  • 700 coin: Also, makes it easier to Age up to the Fortress Age to make light cavalry to support the Carib Blowgunners.
  • 600 wood
  • 1,000 wood
  • 1,000 coin
  • 1,600 wood (French only)

French

• Gribeauval System: Falconet damage increased.
• TEAM French Auxiliaries Combat: Increases attack and hit points for native warriors, which applies to Carib Blowgunners.
• Royal Fencing School: Pirates, Revolutionaries, and Carib Blowgunners are infantry.
• Ancien Régime: Allows more native warriors to be made to add another payoff for all the native warrior synergy cards. Gives a more convenient place for the Carib Blowgunners to be trained. Allows training of Royal Dragoons to allow for making light cavalry units to counter the counters to Carib Blowgunners without a Stable.
• Wilderness Warfare: Increases hit points for native warriors, which applies to Carib Blowgunners.
• 5 Dragoons: Counters artillery and heavy cavalry to keep the Carib Blowgunners safe.
• 8 Dragoons: Counters artillery and heavy cavalry to keep the Carib Blowgunners safe.
• Thoroughbreds: Buffs cavalry units to help them counter the counters to Carib Blowgunners.

British

• Greenwich Time: Gives a Trading Post to build on a Carib settlement. Gives a payoff for building a lot of Trading Posts on Carib settlements and other minor civilizations which have improvements which buff Carib Blowgunners.

Recommended politicians

Commerce Age

• The Naturalist: She gives an early economic boost that may be used for a fast Revolution strategy.
• The Quartermaster: Since Haiti is a naval-focused Revolution, the wood crates are helpful for making Docks and ships.

Fortress Age

• The Gentleman Pirate: Since Haiti is focused on Privateers and Pirates, this politician should be always the option to go to the Fortress Age.

Industrial Age

• The Tycoon: Pirates cost coin, so having extra coin helps this revolution.

Redundant shipments

The following are shipments that can be accessible from the main deck and from Argentina and cannot be sent twice, so adding them to the main deck is redundant.

• Blood Brothers (French)
• Improved Warships (All)
• Native Warrior Combat (all)
• Naval Gunners (all)

Bugs

• Due to a bug, the British "Medicine" Home City Card which reduces Settler cost and training time by -15% does not reduce the cost of Citizens unlocked by the Haiti "Louverture Liberation" Home City Card, only reducing their training time. It means that they still cost 70 coin instead of the expected 60 coin.

Changelog

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 14.43676, Haiti is available to the British.

Trivia

• Privateers and Pirates that are trained by Haiti speak English. Privateers use unused "British Privateer" dialogue files, while Pirates reuse the British Mortar's.
• Haiti's flag is the flag of the Empire of Haiti (1804–1806).
• Louverture Liberation is a reference to François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Its effect of buffing native warriors is based on the name of the Armée Indigène (lit. indigenous army), even though the real indigenous people of the Hispaniola (the Taíno) ceased to exist in politically significant numbers as a separate community (though they have significant living decedents through intermarriage).
• Royal Dahomets refers to African warriors from Dahomey brought over by Henri Christophe, to bring order to the countryside, making them being mercenaries in game flavorful.
• Brether of the Coast refers to the Brethren of the Coast, a loose coalition of pirates and buccaneers.
• Letter of Marque is the name of the license for privateering. This is not specific to Haiti, but fits the pirate theme of the revolt.