| โ | The Knights of St. John call for a New World crusade! You receive a Shipment of 8 Hoop Throwers from Malta, and all Hoop Throwers are improved. This use of trained personnel means all your other units have fewer hitpoints from now on. | โ |
| —In-game description | ||
High Crusade is a technology in Age of Empires III that is unique to the Knights of St. John in Act I: Blood and can be researched at the Church once the Fortress Age is reached and the Royal Decree to Claim the New World Home City Card has been sent. Once researched, 8 Hoop Throwers will appear in the Home City shipment point and Hoop Throwers will also gain 20% hit points, grenade and hand attack damage, but the hit points of all other military units will be reduced by 5%.
This technology increases Hoop Thrower hit points by 25%, but reduces all military unit hit points by 5%, which interacts with each other so that Hoop Throwers actually get 20%.