The Native Americans are groups of New World civilizations in Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III that share unique gameplay features. Indigenous to the American continent, these peoples formed many culturally distinct nations and tribes.
Age of Empires II[]
The Native Americans first feature in the The Conquerors and consist of Mesoamerican natives: the Aztecs and the Maya. Native American civilizations lack the ability to train cavalry units. Thus, they start the game with an Eagle Scout (an Eagle Warrior in The Conquerors), a fast infantry unit with an extensive Line of Sight, instead of a Scout Cavalry. Also, they lack gunpowder units, but all the Native American civilizations have access to Arbalesters and Siege Rams as anti-infantry and siege options respectively to help offset the lack of Hand Cannoneers and Bombard Cannons.
The Forgotten introduced the third Native American civilization: the South American Inca. Like the Aztecs and Mayans, they lack cavalry and gunpowder units. However, they are able to train Slingers which work similarly to Hand Cannoneers.
The Last Chieftans will introduce a new trio of Native South American civilizations in 2026: the Muisca, the Mapuche, and the Tupi.
The Vinlandsaga scenario also features the Skraelings, the native tribes encountered by the Vikings during their colonization of the Americas, but they are represented by the Celts (Iroquois Warrior in the Definitive Edition).
Age of Mythology[]
Native Americans only officially appear on the random map Vinlandsaga where they are represented as "Skraelings", which use the same model and portrait as the Norse Berserk, though with a different tooltip and history entry. It is not clear which tribe they are supposed to represent, although their history entry theorizes they could be the Micmac or Beothuk tribes.
Age of Empires III[]
In the base game Age of Empires III, players cannot play with Native American civilizations; however, they can form alliances with minor civilizations on various maps by building a Trading Post in their native settlement. Forming an alliance grants players the ability to train unique units and access special technologies. Twelve native tribes appear in the base game: the Aztecs, Carib, Cherokee, Comanche, Cree, Incas (renamed Quechua as of update 47581), Iroquois, Lakota, Maya, Nootka, Seminole, and Tupi.
With the The WarChiefs expansion, the game introduced four new minor natives, and also three playable Native American civilizations: the Aztecs, the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee in the Definitive Edition) and the Sioux (Lakota in the Definitive Edition), all sharing the Fire Pit (Community Plaza in the Definitive Edition) structure, one unique War Chief, War Canoe, and the Villager units, but with different gameplay style, as well as different architecture that corresponds to their region. The respective minor natives in the base game were replaced with new ones. The Aztecs were replaced by the Zapotec, Iroquois by Huron, and Sioux by Cheyenne. In addition, four new minor natives were introduced: the Apache, Mapuche, Navajo, and Klamath.
With the Definitive Edition, the Inca are introduced as a major civilization of South America based on their The Forgotten version as one of the two new civilizations, while reworking both Iroquois and Sioux, including renaming them to Haudenosaunee and Lakota respectively, and replacing coin mining with a new mining mechanic.
The Haudenosaunee and Lakota, being from a later period, and their extensive trade with Europeans until the eighteenth century and the Industrial Age, are the only major Native American civilizations with cavalry and gunpowder units, such as the Musket Rider, Forest Prowler and Light Cannon in the case of the Haudenosaunee and the Wakina Rifle and Rifle Rider for the Lakota. The Haudenosaunee, thanks to their Travois from the Community Plaza, are able to boom quickly without the need to use wood to make infantry rushes in early stages of the game, while the Lakota (like the Huns in The Conquerors) start with a maximum population from the beginning, but they cannot build walls until the Industrial Age (since the Definitive Edition), having to resort to early cavalry rushes to prevent the enemy from growing and being devastated by the latter in later stages of the game.
In turn, the Aztecs and Inca, like their counterparts in Age of Empires II, do not have gunpowder or cavalry units (with the exception of the Inca with the Tupac Amaru Rebellion card which converts their armies into European troops like Musketeers, Hussars, and Falconets). For balance reasons, they have unique units that fill those roles, such as shock infantry or anti-siege and anti-building archers. In the case of the Inca, they have the Plumed Spearman (similar to the Kamayuk in Age of Empires II), and they can convert enemy units with their Priestesses, being the only civilization able to do this.
Trivia[]
- The Incas were originally planned for The Conquerors, but due to lack of more information about them in 2000, they were discarded. The Incas would be included with the release of Age of Empires II HD with The Forgotten.
- Despite not explicitly appearing, the Atlantean architecture, and use of Llamas are likely a reference to the Atlantean Empire being attributed to be the mythological predecessor of the Aztecs, Inca, and Maya.
- The Inca were originally planned for The WarChiefs, but due to lack of time they were discarded. The Inca would be included with the release of the Definitive Edition.
Gallery[]
