The New World
The New World or the Americas is the term that refers to the continents of North America and South America. The New World was considered a land of new life for many people because it had wide open land to explore, an abundance of resources, and a chance to trade with the Native Americans that thrived there.
Overview[]
The New World is first featured in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, which took place during the timeline of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán with two Native American civilizations, the Aztecs and the Maya. In Age of Empires III, the entire game takes places after the conquest of Mesoamerica and to the Industrial Age and the expansion into western North America. There are many new maps of the New World featured in Age of Empires III such as New England and Texas with new animals to hunt, new tribes ally with, and large invasions with the new gunpowder weapons involved.
Age of Empires II[]
With The Conquerors, the game introduced two Native American civilizations, the Aztecs and the Maya, both with a unique Mesoamerican architectural style and the Eagle Warrior line, along with the Spanish, who were the first European civilization to be involved in the colonization of the Americas. The game also featured new, Central American wildlife and maps, such as Yucatán. The Montezuma campaign is set in modern-day Mexico, and narrates the Spanish conquest of modern-day Mexico and the fall of the Aztec Empire.
The following animals that appear in Age of Empires II are all native in the continent of America: Jaguar, Javelina, Llama, Macaw, and Turkey.
Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten also introduced the Inca, who share the Mesoamerican architectural style and Eagle Warrior line with the other two Native American civilizations, as well as other American features, such as the Cenotes map. It also adds the El Dorado campaign, that narrates the failed search for El Dorado deep in the Amazon rainforest and the exploration of the Amazon River in the 16th century, as well as the Dos Pilas scenario, a vassal city of the famous Mayan city of Tikal, located in modern-day Guatemala, during the Maya Classic Period.
In the Definitive Edition, the El Dorado campaign is removed and the Incas receive a new Pachacuti campaign.
Age of Mythology[]
Unlike Age of Empires II or Age of Empires III, the Americas never explicitly appear in the campaign, but some maps and units hint indirectly to New World influence, especially in The Titans expansion.
The Americas are featured in Vinlandsaga (where Skraelings are featured as a hostile unit), the Tundra and (possibly) the Marsh random maps. The Atlanteans use Mesoamerican-esque architecture, and have Llamas for caravans.
Apart from that, the three species of trees introduced in The Titans expansion are native to the Americas; these are the Gaia Trees (representing quaking aspens), the Marsh Trees and the tundra trees (also known as Tamaracks). A Musk Ox huntable was also originally intended to be added in the Tundra map, but was ultimately replaced by the Aurochs, for unknown reasons.
Age of Empires III[]
The third game and its first expansion, Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, are entirely set on the American continent, after the conquest of the Pre-Columbian civilizations from the Spanish and civilizations that were prominent in the colonization of the Americas, such as the Portuguese and French, to the Industrial Age and the expansion into the western North America in the Act II: Shadow campaign. Unlike the second game, it features a much wider variety of maps and wildlife, set from modern day Alaska (Yukon) to southernmost America (Patagonia and Araucania).
Also, it features various Native American minor civilizations, that can forge an alliance with the players by building Trading Posts to settlement sites, offering their unique native units and technologies (as well as Canoes on water maps). Sixteen native tribes appear in the game, all from various regions of America, after the WarChiefs expansion is installed:
- Apache *
- Carib
- Cherokee
- Cheyenne (*Lakota in the base game)
- Comanche
- Cree
- Huron (*Iroquois in the base game)
- Quechua
- Klamath *
- Mapuche *
- Maya
- Navajo *
- Nootka
- Seminole
- Tupi
- Zapotec (*Aztecs in the base game)
* With the The WarChiefs expansion, the game introduced four new minor natives, and also three major, 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, the War Canoe and the Villager units, but with different gameplay style, as well as different architecture that corresponds to their region of living. The respective minor natives in the base game were replaced with new ones.
With the Definitive Edition, the Inca are also introduced as a major civilization of South America based on their Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten version.
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