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This article is about the scenario in Age of Empires III. For the scenario based on the same historical event in Age of Empires II, see Drake. |
Raid on the Caribbean is a Historical Battle in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. It is about Drake's expedition of 1585-1586 in the Caribbean as part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604). A previous similar historical event is depicted in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Victors and Vanquished as the Drake scenario in the Victors and Vanquished campaign.
Summary[]
| “ | When Queen Elizabeth I formed an alliance with the Dutch rebels fighting against Spanish rule, the Spanish King Philip II declared war. In response, the Queen sent Sir Francis Drake to the Caribbean to lead an attack on the Spanish colonies. | ” |
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age:
Commerce Age - Ending Age: Fortress Age
- Population limit: 200 (unlocked since the start)
- Starting resources: 700 food, 700 wood, 700 coin
- Starting units:
Objectives[]
Primary objectives[]
- Destroy 5 Spanish colonies in the Caribbean by killing the soldiers defending them.
Secondary objectives[]
- Find English Pirates to join Drake's expedition.
- Disable the Spanish coastal gun.
- Capture the moored Spanish Treasure Ship.
Players[]
Player[]
- Francis Drake ( British): The player starts with one Galleon with Sir Francis Drake, 10 Pikemen and 6 Longbowmen garrisoned in it, and four Caravels. In cooperative mode, the second player has another Galleon.
Ally[]
- English Pirates ( British): The pirates have two bases with land units (Musketeers, Pirates, Comancheros, etc.) and ships (Privateers), and several are also hiding out across the various isles and islands. Many of them join the player when approached, turning over units, ships, and buildings including a Dock in each base and a Barracks in the southern one.
Enemy[]
- Spanish ( Spanish): The enemy have five colonies with Pikemen, Crossbowmen, and Conquistadors and patrols of Galleons and Caravels defending them. The player must plunder them for resources and experience for get shipments from the Home City.
Home City Cards[]
- Click here to see an overview of all Home City Cards available in the "Raid on the Caribbean" Historical Battle
| Some cards are highlighted with: | |
| Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
| Purple | Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 Exchange Food
|
Exchanges current coin for 0.75x amount of food |  |
 Exchange Wood
|
Exchanges current coin for 0.75x amount of wood | |
 1 Caravel
|
Delivers 1 Caravel | |
 Yeomen
|
Longbowman Line of Sight and ranged attack range +4, bonus damage against heavy infantry +0.25 |  |
 Scots Guards
| Musketeer and Grenadier damage +15% | |
 TEAM Grenadier Guards
| Musket infantry and grenade trooper hit points +15% | |
 2 Caravels
| Delivers 2 Caravels | |
 1 Galleon
| Delivers 1 Galleon | |
 Improved Warships
| War ship hit points and damage +25% | |
 Offshore Support
| War ship damage +15%, Line of Sight and ranged attack range +2 | |
 Recruit Privateers
| Delivers 2 Privateers; costs 500 coin | |
 British Grenadiers
| Grenade trooper damage +15%, siege attack damage +20%; Grenadier Line of Sight +2 and replaces it ranged attack with a mortar attack; card plays a jingle upon arrival |  |
 1 Frigate
| Delivers 1 Frigate | |
 Naval Gunners
| War ship damage +20% | |
 Recruit Privateer Fleet
| Delivers 4 Privateers; costs 1,000 coin | |
Treasures[]
There are six treasures on the map. One in Florida, one in the Bahamas, one in Cuba (La Hispaniola), one in Haiti, one in the Caiman Islands, and the last one west of the allied Pirate base in Yucatán.
The map[]
The map is based on the Caribbean map, with various types of islands and peninsulas of Florida in the north and Yucatan in the south. Since the player does not have any base, they can get coin from the Whales with the Caravels and then change them with the cards from the Home City to get food and wood to create new units from the Galleons.
Strategy[]
 |
This section is most likely incomplete and may need expansion. You can help by adding to it. |
The enemy has numerous ships patrolling the waters and troops guarding their colonies. However, they do not train new units or ships, and have no actual economy.
The player should try to reach the northwestern pirate base as soon as possible, which is not too troublesome, as the direct path there will lead to encountering only a few Spanish Caravels. Once the base is obtained, the Dock can be used to train and repair ships. Idle or damaged Caravels can be used to fish for resources.
The player can alternately try to reach the southern pirate base first by hugging the southern circumference of the map. Despite the longer path, this may be even easier, as the player can observe and wait for the enemy patrol to move away.
Destroying a colony entails killing all enemy land troops in the colony. This causes the military production buildings and Outposts in the colony to immediately collapse.
Fortress Age is granted upon destroying two Spanish colonies, which unlocks more shipments and unit upgrades. Shipments are received very fast. Those which grant more warships or improve their combat abilities are much more useful in this scenario.
One friendly pirate group can be found on a small islet west of the starting area. Another group with a ship are camping on the northern part of the long island in the middle, and can be obtained by bringing a land unit near their campfire. The third group of pirates can be obtained at the southwest side of the southern island, who can be reached either via landing on the northeastern beach of the island and traveling through the valleys, or by fighting through enemy vessels in the southern waters to reach the friendly pirate base at the southernmost tip and then traveling west. This group has, among other troops, a Mortar, which is the only piece of land artillery obtainable in this scenario. It can be used to destroy enemy towers and even ships near the coast from afar.
A Spanish treasure ship can be captured on the southern island by killing the land troops nearby, and trickles 3 gold per second.
In the northwestern section of the southern island, the Spanish have a Fixed Gun which has a long range and can severely damage ships, but does not fire at land units. The player can either smash through the fort using the captured Mortar to reach the gun and disable it (but not capture it), or storm the beaches from the top to quickly reach the gun, risking a few ships in the process.
- Relaxed method
While there are more efficient ways to win this scenario, it is impossible to lose if the player is patient. The Caravels can be used as fishing boats on Whales, rendering gold an infinite resource. This, combined with the cards the player can send to trade gold for food or wood, makes it so that resources are effectively infinite while the Spanish troops don't seem to respawn. When the player has this set up, they can make troops out of the Galleon until they eventually overwhelm all enemy defenses.
Trivia[]
- This scenario was inspired by the "Francis Drake on the Spanish Main" custom scenario for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition by Filthydelphia, who was part of the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition campaign team. Besides covering similar historical events (this scenario covers the raid of 1586, while the custom scenario covered the raid of 1572), both scenarios allow the player to reinforce their forces by finding friendly pirates hidden on the map. Francis Drake also uses similar terminology to refer to his Spanish enemies in both scenarios.
- The custom scenario in Age of Empires II was made into the official scenario Drake with the release of Victors and Vanquished.
- This Historical Battle occurs one year after the founding of Roanoke (Master the Basics) and two years before the famous victory of Drake over the Spanish Armada seen in the final cinematic of this scenario.
Gallery[]
_(8879100326).jpg "Baptista Boazio's Map of Sir Francis Drake's Raid on St. Augustine (published in 1589) (8879100326).jpg (390 KB)")
