Spanish Allies

This article is about the consulate ally in Age of Empires III. For other uses, see Spanish.

The Spanish are a Consulate ally in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, available only to the Japanese. Like all Consulate allies, 100 export is required to ally with them, or 25 export if the Diplomatic Intrigue card is sent beforehand. Doing so grants the player a passive generation of 0.8 XP per second.

Description

The Spanish are Consulate allies available to the Japanese who focus on improving XP generation, with a passive bonus that generates 0.8 XP per second. Their improvements help receive more and faster shipments, and improve the generation of resources from Trade Routes and crates. They are the only European Consulate ally that offers 4 military units instead of 3, of which 3 of them are the Royal Guard units available to the Spanish: Tercios (Pikemen), Espadachins (Rodeleros), Garrochistas (Lancers), and the powerful Falconet artillery. The time required to train these armies varies, but can be reduced by 50% with the "Good Faith Agreements" card.

Technologies

Age	Improvement	Cost	Research time	Effect
	Merchant Marine	125 export	30 second	Home City shipment arrive time -50%
	Nanban Trade	325 export		Crate and Trade Route inventory +25%
	Bullionism	700 export		Adds 1,500 XP to inventory
Imperial Age	Spanish Brigade	2,300 export	90 seconds	Delivers 17 Espadachins and 15 Garrochistas

• The Good Faith Agreements card reduces technology cost by 40% and research time by 50%, except for Brigades, whose cost are reduced by 300 export and do not research faster.

Armies

Age	Army	Cost	Train time	Pop.	Consists of
	Spanish Expeditionary Company	400 export	20 seconds	8	8 Tercios
	Spanish Expeditionary Force	800 export	40 seconds	14	9 Espadachins* 1 Falconet
	Spanish Expeditionary Army	1,600 export	60 seconds	29	7 Garrochistas* 3 Falconets

• The Good Faith Agreements card reduces army train time by 50%.

Strategy

The Spanish focus on increasing exp generation and receiving more shipments and at a higher speed. As a passive bonus, it gives an increase in XP generation of 0.8. This can be accumulated with the passive effect of the wonder Torii Gates and with Shrines that are set to generate XP after sending the "Seven Lucky Gods" card. This allows the Japanese to overwhelm the enemy and get many shipments faster than other civilizations, and can be increased further with the improvements of the Spanish Consulate.

Merchant Marine makes shipments arrive twice as fast. Combined with the greater generation of XP, and the Japanese ability to send some shipments twice, an efficient use of this mechanic is to have a Daymio or the Shogun receive military shipments of units, and at the same time, create military units in the rear of an army.

Nanban Trade improves the generation of XP in Trading Posts, improves generation of other resources on the Trade Routes by 25%, and increases the amount of resources in crates by the same amount. This can make the Japanese boom even stronger. Bullionism is similar to the European Mercantilism technology, and gives 1,500 additional XP that can be invested in shipments.

The Tercio is a melee infantry unit. Although weak compared to the Japanese infantry, it has some benefits, acting as a shield for the Japanese ranged infantry and reinforcing the Samurai in their fight against heavy cavalry and shock infantry. They have a good siege, low population, are faster than Samurai, and are produced in large numbers, making them useful as support units.

The Espadachin is a fast melee heavy infantry unit with a lot of hand resistance that can easily eliminate heavy cavalry, shock infantry, and artillery if they get close enough. The Falconet is a powerful artillery that destroys infantry at a distance. These two units can be combined with heavy cavalry such as the Naginata Rider (which kills light infantry, which is a danger for the Espadachins) and some Samurai (to help kill heavy cavalry and shock infantry, and to destroy buildings, since the Espadachins have bad siege), supported by Yumi Archers and Ashigaru Musketeers to weaken the enemy. Falconets can easily eliminate heavy and light infantry.

Falconets have better hit points, damage, and Rate of Fire than Fire Arrows, though they move slower.

In the Industrial Age, the Spanish Expeditionary Army consists of Garrochistas and Falconets, a deadly army specialized in massacring infantry.

Garrochistas can eliminate almost all infantry, but are still vulnerable to heavy infantry. A combination that can eliminate this is to combine them with a lot of melee infantry such as Samurai, Yamabushi, or Tercios and Espadachins who can serve as a shock force and shield to absorb the damage instead of the Garrochistas, and support them against other cavalry, because the base damage of the Garrochista is low. To complete this combo, add ranged infantry such as Yumi Archers and Shinobi to kill heavy infantry and light ranged cavalry, Ashigaru Musketeers as support, and Falconets that can help Garrochistas and ranged units massacre infantry and then lay siege to a base when the enemy army is dead.