The Bishop is a Fortress Age politician in Age of Empires III, available to the British, Dutch, Germans, French, Italians, Maltese, Russians, Spanish, and Swedes. As soon as the player advances to the Fortress Age by choosing him, a Covered Wagon appears in the Home City shipment point.
Before the Definitive Edition, The Bishop is a Colonial Age politician that grants two Settlers and are available to the Germans (which grants a Settler Wagon instead), Ottomans, Russians, and Spanish by default, the British at a level 20 Home City, and the Portuguese at a level 50 Home City.
Strategy[]
The Bishop is useful if the player wants a booming strategy. The Town Center provided can also be used as a forward base for an attack by receiving shipments, but in most cases, it is better to use The Bishop for a boom. The Bishop can make a good combo if the player previously picked politicians such as The Naturalist, The Philosopher Prince, or The Medici, and he will allow a Fast Industrial strategy by picking any of these three politicians plus The Bishop. Any useful shipment for Town Centers or shipments for other ways to produce Villagers, after or before picking The Bishop, should be considered in order to sustain a booming strategy. The player may also use this politician in combination with The Quartermaster in order to get enough wood for placing early the third Town Center in the Fortress Age, or ship Cords of Wood for this purpose.
For the Italians, if the Advanced Politicians Home City Card was sent, The Bishop will give 300 experience when picked. The Bishop may synergize with The Inventor (Commerce Age) and The Pope (Industrial Age) for allowing the Italian player to get more shipments. The Trade Route should also be taken if possible.
When playing in a team game, if there is a player using the Maltese, one strategy the team may consider that uses The Bishop (if having in that team a Portuguese ally or other civilizations that may build more Town Centers or build them faster) is having every member of the team with a European civilization picking The Bishop (the Portuguese just age up with any politician), build all the Town Centers possible, send Covered Wagon shipments, especially Team Conestoga Wagons (Germans or Lakota), or If having the Mexicans and/or United States, Team TEAM Nuevo México Territory and TEAM Louisiana Purchase, respectively. Then, the Maltese player should send the TEAM Knights of the Round Table shipment, which ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player, and increases all unit hit points by 2%. By doing all of this, each member of the team will get a small army of Hospitallers of their own, and slightly better stats for all their units.
The Bishop is a very flexible pick in most matches and fits well in most strategies; he can be followed up with any Industrial or Imperial Age Politician providing economic support. However, if the player wants a Fast Imperial strategy, The Bishop should be followed up with Industrial Age politicians such as The Tycoon, The Pope, or The Viceroy in order to keep pumping resources fast and gather the necessary 4,000 food and 4,000 coin for advancing to the Imperial age.
The Bishop is also good for preparing the player if going for most revolutions, since the Town Center provided ease the player to train Settlers and their unique counterparts earlier, and saves the 500 wood needed for building one. Also, after revolting and picking the Citizenship card or its equivalent, the player will be ready to respawn their Settlers. The revolutions that have the bests synergies with The Bishop are Brazil (Dutch and Italians) and Haiti (British and French), as these revolutions enable free spawning of Voluntarios da Patria and Pirates from Town Centers, respectively.
Recommended shipments[]
All civilizations[]
- 1 Covered Wagon. This increases Town Center limit by +1.
- Cords of Wood.
- Town Militia: Town Centers get +50% attack and can use Conscription.
- Improved Buildings: Buildings get +40% hit points.
- Medicine: Villager cost and train time -15%
- Any villager upgrades.
- Factory and trickle shipments.
- Stonemasons: Villagers build buildings 65% faster
British[]
- Terraced Houses: Manor Houses can train Settlers with +100% training time.
Dutch[]
- Stadhouder: Heroes get +50% hit points and attack; Town Centers cost -50% wood.
- Bank related shipments.
Germans[]
- TEAM Conestoga Wagons: Ships 1 Covered Wagon; Town Center build limit +1.
- Buergermeister: Heroes get +50% hit points and attack, and the Explorer build Town Centers and Trading Posts 100% faster.
- TEAM House of Hohenzollern: Town Centers and Commanderies get +30% hit points and +50% attack.
- Germantown Farmers: Mills can train Settler Wagons.
Italians[]
- Advanced Politicians.
- Uffizi, Advanced Trading Post, Statuto Albertino: With Advanced Politicians the Italian Bishop provides additional experience so having even more experience is quite useful. Uffizi ships 1 Basilica Wagon and Lombards now trickle 0.2 XP for each invested resource. Statuto Albertino enable the Papacy technology which increases the Basilica creation limit by +1 and that building also generates experience.
- Freemasons: Architects get +25% speed and build buildings 65% faster, build military buildings 45% faster instead, and can build Outposts and Walls.
Maltese[]
- TEAM Knights of the Round Table: Ships 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center owned by the player; increases all unit hit points by 2%.
- German Tongue: Ships 2 Settler Wagons and 1 Commandery Wagon; Commandery build limit +1; Commanderies can now train Settler Wagons (build limit of 6).
Russians[]
- Sevastopol: Town Center, Wall, Blockhouse, and Fort build time -50%.
Spanish[]
- Viceroyalty of New Spain: Ships 2 Hacienda Wagons; Haciendas can spawn Veteran Soldados.
- Colonial Estancias: Town Centers support +70 population.
- House of Trastamára: The next Age up is researched 8.5% faster and costs 80 resources less for each shipment that has been sent in the current Age including this one; Resources are proportional to amount required.
Swedes[]
- Torp-related shipments.
Changelog[]
Age of Empires III[]
- The Bishop is a Colonial Age politician and ships 2 Settlers/1 Settler Wagon.
- Germans and Portuguese: Can choose The Bishop to advance to the Colonial Age.
- Dutch and French: Cannot choose The Bishop to advance to the Colonial Age.
Definitive Edition[]
- The Bishop is now a Fortress Age politician and ships 1 Covered Wagon.
- Portuguese: The Bishop removed from the Fortress Age politician options.
- Dutch and French: The Bishop added to the Fortress Age politician options.
- Home City level requirement removed.
