The Inventor is a politician introduced in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, available to all European civilizations when advancing to the Commerce Age and again to the Italians, Maltese, Ottomans, Russians, and Spanish when advancing to the Imperial Age. Choosing him to advance to the next Age confers different benefits depending on the Age:
- If chosen to advance to the Commerce Age, the Explorer will be able to use the Hot Air Balloon special ability, effectively replacing the "Hot Air Balloon" Home City Card in the original Age of Empires III.
- If chosen to advance to the Imperial Age, an Advanced Hot Air Balloon appears at the Home City shipment point, effectively replacing the "Advanced Balloon" Home City Card.
Strategy[]
The Inventor is a good choice if the player needs to get intel from the opponent without risking their units, but do not have the Hot Air Balloon or Advanced Hot Air Balloon shipments in their deck. Players may also pick the Inventor if they want to explore the map fast, so the player may also pick some shipments for the Explorer or Spies.
If the Italians ship the Advanced Politicians Home City Card in the Exploration Age, it also ships 300 XP, which can prove useful long-term. If picking the Inventor to Advance to the Imperial Age, it will ship Leonardo's Tank instead of the Advanced Hot Air Balloon; Leonardo's Tank is a very powerful artillery unit that claim Treasures and has Area of Effect attacks.
Recommended shipments[]
Any deck without Hot Air Balloon or Advanced Hot Air Balloon (or any unique equivalent shipment) may work OK, but for better exploration bonuses, players should include shipments like the following. These shipments and units like the Spy in most cases do a better job at scouting than aging up with The Inventor, at least in the Commerce Age:
- The Explorer card: Each European civilization has a unique Explorer card that improves hero units or the Explorer.
- TEAM Marco Polo (Italians): Explores the entire map and grants +25% future treasure rewards.
- Assassins/Agents/ Yildiz Intelligence Agency: Spies and Muhbirs have the stealth ability which makes them good at scouting enemy locations.
- Advanced Politicians (Italians): Italians may pick The Inventor much more freely with this because of the experience enabled and the Leonardo's Tank in the Imperial Age.
- TEAM Orangists, Peace of Münster, Dutch East India Company (all three exlusive to Dutch): Envoys are good scouts. With these the Envoys are enabled to also build several buildings.
- Aerostatic Corps (French): Explorer gains the ability to use a temporary Hot Air Balloon for reconnaissance; Hot Air Balloons can be called more often and can stay longer in the air; Hot Air Balloon grants +100 XP build bounty. The French should prefer to use a deck with this instead of aging up with The Inventor.
- Bandeirantes (Portuguese): Ships 1 additional Explorer; removes the ransom cooldown for Explorers. Portuguese Explorers already have the Spyglass ability, so The Inventor is useless for them.
The Italians are a special case with Advanced Politicians, so with them, the player should consider shipments that increase or improve experience gathering, like Uffizi, Advanced Trading Post, and Statuto Albertino. Uffizi ships 1 Basilica Wagon and Lombards now trickle 0.2 XP for each invested resource. Statuto Albertino enables the Papacy technology, which increases the Basilica creation limit by +1, and that building also generates experience.
Changelog[]
Definitive Edition[]
- The Inventor is available to all European civilizations.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.27885, British, Dutch, French, Germans, Portuguese and Swedes lost access to the Inventor for the Imperial Age.
Trivia[]
- The Inventor's portrait bears high resemblance to the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci.
