The Thirty Years' War Historic map loading screen
The Thirty Years' War is a historical map released with Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean.
Civilizations[]
All players must be one of the following civilizations:
Description[]
1618 - 1648
Threatened by Habsburg authority after a failed Bohemian revolt, France and her Swedish allies, led by Gustavus Adolphus, fought the Holy Roman Empire all the way down to the Italian border. Both sides relied heavily upon mercenaries, causing extensive pillaging and looting of the German provinces throughout the war.
Features[]
Objectives
- The game starts with a timer. The player with most captured villages win.
Starting conditions[]
Players starts with a Command Post instead of a Town Center. It features three special technologies:
- Opportunity of Contracts: Mercenaries are cheaper. Fortress Age mercenaries can be trained in Commerce Age, but will have less attack and hit points until you advance.
- Wedding of Magdeburg: Looted village buildings extra yield.
- Rapid Deployment: Military buildings' work rate increases.
Villages[]
Villages must be captured to win. They work as a capturable building granted by defeating their guardians. The houses of the villages can be kept to generate small trickles of resources and to provide population, or be looted to gain a fast income.
History[]
The Thirty Years' War took place largely within the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648. One of the most destructive wars in European history, it caused an estimated 4.5 to 8 million deaths, while some areas of Germany experienced population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, and Portuguese Restoration War. Until the 20th century, it was seen as part of the German religious struggle initiated by the 16th century Reformation. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg divided the Empire into Lutheran and Catholic states, but over the next 50 years, the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries destabilised Imperial authority. Although religion was a significant factor in starting the war, scholars now generally agree its scope and extent was driven by the contest for European dominance between Habsburgs in Austria and Spain, and the French House of Bourbon.
The war began in 1618 when Ferdinand II was deposed as King of Bohemia and replaced by Frederick V of the Palatinate. Although the Bohemian Revolt was quickly suppressed, fighting expanded into the Palatinate, whose strategic importance drew in the Dutch Republic and Spain, then engaged in the Eighty Years' War. Since ambitious external rulers like Christian IV of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden also held territories within the Empire, what began as an internal dynastic dispute was transformed into a far more destructive European conflict.
The first phase from 1618 until 1635 was primarily a civil war between German members of the Holy Roman Empire, with external powers playing supportive roles. After 1635, the Empire became one theatre in a wider struggle between France, supported by Sweden, and Spain in alliance with Emperor Ferdinand III. This concluded with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, whose provisions included greater autonomy within the Empire for states like Bavaria and Saxony, as well as acceptance of Dutch independence by Spain. By weakening the Habsburgs relative to France, the conflict altered the European balance of power and set the stage for the wars of Louis XIV.
Trivia[]
- This is the only historical map that is exclusively multiplayer, not being able to be played in a single player mode.
Gallery[]
