| “ | Can be garrisoned by Villagers for transport and protection. Becomes faster and stronger the more units are garrisoned. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Trek Wagon is a revolutionary unit in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition that is unique to South Africa. It is an armed wagon that acts as a transport for villagers, who increases its attack and speed in a similar way to Battering Rams in Age of Empires II.
Overview[]
Upon revolting to South Africa, all existing Houses and Manor Houses are replaced with Trek Wagons, and building new one is disabled.
While their utility to protect and evacuate Settlers can be limited past the Industrial Age when map control, defensive structures and walls have been placed, Trek Wagons can be used to soak up large quantities of ranged damage from enemy infantry and cavalry, thanks to their ranged resistance and good amounts of hit points, without occupying population space.
Although resources can be better expended on other units, Trek Wagons can be useful and trained if max population has been reached and there's a lot of spare wood.
Trek Wagons cannot attack buildings.
Villagers, hand infantry, and Homestead Wagons can garrison Treck Wagons like other defensive buildings. When doing so, the Trek Wagon gains +0.2 speed per each garrisoned unit (up to 8.0 max speed with full garrison) and +9 ranged attack damage (up to 63 max damage with 7 garrisoned units).
Further statistics[]
As Trek Wagons are unique to South Africa, only technologies that their base European civilizations have access to are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry |
| Weak vs. | Cavalry, artillery |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%) Tar Kilns (+5%)
|
| Attack |  Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+10%) Smokeless Powder (+10%) Yoga (+5%) Wind Horses (-10% Rate of Fire)
|
| Resistance |  Sudanese Quilted Armor (+10% hand resistance)
|
| Speed |  Apache Endurance (+5%) Comanche Mustangs (+5%) Wind Horses (+0.5)
|
| Line of Sight |  Town Watch (+3) Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
|
| Range | Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
|
| Train time |  Cheyenne Horse Trading (-40%) Mass Cavalry (-35%) Quechuan Diet (-15%) Shaman Drums (-10%)
|
Home City Cards[]
As Trek Wagons are unique to South Africa, only their base European civilizations' cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables (for the base civilization, non-TEAM cards will only be applied if they are sent before revolting):
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Trek Wagon
| Some cards are highlighted with: | |
| Green | TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team |
| Red | Shipment that can be sent twice |
| Blue | Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds) |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 Cavalry Damage
| Cavalry damage +15% |  |
 Cavalry Hitpoints
| Cavalry hit points +15% | |
- Europeans
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 Cavalry Combat
| Cavalry hit points and damage +15% |  |
 Riding School
| Cavalry train time -40%; Cuirassier, Oprichnik, and Hakkapelit train time -35% instead; Gatling Camel train time -20% instead | |
 Wanderlust
| Land military and land villager hit points +5%; land villager and construction wagon speed +5% (can be sent 3 times) |  |
 5 Military Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons
| Delivers 5 Military Wagons and 2 Trek Wagons | |
 3 Homestead Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons
| Delivers 3 Homestead Wagons and 2 Trek Wagons | |
 4 Outpost Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons
| Delivers 4 Outpost Wagons and 2 Trek Wagons | |
- "Cavalry Combat" and "Riding School" are available to the British and Dutch.
- "Wanderlust", "5 Military Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons", "3 Homestead Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons", and "4 Outpost Wagons + 2 Trek Wagons" are available upon revolting to South Africa.
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| Unit hit points and damage +5% |  |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Mustangs
| Cavalry and shock infantry cost -10% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Knights of the Round Table
| Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post present on the map; unit hit points +2% |  |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Mariachi
| For the next 30 seconds, military building training and research work rate +400%, unit speed +10% | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions
| Cavalry and shock infantry hit points +10%, Line of Sight +4 | |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 TEAM Spanish Inquisition
| Delivers 1 Inquisitor; military and economic unit Line of Sight +10 | |
In-game dialogue[]
Regardless of which civilization South Africa revolted from, the Trek Wagon always uses the Dutch Male Settler's dialogue files.
Changelog[]
- With update 15.30007, hit points are not reduced to 350 from 450, contrary to the patch description.
History[]
When the British took over the Dutch Cape Colony in 1815, the Dutch-speaking settlers, or better known as Boers, entered into conflict with British administration and settlers that ultimately caused them to migrate eastward, seeking to reach the interior of the continent, in wagon trains. These people, known as voortrekkers, pursue a more isolated, semi-nomadic life that brought them into contact with the Xhosa and Zulu, the latter of which fought in a series of wars against the Boers. The migration, better known as Great Trek (from the Dutch word trekken, meaning "to draw/pull"), led to the foundation of South African Republic among others, and the collapse of the Zulu Kingdom.
Gallery[]
