Tupi

The Tupi are a Native American tribe featured in Age of Empires III. Like all natives, they can be allied with by building a Trading Post at their Trading Post site.

The Tupi are available on the Amazonia and Pampas maps.

Unit Edit

Tupi Blackwood Archer: Native archer with low hit points, decent range and fast firing speed, effective against heavy infantry. Up to 15 may be trained per settlement.

Upgrades Edit

Tupi upgrades focus on increasing archers in combat, reducing building Wood costs and training Cougars.

Age	Icon	Improvement	Cost	Effect
		Tupi Poison Arrow Frogs	225 wood, 225 coin	Archers get +10% ranged attack
		Tupi Forest Burning	175 food, 175 coin	Buildings cost -20% wood
		Tupi Animal Lore	75 wood, 75 coin	Town Centers can train Cougars
		Tupi Warrior Societies	200 wood, 150 coin	Upgrades Tupi Blackwood Archers to Elite
		Champion Tupi	400 wood, 300 coin	Upgrades Tupi Blackwood Archers to Champion

Usefulness Edit

• Tupi Forest Burning can be stacked with other building cost reduction cards for a significant discount.
  • The Spanish can have free Barracks and the Chinese can have very cheap War Academies when this upgrade is combined with TEAM Cheap Barracks (-50% Barracks cost, -25% War Academy cost) and/or TEAM Art of War (-30% Barracks cost, -30% War Academy cost).
  • The Spanish can exploit their free barracks to build walls using the structure. If the Russians are the third ally in a 3 vs 3 game and send TEAM Barracks Hitpoints the barracks will possess 5,000 hit points each, significantly more than a basic wall. In conjunction with Improved Buildings they will posses even more hitpoints.
  • The Japanese can stack this with their cheap shrine card (Heavenly Kami) for 35% cheaper shrines (81 wood vs. 125).
• Tupi Poison Arrow Frogs are useful when stacked with other archer damage upgrades and home city card shipments.
  • The Japanese Ikko-Ikki monks benefit from this upgrade.
• Tupi Animal Lore is largely useless, it adds some population free units to your attack force but ultimately it's hard to work into a strategy versus flesh and blood opponents.

In-game dialogue Edit

They probably speak either the extinct Old Tupi or the Modern Tupi, also known as Nheengatu.

• Se guatavo (I will go)
• Tape (path??)
• Ha
• Hee (yes)
• Inera (attack)
• Nidivi (attack)

History Edit

"When the Portuguese, French, and Dutch penetrated the interior of Brazil they encountered a number of warlike and aggressive tribes called the Tupi. The coastal Tupi lived mainly by agriculture, growing manioc, yams, tobacco, beans, squash, peppers, and other crops in forest clearings. When the soils were depleted, they would move to a new location, clear the trees, and replant.

In the sixteenth century they became embroiled in the wars between Europeans fighting in Brazil, mainly the French and Portuguese, who both employed native allies. Many of the Tupi were forced to work on the plantations, but they fared poorly and died. They suffered from epidemics that swept through their villages, and were forcibly taken from their villages to be sold as slaves, often by enemy tribes. European encroachment spread as the trees were cleared, and sugar plantations were established. Devastated by the recurring wars, disease, and slavery, the remaining Tupi withdrew up the Amazon into interior lands the Europeans did not want."

Gallery Edit

A Tupi settlement

Alternate Tupi Trading Post icon, note the orange feathers and armband instead of the Blackwood Archer's blue feathers and armband

Add a photo to this gallery