Stances are a gameplay feature in Age of Empires III. Also called Tactics in the UI, they are a feature that mixes the traditional behavior stances and some formation elements of previous Age of Empires. Before the Definitive Edition, unit stances must be enabled by a UI option called Show advanced unit formations.
Only available to military units (so not economic units such as Healers, Settlers, and Envoys). Military units always have a unique stance active. Unlike in previous entries, unit stances can change a unit's animations such as kneeling in cover mode, and cavalry trotting in Trample mode. The player may also assign hotkeys to each of the formations.
Defend, Stand Ground and Stagger modes are the stances that change the unit formation, while Melee, Cover, Trample modes and the Sebastopol Mortar ammunition change the unit stats. There're some special units that changes some stats based on their stances.
List of stances[]
Common stances (cavalry and infantry)[]
Melee mode: Melee mode is the default mode for hand cavalry and hand infantry. It can also be activated on most ranged cavalry and ranged infantry units. When in Melee mode, units will rely exclusively on their melee weapons to attack. Melee mode can come in handy in a variety of situations:
- Force a high ranged attack with low hand attack to close combat: this is especially common for the Explorer against Treasure guardians like the Outlaw Blowgunner (5 hand attack vs 30 ranged), Outlaw Rifleman (12 hand attack vs 40 ranged) and most light infantry units.
- Take advantatge of a high multiplier in melee against some unit types: or example, putting some Musketeers (or equivalents) in Melee mode during a large fight involving enemy cavalry can be very efficient and is often seen in high level matches.
- Bypass the unit resistance: a unit like the Dragoon deals 22 damage ×2.0 against artillery like the Falconet, but due to the Falconet's large ranged resistance (75%), this will result in 11 damage. When in melee mode, dragoons will deal 11×2.0 = 22 damage to the Falconet, and will also attack at a faster rate. In addition, because the Dragoons will be less clustered, they will take less Area of Effect damage in the process.
Defend mode: In defend mode, units will form squares while moving, with Melee units protecting Ranged units inside of the square. All units involved must be in Defend mode for this to work, and they have to be moved at once.
- Stand ground: Prevents the units from moving around the map, even if they're being shot at. They will continue to engage enemy units but will not pursue them.
Ranged stances[]
- Stagger mode: Is the default mode for ranged cavalry. It is also available to ranged infantry. When in stagger mode, units will space out when moving in group, making artillery fire and Area of Effect damage less effective against them.
- Volley mode: Volley mode is the default mode for ranged infantry. Units will automatically engage and pursue enemy units within their range.
- Some ranged units can have different stats based on the range of the enemy.
Artillery[]
Most artillery need to change between Bombard and Limber mode, but some artillery units doesn't, like Light Cannons, Leather Cannons, Napoleon Guns and Sebastopol Mortars. Other artillery units have very short time change between, and Gatling Camels have the ranged unit stance instead.
- Bombard mode: The bombard mode allows the artillery piece to fire and to move slowly.
- Limber mode: The limber mode allows the artillery piece to move at a decent speed but not to attack.
- The speed of an artillery piece in limber mode is equal to ×2.5 its speed in bombard mode, except for the Morutaru, Flaming Arrow and Siege Elephant which have the same speed in both modes.
- Artillery pieces will automatically switch to limber mode when tasked with traveling a long distance.
Special stances[]
Hand infantry[]
- Cover mode: Available to hand infantry units. It divides damage taken from ranged and siege sources by 2, at the expense of dividing attack and speed by 2 as well.
Hand cavalry[]
- Trample mode: Available to hand cavalry, the trample mode grants it an Area of Effect, at the expense of slower speed, lower attack and increased damage taken.
- Some cavalry units that already deal area damage will instead gain a larger area of attack.
- Stampede mode: Available to Royal Horsemen and Royal Dragoons, grant them attack while moving and a bigger Area of Effect, at the expense of slower speed, lower attack, and increased damage taken.
Stealth units[]
- Stealth: Only available to some units (and buildings thorugh a Home City Card). It makes them invisible to the enemy's sight, at the cost of being unable to attack and having their speed halved. Some units and buildings have the ability to uncloak stealthy enemy units. Additionally, since update 13.18214, invisible units within 2 range of any enemy unit will be uncloaked.
Sebastopol Mortar ammunition[]
Stances changes unique to the Sebastopol Mortar.
- Solid Shot: Higher damage, but smaller area of effect than explosive shot.
- Explosive Shot: Bursts on impact, creating a larger Area of Effect but lower damage than solid shot.
Special behaviors[]
Some units in Volley mode can have different attack stats based on the distance of the target or the amount of hit points, usually increasing their Rate of Fire and changing the type of the damage to hand instead of ranged.
- Main article: Rate of Fire#Age_of_Empires_III
Some units can change additional values of their stats based on the stance or using a special ability:
- Nizam Fusilier can change their multipliers based on their stance, while stand ground grants no multiplier but some extra range.
- Both Carolean and Nizam Fusilier can increase their speed and lock on melee mode using their respective special abilities.
- Desert Warrior and Pavisier can change their resistance based on the stance.
- Desert Archer have an attack that has lower range but higher damage per second in Defend Mode.
Trivia[]
- Originally, unit formations were considered for inclusion in Age of Empires III with elements similar to Total War. However, this feature was scrapped and replaced by the unit stances and formations.[1]
- Originally, defend mode caused a visual glitch when using a large number of melee units to protect a small number of ranged units. When doing so, the Melee units will be so densely packed that they will appear unrealistically clipped, occupying a very small surface of terrain. This effect was exploited to create the much-dreaded "cav box", where heavy cavalry units such as Oprichniks or Cuirassiers were put in Defend mode together with a single light ranged cavalry unit, such as a Cavalry Archer or Dragoon, to create a very dense formation which is less subject to pathing issues and therefore more mobile. This was fixed with update 5208 of the Definitive Edition.
Gallery[]
