Before you take on your friends over GameRanger or a LAN (local area network), try several skirmishes against computer-controlled opponents. The team at Ensemble Studios fine-tuned the artificial intelligence (AI) for Age of Empires III, building on what they learned from developing its two predecessors, as well as Age of Mythology. “After three major titles and their expansions,” Street explains, “we think we know how to make a challenging AI. It must explore the map just like a human, and it has no special knowledge about what the other players are doing. It doesn’t get free resources or really anything else that it doesn’t earn. Our AI pretty much clobbers any player who hasn’t put many, many hours into learning the nuances of the game.”

Such an achievement comes with a caveat, however: “While we might pride ourselves on how quickly our AI can stomp someone into the ground, we realize that’s not necessarily a fun experience for the player. So instead we spent a lot of effort this go-around on how, to many, the AI is fun to play against. We tried to vary its strategies a lot so the games wouldn’t seem so repetitious.”

It’s All in the Personalities

Street continues: “More importantly, we developed personalities for each of the AI players, including thousands of recorded voice chats. When a player is facing off against the Spanish AI, they shouldn’t think that they are just playing against their CPU, but against Queen Isabella, who might chastise them for aggression, compliment them on a good move, or even flirt with them to try and escape danger.

“Napoleon of France exhibits a different personality, which corresponds to his more aggressive and scorched-earth playing style. Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire does something completely different, and looks and sounds different too.”

He points out: “It’s also worth noting that the AIs don’t have to be your enemies. You can have computer allies helping you out as well. One of my favorite ways to play the game is to have a computer ally and I face off against two other computer allies.”

Bringing Big Blue to the Strategy World?

However, lest you think Street’s team has created the real-time strategy equivalent of Big Blue, he notes that such comparisons are difficult to make, although he thinks such an achievement “will come in time. It’s not around the corner, though.”

He explains: “It’s possible to break a game like chess down into a series of binary decisions — if my opponent moves his rook here, I should move my bishop over here. But a real-time strategy game like Age of Empires requires thousands of decisions, often with a very short response time, that are based on limited knowledge, because you can’t see enemy actions or even the rest of the map. The results of your choices often don’t even manifest until the end of the game.

“So in addition to just responding to what your opponent is doing, there is a great deal of intuition, pure reflex, blind luck, and psychological warfare. Those are all things that AIs haven’t historically been very good at. In fact, the AI in Age of Empires isn’t that good at it either — it just compensates by having a very robust economy, since computers are so good at multitasking and micromanagement. But even when the AI beats you, it often does so much less efficiently — that is, with higher casualty rates — than a human.”

Uncover the Fog of War. Your control panel offers all kinds of information. Pay attention to it.

Who Put a Monster Truck Rally in My RTS? This cheat is oh-so-much-fun.

And On Both Sides You’ll See Some Treasure Guardians. Upgrade a trade route's technology and earn coins from it faster.

Each of the 8 civilizations in the game starts with two technologies and possesses a unique unit. In addition, each empire has one or two leaders, each of whom provides special bonuses. (You get one or the other if there are two to choose between, of course.) Each leader also has a preferred civic that dictates how they like to govern their people. That type of information is very useful when negotiating with other leaders during the game.

Nation	Bonus	Unique Units	Home City Ruler	Notes
Spanish	Earn shipments from the Home City faster.	Rodelero (sword-and-buckler with strong attack; good against cavalry, but bad against artillery and light infantry) Lancer (heavy cavalry that’s stronger against infantry than Hussars) War Dog (a fierce canine that can take on treasure guardians)	Queen Isabella (Seville)	Their explorer can train more War Dogs, increasing his odds when fighting treasure guardians. Seville’s wide variety of shipments benefit the colony’s soldiers, buildings, and navy.
British	Manor houses spawn villagers.	Longbowman (tough long-range fighters against infantry; weak against cavalry and artillery ) Rocket (a once-only artillery weapon that wipes out infantry and buildings)	Queen Elizabeth (London)	Gaining a villager with each manor house gives the British the ability to accumulate resources faster from the start of the game.
French	Coureurs gather resources faster and have better fighting skills than standard villagers.	Coureur Cuirassier (heavy cavalry that trample opponents)	Napoleon (Paris)	This nation more easily forges alliances with Native American tribes. The Coureur gives them better defenses from the beginning, which means they don’t have to worry about immediately spawning a contingent of musketeers to defend their town center.
Portuguese	Each time they advance to a new Age, they gain an extra covered wagon that can establish a new town center. The Portuguese explorer comes with a spyglass that makes map exploration faster and lets him peek at enemies.	Cassador (light infantry who are good against other infantry but poor against all other unit types) Organ Gun (fires multiple projectiles into an area, which is effective against infantry but not as useful against buildings)	Prince Henry the Navigator (Lisbon)	The Portuguese have strength in their navy and light infantry, with the best Dragoons (ranged counter-cavalry) of all the nations.
Dutch	Dutch villagers cost coins, rather than food, to produce, which limits their numbers, but they can build banks that automatically generate coins.	Envoy (a civilian who can see farther than the explorer but has no attack ability; best used as a companion to the explorer) Ruyter (cavalry unit armed with pistols) Fluyt (a galleon that can train units and is fire-resistant)	Maurice of Orange (Amsterdam)	The Dutch start slowly, given their villager constraints, but once their banks kick in, they can stop playing defensively.
Russians	Infantry and villagers train in groups, speeding up their creation.	Strelet (good against infantry, but weak against cavalry and artillery) Cossack (fast light cavalry) Oprichnik (heavy cavalry that’s most effective against villagers and buildings)	Ivan the Terrible (Moscow)	Russian soldiers are among the weakest in the game (the Strelet is the weakest overall), but they make up for that with large numbers.
Germans	Each Home City shipment includes free Uhlans (heavy cavalry). Can send Mercenaries (powerful elite units) from Home City before other nations can.	Uhlan Settler Wagon (gathers resources faster than standard settlers) Doppelsoldner (two-handed-sword-wielding infantry who are good against cavalry, Pikemen and buildings) War Wagon (horse-drawn wagon with a cannon; effective against heavy cavalry)	Frederick the Great (Berlin)	The German military is more diverse than other nations’ armies.
Ottoman Empire	Town centers automatically generate free villagers.	Abus Gun (artillery unit that counters infantry) Janissary (slow, but very effective, infantry unit that is strong against cavalry but vulnerable to artillery and light infantry) Spahi (heavy cavalry that only comes from Home City; good against light infantry and artillery) Galley (a fast, maneuverable ship powered by oars and sails) Great Bombard (a slow artillery unit that is great for destroying buildings)	Suleiman the Magnificent (Constantinople)	Ottomans should build a mosque early in the game and stay on top of its improvements. They have more unique units than any other nation.

Stumped? Then you may need some help, thanks to the cheat codes that are commonly placed in most video games. They allow you to, well, cheat and change the rules. This sometimes includes activating bonuses, unlocking secrets, and accessing new levels of gameplay.

To activate cheats in Age of Empires III, press the Enter key, type in a code, and press Enter again. Type them exactly as shown, but don’t worry about capitalizing letters.