Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition News

The Steam Real-Time Strategy Fest is here and so are the discounts! Pick up that one Age game you've been meaning to play and join in all the fun!

Don't wait - discounts end January 27th at 10:00 AM PT (1:00 PM ET / 18:00 UTC)

The holiday season is here and so are the sales! Finish your holiday shopping and get up to 75% off Age of Empires games during the

Leaves are starting to fall and temperatures are starting to cool - it's time to get started on your holiday shopping list too with the Steam Autumn Sale! Starting TODAY, save up to 75% on the Age of Empires franchise!

Don’t wait – discounts end December 4th at 10 AM PT (1:00 PM ET / 18:00 UTC)! Complete your Age collection now!

Welcome trailblazers to another exciting update for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition! While there are plenty of notable fixes and features in today’s update, you can look forward to lots of balance updates, plus some localization fixes based on community feedback!

This is a data patch that will update your game automatically after starting. We recommend you to stay in the main menu for about 2 minutes for the download to complete. Please keep in mind that due to technical reasons only limited changes are possible in a data patch (no graphics, no maps, etc).

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

[h4]This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming! [/h4]

    ◆ Patch for Build 15.59076 ◆

Civilization Balance

[h2]General[/h2]
[h3]Units & Buildings[/h3]

• African Bandit Catamaran: Damage multiplier against guardians now only applies to water guardians.
  
• Chevauleger (House of Wittelsbach): Melee damage multiplier against Skirmishers improved to 0.75x (up from 0.6x).
  
• Fishing Boats: Reduced sound volume of fishing.
  
• Hand Shock Infantry: Slightly increased the obstruction radius from 0.49 to 0.59 for Chasquis, Chimu Runners, Coyote Runners, Disciples, Rattan Shields, Shotel Warriors, and Tiger Claws.
  
• Hot Air Balloon: Fixed a bug that made descending hot air balloons count as unit losses.
  
• Inquisitor: Cost increased to 110c (from 100c) and train time to 45s (from 35s).
  
• Javelin Rider: XP reward corrected to 11 (down from 12).
  
• Lipka Tatar (House of Jagiellon): Ranged damage reduced to 10 (from 12.5).
  
• Mounted Rifleman: No longer considered a Counter Skirmisher.
  
• Napoleon Gun: Cost increased to 475c (from 450c).
  
• Royal Dragoon (House of Bourbon): Range increased to 17 (from 16).
  
• Wokou Pirate: Fixed the non-functional melee attack in the Melee stance.

[h3]Cards & Technologies[/h3]

• 11 Renegade Spanish (II, Aztecs, Inca, 500c): Cost increased to 600c.
  
• Oresund Customs (I, House of Oldenburg): Now also affects American Citadels obtained from the Maya native settlement.
  
• Sarmatism (House of Jagiellon): No longer grants Lipka Tatars +1 extra range on top of the default range increase.
  
• Sudanese Red Sea Trade (Sudanese): Technology research time increased to 30s (up from 10s).
  
• TEAM 3 Villagers (Aztecs, Ethiopians, Haudenosaunee): Only one of these cards can now be sent per team.
  
• War Ceremony: Reduced the effectiveness the War Ceremony by -2.5% on average.

[h4]This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming! [/h4]

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, October 16 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 21:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires IV (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

• Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Wednesday, October 16th, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:

• Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
  
  
• Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
  
  
• DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.

To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.

Thank you for your patience!