And, akin to Mythology's Age advancement system, the player must choose a Politician, who provides special bonuses, in order to advance to another Age. Also, unlike in previous games, the civilizations are far more varied, with more unique units, technologies and bonuses, along with several completely unique Home City shipments.
The ability to ally with native tribes was also added, with the opportunity to train units from said tribes to add to your military forces. In order to be able to send shipments, the player must gain experience points which are obtained during normal gameplay. For instance, the Home City feature allows shipments of troops, technology or resources to be delivered during normal gameplay. While the gameplay remains similar to previous entries in the series, several new features were introduced here. There's also a version for the N-Gage phone made by Giu Mobile in 2009.
It was released in October of 2005, and is set during the colonization of the New World, with seven European civilizations (Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian and German) and the Ottoman Empire as playable civilizations. Age of Empires III is the fourth installment (counting the Spin-Off series Age of Mythology as another series) in the Age of Empires franchise.
