Age of Empires 3 Mexico: Release date, new buildings, units, features, and historical battles

While the real-time strategy enthusiasts are these days mostly focused on the excellent Age of Empires IV, Microsoft hasn't forgotten about the other games in this iconic franchise - Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III - which have both received Definitive Edition treatments over the past few years.

Unlike some other, less fortunate classics, Definitive Editions of the Age of Empire games are textbook examples of how remasters should be done, delivering subtle but obvious improvements, updated overall quality for modern standards, and continuously producing new content to be added to the game.

The latest new Civilization revealed for the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is Mexico!

AoE 3 Mexico: Release date & price

The Mexico Civilization DLC is set to be released on the 1st of December 2021, but the DLC is already available for pre-order right now via Steam or Microsoft store, depending on which platform you own the base game.

In addition, there is the North American double pack bundle available, where players can experience historic North America with the Mexico and the United States civilizations bundle at a lower price compared to individual DLC for each of these two Civilizations.

The individual price of DLCs is €4,99, but the bundle will cost you €8,28, giving you a 17% discount.

The United States + Mexico Double Pack includes:

• The Mexico civ
• The United States civ
• "Grito de Dolores" Historical Battle
• "The Burning of USS Philadelphia" Historical Battle
• "Battle of Queenston Heights" Historical Battle

Revolutions & Revolts

The defining feature of the Mexico Civilization, in a true fashion of Mexico's tumultuous history and disobedient revolutionary spirit, is called Revolt. Instead of advancing to the Fortress, Industrial, or Imperial Ages, Mexican States can choose to Revolt and start a Revolution. 

If you opt for Revolt, you will be presented with a brand new revolution deck that will replace your previous cards. Each age has its own unique revolutions with unique new decks and civ bonuses.

And unlike other civilizations, with Mexico, you can reverse your revolts and return to Mexico, which will bring you back the original starting deck but also keep all the benefits of any cards activated during the revolution.

Similarly to the United States civilization, Mexico also advances through ages by choosing one of its federal states, each state comes with its two unique federal cards to be added to your deck (40 cards in total).

New units & buildings

When it comes to new units, Mexico has access to the Padre, a unique priest hero, and The General. The General can raise flags to inspire your army and construct forts once you reach the Fortress Age.

The Soldado is a "costly but devastating" heavy infantry, armed with grenades that can wreck buildings with ease. Another new unit is the Salteador, a perfect scouting unit that can become stealthy while also revealing all units which attack you behind the fog of war.

The Insurgente is fast to train and an extremely mobile unit that excels as a counter to cavalry. The Chinaco is a cavalry unit that has extra range thanks to their skilled usage of lances, giving them an edge against light infantry and other cavalry units.

Finally, Mexico has several unique outlaw units. The Cuatrero can use a lasso on the opponent's units, thus lowering their movement speed for a short period of time. The Bandido is a dynamite-tossing unit with immense destructive power. And of course, the legendary Desperado, which can rapidly fire off two guns simultaneously.

One of the unique buildings is the Hacienda, which replaces Mills, Estates, and Livestock Pens. The Hacienda is a producing behemoth, and it can generate food, coins, or cows, which you can toggle at any point, depending on what you need. To increase the production rate, simply assign more settlers to the Hacienda.

The Cathedral is another unique Mexican building, which represents the central structure of Mexican cities, offering a vast array of research options and upgrades, while also improving as you progress through ages.

And that's all! As you can see, the Mexico Civilization boasts an impressive roster of new units and features, which will offer a lot of opportunities for new strategies and unique gameplay styles.

While waiting for the civ to arrive, take a look at the overview video below, to get a better grasp of everything that's coming with the Mexico Civilization.

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Featured image courtesy of Xbox Game Studios.