The House of Oldenburg is a European royal dynasty in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean. Like all minor civilizations, they can be allied with by building a Trading Post at their Trading Post site.
Units[]
Royal Huntsman: Danish Counter Skirmisher and Villager that can only hunt and gather from huntable animals.- Northern Musketeer: Devoted Musketeer from Northern Europe with low hitpoints but high damage. Benefits from Promotions.
Technologies[]
| Age | Technology | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 Hunting Expeditions
|
300 food 300 wood |
The player's villagers and Fishing Boats/Fishing Canoes now also gather 0.1 coin per second while gathering food from huntable animals or fish |
 Öresund Customs
|
250 food 250 wood |
Warships and defensive buildings gain a coin trickle of 0.05% of their total cost and 0.1% of their wood cost, respectively | |
 |
 League of Armed Neutrality
|
300 wood 300 coin |
Fully replaces the Royal Huntsman with the Royal Hunter which can no longer gather food, but has increased stats and build limit |
 |
 Kalthoff Repeaters
|
175 wood 175 coin |
Light Infantry and Counter skirmishers get +0.1× multiplier vs. Light Infantry, additionally Royal Huntsmen and Royal Hunters get +0.4× |
Royal House ability[]
- Scientific Expeditions: Spawns a Hot Air Balloon with a huge line of sight that lasts for 30 seconds. 150 seconds cooldown.
Strategy[]
The House of Oldenburg focuses on hunting, generating coin, and countering light infantry. Its notable for the ability to be used in the early game to boom using Royal Huntsmen. It is much stronger on maps with fish.
Hunting Expeditions lets villagers and Fishing Boats generate 0.1 coin/s while gathering food from huntable animals or fish. Öresund Customs lets defensive buildings and ships generate a small amount of coin passively. For a list of what counts as a defensive building, see here. Notably, for the edge cases, Town Centers, Docks, walls, Gates, Teepees, and Kallankas count. Overall, both Hunting Expeditions and Öresund Customs pay for themselves fairly slowly. This means they will likely be best researched when the game at least partially stalemates, as the player can more reliably safely get away with researching them.
Their two military units are two ranged infantry that can be very useful in battle. The Royal Huntsman is a villager and Counter Skirmisher. It can hunt huntable animals and it counters light infantry. Its stats are greatly improved by the upgrades which buff villagers in combat (like Great Coat), which helps it much more, as it is also a military unit. Like other villagers, it has much higher dps in hand attack mode, but being a military unit, this is much easier to use. However, it lacks its increased attack multipliers in hand mode. Unlike other villagers, it does not have a reduced attack multiplier versus villagers in any mode.
League of Armed Neutrality turns Royal Huntsmen into Royal Hunters, which improves their statistics, eliminates the population cost, and allows the player to train more of them. Royal Hunters are no longer classed as villagers, but do benefit from villager upgrades, albeit less than Royal Hunters. If the player is playing a civilization which can get endless hunt, like the Lakota or Finland, they could choose never to get this technology, effectively increasing their villager training limit.
Royal Hunters are powerful counter-skirmishers that can become more lethal with the Kalthoff Repeaters technology, which increases their damage against light infantry. This technology also benefits light infantry units, although to a lesser extent. Royal Hunters have a higher dps in hand attack mode (not as extreme as in Royal Huntsmen) and do get their increased attack multipliers.
The second military unit, the Northern Musketeer, is a Musketeer with low hit points, but has a small ranged damage bonus against heavy cavalry and infantry. It also benefits from promotions, specifically Defense Promotion, which can nullify its low hit points with only one promotion. It is the most useful defensively, where the defender's advantage means they are much more likely to get their promotions.
The Royal House ability Scientific Expeditions allows the player to summon a Hot Air Balloon, which is useful for exploring the map and seeing what the enemy is doing.
Overall, the House of Oldenburg is useful for growing the player's economy, especially early. Many civilizations benefit from this minor civilization more than normal, such as endless hunt civilizations (like the Lakota or Finland), civilizations which have many defensive buildings (like the Russians and Portuguese), and civilizations which often play with more villager upgrades (like the French).
History[]
| “ | The Northern German House of Oldenburg has ruled the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway since the mid-15th century. Since their inception they have established several precedents that have forged a collective Scandinavian identity. Though the house was particularly prominent in Denmark, the Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp cadet branch made several powerful inroads throughout Scandinavia and its peripheries. Through its linkage to the Russian House of Romanov, its power stretched deep into Siberia. The Oldenburgs adopted several reforms that established the framework of Northern European commerce. Tolls from the Oresund Customs House provided over half of Denmark's total income, allowing it to establish a firm hand in administrative affairs throughout the Baltic region. In 1783, facing the disruption of transatlantic trade by the belligerent Royal Navy of Britain, the House of Oldenburg established the League of Armed Neutrality, which aimed to protect neutral shipping during wartime. | ” |
| —[1] | ||
Trivia[]
- The Royal Hunters speak Danish, while the Northern Musketeers speak Russian.
- The House of Oldenburg is a European royal dynasty who ruled Denmark (1448-1863), Norway (1450-1814) and Sweden (1457-1464,1497-1501 and 1520-1521). Minor branches of this house, such as Holstein-Gottorp, ruled Sweden (1751-1818) and Russia (1762-1917), and Glücksburg, who ruled Greece (1863-1973) and rule Denmark (from 1863) and Norway (from 1905) to the present.
- The Scientific Expeditions ability's activation sound is an excerpt from the music Dance of the Reed Flutes composed by Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovski for The Nutcracker.
Gallery[]
