An Iroquois Fire Pit Dance
The Native Americans are a group of New World civilizations featured in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, and Age of Empires III. Indigenous to the American continent, these peoples formed many culturally distinct nations and tribes.
Age of Empires II
The Native Americans are first featured in the The Conquerors and consist of Central American natives: the Aztecs and the Mayans. Native Americans civilizations lack the ability to train cavalry units. Thus, they start the game with an Eagle Scout (an Eagle Warrior in The Conquerors), a fast infantry unit with an extensive Line of Sight, instead of a Scout Cavalry. Also, they lack gunpowder units.
The Forgotten introduced the third Native American civilization: the South American Incas. Like the Aztecs and Mayans, they lack cavalry and gunpowder units.
The Vindlandsaga scenario also features the Skraelings, the native tribes encountered by the Vikings during their colonisation of the Americas, but they are represented by the Celts.
Age of Empires III
In the base game Age of Empires III players cannot play as Native American civilizations, however, they can form alliances with Minor Civilizations on various maps by building a Trading Post in their native settlement. Forming an alliance grants players the ability to train unique units and access special technologies. Twelve native tribes appear in the base game: The Aztecs, Carib, Cherokee, Comanche, Cree, Inca, Iroquois, Lakota, Maya, Nootka, Seminole, and Tupi.
In The WarChiefs players are able to assume control of one of the three largest and powerful Native American civilizations: The Iroquois, Sioux, and Aztecs. Three new native tribes replace the ones elevated into playable civilizations: The Aztecs were replaced by Zapotecs, Iroquois by Huron, and Lakota (Sioux) by Cheyenne. In addition four new tribes were also featured: The Apache, Mapuche, Navajo, and Klamath.