Trading Post

Template:Infobox BuildingThe Trading Post is a building in Age of Empires III.

Overview

It replaces the old fashioned trade system of carts, boats and caravans of the previous games. It can also be built on a Native American or Asian settlement site in order to forge an alliance with the tribe and to get access to their unique units and improvements.

Unlike most buildings, Trading Posts cannot be built anywhere on the ground. It can only be built on a square-shaped site found near Native American/Native Asian settlements and Trade Routes. When having a post on a Native American or Native Asian site, the building can train different Native American and Native Asian units depending on the civilization which lives there.

When having a post by a Trade Route, a non-huntable NPC trader will constantly walk past the Post giving experience. When upgraded to a Stagecoach at Colonial Age, the player will have an option to toggle the experience income into Coin, Food or Wood. The stagecoach moves faster as well. In the Industrial Age the Stagecoach can be further upgraded into a train which gives more income and additionally moves faster than the stagecoach. The player can send a card from their home city ("Advanced Trading Post") that reduces trading post cost to 150 Wood (-40% cost) for European and Native American civilizations, 120 wood (-40% cost) on The WarChiefs maps, 200 wood (-20% cost) for Asian civilizations and 160 wood on The WarChiefs maps . The card will also boost the buildings Hit Points by 50% (33% for Asian civilizations) and enables the buildings weak counterattack (25 damage, x0.25 vs. villagers, 3.0 fire rate and 0-8 range).

Upgrades

• Stagecoach
  • Iron Horse

Minor Civilizations

• Aztecs / Zapotecs
• Caribs
• Cherokee
• Comanche
• Cree
• Inca
• Iroquois / Huron
• Lakota / Cheyenne
• Mayans
• Nootka
• Seminoles
• Tupi
• Apache
• Klamath
• Mapuche
• Navajo
• Bhakti Temple
• Jesuit Mission
• Shaolin Temple
• Sufi Temple
• Udasi Temple
• Zen Temple

Shipments

Click for a list of Trading Post related home city cards

British / French / Germans / Portuguese / Russians / Spanish Card name Card description Age Level Native American Lore Enables all Native upgrades to cost no coin 2 0 Native American Treaties Sends a group of Native units from different tribes 2 0 Native American Warriors Decreases the cost of Native Warriors 3 10 Advanced Trading Post Makes Trading Poists cheaper, Stronger and adds an attack 1 25 Improved Buildings Increases hitpoints 1 10 Dutch Card name Card description Age Level Native American Lore Enables all Native upgrades to cost no coin 2 0 Native American Treaties Sends a group of Native units from different tribes 2 0 Native American Warriors Decreases the cost of Native Warriors 3 10 TEAM Warrior Societies Increases Native limit 2 0 Advanced Trading Post Makes Trading Poists cheaper, Stronger and adds an attack 1 25 Improved Buildings Increases hitpoints 1 10 Ottomans Card name Card description Age Level Native American Lore Enables all Native upgrades to cost no coin 2 0 Native American Treaties Sends a group of Native units from different tribes 2 0 Native American Warriors Decreases the cost of Native Warriors 3 10 Advanced Trading Post Makes Trading Poists cheaper, Stronger and adds an attack 1 25 TEAM Cheap Trading Posts Decreases the cost of Trading Posts 1 0 Improved Buildings Increases hitpoints 1 10

Bugs

• It is sometimes possible for Trading Post sites to be generated on broken terrain, which means that players cannot construct a Trading Post on these sites. Most notably this can occur on the New England and Amazonia maps. This problem has been addressed in patches, occurring with less frequency.
• Another common glitch is units getting stuck within the perimeter of a Trading Post as a result of trying to pass through it and not being able to get out. This most notably happens with Native Trading Posts. It is possible to destroy the units inside the confines of the Trading Post, but if an Explorer/Monk/War Chief get stuck inside, there is no way of removing them.
• If player gets any building HP improvement such as home city card "Advanced builidings" or "Advanced trading post", already built trading posts remaiming HPs will stay same as before upgrade (for instance before upgrade 2500/2500 after upgrade 2500/2875)

History

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Trading posts were established by early explorers of the New World as places to stop, barter, rest, and engage in commercial activities in support of their efforts to find wealth for their patrons, usually kings and queens, who sponsored their voyages. Wealthy and powerful trading companies between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries competed viciously as they drove exploration of the New World in search of pelts (chiefly beaver), to market in Europe. They dotted the landscape with trading posts and continued driving west in search of new sources of pelts. The fur trade and the need for the trading posts declined as fashions in Europe changed and the demand for pelts collapsed. Many trading posts developed into proper settlements over time.

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