The Asian Dynasties is the second expansion for Age of Empires III and requires the original game to play. Three civilizations have been added: The Chinese, the Japanese and the Indians, with news maps in Asia as well as new world maps. Each of the 3 civilizations comes with a new campaign, consisting of 5 scenarios each. All of them can build wonders to advance through the ages (5 each), explorers are called monks and they can build a consulate to form alliances with European nations, along with export as a new kind of resource. Minor civilizations included are Bhakti, the Jesuits, the Sufis, the Shaolin, the Udasi, and the Zen.

Each of the civilizations comes with a different kind of gameplay, relating to the way new civilians enter the scene, food and resources gathering, specific strong units with special abilities and a variety of buildings and military units. Multiplayer comes with new maps and 4 new game modes: King of the Hill (keep an area occupied), Regicide (protect a single Regent unit and kill your opponent's to win the game), Treaty (games with periods of peace and blockades), and Treaty No-Blockade (identical to Treaty but without the blockades).

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