If you “love Age of Empires 3, you’re going to love” new civ Sweden

"It's truly a civilisation for the hardcore Age III fans. If you love Age III, you're going to love Sweden."

If you’re a strategy games fan, you’re probably counting down the days to the Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition release date. You probably also know that the RTS game’s overhaul will feature two brand-new civilisations: Sweden and the Inca. If you’re fan of the original, and wondering what the new civs will throw into the mix, you needn’t be worried – if you “love Age of Empires III, you’re going to love Sweden”.

That’s according to Forgotten Empires co-founder Bert Beeckman, who tells us during an extensive interview: “Sweden is very interesting because it’s the first time we have Sweden in the whole franchise. So, it’s completely brand-new”. He adds that when the devs looked at the civ’s history they realised, “this is actually a small nation. But at the time, it really dominated the battlefields in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. We had to look up why that was”.

According to Beeckman, the reason was: “They were very innovative with gunpowder, with their use of cavalry and mercenaries” – and it seems this was a perfect fit for the game.

“Those are three things we have in Age III, let’s put that together in a civ,” the dev adds. “That also explains gameplay. If you play as Sweden, you’re very aggressive, trying to really get all over the map, trying to get mercenaries shipped from basically every nation in Europe at the time.

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“It’s truly a civilisation for the hardcore Age III fans. If you love Age III, you’re going to love Sweden, because it uses everything from Age III, basically, in that one civ.”

“On the other hand, the Inca”, Beeckman explains, “I would say are more for the Age II crowd that wants to get into Age III, because it’s more of a city builder civ. You can build your huge empire, your stone walls, your palaces, your citadels, whatever you want.” This means there are two “very different civs, with a lot of variety” on the way, the dev concludes.

So, it sounds like whether you’re a long-time Age of Empires III fan or an Age II player looking to try the upcoming remaster, the Definitive Edition’s range of civs should have you covered. The game arrives on October 15, so you won’t have long to wait to try them out.