Age of Empires III’s Danes Will Build Around Other Players’ Shipments on September 10

The Danes will arrive in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on September 10 with an economy built around taxing other players’ shipments. The upcoming The Baltic Powers expansion will also add specialized defensive buildings, levy units for land and sea, and Royal Guard upgrades across the entire Danish military roster, according to Age of Empires’ official Danish civilization overview.

The faction takes inspiration from the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, a maritime empire that controlled routes between the Baltic and Atlantic seas. Its historical Sound Dues gave Denmark income from shipments passing through the region, while trading posts in the Caribbean, India, and West Africa extended its reach beyond Europe.

The Customs House creates income from enemy shipments

The Danes begin with a Customs House, a special building that generates extra income whenever another player receives a shipment. The amount of tax income depends on how many other players are in the match, and cards and technologies can increase the building’s returns.

An Explorer or a Customs House Wagon can construct the building at the start of a game. Its tax system does not remove resources from the player whose shipment was taxed. Instead, the Danes receive the additional income while the shipment remains intact for its original owner. Later research can reveal shipment card names and keep a permanent record of shipments that passed through the Customs House.

The building also contains several resource shipments whose values increase with each age: Crates of Mixed Resources, Crates of Food, Cords of Wood, and Chests of Coin. Each can be sent an unlimited number of times.

Its early technologies include 1 Shipment (I), which delivers a shipment for the Home City or Customs House; Cargo Inspections (I), which reveals the names of taxed shipments; Toll Register (I), which improves tax income and records every taxed shipment; and Børsen (II), which allows buildings with Economic Home City gather points to collect crates and adds a random 50-resource crate to every shipment.

After the Helsingør Customs Chamber card is sent, the Customs House can access three advanced technologies:

• Kalmar Fleet (III) grants 50-wood crates for each warship the Danes have lost and for every shipment they have received so far.
• Sound Blockade (III) temporarily blocks a random shipment from the best enemy player for 20 minutes.
• Shipment Delay (III) adds 25 seconds to the arrival time of the next shipment for every enemy player.

Round Churches and Watch Houses defend Danish settlements

The Danes have cheaper age advancements, but they cannot use Revolutions. Their building network compensates with vision, shipment information, and extra protection around important economic areas.

Round Church

The Round Church becomes available in the Discovery Age and can be built by Settlers or the Explorer. Players can construct up to three of them, and each one has a defensive attack that protects nearby Settlers. The building is especially dangerous for Mercenaries and Outlaws.

• Struensee Reforms (II) makes economic units train and gather faster, although they cost slightly more resources.
• Zealand Bosniaks (III) sends six Zealand Bosniaks and reduces some of their coin cost in favor of food, at the cost of combat strength.
• Espingolen (IV) sends six Espingols, or Organ Guns, with faster reloads and higher attack.

Watch House

The Watch House functions as a house with 10 population slots, but it has greater line of sight and can train and upgrade the Danish Snaphane. The Safehouses card can temporarily turn Settlers into Snaphaner and lets the building train them in batches.

• Disruption (II) increases Snaphane damage against buildings, villagers, and treasure guardians while allowing them to collect treasures and resource crates.
• Zealand Jaegers (III) gives Snaphaner resistance to siege attacks and greatly increases their damage against artillery.
• Royal Service (III) removes the Snaphane’s gradual health loss and changes its wood cost to coin.
• Friskytter (IV) improves Snaphane hitpoints, range, and attack, then gives the unit the ability to mount horses.

Snaphaner and Gunboats are the Danish levy units

Snaphaner are specialized Militiamen designed to attack Outlaws and Artillery. They lose hitpoints over time like other Militiamen and can be levied from the Town Center, but Watch Houses can also train and upgrade them. Their stealth makes them useful for ambushes and attacks against high-value targets. At first, they cannot be trained in groups of five like other military units.

The naval counterpart is the Gunboat, which becomes available at the Dock in the Commerce Age. Gunboats also lose hitpoints over time and take up population slots, reducing the space available for a land army. They are cheap enough to produce quickly and can harass larger warships.

Every Danish military land unit can become a Royal Guard

Alongside the standard European roster, the Danes can research a Royal Guard upgrade for every military land unit. These versions receive stronger statistics and distinct historical uniforms, giving the faction an unusually broad late-game upgrade path.

• Royal Pikemen, Royal Crossbowmen, and Danish Field Guns replace the standard Pike, Crossbow, and Falconet options.
• Royal Guards and Ski Troopers upgrade the Musketeer and Skirmisher lines.
• Jutland Dragoons and Horse Guards fill the Dragoon and Hussar roles.
• Holstein Culverins, Royal Mortars, and Royal Grenadiers cover several heavy weapons and infantry roles.
• Norwegian Artillery upgrades Horse Artillery, while Friskytter is the Royal Guard version of the Snaphane.

Extra deck space supports Danish economy, naval, and tactical cards

Because the Danes receive resource crates through the Customs House instead of filling deck slots with standard crate cards, they have more room for specialized choices. Their card selection is split between economic, naval, and tactical options.

Danish economy cards

• TEAM Øresund Customs (I) raises Customs House tax income and gives allies coin whenever the Danes send a shipment.
• Helsingør Customs Chamber (I) makes the Customs House cheaper, tougher, and faster to build while adding ways to impose sanctions on enemy Home Cities.
• Confiscation (II) greatly increases tax income and divides it equally between coin, wood, and food.
• Stowage (II) sends 300 wood and 300 coin while adding 100 resources to every Customs House shipment.
• Great Belt Tolls (IV) raises shipment tax by a large amount, but takes longer to arrive.

Naval cards

• Royal Naval Academy (II) reduces warship costs and training times, unlocks the Customs Cruiser shipment, and sends one Caravel.
• Royal Dock (I) gives Docks more attack, improves ship healing, speeds up ship training, and raises the experience bounty from ships.
• Bornholm Marines (III) stops Gunboats from losing hitpoints, gives them Stealth, and lets infantry garrison inside them to improve their strength.
• Gunboat Tactics (IV) replaces every sunk warship with a Gunboat, gives Gunboats a long-range ability, and adds one Ironclad.
• Elephanten (IV) sends a Battleship carrying six Order Elephants and enables those units in Forts. If the Battleship sinks, the Order Elephants remain at the Danish Home City point.

Tactical cards

• Rigskansler (I) improves the Danish Explorer in combat, lets him convert human treasure guardians into Snaphaner, and gives him a canine companion.
• Oldenburg Kings (I) sends a Royal Embassy with access to Oldenburg royal units, upgrades, and technologies. Those units cost population when acquired through the Embassy or Home City.
• Lockbows (II) gives Crossbowmen Lockbows that deal 30% more damage with less range, replacing their food cost with a higher wood cost.
• Tycho’s Observatory (II) increases Round Church hitpoints and experience gain, then unlocks Triangulation, which briefly reveals other players’ ships and Home City gather points.
• Royal Guards (IV) makes Royal Guard upgrades very cheap, while the upgraded units cost more resources.
• Tin Soldiers (IV) gives Danish gunpowder infantry more hitpoints and resistance to siege attacks.
• Order of the Elephant (IV) gives Danish cavalry Defence promotions that increase their hitpoints for every defeated enemy military unit and adds four Order Elephants.

The Baltic Powers will be available on September 10, and the expansion is currently offered for pre-order on Steam and Microsoft Store with a 15% discount. Will the Danes become your next favorite faction? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.