Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

This game.. It's incredible. I've never played Age of Empires I or II, and IV didn't appeal to me, but this one? It's very fun. What keeps me coming back? The Home City. Why won't I ever play Age of Empires I, II, or IV? There isn't a Home City. What is the Home City? The best part of the game. Every Empire has a selection of Cards - or [i]"Shipments"[/i] - that can be used to create a Deck you can use during a match. This gives you complete freedom over how your Empire will evolve. The Swedes, for example, can turn into a Mercenary-heavy Empire. Usually, Mercenary Shipments are one-offs, sending a handful of specific unit types. For the Swedes, you actually contract them which allows you to produce them from your military buildings, in addition to sending the handful of units. The Dutch can play Economy-heavy, and you can sprinkle Mercenaries into it too. There are Shipments that increase your Bank limit (Coin producer) and even boost its resource generation. Then you can invest heavily into Coin gathering to fund said Mercenaries. What I find special about Age of Empires III, is that you're not presented with a list of Empires and they play the exact same way each time. The Home City allows you to make a specialized deck of Shipments. You can make a Military-focused deck, an Economy-focused one, or exploit the unique functions/mechanics of a specific Empire. The Home City is your Empire. Not the British, French, Italians, or Ethiopians. The Home City is. The Empire itself is just the template, or [i]flavour.[/i] An Economy-heavy deck will make your chosen Empire function differently than a Military-heavy deck. For the United States, I have Military and Defense decks. They have some similar Shipments, but different Age-Ups. I also have a Foreign Allies deck, which gives me units from other Empires. For Mexico, I have Military, Economy, Yucatan (revolution), Outlaws, and Mayan (revolution) decks. For Military, I have different Age-Ups for Offense and Defense. For Sweden, I have Mercenaries and Finland (revolution) decks. For French, I have Revolutionary France and Canada (both revolutions) decks. For Malta, I have Military and Naval decks. For most Empires, I have Commerce Era decks. I set the max Age to Commerce and choose 10 Exploration and 10 Commerce Age Shipments. It's a fun little mode. Some Shipments allow units or buildings an Age early. For example, the U.S. can unlock Sharpshooters and Carbine Cavalry in the Commerce Age with a Shipment. European Empires can get the Estate (formerly Plantation) in the Commerce Age. Most Empires can get the Arsenal in the Commerce Age too. It's fun, because all the military units are base. No unit upgrades. I won't ever play the other Age of Empires games because they don't have the Home City. The Home City allows for a ton of replayability. You keep finding new synergies. New ways to play an Empire. I took a ~3 year break and came back. I looked at some Decks and completely remade them because they didn't make a whole lot of sense. I found a new synergy. Like.. just because I'm making a Naval deck, doesn't mean I need to choose every single naval Shipment and focus on Wood. Silly me. Eventually, you see everything. You do everything. You experience everything. The Home City allows you to fine-tune [i]YOUR[/i] experience. Not some pre-determined one. I've been playing the game since before the Definitive Edition on my disc copy, until all of my product key uses expired. I then bought the Complete Edition on Steam. Then the Definitive Edition. It's one of my favourite RTS games.