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To find out more about the game, we recently chatted with Big Huge Games' big huge boss Brian Reynolds to find out what to expect from the new Indian civilization.

IGNPC: Give us a bit of history on the Indians and put them into the historical context of the game.

Brian Reynolds: During most of the historical period covered by Age of Empires III, much of the territory covered by present-day India and Pakistan was controlled by the Mughal Empire. This was also a time of greatly increased European contact -- once Vasco de Gama discovered the route around Africa, European nations such as Portugal, France, and especially Britain soon arrived bringing opportunities for trade but also for conflict.

IGNPC: What makes the Indians an attractive civilization from a game design standpoint? What do they allow you to do that you can't do with any other civilization?

Brian Reynolds: India has a highly unique culture and history, and that gives us an opportunity to make a highly unique civilization for the game. Visually the Indian architecture is not only very appealing but also quite different from anything you've seen in the game before. Likewise all of the new unit types are visually appealing as well as interesting in the new ways they function in the game -- especially the elephant units!

IGNPC: How would you describe the overall character of the Indians? How do they play? How do their strategies differ from those of the other civs?

Brian Reynolds: The biggest economic difference for the Indians is the fact that their Villagers cost wood instead of food. That means you need a lot of wood early in the game, and you need to budget the wood you need to buy more Villagers against what you need for more Houses, not to mention other buildings and units. It takes a bit of a paradigm shift to get used to the Indian economy after you've been playing other civs for so long, but there are some big rewards. One other fun detail...you may be aware that for religious reasons Indians do not consume cows and so forth, and so indeed they do not in the game. Instead they can build a Sacred Field (their substitute for a Livestock Pen) where they can earn experience points for collecting sacred cows and other animals.

IGNPC: What are some of the cool new units and buildings of the Indians? Do they have any particularly cool tricks up their sleeve?

Brian Reynolds: The Indians mark the triumphant return of the elephant to the Age of Empires series! And not just one kind of elephant either...there are Siege Elephants, Flail Elephants, and more, all in different and interesting combat roles. They're all big and scary though, and I think will make the Indians very very popular to play.

IGNPC: What about their home city? Can we expect the same types of shipments that the European countries get?

Brian Reynolds: One of the interesting things about the Indian Home City is that it does not contain any "Settler" cards, such as the "2 Settler" or "3 Settler" cards that players often ship at the beginning of the game. Instead, almost every Indian card ships 1 Villager (the Asian civs have Villagers instead of Settlers) in addition to whatever else it ships. So I might ship myself 700 Wood...and one Villager, or six Sepoys...and one Villager. This not only helps the Indians build up a strong economy, it also opens up a lot of interesting early game strategies, since Indian players don't need to ship the Settler card in order to get started.

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