Atlanteans

"The Atlanteans scout by using their Oracle. Atlantean soldiers are fairly expensive, but each one of them can be turned into Heroes. In later ages, units can be trained from the Palace are their most powerful. Atlantean Citizens gather resources and construct buildings. Citizens are slow, expensive units that do not require a drop site to collect resources. The Atlanteans gain Favor by stationing Oracles around the map to commune with the gods."
In-game description

The Atlanteans are a civilization in Age of Mythology. They are based on the people of the fictional/mythological island called Atlantis mentioned in the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's works "Timaeus" and "Critias", but with some modified lore.

Overview

Civilian: Citizen.
- Compared to other villagers, Citizens are stronger, do not require drop sites, and can be turned into Heroes, but are also costlier and move slower.
Oracles and Oracle Heroes generate favor depending on the sum of the areas under their vision.
Can transform any human unit to its hero counterpart for a price.
Houses replaced by Manors, which have a lower build limit, but provide more population space and allow two Citizens to garrison for safety.
Economic technologies are researched at the Economic Guild.
Each wall section costs 5 gold.
Each Farm costs 150 wood and has +200 hit points.
Archer ships (Biremes) cost 20% less, siege ships (Siege Biremes) cost -10 gold.
Transport Ships have 190 hit points, a movement speed of 5.33, and a garrison space of 12.
Start with two Citizens and three Oracles (spawning at the 5, 10, and 15 second mark), and 275 food, 250 wood, 75 gold.
Docks cost 125 wood.

Major Gods

Kronos

Can time-shift buildings to new locations (towers and Palaces cost 50% of their price to shift, others are free).
Buildings are constructed 25% faster per nearby Manor.
Receive 2 free myth units instead of 1 when advancing to the next age.
Lost siege and myth units return 20% of their resource cost.

Gaia

Start with Hero Citizens and promoting Citizens to heroes costs -25%.
Economic Guilds cost -40%. Economic Guild upgrades cost -40% and can be researched an age early.
Economic buildings (Town Centers, Manors, Economic Guilds, and Markets) grow Lush.
Lush heals friendly units and buildings (1 hit point per second).

Oranos

Can build a new Sky Passage each age.
Units can enter Sky Passages to instantly travel between them.
All units have +4 Line of Sight.
Oracles generate +25% Favor at full Line of Sight.
Damaged enemy units remain visible for 25 seconds.

Minor Gods

Classical Age

Name	Major Gods	Focus
Prometheus	Kronos and Oranos	Heroes
Leto	Gaia and Kronos	Automatons
Oceanus	Gaia and Oranos	Infantry

Heroic Age

Name	Major Gods	Focus
Hyperion	Kronos and Oranos	Heroes
Rheia	Gaia and Kronos	Favor generation
Theia	Gaia and Oranos	Cavalry

Mythic Age

Name	Major Gods	Focus
Helios	Kronos and Oranos	Siege Weapons
Atlas	Gaia and Kronos	Buildings
Hekate	Gaia and Oranos	Myth Units

Units

Civilians

Name	Description
Citizen	Gathers all resources (except favor) and builds buildings. Does not require a drop site
Oracle	Scout unit with no attack whose Line of Sight grows when standing still. Generates favor based on its current Line of Sight, but the generation rate is reduced if multiple Oracles' Lines of Sight overlap

Human Soldiers

Military Barracks
Name	Description
Murmillo	Classical Age general infantry unit, it is strong against cavalry and decent against other infantry making it a fairly well-rounded unit
Contarius	Heroic Age general cavalry unit; armed with a spear and fairly hefty armor. It has a decent speed and a high attack
Arcus	Heroic Age archer. It is strong against infantry and weak against cavalry

Counter Barracks
Name	Description
Katapeltes	Classical Age infantry, it is the main Atlantean infantry counter against cavalry
Turma	Classical Age mounted archer, the Turma is a cavalry archer only good against other archers. It is very much like the Egyptian Slinger, though far more mobile. Their mobility could in theory be useful for raiding, as it can be; however, the Turma has such low hack armor and attack that using them for that purpose isn't very effective.

Palace
Name	Description
Destroyer	Heroic Age infantry, an anti-building unit that has high pierce armor but is weak against other infantry
Fanatic	Mythic Age infantry, it fights very well against both infantry and cavalry due to their attack bonus against human soldiers, but are quite susceptible to archer fire

Siege Weapons

Counter Barracks
Name	Description
Cheiroballista	Heroic Age ranged soldier and siege unit which is excellent against ships and infantry, but weak against cavalry and buildings

Palace
Name	Description
Fire Siphon	Mythic Age siege unit with very high pierce armor and a very high attack, but almost no hack armor. It shoots fire and is very strong against buildings

Heroes

Atlanteans cannot train heroes specifically, but convert their human units to hero status. These hero units are:

• Citizen Hero • Cheiroballista Hero

• Oracle Hero • Arcus Hero

• Murmillo Hero • Contarius Hero

• Katapeltes Hero • Destroyer Hero

• Turma Hero • Fanatic Hero

Ships

Name	Description
Bireme	Weaker and cheaper than all other archer ships
Fire Ship	Ranged close-combat ship, replacing the hammer ship. Shared with the Chinese
Siege Bireme	Weaker than all other siege ships, costs 10 less gold

Myth Units

Dock
Name	Description
Nereid	A melee myth unit which is specialized against other myth units and can tackle its enemies
Man O' War	A ranged unit which fires chain-lightning bolts

Name	Description
Titan	The Atlanteans control a giant lava golem with crystal spikes sprouting from its back and elbows as their Titan, named Chthonian. The crystals change color depending on the in-game player color. It is unknown which mythological being it represents

Buildings

Economic

Name	Description
Economic Guild	Archaic Age building where all economic improvements can be researched
Manor	Archaic Age building which replaces the generic House, provides 20 population each and has a build limit of 5

Defensive

Name	Description
Bronze Wall	Classical Age wall, upgrade of the Stone Wall
Iron Wall	Heroic Age wall, upgrade of the Bronze Wall
Orichalcum Wall	Mythic Age wall, upgrade of the Iron Wall

Atlantean Heroes

Unlike the other civilizations in Age of Mythology, the Atlanteans can create Heroes from regular units, simply by clicking a button while the unit is selected, for a resource cost. The change takes considerable time (approximately 8 seconds), during which the unit will continue to take damage from enemies and is completely immobile during the transformation. The time taken is halved by Heart of the Titans. They become heroes only at the end of the animation, so planning when and where to promote units is required and should not be done ad hoc during combat. These new hero units have all of the attributes of heroes from other civilizations. The heroes are simply created from regular human units, so they still retain previous weaknesses while gaining an attack bonus against myth units and a slight increase in any other bonuses they possess. Atlantean heroes are the middle ground in the game: They are more expensive than Egyptian and Norse heroes, but not as weak to human soldiers. They are weaker than Greek heroes, but are not limited in number, except for Citizens. Citizen heroes share their build limit with regular Citizens.

Favor

The Atlantean favor generation is done by Oracles, which are created from the Temple with a maximum population of 10. Each Oracle contributes a small amount of favor passively, which increases based on how far the Oracle's Line of Sight extends, from a minimum of 0.6 favor per minute up to maximum of approximately 3.4 favor per minute, increased to 4.8 favor per minute if the Oracle is upgraded to a hero. However, if the vision of two or more Oracles is overlapping, the overlapped area will only provide favor from one of them. A circle surrounds the Oracle when it is selected which shows its vision and favor-gathering influence.

Atlanteans who worship Rheia and research the Horns of Consecration technology are also able to gain favor passively through Town Centers at a rate of 3 favor per minute per Town Center.

Starting Conditions

The Atlanteans start with higher resource counts than the other civilizations, with 325 food, 300 wood, 125 gold in addition to steady favor generation from the start with their initial Town Center.

Their starting units are one Citizen and one Oracle, the Atlanteans' scouting unit. However, two more Oracles appear from the Town Center at ten-second intervals. Oracles don't work as other scouts do, they have an extremely low Line of Sight while moving. But while they're standing still, their LOS gradually increases until it reaches its maximum range in 1 minute. Once it reaches its maximum range, the Oracle will send a "flare" to alert the player.

Other Attributes

The Atlanteans are completely themed on "Quality over Quantity". Their units are extremely expensive, but far more powerful and effective than the units from the other civilizations. An example of this would be the Citizen which is slower, tankier, takes longer to train, and costs 125 food, 25 wood, and 3 population slots, but are far more efficient than other villagers. The Citizens do not need resource dropping points. Instead, they have donkeys, which follow them and act as personal resource gathering points; enabling them to continuously put resources into the stockpile rather than having to drop them off at a building. If a resource should become depleted, the Atlantean Citizen will be able to move, by itself, to a similar resource elsewhere.

Another attribute is the ability to use god powers more than once, the amount depending on the power of the god power being used. Though the Atlanteans can use most of their god powers more than once, there is a "cooldown period" between the usage of the god power, which is dependent on the god power, ranging from around one minute to five. Certain Mythic Age god powers may only be used once.

Houses for the Atlanteans also have some changes. Unlike the other civilizations of Age of Mythology, the Atlanteans have unique Houses called 'Manors' that can garrison up to five units, have over double the hit points of normal Houses, and serve a population of 20 instead of 10. However, due to this increase in the population cap per building, the Atlanteans are only able to build five Manors. Each Manor costs 80 wood, 25 gold, making them considerably more expensive than normal Houses.

Trivia

The lore stated in the game for the Atlanteans differs from their description in Plato's works; the section for the Secrets of the Titans technology states that the Atlanteans were the only humans who survived the war between the Titans and the Olympian gods, making them the oldest of the human cultures in the game's canon.
Unlike the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, the Atlanteans are a mythical civilization. They speak a fictional language, which is a mix taken from the voice lines of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse.
Although totally fictional, they draw considerable inspiration from some real-life civilization, like Greeks, the Inca, the Mesoamericans (Aztecs or Toltecs were considered as civilizations originally), and the Romans (who were also originally considered for the expansion). This can be seen in:
- Destroyers are based on the Roman Legionary (circa 1st Century CE) and the Retiarius gladiator.
- Fanatics are based on the Dimachaerus, whom was a Roman gladiation that fashioned two swords, daggers or knives.
- Murmillos are based on the gladiator of the same name. Their inter-service rivalry with the Destroyers is a reference to the fact Retiarii gladiators were pitted against a "secutor", a gladiator armed similarly to the Murmillo.
- The Turma gets its name from a Roman Equite squadron.
- Contarii were Roman Cavalry Auxiliaries that wielded Lances.
- Arcus comes from the Latin word meaning Bow.
- Katapeltes comes from the Greek word meaning Shield (peltē/πέλτη, a type of small shield) Breaker (kata/κατά: against {preposition}).
- Cheiroballistae are Roman Siege engines, essentially a large crossbow.
- Onagers were Roman siege engines, more specifically a type of torsion catapult.
- Fire Siphons and Fire Ships use the same technology that the Eastern Romans (or Byzantines) invented.
- Citizens wear clothes that resemble the traditional clothing of Basque people, who were part of the Roman Empire.
- Llamas were the beasts of burden of the Inca Empire.
- Oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre, "to speak".
- Tamaracks, marsh trees, and quaking aspens are all found in various biomes of North America.
- The architecture featured in the Atlantean Mythic Age appears to have been based upon the Incan "Mortarless Polygonal Masonry" architecture.
Compared to most civilizations, the Atlanteans history section is mostly lore-based, rather than historical or Mythology, similar to Amanra, Arkantos, and many other campaign heroes' history files.
The Atlanteans are implied to have been an imperialist kingdom according to their lore. This, along with the Destroyer's helmet resembling a 19th century British Army officer's helmet and their location on an island, is likely a reference to the real world British Empire, who would appear in Age of Empires III.
- Furthermore, the Atlantean Citizens have the ability to gather resources without depositing them at a dropsite, much like the Settlers in Age of Empires III.
Despite being based on Plato's dialogue Critias, the Atlanteans do not have access to Slingers nor Chariots, likely because said inclusions may have either created confusion or had been too similar to the Egyptians.
- According to left over and unfinished anim files, the Atlanteans were at one point considered to get a War Chariot unit. However, the only leftover for this is the War Chariot Hero_anim.txt file, a copy of the Chariot Archer_anim.txt file, and was most likely replaced by the Turma.
The Atlanteans are the only civilization in Age of Mythology that utilize personality names (Azor, Arkantos, etc.) for AI players, rather than the names of locations or city-states (for eg. Thebes, Greenland, and so on).