Age of Empires III: Galactic Conflict is a non-commercial, fan-based Star Wars themed mod under construction for Ensemble’s Studios Age of Empires III, drawing inspiration from several star wars games such as Galactic Battlegrounds, Force Commander and Empire at War, AoE3: GC aims to bring the star wars universe to the great RTS game of Age of Empires III.
Class: Melee-Infantry
Good Against: Predators, and early Infantry.
Bad Against: Mechs, Aerial units and Buildings.
Factions: Confederacy
The B1 Grapple Droid was a variation of the Baktoid's B1 Battle Droid and used by the Separatist Army as their more expandable melee go-to model.
The Grapple droid was a type of B1 battle droid used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during its campaigns against the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars. The droids were designed by Geonosians for hand-to-hand combat, and were armed with grapple claws for the melee fighting. Grapple Droids were often called to intercept assaulting infantry, alting their advance, while troops would give them fire support behind. The later B2 Super Grapple Droids proved much more effective, though not as cheap as their B1-series counterpart.
In Age of Empires III: Galactic Conflict, B1 Grapple Droids are an expandable and spammable melee unit, though it turns almost obsolete on the mid-late game as player gain acess to mechs and aerial units.
Author's Note:
The Grapple Droid was part of the old legends' canon, and was actually brought back into new canon for the tower defense game, Star Wars: Galactic Defense. I also thought funny that the only canon variation of the B1 present on the first screen, was also the one that people could identify the less on the original image -- though I understand, it might come as a boring unit. On the other hand, all factions ought to have melee units on their rosters -- mostly because I could not bear to watch all melee units removed from the game engine -- but I promise I'm working on trying to get melee units interesting.
Credits
Star Wars: Force Arena for the main B1 Battle Droid Mesh and texture
Model, Skeleton and textures edited by me
Grapples mesh and textures made by me based on their appearence for Star Wars: Galactic Defense.
So, what are your opinions on this weird unit? Did it grapple your attention or are you never going to use it? What are your thoughts on the melee units and how should they be implemented? Suggestions, as always, are very much welcomed.
Just one more time: remember to click view original to see in high definition!
Interesting concept, but it looks kinda off-putting. Would have expected a magnaguard or a B-2 grapple droid for a melee unit. Maybe a nemoidian guard?
The B2 Super Grapple Droid is planned as the mid-game stronger alternative to the B1 Grapple Droid. (Remember, the Separatist infantry roster is not upgradable -- but rather interchangable between cheaper/weaker and costlier/stronger units).
Neimoidian Brutes might also come as special reinforcement units for the CIS, or as natives on certain random maps (such as Mustafar or Neimoidian pulse worlds, haven't decided quite yet tbh...) but I'm not very kin of the idea of having them in the basic unit roaster
hmm.. with the mod try to focus on canon elements, does it mean we won't see the rumored B3 series ultra battle droid?
Hmm, I believe that, unlike his older brothers B2, the advantage of this droid should not be that he goes into hand-to-hand combat, like a heavy, slow but powerful meat shield, but he must quickly reach enemy light units and impose them a hand-to-hand fight and hinder their actions (first of all - shooting) - a fast and cheap unit that will be useful for flanking and rear attacks.