How to Increase the Deck Size in "Age of Empires III"

“Age of Empires III” is the third sequel in a series of real-time strategy games published by Microsoft Game Studios. “Age of Empires III uses a unique deck system that prevents players from becoming over-powered, thus maintaining balance within the game. Each deck is limited to a maximum of 20 cards, but players can expand that number by modifying the game files within the “Age of Empires III” game save folder.

Click the “Start” icon on the task bar and select “Documents.” Click on the “My Games” folder, “Age of Empires 3” and “Savegame.”

Locate the “sp_[yourcityname]_homecity.xml” file, with “[yourcityname]” substituted for the name of your current city. Copy and paste the file to another location within your “Documents” folder as a backup.

Open the “sp_[yourcityname]_homecity.xml” file in a text editor. Locate the line “xx,” where “xx” represents the current number of card unlock points you currently have.

Change the number represented by “xx” to a high number (i.e., “999”) and save the file.

Start “Age of Empires 3” and enter into a skirmish battle. Navigate to the deck management section and check how many unlock points you have. The number of unlock points shown should match the number you entered in the “sp_[yourcityname]_homecity.xml” file. You can use the unlock points to expand the size of your deck.