Patrician 3
Encyclopedia
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is the third video game from Ascaron
in their Patrician series. It is a game simulating trading, piracy, politics, and economy. The series was originally released in German, as Patrizier and Patrizier 2. Patrizier 2 had an add on release called Patrizier 2: Aufschwung der Hanse. Patrician 3 is the international
release in English
of the combined Patrizier 2 and its expansion. The German version was released in 2000 and the English version in 2003.
The Patrician series was continued in 2010 with Patrician IV
, since Kalypso Media
bought the licenses from the insolvent Ascaron company.
in the 14th century. There are twenty-four cities
on a map of the Baltic
and North Sea
. Towns include Luebeck, Stockholm
, London
, and others of the Hanseatic League.
and economic
simulation
. Goods of varying types are produced in the town
s, and may be sold in other towns on the game map which do not produce them. You start as a fledgling trader with one or two ship
s of small size, a trade office in the town of your choosing, and some money
.
As you gain wealth and reputation
, you may be permitted to open additional trading offices, and can build larger and better armed ships. Industrial
and agricultural businesses can be opened to supply raw material
s such as grain
, timber
, pig iron
, or wool
and finished goods such as pottery
, iron
goods, cloth, or beer
. There are a series of ranks which you can attain through wealth and popularity. These ranks are placed in order of increasing power.
Shopkeeper, Trader, Merchant, Travelling Merchant, Councillor, Patrician, Lord Mayor, and Alderman.
Competitors roam the seas, as do pirates. The method in which one must increase their rank is to increase their financial status and gain reputation. One can organize feasts, donate to the church, donate public buildings, and defend against attack. You can also turn to the dark side, engage in piracy, smuggle goods, and even attack towns, among other things, for cash and goods.
If needed goods are not supplied to the cities, population and market
s decline. With adequate goods, the league thrives. The system becomes increasingly difficult to manage as it grows. From a starting population of a few tens of thousands, growth to many hundreds of thousands is possible. New cities may be founded, and socially
as you advance you may become lord mayor
of your town, in charge of its defense
against pirates, marauder
s of the countryside, or the local Prince who may besiege
and loot your city. Undertake missions as mayor, and you may ultimately become the Alderman
, the leader of the Hanseatic League. Trade with the Mediterranean cities (which must be discovered) and also with American
tribes is possible as well, for potentially great profits.
The game may be played either as solo player
or in a multiplayer game modes with various difficulty settings; a map editor permits addition of different cities.
, the game had an average score of 72% based on 12 reviews. On Metacritic
, the game had an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 8 reviews.
Ascaron
Ascaron Entertainment was a video game developer based in Germany. Founded as Ascon and later renamed in October 1996 due to the possible confusion with the Swiss company Ascom AG, the company produced titles primarily for the PC until it was made insolvent in 2009.-Background and history:Ascaron...
in their Patrician series. It is a game simulating trading, piracy, politics, and economy. The series was originally released in German, as Patrizier and Patrizier 2. Patrizier 2 had an add on release called Patrizier 2: Aufschwung der Hanse. Patrician 3 is the international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
release in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
of the combined Patrizier 2 and its expansion. The German version was released in 2000 and the English version in 2003.
The Patrician series was continued in 2010 with Patrician IV
The Patrician IV
Patrician IV is the first computer game from Gaming Minds Studios and part of the Patrician series. It is a game simulating trading, piracy, politics, and economy.Originally the Patrician series was developed by Ascaron...
, since Kalypso Media
Kalypso Media
Kalypso Media is a German video game developer and publisher. Founded in summer 2006 by industry veterans Simon Hellwig and Stefan Marcinek, the company has published and/or developed a number of successful titles such as Sins of a Solar Empire, Ceville, Dungeons, Patrician IV, Tropico 3 and...
bought the licenses from the insolvent Ascaron company.
Setting
The game is set in the Hanseatic LeagueHanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
in the 14th century. There are twenty-four cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
on a map of the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. Towns include Luebeck, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and others of the Hanseatic League.
Gameplay
The game is a tradingTrade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
and economic
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
. Goods of varying types are produced in the town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
s, and may be sold in other towns on the game map which do not produce them. You start as a fledgling trader with one or two ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
s of small size, a trade office in the town of your choosing, and some money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
.
As you gain wealth and reputation
Reputation
Reputation of a social entity is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria...
, you may be permitted to open additional trading offices, and can build larger and better armed ships. Industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
and agricultural businesses can be opened to supply raw material
Raw material
A raw material or feedstock is the basic material from which a product is manufactured or made, frequently used with an extended meaning. For example, the term is used to denote material that came from nature and is in an unprocessed or minimally processed state. Latex, iron ore, logs, and crude...
s such as grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
, timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
, or wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
and finished goods such as pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
goods, cloth, or beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
. There are a series of ranks which you can attain through wealth and popularity. These ranks are placed in order of increasing power.
Shopkeeper, Trader, Merchant, Travelling Merchant, Councillor, Patrician, Lord Mayor, and Alderman.
Competitors roam the seas, as do pirates. The method in which one must increase their rank is to increase their financial status and gain reputation. One can organize feasts, donate to the church, donate public buildings, and defend against attack. You can also turn to the dark side, engage in piracy, smuggle goods, and even attack towns, among other things, for cash and goods.
If needed goods are not supplied to the cities, population and market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
s decline. With adequate goods, the league thrives. The system becomes increasingly difficult to manage as it grows. From a starting population of a few tens of thousands, growth to many hundreds of thousands is possible. New cities may be founded, and socially
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
as you advance you may become lord mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of your town, in charge of its defense
Defense (military)
Defense has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defense implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armor, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy...
against pirates, marauder
Marauder
A marauder is a bandit, outlaw, raider or such like who moves about in roving fashion looking for plunder.Other uses of marauder, usually derived from the above include:in " Football"...
s of the countryside, or the local Prince who may besiege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
and loot your city. Undertake missions as mayor, and you may ultimately become the Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
, the leader of the Hanseatic League. Trade with the Mediterranean cities (which must be discovered) and also with American
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
tribes is possible as well, for potentially great profits.
The game may be played either as solo player
Single player
A Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...
or in a multiplayer game modes with various difficulty settings; a map editor permits addition of different cities.
Critical reception
The game received generally favorable reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, the game had an average score of 72% based on 12 reviews. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the game had an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 8 reviews.
External links
- Publisher's website
- Kalypso Media Website