Age of Empires Series

Age of Empires
Age of Empires (often abbreviated to AoE), is a history-based real-time strategy computer game released in 1997. Developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, the game uses theGenie, a 2D sprite based game engine. The game allows the user to act as the leader of an ancient civilization by advancing it through four ages, (Stone Age, Tool Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age) gaining access to new and improved units with each advance.

Originally touted as Civilization meets Warcraft, some reviewers felt that the game failed to live up to these expectations when it was released.[5] Despite this, it received generally good reviews, and an expansion pack, Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome was released in 1998. Both the original Age of Empires and the expansion pack were later released as "the Gold Edition".

Gameplay
Age of Empires requires the player to develop a civilization from a handful of hunter-gatherers to an expansive Iron Age empire. To assure victory, the player must gather resources in order to pay for new units, buildings and more advanced technology. Resources must also be preserved, as no new resources become available as the game progresses, for example, trees that are cut down will not grow back.[6] [7]

Twelve civilizations are available. Each with individual sets of attributes, including a varying number of available technologies and units. Each civilization has technologies unique to them, so that no civilization possesses all the technologies possible within the game.[8]

A major component of the game is the advancement through four ages. These are the Stone Age (Mesolithic/Nomad/Paleolithic), the Tool Age (Neolithic/Chalcolithic), the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Advancement between ages is researched at the Town Center, and each advancement brings the player new technologies, weapons, and units.[7] [9]

[edit] Modes
The game features four single-player campaigns in which the player is required to complete specific objectives. Campaigns are a collection of scenarios which are completed in a linear fashion. The campaigns follow the history of the Egyptian, Greek, Babylonian and Yamato civilizations; there's also a complete campaign specially made for the demo version that takes place in the Hittiteempire.[10] Aside from the campaigns, there is a game mode called "random map", in which a different map is generated for each new game. Variations of random map, such as the resource-heavy "death match", are also available.[7] [11] [12]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires also facilitated online and network play with up to 8 people simultaneously. Because the network play is less sophisticated than that of modern games, lag and disconnections often occur.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;">[13] Until 19 June 2006, multiplayer gameplay was supported by Microsoft Gaming Zone. At that point, the Zone abandoned support of most CD-ROM games, including Age of Empires and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;">[14]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The creation of user-made scenarios or series of scenarios (campaigns) for the game was made possible using the Scenario Builder. This tool is simpler and easier to learn than comparable editors used in more modern games, but it has fewer capabilities as a result. Ensemble Studios used the Scenario Builder to make the single-player campaigns which shipped with the retail game. Various unofficial sites exist where custom scenarios can be submitted and downloaded. In late 2005, it was discovered that by modifying various data files, units present in the beta versions of the game could be made available in the editor. Some obscure units include a spaceship and a hero that changes ownership when units move near it. Through data editing, the rules of unit placement can also be modified. This allows units to be placed on any terrain and on top of other units, which creates new possibilities for design. Other significant discoveries include new terrain templates, a mode to treble each unit's hitpoints, and a tool to edit map sizes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;">[15]

[edit] Civilizations
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Players choose to play as one of 12 civilizations. The civilizations are sorted into four distinct architectural styles, based on East Asian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek architecture, which determine their in-game appearance.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FeaturesHistorical_15-0" style="line-height:1em;">[16] The 12 civilizations are:

Technology
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Technology is researched at specific buildings, to which they are generally related; for example, religious research is done in temples and improved armor is researched in the storage pit.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSPreview_6-3" style="line-height:1em;">[7] Technological advances come in many categories, such as military upgrades (better arms and armor for units), economic upgrades (increasing the efficiency of resource gathering), religious upgrades (faster conversion rates and more abilities for priests) and infrastructure upgrades (stronger fortifications and more resilient buildings). As basic technology research is completed, more advanced technologies may become available. Some technologies are not available to certain civilizations.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GSPreview_6-4" style="line-height:1em;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Technology plays a very important role in the strategy of the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-0" style="line-height:1em;">[17] As a civilization progresses through the ages, technology becomes more and more expensive, which makes collecting the necessary resources to research them difficult.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-1" style="line-height:1em;">[17] As a consequence, balancing the workforce of villagers across the various resources can make the difference between victory and defeat.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-2" style="line-height:1em;">[17]

Units
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Players control a variety of civilian and military units.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-3" style="line-height:1em;">[17] Most units can be upgraded through research (e.g. faster gathering for villagers, stronger armor for military units, and longer range for archers).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-4" style="line-height:1em;">[17]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Land-based units are the most prevalent in gameplay. Villagers are the most basic units in Age of Empires. Their primary function is to collect resources; cutting down trees for wood, mining for stone and gold, and hunting, foraging, farming, or fishing to acquire food.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-5" style="line-height:1em;">[17] Villagers can also construct buildings and repair both buildings and naval vessels, and are capable of engaging in hand-to-hand combat when necessary. Priests are non-combat units which can heal allied units or "convert" enemy units (in which case the target unit changes allegiance). Infantry units, such as clubmen, swordsmen, and hoplites use melee combat to attack at short range. Mounted units include chariots, cavalry, and war elephants. Archers, mounted or on foot, attack at range. Siege units are of two types: catapults and ballista. Catapults hurl stones which generate blast damage, affecting all units in a small area, and are especially effective against buildings and groups of units. The ballista is less damaging against buildings and units, but it fires faster and is cheaper than the catapult.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Nautical units often play a secondary role, but can be essential to victory. Fishing boats are similar to villagers in that they can gather fish. Merchant ships trade resources from the stockpile and exchange it for gold at another player's dock, with the amount of gold earned being relative to the distance between both docks. Transport ships carry land units from one area of land to another. As well as attacking enemy ships, warships can be very effective in attacking land-based units close to the shoreline (because melee units cannot fight back). Warships come either as galleys which fire arrows or triremes which launch bolts or boulders (very effective against buildings near the shoreline).

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Unit types are identical, regardless of civilization (though certain civilizations may have improved variations of these units). So, for example, a Korean Choson broad swordsman is identical to a Persian or Phoenician one, as are bowmen, axemen, short swordsmen, cavalry, and so forth. Some armors and clothes are historically inaccurate, with the long swordsman bearing more resemblance to a Roman praetorian. Some units were also available in the game to civilizations that never, historically, had them; hoplites can be trained by every civilization except Persia, and some middle-Asian civilizations can train legions and centurions, while Japanese Yamato can build triremes.

[edit] Buildings
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Town Center is one of the most important buildings in the game. Here villagers are created, and age advancement is researched. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-6" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;line-height:1em;">[17] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Most scenarios have each player begin with a single Town Center; the ability to build multiple Town Centers is unlocked by the construction of the Government Center during the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Bronze Age<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-7" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;line-height:1em;">[17] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Town Center provides population support for four units. In order to build more units, houses must be constructed. Each house supports four units, and although any number of houses can be built (a concept which was not maintained in later games like <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Age of Mythology<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">), they can only support a maximum of fifty units. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Allgame_16-8" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;line-height:1em;">[17]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Military units are produced at specific buildings relevant to their area. All sea units are created at the docks. Walls and towers are defensive fortifications (Age of Empires was one of the first real-time strategy games to include walls strong enough to form a feasible means of defense). Farms are used to produce food. Granaries, storage pits, and the Town Center are used to store resources deposited by the villagers.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Wonders are enormous monuments representing the architectural achievements of the time, such as the Egyptian Pyramids. They require huge amounts of resources to build and are constructed very slowly. Wonders can neither produce units nor conduct research. In scenarios with Standard Victory conditions, a player can win by constructing a wonder and keeping it from being destroyed for 2,000 years (about 10 minutes in the real world). Building a wonder also greatly increases a player's score, which is beneficial in "score" games. Players typically make it their top priority to destroy enemy wonders, especially under Standard Victory conditions. For this reason and because a wonder is relatively easy to destroy, a wonder must be well-guarded at all times.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FeaturesHistorical_15-1" style="line-height:1em;">[16]

Age of Empires: Rise of Rome
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome Expansion is a history-based real-time strategy game in the Age of Empires series. It is based on the rise of the Roman Empire, and adds the Roman Empire and three other playable civilizations to Age of Empires.

New Features
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Rise of Rome features a new Roman architectural design, shared by all four new civilizations, the Romans, Palmyrans, Macedonians and Carthaginians. Four new researchable technologies have been added. Additional new features include five new units, four new random map types, and a larger map size option.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height:1em;">[1] Pathfinding for all units is also considerably improved.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Gameplay-wise, the expansion introduced numerous interface tweaks, such as unit queuing, the ability to double click a single unit and highlight others of the same unit-type, balancing damage done by catapults, and the option to increase the population limit beyond 50 (only in multiplayer games). By installing the 1.0a update, it is also possible to use the period key to cycle through idle villagers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">New music was composed for this expansion, which replaced the original score entirely.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The largest Rise of Rome online community can still be found at http://www.rornews.net

Age of Empires II - The Age of Kings
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (often shortened to AGE2, The Age of Kings, AoE II or AoK) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems, it was the second game in the Age of Empires series. An expansion, The Conquerors, was released in 2000. APlayStation 2 version was released by Konami in 2001, and a Nintendo DS spinoff, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings was developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2006. The Dreamcast port, by Konami, was canceled.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations. They are the Britons, Byzantines, Celts, Goths, Teutons, Franks, Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Persians, Saracens, Turks and the Vikings. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are five historically-based campaigns, which constrict the player to specialized and story-backed conditions. There are three additional single player game modes, and multiplayer is supported. Despite using the same game engine and similar code to its predecessor, development of The Age of Kings took a year longer than expected, forcing Ensemble Studios to release Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome in 1998 instead. The design team focused on resolving significant issues in Age of Empires, but noted on release that some problems remained.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Reception of The Age of Kings was overwhelmingly positive, and the game scored highly on review aggregators. The significant number of new features was praised, as were the gameplay improvements. Some reviewers were critical of the presentation of units—they were seen as bland and uninteresting—while others considered The Age of Kings to be overly similar to its predecessor, Age of Empires. Three months after its release, two million copies of The Age of Kings had been shipped, and it topped sales charts in seven countries. The game won multiple awards and has had a significant impact on future games in its genre.

Gameplay
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Age of Kings focuses on building towns, gathering resources, creating armies, and destroying enemy units and buildings. Players conquer rival towns and empires as they advance one of 13 civilizations through four "Ages": the Dark Age, the Feudal Age, the Castle Age (The Middle Ages), and the Imperial Age, reminiscent of the Renaissance—a 1000 year timeframe.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height:1em;">[1] Advancing to a new Age unlocks new units, structures, and technologies, but players must pay a sum of resources to advance to the next age (typically food and gold) once selected technologies are researched from their current age, and certain buildings are constructed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual31_1-0" style="line-height:1em;">[2]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Civilian units, called "villagers", are used to gather resources; they are either male or female - gender does not affect their abilities. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things; for example, players can research better armour for infantry units. The game offers four types of resources: food, wood, gold, and stone. Food is obtained by hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, and shore fishing and fishing from boats. Wood is gathered by chopping down trees. Gold is obtained from either gold mines, trade or using relics in a monastery, and stone is collected from stone mines. Villagers require checkpoints, typically depository buildings (town center, mining camp, mill, and lumber yard), where they can store gathered resources.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1em;">[3] Each civilization can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Players can construct a market for trade; players can either trade wood, stone, and food for gold, and use gold to buy other resources. Market prices fluctuate with every transaction.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-preview_3-0" style="line-height:1em;">[4] Furthermore, docks can also generate gold by using trading cogs which are used to visit ally ports; once they return to the player's port, gold is added to the stockpile. The amount of gold a trading cog earns on each trip is related to the distance it had to travel to an ally port. More gold is earned on longer trips. It is possible to trade with enemies' ports, but the player's trading vessels may be attacked or destroyed by enemy units in the process. Players do not need to keep trading manually, as once they select the port or market the trading units infinitely continue to trade.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are five campaigns in The Age of Kings, containing historically-based scenarios such as Genghis Khan's invasion of Eurasia, Barbarossa's Crusade, or Saladin's defence of the Holy Land. In theJoan of Arc and William Wallace campaigns, the player can control a unit based on its namesake; in others, players take orders from guiding spirits representative of the army's commander.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;">[5] The William Wallace campaign is a tutorial that guides new players through the basic processes of the game, such as moving units, gathering resources and building before moving on the campaign play proper.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Additional game modes are available to the player in The Age of Kings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;">[6] One mode, random map, generates a plain map, with players starting in the Dark Age with a Town Center, three villagers, and a scout unit. The game can be won through military conquest, by constructing a special building known as a Wonder and keeping it standing for a certain amount of time, or by obtaining control of all relics on the map for a set amount of time. Deathmatch mode allows players to begin with large amounts of resources, creating a focus on military dominance, while in the regicide mode each player is given a king unit, winning by killing all of the other monarchs.

[edit] Civilizations
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Players choose to play as one of 13 civilizations split into four architectural styles, West European, Central European, Middle Eastern, and East Asian, that determine building appearance in-game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;">[7] The 13 civilizations are: Britons, Byzantines,Celts, Chinese, Franks, Goths, Japanese, Mongols, Persians, Saracens, Teutons, Turks, and Vikings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;">[8] The civilizations have varying strengths and weaknesses with regards to economics, technology, and battle, and each has access to a different, very powerful "Unique Unit".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpotRev_8-0" style="line-height:1em;">[9] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;">[10] Additionally, each civilization provides an individual team bonus in team games.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual14_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[11] To add variety, each civilization has a set of soundbites in its native language (except the Goths (who speak German) and Byzantines) that are uttered by units when selected or instructed to perform a task.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Eurogamer_11-0" style="line-height:1em;">[12]

[edit] Units
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Every player has a limit to the number of units they can create—a population limit—but may not immediately use the entire potential population.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-preview_3-1" style="line-height:1em;">[4] The population capacity, which can be capped at anywhere between 75<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual28_12-0" style="line-height:1em;">[13] - 200,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;">[14] is based on the number of houses, Castles, or Town Centers—the main building in a player's town—which have been built. The Age of Kings introduced two significant new features for unit management: the idle villager button, which helps players identify villagers that have not been assigned a task, and the town bell, which sends all a player's villagers into their Town Center, Castle, or tower for safety;<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GamePro_14-0" style="line-height:1em;">[15] units garrisoned within these three buildings, especially archers, increase the building's firepower (towers fire more arrows with units garrisoned inside) including the town center, which can not fire anything at all without someone garrisoned there.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Age of Kings also includes five types of military units: infantry, archers,cavalry, siege weaponry, and naval units. Certain types of infantry, archers, and cavalry are "counter units" with special defenses against other types of unit. The three human classes of military generally follow a rock-paper-scissors model. For example, infantry are generally powerful against buildings but weak against cavalry, thus the infantry counter units—spearmen and pikemen—have attack bonuses against cavalry.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1em;">[16] Each Civilization in The Age of Kings has 1 or more special unit that is exclusive to that Civilization. For instance, the Britons have access to Longbowmen, an archery unit with increased range. These Civilization-specific units are generally more powerful, but still follow the basic rock-paper-scissors model. The monk is a special kind of military unit that has the ability to convert enemy units to the player's civilization, and to heal allied units. Monks are also used to collect relics; relics accumulate gold once held in the player's monastery — the more relics he has captured, the faster the gold is accumulated. Collecting all five relics on the map is one method by which a player can win a random map game, depending on the victory setting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1em;">[17] Once a player has all five in their monasteries, a timer is shown to all players. If an opposing player does not destroy a monastery holding a relic after the set time, then that player wins.

[edit] Buildings
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The buildings in The Age of Kings are split into the economic<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual48_17-0" style="line-height:1em;">[18] and military buildings categories.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual54_18-0" style="line-height:1em;">[19] Buildings can research technologies and upgrades that increase economic, military or unit-based efficiency, as well as provide resources for the player.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual48_17-1" style="line-height:1em;">[18]

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The most important economic building is the Town Center, where villagers are created, all types of resources can be stored, some technologies are researched, and the player can advance to the next Age. The Town Center can fire arrows at enemy units within range if villagers or archers are garrisoned while under attack.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guide1_19-0" style="line-height:1em;">[20] Other economic buildings available include storage buildings for resources, farms, docks (the dock may also produce several military ships), and houses to support a higher population.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual4853_20-0" style="line-height:1em;">[21]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Military buildings include unit-producing buildings such as barracks, archery ranges, stables, and castles, as well as defensive buildings such as walls and towers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual5458_21-0" style="line-height:1em;">[22] Military buildings can perform research to improve the abilities of military units, increasing their strength, defensive capabilities, or other attributes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual54_18-1" style="line-height:1em;">[19] The castle is a military building which can train a wide variety of units, including the civilization's 'Unique Unit', and fires arrows at enemy units within range, with garrisoned units (notably archery units) firing extra arrows.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual55_22-0" style="line-height:1em;">[23] It can only be built after a player has reached the Castle Age, although in some game options, players can begin with an already-built castle as early as the Dark Age.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual13_23-0" style="line-height:1em;">[24]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are two main defensive buildings, the wall and the tower. The two types of walls, stone walls and the weaker palisades, are used to prevent access to an enclosed area whilst providing a solid line of defense. Gates can be installed in stone walls to allow allied units to access a defended area.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Eurogamer_11-1" style="line-height:1em;">[12] Towers are equipped with the ability to fire arrows (watch tower and its upgrades) and bombs (bombard tower) at unfriendly units, and can be used in conjunction with the wall in defense mechanisms.

[edit] Multiplayer
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Age of Kings supports multiplayer over the Internet, or via a local area network (LAN). Up to eight players can take part in one game, with all of the single player game modes available. The MSN Gaming Zone supported the game until the service closed on June 19, 2006. Alternative services at GameSpy Arcade and GameRanger and Voobly were recommended as a replacement.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24" style="line-height:1em;">[25]

[edit] Custom Scenario
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Age of Kings features a user-friendly campaign/scenario editor that can be used to create fully customized battles and missions with unique objectives and victory conditions that are set by the user. The NPCs in the campaign/scenario editor automatically possess fully functioning artificial intelligence, so minimal programming is required. It is also possible to string user-created games into a whole campaign in the same way as with the historical campaigns, including videos.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerers Expansion Pack
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> (sometimes abbreviated to AoC<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> or AoK: TC<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">) is the expansion pack<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> to the 1999 real-time strategy<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The Conquerors<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> is the fourth installment in the Age of Empires series<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> by Microsoft Game Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and Ensemble Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. It features five new civilizations (the Aztecs<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, Mayans<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, Spanish<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, Koreans<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, and Huns<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">), four new campaigns, eleven new units, twenty-six new technologies, new gameplay modes, new maps and different minor tweaks to the gameplay.

[edit] Civilizations
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Five additional playable civilizations come with The Conquerors Expansion, including the Aztecs and Mayans, who share a newly created New World architectural style: <p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Aztecs and Mayans completely lack the ability to train cavalry units. This is partially balanced by the fact that they start with eagle warrior infantry units, who have many of the advantages that cavalry have. Both civilizations also lack access togunpowder units. The Huns are also unique in that they do not build houses to support their population, allowing them to ignore the maximum production limit of units, and focus on building up their economy and military instead (However, they can not ignore the maximum population limit decided before the start of each game).

[edit] Units
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">"The Conquerors Expansion" introduces twelve additional units to "Age of Empires II: Age of Kings":

[edit] New General Units

 * Halberdier (an upgrade to the Pikeman).
 * Hussar (an upgrade to the Light Cavalry).
 * Petard (one-use siege unit that explode).
 * Eagle Warrior & Elite Eagle Warrior (fast-moving infantry, resistant to monk conversion).

[edit] New Unique Units

 * Jaguar Warrior & Elite Jaguar Warrior (strong infantry, unique to the Aztecs).
 * Plumed Archer & Elite Plumed Archer (foot archer, unique to the Mayans).
 * War Wagon & Elite War Wagon (heavily-armored ranged cavalry, unique to the Koreans).
 * Turtle Ship & Elite Turtle Ship (heavily-armored and short-ranged cannon ship, unique to the Koreans).
 * Conquistador & Elite Conquistador (mounted gunpowder unit, unique to the Spanish).
 * Missionary (swift-mounted monk that cannot carry relics, unique to the Spanish).
 * Tarkhan & Elite Tarkhan (anti-building cavalry, based on Tarkan, unique to the Huns).

[edit] Others

 * Bleda The Hun (A unit available only in map editor and in the first mission of Attila the Hun).
 * Genitour & Elite Genitour (A Light Cavalry Skirmisher, available only in map editor. It was intended to be the Spanish unique unit, but was replaced by Conquistador).

[edit] New heroes
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">New heroes added in this upgrade include Belisarius, Yi Sun Shin, Attila the Hun, Scythian Wild Woman, El Cid Campeador, The Imam (in the second campaign of El Cid), Oda Nobunaga, King Sancho, Harald Hardraade, Henry V and King Alfonso.

[edit] Wonders
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">As in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, each new civilization has its own unique wonder.

[edit] New maps
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are a total of eight new random map types. The Conquerors expansion also introduced 10 real-world maps, which are pre-made. <p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are several custom scenarios in which users can create various objective based games.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">New Real-World maps:

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The expansion also introduces the "Blind Random" option for multiplayer games, in which the type of map randomly chosen is not revealed in advance, and the "Random Land Map," which selects only from the list of primarily land maps.
 * Britain
 * Byzantium
 * Central America
 * France
 * Iberia
 * Italy
 * Mideast
 * Norse Lands
 * Sea of Japan
 * Texas

[edit] Technologies
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Conquerors Expansion introduces in total twenty-six additional unique technologies to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings video game. These technologies can be purchased from various in-game buildings, most notably the castle (which now being able for the player to research the unique technology(ies) of the civilization), and give the player an additional bonus depending on the technology.

[edit] New technologies
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">All of these technologies are available to more than one civilization.


 * Bloodlines - Cavalry have +20 hit points.
 * Caravan - Trade carts and trade cogs move twice as fast.
 * Thumb Ring - Archers fire faster and with 100% accuracy.
 * Parthian Tactics - Cavalry archers have +1 armour and +2 pierce armour. Also, cavalry archers get a +4 bonus against spearmen, pikemen and halbardier. while Mangudai get a +2 bonus against them.
 * Herbal Medicine - Units garrisoned in buildings heal four times faster.
 * Theocracy - If several monks convert an enemy unit, only one of them must rest afterwards.
 * Heresy - Units converted by an enemy monk die instead of becoming the enemy player's unit.

[edit] Unique technologies
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">All of these technologies are unique to a specific civilization.


 * Garland Wars — Unique to the Aztecs. Increases infantry attack by +4.
 * Yeomen - Unique to the Britons. Foot archers have +1 range, and towers have +2 attack.
 * Logistica - Unique to the Byzantines. Cataphracts cause trample damage, meaning they can hit other units near them while attacking.
 * Furor Celtica - Unique to the Celts. Siege weapons have +50% hit points.
 * Rocketry - Unique to the Chinese. Chu ko nus have +2 attack, and scorpions have +4 attack.
 * Bearded Axe - Unique to the Franks, and gives throwing axemen +1 range.
 * Anarchy - The Goths are the only civilization with two unique technologies, and this is one of them. Unlike the other unique technologies, it is available in the Castle Age. It allows huskarls to be created at barracks.
 * Perfusion - The other Gothic unique technology. Barracks units are created +50% faster. Combined with the Gothic team bonus of barracks units created +20% faster, and the technology Conscription, barracks units can be created +103% faster. Combine this with the Goths' cheaper infantry, and the fact that they have +10 population in the Imperial Age, you can create a very large army of infantry in a matter of minutes.
 * Atheism - Increases the time for Wonder and Relic victories by 100 years, and the Spies and Treason research at Hunnic castles cost -50% resources. (So 1800 gold goes down to 900 gold).
 * Kataparuto - Unique to the Japanese. Trebuchets pack/unpack quicker, and fire faster. ("Kataparuto" is the Japanese katakana equivalent to "catapult".)
 * Shinkichon - Unique to the Koreans. Onagers have +1 range.
 * El Dorado - Unique to the Mayans. Eagle warriors have +40 hit points.
 * Drill - Unique to the Mongols. Siege weapons move +50% faster.
 * Mahouts — Unique to the Persians. War elephants move +30% faster.
 * Zealotry - Unique to the Saracens. Camel riders and mamelukes have +30 hit points; combined with Bloodlines, they can have +50 hit points.
 * Supremacy - Unique to the Spanish. Villagers have +40 hit points, +6 attack, +2 armour, and +2 pierce armour, which makes them a lot more useful in battle.
 * Crenellations — Unique to the Teutons. Castles have +3 range (Bodkin arrow can bring their range up to +5), and garrisoned infantry fire arrows.
 * Artillery - Unique to the Turks. Artillery (cannon galleon, elite cannon galleon, bombard cannons and bombard towers) have +2 range.
 * Berserkergang - Unique to the Vikings. Berserkers heal themselves faster; 40HP per minute (instead 20).

[edit] Miscellaneous Changes
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Various others changes were done from the age of empires: age of kings to the Age of empires: The conquerors expansion ( patch 1.0c ), some of them included


 * Cavalry Archers Reduced fire rate - The rate of firing of cavalry archer was reduced to some extent and they were made less powerful.
 * Town Centers no longer gain increment in range but only firing power. However it hasn't been updated in the help box that appears in this research in blacksmith ( namely Fletching, Bodkin Arrow and Bracer ). Pointing your arrow to one of these researches tells you there would be increment in range as well as attack power of town center, but only increment in power is observed. This was done to promote the usage of units in game instead of military war mostly done by buildings, and to bring some balance to aggressive vs defensive strategies, with long ranged town centers the defensive was strong ( also the Teutonic Town center bonus also increase only the Line of sight of town center )
 * Bombard Towers are no longer effective against battering rams, as one bomb causing only 1 HP damage and with 175HP of battering ram ( more HP for capped and siege ram ) the tower was no match for rams and should rely on ground units to prevent ram attack. This reduced the concept of trebuchets and bombard cannons being the only effective siege weapons against bombard Towers.
 * Ships can now be arranged in various formations similar to ground units.
 * Villagers now go automatically to work after they build the appropriate buildings ( Lumber camp for wood, mill for food, mining camp for gold and stone ), after they build the required building and the resources associated to that building would be in line of sight of the villager it will automatically start the gathering.

Age of Empires III
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires III (sometimes abbreviated AoE III) is a real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Microsoft Corporation's Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over and developed by Destineer's MacSoft Games and published by Destineer and MacSoft Games. The PC Version was released on October 18, 2005 in North America and November 4, 2005 in Europe, while the Mac version was released on November 21, 2006 in North America and September 29, 2006 in Europe. It is the third game of the Age of Empires series and the sequel to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. The game portrays the European colonization of the Americas, between approximately 1492 and 1850 AD (expanded in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs to 1876). There are eight European civilizations to play within the game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires III has made several innovations in the series, in particular with the addition of the "Home City", which combines real-time strategy and role-playing game features. Two expansion packshave been released: the first, Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, was released on October 17, 2006, and introduced three Native American civilizations; the second, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, was released on October 23, 2007, and included three Asian civilizations.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires III has sold over 2 million copies as of May 2008. As well as receiving favorable reviews, it has garnered awards, including GameSpy's "Best RTS game of 2005", and was one of thebest-selling games of 2005.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Two_million_copies_1-0" style="line-height:1em;">[2] In 2007, Age of Empires III was the seventh best-selling computer game, with over 313,000 copies sold that year.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2007_sales_2-0" style="line-height:1em;">[3]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">An N-Gage version of the game developed by Glu Mobile was released on April 28, 2009.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;">[4] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;">[5] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;">[6]

Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The story-based campaign mode consists of related scenarios with preset objectives, such as destroying a given building. In Age of Empires III, the campaign follows the fictional Black family in a series of three "Acts", which divide the story arc into three generations. All three acts are narrated by Amelia Black (Tasia Valenza).

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Instead of playing as one of the standard civilizations, the player takes command of a special civilization that is linked to the character or period that each Act portrays. Most units of the player civilizations speak in British language, with the exception of unique units such as Spanish Rodeleros, Spanish Lancers, German Ulhans and German War Wagons.

[edit] Act I: Blood
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During Act I, the player assumes command of the Knights of St. John, which resembles the Spanish civilization (even though the faction played is actually Maltese). The Spanish had numerous colonies in the area played throughout the Act.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Set in the late 16th century, the first act of the single-player campaign begins with the player in the role of Morgan Black<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Blood_17-0" style="line-height:1em;">[18] —of the Knights of Saint John—defending the last stronghold on Malta from Sahin "The Falcon" of the Ottoman Empire (in a telling of the Great Siege of Malta). Morgan is ordered by his superior Alain Magnan to hold Sahin on the beach, which he manages to do until the Ottomans bring up their great bombards. Morgan then lights a signal fire to call in supporting cavalryled by Alain Magnan, a head knight, who drive the Turks back and they defend the base.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Using a captured Ottoman cannon, Morgan and Alain then drive the Ottomans from Malta and detonate Ottoman weapon caches in the nearby caves. Inside, they discover that the Ottomans were really interested in a hidden stone library telling the story of the Lake of the Moon, which contains the Fountain of Youth, a secret Indian relic which is told that it has the ability to give eternal life, and the secret society, called the Circle of Ossus, who seek it. Alain orders Morgan to sail to the New World to search for the Lake, but Morgan is attacked by the Pirate Elizabet Ramsey (Lizzie the Pirate) and is forced to land in the Caribbean islands. After re-engaging and defeating Lizzie, Morgan's men find some navigation charts which guide them safely to Mexico.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In Yucatan, Morgan confronts Sahin and the Ottomans searching for the Lake and destroys the Ottoman base. However the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Juan Delgado de Leon, captures Sahin and some other Ottoman soldiers before Morgan can. Morgan is then forced to fight and defeat the Spanish, who are attacking Morgan's new allies, the Aztecs. After his battle to defend the Aztecs, Morgan realizes that Delgado and the Spanish were after the map to the Lake of the Moon disguised as the mosaic in the Aztecs' town square. The mosaic shows the Lake of the Moon being in Florida.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Morgan sets sail for Florida, hoping to beat the Spanish there, but his fleet is damaged by a oncoming hurricane and he is forced to dock in Cuba. There he earns the respect of Lizzie the Pirate and strikes a deal, promising Lizzie the gold from theSpanish treasure fleet if she takes him to Florida.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In Florida, Morgan and Lizzie are met by Alain Magnan, who orders Morgan to capture the Spanish treasure ships while he rushes ahead to capture the lake. Together Morgan and Lizzie capture the fleet, killing Delgado in the process, and capture Sahin. Sahin tells Morgan that the Circle believes the Lake of the Moon is the Fountain of Youth and that his intention from the beginning was to prevent the Circle from obtaining the Fountain.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Alain Magnan returns from the Lake and orders Morgan to execute his native allies and Sahin as heathens, but both Sahin and Lizzie convince Morgan that Alain is actually the leader of the Circle of Ossus. Therefore, the Knight, the Turk and the Pirate decide to work together to destroy the Fountain of Youth to stop the Circle's plans for domination of the New World permanetly.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Upon reaching the Lake of the Moon, the group captures and retains an enormous stationary cannon called a "Fixed Gun" from a Circle's town across their fort. Using the Fixed Gun, Lizzie's fleet of fire ships made from captured treasure ships loaded with Sahin's explosives, and Morgan's ground forces holding off the Circle's elite Boneguard, they destroy the Fountain. As damage to the Fountain increases, Alain Magnan personally leads a force of Boneguard in a counterattack and is killed during the fighting.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After the Fountain is destroyed and the Circle defeated, Sahin returns to his own country, and Lizzie, with all her Spanish gold sunk to the bottom of the lake, leaves for the Caribbean (although it is hinted that she reunites with Morgan several years later). It is also ambiguously stated that a romance eventually blossomed between them and that she was the mother of Morgan's children, making her also an ancestor of all future Blacks featured in the campaign. Morgan is last seen wondering about the significance of the Fountain and whether it really was the Fountain of Youth, and is seen refilling his empty canteen from the water of the lake.

[edit] Act II: Ice
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During Act II, the player plays as John Black's Mercenaries, which is modelled after the French and German civilizations and is a cross of them. The French were involved in the fur trade at the time, and German mercenaries were in great use during this time.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In the mid-eighteenth century,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Ice_18-0" style="line-height:1em;">[19] Morgan's grandson, John Black, and his Mohawk friend Kanyenke are on their way through the Carolinas to Brunswick with their band of mercenaries after being called for by the colony's governor, John's uncle, Stuart Black. After defending the colony against Cherokee raiders, John and Kanyenke attack the Cherokee war camps, forcing the Cherokee to arrange a peace settlement. But while John, Kanyenke, and most of the colony's garrison are away at the negotiations both they and Brunswick are attacked by a British army under General Warwick, who capture the town. Warwick captures Stuart and begins questioning him about the location of the Lake of the Moon.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">John and Kanyenke return and drive Warwick's forces from Brunswick, but Warwick and Stuart are gone. John realizes that the Circle of Ossus has returned. Kanyenke believes that his sister, Nonahkee could be in danger, too, and the pair leave for New England. Kanyenke's suspicions prove correct and they confront Warwick again when he attacks Nonahkee's village hoping to extract John's location from her. After the battle it is revealed that John Black and Nonahkee are in love, but are keeping it a secret from Kanyenke until a more peaceful time.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">John and Kanyenke then take their mercenaries in pursuit of Warwick's fleeing army, and ally with the French in the Seven Years' War against Warwick. When Colonel George Washington tells them that Warwick is a renegade and has been hunted by the British as well, John agrees to track him down for the British. John leads his mercenaries and Washington's forces and destroys Warwick's base in the Great Lakes region. The presence of the Circle of Ossus' Boneguard prove to John the existence of the Circle and that Warwick is the Circle's leader. In the ruins of the Circle's base John finds the decapitated body of his uncle Stuart. John then demands that Nonahkee be kept at home while they pursue Warwick, who has again escaped and fled to the Rocky Mountains. Kanyenke agrees and reveals that he knows about John's relationship with Nonahkee. He tells him that he would not have chosen John as her husband, but he accepts it because he knows that she decides who she loves.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">John and Kanyenke then set out to follow Warwick, first earning the respect of the Great Plains tribes by good deeds and helping to defend them against Warwick's forces, then intercept Warwick's supply train and destroy a fortified Circle base in the mountains. They soon discover that Warwick and his soldiers have fled even farther west, to act as a checkpoint for a Russian army coming down from Alaska. They realize that the Circle plans to capture British and French colonies and towns while their soldiers are at war with one another. With the help of some miners, John and Kanyenke bring down large rock bridges to stop the Russians' large cannons from getting through. John then sends Kanyenke and the remainder of his mercenaries back east as he plants explosives to cause an avalanche and bury the Russians in the mountains. In the end, as John is setting up the dynamite, Warwick and several Boneguard approach him. Warwick attempts to kill John but John uses a barrel of gunpowder as a shield (knowing that Warwick won't risk detonating it by shooting at him) and jumps to the trigger, and pushes it, detonating the mountainside, killing himself, the soldiers, and Warwick, and causing an avalanche. The avalanche buries the Russians and sets the Circle of Ossus back so far that they cause no problems for many years.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">By spring Kanyenke has returned to his village, where he learns that his sister has given birth to John's son Nathaniel, whom he begins to help raise.

[edit] Act III: Steel
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During Act III, the player plays as the U.S. civilization (only available in the campaign), which resembles the British civilization.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In 1847,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Steel_19-0" style="line-height:1em;">[20] the narrative shifts to Amelia Black, the granddaughter of John Black and Nathaniel's daughter, and heiress owner of The Falcon Company (possibly named after Sahin), a railroad company whose sights are set on expanding new railroad operations in the United States since the compensation given by the British and Americans for John Black's sacrifice has been exhausted by John's son Nathaniel financing the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After defeating a rival railroad company and laying track to supply the US Cavalry near the Mexican border, Amelia meets a French prospector named Pierre Beaumont, who helps her and US Calvarly commander, Major Cooper, defeat a Mexicanarmy attacking a fort. He then lures Amelia to a mine in Colorado where a surprise visit from an aged Kanyenke, who has brought Cooper and the cavalry with him, reveals Beaumont as the leader of Circle of Ossus. Amelia, Kanyenke, and Cooper chase Beaumont through the mines, where they find a map to the Lake of the Moon.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The three travel to Florida, but find that the Lake has dried up and is now a swamp filled with gold from the sunken treasure fleet. There they destroy a Circle base in the swamp. Cooper finds and attempts to capture Beaumont, but Beaumont commands two wolves to attack him. Cooper shoots one of them with his pistol, but the other kills him. Amelia, now wanting to avenge Cooper, learns from the local Seminoles that there is an Inca city in Pacamayo Valley where several barrels of the Fountain's water have been stored.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Amelia and Kanyenke immediately sail to South America, where they help Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish. Bolívar offers them guides and, with the Circle's army close behind they make a dangerous passage through the stormy Andes and discover the Inca city in Pacamayo Valley. After helping to defend the city from the Circle in a hardfought battle, Amelia finds that Beaumont has once again escaped, this time with several barrels of the Fountain's water.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Amelia and Kanyenke next fight the Circle at their last stronghold in Cuba, and after allying with the Spanish colony of Havana and awaiting the arrival of the U.S. Navy, they destroy the Ossuary and the fixed guns guarding it. As the battle is ending, Amelia and Kanyenke pass under an archway in which Beaumont is concealed. Beaumont jumps down and attempts to stab Amelia but Kanyenke pushes her out of the way. All three tumble to the ground. Beaumont charges at Amelia, about to stab her, but when Beaumont gets near, Amelia kicks him and Beaumont is pushed back. He quickly charges at her again but she grabs her shotgun and shoots him. She later uses the Circle's stored treasure to revive the Falcon Company, and succeeds in building railroads to the west coast.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During the credits, there is a final cut scene between Amelia and an Old Coot first introduced earlier in the campaign. At first, his comments regarding how her family must be proud of her seem out of place—then he makes a reference to the Circle and how she was able to defeat them in only one lifetime, hinting that he is indeed the original Morgan Black. As the Old Coot walks away, his voice grows deeper with a more exaggerated Scottish accent, further supporting this idea. It appears he has lived longer than the average person because he drank from the Fountain of Youth after Act I. Amelia then asks what he just said, he replies with a knowing, "Don't miss your train," and then he walks away.

Age of Empires III - The War Chiefs
Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> is the first official expansion pack for the real-time strategy game<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Age of Empires III<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. It was announced by Ensemble Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and Microsoft Game Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> on March 7, 2006. The demo version was released October 4, 2006. The full game for PC was released on October 17, 2006 in the United States. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Details_1-2" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[2] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> The expansion pack was then bundled with the full game of Age of Empires III<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, being called Age of Empires III<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Gold Edition on September 19, 2006. The Mac version was ported over and developed by Destineer<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">'s MacSoft Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and published by MacSoft Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The full game for Mac was released on June 12, 2007 in the United States. It was followed by a second expansion pack to the original game called Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">.

Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The campaign, which is 15 missions long, includes the Black family in a more historical setting. The first act, Fire, follows Nathaniel Black (John Black's son and Amelia Black's father) as he spends the family's entire fortune supporting the American Revolution. The second act, Shadow, follows Amelia Black's son, Chayton Black, and his actions in the Black Hills during Red Cloud's War and Great Sioux War. The home city for both acts is the Black Family Estate.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The first act, Fire, begins with Nathaniel (loosely based on Joseph Louis Cook) and his uncle Kanyenke trying to discourage the Mohawk and the Seneca from fighting in the American Revolutionary War. However, they are ambushed by a group of Mohawks and head to an Oneida village nearby. From there they counter-attack and destroy an enemy Town Center, thus causing their enemies to flee. When Nathaniel and Kanyenke return to their village, they find that the Mohawk and a group ofHessian mercenaries led by Colonel Sven Kuechler, have raided the village and captured Nathaniel's mother, Nonahkee. They rescue Nonahkee, but Kuechler and his main army escape. After this, the Iroquois Confederacy shatters. Nathaniel's village supports the colonists, and Nathaniel heads to Boston where his men help defend a redoubt on Breed's Hill from the British. After George Washington takes command a series of defeats drives the colonials back across the Delaware, where they are joined by Nathanial. Here Washington lead a small force, including Nathaniel, across the Delaware where they attack a Hessian encampment at Trenton and defeat the rearguard of the army at Princeton. This is followed by another victory at theBattles of Saratoga. However, the army is once again defeated at Brandywine and Germantown and is forced to camp for the winter at Valley Forge, where they suffer greatly from the cold. This leads Nathaniel to use most of his family's forturne to supply the army throughout the winter. The next scenario is the fictional battle of Morristown, where Nathaniel gets his chance for revenge on Kuechler, who leads an attempt to destroy the capitol building of Morristown. Using artillery shipments he receives from Washington, Nathaniel sneaks around the Hessian flank and relieves Morristown. Refusing to accept defeat, Kuechler leads a suicidal attack on Nathaniel and is killed. After Kuechler's death, Nathaniel is said to have fought atCharleston, Camden, and King's Mountain. As the tide begins to turn the French join the war and help the revolution gain a victory at Yorktown, where Nathaniel is instrumental in capturing several redoubts. With the revolution won, Nathaniel returns home a poor man having spent his family fortune on the outfitting his volunteers and supplying the troops at Valley Forge. During the introductory video of the campaign (where Nathaniel is at Yorktown), the "Old Coot" from Act 3 (Morgan Black) in the previous game, can be seen watching his great-grandson's victory.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The second act, called Shadow, begins in 1866. Chayton Black, Amelia Black's half-Lakota son, is expanding the Falcon Railroad Company westward along the Bozeman Trail, but winds up in the middle of Red Cloud's War. Here he helps defend the wood trail from the Sioux and becomes friends with Fort Laramie's quartermaster, William "Billy" Holme, a Civil War veteran. Ten years later, in 1876, Chayton returns to the west and again meets up with Holme, now a sheriff, who informs him of a huge amount of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. After defending many mining camps from Sioux attacks, Chayton goes to see the Sioux chief Crazy Horse and establish a peace treaty. However, Holme and some of the miners ambush the Sioux before Chayton can begin negotiations, wrecking any chance of peace. Despite his warmongering, Chayton still sides with Holme and defends his workers as they gather wood for a new fort. However, once the fort is complete, Holme orders Chayton to destroy a Sioux village without provocation. Chayton refuses and, turning against Holme, allies with the Sioux to destroy the fort, forcing Holme to flee into the hills. Chayton then convinces the newly-arrived General Custer, to give him one day to find Holme, who is the real cause of the unrest. Chayton puts on Sioux clothing and blood-red war paint and, joining with Crazy Horse, chases Holme down and confronts him in a mine. Chayton tries to resolve the situation peacefully, but Holme pulls a gun on Chayton. However Chayton is faster and shoots Holme, who falls to his death down a mine shaft. Chayton then tries to convince General Custer not to attack the Sioux but Custer refuses. Custer then says that Chayton can no longer sit on the fence, demanding that he decide whether he is White or Indian. Chayton agrees, then says good-bye to Custer and wheels his horse and rides off to join the Sioux. He helps gather the Sioux and Cheyenne nations and fights with them at Little Bighorn. After the battle, Amelia Black narrates that she never saw her son again, but that she had heard Chayton was either killed at Wounded Knee in 1890, taking a dozen cavalrymen with him, or lived out his days in the Black Hills with his wife and children.

Age of Empires III - The Asian Dynasties
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">is the second official expansion pack for <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> real-time strategy (RTS)<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> video game<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Age of Empires III<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">developed through a collaboration between <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Ensemble Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Big Huge Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, and published by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Microsoft Game Studios<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The Mac version was ported over and developed by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Destineer<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">'s <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> MacSoft Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">and published by <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> MacSoft Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The game is the second <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> expansion pack<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">following <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> The WarChiefs<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The game introduces three new <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> civilizations<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">; <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> China<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Japan<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> India<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. It also introduced minor people, campaigns, maps, and game modes.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties for PC was released in North America on October 23, 2007. The Mac version was released on August 5, 2008. The game was generally received well by critics, mostly praising graphics, and sometimes criticizing predictable aspects of the game. It earned a 79% score on Game Rankings and an 81% on Metacritic.

Gameplay
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In general, the gameplay of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties followed a similar format to the original game, Age of Empires III. Rather than introduce new methods of gameplay, most changes were focused on introducing new content to the game.

[edit] New Resource
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Export: This special resource is only available to the three Asian civilizations, and is used to hire foreign troops and research technologies from the consulate, where the player can choose a foreign ally or, for the Japanese, isolationism. Export is generated automatically when the villagers are gathering, but its gather rate is much slower than other resources, making it challenging to afford a large foreign army.

[edit] New civilizations
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Three new civilizations are added in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpy_Interview_0-0" style="line-height:1em;">[1] Each Asian civilization has monks, instead of explorers as in previous games.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Heaven_Interview_1-0" style="line-height:1em;">[2]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are six new native civilizations available for hire in The Asian Dynasties. They are the Sufis, the Shaolin, the Zen, the Udasi, the Bhakti, and the Jesuits.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Heaven_Interview_1-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2]


 * India — This civilization has no villager cards at the Home City, but they receive one villager with almost every shipment.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpy_Interview_0-1" style="line-height:1em;">[1] All villagers that are not shipped from the Home City cost wood instead of food. Villagers are also not allowed to harvest livestock for food, but instead can build a structure called a Sacred Field which generates experience points whenever livestock are tasked to it. Sepoys(Musketeers), Gurkha (Skirmishers) and Rajputs (much like Rodeleros) are the primary infantry units, and India has several types of camel and elephant cavalry. Both of India's Brahmin monks ride atop elephants and can heal other units from the start of the game. Their Home City is Delhi and their leader is Akbar the Great.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Heaven_Interview_1-2" style="line-height:1em;">[2]
 * China — The Chinese get only one explorer (a Shaolin monk) along with a weak disciple at the start of the game. Chinese monks and disciples have the ability to occasionally land critical hits, doing extra damage. The Chinese monk is the only hero who can train military units (disciples) during the Discovery Age and has the largest attack points compared to any other monk or explorer. The Chinese have a higher population limit than all the other civilizations; up to 220 population points, rather than the usual 200. However, to reach this cap, several upgrades must be made. Additionally, their military units are trained in blocks, much like the Russians, except that each block is made up by several types of troops, meaning when the player creates a "block" (s)he receives a technically combat-ready force. The Chinese build Villages rather than Houses or Shrines. Villages can garrison Villagers inside them, and livestock can be tasked to them to fatten much quicker. These Villages also supply 20 population. Their Home City is Beijing and their leader is The Kangxi Emperor.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Heaven_Interview_1-3" style="line-height:1em;">[2]
 * Japan — This civilization has the Daimyo and Shogun units.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpy_Interview_0-2" style="line-height:1em;">[1] Japanese villagers cannot gather food via herding or hunting, but can build shrines near huntable and herdable animals to gain a slow trickle of food, wood, or coin (or experience once a certain shipment is sent from the Home City). The shrines also act as houses, supporting 10 population units. While the Japanese cannot hunt animals, their shrines can attract animals to them. This increases the Shrine's resource production. They have the unique ability to ship most cards twice. Their starting explorers are 2 Ikko-Ikki archer monks that can be improved with extra attributes (via shipment cards or upgrades at the Monastery). The monks start off with an ability called "Divine Strike" which can be used to finish off guardians or enemy units. They also begin with a move that temporarily stuns treasure guardians. Their Home City is Edo with leader Tokugawa Ieyasu.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Heaven_Interview_1-4" style="line-height:1em;">[2]

[edit] Campaigns
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are three new campaigns, one for each new civilization. Furthermore, these campaigns return to the historical, civilization-based single-player campaigns, which are different from the past campaigns in the Age of Empires III series.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Goes_Gold_2-0" style="line-height:1em;">[3] Each campaign consists of five new scenarios.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpotreview_3-0" style="line-height:1em;">[4]


 * Japanese campaign — The Japanese campaign focuses on the unification of Japan, which was also a scenario in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which players control, and a young general, named Sakuma Kichiro, the "adopted son" of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The protagonist is based in part on Captain Kichiero, the believed to be half son of Toyotomi.The campaign begins when Kichiro meets up with Daimyo Torii Mototada at the siege of Osaka (transported from 1598 to 1615) to capture the 5-year-old heir of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Kichiro and Mototada ally with the local villagers and storm the castle. Next they move to the north-east of Honshu to destroy any villages that might support Tokugawa's enemy Uesugi Kagekatsuand defeat Uesugi's army. After the victory, in which they suffer heavy losses, Mototada learns that Tokugawa's main enemy, Ishida Mitsunari is threatening Mototada's estate at Fushimi, forcing Mototada to return there. Meanwhile, Kichiro marches his exhausted army west again to take control of the Tokaido Road trade route. In the aftermath of the battle there, Kichiro learns from a defeated samurai that it was Tokugawa who destroyed his home when he was a baby and murdered his parents. Kichiro, true to the samurai code, remains loyal to Tokugawa and joins Mototada at Fushimi. Here Mototada confirms the defeated samurai's story. During the ensuing battle, Kichiro escorts the non-combatants to safety, but is forced to leave Mototada to fight alone. As the enemy breaches the final defenses Mototada commits seppuku, detailing in his last statement the importance of loyalty. Kichiro joins Tokugawa at Sekigahara. After the Battle of Sekigahara ends in victory for Tokugawa, Kichiro finally changes his mind and abandons his loyalty to his master and rides away through the war-torn battlefield, forsaking his honor and shaming his family name for generations.
 * Chinese campaign — The Chinese campaign focuses loosely on the 1421 hypothesis and is about a Chinese treasure ship discovering the New World before Christopher Columbus. The story mainly focuses on Jian Huang, a Ming captain who dreamed of seeing the outside world, and his partner and new friend, Lao Chen, a large, powerful, and crude sailor, who are given orders to help expand the Ming Empire. In the beginning the treasure fleet, while under construction, is attacked by Wokou pirates. On orders of the spoiled and selfish Admiral Jinhai, Huang and Chen save the fleet and eliminate the pirates. The fleet then embarks westward and is next seen to land in a port on the coast of India. There many of the crew, including Huang and Chen, are attacked by soldiers of the Indian Zamorin and flee with part of the fleet to a nearby island where they set up a new base and mount a rescue mission to save Jinhai and the remaining crew who have been captured by the Zamorin's troops and (as they discover) some Chinese defectors. The fleet continues west at Jinhai's insistence, although many ships turn back, and eventually are cast ashore in the Yucatán by a storm. Chen and Huang go to rescue crews of the other ships from hostile Aztecs soldiers. When they return they find that Jinhai has disappeared. Huang suspects that he was captured along with many of the fleet's crewmembers and mounts a rescue mission. Huang and Chen cut through the jungle and rescue many of their comrades, but Jinhai is not among them. Huang's small army of sailors then enters a nearby Aztec city and learn that Jinhai has set himself up as an emperor or perhaps a god among the Aztecs and also that it was Jinhai who plotted with the Zamorin in India. Huang and Chen escape an ambush by Jinhai's soldiers and flee back to the coast through a series of caves, rescuing more of their crew along the way. Once back at the coast they set up a base and counterattack, defeating and killing Jinhai. After the battle Huang, Chen, and the surviving crew members scour the beaches for all evidence of their presence and then sail home to China, hoping that no one will ever know they were there.
 * Indian campaign — The Indian campaign is about the Indian Rebellion of 1857<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpotreview_3-1" style="line-height:1em;">[4] and deals with a situation very similar to Chayton Black's situation in "The Warchiefs" campaign: "Shadow". The protagonist is Lieutenant Nanib Sahir (aportmanteau name of Nana Sahib), a member of the Sepoy regiments who served the British East India Company, who slowly becomes disillusioned from its cruel ways and abuse of Indian citizens. The campaign begins with Nanib and his superior, Colonel George Edwardson regaining British control of the saltpetre trade in the Punjab. Nanib and Edwardson then march south to Calcutta and defeat the roving bands of arsonists there. At the close of the battle Nanib convinces a group of arsonists to lay down their weapons and leave, but Edwardson ambushes and massacres them, leaving Nanib visibly shaken. The conflict of Nanib's loyalty comes to a head when he and his men are ordered by the Colonel Edwardson to use new Enfield Rifles, despite the cartridges' greasing with beef tallow and pork fat, which was a taboo to Nanib and the sepoys' Hindu and Muslim beliefs (historically an untrue rumour [1]). Nanib uses one of the rifles to fire a near miss at Edwardson (loosely based on a similar incident involving Mangal Pandey). Nanib and fellow sepoy Pravar Patel then lead their regiment of sepoy in an attack on the local Company fort by assaulting weapon caches to cause fires and explosions under its foundations. After their victory Nanib and Pravar quickly rally the local citizens and sepoy and raise enormous forces. When Nanib denies leadership of the revolt, he and Pravar decide to rescue Bahadur Shah II from British captivity. They sneak into Delhi in the dead of night and destroy weapon caches to cause elephant stampedes which destroy gates. Then they rally the local citizens and sepoy and battle through Delhi, freeing the Shah and escaping into the night. Nanib then leads his forces in an assault on a Company fort commanded by Colonel Edwardson. Nanib destroys or captures the saltpetre sites and plantations supplying Edwardson's forces inside the fort and defeats three waves of counterattack. Then, he assaults the fort and captures the outer defences including the fixed guns, killing Edwardson in the process before finally destroying the fort's command post and lowering the Company's flag from the nearby flagpost.

[edit] New game modes
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">A variety of new game modes are introduced in the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-About_the_Game_4-0" style="line-height:1em;">[5] The four new game modes are: King of the Hill, Regicide, Treaty and Treaty No-Blockade and two traditional game modes are: Supremacy and Deathmatch.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Modes_5-0" style="line-height:1em;">[6]


 * King of the Hill: Players must capture and defend a particular fort until the time runs out. If a player manages to hold the fort for the whole time specified, then that player wins the game. However, other players may capture the fort, resetting the timer.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Modes_5-1" style="line-height:1em;">[6]
 * Regicide: The goal of this game, much like that in the Age of Empires II version, is to defend the player's Regent, a single unit that represents their king. If he is killed, the player loses. The game ends when all enemy Regents, or all friendly Regents, are killed. Only one map may host the Regicide game mode: "Honshu-Regicide."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Modes_5-2" style="line-height:1em;">[6]
 * Treaty: The host specifies a peace period (ten, twenty, thirty, or forty minutes) in which no player can attack another and players can only build within a distance of their starting town center. Furthermore, blockades to prevent Home City shipments can be put on a player's opponents. Treaty mode is also available through Age of Empires 3: The War Chiefs, but The War Chiefs does not feature Treaty No-Blockade.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Modes_5-3" style="line-height:1em;">[6]
 * Treaty No-Blockade: Similar to the forty minute treaty mode, but no blockades are permitted.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Game_Modes_5-4" style="line-height:1em;">[6]

[edit] Wonders
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, each of the three new civilizations gets a Wonder<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> when advancing from age to age. Unlike previous Age of Empires<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> games, the player does not achieve victory by building a wonder. Players will have to choose a wonder which is beneficial and unique to their civilization. Once built, this wonder provides an initial bonus of units or resources (rewards), while continuing to provide a benefit to the players' civilization. This initial bonus becomes larger, depending on which age is being advanced to. Unlike advancing from the Town Center — like in past Age of Empires<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> games — a player must select a desired number of villagers to build a wonder and advance. It is possible to continue building the wonder without villagers, however, the rate of advancement is dependent on the number of villagers working on it. Thus, more villagers increases the building speed, and the more villagers building a wonder, the faster the civilization advances, but this is negated due to economical reasons, as taking villagers can dent overall resource production. Wonders that are destroyed cannot be rebuilt.

Age of Mythology
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Mythology (commonly abbreviated to AoM), is a mythology-based, real-time strategy computer game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 30, 2002 in North America and a week later in Europe.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-release_2-2" style="line-height:1em;">[3]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">A spin-off from the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology takes inspiration from the myths and legends of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, rather than from actual history.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;">[4] However, many gameplay elements are similar to the Age of Empires series. Its campaign follows an Atlantean admiral, Arkantos, who is forced to travel through the lands of the game's three cultures, hunting for acyclops who is in league with Poseidon against Atlantis.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EuroGamerReview_4-0" style="line-height:1em;">[5]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Mythology was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-plat_5-0" style="line-height:1em;">[6] The game's critical reception was generally positive: it scored 89% on both Game Rankings and Metacritic.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gamerankings_6-0" style="line-height:1em;">[7] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Metacritic_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8]

Campaign
<p style="font-size:13px;">Unlike the campaign modes in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology only has one central campaign. The campaign is significantly longer than campaigns in previous games, however, with a total of 32 scenarios.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22" style="line-height:1em;">[23]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:13px;">The campaign opens in Atlantis where their lead admiral Arkantos is set on the goal to regain the favor from Poseidon: God of the Atlantean people. At first, he repels a series of raids by Black Sail pirates led by the minotaur Kamos before being given the task to assist Agamemnon in the Trojan War. After a series of skirmishes against Troy, fighting alongside Ajax and Odysseus, they devise the plan involving the famous Trojan Horse and swiftly win the war. Afterwards, Ajax recommends Arkantos to sail to Ioklos (home of the centaur Chiron) to repair his ships. When they arrive however, the port has been raided. Chiron takes them north to locate the prisoners, who are being forced to dig up an entrance to the underworld under Gargarensis, a cyclops warlord and commander of Kamos. The heroes enter the underworld where Gargarensis is trying to break through a large door way. Cautious of his motives, they destroy the battering ram but are trapped during a cave in. With the help of the dead, they reach three temples dedicated to the Greek gods. Arkantos prays to Atlantis' patron Poseidon to help them, but is refused. Instead, Zeus helps them escape.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:13px;">They reach the surface in Egypt where they are drawn into aiding Nubian mercenary Amanra against bandits under the assassin Kemsyt. She reveals that the Egyptian god Osiris has been killed by Set, who aids Gargarensis. Amanra, however, plans to reunite Osiris's body parts scattered throughout the desert, bringing him back. During this time. Arkantos falls asleep and is met by Athena, who reveals Gargarensis's motives. Favored by Poseidon, he plans to break the gates to Tartarus to free the Titan Kronos (who was imprisoned there by Zeus), to be granted immortality. One such gate was at Ioklos, another is here in Egypt, and a third is in the Norse lands. Amanra and Chiron retrieve some of the pieces of Osiris while Ajax and Arkantos retrieve the final part from Kamos, who is impaled on Arkantos' spear and then falls off a cliff. With all pieces together, Osiris is resurrected and dispatches Gargarensis's army. The cyclops flees to the Norse lands. Chasing Gargarensis north, Ajax and Arkantos find Odysseus's wrecked ship, who has been cursed by Circe and so fight back and free his crew, who have been turned into pigs.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:13px;">When they reach the north, they are given directions to the underworld by dwarf brothers Brokk and Eitri in return for repelling giants from their forge. Later, an elderly man named Skult gives them a banner which is to reunite the Norse clans. However when the flag is shown, the clans become hostile towards them due to the flag being that of the enemy giant Folstag (a trick by Skult who is actually Loki) who also allied with Gargarensis. With the help of the Valkyrie Reginleif they locate Gargarensis and the Tartarus gate. Inside they are pursued by fire giants until Chiron sacrifices himself to save them. While Gargarensis is at the gate, Brokk and Eitri have been rebuilding Thor's hammer (shattered by Loki), that upon completion seals the gate. Back on the surface, they confront Gargarensis with the help of Odysseus, where the cyclops is captured and executed.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:13px;">Arkantos sails back to Atlantis. When he brings out Gargarensis's head on the ship, he finds he has been tricked by Loki. The head is actually Kemsyt's. Gargarensis is still alive and is in fact at Atlantis trying to open a final gate to Tartarus. Gargarensis has captured and fortified Atlantis, and Poseidon himself has possessed a statue in the city center to protect him. Arkantos builds a wonder to Zeus and gains his blessing, giving him awesome power and enabling him to confront Gargarensis and the Living Statue at the temple of Poseidon. Arkantos defeats the Avatar of Poseidon, and Gargarensis is impaled by its trident as it collapses. and all of Atlantis then collapses into the ocean, along with Arkantos. While the remaining heroes sail away with the surviving Atlanteans, Athena revives Arkantos and rewards him by making him a god.

[edit] The Golden Gift
<p style="font-size:13px;">An official campaign, The Golden Gift, was released as a download on Microsoft's website. The campaign follows adventures of Brokk and Eitri, the dwarves who appeared in the initial campaign. The plot unfolds with both dwarves planning to create a giant golden boar as an offering to the Norse god Freyr. While working separately, Brokk is approached by Skult (also from Fall of the Trident) who warns him that Eitri is making preparations to create the boar without his brother, of which Eitri is also told the same about Brokk. As both brothers race to complete the boar in the great forge, Skult steals the finished piece and hold it in Loki's fortress. The brothers eventually assault the base and the boar is eventually retrieved and successfully offered to Freyr.

Age of Mythology: The Titans
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Age of Mythology: The Titans is a real-time strategy computer game expansion pack of Age of Mythology. It was developed by Ensemble Studios and released on September 30, 2003.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height:1em;">[1]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Titans adds a fourth culture to the game, the Atlanteans, and three new major gods, plus new units, buildings and god powers. It also includes many new features, such as auto-queueing (allows indefinite training of units as long as you have sufficient resources), and the ability to summon a Titan, a gargantuan, godlike being that forms the game's focal point. Critics gave Titans an average rating of 84% according to GameRankings.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GRank_1-0" style="line-height:1em;">[2]

[edit] Characters

 * Kastor: Fictional son of Arkantos and a soldier of Atlantis who helps defend the remaining, godless Atlanteans.
 * Krios: Fictional Theocrat of Atlantis, he is killed by a Servant of Kronos at the start of the campaign, and has his place taken by the servant ("Kronny" in the game editor) who then possesses his body to trick the Atlanteans.
 * Ajax: A mythic Greek hero of the Trojan war, in the game a former companion of Arkantos who helps Kastor deal with the consequences of the Titans' release.
 * Amanra: Fictional Queen of Nubia and former companion of Arkantos who assists Kastor in the aftermath of the Titans' release.
 * King Folstag: Mythic Norse Frost Giant King who is thought to be evil in Age of Mythology. But in the Titans version, he summons the dragon Nidhogg to defeat the Norse Titan Ymir.

[edit] Campaign: The New Atlantis

 * For other campaigns, see Age of Mythology campaigns

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The campaign is a third of the length of the one in Age of Mythology. This time focuses mostly on the Atlantean civilization and its Main defender Kastor, son of Arkantos. Arkantos, who is now a minor God of Titan Fighting (as mentioned in the game), also makes a few minor appearances here. The story is set ten years after the events of the Age of Mythology storyline.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The story begins with Kronos, who was still trapped in Tartarus, watching the Atlanteans. He sends his unnamed servant (nicknamed "Kronny" by fans of the game as this is seen as his name in the game's editor) to possess the body of the Theocrat Krios, the Atlantean leader.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">It then cuts to the Norselands, where the suffering Atlanteans led by Kastor and Krios are trying to rebuild their civilization after it was destroyed ten years ago. Then Krios says he saw a temple in his dream. The Atlanteans leave the Norselands by using the foreseen temple called a Sky Passage, and they come to a resourceful island. Upon their arrival, Krios pointed out the plant-covered Temples to Oranos and Kronos. Krios says it was these imprisoned Titans who helped them, and convinces his people including Kastor to worship them.

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Greeks are angered with the Atlanteans' new choice of gods, and attack them. The Atlanteans retaliate by destroying the entire Greek colony from which some of the attacks came. However, some of the Greek ships escape and go to General Melagius, ruler of that colony and other lands. He is angered by the destruction of his colony and prepares for an attack. The Atlanteans however still manage to invade Melagius' city called Sikyos, and slay him. Just as the Atlanteans kill Melagius, Egyptian and Norse allies of Melagius come to aid the city. Kastor decides they are too powerful and flees. However, he does not go back to New Atlantis, but instead ventures up to the Norselands. His plan is that the Norse will not be expecting an attack. He destroys Norse temples and replaces them with Atlantean temples, to show his superiority. He also destroys the Tower of Odin (Odin's only stronghold on Earth) by using a god power from Kronos. Some Atlantean forces then sail to Egypt. The scene cuts to Egypt where Amanra (a comrade of Arkantos when he was still a human) is conversing with her troops. Arkantos suddenly appears before Amanra and tells her that the Atlanteans are coming to steal relics from the Egyptians. Amanra fortifies the protections around the relics, but the Atlanteans still manage to steal them. Just as the Atlantean army closes around Amanra and her few troops, lightning bolts kill all the Atlantean soldiers. Arkantos appears and tells Amanra that the Atlanteans are being led by Kastor. Amanra questions this, and Arkantos tells Amanra that Kastor is being tricked. He tells her to find Kastor and to help him. It then cuts to a new scene, where Krios congratulates Kastor on his work and shows him a Sky Passage that he has found. Krios tells Kastor that the Sky Passage will take him behind Greek lines. Kastor enters it with his troop and finds himself not in the Greek territories, but on Mount Olympus. Kastor believes that Krios made a mistake about where the Sky Passage went. He and his troops discover they cannot go back the same way they came, so they decide their only choice is to attack Mount Olympus. Using special temples that change his men into different myth units, Kastor sets foot on the peak of Mount Olympus. However, once he does this, the daylight turns a strange color. Kastor senses there is something wrong, and he leaves with his army. He heads to the Greek territories. When he gets there, he sees the Titan Prometheus and his army of Prometheans from Tartarus destroying Sikyos. He wonders what the beast is, and Krios tells him that it is a Titan. Krios tells Kastor that he allowed him and some lesser Titans to be free. Kastor realizes he has been tricked by Krios who takes the form of Kronny and escapes. Kastor is then attacked by other Atlanteans who are under Krios's control. Meanwhile, Amanra meets Ajax, another companion of Arkantos. Apparently, Ajax was also looking for Kastor. Amanra tells Ajax that Kastor has been tricked, and that they must find him. All this time Kastor is being repeatedly attacked by Atlanteans. Amanra and Ajax rescue him with a flock of Rocs. Arkantos appears, and Kastor tells his father that he did not realize he was being tricked. Arkantos forgives him and tells the heroes that two other Titans have been freed in the Norselands and in Egypt. Amanra decides that they will go to Egypt first, as that is her homeland. After the heroes leave, Prometheus advances and continues to destroy any surrounding cities/villages/etc.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Titan in Egypt is Cerberus, and he is destroying an Egyptian city. The heroes decide to awaken the Guardian statue, an immensely powerful living statue that also helped the heroes in Age of Mythology. The heroes manage to hold off the Tartarian beasts that had escaped during the destruction, and The Guardian is finally awakened. The Guardian sends Cerberus back to Tartarus. They then travel to the Norse lands, and they meet King Folstag, a powerful Frost Giant whose lands are being destroyed by the Titan Ymir. With the help of Folstag and the Nidhogg Dragon, the heroes defeat the Titan (who suffers the same fate as Cerberus into Tartarus) and restore peace in the Norse lands.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The heroes then travel to Greece to find the peaceful green countryside destroyed and in flames which is evidence of Prometheus's attacks. Amanra is the first to notice plants growing in a particular spot that surrounds a Temple to Gaia. Arkantos appears before the heroes and explains to them that ALL titans, including Gaia, were strengthened and that they could use her power to heal the land. They spread the green lush of the benevolent earth Titan Gaia across the burnt land, both healing it and weakening Prometheus. They manage to overcome him in his weakened state. After the defeat of Prometheus, Arkantos praises Kastor and the others on their victory, but he explains that there is still more to do. Kastor reveals Kronny's location: The Atlantean colony, and they set off.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The heroes then venture back to New Atlantis, where they rescue citizens from Automatons. After battling all of the Automatons, Kastor and his army retake New Atlantis. Kronny again retreats to a Sky Passage from the battered battlefield. Kastor, Ajax, and Amanra enter the Sky Passage which takes them to Old Atlantis. Kastor reveals to the mystified Ajax (he didn't know where they were) that they were at Old Atlantis. Kronny appears above them and announces the future arrival of Kronos: King of the Titans. The only way to defeat the Titan Lord is to summon Gaia (the mother of the Titans). While holding off the constant attacks from Kronos's followers, the heroes plant the four magical seeds of Gaia in in four mystical pools located in the four corners of Old Atlantis. These seeds bring forth four giant trees that begin to summon Gaia. Kastor's forces are at a stand by as they wait for Gaia to arrive, but their hopes are suddenly drained as Kronos breaks free from his prison.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Heroes avoid Kronos as he destroys their base and the Gaia trees. Before Kronos could destroy the last tree, Gaia rises from the earth, and attacks Kronos. The fight is very one-sided, for Gaia is indestructible. She sends Kronos back to Tartarus. The War was over. Gaia returned back to the earth and peace is ALMOST restored. Kronny was still alive. Kastor chases Kronny, who jumps on him, but Kastor stabs him in the chest with his sword, killing him. Then Arkantos appears before Kastor and appoints him as the new leader of Atlantis by giving him the staff of Atlantis. Now the rebuilding begins.

Credits
AoE Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_(video_game)

AoE - The Rise of Rome Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires:_The_Rise_of_Rome

AoE II - The Age of Kings Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Age_of_Kings

AoE II - The Conquerers Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Conquerors

AoE III Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_III

AoE III - The War Chiefs Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_III:_The_WarChiefs

AoE III - The Asian Dynasties Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_III:_The_Asian_Dynasties

Age of Mythology Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Mythology

Age of Mythology - The Titans Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Mythology:_The_Titans 

AoE (series) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires

AoE Wikia: http://ageofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Age_of_Empires_Series_Wiki

AoE - Rise of Rome Homepage: http://www.rornews.net/