The Rise Of Home for the original Age Of Empires set the standard for all subsequent expansion packs. It was no longer enough to churn out expansions that consisted of little more than the levels rejected from the original version. Now gamers expect a hefty shot in the arm and a new lease of life as a result. The Conquerors Expansion for Age Of Empires II meets this expectation head on. Yes, you're going to get additional campaigns, but they come packaged with a host of improvements that will revitalise your interest and add a new shine to multiplayer games.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors involves alliance-building strategies that take place between ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. No less than 18 different civilisations can be controlled. Some of these include the Chinese, the Turks and the Vikings. Much like in the prequel, this version is focused around collecting resources, strengthening. Addeddate 2016-03-31 18:55:08 Identifier AgeofEmpiresIITheConquerors Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t5z64zx7h Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Pages 50 Ppi 300. The most obvious addition, as you'd expect, is a set of four single-player campaigns. While the Age Of Kings campaigns focused very much on the underdog (William Wallace, Joan of Arc, et al), Conquerors turns its attention to some of history's more successful bullies. So this time you get to play with the likes of Attila the Hun and EL Cid. The Battles of the Conquerors are a series of unrelated campaign scenarios in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. They revolve around famous historic battles during the medieval period. In the Definitive Edition, all eight scenarios are now part of the Historical Battles section. The Battles of the Conquerors are a series of unrelated campaign scenarios in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. They revolve around famous historic battles during the medieval period. In the Definitive Edition, all eight scenarios are now part of the Historical Battles section.

OK, when you load up The Conquerors you're not exactly going to be bowled over by the extensive graphical changes it introduces. In fact, let's get that one major gripe over and done with now. Considering that five new civilisations (Spanish, Huns, Aztecs, Mayans and Koreans) have been introduced, it's a bit poor that there's only one new set of building graphics. But once you get beyond that you'll begin to understand where all those product development dollars have gone.

Ringing The Changes

What Ensemble Studios has rather cunningly done is investa lot of time in playing its own game and then ironing out the wrinkles. Let's take the use of siege weapons as a classic example. In most RTS games, siege weapons - or other heavy weapons platforms - are generally controlled by MrThicky of Thicksville. Invite him along on a raid and he'll quite happily mow down half a dozen of his own troops in his eagerness to take down one lonesome enemy soldier. Thankfully, Ensemble has given him the boot and replaced him with Mr Smart Bastard of Clevertown, who will refrain from having a go if there's any danger of his own side or his allies getting hammered by 'friendly fire'.

'Fantastic,' you say, 'at last I can stage some realistic siege warfare.' But wait, there's more. Instead of sending in those battering rams while your foot soldiers hang around on the sideline until the rams have done their job, you can now kill two birds with one stone. Just put your troops inside the ram and not only will you get more speed and damage capability, you'll also protect your troops in the run up to the enemy's walls.

Many of the additional changes have been designed to enable you to focus on strategy instead of housekeeping tasks.So once the villagers have built certain types of buildings, they will head off and do something useful rather than hanging around waiting for you to give them orders. You can also order farms to be replanted In advance so you don't have to check up on them so often, and so on.These and the half-dozen other changes to the basic engine may not be the most visible aspects of what you've spent your money on, but my point is they are probably the most valuable In terms of adding longevity to the game.

Games Conquerors Play

Despite all that, you'll expect to be given some more meaty single-player action to get your teeth into. This comes in the shape of four new campaigns.

As the name of this expansion pack implies, these are all based on the activities of history's bona fide heavyweights. You can ride along with Attila The Hun as he mops up the remnants of the Roman Empire, win back Castille with El Cid, or hold off the Spanish with Montezuma. Finally, there's a varied collection of single missions focusing on great military leaders from Erik the Red to Henry V.

All this adds up to a hefty number of hours of gameplay.As far as the difficulty level is concerned, Ensemble Studios seems to have opted for a middle ground between meeting the needs of hardcore AOEplayers and relative beginners. Fair enough, but if you've played AOE extensively you may well find that the single-player campaigns don't engage you as much as they might have done (without playing at the Hard setting, that is).

Having said that, if you've played AOE II to the extent that you know it like the back of your hand, you're going to be surprised by some of the tweaks to the standard units and the introduction of new technologies. I wouldn't try to be too smart and rely on the understanding of unit strengths and weaknesses you've built up over hundreds of games.

There Can Be Only One

Again overshadowing the single-player campaigns for longevity are the additional single and multiplayer game types. King Of The Hill is a particularly good example. Players begin with a small settlement at the edge of the map. In the centre of the map is a monument, but it's surrounded by water, trees or ice. Your first objective is to find a way to get to the monument. Once you are there you've got to defend it for 500 years. That's made a little trickier by the fact that you won't be allowed to build anything in the vicinity of the monument. In the case of a monument placed on an island, for example, your only choice is to defend it with ships. Still, that will give you a good opportunity to check out all those new ship formations.

If you haven't got the time to play a lengthy game in which there's a hefty amount of resource management and army building to be done before you see any action, then I thoroughly recommend Defend The Wonder. Every player starts in the Imperial Age with a huge stockpile of resources. One player is in a walled off enclave which also contains a Wonder. Everybody else starts on the outside of the wall and has to break in and get to the Wonder. It makes for some truly spectacular battle sequences. If you haven't got a map literally strewn with corpses within ten minutes of starting play, you're doing something wrong.

Map Happy

There's a whole host of extras that we just haven't got space to cover here, including additional terrain types and maps, which help to spice up AOE Ifs standard fare. And if you get really stuck for something new to do you can always tackle the obscure scripting language and attempt to create some new map types of your own.

Age Of Empires Conquerors Patch

When all's said and done, Ensemble has to be congratulated for putting so much effort into what is, after all, an expansion pack. It's always a good sign when developers play their own games to the extent that they are able to make significant improvements to the gameplay in the way that's demonstrated here. If you've tried AOE II previously and found it doesn't really tingle your taste buds, I couldn't in all honesty say that this expansion set is going to make you change your mind.

Age Of Empires Conquerors Wonders

But if you're a hardened addict, then you'll find plenty here to maintain your interest for some time to come.