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The Age of Kings (AoK) along with its expansion pack, AoK:TC (The Conquerors--which we now call "AoC" when both are installed) is a superb game for either "Multiplayers" who play on-line or "Singleplayers" who don't. If a game which has a historical aspect to it which resides in the 1,000 year realm of ancient history stated has appeal for you (which isn't all 'hoked_up' with fantasy creatures), you cannot go wrong with purchasing the "Gold pack". I've been playing AoK/AoC for more than 2 years now and it still holds fascination for me... and many others that I know. Just today I was teaching one of my 10 year old grandsons about the game when he was visiting. We'll get him the Gold pack. My son introduced me to the game in Dec. '99.
Yes, in order to play AoC which epitomizes the development of the game, you need to install from both disks, first installing AoK, then removing it and installing the AoK:TC disk which you leave in the tray (it must be in there when you want to play). You can then go online to either Microsoft's or Ensemble Studios' websites for the game, Age of Kings: The Conquerors, and download the 1.0c patch which fixes any minor 'bugs' discovered and rectifies a few civilization "balancing issues" which have come up. Thus buying the Gold pack is a real good deal for anyone getting the game now as it cost me more than twice as much to have bought AoK & then AoK:TC, as they came out.
There are so many ways to play this game that it almost boggles the mind, but preferred game modes are "Conquest" followed by "Deathmatch" in popularity amongst "Agers". If you really want to learn to play the game using the various "strategies" for the 18 civilizations which Agers have developed, it's a good idea to join a good Ager gaming clan such as Tonto Clan, which caters to both Multiand Singleplayers. You can find Tonto Clan by doing a websearch for "tontoclan1", or look for "Tonto Empire". The clan celebrates its 2nd birthday the 13th of March, 2002, so you know they aren't fly-by-nighters. And that's a good place to ask any questions one might have about the game.
A final thought: "Real Time Strategy" is a bit of a misnomer, oxymoron, in computer games as "twitch-and-bang" on the keyboard doesn't really give a person time to think, only act and react. But an aspect of AoC that makes it come closer to being enabled as a true strategy and tactics game is that you have the "Pause key" which when playing Singleplayer you can use to pause the game in progress in order to "think on it" a bit and decide what next you want to do. This brings yet another dimension to the game that most don't have.
There are other RTS 'historically based war games' which have come out since "Age", but it is surprising how many people will try them and then just keep coming back.... to AoC. And, for my money the next RTS slated to come along that might be as good or possibly better isn't projected to hit the market until Spring (if then) of 2003.
Ken aka tonto_real
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The improvements in game play in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is one area of this game that has been largely improved. Everything from the actions of your units (especially non-combat ones such as villagers or fishing ships) to the organization of your military units has been refined to provide a much better gameplay experience.Age of Empires II: The Conquerors also provides some new civilizations. They are the Aztecs, the Huns, Koreans, Mayans, and Spanish. Like the civilizations that came with the original Age of Empires II, these civilizations all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For instance, since the horse was not native to the Americas, the Mayans and Aztecs cannot create Stable units.
Since the Mayans and Aztecs have also been added to the game, it would naturally make sense to add new maps to the game as well. Tropical terrain is one of the many new additions, as well as Winter terrain. There are also maps from the real world, which basically let you fight it out with an enemy on a location such as Britain, France, etc. However, there is one small complaint on the real world maps -you can't adjust their size, which makes sense, because it's the real world, right? However, it does kind of get annoying, especially when you have to hunt down the LAST enemy villager over a larger area than you would normally have to. Still, it is nice to be able to see battles occurring where they actually happened.
Another nice feature of this game is the ability to command allied computer players. Short on food? Just ask for it! Most of the time they will give it to you, unless they either don't have a market (which is necessary to give tribute), or they simply don't have the resources to spare, which generally happens when you repeatedly ask for resources over a short period of time. You can also command your allies to do anything from build a Navy to stop building villagers.
Speaking of villagers, they are also smarter than they were before. Remember before, when you would create a mining camp right next to a bunch of gold, and your villagers would just stand there and look at it? Not any more, now all of the villagers that were involved in building the mining camp (or town center, mill, etc.) will begin to collect resources after they have completed the building of whatever it is you have just created. Also, after they have finished, say, collecting all the gold that a given mine has to offer, they will begin to go towards another mine (if they can see it, which occurs if you have the All Visible option turned on). This is an obvious help, especially when you have other things to attend to, such as holding off an enemy that's at your gates.
Overall, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is very much improved from the original Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It is light years ahead of the original Age of Empires due to its many new improvements. If you bought Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings but never got the expansion, I would highly recommend picking it up. For those people who never bought anything in the Age of Empires II series, I would highly recommend picking up the Gold Edition of Age of Empires II.
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I bought the AOK in 2/2000 and the Conquerors the day it came out in 9/2000. (Also played AOE I from 1998-2000). In my opinion, no other series is as comprehensive and fun. I have also played Empire Earth, Age of Mythology, and Rise of Nations. Here's why I like AOK the best (I'm referring to the most recent release, the Conquerors edition):By the way, I only play Standard games, I've not tried any of the campaigns so I don't comment on them.
1)Time The game is simple to navigate but has so many different angles of play. I can start a game with myself and two computer players on the hardest level and whip both of them within 3 hours. I've been playing an EE game off and on for 1 year and still cannot win. The short games keep me interested.
2)Ages There are only 4 ages. This makes the game manageable for those who can't spend 15 hours a day on the computer playing games for weeks on end. Empire earth has around 10 ages and Rise of Nations has a lot as well. Upgrading the ages in AOK is not that hard.
3)Units There are enough units here to keep me happy. Calvary, infantry, archers, naval units, seige units, special units with each civ. There are almost limitless ways to play the game. I play calvary one time, then infantry once, and so on. Never gets boring.
4)Graphics Now that some of the newer games are out, the graphics are only so-so but it's still not that bad.
5)Civilizations with around 13 civs and each having a unique strength and weakness, it never gets boring playing different ones and learning about each.
Here's why I like AOE better than Empire Earth:
1)The graphics are much better in Empire earth, but I cannot beat the game. The AI is very tough. I can nuke the computer down to 10 units left and 5 minutes later he has 300 armies and 100 buildings.
2)Simplicity. As I stated above Empire Earth is great fun, but almost too much action.
Here's why I like AOE better than Age of Mythology:
1)I am very disappointed with Age of Mythology. I find it downright boring.
I've only played rise of nations a couple times but I do not find it to keep my interest as AOE does.
Happy gaming.
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This is a great set. It comes with two cds. The origional and the expansion. This game is even more fun if you play on line against other people. Or you can make your own game against the computer on a number of different maps. Control their difficulty. Change the map size or just play thier campigns.They also have many civilizations to pick from. You could be the Vikings, Japanese, Spanish, Goths, Britons, Chinese, Saracens and more. While playing you have fun while also learning. They even have a history book built into the game that tells you the militant history of each civilization.
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This game is truely amazing, it is a huge step up from it's predecessor. Apart from having more units than AOE1 you can manage them a lot better aswell, you can put them into units and select different postures, you can also mix the units so that you have balanced armies. There are many civilisations to control each having its own strengths and weaknesses. The game itself is very balanced, there are no units without weaknesses (if you don't know how to kill elephants use massed amounts of scorpions) and no civilisations without it's flaws. I won't go into detail about what you can get because that will spoil the suprise for you.there are only a few problems with this game and i will list them:
1)there is a population limit
2)the people and buildings are not to scale
3)if you play this over the internet there is usually alot of lag
there you go thats about all the problems
by the way this game is awesome over the internet, it makes such a difference fighting against real people.
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