parent nodes: Age of Empires 2 | Lief Haven
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (or simply Age of Kings) is a real-time strategy game set in the middle ages, released in 1999. It was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, following the success of Age of Empires.
Overview
The player controls the fortunes of a medieval nation from the dark ages up to the beginnings of the renaissance. As in most RTS games, the player directly controls villagers who can be sent to gather resources or build various buildings, which can in turn be used to develop advanced technologies and train military units. The objective of the game is to defeat competing nations on the battlefield. The game's combat system features an elaborate Rock, Paper, Scissors system of counterunits and balances which ensures that no single unit can be massed to win a battle. In single player mode, players can either fight a quick battle against computer opponents or follow the life of historical personalities through a series of campaigns of rising difficulty, interspersed with cutscenes. In multiplayer mode, up to eight players compete with their nations for world dominance.
Civilizations
In the original game, the player could choose from 13 civilizations, each having some distinct advantages and disadvantages in line with the historical civilizations they were modeled after. Each civilization has a very distinct personality that is enhanced by a region-specific building set, unique units like longboats and berserks for the Vikings, and more-or-less historically correct language for the civilizations' units. The game's civilizations include:
Britons
Byzantines
Celts
Chinese
Franks
Goths
Japanese
Mongols
Persians
Saracens
Teutons
Turks
Vikings