Age of Empires II: The Conquerors update

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is a popular sequel to the original game that combines strategy and intriguing game play.

Fans of the original Age of Empires will likely be quite pleased with what this next version has in store. 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 armies, building alliances and widening one's existing empire.

An Expansion Pack

Directly following the extremely popular platform Age of Empires: The Age of Kings, this newer version is considered to be an expansion and a "fix" for previous versions. This dictates that Age of Empires II must be already installed within an operating system. In other words, Age of Empires: The Conquerors will not run on its own. Besides this one stipulation, many consider this newer modification as being the most entertaining of them all.

New Civilisations

One massive advancement is that Age of Empires II has incorporated five new civilisations. These are the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Spanish, the Huns and the Koreans. Much like the other empires, each is equipped with its own build set. From the point of view of accuracy, players will be happy to know that the modifications supplied for each directly reflect their unique traits. An emphasis on travel can be seen in reference to the Huns while the Korean civilisation instead focuses upon defences such as guard towers. All in all, fans of history will not be disappointed with that Age of Empires II: The Conquerors has to offer.

Similar Game Play?

Although the 18 different civilisation all bring something unique to the table, the fact of the matter is that small nuances allude to rather similar game play. Some players have stated that many of the distinctions are subtle and therefore, a strategy that works for one empire is likely to work well for them all. However, there is no doubt that the civilisations are nonetheless extremely intriguing. The flexibility in terms of additional variants can also breathe some new life into the platform.

A Focus on Combat

Another notable departure from previous versions is that Age of Empires II: The Conquerors places more of an emphasis on combat tactics than city-building skills. So, features such as autonomous villagers and the ability automatically to plant crops when needed (as opposed to making a physical command) will enable the player to centre his or her efforts around conquest (hence the title of the game). Some feel that this modification was due to the frustration that arose from spending a great deal of time on maintenance as opposed to action. This enables the modification to appeal to a wider audience.

System Requirements

As this is simply a modification to existing versions, only four megabytes of additional hard drive space is required. Age of Empires II: The Conquerors can be played on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows NT, Windows ME and Windows 2000.

Conclusion

To review, let us list some of the benefits and drawbacks of this update.

Pros

• Five new civilisations to play with
• More of a focus upon conquest
• Small file size

Cons

• A previous Age of Empires must be installed
• Similar game play to other versions