Age of Empires (often abbreviated as AoE) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios on October 15, 1997 in North America and on February 2, 1998 in Europe and Japan.

Ancient civilizations, epic battles

The game takes place over a period between 5000 BC. BC and 800 AD During which the player must evolve a civilization through four ages: the Stone Age, the Tool Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The four campaigns of the game retrace events in the history of four civilizations: ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, Babylon and Japan from the Yamato period. In the first of these, which also serves as a tutorial, the player is entrusted with the destiny of Egypt from the establishment of a village on the banks of the Nile to the construction of a pyramid. The Greek campaign traces the advent of city-states, the war between Athens and Sparta, the fall of Troy and the conquests led by Alexander the Great. The player then follows the Yamato clan in his struggle to unify Japan before witnessing the Babylonian rise in power in the Euphrates Valley and the wars with the Egyptians and Assyrians.

Gather resources to build your empire

Age of Empires is about the player developing a civilization starting from an ancient group of villagers the must gather resources, hunt and farm to reach a great empire in the Iron Ages. To win, the player must collect resources to build buildings, develop new technologies and create an army capable of defeating the enemy army and destroy its base. Resources must also be preserved since they are not renewed during the game – for example, when a tree is felled it will not grow back4.5.

Twelve civilizations competing and advancing in time

Twelve civilizations are available, each providing the player with a variety of technologies and units. Each civilization also has unique technologies, none of them having all the technologies available in the game. One of the major elements of the game is the possibility for the player to evolve his civilization through the four ages mentioned before. This evolution is done through a unique research. Each passage to a more advanced age providing the player with new technologies, weapons and units5,7.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a real-time strategy video game, developed by Westwood Studios on PC and published by Electronic Arts in October 2000. The game is part of the Command and Conquer series and is a sequel to the first Command and Conquer: Red Alert. Allies and Soviets come back in the game as well as some of their buildings and vehicles but no other connection is made with the other Command and Conquer games.

A new world war

The story unfolds after Command and Conquer: Red Alert, where the allies have already won. Stalin perished and his replacement, Alexander Romanov, is defined as a man of peace that the allies can keep under control. But that’s not counting Romanov’s secret plans which, helped by his aide-de-camp Yuri and General Vladimir, use the Mexican civil war to send troops and regroup them before making a surprise assault on the United States. Pre-emptively warned about this attack, US President Dugan threatens to respond with a nuclear attack but Yuri, who has powerful psychic abilities, manages to defeat the launch. The president then asks the former Allied powers for help in a new world war. It is at this moment that the player chooses one of the two campaigns, Allies or Soviets, both which see the victory of the chosen camp.

Gameplay changes

Red Alert 2 brings no radical gameplay changes. Ordinary soldiers can now enter the buildings from which they can fire, giving them extra protection. The player must still assume the role of a US or Russian army leader and build his base, collect resoures train new units and launch them to assault the enemy team. In skirmish mode, you can choose a country that has joined one of the two factions. The game’s missions are mostly urban, and battles often take place near famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower or the White House, to better emphasize the “world war” aspect of the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade is the second expansion of the base game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. It was released in October 2006 and offers two new playable races: the Necrons, and the Tau Empire, as well as new units for the old races. Unlike Winter Assault, Dark Crusade is a stand-alone and can be installed and used in multiplayer without requiring the original game Dawn of War or Winter Assault. However, a player with only Dark Crusade will only be able to choose one of the two new races when playing multiplayer.

Who will conquer Kronus?

The goal of the single-player campaign is to conquer a planet: Kronus. It is playable with any of the seven races. The world of Kronus is divided into territories. At the beginning of the campaign, the player controls a single territory, while the AI occupies three or even four. The goal of the campaign is to conquer each territory that will bring various bonuses to the player.

Each race has its own general

It is also possible to customize your general following victories, giving them upgrades and bonuses. The generals you can control are: Eliphas the heir to the head of the Word Bearers (Chaos), Commander Shas’o Kais (for the Tau Empire), Military Governor Lukas Alexander (for the Imperial Guard), Captain Thule of the 3rd Blood Ravens company (for the Space Marines), the great prophetess Taldeer of the Ulthwé world ship (for the Eldar), the Big Boss Gorgutz (for the Orks) and finally the Lord of the Kronus tomb world (for the Necrons).

What is Kronus?

Kronus is a former colony of the Tau empire. But the time of peace is over. Indeed, fighting has multiplied following an assault of the forces of Chaos, a Waaagh! Ork and the awakening of the Necrons after a very long hibernation. the Tau empire sent troops to pacify the situation while the Imperium turned their eyes towards the planet. There they sent the Imperial Guard to claim Kronus, while the Space Marine were sent to purge the planet of Xenos (non-humans) and protect relics. However, given the scale of the Xeno infestation, the Marines captain decided to purge the planet, putting himself in opposition to the Imperial Guard.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is an expansion pack to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was published in North America by Blizzard Entertainment on July 1, 2003 and in Europe by Sierra on July 4, 2003. The game was quickly awareded many game of the year awards following its release.

Three main campaigns

The Frozen Throne takes place in the imaginary world of medieval-fantasy called Azeroth. The story unfolds shortly after the events of Warcraft III during which the Night Elves, aided by humans and Orcs exiled on Kalimdor, manage to defeat the Burning Legion and destroy Archimonde. In the first part of the main campaign, the player follows guard Maiev Shadowsong in pursuit of Illidan Stormrage after he was released from prison. In the second campaign, the player follows Prince Kael’thas, commander of the Blood Elves, the last surviving High Elves of Lordaeron. To save his people, he allies himself with with Illidan and the Nagas with whom he went to conquer Draenor. In the last campaign, the player successively follows Arthas and Sylvanas Windrunner in their fight against the demons. Responding to the call of the Lich King, Arthus goes to Northrend where he fights Illidan Stormrage and his allies to take control of the Frozen Throne.

New factions

Several new factions are introduced in The Frozen Throne campaigns. The Blood Elves replace the High Elves within the Alliance and the player is brought to confront two nonplayable factions: the Naga and the Draenei. To combat them, each faction is given new units, available both in the campaign and multiplayer mode, and some existing units gain new capabilities. New heroes also appear as each faction has an additional hero and can recruit mercenary heroes in a new neutral building. Each faction also has a new building that allows for the purchase of items and new defensive buildings (such as arcande towers) are introduced to help players fend off rushes of heroes, a popular Warcraft III strategy. The campaign also reveals three new environments populated by new neutral units, as well as naval combat.

Battle.net

Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne’s battle.net servers have been something of a revolution in the gaming world. With many great games, like Footman’s Frenzy, Line Tower Wars, Hero Line Wars, Risk and even DOTA being born. The game’s battlenet servers are still populated with quite a lot of games. This is a testimony to the game’s rich lore and well-made gameplay mechanics, that such great games were made using the Frozen Throne map editor.

Star Trek: Armada is a real-time strategy video game developed by Activision and released in the year 2000. Armada is set in the futuristic Star Trek sci-fi universe. In the game, the player has to build and control a star fleet of starships and starbases. The game was followed by a sequel, Star Trek Armada II, released in 2002.

Gameplay and modes

In the single-player mode, there are 5 campaigns of various missions in sequence, which represent the five phases of the story: that of the Federation of United Planets, of the Klingons, of the Romulans, of the Borg and then of all the first three factions against the common threat. There is also a tutorial which allows new players to pick up the basics of the game. There are also specific battle scenarios which can be used when playing multiplayer, on either LAN or online. There is also a skirmish mode where the player can play against an AI.

Stronghold: Crusader is a real-time strategy video game developed by Firefly Studios and published by Take 2 Interactive and Gathering of Developers. Stronghold Crusader’s gameplay system focuses on battles between Lords, on smaller or larger maps which can host up to 8 participants. The game is real-time where the player must develop their buildings and unit at the same time as the enemy. When opposing castles are built closer to each other, this usually leads to great battles between the two sides.

Differences between the original Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader

Stronghold Crusader is an expansion to the original Stronghold game. Some have argued that it cannot not be described as an expansion, in the sense that it is absolutely not necessary to have Stronghold to play it (it is technically a stand-alone expansion). Nevertheless, Stronghold Crusader has huge similarities with Stronghold; the buildings are all identical, even though their design has been improved in Stronghold Crusader; the game system is identical. Stronghold Crusader is in some ways more difficult than Stronghold, and in other ways easier. Stronghol Crusader is a lot more directed towards war and battles. Whereas the original Stronghold had castles which required to be managed, Stronghold Crusader allows you to build castles much easier, thus putting a greater emphasis on military aspects. Stronghold was located in the medieval plains of old Europe, which were of sublime beauty. Conversely, Stronghold Crusader is located in the hot desert of Arabia, thus radically changing the game’s scenery. This is seen clearly in the buildings, whcich are different the the square and cold buildings of the original Stronghold. Water is a key resource in the game – there are maps with many oases, others without oases, and still others where it will be necessary to fight to acquire the available oases.

Management is much simpler

In Stronghold Crusader, Stronghold’s management problems were heavily decreased, especially with regards to buildings. Most infastructure require less resources, for example:

• The armory now requires only 5 planks of wood to build.
• The market, which cost 15 units of wood in Stronghold, now only needs 5 units.
• There is no longer a wooden barracks or wooden wall. These are replaced by low walls, much cheaper stones than conventional walls of normal size.
• A new tower is available: the watchtower. It is a very large tower, of Arab style, which can only support five troops. It is very weak, but seriously improves the range of fire.

ParaWorld is a real-time strategy game made by the German development studio SEK and edited by Sunflowers. As its name suggests, ParaWorld takes the player to discover parallel universes populated by barbarian tribes and dinosaurs. In ParaWorld, three young scientists find themselves trapped in a parallel universe.

Three characters transported to a strange parallel world

These are the three main characters in the Paraworld screenplay: Stina Holmlund (a botanist), Anthony Cole (a geologist) and Béla Andréas Benedek (physicist). They must then show courage and ingenuity to survive in a hostile universe, populated by dinosaurs. In fact, it seems that these three heroes have been transported to a parallel world, where their qualifications are of no use to them. Indeed, in this parallel world, there is no electricity, the stars are not in the same place, the geological strata are mixed, and especially the dinosaurs have not disappeared, they would have even been transported in our world. Our three heroes will have to fight against SEAS and its leader Jarvis Babbit. SEAS is an organization of scientific alternative studies. They have succeeded in producing steam-powered machines, and Babbit’s sole objective is to create a huge cataclysm with a volcano and a machine that, once activated, will allow Paraworld to be diverted from its orbit. and thus prevent anyone from returning to Earth or going to Paraworld. Babbit wants to become the master of Paraworld forever, and the three heroes of the game have to stop him.

Playable tribes

There are three playable tribes in Paraworld, each oriented towards an existing culture in our world:

Men of the North

Similar to the Vikings, they are a sedentary people. They use heavy and powerful heavy defenses, and have combat units favoring melee combat. Mammoths, an overpowering animal melee unit, are a key part of their arsenal. Ideal for defense-oriented players, and direct clashes.

Riders of the desert

African nomads, the only ones having a mobile city center, that are specialized in animal units, such as allosaurus and T-Rex. They have very fast and versatile units, formidable in both melee and distance. Brachiosaurs can be a powerful melee unit, a formidable melee carrier, a heavy artillery unit, or a remotely effective mobile fortress capable of producing infantry. Ideal for attack-oriented players, and quick attack tactics.

The dragon clan

An Asian culture, they specialize in inventions, traps, and camouflage. They have structures and units that favor remote combat and ambushes. Ninjas, melee and ranged combat units, can be used to disguise themselves to infiltrate enemy bases and open the gates of enemy fortifications. Ideal for guerrilla strategy players, focused on balancing direct and indirect clashes.

Command and Conquer: Generals is a real time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 2003 for Windows and is the first title in the Command and Conquer series. The game’s expansion was released the same year and is called Command and Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour. Command and Conquer: Generals is played through three global armies:

The United States

The United States Army is distinguished by its high technology and the importance of its air support (many of the options of the general involve the US Air Force). The super-weapon of this faction is a particle gun, a laser emitted to a satellite and returned to the battlefield, which allows to move the beam on the ground and create a path of destruction.

China

The Chinese Army is distinguished by its massive army, the number of its soldiers – wrongly called “Red Guards” – as well as its nuclear technology and use of napalm. The super-weapon of this faction is a nuclear missile, which emits dangerous residual radiation for any unit present on the field.

GLA (Global Liberation Army)

The GLA is distinguished by its cheap and easily replaceable units and its use of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, as well as bacteriological weapons. The super-weapon of this faction is a series of Scud missiles, which can contain bacteriological warheads.

The goal of China and the United States is to eradicate the GLA and, conversely, the GLA wants to eject the US and China out of the world (even if it is suggested, no religion is mentioned)

Units available

There are four types of units which can be played with:

• Soldiers trained in barracks
• Vehicles, built in vehicle factories
• Airplanes, produced at airports
• Units unlocked via promotions which you cannot control (e.g. carpet bombers)

Game modes

The game is based on the strategy and military management of the three factions. There are three main modes of play:

• “Campaign”: You lead a faction of your choice through several offensive and defensive missions
• “Skirmish”: You will direct a faction against one or more (up to 8) enemies on the map of your choice
• “Multiplayer”: using an internet connection or LAN, you will have access to servers where you can fight against other Generals players. These games will be harder or easier to win as you will not face AI but a real player.

Three Kingdoms: The Fate of the Dragon is a real-time strategy game inspired by real historical facts (recounted by Chen Shou in his Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), developed by Overmax Studios and Object Software, two companies based in Beijing, China. The game was published by in Europe by the English publisher Eidos Interactive. The story is set in the year 184, when the glorious Han Dynasty begins its decline. From then until 220, the Empire will lose its splendor, and will then divide into three distinct empires. For more details, see the article about the Three Kingdoms epoch.

Your villagers become your army

The developers have introduced into the game many innovative strategy elements to give extra appeal to the game. For example, citizens, in addition to the usual tasks of collecting resources (there are seven in the game: wood and iron; and wheat, which are used to create food, as well as gold, generated through taxation) or construction of buildings, are used directly to create military units: they are sent to the barracks and at the end of their training become either an archer, swordsman or pikeman, or enlist in the elite troops category. They are also used in headquarters workshops or in stables to respectively create siege instruments or horses.

Military aspects of Fate of the Dragon

The soldiers, divided into three major classes: archers, pikemen and swordsmen, each have their own abilities but they can all ride horses with the click of a mouse. Thus, the player does not create a cavalry unit directly but must summon mounts in the stable. Siege weapons in the game are quite varied: in addition to the traditional catapult, it is possible to pass the soldiers across the walls circling each city. This is done by means of ladders or by flying instruments similar to paragliders! There are also naval units, but these do not play such a crucial role in Three Kingdoms: Fate of the Dragon.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles. This is the third installment in the Red Alert saga, a variation (but still a part of) of the Command and Conquer series.

New features added – it’s all about the sea!

The gameplay has been totally redesigned since the release of Generals and Command and Conquer 3. Most of the units in Red Alert 3 are amphibious and a pretty prominent place is left in naval combat. Besides, the construction site itself is amphibious and the possibility of creating a base in the sea has been allowed. For any Red Alert player, this obviously creates a huge impact on gameplay mechanics and style, especially in competitive play. In a demonstration video released in early June, the general director of game development explains that “to not epxloit the sea is to provide an economic and strategic advantage to the enemy”. In reality, water becomes the major element of the game: a commander not exploiting the possibilities of water is a bad commander. Almost all buildings can be placed on the water, with the exception of buildings producing land units (weapons factory and barracks), and only the shipyard can not be built on land.

Continuing the story of Red Alert 2

Following the events of Red Alert 2, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is in decline in the face of Allied military superiority. In a capital city ridden by the popular revolt and the precipitous departure of the Secretary General, the Russian colonel Anatoliy Cherdenko (Interpreted by Tim Curry) reveals to his superior, General Krukov, the existence of a plan to make a leap back in time. His goal: to assassinate Albert Einstein, effectively eliminating the incredible technological breakthrough of the Allies and restoring the former and powerful Soviet Union in the process. But the mission is not going as planned. A new spatio-temporal dimension is created and a new geopolitical order is established, altering the course of technological evolution and creating a new technologically advanced empire in the Far East: The Empire of the Rising Sun. The Third World War begins as Japanese invading troops arrive at the Russian coast.