by Zac - March 21, 2004

The Conquerors is the expansion to Age of Kings, released in mid 2000. While The Conquerors is overall a very good expansion pack, it ended up upsetting a lot of the balance achieved in Age of Kings, in effect limiting many multi-player matches to a small number of civilizations.

A Couple Problems

The Conquerors adds five new civilizations (Aztecs, Huns, Koreans, Mayans and Spanish), some maps, several new game types, new features, and some important technologies to the fairly large number already offered in Age of Kings. Most of these are very welcome additions, most specifically, the maps and the new game types. However, not all is perfect.

Three of the added civilizations complement the game well, not being overly powerful, and not being exceptionally weak. The biggest problem lies with Huns, which has ended up being the best land civilization in nearly every game type, running over 90% of other civilizations with ease. Not to forget the Koreans, who, while not as universally devastating as the Huns, ended up being banned in multi-player Deathmatch games. This is not to bash Ensemble Studious, who at least tried to fix a number of balancing issues with a series of patches. Unfortunately, the patches created as many problems as they solved, and despite them, Huns remain dominant and Koreans remain banned.

Some of the new features ended up getting mixed reactions from the fan base. Many competitive players from the Age of Kings community expressed concern with some of the more 'newbie-friendly' additions. Now villagers will automatically do work for the corresponding building they've been assigned to build. For instance, if you tell your villagers to build a Lumbercamp, they will begin chopping wood after construction is finished. For more hardcore gamers, this means becoming good at The Conquerors requires less skill than was required for Age of Kings, and is thus a turn-off. However, for the more casual players, this is a positive. It allows players to concentrate more on the fighting.

Some Great Additions

One universally acclaimed new feature has been the ability to create your own random maps scripts. In Age of Kings, you could create your own maps with the editor included with the game, but it would always remain exactly the same. The developer-created maps were based off of random map scripts. These kept maps from becoming stale, because positions of natural resources and hills would be randomized. The map Arabia was always a fairly hilly desert, but due to random map scripting, it was never the same hilly desert. Now that the community has the ability to create their own randomized maps, the web has been flooded with them, and for the most part, they've dramatically improved the multi-player aspect of the game. Aside from one or two exceptions, the player created maps are actually more popular than the numerous new maps that came with the expansion.

As previously mentioned, the new game types were also a welcome addition to the game. Previously, Random Map, Deathmatch, Regicide, and player-created Scenarios were the only available modes of play. The Conquerors adds King of the Hill, Wonder Race, and Defend the Wonder. King of the Hill and Defend the Wonder seem best in team games, while Wonder Race can be happily played in one on one.

In King of the Hill, there is a monuments at the center of the map. Players must control the monument for a number of years to win. In large team games, this can lead to some spectacular battles, featuring hundreds of units at once. Wonder Race has no military fighting. Instead, the first person to build a Wonder wins the game. In Defend the Wonder, one player or team starts out with a Wonder built, and must defend it for a number of years. To make things difficult, the defending team starts with less resources.

Fans of the Age of Kings campaigns are in for a treat. You can now assume the role of El Cid, Attila the Hun, and Montezuma in their own campaigns, or play a campaign titled "The Conquerors." The Conquerors let's you take control in some of history's greatest battles, including Agincourt, Hastings, and Manzikert. This, along with an AI overhaul from Ensemble Studios, makes single-player very enjoyable.

Graphically, The Conquerors is superior to Age of Kings. The new textures and more detailed terrain can't change the fact that the engine is four years old and the game is only 2d, but they do help. On high resolution, The Conquerors looks respectable.

The inclusion of Meso-American civilizations brings in music very different than what was heard in Age of Kings. Fortunately, the change is good. The new style of music works very well in the jungle-themed maps, and of course there are more traditional songs as well. The voice acting for the new campaigns is done well too. One thing that hasn't really been changed but should have been is the warning sound (for when you're attacked). Over time it can become quite an annoyance, especially in hectic multi-player matches when you'll hear it several times a minute sometimes.

The interface and controls remain largely untouched, which is a good thing. They were basically perfect in Age of Kings, and they remain that way in The Conquerors. Everything remains easy to control, and there are no unit quirks or bugs that will impede enjoyment.

The Verdict

For fans of Age of Kings and strategy in general, The Conquerors is definitely worth buying. The interface and sound are just as good as they were in the Age of Kings, and there are numerous additions that make the game as a whole more enjoyable. However, the addition of some very unbalanced civilizations hurt what is otherwise a superb expansion, making it less than what it should have been.