Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

***Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings*** is a real-time strategy computer game set in the Middle Ages. It was released in 1999, and is the second main title of the *Age of Empires* series developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Due to its commercial success, an expansion pack was released; *Age of Empires II: The Conquerors*, followed by a *Gold Edition*, which bundled together the two games along with a bonus map and game matches recorded by Microsoft strategy experts.

Age of Empires 2 Official Trailer (2000, Ensemble Microsoft)
In 2013, *Age of Empires II HD* was announced and given a release date of April 9, 2013 on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows operating systems only. The HD Edition includes both the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. It also supports user-generated content through the Steam Workshop and multiplayer games provided through the Steam servers.[1] After more than a decade another expansion pack was released, *Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten*. It had more bug fixes, advanced AIs and balancing. It required the HD version to be installed first. Later, in 2015, the new expansion *Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms* was added, giving a total of 27 civilizations. The following year in 2016, *Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas* was released on the 19th of December, bringing the total number of civilizations to 31.

## Gameplay

The player has control over a society and guides them through four different time periods or "ages". The game begins in the Dark Age, where very few buildings and units are available. After a short time when requirements are met, the user gains the ability to advance their civilization beginning with the Feudal Age, where more upgrades, buildings, and units become available. The next age is the Castle Age, in which the powerful castle may be built, and used to produce powerful units including the unique unit of each civilization. Finally, the user can reach the Imperial Age, which is reminiscent of the early years of the Renaissance. Once the user has reached the Imperial Age, they gain access to all the upgrades, units, and buildings that may be built and researched for their specific civilization.

The player directly controls Villagers, which are the most important economic unit in the game. The player has the power to order them to move or attack (all units except for Trade Carts, Transport Ships and Trade Cogs), construct new buildings, gather necessary resources (*Villager* units), and perform a range of other tasks, such as repair damaged buildings or garrison inside Castle or Town Center for safety.

While the isometric rendered landscape features elevations and terrain similar its predecessor, several improvements were made. Besides a more realistic rendering of object size, the map features a more varied terrain with additional texturing options. In the scenario editor, desert is replaced with dirt and has three different variations, based on the number it is given. Elevation texturing remains unchanged with the exception of mountains which now appears in the game. Units that attack from cliffs or a higher elevation still receives an attack bonus but units that attack on lower elevations or below a cliff now have a damage penalty instead of dealing normal damage.

Like its predecessor, there are four types of resources: wood, food, gold, and stone, all of which are required to advance through the ages, research new technologies, erecting structures and training units. Wood is used for building and repairing most structures, used to create farms to provide food resources, and the production of ships, siege engines, and range units such as the various types of archers, and the skirmisher units. Stone is used for the construction of castles, towers, stone walls, and after the first patch, used in the construction of town centers as well. Gold and food are used for constructing units and researching technologies. In most cases, these resources can be traded for one another at the market, but with a small price: tariffs must be paid. Often, one of the difficulties of most scenarios or campaigns is that it usually has a small supply of a resource, often gold or stone which is usually controlled by the enemy, forcing players to exchange resources at the market.

Wood is gathered from trees, which are one of the most common and most easily obtained resource. Gold and stone can be mined from deposits found throughout the map. They are often located near the vicinity of the player's starting town center. Although both gold and stone mines are easily depleted, players can produce an infinite supply of gold at a steady pace by building trade carts from the market or cogs from the dock to trade with other players and exchange it for stone at the market. Acquiring Relics can also produce gold, though at a slightly slower rate. Food is found at the start of the game often in form of berry bushes that appear near the starting town center of each player as well as hunting animals (deer, boar, or sheep) or fishing along the shoreline. Although natural forms of food are easily exhausted, they can be replenished indefinitely by building Farms, creating Fishing Boats from the Dock and using them to build Fish Traps, provided that enough wood is stockpiled. To advance through the ages, certain requirements must be met, such as building certain structures and the payment of resources at the town center.