Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

***Age of Empires II: The Conquerors*** (often abbreviated to **AoC**, although the official abbreviation is **AOE2X**) is the first expansion pack to the 1999 real-time strategy game *Age of Empires II*, released on August 24, 2000. The Conquerors is the fourth installment of the *Age of Empires* series developed by Ensemble Studios. The game features five new civilizations (the Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Huns, and Koreans), four new campaigns, 11 new units, 26 new technologies, new gameplay modes, new maps and a few minor changes to the gameplay.

## Gameplay

The Conquerors Expansion has new gameplay features and changes such as the game modes Defend the Wonder, King of the Hill, and Wonder Race. New maps were also included which are based on real life geographic locations and new winter and tropical terrain. Also, infantry are able to garrison in siege engines, increasing their attack and speed, while ships are able to form formations in order to fight more effectively.

Micromanagement is made easier by an improved scripted artificial intelligence of villagers and siege weapons. Villagers will now automatically start gathering resources if they build resource gathering sites, while siege weapons will not fire if their attack is likely to harm friendly units (though it may not seem like it). Additionally, an in-game option has been added to allow the game to automatically replenish farms after they are exhausted. Chat commands are introduced in order to communicate more effectively with allied computer players.

The Conquerors Expansion adds four additional single player campaigns. These are based on Attila the Hun's rise to power, Montezuma's defense against **Hernan Cortez**, and the adventures of El Cid. The fourth campaign, Battles of the Conquerors, is actually a group of unrelated single scenarios, each based on a significant historical battle. These include the Battle of Agincourt, the saga of Erik the Red, and the Battle of Hastings, among others.

### Miscellaneous changes

Additional changes were made in *The Conquerors* expansion (patch 1.0c), they include:

* Cavalry Archers Rate of Fire reduced - The rate of firing of cavalry archer was reduced to some extent and they were made less powerful.
* The Camel and the Heavy Camel move slightly faster with 1.4 speed in AOK to 1.45 in Age of Conquerors (Rate of Fire is unaffected).
* The Bombard Cannon is significantly improved, being given several new bonuses (notably a siege bonus) and improving on previous bonuses. It also has more hitpoints, has a faster projectile speed and no longer requires the Bombard Cannon research.
* Town Centers no longer gain range, only damage and LOS. However, the tool tips of the Fletching, Bodkin Arrow and Bracer researches have not been updated as the description for them still mentions an increase to a Town Center's range. This was done to promote the usage of units to fight, instead of buildings, and to balance aggressive vs. defensive strategies. With long ranged town centers, the defensive strategies were very strong. Also, the Teutonic Town center bonus now only increases the Line of Sight of Town Centers due to multiplayer difficulties. In addition, the cost of Town Centers now require 275 wood and 100 stone while also take longer to construct.
* Outposts now require only 25 wood and 10 stone, while also have increased LOS.
* Both Elite and non-elite Janissary attack has been increased, but accuracy decreased from 55% to 50%.
* Hand Cannoneer receive increased anti-infantry bonus and no longer require a specific research.
* Huskarls have improved pierce armor and increased anti-archer attack bonus.
* Spearmen, Pikemen and Halberdiers have their attack bonus against camels (camels, ships and saboteurs technically) reduced.
* Mangonel/Onager line units move faster, have increased projectile speed and possess bonus anti-siege weapons damage. Their AI is also improved so they are less likely to fire if their shots may injure friendly or allied units.
* Samurai now move faster, receive +1 pierce armor and increased anti-unique unit bonus damage.
* Scorpion line units have increased attack range, but are no longer affected by Blacksmith upgrades.
* Scout Cavalry, Light Cavalry, and Hussar are given bonus damage against Monks and are now more resistant to conversion.
* Militia, Men at Arms, Long Swordsman, Two-Handed Swordsman, Champion, and Berserk receive +1 pierce armor.
* Woad Raider receive +1 pierce armor and are trained faster.
* Bombard Towers are no longer effective against Rams; each cannonball only does one damage, so they are no match for Rams, and puts a greater emphasis on ground units to defend against Rams. This made Trebuchets and Bombard Cannons the only effective siege weapons against Bombard Towers.
* A new cheat that wasn't in the Age of Kings appears as "Furious the Monkey Boy".
* Ships can now be arranged in various formations similar to ground units.
* Infantry and archers can garrison within a Ram for protection. Garrisoned infantry will also make it move faster and do more damage.
* Villagers now go automatically to work after they build the appropriate buildings (lumber camp for wood, mill for food, mining camp for gold and stone), after they build the required building and the resources associated to that building would be in Line of Sight of the villager it will automatically start the gathering.
* Relics generate more gold.
* Population Limit can be changed in the Scenario Editor.
* When being attacked, or sending a message, the color represents the team that is attacking or sending the message.
* Spoken dialogue from the characters appears in the message section.
* Heroes can't be converted at all and also automatically heal themselves.
* Wonders that appear at the start that would not be considered as a count down do not mark a [W] next to the team name in the statistics, nor be shown across the map, nor be counted as having been constructed.
* Palisade Walls are unaffected by the Torpedo Cheat.
* Some objects have a different design.

## Multiplayer

As of June 2006, The MSN Gaming Zone CD-ROM section was shut down for Age of Empires players, as well as many other CD-ROM games. GameSpy was selected by Microsoft as the official replacement for online play, although alternatives are available such as IGZones. There are several other Age of Empires II: The Conquerors servers worldwide. For example, due to technical reasons most Chinese players play in CGA, which usually has over 6000 online players at a time.

A clan is a community of players within a particular game, and in this case many players in AoC belong to a clan, to get into a clan it usually involves being "recruited". A high-ranked member of a particular clan will invite members to join, joining has its benefits such as giving players a reputation, a virtual gaming "home" in which a user can get downloads, and be filled in on the latest news. Many Clans use a tag system in which a user must reflect the clans "tag". Clans are held together by the players themselves, IGZones.com has a clan based profile integrated into their website where the leader of a clan can accept, deny, promote, and demote members of their clan.