Joan of Arc is Re-Enacted in Age of Empires...

Age of Empires is the first RPG strategy game I ever bought for my computer, way back in 1999. Because of this, I now have a serious taste for RPG games, which I play whenever I can.

Age of Empires is based on the world after 476 AD, when the already weakened Roman Empire finally lost its Emperor, effectively ceasing to exist after that. After this, Europe plunged into the Dark Ages and later the Middle Ages, where lords and their knights faced invasion and ongoing violence from such people as the Magyars (who later formed the nation of Hungary), Vikings, Muslim Arabs (in this game they're called Saracens) and Mongol hordes, but most of all each other. During this time, armored knights, spearmen, and eventually cannon fire developed in Europe or was introduced from other sections of the world.

Enough with the storyline.

When playing the game I have this bad habit of building up as many resources, especially gold and food, while building up a defensive position, before beginning my assault on the enemy. That's painstakingly long obviously, thus I often save my games in mid-battle just so I can enjoy them later. There are cheat codes available, but out of respect for fair play I will not list them here.

One note: when planning an offensive it's always helpful to take lots of soldiers of all three types, infantrymen, archers, and calvarymen. Infantrymen are powerful but slow, and they're best used to besiege an enemy town or Castle. Archers have good shotting range but are physically weak, while Cavalrymen are fast and powerful but expensive to make. Then there is the Monk, created from the Monastery, who can heal friendly units or attempt to convery enemies to your side.

When listing units and numbering them, I always select up to 40 of them, especially when taking along a hero who must be kept alive at all costs during a mission. One thing I've learned about this game is that the best way to beat an opponent is to build up your numbers to the very max before planning your attack or siege.

Of the campaigns on the series, my favorite by far is the one with Joan of Arc and the Franks, were I can watch a peasant girl grow and develop into a woman in a suit of armor who leads them to battle against the Britons during the Hundred Years' War. Just for the record, the Franks' most powerful attribute is their strong, sharp-sworded, and super-fast cavalry. One can win simply by creating lots of cavalrymen with a few archers on the side as backup. Their special unit is a Throwing Axeman who throws his axes at enemies at a certain range; the French actually used such soldiers against their enemies just before charging into battle.

Also part of the running is the Briton civilization, best known for its long range archers called the Longbowmen, which the Britons loved to use against enemy cavalry for obvious reasons.

My personal favorite unit is the Elite Teutonic Knight, slow but tough and powerful. The main unit of the Teutons (aka the Germans of the Holy Roman Empire), they can destroy enemy units almost in one swipe, and demolish wooden buildings with a few more. When they're accompanied by archers and fast-riding cavalrymen to protect them from ranged attacks, they are virtually unstoppable.

The graphics are a bit gritty and not thoroughly detailed, but this was before the era of vivid 3D graphics in RPG games brought on by Warcraft 3 and the like, so I forgive it. The taunts are mostly in the proper language of the civilizations involved, just to add a sense of realism to the gameplay. Maybe it's worth it, since AOE is fun to play if only for its realistic gameplay. Although a bit dated, AOE of Kings is still an excellent RPG game to play. It's fast, powerful, and always strategically sound.

The Scenario section that comes with the main CD is obviously hard to use however. Individual atcions are hard to implement. With a military unit you have to learn how to place units, rotate them properly, trigger an action by moving that unit to a specific area, and trigger yet another result, just to give one example. I tried it, and it's very, very frustrating, mainly because of all the time involved and the complicated processes that must be considered when developing them. There are too many of these complications to list in detail. You'd be best off downloading those scenarios that were already made right off the Internet.

One more pet peeve: I have to wonder why the programmers never added drawbridges to the mix of buildings that can be constructed. Now that's a starter.

Another pet peeve. The original CD (without the Expansion set) automatically caps the maximum number of units a player can deploy at one time at 75, no more. It's frustrating because of the strict limits it sets on any military strategy.

There are significant enhancements found in the Age of Conquerors series Expansion, which adds Huns, Koreans, Spaniards, and the Aztec and Mayan civilizations to the mix, plus quite a slew of other features. The one I like best is the expanded population size that it gives toe player, giving him more flexibility and power with his infantrymen, knights, and archers. But that's another review.