Writing this review during the beta period meant there weren't many opponents to face, and battles were inevitably mismatched. This unlocks at level seven, and gives you a new way to earn experience, and acts as a much better test of your army's build. If you want more of a challenge – and you will – you can also face off against other players in one-on-one or two-vs-two games in Sparta. The Egyptian healing and support units, such as the Priestess of Ra and powerful War Elephants, are the only things that really set the two factions apart. Their units are a little cheaper and slightly more fragile, but while Egyptian axemen and camel riders look different from Greek swordsmen and cavalry, they all work the same way in a fight. The Egyptian civilisation doesn't offer much more variety. Your capital city swells, earns money, generates items and lets you configure a complex, abstract build for your armed forces, but during the brief loading screen that separates the city view and a mission, that build degenerates into a repetitive, straightforward RTS. They grow slightly stronger now and then, but never become more interesting to use.Īs a result, AoEO feels like two different games that happen to share the same economy. As it is, your units may as well just be levelling up.
#Age of empires online upgrade#
If new items gave units new abilities and new roles on the battlefield, the upgrade system has the potential to be much more compelling. A new bow might give my archers a little extra range, and new armour might make my spearmen 20% tougher, but this never changed their level of usefulness in combat. While the idea of developing new armour and weapons for my warriors from my capital city was enticing, the incremental nature of each upgrade meant I never saw much effect from my meddling. You'll need to buy a civilisation pack to equip the most powerful elite gear. Separate crafting houses for infantry, cavalry and naval units let you create new gear and one-shot consumables that can buff units in the middle of a fight, or even summon new ones to your town centre at a pinch. You can boost your troops' performance in battle by equipping them with special weapons and armour pieces at your capital city's armoury. My city's many shops and crafting lodges held interest long after the steady stream of missions had started to feel like a grind.
![age of empires online age of empires online](https://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/24/23975/Empire-Earth-III-1.jpg)
The capital city offers layers and layers of customisation like this. My copper age advisor lets my villagers take more wood from trees, my bronze age advisor makes my guard towers more powerful and my silver age advisor lets me train Phalanx warriors.
#Age of empires online install#
To train them on the battlefield you must install that unit's commander at your advisor's hall in your capital city, but you can only do this if you've paid for the Greek or Egyptian Civilisation Pack, which costs around £12.Īs well as adding unique units, advisors confer general bonuses to your empire, and you can appoint one for each age your civilisation has progressed through. It was a rare moment of excitement in a campaign that was quickly becoming dull, but unique units like the Hetairoi can't be unlocked through the skill tree. They crushed every building and razed the town centre in a matter of seconds. I created a vanguard of swordsmen and spearmen to sweep away enemy combat units, then scurried them out of the range of the lethal guard-towers to make room for the Hetairoi, who formed a column and stampeded through the town. At level eight, I finally had a reason to change my strategy.