Age of Empires 2 Official Expansion: The Conquerors

Players can defend Spain as El Cid, rage across Europe as Attila the Hun, or fight to preserve an ancient way of life as Montezuma in new campaigns that extend the single-player experience. Plenty of toys are available to each civilization, including new technologies such as Chinese rocketry and British yeomen. But none of the new technologies or units unbalance the game. In fact, many of the units from AoE2 have been altered in response to gamer feedback so no one unit or civilization has an overwhelming advantage.

Those who hated micromanaging their towns in Age of Empires 2 will appreciate the adjustments made to villager artificial intelligence. You can order several villagers to work a group of farm plots, and they'll automatically divvy up the labor. You no longer have to manually assign one peon to each individual plot. The same applies to mines: tell a villager to build a mine, and he'll automatically start hauling ore once construction is complete.

If you weren't all that impressed with AoE2, this expansion pack won't change your mind. But if you're one of the millions who enjoyed the original game, you'll find that all the new goodies in The Conquerors will breathe more hours of fun into an old favorite. --Paul Sanguinetti

Pros:

• Adds plenty of new units, technology, and wonders
• Tweaks core AoE2 gameplay
• Features maps of France, Britain, Spain, and... Texas
• New King of the Hill and peaceful Wonder multiplayer games
• Jungle and snow terrain add variety

• Armies of civilizations still very similar

Ram's are now transports, garrizon units inside it to increase speed and defend units inside. ship formations,you can also send commands to friendly computer players. and finally new temperature zones including tropics, and ice. That is a very interesting game...


They made it again   September 17, 2000
Gwilym
37 out of 38 found this review helpful

The Age of Empire II expansion is, of course, basically the same game, so those of you who have played it will know the outlines. (and you'll know that it's one of the best games around). The biggest news are the addition of five new civs: the Spanish, the Huns, the Aztecs, the Mayans and the Koreans; all of them quite interesting. There are three new scenarios 1. Spanish scenario: You are El Cid, the famous spanish liberator, and your task is to drive out the Moors (moslem conquerors) from Spain. In addition, you are forced to occasionally fight a wicked spanish king as well...

2. Hun scenario As Attila the Hun, you lead your ravaging tribes from the steppes of Asia into Europe to attack the civilized world, especially the Roman Empire.

3. Aztec scenario As the Aztec emperor, you try to fight of the Spanish invaders, and defend your lake-city Tenochtitlan

In addition, the team behing AOE has added a number of famous battles, so that you can fight the battle of Hastings 1066 with William the Conqueror, you can discover America with the Vikings, etc. Aother great feature is the addtion of real world-maps, such as Britain, Italy, Texas and more. There is also a wider range of terrains, ranging from the rain-forests of the Americas to the snow and ice in Scandinavia.

All the old civilizations have got some new features as well, so that there is a definite feeling of a totally new game. As always, the historic detalis are accurate, which adds to the game.

If you have AOE II (the game won't run without it) and like it, I definitely recommend AOE Conquerors, it has everything one could have expected-


The Expansion Pack made Age of Empires UNCONQUERABLE   July 15, 2002
Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful

We were rather neutral at first about getting the Expansion Pack (The Conquerers) for our beloved Age of Empires. We networked our home office, and believe me, you can get through a lot of bad winter weather and no television if you are keen to play military strategy games. We just loved Empires, in my opinion, the best real-time strategy computer game there is.

But we were blown away by the Conquerers Expansion Pack. When we had installed it, we realized that this was NOW the most perfect RTS game, ever. The addition of five new civiliations, better maps, new technologies, improved AI and some really necessary upgrades made this pure playing pleasure.

Here's what I loved that was added to Age of Empires:

1. The new civilizations (civs to afficionados.)
a.The Koreans have war wagons (shoot arrows) and armored turtle boats. Their towers are inferior to none, making them as strong as the Teutons in some respects.
b. The Huns need no houses, and are the Mongols on mega-steroids. They are fast and vicious. The Tarkans (elite unit) are highly destructive to buildings.
c. The Spanish have Conquistadors, mounted hand cannoneers, there are Missionaries on muleback. They can build like no one else, and the villagers are strong defenders.
d. The Mayans and Aztec: New World, so no cavalry, but fast and have archers that rival the Chinese Chu-ko-Nu.

2. Each civ now gets one, or in some cases, two "unique technologies" such as the ability to build unique (elite) units in barracks as well as the castle (The Goths.)

3. The "scratch-your-rear and smoke a cigarette" villager syndrome has been, at least, partially cured. Villagers who've finished building an ore mine now go to work (duh!) mining instead of having to be ordered to do so. They still seem to take cigarette breaks now and then, but the AI does work to send a house builder who is done building a hut, on to cut down a nearby tree.

4. The farms now replant. Clicking on the field icon takes wood and stacks up the replanted fields. No more annoying rustle of exhausted fields demanding to be replanted while you are in the heat of battle. (That is, if you have cut sufficient wood.)

5. The new maps include a salt swamp (New World feature) with interesting marshes and sometimes hard-to-traverse areas. There is a Scandinavian map, sort of a variant on a Mongolian map, a bit of water and fish, but limited food. There is snow, and footprints appear in the snow, a delightful graphic touch. Turkeys were added in addition to sheep, for New World food supply.

Some civilizations were "rebalanced" to weaken a too-strong feature or pump up a weakness. In some respects, I think they overshot the mark. The Turks and Franks, in my opinion, were dumbed down too much. The turkeys on the New World maps are often plentiful, but the gobbling gets on my nerves after two minutes.

All in all, we think this game is about as perfect as computer games get and we've had hours of yelling, screaming, sulking, revenge, disbelief, followed by reconcilation and rematches. In short, just the thing to bolster your marriage.


Age of Empires II: The Counquerors Expansion Pack   August 15, 2000
25 out of 29 found this review helpful

Age of Empires II: The counquerors Expansion Pack is an add-on to Age of Empires II. It simply ADDS-ON 5 new civilizations (Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Huns, and Koreans, total of 18 civs) and new technologies like a unique technology for each civilization (Chisese Rocketry, Persian Mahouts, etc.). New units will be added, like in the Americas, the Eagle Warrior as a substitute for cavalry (it's very fast) and in Europe the Halberdier as an advanced pikeman. There are also new worlds like "King of the Hill" and "Defend the Wonder". There are also Real wold maps of France, Britain, the Iberian peninsula (Spain), and even Texas! With the sme old good graphics and new and fasinating architecture this promises to be a great Expansion pack for already AOE & AOE2 lovers like myself!


Conquerors is Compelling!   September 1, 2000
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

Yes, I'll admit it: I am one of those people who has been chomping at the bit to get my hands on this expansion pack. I have spent hundreds of hours playing AOE,ROR,and AOK. I have only had Conquerors two days, but I've already finished the Montezuema campaign (I have to work and sleep you know). And I started Attilla the Hun before I went to sleep. We all know what a terrific game AOK is. What the folks at Ensemble have done is taken an already excellent game and made it better. By tweaking some of the old Civs and adding some unique units, they have given us reason to play some of the original Civs that we might not have been so found of (the Goths come to mind). They also added new Campaigns, maps, games (i.e. King of the Hill), and of course civilizations. I am not sure if there were improvements in the graphics, but the artwork of the tropical Yucatan peninsula rain forests and Aztec buildings is absolutely stunning. Microsoft and Ensemble have done it again. I better plan on getting a little less sleep for the next couple of months.