Rise of Nations (Rise of Nations (PC))

Member Name: ecolier

Product:	Rise of Nations (PC)
Date:	05/10/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nation boundaries, All ages from prehistoric to modern

Disadvantages: None

Rise of Nations is a real time strategy combined with a turn based tactical game. It was released in May 2003.

--- the BASICS ---

In RoN, the player is challenged to take over the world following individual battles. In addition to the campaign, gamers can also choose to play maps against AI or online opponents.

In this game, the player have to gather resources (food, wood, coin and metal; oil later in the game) and amass knowledge in order to build / upgrade units and advance through the ages, while fighting against the enemy. There are 8 ages of the game - Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Gunpowder, Enlightenment, Industrial, Modern and Information age. With each age come better units and more powerful vehicles / ships.

--- the AGES ---

(Ancient)
This is where the standard game start. During this age the units are virtually useless (except against other units of this age), the buildings are weak and there are no advanced units (e.g. mounted units / siege units).

(Classical, Medieval, Gunpowder, Enlightenment)
The main part of the game as the player advances through the ages will see more siege weapons (from trebuchet to cannons), more mounted units (e.g. knights), and powerful ships.

(Industrial, Modern, Information)
As Industrial age dawns a new resource becomes available - oil. All mounted units become automobile units and with the exception of infantry all units now require oil. Airports can now be built and new vehicles like the anti-air and biplanes (which will eventually become strategic bombers) can be purchased. A new game of cat and mouse begins as early inaccurate anti-air against short ranged biplanes become radar anti-air missiles combat against heavily armoured strategic bombers. When the players have researched all available technologies there are 4 penultimate researches for the player - each would provide extremely useful technologies for the player (e.g. Artificial Intelligence research provides instant unit creation). Intercontinental and Nuclear missiles are also introduced in the Modern age.

--- the UNITS ---

The units in the game are mainly comprised of infantry (trained from the Barracks), mounted / automobile (bought from the Stables / Auto Plant), siege weapons (bought from the Siege Factory / Factory), planes (bought from Airfields), ships (bought from docks).

Each units have their own advantages - I have found that air units are the best near the end game. Make sure you build lots of anti-air defenses though.

--- how to START a game ---

Start by building a city - then a university (train scholars too) and 5 farms. Recruit 5-10 villagers to gather resources. Then build a library and research - civics. Build another city as soon as you can - then another university and 5 more farms. Build a market. Repeat the above steps until you nearly occupy most of the map. When the time comes to attack - just kill off some villagers or scholars for population space.

--- CONCLUSION ---

This game is one of the strategy games I would recommend and is definitely as good as Age of Empires. The game has a very good concept which is allowing the player to advance from pre-historic to modern times. This makes for some very interesting playing and is surely a legendary strategy game.

Summary: Excellent game I would recommend.