Age of Empires

I have played this game as a teenager and I enjoy this game to this day. I like this game so much I have a hard time stopping. This game by Ensemble Studios now defunct and Microsoft has made the best PC game ever. This game has a total of 55 campaigns if you have Rise of Rome expansion pack. The original was good but the expansion pack improves the game alot. I also like the soundtrack that was in the game. And I like the sandbox mode to create your scenario. With that said let me tell you about this bestselling PC game of all time.

You play this real time strategy game that takes place in ancient times. You can play as the Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, Yamatos, Romans. You have scenario campaigns with each objective, if you succeed you can review the chart and move on to the next game. But if you lose, you have to start all over. If you want the game to be challenging set it to hardest mode for it to be more enjoyable. The cgi motion capture cutscenes with the war introduction is amazing though it hasn't aged very well.

First of all you will usually start off with your villager units or army units only, you have to gather food from berry bushes, killed deer meat, fishing by boats, and farms which is the most important. You have to chop trees for wood, you have to mine stone rocks for stone, you also have to mine gold rocks for gold or trade food for gold. Don't trade wood or stone because you'll need it. Also make sure you build a granary, storage pit, market and government center, temple, docks, because it will allow you to upgrade your units.

You will have to build up your army and navy ships and believe me you're going to need them to fight enemy units. Now let me tell you the best units and worst units in this game.

Best units to use in this game.

Villagers: You'll need them to gather food, wood, stone, gold. Make sure you have them protected as they're weak to enemy units. Research Wheel, Architecture to speed them up, build walls and towers as it will protect them, also have them build farms as it will help you win the game.

Fishing boat: These boats will help you get food in the water that villagers can't reach, they are just as helpful as farmers but they become useless once there's no more food to fish.

Trade Boat: Only build them if you don't have a gold mine or run out, when you want to trade for gold, trade food for gold, don't trade wood or stone, also build your dock far away from the enemy dock for even more gold. But watch out for enemy ship arrows.

Transport ships: I highly recommend you build 2 or more of these as they help you transport your units and artifacts over water but don't let it get sunk or you'll lose units on the ship.

Swordsman, hoplites: You can take down cavalry with a group of swordsman but hoplites are much better at taking down cavalry and chariots easily. But watch out for ships arrows, archers, chariot and horse archers, also watch out for ballista and catapults or you'll lose them.

Archers, chariot, horse and elephant archers: These are your best units to use in this game, have a huge group of them about more than 6 will usually take down a swordsman or cavalry, they can shoot down enemy villagers or priests. I highly recommended chariot or horse archers since they can shoot and run away from enemies.

Cavalry, chariot, camels, war elephants: You can run down enemy villagers and kill them, you can also kill archers or destroy buildings, also I highly recommend you upgrade chariots to scythe chariots since they can do massive damage to buildings and so do war elephants, make sure you have a scout with you at all times so you can see better. Camel riders will kill cavalry easily.

Ballista, stone throwers, catapults: The Ballistas are the best siege weapons to use in this game having 4 or more which will help you take down cavalry, archers, swordsman, hoplites, war elephants, chariots. The catapults will destroy buildings and towers but there's a risk of friendly fire. But take care they can be destroyed easily, you'll need hoplites to protect them and priests to heal them.

Priests: These units are the best ever, they can convert enemy units and buildings to your side and in 4 or more groups they will take down enemy units including ships to your side, they can heal your units. But take care as they can get killed easily so you'll need to protect them at all times.

Scout ship, War Galley, Trireme, Catapult Trireme: The scout ships are your best unit to use on the water, you can upgrade them to war galley, and Triremes. The ships are used on the enemy ships and they can take down buildings including docks, towers, enemies on land, and buildings, but the catapult triremes are much better to use on buildings. But the downside to ships is you have to repair them which costs wood to fix. Also your ships cannot go on land so they become useless when you have to go further on land.

Towers, and Walls: This is definitely needed and it can protect your villagers, archers, priests, ballistas, catapults from enemy invasion. Make sure to build it quickly or the enemies will kill your units.

The worst units to use in this game.

Clubman, Axeman: You will often start off with them in the stone and tool age, they can take down other axeman and cavalry, but they are weak against archers, swordsman, hoplites, cavalry and they become obsolete in the bronze and iron age.

Slingers: Oh where to begin, these units are not that great because they cost 50 food and 10 stone, are you kidding me? Also you need over 6 of them to be useful but they get too expensive to make, they get killed easily by archers, cavalry. Unless you use a cheat to get stone. Skip these useless units, the archers and ballistas are far better units and Slingers become obsolete in the bronze and iron age. I recommend you skip slingers since they waste stone that can be used in repairing walls and towers.

Fire Galley: Really? This is a useless navy vessel as they're very vulnerable to ship arrows and by the time you attack the enemy ship you're badly damaged and will get sunk very quickly. Skip them as they waste wood.

Overall I recommend you get Age of Empires with the Rise of Rome expansion pack. You can play this on Windows XP, 7, I'm not sure about Windows 8 or 10. There is a remake to Age of Empires but nothing will compare with the original 1997 version. You'll also get to learn about ancient history. I wish that it had campaign with the Israelites including leading them out of Egypt with Moses, the Battle of Jericho, battling with the Assyrians, and the Siege of Jerusalem fighting Babylons based on the Old Testament times from the Bible. Overall this is a PC game you don't want to miss out on.