Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition

Age of Empires IV for PC is a real time strategy game, the fourth in the Age of Empires series and a staggering fifteen years after the third version.

This version is set in the Middle Ages and has a lot of involvement with the Norman Conquest. If you were a big fan of the third game, way back when, you will be able to carry over some of the game mechanics from that game to this new and improved platform.

About the Game

There are four historical documentary-style campaigns to work through, as well as the series’ first nomads. The nomads are the Mongols, who look to be very interesting, having the first mobile base ever seen in these types of real-time strategy civilisation-building games. They were in the second game, but static, like the other civilisations mentioned.

The four campaigns are: the Norman Conquest; the 100-Years War; the Mongol Empire: and the Rise of Moscow. There will be wall combat, battles at sea and siege weapons will make short work of some fortifications, so build yours well!

You will begin the game at your base, gathering wood and stone to build simple structures at first, slowly increasing in size and strength. You will also be training troops (in groups of 200 or so) before sending them out to win territory in your name.

Your choice of civilisation matters: each of the civilisations work differently, fight differently, and generally make it clear that they are not the same as the others. There is some scope for blurring when you can bring elements of one civilisation into another, but these are carefully tailored for possible authenticity, that is to say, if the civilisations communicated or were geographically close, it is possible that influences spread from one to the other.

As you progress through the years, your civilisation changes in a fairly authentic way, progressing from early medieval language to more sophisticated grammar and syntax. This happens in all the civilisations and was a deliberate feature, and the game developers sought out speakers and scholars of the ancient languages for verisimilitude.

What’s New?

In this game, the focus is deliberately wide, looking at the nation as a whole entity, rather than looking at individuals. This works surprisingly well, and do look out for quirky things like being able to hide your army in the forest, where they will be hidden unless an enemy scout saunters past them, unable to see them. They will whisper to you until battle commences and they can drop their concealment, resuming normal speaking voices.

Enjoy ‘live action’ drone style-footage which is a new and realistic-looking feature, and narration can be activated during real life battles and events so you can follow exactly what’s going on. The game features fabulous music, which comes from the composer who created the Witcher 3 soundtrack.

Who Can I Be?

There are eight civilisations preloaded with the game:

The English – fighting the Norman invasion and changing the way the small island nation is governed forever

The Chinese – known for lengthy dynasties, the in-between times were always exciting in China. The game deals with a short but brutal time when assassination was practically a natural cause of death for an emperor

The Mongols – under the unparalleled leadership of Genghis Khan, this warlike people swept across much of Asia until they had an immense empire

The Delhi Sultanate – a kind of precursor to the Ottoman Empire, the Sultanate was a series of five Muslim dynasties that ruled over much of India at its peak. The big selling point of playing this civilisation is that it has cavalry elephants!

The French – trapped in a seemingly never-ending war with the British, the Hundred Years War was in fact a series of mini-wars. With both sides evenly matched and equally hungry for victory, both countries were caught up in a cycle of war and peace for about 107 years in total

The Abbasid Dynasty – another Muslim dynasty, this one was descended from the uncle of the prophet Muhammad, whose name was Abbas. This one stretched over much of the Near East and was a formidable military power when the Mongols came looking to extend their sphere of influence into the region

The Holy Roman Empire – the descendant of perhaps the best known empire, certainly the most pernicious (save perhaps the later British Empire) by the time of the game, the Holy Roman Empire, under the Vatican, was somewhat reduced from Roman Empire glories, spreading merely across much of Europe, as opposed to its previous territories which were as far afield at the UK, Africa and Western Asia

The Rus – the name implies that they are Russian, and certainly that part of the world was included in the Rus Empire. However, it also included a number of Slavic and Eastern European countries in its number. Like many great empires it peaked and then began to decline, crumbling entirely within a few decades of its zenith