Customer Reviews

Age of Empires 2 Official Expansion: The Conquerors

5 star:		(129)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

the expansion pack features 5 new civ's, maya, aztecs, huns, koreans,and spanish.each with its own unique buildings type(imagine mayas and aztecs builduings, cool)There are 3 campaigns and one pack of scenarios named battles of the conquerors, the campaigns are atilla the hun where you get to conquer gaul and then maybe even the whole rome, in el cid you must join forces with moors and fight against castilla and fight against fanatical berber horsemen, and last but not least, in montezuma you get to fight off thje invaders that are much better armed and shielded, can they defeat them, or will they fall before the invaders, in addition to that the game will have 11 new units,conquistador,jaguar man,tarkan and 26 new technologies including a special technology for each civilisation. The villagers are now smarter,for example they'll start gathering wood after building a lumber camp, farm queing, you just give enough money to it, and villagers will build farms untill money run off.

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...

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-

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.

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.

AOE 2: The Conquerers is more than just a simple expansion pack. It is really more like AOE 2.5. Like most expansion packs, it gives you scenarios and extra civilizations. What is different here is that they have improved the AI for many of the critical functions and added some new units and unit features as well.

The biggest improvement is the automatic farm reseeding queue. Now instead of having to build a new farm each time one is exhausted, you can order the Mill to reseed them by buying an up to 13 reseeds. You still have to check the queue from time to time to restock it, but it is a lot easier than building farms every two minutes. Villagers are generally much improved. After building a mine for instance, the builder immediately turns into a miner.

The best thing I can say about this expansion is that now that I have it, I won't go back to playing the game without it. It has everything that AOE 2 has plus features I find indispensable. Even without the new scenarios, it is an essential enhancement.

If you enjoy AOE 2, I strongly urge you to purchase this upgrade. It makes a great game even better.

I enjoy AOE2, and the expansion pack is a fun addition. Of particular note are the new building styles and civilization-unique research advances, a logical step from the civilization-unique units. New civilizations provide one the power to greatly strengthen ground units or even settlers, and new areas provide lush backdrops to savage clashes. Smarter A.I. and new research advances means your priests don't waste all their conversion power working on the same person, settlers don't stand around piles of gold like idiots until you tell them to get to work, you don't have to constantly rebuild farms by hand, and well-outfitted light cavalry actually make fairly effective units.

One major gripe I have from AOE:2 remains: units in formation allocate themselves against enemies in a very foolish fashion; often chasing the lead unit while others attack them, or wandering around the outskirts of fights attempting to get to a unit in the center, while being attacked themselves. Unless told by the player to attack a certain unit, units should always at least stop to defend themselves (a similar bug occurs when you catch an enemy army en route and can just beat on them the entire way w/o reprisal). Another wise option would a 'priority' option, like having units drop everything they're doing to attack approaching onagers and priests. Likewise, the new manual states that your own onagers will attempt to avoid firing into areas where your own troops may be injured; I have found this to be incorrect. Indeed, they still seem to relish lobbing attacks at wandering horsemen into clusters of my own workers. In addition, converted units should upgrade normally as part of your army, instead of staying rooted in the Dark Ages or whenever. Lastly, and perhaps most bizarrely, the expansion pack deleted infantry options from grouped units; I cannot create formations or order units to hold ground, stay grouped etc. It may be unique to my system, but it is nonetheless a serious problem, particularly in comparison with the previous system. I can't even use the skull button to kill off frivolous or converted units. Go to a different portion of the map for even a moment and standing armies will run off after a passing horsemen and get killed by castles. All in all, the expansion pack is great fun with lots of upgrades to the prior controls, but it seems to have missed some glaring ones.

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!

Age of Kings broke new grounds that Star Craft had blazed, and it then set new limits for the ceiling. This expansion pack (which I will refer to as "AOKex" from now on) simply adds to the marvelous design.

Let's get the gripes out of the way first: The armies are still too similar. Mayans did not have Two Handed Swordsmen, and it just looks silly to see them running next to eagle warriors, fighting on the same side. There are only 3 new campaigns when I expected at least 5, but there are single game campaigns that let you taste a flavor of many historical battles (such as the Battle of Hastings with William the Conqueor in 1066).

Now for the good points: Villagers. They are finally intelligent. When they are done building a mill, they harvest food. When they are finished building a lumber camp, they chop down trees. You don't have to wait for them to be done and then tell them what to do. They do it automatically.

The new technology and unit upgrades are wonderful. The thumb ring is a welcome addition (something I was wondering as to its non-inclusion in the original) and makes your archers more accurate and quicker with their bows. The Harbrinder is an upgrade for the Pike man, and a group of these guys will absolutely make mince-meat out of entire legions of calvary. I had 12 of them in a group attacking a group of 20 or so calvary units. I lost three Harbrinders and killed all the enemy units. The light calvary has another upgrade now, the Hussar. While it still is weak vs. military units, this final upgrade will wreck havoc on villagers chopping wood or monks behind the enemy lines.

Other technologies are a welcome addition and make the game outstanding. The new civilizations are beautifully balanced and integrated into the game. If you're like me, you'll love the new world empires and, despite their lack of calvary units, their ability to overwhelm an enemy with sheer weight of numbers.

I recommend buying this without reservation. If you liked AOK, you have no excuse for now owning this expansion pack.

I LOVE THIS GAME!The Aztecs and Mayans are welcome additions as far as I,a native American ,am concerned(just try to beat the Elite Jaguar warriors,only French paladins have half a chance) and the Spanish were definitely necessary,while the Koreans(hint:the Turks and Saracens are perfect counters to the Koreans)and Huns add flavor(especially if you like being the Japanese).Almost all the minor bugs in AoEII are fixed and the new campaigns aren't bad.The individual unit AI is far better than any other game I've played.Multi-player games are terrific!The graphics are beautiful!The Beta patch is one of the few industry patches that is NOT necessary,but it is fun and very easy to download.Once you've played it non-stop for about a year and you are finally starting to become a little bored,you can simply get the scenario builder and then the sky is the limit!I have a LOT of time(I'm a disabled vet) and a fair amount of disposable income,but for those of you that don't -PLEASE- do yourself a favor and try this fantastic game,you will not regret it.If I could never buy another game in my life,I could get by with this one;5 stars just doesn't say enough!

I seriously thought computer games just couldnt get any better than the original AOK, but it did!! You can choose from five new civilizations(Aztecs, Mayans, Spanish, Koreans, And Huns). The other feautures are new maps, smarter villagers, and improved controls . The new maps help add more variety(you can play a black forest map in a jungle forest), the smarter villagers add alot of conveniance(if you build a lumber camp or a mining camp they automatically start mining or chopping), and you dont need to keep making farms because you can create them at the mill. The new game types are fun, but you CAN NOT play them in rated rooms, you can only play RM or DM in rated rooms. Something I think I should mention is the Korean Civ has a very strong advantage against other civs so they have been banned from competitive play. Also, the buidling structures of the Aztecs and the Mayans are just beautiful and unlike any other civs buildings. In short the new civs and better controls make this a GREAT expansion to a GREAT game, GET IT!!!!