• Age Of Mythology For Pc
• Age Of Mythology Buildings Pictures

The foundation of your civilization starts with the buildings that will power your empire. From the humble houses that will accomodate your citizens to the mighty temples from which you will beseech the favor of the gods, here you can find the latest information and media from the extensive knowledge base covering the buildings of Age of Mythology. The foundation of your civilization starts with the buildings that will power your empire. From the humble houses that will accomodate your citizens to the mighty temples from which you will beseech the favor of the gods, here you can find the latest information and media from the extensive knowledge base covering the buildings of Age of Mythology. This small modification allows you to rotate buildings when you are placing them during a game with the 'shift-mouse wheel'.

Gameplay Strategies[edit]

The 'Quick Age Advancement Method'

Age Advancement Requirements:

• Arcane Age to Classical Age: 400 Food
• Classical Age to Heroic Age: 800 Food, 500 Gold, build an Armory
• Heroic Age to Mythical Age: 1000 Food, 1000 Gold, built a Market

The Arcane Age
Quickly begin exploring. Have one unit build houses/temple. Have your other villagers go for food. Build as many villagers as you can get, and put them each on Food detail. Start with bushes, hunted animals and herded animals. Don't build farms yet, they're slower and cost resources to build. Get to 400 food and advance to the Classical Age. Do not build walls. In this strategy you keep the enemy out of your town by keeping armies attacking his.

Also note in the picture just how close the granary is to the chickens. The closer the drop-off point, the quicker you gather resources.

Tip: No matter which culture you are playing, you don't really need to worry about Favor just yet. The Norse build favor all the time, so they can start now. The Greeks should drop a villager at the temple at the start of the Classical Age and the Egyptians should start building monuments near the end of the Classical Age.

The Classical Age
If you haven't scouted out your enemy yet, find him. Build more villagers; concentrate on Gold and Food production, with a minor on wood production. Build an armory. As long as you have concentrated on Food and Gold you should be able to advance quickly to the Heroic Age. You'll probably also want to keep building houses until you've gotten 10.

The Heroic Age
The heroic age unlocks markets, fortresses and siege weapons, all of which you'll need to defeat your enemy. It is time to build an army. Keep the army mixed, that is, have one of each type of unit ('Good against Cavalry,' 'Good against Infantry,' and 'Good against Archers'). If you are the Greeks get every hero possible. Wait until you get a siege engine or two then launch your attack. I would mark your main army with CTRL-1 and your siege engines with CTRL-2. Keep the engines away from the frontline.

Tip: Try to keep all battles away from your town. Not only is winning a defensive war nearly impossible, but it keeps your resources safe from the enemy. Thus, getting to the offensive first, and staying on the offensive longest make for the best strategies.

Build a reserve force of troops in case your army is defeated, and begin to invest in tech. Once you have a market and 1000 Food and Gold, you can advance to the final age.

The Mythical Age
When you hit the Mythical age you need to keep pulling in resources big time, so make sure to get every resource related tech that will help you. Don't bother with techs that help pull in hunted animals faster, for instance, if you've already killed all the hunted animals. I like to have a dozen caravans running between my market and my farthest town center.

In-Depth: Scouting
The first order of business is to scout out the area. Each of the three civilization types has a distinctly different way of doing this.

Tip: Mark your scout units using a CTRL-1. Then whenever the scout unit stops moving, you can check up on your scout by quickly tapping 1 twice. You could, of course, assign any number you want, 1 is just convenient for the moment. Also, pressing the assigned number just once will simply select the unit. Pressing the button twice selects the unit, then centers on it.

You can (and probably should) assign buildings to hotkeys in this fashion. The Town Center is a natural candidate for assignation. Select the Town Center and press CTRL-9 to assign it to the 9 slot. Now to go to the Town Center, all you have to do is press 9 twice.

Greeks ? Send your cavalry unit around the area. If available from your temple, build a Pegasus and use it to explore.

Tip: Waypoints were made for scouting. To create a waypoint, SHIFT-Right Click a point on the map. To create another waypoint, SHIFT-Right Click another place on the map. Your scout will then go from one area to the next. In this fashion, create waypoints in a circle around your town center to have your scout explore outward in rings.

Also, use your mini-map to move your scout. Right clicking on the mini-map has the same effect as right-clicking on the main map.

Egypt - Use your priest to explore. Because his Line of Sight is so poor and he's so slow, the best thing to do with him is to have him build Obelisks, which are defenseless watchtowers (15 gold). These Obelisks have a wonderful Line of Sight and will continually monitor the area, in the not-so-off chance of an enemy invasion. Remember the first line of defense is simply knowing when and where the enemy will hit you.

Norse - The Norse explorer unit, the Ulfsark, is also their builder unit and their main infantry as well. Because of this, the first unit a Norse culture should build is another Ulfsark to construct buildings while the original Ulfsark wanders the land looking for treasure. Norse who worship Odin get a powerful exploration tool, Odin's Ravens.

While exploring it is pretty essential to avoid combat with your enemies (unless you could quite easily win). This also means that you should avoid enemy Town Centers. There's no reason to avoid enemy towns entirely, just steer clear of anything that can kill your explorer.

Note: Remember that even though you are mapping the area, once the Fog of War covers it again, it will remain exactly as you saw it. So, any new buildings that may be constructed by your enemy will not be seen.

Things to look out for while exploring:

• Relics ? although relics don't provide the stream of free gold they did back in Age of Kings, they still provide some good advantages. Think of relics as picking up a free (and valuable) technology that gives you an edge over your enemies.
• Settlements - Since you can only build 10 houses, the only other way to increase your population limit is through Town Centers, which can only be built on Settlements. Therefore, whoever gets the settlements claimed first will have a larger army later.
• Resources - Obviously to get them before your enemies do. Again, here the Norse and Egyptians have an advantage: They can gather resources without expending any resources. If, for example, you found a new gold mine, the Norse could send an Ox Cart with miners over, or the Egyptians could build (for FREE) a new mine improvement and start mining immediately.
• If any new blue (or whatever your color is) dots appear on the map, those are probably Herd Animals, and need to be moved back to your town.
• Unclaimed (or Wild) animals are shown on the mini-map as brown dots.
• Trees are green dots.
• Gold are yellow dots.
• Relics are grey dots.
• Enemies - Knowing where your enemy is located is quite obviously the first step towards eliminating them.
• Strategy - A chokepoint, such as a mountain pass, could give you an unbeatable strategy, if you can claim it first.

The player who explores the best is in a powerful position for the rest of the game.

The Norse have one major advantage in scouting; their units (mainly infantry like the Ulfsark) can construct buildings. In this way, you could build a wall around an opponent, or build a longhouse by your enemy and build an army right by their borders. Although technically any culture can pull this off with townspeople, the Ulfsark can get places quicker, have more hit points and a good offense too. Should an Ulfsark building party get discovered, it can always run quickly away, and try again later. A party made up of villagers will likely get slaughtered.

Tip: The 3 most useful keyboard shortcuts are:

. Finds an idle worker
, Finds an idle military unit, and
/ Finds a Hero

These also correspond to the most common of the right-side banners.

Tip: Once a Norse civilization gets a temple, their hero, the Hersir makes an even better explorer. Why? Because in addition to being fast, able to build improvements and fight monsters and enemy soldiers, he can also retrieve relics.

The general idea behind any successful Age of Mythology game is 'keep investing.' Just as money stuffed in the mattress is useless, so too is Gold, Food, Wood and Favor useless if it just sits in a pile. Buy something with it! In order, here's a good priority of where to spend your resources:

1. More villagers/gatherers/laborers/dwarves. A successful economy runs off the work product of these guys. You will probably want about 40 villagers to run your splendid empire for you.

   Tip: Try to keep the 'drop off point' for the villagers as close as possible to the resource. That is, place the lumber yard right next to the large forest, the gold mine right next to the big pile of gold, etc. Here's where the Greeks are at a disadvantage. The Norse can just move their drop off point, the Ox Cart, whenever they need to, and can thus keep it close to the resource at all times. Even the Egyptians, who can build Lumber Yards and Gold Mines for free, have an advantage.

2. Resource upgrades. This would be a better axe at the lumber yard, or the plow at your granary to get your villagers to gather resources quicker.
3. More troops! A large army is a successful army. Bear in mind, however, that certain units are only strong against a very specific enemy. Toxotes, for instance, are best against infantry and weak against others. Thus, building a diverse army is recommended. That said, if you find that the only troops you want to build require just Food and Gold, throw all your workers on those resources to get them quicker.
4. Unit upgrades. Go for unit specific upgrades first, armory upgrades second. Unit specific upgrades will benefit only that one unit, however, it will improve everything about that unit: Attack, Defense and Hit Points. They usually also get improved Line of Sight and other small improvements as well.
5. Everything else, as you can afford it. This would include new construction of buildings, or building upgrades.

In each Age, your economic model should be: Spend, Spend, Spend, Save at the last minute to advance to the next Age.

Resources:

The very first resources you should probably gather are Hunted Animals. These provide Food without cost (unlike Farms which have an up-front cost). Unlike Herded Animals, Hunted Animals don't 'fatten' ? acquire more food. The difference between the two is that Herded Animals can be directly controlled by you. Herd them over near your Town Center and try to wait to slaughter them. Farms are your only source of infinite Food.

Tip: Have two different groups of villagers working on food. One group will stay close to home and gather resources there. When the first group runs out of close-by food, it then starts farming.

The second group, meanwhile, will go out in search of things to hunt (or berries to pick). This strategy works great with the Norse, who can easily send an Ox Cart out with their gatherers. Egyptians can build a free Granary as a drop off point. The poor Greeks must actually spend Wood to build a drop off point. When the second group has found everything there is to find out there, it comes back in.

Herded animals fatten over time. A pig may start with 75 food, but later in the game could get up to 300 food. Quite obviously, just waiting a little bit to slaughter these resources nets you more food.

Tip: If your map has a large number of Herd or Hunt animals, get the upgrades that help gather food from them quick. At early stages in the game having more herded animals around will make a huge difference in how quickly you can advance Ages, and getting food from them more efficiently is a great benefit.

The next resource to be gathered, Gold, simply requires that you build a Mine near it and send a lot of villagers to work it. You can start working on Gold right from the start, but you shouldn't need it until the Classical Age. Markets are your only source of infinite gold.

Start gathering Wood just before you switch your economy over to the Farming model. Or if you need to build military units that require wood. There is only as much Wood as there are trees, and new trees never grow.

Markets and Caravans: Caravans (Ox, Donkey or Camel) will net you unlimited gold if you use them correctly. Try to build your market as far away from your town center as you can. (It doesn't have to be your original town center, any will do) Then set the market's waypoint to be on top of the town center. (Select the market, then find your town center and right click it to set the waypoint) Any caravan now produced at that market will automatically head out on a trade route to that town center.

Try to keep your trade route away from the enemy, they love to kill your defenseless caravans. It takes about 3-4 trips for the caravan to net enough gold to pay for itself.

In-Depth: War
The basics of War in Age of Mythology can almost be broken down to Rock-Paper-Scissors. In that basic game, each of the objects can defeat only one of the other objects, and is in turn defeated by the final object. Rock beats scissors but loses to paper. Age of Mythology runs things similarly. Infantry are good against Cavalry, who take out Archers, which destroy Infantry. (This is a generalization, some infantry are good against Archers, some Cavalry against other Cavalry) Once you understand this concept, that certain units are best against a specific type of unit, you can win battles that would have otherwise overwhelmed you. When you build units, be sure to check to see what that unit is effective against. It will say 'Good versus Cavalry,' for instance.

If your enemy throws a lot of Archers against you, the obvious counter move is to send cavalry against his archers. Getting swamped by enemy infantry? Build some archers.

Of course, knowing this is useless unless you use this tactic in battle. Have all your archers attack one infantry, all your cavalry attack one archer and all your infantry attack one cavalry. This is the old concept of concentrated fire. By concentrating your attack on single units you kill those units vastly quicker than if you spread out your attack. This one is easy enough to conceptualize. Imagine you and your enemy each have 10 units that have 10 hit points each, and do 1 damage per attack. If you all attack one enemy unit, he'll be dead in one volley. The first attack killed one enemy, the second will kill another, and so on.

Tip: When you have an army attack an enemy city, try to keep your troops together. If they get spread out, they die much faster. The default setting in Age of Mythology is to put all units on Aggressive status, where they attack anything that moves and continue to do so until someone is dead. I personally find that switching an army over to Defensive status and controlling their movements myself nets better results.

Attacking an Enemy City

When you do launch your first assault, be careful in how you do it. Directly fighting their massive army stationed there is wasteful. Too many of your units will die trying to fight, and not nearly enough will be left to damage the enemy's city. What I like to do is draw the enemies off with some cavalry, then immediately strike at the city. Only attack Towers and Town Centers with siege weaponry or Myth units. Your regular troops are too vulnerable to the arrows. Instead attack what you can easily kill: villagers.

Tip: Even if you don't have the forces to outright kill their villagers, a small force can probably chase the villagers away from their tasks. A villager running away isn't gathering gold/food/wood and is simply taking up space.

Any attack on an enemy city is a failure if it doesn't damage his resource gathering capacity. I also like to destroy houses as it prevents them from throwing lots of units at you. They simply don't have the population room any more.

Not that you shouldn't attack with everything you've got, but try to maximize your results by using the best unit for the job. Catapults can lay waste to towers in a few volleys, while remaining safely out of range. I don't recommend using Archers to attack buildings, most have a pretty good pierce armor.

<dir> </dir><dir>

Not much can withstand four catapults.

</dir>

Walls

Tip: If you're playing the computer you can use its own compulsion to find the existing opening in the walls against it. Build walls to keep the enemy out, but leave one hole ? as far from the enemy as possible. This way he has to walk a long distance to find it. Also, build towers along the wall. As he travels up the length of the wall looking for the entrance, you'll get some potshots at him, and get to check his progress as well.

Up at the hole in the wall place a tower and a barracks (or even a fortress), and be ready to either crank out new troops or move an army there to plug the hole.

A villager building a wall is a villager who could be doing something else ? mining gold, chopping trees, killing pigs, etc. The Norse have a serious advantage here. They can send a single infantry to build a wall, and leave all their gatherers at home gathering resources, where they do the most good.

Myth Units and Heroes

Myth units are tanks, but they are not invulnerable. In fact, many units (mostly heroes) have a damage bonus against them. The most successful Myth Unit strategy is simply to add them to an existing army. Myth units also make for great distractions. Who can resist sending an army after a myth unit?

Greek heroes are also tanks. This also makes them a prime target for enemies, but thankfully they can be rebuilt if they are killed. Heroes are also the only major counter for Myth units.

Healing Units

Usually you can't heal any unit, the only major way to get a unit with full hit points is to build one. That said, each of the three cultures have a variety of ways to heal damaged units.

Greek
Athena's Restoration God Power
Apollo's Temple Upgrade

Egypt
Pharaoh can heal units
Priests can heal units
Wadjets regenerate over time

Norse
Forseti's Healing Spring God Power
Valkyrie's can heal units
Trolls heal themselves when they hurt something

The Egyptian cultures have the greatest advantage in this department as they can heal units no matter what god they choose. Additionally their healers, the Priests and Pharaohs, are mobile and can follow armies and heal them in the field.

Unique units, those that are created by a God Power, such as Son of Osiris and Nidhogg cannot be healed by any of the above methods.

In the Navy

Obviously you only need a navy if your map has a good deal of water on it. For dealing with everyday naval issues, the standard Arrow Ship (called various different things by the 3 cultures) works well. Myth units at sea (like the mighty Kraken) can tear up enemy ships to shreds. Juggernauts (the ships with the onboard ballista) take out other buildings with expert precision.

Tip: Arrow ships can also be used to patrol beaches and fire on enemy units there. Since ships have more hit points than your average unit and fire more arrows as well, they can make better guards than archers and are more mobile than towers.

If used correctly, even fishing ships can help defend your waters. Suppose that you get caught by surprise, and a large naval force attacks you. Immediately disperse your fishing fleet to lead the enemy navy away from your Docks. With your bought time, produce a navy to counter the threat from the enemy. Your fishing ships are probably dead, but they should have bought you enough time to win the day.

Towers and Defenses
In order to get your Sentry Towers to become Watch Towers and start shooting at your enemies, you will need to upgrade them. However, Egyptian towers will upgrade once automatically.

...when you advance to the Classical Age. However, to get the next upgrades (to Guard Tower and Ballista Tower), you will have to pay for it.

Beachheads

- One good tactic to follow is to create defensive and unit-producing buildings near the enemy city. (although not so close that they kill your builders before they're finished with construction) Once you get a barracks or fortress up, you can send out nearly unlimited armies at the enemy from a very short distance. Siege Engine workshops become even more valuable when they build units that can almost immediately be put to use.

Efficient Playing Tips

Recognize the Sounds

Use the Hotkeys

The 1 through 9 number keys are open for assigning. To assign something to it, select it, then press CTRL-then the number. Not only can you assign numbers to units, but also to buildings. You should always have your Town Center marked, as well as your most important buildings, such as temples and barracks. This way, when you see that you have resources to spend, you can press one key twice to get to the proper building.

The first five of the banners are taken up by units. Group 1 is a group of villagers that I am going to use to hunt animals. Groups 2 and 3 are scouts, while 4 and 5 are armies. Finally Groups 6 through 9 are buildings so that I can quickly select them on the fly.

Remember also that SHIFT and RIGHT CLICKING is very useful and not just in scouting. Using the SHIFT-Right Click combination you can get your scout to go to every point you right click on, in order. This way you can get a scout to move around in a circle, and quickly explore the map. However, you can also SHIFT-Right Click for other purposes. For instance, select a group of villagers, then SHIFT-Right Click one deer, then another and another. They will then go from the first deer to the last. Even more useful, you can assign the villagers different tasks. For example, collect food from the deer, then food from the chickens, then food from the goats, then Wood from the trees.

Use the Mini-map to Move Troops

The absolute quickest way to move troops is via the mini-map. Simply right-click on the spot you wish to move to, and they'll go there. If you want to see a spot on the map, click it on the mini-map. Much, much faster.

Age of Mythology (AoM) is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on October 30, 2002 in North America and a week later in Europe.^[3]

A spin-off from the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology takes some of its inspiration from mythology and legends of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse, rather than from actual historical events.^[4][5] Many gameplay elements are similar to the Age of Empires series. Its campaign follows an Atlantean admiral, Arkantos, who is forced to travel through the lands of the game's three cultures, hunting for a cyclops who is in league with Poseidon against Atlantis.^[6]

Age of Mythology was commercially successful, going platinum four months after its release after selling over one million units.^[7] In 2003, it was followed by an expansion pack, Age of Mythology: The Titans. On May 8, 2014, Age of Mythology: Extended Edition was released for Windows via Steam. This was followed by a second expansion pack, Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon, released on January 28, 2016.

• 1Gameplay
• 2Arkantos
• 3Development
• 4Expansions and other versions
• 5Reception

Gameplay[edit]

Like many other real-time strategy games, Age of Mythology is based on defeating enemy units and towns, building your own units and towns, and training villagers and fighters. In this way, players are able to defeat and conquer rival towns and civilizations. Players advance their tribe through four 'Ages': starting in the Archaic Age, the player may upgrade to the Classical Age, the Heroic Age, and finally, the Mythic Age. Each upgrade to a higher Age unlocks new units and technologies for the player, which strengthens their settlement. However, upgrading requires a sum of resources to be paid and a certain prerequisite building to be constructed.^[8]

There are three playable cultures in Age of Mythology: the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse. Each culture has three 'major gods'—important deities such as Zeus or Odin. The player chooses their major god before the game begins. Every time a player advances to the next age, a 'minor god' is selected. Minor gods are slightly less significant historically than their major counterparts. Some minor gods include Bast and Aphrodite.^[9] All gods grant the player unique technologies, myth units, and a unique 'god power'—A one-time special ability that can either damage an opponent, or benefit the player that uses it.^[10]

There are four major resources in Age of Mythology: food, wood, gold, and favor; unlike previous games by Ensemble Studios, this game does not include the stone resource. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things. Civilian units—namely, the Greek villagers, Norse gatherers and dwarfs, the Egyptian laborers, and fishing boats—are used to gather resources. Hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, and fishing are all methods by which food can be gathered. Wood is gathered only by chopping down trees, and gold is gathered from either gold mines or from trade. Players can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Favor is acquired in different ways by different cultures: Greek players gain it by having villagers pray at temples; Egyptian players earn it by building monuments; and Norse players receive it by fighting/hunting animals or by possessing heroes.^[11] Resources can be exchanged at a player's market, with the exception of favor.

Units[edit]

Every unit in the game takes up between one and five 'population slots'.^[12] Building additional houses or Town Centers—the main building in a player's town—increases the population capacity, up to a maximum of 300.

Units can be classified into seven categories; infantry, archers, cavalry—the three of which are broadly classified as human units—siege units, naval units, heroes, and myth units (monsters and other creatures from mythology).^[13]The rock-paper-scissors model governs most units in battle. For example, infantry do additional damage to cavalry, cavalry do additional damage to archers, and archers do additional damage to infantry. The same rock-paper-scissors formation exists in the three different types of naval units—arrow ships, siege ships, and hammer ships. Siege units are generally exempt from the rock-paper-scissors model but are instead able to destroy buildings easily while being vulnerable to cavalry attacks. Heroes are extremely effective against myth units, which in turn do large amounts of damage against human units.^[14] Heroes are also able to collect relics, which grant the player additional economic or military bonuses when deposited in a player's temple.^[15] Most units can be upgraded, making them better at certain tasks.^[16]

Buildings[edit]

Buildings in Age of Mythology can generally be split into three categories: economic, military, and defensive. The most important economic building is the Town Center, which is similar to the building of the same name in the Age of Empires series games. Most civilian units are trained at the Town Center, as are some improvements. Most importantly, players advance Age via the building. The Town Center provides 15 population slots, and building additional houses will earn the player 10 additional slots per house. In the Heroic Age, players may claim settlements (unclaimed Town Centres) for additional population slots. In some cases owning all town centres will trigger a countdown to victory.^[12] Other economic buildings include the farm and market.

Buildings are able to research improvements, as well as provide resources for the player.^[12] All units except civilians and myth units are trained at military buildings. These buildings differ in name and purpose between culture, but all are able to train similar units. Military buildings are also used to research military specific technologies, such as armor upgrades, and attack improvements.^[12]

Walls and towers are defensive structures, which are not able to train units, and are used only for the purposes of defense. They are able to research some upgrades, although these are generally only useful to the building performing the research.^[12] Another type of building available to players, is a Wonder: a grand building that represents an architectural achievement of the civilization. In certain game modes, once a player builds a wonder, a ten-minute countdown begins. If the wonder is still standing after the countdown ends, the player who built the wonder wins.^[12]

Scenario editor[edit]

The Age of Mythology editor is far more advanced than that of its predecessor, the Age of Empires II scenario editor.^[2] As well as standard unit placement facilities, the editor allows units to be overlapped, and it facilitates for large mountains, and steep terrain.^[17] Triggers, a popular aspect of scenario design in Age of Empires II, are also present in Age of Mythology's editor, as well as cinematics and other special effects.^[18]

Campaign[edit]

Unlike the campaign modes in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology only has one central campaign, Fall of the Trident. The campaign is significantly longer than campaigns in previous games, with a total of 32 scenarios.^[19]

Multiplayer[edit]

Multiplayer is a highly popular aspect of Age of Mythology.^{[citation needed]} Most multiplayer games are played through Ensemble Studios Online (ESO), or via a direct LAN or IP connection.

Age of Mythology included unlimited free multiplayer accounts on ESO. As of December 2011 it is no longer possible to create new accounts but access to already created ones is still possible. Similar in function to Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net, ESO allows players to play matches, as well as chat with other players.^[20]

In multiplayer games, there are seven different game types available, all of which are provided as standard with the game:^[21]Supremacy—the standard game mode—includes randomly generated map and all gameplay aspects; Conquest is similar to Supremacy, but victory is only possible by defeating all other players; in Deathmatch players begin the game with high resources, but the game is otherwise the same as Supremacy; in Lightning, the gameplay is identical to Supremacy, but the game plays at twice the normal speed; in Nomad mode, players start with one civilian unit, and no Town Center, and must build up on a settlement; the goal of King of the Hill is to control a monument in the center of the map for a set period of time; and in Sudden Death, a player loses if their Town Center is destroyed, and they fail to rebuild it within a set period of time.

Multiplayer tournaments and LAN parties are popular throughout the world, with many players visiting computer gaming lounges to participate.^[22]

Arkantos[edit]

Atlantean admiral and war hero Arkantos arrives at Atlantis after several years^{[citation needed]} of warfare to see his son, Kastor. However, he is ordered by the Atlantean councillor and theocrat, Krios, to sail to Troy to assist Agamemnon in the Trojan War. Just then, the island is attacked by krakens and the Black Sails, a group of pirate bandits led by the minotaur Kamos, a fierce enemy of Arkantos. After the trident from Poseidon's statue gets stolen, Arkantos raids the pirate settlement on a nearby island, where he recovers the trident, although Kamos escapes on a leviathan and vows revenge. Arkantos sends the trident back to Atlantis and sails away, leaving Kastor behind against the latter's wishes.

Arkantos travels to Troy to assist Agamemnon. After a series of skirmishes against Troy, fighting alongside Ajax and Odysseus, they devise the plan involving the Trojan Horse, and swiftly win the war. Afterwards, Ajax recommends Arkantos to sail to Ioklos to repair his ships, which are too heavily damaged for the trip back to Atlantis. When they arrive, the port has been raided by bandits, who have imprisoned the centaurChiron. After rescuing Chiron, he reveals that the leader of the bandits is a man named Kemsyt.

Chiron takes them north to locate the other prisoners, who are being forced to dig up an entrance to the underworld by Gargarensis, a cyclops warlord and commander of both Kemsyt and Kamos. The heroes destroy Gargarensis's base and confront him, but he escapes to the underworld of Erebus using the entrance. The heroes follow Gargarensis into the underworld, where they find him trying to burst open a large door in the stone with a huge battering ram. Cautious of his motives, they destroy the ram. Gargarensis confronts them and causes a cave to collapse before escaping, forcing the heroes to find another way out. With the help of the dead, they reach three temples dedicated to the Greek gods Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades. Arkantos prays to Atlantis's patron Poseidon for help but receives none. He then prays to Zeus, who creates a staircase to the surface.

Age Of Mythology For Pc

Reaching the surface, they find themselves in Egypt, where they help a Nubian mercenary leader named Amanra in fighting Kemsyt, who is there to steal a relic that Amanra's men are excavating. She reveals that the Egyptian god Osiris has been killed by Set, who aids Gargarensis. Amanra plans to reunite Osiris's body parts scattered throughout the desert, bringing him back. During this time. Arkantos falls asleep and is met by Athena in his dreams, who reveals Gargarensis's motives:

Ages before, the Earth was ruled by the Titans under Kronos. Zeus stopped Kronos and imprisoned him in Tartarus, behind adamantine doors. However, Poseidon, who is envious of Zeus's power, is trying to free Kronos and the Titans in order to destroy Zeus so he could claim the throne. Gargarensis is aiding him because Poseidon and Kronos have promised him immortality as a reward. Athena asks Arkantos to stop Gargarensis at all costs, as Zeus himself cannot interfere.

In order to stop him, Arkantos travels with Ajax, while Amanra and Chiron go their separate ways to find the pieces of Osiris. Amanra goes north, where she finds Kemsyt's fortress on an island. With the aid of nearby villagers, she captures the piece he had stolen, but Kemsyt escapes. Chiron finds and recovers another piece hidden beneath a giant tamarisk tree, and is aided by Norsemen, who are trying to stop Ragnarok. Meanwhile, Arkantos and Ajax find the last piece in Kamos's main fortress. Arkantos raids the fortress, secures the piece, and mortally wounds Kamos with a spear, who falls to his death.

The heroes gather all the pieces outside Osiris's pyramid, which protects another gate to Tartarus. Osiris is resurrected and defeats Gargarensis's army but the cyclops escapes, heading north to the Norselands, the location of another Tartarus gate.

Following Gargarensis, Ajax and Arkantos find Odysseus's wrecked ship on the coast of an island, and so decide to land to look for him. Upon landing, both men are turned into boars by the sorceress Circe. They proceed to rescue Odysseus and his men, who have also been cursed, destroying her fortress in the process and reversing the curse. Odysseus continues his journey home, while Arkantos and Ajax continue north.

When they reach the frozen Norselands, they are given directions to the underworld by dwarf brothers Brokk and Eitri in return for repelling giants from their forge. Later, an elderly man named Skult gives them a banner to unite the Norse clans. However, the Norsemen are instead enraged, and the heroes are forced to defeat their chieftains in combat. The flag turns out to be the banner of the evil giant Folstag and the plan a trick by Skult, who is actually the god Loki in disguise, another ally of Gargarensis.

With the help of the valkyrieReginleif, who sent the Norsemen to Egypt, the heroes locate Gargarensis and the Tartarus gate. Inside the Norse underworld Niflheim, they are pursued by fire giants until Chiron sacrifices himself to hold them giants off, saving his friends. While Gargarensis is trying to knock down the gate, Brokk and Eitri have been rebuilding Thor's hammer (shattered by Loki), that upon completion seals the gate. Back on the surface, they confront Gargarensis with the help of Odysseus, who has made a detour to help them, and the cyclops is captured and beheaded.

Arkantos sails back to Atlantis. When he brings out Gargarensis's head to tie it to the mast in victory, he finds the head is actually Kemsyt's, another trick by Loki. Gargarensis is still alive and is trying to break the final gate holding Kronos, which is located at the centre of Atlantis. Gargarensis has captured and fortified Atlantis, and Poseidon himself has possessed a statue in the city center to protect him. Arkantos builds a wonder to Zeus and gains his blessing, giving him god-like power and enabling him to confront Gargarensis and the living statue at the temple of Poseidon. With his new powers, Arkantos defeats the statue, and Gargarensis is impaled by its trident as it collapses. All of Atlantis then collapses into the ocean, along with Arkantos. While the remaining heroes sail away with the surviving Atlanteans, Athena revives Arkantos and rewards him by making him a god.

The Golden Gift[edit]

An official campaign, The Golden Gift, was released as a download on Microsoft's website. The campaign follows the adventures of Brokk and Eitri, the dwarves who appeared in the initial campaign. The plot unfolds with both dwarves planning to create a giant golden boar as an offering to the Norse god Freyr. While working separately, Brokk is approached by Skult (also from Fall of the Trident) who warns him that Eitri is making preparations to create the boar without his brother, of which Eitri is also told the same about Brokk. As both brothers race to complete the boar in the great forge, Skult steals the finished piece and holds it in Loki's fortress. The brothers eventually assault the base, and the boar is retrieved and successfully offered to Freyr.

Development[edit]

Ensemble Studios began work on their first fully 3D engine at the same time as their development of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. Named the BANG! Engine, this was announced in January 2001, for use in a new game, codenamed RTSIII. RTSIII was eventually revealed as Age of Mythology.^[23] In developing Age of Mythology, Ensemble Studios decided to move away from the center of the Age of Empires series history, to avoid becoming stale and repetitive. This allowed them to work with new ideas and concepts.^[24]

Following the announcement of the game for September 2002,^[25] a trial version was released.^[26] It contained five scenarios of the game's campaign, and two random maps. In the trial version, the player can only select Zeus, but there are nine gods available in the full version of the game.^[26] There was debate during Age of Mythology's construction concerning the unbalanced nature of god powers and how to make them 'fair' while still maintaining an element of fun in them. It was concluded that the best way to make it fair for everyone was to limit the use of god powers to one a game.^[27]Age of Mythology underwent a large amount of beta-testing during its developmental phase, as Ensemble Studios attempted to create a more balanced and competitive game than its predecessors. Greg T. Street commented that one of the reasons Age of Mythology became so popular was because the development team spent many hours working on the game through active testing, rather than just taking advice from a 'faceless drone in another building'.^[28]

Music[edit]

The official soundtrack was released on October 22, 2002, under the record label 'Sumthing Else'.^[29] The score was written by Stephen Rippy and Kevin McMullan. Rippy cites musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Tuatara, Bill Laswell, Talvin Singh and Tchad Blake as inspirations for the soundtrack. The musical work done on Age of Mythology was unlike anything Rippy had done before; an example of this was 'writing for a seventy-piece orchestra and then flying out to Washington to record it'.^[30]

Age Of Mythology Buildings Pictures

Music 4 Games' reviewer, Jay Semerad, heaped Age of Mythology's soundtrack with praise. He summarized his review by declaring: 'In all, the Age of Mythology soundtrack is an experience that should not be missed. It's easily one of my favorite soundtracks from this past year.' Semerad was also astonished, and appreciative, of the use of instruments such as the ney flute, tabla and toy piano, all of which he said produced 'some innovative analog and synthesized electronic effects'. His only critique was that at times some of the background melodies were 'bound to a simple harmonization', and lacking any 'real bold or innovative purpose'.^[31]

Expansions and other versions[edit]

The Titans[edit]

Age of Mythology: The Titans is an expansion to Age of Mythology, released on September 30, 2003.^[32] The expansion added a new culture, the Atlanteans, as well as several new units, including titans. Critics and fans received the expansion with enthusiasm, although its ratings were slightly lower on average than those of the original version.^[33]

Mythologies[edit]

Age of Empires: Mythologies is a spin-off of Age of Empires: The Age of Kings, but with the unique mythology-based gameplay elements of Age of Mythology. It was developed by Griptonite Games for the Nintendo DS.^[34]

Extended Edition[edit]

Age of Mythology: Extended Edition is a compilation that includes the main game and The Titans expansion. It adds Steamworks integration, Twitch support, an enhanced observer mode, native HDwidescreen and improved water and lighting. It was released on May 8, 2014.^[35] The Extended Edition was developed by SkyBox Labs.^[36][37]

Tale of the Dragon[edit]

On September 18, 2015, a new expansion was announced, Tale of the Dragon. It was co-developed by SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Empires, the latter having worked on new expansions for Age of Empires II. The expansion added a new culture, the Chinese, with the major gods Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong. The expansion also features a new campaign and multiplayer maps, as well as other features.^[38] It was released on January 28, 2016.^[39]

Reception[edit]

In the United States, Age of Mythology sold 870,000 copies and earned $31.9 million by August 2006, after its release in October 2002. It was the country's 10th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of the game and its Titans expansion had reached 1.3 million units in the United States by August 2006.^[40]Age of Mythology received a 'Gold' sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),^[41] indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.^[42]

Critical reception[edit]

Age of Mythology received critical acclaim, reaching an estimated one million units sold within five months of its release.^[7] The game was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards for Computer Game of the Year and strategy computer game of the year.^[49]

Age of Mythology's graphics were praised by the majority of reviewers. IGN reviewer Steve Butts stated that 'some fantastic effects and believable animations make this one a joy to watch. The differences between the armies and environments are awesome.' As such, he gave the graphics a rating of 9 out of 10.^[50] Meanwhile, GameSpot reviewer Greg Kasavin also rated the graphics 9 out of 10, stating that 'Age of Mythology is a great-looking game, filled with bright colors and carefully detailed animations.'^[51]Game Revolution also appreciated Age of Mythology's graphics, stating in their review that the 'new 3D landscape looks good', and including graphics as one of the positives in the review summary.^[46]PC Gamer reviewer William Harms admired the graphics, 'The environments, units, and buildings are packed with detail,' and excitedly commented on the effects: 'What really impressed me, though, were the game's animations. When a Minotaur smacks a dude with his club, the schmoe goes flying, skids on the ground, and then bounces back into the air.'^[48]

The game's soundtrack was also praised by reviewers, although several commented that it was repetitive and predictable at times. IGN described it as 'great, if repetitive, music',^[50] whilst Game Revolution declared that the sound 'really showcases Ensemble's continued attention to detail', before going on to praise the audio snippets in various languages.^[46]

IGN was pleased with Age of Mythology's campaign, and not bothered by its length. Instead, they stated that 'the meaningful and engaging single player campaign provides a nearly flawless experience.'^[50] However, GameSpot was slightly critical of it, claiming that 'while some of the campaign missions do feature some unusual circumstances or objectives that change, the game's story isn't incredibly engaging.' This was compromised by stating that Age of Empires fans wouldn't expect an amazing campaign; they would 'make a beeline for the game's random map mode, anyway.'^[51] PC Gamer elaborated more on the campaign however, saying: 'many of the missions are extremely well-crafted', and that 'sprinkled throughout these encounters are moments of genuine comedy — a truly delightful surprise.' However, they still found reasons to criticize: 'Regrettably, most of AoM's missions suffer from one recurring, frustrating problem: a severe case of 'build base-itis.' The reviewer elaborated: 'I know base-building is inherent to the genre, but even the most ardent fan will be put off by just how much there is. What's most disappointing is that AoM's setting really lends itself to imaginative mission design — and I don't think the designers took full advantage of the backdrop, which is a shame.'^[48]

The editors of Computer Games Magazine named Age of Mythology the fourth-best computer game of 2002, and called it 'an amazingly well-balanced game, both in terms of its pacing and its mix of standard historical and fantastical units'.^[52] It was a nominee for PC Gamer US's '2002 Best Real-Time Strategy Game' award, which ultimately went to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.^[53]

Scientific study[edit]

Age of Mythology's artificial intelligence (AI) was used by four Austrian researchers—Christoph Hermann, Helmuth Melcher, Stefan Rank and Robert Trappl—in a study into the value of emotions in real-time strategy games. According to the abstract, 'We were interested whether incorporating a simple emotional model to an existing bot-script improves playing strength.'^[54] The results of the study determined that of the four bots they tested, the neurotic bot was most capable of defeating Age of Mythology's default AI, followed by the aggressive one. Neither bot was defeated by the standard AI, but the neurotic bot won, on average, twenty five percent more rapidly.^[55] Plans were made to extend the research in the future by pitting the neurotic bot against a human player.^[55]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Empires worked on the Extended Edition

References[edit]

1. ^'System Requirements'. Microsoft Game Studios. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2007.
2. ^ ^ab'Age of Mythology on MacSoft Games'. MacSoft. Archived from the original on May 19, 2007. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
3. ^ ^abc'MobyGames Age of Mythology Info'. MobyGames. Archived from the original on May 7, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
4. ^'Age of Mythology civilizations on MacGamer.net'. MacGamer.net. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
5. ^Kasavin, Greg (November 1, 2002). 'Age of Mythology review'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
6. ^Fahey, Rob (December 10, 2002). 'Age of Mythology'. Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 15, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
7. ^ ^ab''Age of Mythology' Goes Platinum With More Than 1 Million Units Sold'. News Center. Microsoft. March 11, 2003. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
8. ^'Apple Games page on Age of Mythology'. Apple Inc. Archived from the original on June 22, 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2007.
9. ^Burrell, M. 'Age of Mythology Review - GamersHell.com'. GamersHell. Archived from the original on April 5, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
10. ^'Age of Mythology page on Ensemble Studios Website'. Ensemble Studios. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
11. ^'Age of Mythology Heaven Hersir info'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
12. ^ ^abcdef'Buildings on MacGamer.net'. MacGamer.net. Archived from the original on July 12, 2007. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
13. ^ ^abKasavin, Greg (November 2, 2002). 'GameSpot review on Age of Mythology'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 5, 2007. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
14. ^'Greek Hero Units'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
15. ^'Relics page on Age of Mythology Heaven'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on October 30, 2006. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
16. ^'Age of Mythology Heaven Unit Guide'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
17. ^'Elevation in Scenario Editor'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on November 12, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
18. ^'Scenario Editor Glossary'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on October 30, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
19. ^'Age of Mythology for PC'. ToTheGame. Archived from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
20. ^'Ensemble Studios Online (ESO) FAQ'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on October 30, 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
21. ^ES_Bigdog. 'How many game modes are there in AoM?'. Age of Mythology Heaven Forums. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
22. ^'What games can I play in competition?'. Uptime Games. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2007.
23. ^Amer Ajami (January 31, 2001). 'Ensemble Studios Interview'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
24. ^Stuart Bishop (August 19, 2002). 'Interview: Rock of Ages'. C&VG. Archived from the original on July 8, 2007. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
25. ^'Age of Mythology announced'. GameZone Online. Archived from the original on August 19, 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2007.
26. ^ ^ab'Age of Mythology Trial'. Age of Mythology Heaven. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Retrieved April 29, 2007.
27. ^Street, Greg T. (August 21, 2002). 'Age of Mythology: Volume II'. GameSpy. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved April 29, 2007.
28. ^Street, Greg T. (September 5, 2002). 'Age of Mythology: Volume III'. GameSpy. Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved April 29, 2007.
29. ^'Age of Mythology Soundtrack CD'. CD Universe. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
30. ^Steve Butts. 'Age of Music'. IGN. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
31. ^'Age of Mythology'. Jay Semerad. Music 4 Games. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2007.
32. ^'Age of Mythology: The Titans Info'. MobyGames. Archived from the original on January 15, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
33. ^'Age of Mythology:The Titans GameRankings page'. GameRankings. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
34. ^Daemon Hatfield (June 2, 2008). 'A sequel to Age of Kings is on the way'. IGN. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
35. ^Yin-Poole, Wesley (April 3, 2014). 'Age of Mythology Extended Edition out in May'. Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on April 5, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
36. ^'Age of Mythology: Extended Edition'. Steam. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
37. ^'Age of Mythology: Extended Edition HD'. SkyBox Labs. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
38. ^Cysion (September 19, 2015). 'Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon announcement' (Press release). Forgotten Empires. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
39. ^'Tale of the Dragon Expansion Pack Central'. HeavenGames LLC. January 4, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
40. ^Edge Staff (August 25, 2006). 'The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century'. Edge. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
41. ^'ELSPA Sales Awards: Gold'. Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. Archived from the original on March 19, 2009.
42. ^Caoili, Eric (November 26, 2008). 'ELSPA: Wii Fit, Mario Kart Reach Diamond Status In UK'. Gamasutra. Archived from the original on September 18, 2017.
43. ^'Age of Mythology Reviews'. GameRankings. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
44. ^'Age of Mythology (pc: 2002): Reviews'. Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 9, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
45. ^Brogger, Kristian (December 17, 2002). 'Game Informer review'. Game Informer. Archived from the original on December 12, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
46. ^ ^abc'Age of Mythology'. Game Revolution. Archived from the original on March 5, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
47. ^Butts, Steve (November 4, 2002). 'IGN Review'. IGN. Archived from the original on June 29, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
48. ^ ^abcWilliam Harms. 'PC Gamer review'. PC Gamer. Future plc. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
49. ^'6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards'. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
50. ^ ^abcSteve Butts. 'Age of Mythology review'. IGN. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
51. ^ ^abGreg Kasavin. 'Age of Mythology Review, Page 3'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2007.
52. ^Staff (March 2003). 'Best of the Year 2002; 12th Annual Computer Games Awards'. Computer Games Magazine (148): 58–61.
53. ^Staff (March 2003). 'The Ninth Annual PC Gamer Awards'. PC Gamer US. 10 (3): 48–50, 54, 58, 60, 66, 68, 70.
54. ^'Neuroticism – A Competitive Advantage (Also) for IVAs?'. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. SpringerLink: 64–71. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74997-4_7. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
55. ^ ^ab'Neurotic software has a winning personality'. New Scientist Technology Blog. October 5, 2007. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2007.

External links[edit]

• Official Ensemble Studios Age of Mythology website at the Internet Archive
• MacSoft Age of Mythology website at the Internet Archive