Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

       Demo available on demo compilation CD 21 from
                  Zenobi Software - œ2.99

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors expansion pack was produced in
June 2000 and needs at least a 166 Pentium with 32 meg of RAM and
Windows 95 with 100 meg of HD space.  As with all demos of
complete games, only certain aspects are enabled. The full game
includes a tutorial called Learn to Play, a History section where
you can learn about the civilisations covered in the game and a
Map Editor for creating your own campaigns and scenarios. There is
a Multiplayer option, and a link to The Zone where you can play
online.

The bit that interested me - the Single Player game - is the only
accessible bit of the demo and, again, some parts of this are
greyed out. You can't play a standard game where you choose your
own map and settings, one of the original Age of Kings scenarios
or a customised campaign. But you can enter the Conquerors
Campaign and play the first Montezuma battle, Reign of Blood. The
full game also covers Attila the Hun, El Cid and other famous
conquerors and battles such as the Battle of Hastings, Agincourt
and Manzikert.

There are several difficulty levels - I stuck to standard as I
hadn't played the previous game and there were few instructions.
Your objectives are laid out in the spoken introduction but after
that, you're largely on your own. In the Reign of Blood scenario
you have to capture 4 shrines sacred to Quenzalcoatl and place a
scared relic in each.

AoE2:C struck me immediately as being of the same style of game as
Settlers, Caesar and other similar strategy games. The graphics
are more like Caesar than Settlers, being detailed and more
delicately drawn. Having previously enjoyed both these games, I
settled down to play AoE2:C.

The basic principles are so similar that despite the lack of
instructions I didn't have any problems getting into the game.
Four races exist on the board. Yours is a group of Aztecs and, of
course, you are at war with the other three. All of you are trying
to capture the four shrines and put the relics in them while
simultaneously wiping out your opponents. But if you just want the
enjoyment of playing, you can convert your enemies to allies and
enjoy a quieter life.

As with the other games, you control a certain amount of land and
resources when the game starts. You need to expand your territory
and manage these resources if you're going to win.  Your people
need the basics of wood, food, gold and stone.  Wood is collected
by cutting down trees and bushes. If you build a Lumber Camp,
production increases as it does if you then research a skill
called two headed axe. Other basics work on similar principles -
food comes from collecting berries or killing wild animals. If you
build a mill, the labourers collect food quicker. You can also
plant farm land and instruct the villagers to automatically
replant the farm after harvesting. Wheelbarrows can be researched
and these enable the labourers to work faster, and so on.

Almost every building permits research into a further stage. Once 
you advance to the Castle Age (you start in the Feudal Age) then 
you can add hand ploughs to your farming skills and build a
university. This lets you upgrade walls to fortified walls,
upgrade watch towers to guard towers, and research ballistics and
heated shot. All the time your population is increasing which
requires you to build more houses ... though there is an upper
population limit. Only in the demo? I'd imagine so - after I had
75 inhabitants in total, citizens and military, I was told that
I'd reached the limit. When I needed to create some more fighters,
I had to bump off a couple of ordinary workers which was a shame.
But by this stage I had already wiped out one of my opponents so I
felt I was doing pretty well.

But the main aim of the scenario was to secure the relics. For
that I needed a monk to pick them up ... but how to create one?  I
couldn't find that option anywhere, no matter how far into the
game I progressed. I'd already found the relics and the
monasteries which will eventually house them, because a mini map
in the bottom right corner gradually reveals the playing area as
you explore it. Your initial territory is illuminated at the
beginning, and so are the four shrine areas.

A timeline which shows the hierarchy of construction and research
is provided and from that it was clear that monks came from the
Castle Age, but even when I reached that level and built both a
castle and a university, monasteries and monks weren't options.
But - several hours after entering the Castle Age, I selected one
of the existing monasteries next to a relic, and there was the
option to create a monk! From there, the game really got easier
because you automatically gain gold through controlling a relic,
and monks can heal some of your people, or convert the enemy to 
your side.

Unfortunately I got complacent and stopped checking on the
shrines, and next thing I got a message saying I'd displeased the
gods by having a shrine overrun by the enemy and my game was over.
Luckily I had a saved game just before it all went wrong and next
time I got it right and completed the scenario.

Will I buy the full game? I'm very tempted as I had a lot of fun
playing the demo. If you want to try it, contact Zenobi (details
elsewhere in this issue) for the CD containing it and others, it's
just œ2.99.

                                                 Sue













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