Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
PC Box cover
Developer(s)	Ensemble Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft
Composer(s)	Stephen Rippy
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Apple Macintosh
Release	30 September, 1999
Genre(s)	Real Time Strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, MP over IPX, TCP/IP, Modem, Microsoft Zone, or GameRanger

This article is about the PC game. For the Nintendo DS game, see Age of Empires: The Age of Kings.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy computer game set in the Middle Ages. It was released in 1999, and it is the second game of the Age of Empires series developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Because of its commercial success, an expansion pack was released: Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, followed by a Gold Edition, which bundling together the game and its expansion, and a true sequel, Age of Empires III. It is also widely regarded as one of the finest Real Time Strategy games ever made.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is sometimes called Age of Kings, or abbreviated as AoK, AOE2, or AOE II.

Gameplay

The player controls a society and guides them through four "ages". The game begins in the Dark Ages, where very few buildings and units are available. After a short time, the user gains the ability to advance to the Feudal Age (cost is 500 food), where more upgrades, buildings, and units become available. The next age is the Castle Age, and finally the Imperial age, which is reminiscient of the early years of the Renaissance.

The player directly controls the citizens, and can order them to construct buildings, collect resources, and attack.

There are four types of resources, all of which are necessary: Wood, food, gold, and stone. Wood is used for building structures and training archers, stone for defenses like Castles or towers, and gold and food for constructing units and researching technologies. Often, one of the difficulties of a certain scenario or map is that it is short one type of resource, forcing players to adjust to this shortage. This can be avoided by playing in a "Deathmatch" game type, wherein the player is given resource stockpiles in the thousands.

The real-world maps available in the expansion (Scandinavia, Central America, Sea of Japan etc) are small versions of real-world territories, with geography very close to their real-world equivalents.

The original game comes with five campaigns, and the expansion adds three more, all of which reflect some event in history, like Joan of Arc leading the French to battle, or Genghis Khan's invasion of Europe. There is also a Standard Game feature, which pits a player against a set number of Computer players for control of a map. The usual goal in standard games is to defeat any enemies and force them to surrender, but other goals like building and protecting a special type of building (called a "Wonder") also exist.

In multiplayer mode, up to eight players compete with other nations for world dominance, online or offline. The current most popular Internet server for The Conquerors is Microsoft Zone. However, MSN Gaming Zone pulled its support of the game June 19th, 2006. Ensemble Studios has said that they will try to support players on another server soon to come. Empireslegacy.com, a volunteer community of players, is currently developing an online client, curently functional in beta version, due for release some time in August. There is also an open source multiplayer effort called GTADS that allows 1v1 for Age of Empires and Age of Empires II.

Civilizations

File:Age of kings screenshot.jpg

Age of Kings screenshot

In the original Age of Kings, the player can choose from 13 civilizations. Each has a distinct personality, with particular strengths and weaknesses patterned on the real civilizations. Each civilization also has some unique units (ships and warriors) with more-or-less historically accurate names, e.g. longboats and berserks for the Vikings. The game's civilizations are

• Britons
• Byzantines
• Celts
• Chinese
• Franks
• Goths
• Japanese
• Mongols
• Persians
• Saracens
• Teutons
• Turks
• Vikings

The Conquerors expansion adds 5 more civilizations to the game.

• Aztecs
• Huns
• Koreans
• Mayans
• Spanish

Building designs are not unique to each civilization. Instead, civilizations in the same region share a building set. The sets are: Western European (Britons, Celts, Franks, Spanish); North-east European (Goths, Teutons, Vikings, Huns); Middle Eastern (Byzantines, Persians, Saracens, Turks); Far Eastern (Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, Koreans) and Meso-American (Mayans, Aztecs).

Campaigns

Campaigns consist of a series of scenarios of rising difficulty, depicting major events in the life of a famous historical character, e.g. a famous battle, the building of a famous monument, or some well-known anecdote. Only the William Wallace and Joan of Arc campaigns allow players to control the character itself as a special unit. The campaigns usually start with a range of existing resources, buildings and units already in place, thus avoiding the laborious process of building a nation from nothing, which can become tedious.

The original game's campaigns included:

• William Wallace (tutorial campaign)
• Joan of Arc
• Saladin
• Genghis Khan
• Barbarossa

The Conqueror's Expansion pack adds 4 more campaigns to the game featuring the new civilizations. In the Attila the Hun and El Cid campaigns, the player controls the said character. In the Moctezuma campaign, the player plays as Cuauhtémoc, the last emperor of the Aztec empire. The final campaign recreates various battles in history, such as the spectacular naval Battle of Noryang Point between the Koreans and Japanese, the Battle of Tours fought by the Franks and Moors, and the Battle of Agincourt, in which the player must control Henry V's army through a heavily fortified Northern France.

Technology

Age of Empires II has a much more advanced and varied set of technology trees than the original Age of Empires I. To acquire technology, the player must first construct buildings. Each building offers a range of technology which can be researched, for a price. Technologies build upon each other. As technologies are researched, a wider range of buildings and units become available. Technologies may benefit military units (by perhaps increasing their defense attributes), civil units (villagers can benefit from technologies that make them move faster and therefore collect resources more efficiently, etc), or buildings (e.g. by researching technology that allows castles and towers to fire at units at their base). Technologies vary greatly in benefits and costs.

In the game, technology plays a central role. Early in the game, players must constantly assess priorities and allocate scarce resources between creating new units, upgrading existing units, and researching to upgrade to the next Age. Too much emphasis on researching technology and moving through the Ages without creating military can leave a nation all but defenceless. On the other hand, putting resources into a large population at the expense of progress can lead to defeat if the enemy has progressed and is able to field a small but more powerful attack force.

The cost and number of technologies increase through the Ages. For example, the technologies of the feudal age cost about 100-150 resources while those of the Imperial Age cost between 700 and 1500 resources.

A special part of the game is that each civilization gets a unique technology in the castle when it goes into the imperial age. This technology generally benefits the unique units of the civilization or enable some special upgrade which is not avaiable to other civilizations. In addition to this, some civilizations also have some inbuilt technologies or upgrades, for example, the buildings of the Byzantines automaticially get more hit points as they progress into the next age. The Franks can build castles for much less than other civilizations.

Wonders and Relics

Relics are special unique items that are scattered around the map, and can only be picked up by monks. Once placed within a monastery, a relic steadily generates free gold for the civilization that holds it (this reflects the historical realities of the power and influence that possessing famous relics brought to a church). To capture a relic from an enemy monastery, the monastery must be essentially destroyed. The relic will then be expelled so that a player may capture it with a monk.

Monks are vulnerable units (they can only defend themselves by converting their assailant, which takes time). A monk carrying a relic will quickly attract enemy units, so strategies are needed to protect him (e.g. researching faster conversion, sending monks in convoy so one can heal the other, protecting the monk with a military escort, etc).

It is possible to set the game such that victory is achieved by collecting all available relics, or building a Wonder. This is the case in several campaign scenarios. To win, all the relics must be held for a specific uninterrupted period of time, depending on the size of the map.

Wonders are massive structures that require large amounts of resources and time to build. If a player completes a Wonder, and it stands intact for an uninterrupted period of time, they win. If a Wonder is destroyed before the countdown is finished, the countdown resets. Each civilization has their own Wonder, typically a famous work of historical architecture, as opposed to the original Age of Empires, where each civilization's Wonder was based on their generic architecture. The wonders that appears in the game are:

• Aztecs: Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan - Mexico City
• Byzantines: Hagia Sophia - Constantinople
• Celts: Rock of Cashel - Cashel, County Tipperary
• Chinese: Temple of Heaven - Beijing
• Franks: Sainte-Chapelle - Paris
• Goths: Mausoleum of Theodoric - Ravenna
• Japanese: Tōdai-ji - Nara
• Mayans: Temple I - Tikal
• Mongols: Golden Horde's Imperial Tent
• Persians: Khosrau's Palace - Ctesiphon
• Saracens: Great Mosque of Samarra - Samarra
• Teutons: Maria Laach Abbey - Off Laacher See
• Turks: Selimiye Mosque - Edirne
• Vikings: Heddal stave church - Heddal
• Huns: Arch of Titus (demolished) - Rome
• Koreans: Great Pagoda near Gyeongbokgung - Seoul
• Spanish: Torre del Oro - Seville

The British wonder remains unidentified. It seems like a reduced version of the Aachen Cathedral, which isn't in England and was never built by the English.

In addition, the Al-Aqsa mosque appears as a decorative building in Saladin's campaign, but cannot be built by any civilization. Another decorative gothic cathedral shown in Joan of Arc and Barbarossa's campaigns appears to be also based on the Aachen Cathedral. Finally, in Gengis Khan's campaign the Great Wall of China is present, "portrayed" by several blocks of conventional walls united.

Scenario editor

Age of Kings also includes a built-in scenario editor. It's similar to the one from Age of Empires, where players can make custom missions and series of missions. The largest difference from the design of the editor of the first game is the use of "triggers". These are a sequence of actions that occur when certain conditions are met.

For example, a player can create a trigger to declare victory as soon as a building or unit is visible. A player can create triggers with multiple requirements or results. Killing certain soldiers can change the ownership of a building to another player as well as increase the health of the building. There is a huge abundance of possibilities. If multiple triggers interfere with each other, the game crashes.

To use the triggers in the scenario editor, create a new trigger and assign a condition and effect from the list. Occasionally there are variations to how many soldiers can be assigned triggers to. For example, if a player wants to make 6 soldiers patrol, at times they can only select the trigger for one, and six individual triggers must be made, while other times six can be selected at once.

In the expansion there is an addition of a few triggers. Units and buildings can have their names changed, their health increased, and attack increased just to name a few.

Soundtrack

The CD itself is actually 2 audio CD tracks. Track 1 appears as the data track, and track 2 is the soundtrack of the game as a Red Book audio track.

Units

The following units can be created at various buildings:

Barracks

File:Complete Map.jpg

Age of Kings Complete Map screenshot

• Dark Age
  • Militia - The initial military unit. Its only improvement from a villager without the Loom upgrade is that it has 1 more attack point and 15 more HP. With Loom, it only has 1 more attack point.
• Feudal Age
  • Man-at-Arms (Upgraded from Militia) - They defeat spearmen and skirmishers, but are vulnerable to massed archers. They have a small attack bonus versus buildings, but are vulnerable to arrow fire, particularly from the town center.
  • Spearman - A cheap infantry unit that counters cavalry. Its weak attack is made up for by a large attack bonus against mounted units.
• Castle Age
  • Long Swordsman (Upgraded from Man-at-Arms) - Often considered pale in comparison to the knight, the long swordsman has an edge in cost effectiveness, but cannot compete with knights in any other area.
  • Pikeman (Upgraded from Spearman) - The main unit for most civilizations to combat mounted units.
  • Eagle warrior (The Conquerors Expansion) - A substitute for the scout/light cavalry for the Meso-American civilizations (Aztecs and Mayans only), this swift-footed infantry unit is gold-intensive, but carries some piercing armor and a large line-of-sight. Eagle warriors receive a large bonus against monks and a small bonus against cavalry. Aztec and Mayan players receive an eagle warrior at the start of the game rather than a scout cavalry. A popular raiding unit. A Meso-American player who loses his initial eagle warrior must wait until the Castle Age to build another one.
• Imperial Age
  • Two-Handed Swordsman (Upgraded from Long Swordsman) - All civilizations, except the Persians, get this and the champion upgrade. The two-handed swordsman has the same role, but looks different from its previous forms; like its name, it wields a very long sword with two hands and no shield. It is also slower than the Long Swordsman.
  • Champion (Upgraded from Two-Handed Swordsman) - The ultimate upgrade for the militia line. The champion is easy to mass and can easily defeat counterunits (pikemen, skirmishers, and camels) as well as destroy buildings with its high attack and attack bonuses.
  • Elite Eagle Warrior (The Conquerors Expansion) - This improved version of the eagle warrior carries more hit points, attack, and piercing armor, with an expensive upgrade cost.
  • Halberdier (The Conquerors Expansion) - An improved version of the pikeman.

Stable

• Feudal Age
  • Scout Cavalry-The first military unit a player gets in most games. Scout cavalry are used in the Dark Age to search the map for resources and enemy players. They can also be used for minor skirmishes. Scouts (and their upgraded counterparts) benefit from enhanced resistance to monk conversion. If a player loses their scout cavalry in the Dark Age, they must wait until the Feudal Age before they produce another one.
• Castle Age
  • Light Cavalry (Upgraded from Scout Cavalry) - Much stronger than the scout cavalry. They are used for reconnaissance, raiding, skirmishing, and as a counter-unit against monks and siege weapons. Only the Teutons do not have access to this unit.
  • Knight-The strongest unit in the Castle Age, it has speed, high hit points and armor, and high attack. In exchange, it is very expensive to mass in contrast to the noticeably weaker long swordsman. Knights can be employed in the same vein as light cavalry, except that its line-of-sight is much smaller in comparison.
  • Camel - Only the Byzantine, Persian, Saracen, Chinese and Mongol civs can use this unit. This is a mounted unit with no armor and weak attack, but receives attack bonuses against other cavalry. The camel is almost as fast as the light cavalry with more hit points, so it can be used for raiding, but also has a diminished line-of-sight like the knight. Camels are quite expensive, but are cheaper than knights. Camels are less vulnerable to pikemen than other cavalry.
• Imperial Age
  • Hussar (Upgraded from Light Cavalry, The Conquerors Expansion only) - The ultimate in evolution of the light cavalry, this unit carries an expensive upgrade cost for more hit points, attack, and line-of-sight.
  • Cavalier (Upgraded from Knight) - In place between the knight and paladin, most civs can use the cavalier except for the Saracens.
  • Paladin (Upgraded from Cavalier) - The strongest unit on paper for any civilization, the paladin cannot be used by many civilizations.
  • Heavy Camel (Upgraded from Camel) - The strongest anti-cavalry unit, it is available to any civilization that has the camel.

Archery Range

• Feudal Age
  • Archer - The basic ranged unit. Archers are most effective when massed, but they are more gold-intensive than infantry units.
  • Skirmisher - A cheap ranged unit specialized for killing other archers, it has piercing armor that reduces arrow attacks and an attack bonus against them. Its base attack is very small, however. Skirmishers have a minimum range, which means they cannot fire at enemies too close to them.
• Castle Age
  • Crossbowman (Upgraded from Archer) - A unit designed to kill slow units such as infantry and monks. When employed en masse, they can be highly destructive, but they are highly vulnerable to siege attack and to massed cavalry. Once again, they are very useful when defending, as they greatly increase the attack power of towers, town centers, or castles when garrisoned within them.
  • Elite Skirmisher (Upgraded from Skirmisher) -Elite skirmishers can slay large numbers of archers, crossbowmen, and cavalry archers, except when the latter retreats out of the skirmisher's range.
  • Cavalry archer - Analogous to the archer as the knight is to the long swordsman, the cavalry archer has a shorter range than the crossbowman, but has higher hit points, attack, and speed. Cavalry archers are less useful in defense because of their short range and inability to garrison inside town centers or towers, but can garrison inside castles. This unit is vulnerable to the spearman line, camel line, and the skirmisher line.
• Imperial Age
  • Arbalest (Upgraded from Crossbowman) - A strong unit that is designed to be used in mass formations. Similar to crossbowmen from the previous age, they have no added abilities, but they are an upgrade of an already important role on the battlefield.
  • Heavy Cavalry Archer (Upgraded from Cavalry Archer) - A stronger version of the cavalry archer. Despite its name and manual description, the heavy cavalry archer does not receive a speed reduction from its previous form.
  • Hand Cannoneer - Primitive gunpowder unit. Hand cannoneers have much stronger attack, but their range and attack cannot be upgraded like other archers. A fully upgraded arbalest will have longer range than a hand cannoneer. The firing rate of a hand cannoneer is slow and they are inaccurate at long range.

Siege Workshop

• Castle Age

Siege weapons have a devastating effect on their target, but can be quickly destroyed by a unit attacking them at close range (e.g. a swordsman or cavalry, or even a villager). They are quite expensive and must be guarded closely. They are repaired by villagers.

• • Battering Ram - It has a small, unranged attack, but has a huge attack bonus against buildings and siege weapons.
  • Mangonel - Mangonels cause "splash damage," which means they can hit multiple units. Units in the middle of the splash receive the most damage, while units on the edges receive less. They carry a large attack and a bonus against buildings.
  • Scorpion - A light artillery siege weapon resembling a large crossbow that is very useful in defense. Scorpion bolts damage units that they pass through.
• Imperial Age
  • Capped Ram - Upgrade from battering ram. In the Imperial Age, the trebuchet firing from long range becomes the building destroyer of choice, but the ram can still demolish buildings quickly. Capped rams gain splash damage, and they damage other buildings adjacent to them.
  • Siege Ram - Upgrade from capped ram. The strongest version of the ram with even more splash damage.
  • Onager (Upgraded from Mangonel) - A bigger, stronger mangonel. They do more damage and have a bigger splash damage.
  • Siege Onager (Upgraded from Onager) - An even bigger onager. The significant improvement is to the attack and range. This weapon can also destroy masses of trees, clearing paths through forests; very useful in the Black Forest map.
  • Heavy Scorpion (Upgraded from Scorpion) - A stronger scorpion. Its upgrade is gold-free.
  • Bombard Cannon - A long-range gunpowder weapon used to destroy enemy buildings from long range. The downside is low hit points and lower range than a trebuchet, along with higher cost. When attacking enemy units, the bombard cannon has similar effects to that of a mangonel, albeit having a much smaller splash damage radius. The bombard cannon is also useful for dismantling siege weapons and ships.

Castle

• Castle Age
  • Unique Units, i.e. units unique to a civilization. See Unique Units.
  • Petard (The Conquerors Expansion) - Suicide bomber, carries barrel of explosives on shoulders. Petards have low hitpoints and are usually used as a fast, though cost inefficient, weapon.
• Imperial Age
  • Elite Unique Unit (Upgraded from Unique Unit)
  • Trebuchet - The trebuchet has the longest range of any unit in the game and is so powerful that it must be anchored to the ground before firing. The trebuchet must be moved in a vulnerable and mobile packed form, then unpacked to attack. The high arc of the trebuchet makes its shots inaccurate and slow, and therefore best suited to destroying buildings rather than mobile units. When unpacked, the trebuchet cannot move, and it must be packed to move again. Trebuchets are very expensive and require escort to justify their cost. They can also knock down trees, although only one at a time.

Dock

• Dark Age
  • Fishing Ship - A ship that is available starting from the Dark Age. Fishes shore fish and deep-sea fish. It can also build fish traps that are similar to farms.
• Feudal Age
  • Transport Ship - The only way to move an army or civilians across a body of water. Units garrison inside its hull for transport across a sea or river. Transport ships have no attack and are vulnerable to other ships. Upgrades can allow the transport ship to carry even more units. Transport ships that are destroyed sink with the units they were carrying, killing them all. When a transport is converted, the ship is converted and not the inhabitants, who are then completely vulnerable to deletion or drop off on to a random island.
  • Trade Cog - This ship is only meant for trading with other civilizations. When a trade cog goes to a dock other than one's own, it receives gold. The dock can belong to friendly or unfriendly players. Neither player has to give up resources, and the player whose dock is being used receives 10% of the Gold. The further both docks are from each other, the more gold is generated.
  • Galley - The basic warship for the Feudal Age. In the Feudal Age naval battles, it comes down to logistics in sea battles, whoever has more ships. Later in-game, more warships become available.
• Castle Age
  • War Galley (Upgraded from Galley) - Designed to be the main warship of any battle in the Castle Age, the War Galley is good for coastal raids and protecting fishing or trading fleets. They are easily defeated by fire ships.
  • Fire Ship - These ships do not have ranged attack like the war galley, but they are fast and are strong against war galley attack. Fire ships spew fire at enemy ships at a very fast rate, causing heavy damage. They have high attack bonus versus all ships, but are defeated by demolition ships. These are representative of Greek fire.
  • Demolition Ship - These ships are floating bombs. Inexpensive and very fast, they are designed to sail right up to a ship and explode. They can destroy transport ships quickly, repelling an enemy landing. They also destroy fire ships, because their low range prevents them from destroying demolition ships before they explode. Galleys, on the other hand, have high attack and range, destroying Demolition Ships before they can even get close. Demolition Ships can also destroy coastal buildings.
  • Longboat (Viking unique unit) - This ship fires multiple arrows at enemies very quickly. It is weaker than galleys, but its faster attack means that it will win ship to ship against them. They can also defeat fire ships with more ease than a galley and tear apart demolition ships. The Longboat is available only to the Vikings. On another note, the Vikings do not receive the fast fire ship or the fire ship. The longboat is also very useful in coastal raiding.
  • Turtle Ship (Korean unique unit) - This ship is heavily armored, has a plenty of hit points and carries cannon armament. The only downsides are that they are expensive, have a short range, slow, and appear only in the expansion pack. Unlike the war wagons detailed below, these units are authentic.
• Imperial Age
  • Galleon (Upgraded from War Galley) - The strongest of the galley line with improved range, hit points, and attack. They still have the same place in the rock-paper-scissors match up between warships.
  • Fast Fire Ship (Upgraded from Fire Ship) - Even stronger than a galleon, the fast fire ship is the ultimate defensive ship when being supported by fortifications.
  • Heavy Demolition Ship (Upgraded from Demolition Ship) - These ships carry much more powerful explosive and do splash damage to ships near the explosion they cause. Heavy Demolition Ships are usually a last ditch effort to ward off an enemy sea attack.
  • Cannon Galleon - A very interesting kind of ship, they are the trebuchets of the seas. Cannon galleons have enough range to stay out of the reach of most towers and castles. They have the same strengths and weaknesses of the trebuchet, except that the cannon galleon possesses mobility, however slow it may be. Cannon galleons are weak against all ships. They do not benefit from ballistics technology, except for the Spanish.
  • Elite Cannon Galleon (Upgraded from Cannon Galleon) - The stronger version of the cannon galleon. Not completely intended for ship to ship combat, the elite cannon galleon destroys enemy fortifications. If needed, the cannon galleon can engage enemy ships. Their shots can distract other ships and keep them occupied while they dodge the cannon galleon, being fired at from other ships all the while.
  • Elite Longboat (Upgraded from Longboat) (Viking unique unit) - The stronger version of the longboat. It can defeat most ships except for the fire ship, but can still combat them when massed.
  • Elite Turtle Ship (Upgraded from Turtle Ship) (Korean unique unit) - The stronger version of the turtle ship. It is more heavily armored and armed, and the range is slightly increased. They only appear in The Conquerors expansion pack.

Other Units

• King - A unit found only in regicide games. Players have only one king at the beginning of the game, until the end. The point of regicide games is to protect one's king while killing one's enemies' kings. The king can garrison inside town centers, towers, or the castle that is usually provided for the player at the beginning of the game. Kings lack attack, defense, and have low hit points, but are very fast.
• Sheep - Found on most maps. By moving a unit close to them, players can control sheep. Its real use is for villagers to herd it and kill it for food early in the game. Sheep are the easiest food source in the game; they can be moved to the proximity of a town center and easily harvested. They have also become an important part of early scouting in the game, particularly on the Land Nomad map where players begin without a scout cavalry. However this scouting is risky, as sheeps' succeptability to conversion may provide enemies with an extra source of food. In some settings in the Conquerors Expansion (particularly Yucatan) they are substituted with turkeys.
• Deer, Wild Boar and Javelina - These animals can be hunted by villagers as a food resource. They cannot be herded (though some experts do utilize techniques to force deer to run closer towards a gathering point, such as a mill, in order to limit villager walking distance and hence limit wasted time), although they will move around a small range as they graze or forage. Wild boar and javelina (in Meso American maps) will counter-attack hunters.
• Horse - This unit does nothing. It has low health, no attack, and produces no food. They only appear in campaigns.
• Wolf and Jaguar - The wolf and jaguar (in Meso American maps) will attack most units, (notably not scout cavalry, as this would provide a great risk to early game scouting), but are easily defeated. Villagers are the most succeptible to their attacks, as a villager without the loom technology does not have enough hitpoints to sustain a fight against a wolf or jaguar. Some maps feature increased numbers of wolves, such as Gold Rush and ES@Paradise Island. They do not provide food.
• Hunting Wolf - In popular history, hunting dogs were more common, though they weren't used to fight in battles. The hunting wolf, however, was used for both hunting and occasionally used for battles. They are found only in campaigns.
• Stormy Dog - A generally useless unit, as they are only created through cheating. They can scout. They are controlled by Player 0.
• Pavilion and Yurt - Similar to houses, they cannot be built and are found only in campaign games. They have less hitpoints than houses, so it makes no sense to build them.
• Bleda the Hun - For reasons unknown, Bleda the Hun is not a hero unit, but a normal unit. He obviously cannot be produced from buildings, and only appears once in a campaign.
• Dark Age
  • Villager, at the town center - The building block of a civilization, villagers gather resources with which players train soldiers and raise buildings. They create buildings by themselves and can repair those same structures, as well as siege weapons and ships. Villagers can even be pressed into combat if absolutely necessary. They are the cheapest unit at 50 food.
• Feudal Age
  • Trade Cart, at market - Trade carts are used to trade with other markets across land and obtain gold. When a trade cart comes into contact with a market belonging to another player, they can generate gold for the player. Neither player loses resources when a trade cart travels in between their markets, and the player with the trade cart receives gold in proportion to the distance between the markets. The player with the market gets 10% of the gold that the other player gets. Trade carts can become extremely important in the late game when gold reserves are running low, they can keep a player in the fight. Trade carts have no attack and are vulnerable to all other units.
• Castle Age
  • Monk, at monastery - The monk is used to heal friendly units, convert enemy units, and carry relics. Monks are very useful to an army in battle, being able to keep friendly units in the fight and replenish the army by stealing soldiers from the opposing army. Relic victories require the monk. A monk can grab a relic, and bring it back to their monastery. The relic generates free gold for the player with the monastery at a very slow rate. In standard victory conditions, when a player or a team of allies has all the relics on the map, a countdown begins. When the countdown is up, the player or team with the relics wins. If any one of the relics is lost or an alliance with another relic holder is broken, the countdown ends and a new one appears when a player or team gains all the relics, or a broken alliance is reconstituted.

• Imperial Age
  • Wonder - This building is extremely costly, and takes a lot of time to complete. They have different appearances for every civilization. They have about as much health as castles, though they occupy a larger area. Players will have this as one of their main targets, as when they exist for 200 years, the owner's team wins.

Unique units

One of the key features in Age of Kings was the introduction of one or two unique units for each civilization. These troops are usually created at the Castle (see above) but the (Viking) longboat and (Korean) turtle ship are constructed at the dock, while the (Spanish) missionary is created at the monastery. The (Mesoamerican) Eagle Warrior, created at the barracks, is not considered a unique unit as it is a replacement for cavalry units, however it is only available to the Aztecs and Maya. The Conquerors expansion adds Unique Technologies and also gives the Goths the ability to build their Unique Unit, (the Huskarl) inside a Barracks.

• Britons: Longbowman: An archer with much greater range and attack than a regular archer. It is a translation of the historic Welsh longbowman, utilized heavily in the Hundred Year's War. The longbowman is one of the most powerful archers in the game in terms of armor, range, and attack when fully upgraded. Massed together, they become more powerful, especially if protected from massed cavalry with pikemen and from mangonels/onagers with cavalry.
• Franks: Throwing Axeman: An infantry unit that throws an axe at a small range. Their attack affects the enemy's normal armor, not the pierce armor. The throwing axeman is based off accounts of Frankish foot soldiers throwing their axes in battle.
• Goths: Huskarl: This infantry unit is highly resistant to arrows and gets a high attack bonus against archers. This unit is apt for the Goths, because they were known as raiders, able to blow down enemy fortifications. They are based on the professional fighters that many Germanic tribes kept on retinue.
• Teutons: Teutonic Knight: A slow, but powerful infantry unit. Its armor resists most attacks, and it has high hit points and attack power. They are based on the warrior monk order who went to the Holy Land and, later, Eastern Europe. Its only weakness is its slow movement speed. However, it is such a severe weakness that it makes his other benefits almost useless.
• Celts: Woad Raider: Very fast infantry. With their speed, woad raiders can take on siege weapons, monks, and archers without being vulnerable to the knight's weakness, pikemen. Based loosely on the Scottish resistance fighters who battled the English invaders.
• Vikings: Berserk and Longboat : The berserk is an infantry unit that slowly regenerates health. Berserks are based on accounts of Viking Warriors who raised themselves into a fury before battle to the point where they became wild, fearsome and seemingly impervious to harm. Longboats are a unique Viking naval unit; a fast ship that fires multiple arrows.
• Byzantines: Cataphract: A cavalry unit with an attack bonus vs. infantry. The cataphract is based on real cataphracts used since Ancient times. They represent the fact that the Byzantines continued to utilize old and powerful military tactics against their less organized enemies, such as the Goths. Outnumbered Byzantine soldiers were able to defend their empire for many centuries, just like the cataphract. The cataphract gets the trample ability after the Byzatines' unique technology is researched. Cataphracts can excel at any kinds of battles, even when outnumbered.
• Turks: Janissary: A hand cannoneer with longer range and better attack. The Janissaries were a warrior caste of slaves who composed an elite battalion in the Ottoman Turk army as it swept through Asia and Europe. Though they used various weapons, they eventually favored gunpowder, and were famous for their role in the capture of Constantinople.
• Saracens: Mameluke: The most gold intensive non-siege land unit in the game, aside from the monk. A ranged cavalry unit that is strong against other cavalry. The Mameluke is based on the slave warriors unique to the Egyptian empire; soldiers who eventually became so powerful they overthrew the ruling caliph and stopped the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut. Arab camel units performed very well against the less agile European heavy cavalry.
• Persians: War elephant: A slow, but immensely powerful cavalry unit that deals trample damage (damages adjacent enemy units). They are not historically accurate, but are a fun unit to use and an even better target for upgraded Monks. Spearman, Pikemen and Halbediers receive an highly augmented attack bonus against them, even more than the bonus they receive against all other cavalry units. Ensemble Studios mentioned on their Gamespot showcase that the War Elephants were not extensively used in the Middle Ages by the Persians.
• Mongols: Mangudai: A cavalry archer with an attack bonus against siege weapons and 100% accuracy against non-moving units. The real Mongol mangudai were able to decimate their opponents with feinted retreats along with hit-and-run tactics. The mangudai technically have no weaknesses; they are stronger than other archers and very fast (only second in speed to the light cavalry units), thus being able to hit-and-run cavalry and infantry. Many consider them one of the best units in the game due to their speed and firing rate.
• Chinese: Chu Ko Nu: A crossbowman that can shoot bolts rapidly which also deal a high amount of damage although they have low range compared to other archers. Deals the most damage of archers in the game. The chu ko nu crossbow has been used for hundreds of years in China, where the emphasis has been rapid fire rather than firepower.
• Japanese: Samurai: An infantry unit with an attack bonus against other unique units. The samurai always sought to attack the strongest warriors in the enemy army while on the battlefield. They have a very fast attack, and in addition the Japanese receive a bonus which increases the attack speed of all infantry.
• Koreans: War Wagon and Turtle Ship (The Conquerors Expansion) - The War Wagon is a heavily armed and armored wagon pulled by horses. They shoot scorpion-like bolts and carry plenty of hit points, making them one of the most powerful units in the Castle Age. The Turtle Ship is the world's first ironclad ship; It is the most powerful naval unit in the game.
• Mayans: Plumed Archer (The Conquerors Expansion) - These units have more hit points, piercing armor, firing rate, and foot speed than normal archers, but are weak against any unit other than archers. They are the Mayan equivalent to the cavalry archer and will decimate a like number of longbowmen.
• Aztecs: Jaguar Warrior (The Conquerors Expansion) - This is a strong infantry unit that has a large bonus versus other infantry. They move slowly however, making them more vulnerable than archers. With the Aztec Garland Wars unique technology they become arguably the best infantry unit in the game.
• Huns: Tarkan (The Conquerors Expansion) - Anti-building cavalry. They carry an attack bonus versus buildings and piercing armor and are relatively cheap, but have a weak base attack. Useful for raiding.
• Spanish: Conquistador and Missionaries (The Conquerors Expansion) - Conquistadores are mounted hand canoneers with less range and less attack. Like hand canoneers, they are inaccurate at long range. However, due to their increased hit points and speed, they excel at hit-and-run tactics. Missionaries are monks mounted on donkeys; they are slightly faster than a normal monk, but cannot pick up relics.

Modifications

Many modifications (mods) are available online, as it has basic data files which (with proper programs) can be easily customized and tweaked. Websites such as Age of Kings Heaven offer mods, utility programs, maps, and scenarios created by and/or found its members.

Other platforms

PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 version was released only in Europe and published by Konami.

Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS version of was released in the US on February 15, 2006. It features a turn based battle mode rather than real time strategy genre used in the PC version.

Pocket PC. A Windows Mobile version exists.

Mobile Phone. A version for Mobile Phones exists (Subjected to country).

Dreamcast. A version of this game was set for Sega Dreamcast but with the lack of popularity and sales of the console. the game was canned with only a demo existing.

See also

• Age of Empires
• Age of Empires: The Age of Kings for the Nintendo DS
• Age of Empires III
• Age of Mythology

External links

• Official Website
• GameFAQs' section on Age of Empires II
• Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings at MobyGames
• Collection of reviews of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
• Gamespot's section on The Conquerors Expansion
• GTADS: Open Source Age of Empires Matchmaker