Product: Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion
Company: Microsoft
Website: http://www.microsoft.com/games
Estimated Street Price: $34.95
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Review By: Julien JAY

Introduction

Microsoft has just released the new, official and unique add on to Microsoft Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion pack. This new game is the first to be published title of the new Christmas Microsoft games collection. Every gamer around the world knows the fabulous Age of Empires series and this new expansion pack will surely delight AOE fans. As usual with expansion packs Age Of Empires II: Conquerors isn’t a major upgrade of the game but it brings several enhancements along with new challenges and civilizations we’ll review in detail.

Features list:

• New Units: 11 new units including the Huns' Tarkan, the Koreans' War Wagon and Turtle Ship, and the Aztecs' Plumed Archer.
• New Technologies: 26 new technologies - one for each civilization, including Chinese Rocketry and British Yeomen.
• New Game Types: Experience new challenges with "Wonder Race," "Defend the Wonder," and "King of the Hill."
• Command Allied Computer Players Use chat commands to order allies to attack, tribute resources, and build an economy or military.
• Battering Ram: Units can garrison inside Battering Rams for protection, or to increase the Ram's speed when attacking foes.
• Real World Maps: Maps include Britain, France and Italy.
• Smart Villagers: Villagers work smarter, build walls more intelligently, and gather resources automatically after constructing a drop-off building.
• Farms Automatically Replant: Queue farms so they replant after being harvested.

Setup

The setup of the Conquerors is nice and will take a few minutes to complete. The only prerequisite is that you should have installed Age Of Empires II: the age of kings to be eligible to use the Conquerors Expansion. During the file copying process different animations and sounds are played so you’re already in the game atmosphere. Once the setup is done simply double click the Conquerors icon that appears on your desktop.