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Real-time strategy the way you remember it

Every match starts the same way: a town center, a few workers and a forest full of wood. What happens next is up to you. Sow fields, mine stone and gold, raise walls and gates, and train an army to defend it all. Seven ages lie ahead, from the Stone Age to the Industrial Age, and your soldiers grow with them: your spearmen become halberdiers and your archers become riflemen. Race ahead and you field the stronger troops. Take your time and you build the economy nobody can keep up with.

Six peoples, six ways to win

Pick your people before the match, and you pick a way of playing:

• Franks: walls, gates, towers and forts go up 50% faster, and their towers shoot further. Their own unit is the Paladin.
• Norse: every enemy building they tear down pays back part of what it cost. Their own unit is the Berserker.
• Greeks: infantry standing shoulder to shoulder takes less damage. Their own unit is the Hoplite.
• Mongols: lumber and mining camps are free and stand at once, and cavalry trains faster. Their own unit is the Horse archer.
• Arabs: short of wood or stone? Gold covers it, and they get the best prices at the market. Their own unit is the Camel rider.
• Chinese: soldiers leave the barracks five at a time, and research costs less. Their own unit is the Chu-ko-nu.

That unit stays ahead of everyone else's in every age, as long as you keep upgrading it. Every people also starts differently, never gets something the others have, and researches two technologies that only it knows.

48 missions through history

Every people has a campaign of eight missions, set in its own chapter of history. Stand with Charles Martel near Tours in 732. Row to Lindisfarne, sail on to Vinland and march with Harald Hardrada to Stamford Bridge. Take Troy with a wooden horse, hold Thermopylae and ride with Alexander at Gaugamela. Build the round city of Baghdad, win at the Horns of Hattin and stop the Mongols at Ain Jalut. Follow Temujin from a rescued bride to the walls of Xiangyang, then defend that same city from the other side, and hold Ningyuan with Portuguese cannon on its walls. No two missions are the same. In one you break a siege, in another you hold out until help arrives, and sometimes you lure an army into a trap.

Short on time? Six famous battles stand on their own, from Cannae and Alesia to Hastings and the relief of Vienna.

A new land every match

Plains, woodland, highlands, lakes, rivers, continents, mountain passes or desert: every match is played on a map nobody has seen before. Forests stop an army until you cut a road through them. Rivers and passes decide where the fighting happens, and the richest mines are never next door. Scout early, claim what you can hold and defend it.

More than a battle

Form your troops into a box, pack them tight or spread them out. Close your gates when raiders come and open them again for your own army. Upgrade the soldiers you already have, right where they stand. Trade at a market shared by every player, where every purchase raises the price for everyone. Send resources to an ally who is struggling, or form an alliance with someone who was your enemy ten minutes ago.

Opponents with character

The computer does more than throw armies at you. One opponent attacks before your walls are up. Another quietly builds up and comes back with twice your numbers. A third digs in behind stone and towers. From Beginner to Merciless there is always an opponent at your level, and on the easier settings the game tells you when your workers are standing idle.

Together or against each other

Play with up to eight players online or on your own network, with humans and computer players in the same match. Team up against the computer, fight it out in teams, or play ranked matches for a place on the leaderboard. Every match is recorded, so you can watch it back and see where it was won. Your saved games and campaign progress follow you to any PC through Steam Cloud.

Learn at your own pace

New to strategy games? The tutorial teaches you everything in a real match, one step at a time, in five short chapters. After that, six challenges put you to the test for bronze, silver and gold: hold off a rush, break through a wall, or build an economy against the clock.

Features

• Classic real-time strategy: gather, build and conquer
• Seven ages, from the Stone Age to the Industrial Age
• Six peoples, each with its own way to play and its own unit
• Six historical campaigns with 48 missions, plus six famous battles
• A new map every match, in nine kinds of landscape
• Walls and gates, formations, and upgrades for units already in the field
• A shared market and diplomacy: send resources and make alliances
• Computer opponents with their own style, from Beginner to Merciless
• Up to 8 players online or on your own network, with humans and computer players mixed
• Ranked matches and leaderboards
• Watch every match back as a replay
• A hands-on tutorial and six challenges with medals
• Steam Cloud for your saved games and progress
• English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Simplified Chinese