Presenting: Rise of Nations

Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been added into the game including territories and attrition warfare. Rise of Nations features 18 civilizations, playable through 8 ages of world history.


Rise of Nations employs the concept of "territory," as employed in the Civilization long series of games; the area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their territory or that of an ally. A nation's borders can be expanded by the creation and expansion of cities and forts, a technology tree, and obtaining access to certain rare resources. Other technologies and resources cause enemy units to suffer attrition over time, which can eventually destroy an unsupported invasion force.

Cities are centrally important to gameplay; most buildings can only be built within a certain distance of a city, borders are most easily expanded by building and expanding cities, and cities are the only source of the resource-collecting Citizen unit. Only a limited amount of cities can be built and cities can only be destroyed by its owner. Conquered cities join the conqueror's faction.

Gameplay focuses heavily on creating a balance between Offense, Defense, and the nations economy based in the city. In each battle economy is vital to win. It is also notable that if a nation loses all of its cities that nation has lost that battle. Generalship is also needed in this game like most RTS games; this includes a knowledge of the troops and what they are good at fighting (pikemen will kill cavalry easier than cannon will). Learning the surrounding terrain of your empire to defend from attack and to flank an enemy army will allow a player to fight more efficiently. Generals can also be created from a fort to aid an army.

Gameplay video:



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