But most important of all, you need to make sure you have researched civic technology at your library. Is it near a good source of metal and wood? Is the land fertile enough to farm? Is it easily defendable? You also need to have enough food and wood available to actually start building.

you can't just wander about setting up cities here, there and everywhere.įirstly, there's location to consider.

In fact, success in RoN lies in your ability to spread out as quickly as possible from your capital city in a manner similar to a turn-based game we may have already mentioned. One of the most obvious ways to increase the size of your territory is to found new cities. By watching your border edge forward or slip backward, you can gauge exactly how powerful your nation is compared with your neighbour. This real-time, shifting coloured line across the battlefield indicates the limit of your territory. One of the main reasons RoN has gamplay in abundance is down to its concept of national borders. and always will remain, secondary in this genre. Besides, show us a strategy game that's become a classic purely because it's pleasing on the eye. Big Huge Games has taken the sensible if not fashionable view that gameplayĬomes before looks. But overall, there's none of the beauty of C&C: Generals' lush 3D world. And you have to admire the way each culture in the game has a different graphical style, and in many cases completely unique units too. Frills such as birds circling the battlefield as well as decent unit animation breathe a little life into the static landscapes. Consequently, RoN's graphics do the job and nothing more. Sadly, these days AoE is hardly a glittering showcase of cutting-edge visuals.

Rise of legends full game