Fair enough, but if you've played AOE extensively you may well find that the single-player campaigns don't engage you as much as they might have done (without playing at the Hard setting, that is). Finally, there's a varied collection of single missions focusing on great military leaders from Erik the Red to Henry V.ДЄll this adds up to a hefty number of hours of gameplay.ДЄs far as the difficulty level is concerned, Ensemble Studios seems to have opted for a middle ground between meeting the needs of hardcore AOEplayers and relative beginners. You can ride along with Attila The Hun as he mops up the remnants of the Roman Empire, win back Castille with El Cid, or hold off the Spanish with Montezuma.

This comes in the shape of four new campaigns.ДЄs the name of this expansion pack implies, these are all based on the activities of history's bona fide heavyweights. Games Conquerors PlayДespite all that, you'll expect to be given some more meaty single-player action to get your teeth into. These and the half-dozen other changes to the basic engine may not be the most visible aspects of what you've spent your money on, but my point is they are probably the most valuable In terms of adding longevity to the game. You can also order farms to be replanted In advance so you don't have to check up on them so often, and so on. So once the villagers have built certain types of buildings, they will head off and do something useful rather than hanging around waiting for you to give them orders. Many of the additional changes have been designed to enable you to focus on strategy instead of housekeeping tasks. Just put your troops inside the ram and not only will you get more speed and damage capability, you'll also protect your troops in the run up to the enemy's walls. Instead of sending in those battering rams while your foot soldiers hang around on the sideline until the rams have done their job, you can now kill two birds with one stone. 'Fantastic,' you say, 'at last I can stage some realistic siege warfare.' But wait, there's more. Thankfully, Ensemble has given him the boot and replaced him with Mr Smart Bastard of Clevertown, who will refrain from having a go if there's any danger of his own side or his allies getting hammered by 'friendly fire'. Invite him along on a raid and he'll quite happily mow down half a dozen of his own troops in his eagerness to take down one lonesome enemy soldier. In most RTS games, siege weapons - or other heavy weapons platforms - are generally controlled by MrThicky of Thicksville. Let's take the use of siege weapons as a classic example. What Ensemble Studios has rather cunningly done is investДЄ lot of time in playing its own game and then ironing out the wrinkles. But once you get beyond that you'll begin to understand where all those product development dollars have gone. Considering that five new civilisations (Spanish, Huns, Aztecs, Mayans and Koreans) have been introduced, it's a bit poor that there's only one new set of building graphics.

In fact, let's get that one major gripe over and done with now. OK, when you load up The Conquerors you're not exactly going to be bowled over by the extensive graphical changes it introduces. Yes, you're going to get additional campaigns, but they come packaged with a host of improvements that will revitalise your interest and add a new shine to multiplayer games. The Conquerors Expansion for Age Of Empires II meets this expectation head on.

Now gamers expect a hefty shot in the arm and a new lease of life as a result. It was no longer enough to churn out expansions that consisted of little more than the levels rejected from the original version.

The Rise Of Home for the original Age Of Empires set the standard for all subsequent expansion packs.

Age of empires 2 the conquerors mod