Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots

So you think this may look suspiciously like an another Age of Empires 2 clone and wannabe? Then you're dead wrong.

Thrones and Patriots adds to an already outstanding original game which broke the RTS mould - it combined real time strategy with turn based strategy seamlessly. The game spans 6000 years from the Ancient Age through to the Information Age - each with 4 unique and historic technologies - the library contains 4 types of research: military, social, economic, and science. Rise of Nations originally contained 18 very unique civilzations with their own bonuses and up to 5 unique units. The new expansion pack adds a further 6 new nations: Americans, Indians, Persians, Iroquois, Lakota, and Dutch, as well as 20 new units and three new wonders. There is also a new government system that gives you the choice between 6 types of governments, ranging from Monarchies to Socialism. The six are split into three pairs which become avaliable at specific ages - each pair consists of an economic goverment and a military government. Once the player builds the Senate building one of the options can be researched giving the player a different permanent gameplay bonus and they also receive a "Patriot" unit, a stronger version of the "General" unit with different bonuses depending on which government was chosen.

The game also contains more "Conquer the World" campaigns (massive turn based scenario's). The player controls historical territories on a map of the world (or known world) and can choose to move his armies around during his turn, improve his territory strength, declare war or make peace. Each turn a player can decide to attack a territory or they can skip a turn to receive "tribute" (which is used for upgrades and diplomacy). Tribute can also be gained by capturing territories. The campaigns include an Alexander the Great campaign, a New World campaign and a Cold War campaign. All of which have custom maps and scenario's. While all of them are extremely well made - perhaps the Cold War one is the most interesting out of all them. It includes extra features like a DEFCON meter, esponiage missions (where you use spies and special foces in underhand operations) and clients states (rather than conquering you "persuade" countries to become a client state).

The game revolves around a city and border system which make it very unique. Each player starts with a capital city which has more defense and a larger border and economic radius then any other city. The city is the most important "structure" you build - it allows you to expand your national borders (in which only you and your allies can build cities) and allows you build economic buildings within its radius. All of these can be improved upon with research. Resources are gathered in such a way that there is a minimal amount of micromanagment to allow you to entertain more pressing matters - like capturing cities. Cities cannot be destroyed - only reduced and then captured by infantry to make them your own. However, there is a grace time in which the city is "assimilated" - which allows the defender to take back his city. All economic buildings within the city radius become the enemies if they capture the city, but the military buildings stay the defenders - which allows for a fair battle when fighting for the city. You can however build ecomonic buildings outside of city radiuses (except for farms) but this is the best strategy as it makes them vunerable to raids (and being plundered for resources) and they do not benefit from the bonuses of industrial upgrades from special buildings that can be built within the city.

The economic side has been created in such a way to minimize micromanagement. You build resource gathering buildings which have an unlimited pool of resources and have a gather rate (for every 30 secs of game time). This can be increased with building more gathering structures, assigning more villagers, upgrades and special upgrade buildings which have to placed within the same city radius for a gather rate bonus. The market is also a useful tool for trading resources (and you even get a trade embargo if you use a nuclear weapon!). You also create trade routes between your cities and those of your allies which give you money. These are created automatically, either by allowing your caravan to choose the best possible route or by clicking to different cities which are not yet linked (with research you can link to your allies cities). The map is also filled with rare resources that can be exploited by creating a merchant unit and ordering it to setup next to it. Aluminium, Papyrus, Copper and even Uraninium can be found - however they are also hidden until they were first discovered (uranium only shows up after the modern age has been reached). Oil is only available after the industrial age is reached and only then can oil wells (or oil platforms if oil is found at sea) be built.

The military buildings can be built anywhere within your own territory, and your allies, by your villagers. The fort can also expand your borders, but not as much as the cities do. The military as aspect is quite advanced with stances and the positioning of troops is paramount - if you're forces are flanked they receive 100% more damage then they would if they were attacked from the front; while from the rear you receive 50% more damage. The game also gives the very useful unit of general's, which cannot attack a unit, but do have 4 very unique abilities: ambush, decoy, forced march and entrenching. All of which are highly useful for tactical advantages.

The graphics are generally very good with a range of zooms to suit your needs. The units are represented well with each nation having historically unique looks of standard structures and units (eg. German tanks look like Pz4, while US tanks looks like Shermans in the Modern Age). The audio is quite good, however units do lack some voiceovers like in AoE2 and there is no difference between civilizations - although the music fits in well with the game.