Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots Preview

Real-time strategy games used to seem like they were all the same. You basically harvested resources, built a base, built an army, and crushed your opponents before they could do the same. But in recent years, some games have tried to strike out in new directions. One of these is 2003's Rise of Nations, a strategy game that's based loosely on world history. It combines the sensibilities of an epic turn-based game like Civilization with the faster pace of a traditional real-time strategy game. In the game, you play as a world nation that's attempting to develop along military, scientific, economic, or civic lines of research in hopes of eventually conquering the world through financial dominance, territorial expansion, or force of arms. Rise of Nations' many different playable cultures and strategies collectively offer players a great deal of depth in multiplayer games, as well as in the open-ended single-player campaigns. Now Microsoft and Big Huge Games are working on an expansion pack, entitled Thrones & Patriots, which will attempt to add even more new features to the already deep game.

Thrones & Patriots will offer six new playable nations and much more.

Thrones & Patriots will include, among other things, six new playable nations, including the Iroquois, the Lakota, the Persians, the Dutch, the Americans, and the Indians. Like in the original game, each nation will have different themes, special abilities, and unique units. According to executive producer Tim Train, the new nations won't just serve as generic content additions. They'll actually have abilities that modify the core game and may even require seasoned veterans to take a second look at their favorite strategies.

For instance, one of the most important buildings for each nation in Rise of Nations is the capital city. Once it's captured, you'll usually be faced with a time limit within which you must recapture it or build a new one--or else you lose. However, the Persians have two capital cities (the second city built automatically becomes a capital), which makes them especially resistant to defeat by the loss of a capital. The Persian forces are also bolstered by elephant troops that possess a powerful close-range attack--namely their tusks--which can plow through rows of pikemen. These already formidable beasts can be upgraded later in the game to mahouts, which carry gunmen that can fire from a distance. The Persians also possess powerful nonmilitary bonuses, like a starting bonus of 50 percent food, a discount of 30 percent on all civic research done to increase their abilities to expand, free taxation upgrades, and the ability to commission the maximum number of trade caravans available. Like all nations, the Persians also possess unique military units. The Persians may also commission immortals, a powerful type of infantry unit, and arquebus immortals, an upgraded version of the immortal that carries a firearm.

The neighboring nation of India may also bring war elephants and mahouts into battle, though at a much lower cost (all elephant units are 15 percent cheaper than usual and can be upgraded for free). Indian cities also have a larger economic radius and gain bonus income from caravans. In addition, the Indian nation does not experience "ramping" building costs when developing. That is, with the exception of some military buildings and wonders of the world, all Indian buildings cost the same throughout the game, regardless of how many you already have (while other nations must pay a steeper fee to add more buildings of the same type).

The new nations will have abilities that may very well change the way Rise of Nations is played.

The seafaring Dutch, on the other hand, belong to a commerce-heavy nation whose unique units include swift clippers and fluyts. The Dutch also receive two free bonus ships after building a dock, and all ship upgrades are 10 percent cheaper than normal. The Dutch also begin the game with a free commerce research development, and all other commerce research can be conducted at a 25 percent discount. These industrious folk also begin the game with a market and two free merchants, and their trade routes can be protected by armed caravans, armed merchants, and armed supply wagons. These last "armed" additions actually let Dutch trade routes fend off attacks from aggressive players who attack their economy with only a few raiders.