Age of Mythology:The Titans

Age of Mythology: The Titans is the official expansion to Age of Mythology developed by Ensemble Studios. It adds a new civilization to the game and improves on aspects of the gameplay, while also introducing new units, buildings, upgrades and god powers. It allows the ability for a player to summon a Titan, a gigantic unit with devastating attacks.

Atlanteans
One of the largest new additions to The Titans is a new civilization, the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans have no specific hero units, but can convert any human unit into a hero. Citizens have no drop off point for resources, and town centers can be built at any time in the game.

Atlantean Citizens are much more effective in work than their Greek, Norse or Egyptian counterparts and do not require drop-off points for resources; they instead use pack donkeys. They are also slower to train, and much more expensive. Atlanteans gain Favor through possessing Town Centers. The more they control, the faster the rate of Favor generation.

A new unit, the Oracle, is introduced on the side of the Atlanteans. With a line of sight that expands when he stands still and the ability to pick up relics, he can be very effective in the early game, but he only has an attack if upgraded to hero.

Most Atlantean human units can be transformed into heroes (including Citizens), which become a little bit better at everything they do. Myth Units, Naval Units, Siege Units, Titans, and Cheiroballistra are the exceptions. As well as being strong against Myth Units, Atlantean heroes retain their own strengths and weaknesses, so, for example, Murmillo Heroes are still weak against archers and strong against cavalry.

New Titan/God Powers
Titan worshippers have special powers, such as Kronos' ability to move buildings from one location on the map to another, or Oranos' Sky Passages, which allow instant unit transportation across the map. This can significantly affect the gameplay of older maps designed for Age of Mythology pre-expansion, as areas of maps that were inaccessible become accessible. The goddess Gaia has the ability to grow lush from buildings, preventing enemy players constructing buildings nearby as well as providing a small healing effect to buildings. Other, lesser god powers are available to the Atlanteans at any time during the game. Unlike the other civilizations, the Atlanteans can use certain god powers multiple times. Some, like Gaia's Forest, cause new forests to generate, which provides a far more effective wall that only Villagers (or forest fires or Colossi) can break through. These too may alter gameplay on maps.

New Myth Units
Worshipping the Titans (Kronos, Oranos or Gaia) entitles the player to summon one of several new myth units: the Behemoth, essentially a living regenerating siege unit, the Automaton, a robot that repairs other Automatons during breaks in the fighting, the Satyr, a half goat-half human ranged unit, and the Argus, a jellyfish floating in the air that kills units with acid. Naval myth units include the Servant, which heals naval and coastal units and has a moderate attack.

The Servant affects gameplay by adding the option of loading up a coastal region with Servants who are not easily attacked by ground troops - thus fighting there is a serious advantage to the player with Servants. Like the Fenris Wolf that grows in attack effectiveness with numbers, the Automaton grows also in effectiveness because a large army of them can self-repair in time to be at full fighting strength before the next skirmish. These features make the Servant and Automaton particularly effective defensive units.

Another flying healer, the Caladria, and flying attack unit, the Stymphalian bird, round out the aerial myth units while the Man O'War and Nereid are available for naval combat. The Satyr throws spears, the Lampades unleashes the chaos power on units at range, and the Heka Gigantes generates shockwaves. Prometheans split into smaller Prometheans when killed. Planting a Hesperides tree allows players to summon Dryads, and another reusable god power puts carnivorous plants in the way of enemies. Defensively, a combination of Servants, Caladria, Automatons, Heka Gigantes and Lampades with the Gaia's Forest power can be extremely potent late in the game, but this is more than offset by the extreme offensive advantage of Titans and of the building-moving and unit-moving god powers that the Titans provide.

Overall, the game favors the more offensive player in the late game and the more defensive player early (who builds up to summon the Titan or earn these powers). The game has been criticized for having too much emphasis on the Titan, the construction of a Titan Gate being now an all-or-nothing gambit to win the game - if the gate is destroyed, no new one can be built.

New Campaign
In the new single-player campaign, there are 12 scenarios. The campaign begins 10 years after the sinking of Atlantis and focuses on Kastor, son of Arkantos. The Atlanteans have rebuilt a settlement in the Norse lands but are faring poorly. Kronos sends his minion (nicknamed Kronny) to kill Krios, leader of the Atlanteans, and take his form. He guides the Atlanteans to two old temples of Kronos and Orion respectivly, saying that the Titans not the Greek gods are supporting them.They are discovered by Greek scouts who came from a nearby colony. The Greeks see the worship of the Titans as blasphemy and results in the Atlanteans and Greeks fighting. The Atlanteans push the Greeks off the island and convert it into New Atlantis. The Atlanteans continue to fight the Greeks and kill Melagius, one of their generals. The Egyptians and Norse send help to the Greeks, so Kastor falls back but sends troops to both Egypt and the Norse lands and defeats them there. He is then tricked by Kronny into going to Mount Olympus. Kastor fights his way through and wreaks havoc, allowing several Titans to escape Tartarus. Kronny then reveals himself and tricks the Atlanteans into thinking Kastor has betrayed them but he is recued by Ajax and Amanra. They then defeat the Titans in Egypt and Scandinavia before defeating Prometheus. They then head to Atlantis where Kronny has freed Kronos. However they managed to summon Gaia, who defeats Kronos. Kronny attempts to escape but is killed by Kastor. Arkantos then appears and declares his son leader of the Atlanteans.

New Map Types
The Titans introduces six new maps types, and seven new AI personalities. For the original civilizations, several upgrades and changes were added. The upgrade Beast Slayer causes the Greek gods' unique units to do bonus damage against Myth units. Hands of the Pharaoh lets Egyptian priests pick up Relics; a power formerly reserved for the Pharaoh unit only. Range of attack is also increased by two for Egyptian priests. The Norse gain the Axe of Muspell upgrade, which gives Throwing Axemen bonus damage against flying units.

In terms of bonuses for every civilization, the upgrade Heroic Fleet gives ships bonus damage against myth units. The non-Atlanteans can build town centers in the Classical Age in Titans, as opposed to Heroic in the original. Finally, the Titan unit is introduced to the game. Titans are huge units possessing large amounts of hitpoints and armor while having high attack, but cannot be healed in any way or cross bodies of water (With the Mythic Rejuvenation upgrade, Atlantean Titans can heal.)

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