| “ | Expand your empire and rule the world. Experience the adventure of the Spanish Conquistadors as they enter the exotic lands of the Aztecs, or relive the destructive force of Attila's hoards[sic] of pillaging Huns. | ” |
| —Description on the box[note 1] | ||
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors (often abbreviated to AoC, although the official shorthand is Age2x) is the first expansion pack to the 1999 real-time strategy game Age of Empires II, released on August 24, 2000. It is the fourth installment of the Age of Empires series developed by Ensemble Studios. It was implemented with patch 1.0.
The Conquerors features five new civilizations, four new campaigns, 11 new units, 26 new technologies, new gameplay modes, new maps, and a few minor changes to the gameplay mechanics.
Features[]
The following, except those in italics, is quoted from the manual, which can be found in the game files (AoE2DE/Docs/en/TC Manual.pdf):
- New terrains:
- On winter maps, walk across ice and leave footprints in the snow.
- On tropical maps, herd turkeys instead of sheep and fend off jaguars instead of wolves.
- Last Man Standing victory condition: After defeating the enemy, team members turn on each other until one player wins.
- Farms automatically replant: Queue Farms so they automatically replant after all the food has been gathered from them.
- Ship formations: Ships move in formation just like land units.
- Ram garrisoning: Infantry and archer units can garrison inside Battering, Capped, and Siege Rams for protection and to increase the ram's speed and attack.
- Garrisoned infantry will also make it move faster (+0.05 tiles/sec for every garrisoned infantry unit) and do more damage (+10 building damage per unit).
- Smart Villagers: Villagers work smarter, build walls more intelligently, and automatically gather resources after constructing a drop-off building.
- Smart siege weapons: Mangonels, Onagers, and Siege Onagers do not auto attack if they would harm friendly units.
- Improved trading & tributes: Buy, sell, and tribute lots of 500, or tribute everything in your stockpile.
- To buy, sell, or tribute lots of 500 Press the SHIFT key, and then click the button of the resource to buy, sell, or tribute.
- To tribute your entire stockpile of a resource Press the CTRL key, and then click the button of the resource to tribute.
- Improved chatting: See messages in each player's color.
- Chat text is shown in each player's color and there are two new ways to send messages to specific players. As in The Age of Kings, you can begin a message with a semicolon (;) to chat only with your allies. Now you can use an exclamation mark (!) to send a message only to your enemies or an asterisk (*) to send a message to everyone.
- Improved Diplomacy UI: See other players' stances toward you.
- Friend or foe colors: Change player colors to see enemies in one color, allies in another.
- The friend or foe option uses a simpler color scheme to indicate which players are your allies and which are your enemies. When you set the friend or foe option, colors are not unique for each player. Instead, enemies are red, allies are yellow, neutral players are gray, and your units are blue. The colors are determined by your diplomatic stance toward each player (not theirs toward you).
- Command allied computer players: Use chat commands to order allied computer players to attack, tribute resources, and build an economy, military, or a Wonder.
- Return to previous view: Press the BACKSPACE key to return to the previous location on the map. For example, if the screen is centered on your army and you jump back to your Town Center to tend your economy, press the BACKSPACE key to return to your army. Press the key multiple times to display the last 10 locations.
- Random teams option: Players who select a question mark (?) as their Team setting before starting a game are randomly placed on the teams of players who have chosen team numbers. If all players select random teams, two teams are created.
- Improved game recording: Record chat text and insert chapter markers so you can easily play back important battles.
- Recorded games now save chat messages, and you can insert chapter markers so you can easily find important battles when you play back the recording.
- To insert chapter markers While recording a game, click the Menu button, and then click Save Chapter (or press F9).
- To jump between chapters during playback Click the Next Chapter button or Previous Chapter button.
- Full-size map screenshots: Choose the reduction ratio and create a screenshot of the entire game world.
- Improved map editor: New scenario triggers, including the ability to change unit names and attributes.
- Customizable random maps: Create your own random map scripts that tell the computer what terrain, elevation, and resources to place when creating random maps. To learn how to do this, see the Random Map Script Guide (RMSG.doc) in the Docs folder on The Conquerors Expansion CD.
Automatic Farm replanting[]
| “ | Farms can now be queued at the Mill so they are automatically replanted when all of the food has been collected from them and they expire. If there are Farms in the queue when a Farm expires, you do not receive a "Farm expired" notification. To automatically replant Farms Click the Mill, and then click the Reseed Farm button. Click multiple times to replant several Farms. Automatically replanting costs the same as building a new Farm, so you must have enough wood in your stockpile for each Farm you add to the queue. You can use any of your Mills to add or delete Farms from the queue. If all of your Mills are destroyed the queued Farms continue to be replanted. If you research technology that improves your Farms, queued Farms also benefit. |
” |
Garrisoning units inside rams[]
| “ | All foot units (infantry and archers) can garrison inside a ram; villagers, Monks, Petards, Kings, mounted units, and siege weapons cannot. Garrisoned infantry and pikemen increase the ram's speed and attack vs. buildings. Units garrisoned inside a ram are not damaged during an attack, and garrisoned archers do not attack. Battering Rams and Capped Rams can garrison four units. Siege Rams can garrison six units. A flag appears on rams with garrisoned units. Allied players can garrison units inside each other's rams (and ungarrison them at will). Units are automatically ejected if the ram is destroyed, converted by a Monk or Missionary, or if allied players change their diplomatic stance. When a garrisoned ram is loaded aboard a transport ship, the ram and each garrisoned unit count toward the ship's capacity. For example, if three units are garrisoned inside a ram, then four units are loaded onto the transport ship. To garrison units inside a ram Click a unit (or select a group), and then right-click a Battering Ram, Capped Ram, or Siege Ram. To ungarrison all units Click a Battering Ram, Capped Ram, or Siege Ram, and then click the Ungarrison button. You can also ungarrison units individually or in groups using the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the same way that you ungarrison units from buildings. |
” |
Smarter villagers[]
| “ | Villagers are now smarter so resource gathering and wall building are easier. · Villagers automatically begin gathering resources that are nearby after building a Mill, Mining Camp, Lumber Camp, or Town Center. · If a villager is carrying resources when you order it to construct a building, the resources are deposited in your stockpile before the villager gathers a new resource. For example, if a villager is carrying 8 food from hunting and you assign it to build a Lumber Camp, the food is added to your stockpile before the villager begins chopping wood. · When you send a group of villagers to a single Farm, the villagers automatically spread themselves among any untended Farms nearby. · When two or more villagers are assigned to build a wall, they space themselves out so the wall is built more quickly and efficiently. Also walls are now built starting from the outside and working toward the middle so they end properly at the edge of water and forests. |
” |
Other[]
The following are not mentioned in the manual:
- New cheat unit: Furious the Monkey Boy
- Population Limit can be changed in the Scenario Editor.
- When being attacked, or sending a message, the color represents the player/team that is attacking or sending the message.
- Spoken dialogue from the characters (refers to campaigns) appears in the message section.
- Heroes cannot be converted at all, automatically heal themselves, have protected formation and have default defensive stance.
- Wonders that appear at the start that would not be considered as a count down do not mark a [W] next to the team name in the statistics, nor be shown across the map, nor be counted as having been constructed.
- Palisade Walls are unaffected by the Torpedo Cheat.
- Some objects have a different design.
Civilizations[]
| Architectural set | Civilizations |
|---|---|
| Western European |  Spanish
|
| Central European |  Huns
|
| Eastern Asian |  Koreans
|
| Native American (new) |  Aztecs
|
 Mayans
|
The Aztecs and Mayans completely lack the ability to train cavalry units and gunpowder units by design. This is partially balanced by the fact that they start with an Eagle Warrior (but cannot train more until the Castle Age), which has many advantages that the Light Cavalry has. Both civilizations have Arbalests with Bracer and Siege Ram to offset missing gunpowder units. The civilizations also have a different appearance for their Monks as well as the Trade Carts where a villager pulls them without a horse.
There are additional maps where things can be changed or replaced, Jaguars for Wolves, Javelina for Wild Boars, Turkeys for Sheep, Macaws for Hawks, and the Deer remain the same. The Huns are also unique in that they do not build Houses to support their population, allowing them to ignore the maximum production limit of units, and focus on building up their economy and military instead. The Goths also get a population bonus of +10 over the population limit.
Units[]
Castle unique units[]
Jaguar Warrior (Standard and Elite): anti-infantry heavy infantry, unique to Aztecs- Tarkan (Standard and Elite): anti-building cavalry, unique to Huns
- War Wagon (Standard and Elite): heavily armored horse-drawn archery unit, unique to Koreans
- Plumed Archer (Standard and Elite): fast foot archer, unique to Mayans
- Conquistador (Standard and Elite): mounted hand cannoneer, unique to Spanish
Secondary unique units[]
- Turtle Ship (Standard and Elite): heavily armored, short-range cannon ships, unique to Koreans, available at the Dock
- Missionary: swift mounted monks that cannot carry Relics, unique to Spanish, available at the Monastery
Regional units[]
- Eagle Warrior - Elite Eagle Warrior: Fast infantry with extensive line of sight, piercing armor, resistance to conversion, attack bonus vs. Monks, and a slight attack bonus vs. siege weapons and mounted units. Civilizations without cavalry (Aztecs and Mayans) start the game with an Eagle Warrior instead of Scout Cavalry. All infantry (except Militia and Eagle Warriors) deal bonus damage vs. Eagle Warriors.
Common units[]
- Halberdier: Upgrade to the Pikeman
- Hussar: Upgrade to the Light Cavalry
- Petard: Suicide bomber unit that explodes upon contact, dealing bonus damage to buildings and siege units, can be trained at the Castle for all civilizations
Technologies[]
The Conquerors introduces nineteen unique technologies, and seven common technologies to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, in total adding twenty-six new technologies. These technologies can be purchased from various in-game buildings, most notably the Castle (which now being able for the player to research the unique technology or technologies of the civilization), and give the player an additional bonus depending on the technology. These technologies are researched in different buildings in the game.
Common technologies[]
| Technology | Age | Building | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Caravan(requires  Cartography)
|
|
Market | 200 food, 200 gold | Trade Carts and Trade Cogs move 50% faster. |
 Herbal Medicine
|
|
Monastery | 350 gold | Garrisoned units heal 300% faster. |
 Heresy
|
|
Monastery | 1,000 gold | Converted units die instead of changing color. |
 Theocracy
|
|
Monastery | 400 food, 800 gold | Only one Monk in a group must rest after a conversion. |
 Thumb Ring
|
|
Archery Range | 300 food, 250 wood | Archers fire faster and with 100% accuracy. |
 Parthian Tactics
|
|
Archery Range | 200 food, 250 gold | Mounted archers have +1/+2 armor. |
 Bloodlines
|
|
Stable | 150 food, 100 gold | Mounted units (except Missionaries) have +20 HP. |
Unique technologies[]
| “ | Each civilization has a unique technology that no other civilization can research. Typically, the unique technology improves a civilization’s unique unit or team bonus. | ” |
| —Description in the manual | ||
- Castle Age
- Imperial Age
- Aztecs – Garland Wars: infantry +4 melee attack.
- Britons – Yeomen: foot archers +1 range; towers +2 pierce attack.
- Byzantines – Logistica: (Elite) Cataphract +6 attack vs. infantry; 5 trample damage per attack in 0.5 tile radius.
- Celts – Furor Celtica: Siege Workshop units +50% HP.
- Chinese – Rocketry: (Elite) Chu Ko Nu +2 pierce damage for main projectile; Scorpion line +4 pierce damage.
- Franks – Bearded Axe: (Elite) Throwing Axeman + 1 range.
- Goths – Perfusion: Barracks 2x work speed.
- Huns – Atheism: Wonder/Relic victory +100 year; Spies/Treason cost halved.
- Japanese – Kataparuto: Trebuchets fire 33% faster; pack/unpack 4x times faster.
- Koreans – Shinkichon: Mangonel line +2 range.
- Mayans – El Dorado: Eagle Warrior line +40 HP.
- Mongols – Drill: Siege Workshop units +50% speed.
- Persians – Mahouts: (Elite) War Elephant +30% speed.
- Saracens – Zealotry: Camel, Heavy Camel, (Elite) Mameluke +30 HP.
- Spanish – Supremacy: Villagers +40 HP, +6 melee attack, +2/+2 armor.
- Teutons – Crenellations: Castles +3 range; garrisoned infantry fire arrows.
- Turks – Artillery: Bombard Cannon, Bombard Tower, (Elite) Cannon Galleon +2 range.
- Vikings – Berserkergang: (Elite) Berserk 2x regeneration speed (0.33 → 0.66 HP/sec).
Campaigns[]
- Attila the Hun (Huns): Barbarian hordes feast on the dying Roman empire. The most dangerous of these invaders are the Huns and their ferocious king, Attila. After pouring out of the Caspian steppes, looting and burning all the while, the Huns become so powerful that the Roman Empire is forced to pay a tribute to Attila. But the king of the Huns is still not satisfied, and he mobilizes his horsemen to invade Gaul and eventually Rome itself! Can nothing stop the brutal Attila?
- El Cid (Spanish/Saracens): Spain is divided between Christian kingdoms to the north and Moorish kingdoms to the south. In the barren borderlands of Castille, Rodrigo Díaz, called El Cid, gains notoriety as a brilliant general and heroic crusader. The Cid is so popular among soldiers and peasant alike that the distrustful king of Castille sends him into exile. The Cid must join forces with his former enemies, the Moors, and fight against his beloved Castille. But an even greater threat waits across the sea in Africa, where fanatical Berber horsemen are eager to seize what the Moors could not.
- Montezuma (Aztecs): After centuries of conquest, the Aztecs now rule the mightiest empire in Central America. But when strangers appear on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, Montezuma, emperor of the Aztecs, is unsure whether they are conquerors... or gods. Can a vast empire of warriors using obsidian spears and cotton armor hold off mounted invaders armed with metal armor and gunpowder?
- Battles of the Conquerors (various): Certain names ring down through history as men and women who shaped the world. Some were forces of chaos, destructive and rapacious. Some were men of honor who fought for the right. Some defended their homelands from invaders, while others used their military might to violently acquire the lands of others. Battles such as Agincourt, Manzikert, and Hastings are remembered as turning points in world history, and names such as Henry V, Yi Sun-shin, and Erik the Red are etched forever as great conquerors. Now relive their tragedies and triumphs.
Game modes[]
- King of the Hill: To win, control the Monument in the center of the map for the specified time period. To take control of the Monument from an enemy, kill all of the enemy units near the Monument and move one of yours nearby. The map style greatly affects this game. For example, on Coastal maps, you can defend with walls and Castles; on Island maps, you can defend only with ships; on Ghost Lake maps, you can defend only with land units.
- Wonder Race: No combat; the first player to build a Wonder wins. All players are allied and cannot change alliance or form teams. However, you can play a coopera tive multiplayer game, where two players control the same civilization. There are no walls, Siege Workshops, or Trebuchets.
- Defend the Wonder: One player starts with a Wonder surrounded by walls and defends it from enemy players to win. All players begin in the Imperial Age with all technologies researched, large stockpiles of resources, and several villagers.
Maps[]
Random maps[]
- Arena
- Ghost Lake
- Mongolia
- Nomad
- Oasis
- Salt Marsh
- Scandinavia
- Yucatán
- Random Land*
- * An option to randomly select any land map
Real World maps[]
New maps were also included which are based on real life geographic locations.
Enhancements[]
The following is quoted from the patch 2.0a manual, which can be found in the game files (AoE2DE/Docs/en/Readme_a.rtf):
- Single-Player Performance Improvements - The performance of single-player campaign games has been improved, especially on lower-end computers.
- Limited Pauses - The total number of pauses available to each player in a multiplayer game is now limited. The total number of pauses remaining is displayed each time the game is paused.
- Display Name of Out of Sync Player - In a multiplayer game with three or more players, if a player goes out of sync, that player's name is displayed in the out of sync message on all computers.
- Stability Improvements[note 2] - A number of crashes and multiplayer out of sync bugs have been fixed, resulting in improved game stability.
- Multiplayer Restore From Zone Bug[note 2] - The ability to save and restore a disconnected or out of sync multiplayer game on the Zone has been improved.
- Computer Player Bugs[note 2] - The behavior of the computer player in multiplayer games has been improved.
- Foundation Outline Bug[note 2] - Building foundations now have outlines, so you can now click on them when they are behind trees or other objects.
Gallery[]
Higher resolution version of the cover art
Korean cover for The Conquerors, replacing Montezuma with Admiral Yi and the early Turtle Ship designs with the more accurate later one
Original advertising for The Conquerors, showcasing Aztec-Spanish conflict and featuring the original appearance of Turtle Ships
