Victory in the Age of Empires series is the point at which a player ends a game by achieving at least one winning condition. Once the player wins, the game automatically ends and the sentence You are victorious! (Victory is Yours! in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III) will appear in white text. Upon the game's conclusion, players have the option to look at in-game achievements and see how well each participant has performed.
To be victorious, the player must fulfill one of the conditions listed below. Some victory conditions apply in all games of the series, others differ from game to game.
Age of Empires[]
- Build and defend a Wonder for 2,000 years (16 minutes and 40 seconds at 1.0 speed).
- Military conquest
- Acquire and hold all Ruins on the map for 2,000 years.
- Obtain and hold all Artifacts on the map for 2,000 years.
Age of Empires II[]
Victory sound in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
If there is only one player remaining or every remaining player is allied with allied victory enabled, then the game will automatically declare victory. This is known as "military conquest", and it is present in every game mode and victory condition except from certain scenarios. For the sake of simplicity, military conquest will not be listed as it will always apply.
The game offers a selection of five victory conditions for standard games:
- Standard: Victory can be achieved by building and defending a Wonder or capturing and holding all Relics on the map.
- Conquest: Victory can only be achieved by military conquest. This is the default victory condition on ranked games.
- Time Limit: Victory is given to the player or team with the highest score when the time limit expires (timer ranges from 25 minutes to 2 hours).
- Score: Victory is immediately awarded to the player or team that reaches the designated score (ranges between 4000 and 14000).
- Last Man Standing: Functions like standard with the key difference that allied victory is disabled.
Additionally, several game modes implement their own victory conditions:
- Regicide and Sudden Death will defeat a player if they lose all of their Kings or Town Centers, respectively.
- King of the Hill has a Monument in the center that will grant its holder with a victory when its timer reaches zero.
- Capture the Relic instantly declares victory for any player who garrisons the Relic in their Monastery.
- Defend the Wonder has one team start with a Wonder. If it stands, they win, but if it falls, they immediately lose.
- Wonder Race grants victory to the first player to fully construct a Wonder. Military Conquest is technically possible, but impractical as every player is locked as allies.
- Sudden Death doesn't allow players to build extra Town Centers. If a player loses all the Town Centers they possess, they lose.
The availability of these victory conditions depends on the game mode:
- Regicide disables Time Limit and Score victories.
- King of the Hill and Sudden Death limit the victory conditions to Standard/Conquest (respectively) and Sudden Death.
- Battle Royale only allows for Conquest victories.
- Capture the Relic, Defend the Wonder, and Wonder Race disable selection of victory conditions, instead overriding with their own.
Lastly, several scenarios have their own custom victory conditions. For example, in An Unlikely Messiah, the player wins by bringing Joan the Maid to Chinon, and loses by having Joan die.
Age of Mythology[]
"If You Can Use a Doorknob", the post-game statistics screen music upon victory in Age of Mythology.
- Military conquest: destroy all enemy military units and buildings.
- Hold all the Settlements on the map for two minutes. (Supremacy only).
- Hold the Plenty vault for a certain period of time (King of the Hill only).
- Build and defend a Wonder for 10 minutes (Supremacy only).
- Kill all enemy Regents (Regicide only).
Age of Empires III[]
Victory sound in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.
- Military conquest - there are several ways to achieve this:
- Accepting an AI's surrender - the AI will attempt to surrender to the player when they have run out of units. Note that the AI may not surrender due to several bugs (such as resource crates, which they consider as units) - removing enough of them can force the AI to surrender.
- Kill all enemy units - a defeated player is thrown out of the match when they have no units left on the map. Native scouts and Envoys are not considered to be units. If a player is removed this way, any units produced after they were removed, Outposts, and Forts will still fire on enemy units.
- Hold at least half of all Trading Post sites on the map for a certain period.
- Hold the hill for ten minutes in King of the Hill (specific to The Asian Dynasties).
- Kill the Regent in Regicide mode (only on specific maps in The Asian Dynasties).
Age of Empires IV[]
Victory is achieved only when all players on the enemy team lose, though a single player can also lose alone. When some players lose, all their units stop fighting, and all their resources collected are lost. However, the players eliminated can continue to watch their teammates playing. When all enemy players lose, the game ends.
Landmarks Victory[]
Destroy all enemy landmarks. With all landmarks destroyed, the player is eliminated. To achieve a landmarks victory in a team game, all landmarks of the enemy team must be destroyed.
Sacred Victory[]
Capture and hold all Sacred Sites on the map. Players can capture a Sacred Site starting in the Castle Age by moving a religious unit within its vicinity. The Delhi Sultanate can capture Sacred Sites in the Feudal Age after researching Sanctity, earlier than all other civilizations. Once a team captures all the Sacred Sites on the map, a 10 minute countdown timer for Sacred Victory begins.
Enemy players can neutralize an opponents' Sacred Site by moving a unit within its Vicinity. If Sacred Victory countdown is in progress, it will pause the countdown.
Players can contest control of Sacred Sites, preventing neutralization and capture, by having friendly units within the vicinity of the Sacred Site as well. If Sacred Victory countdown is in progress, it will not pause the countdown until all of the controlling team's units are removed.
If the team maintains control of all the Sacred Sites until the timer expires, the team achieves Sacred Victory. If an enemy player neutralizes a Sacred Site, then the timer stops and all progress is lost; the match continues.
Wonder Victory[]
Build and defend a Wonder for 15 minutes. When the construction of a Wonder begins, all enemies are warned. The Wonder will be visible to all players, and a marker will be placed on the minimap. If the team successfully protects the Wonder when the timer expires, the game ends in Wonder Victory. If the enemy team destroys the Wonder before the timer expires, then the match continues. Multiple players on a team can construct a Wonder, but only one of the Wonder timers needs to reach 0 to achieve victory.
Dominion Victory[]
This win condition was added with Season Seven. Each player begins with a Monarch. Killing enemy or neutral Monarchs also grants victory. Other win conditions are also applicable.
Trivia[]
Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III[]
- If the player wins a random map game:
- The victory message reads as "Victory is Yours!" ("You are Victorious!" in Retold)
- The screen freezes and pressing F10 will give the player the option to view post game or quit (which actually directs the player back to the main menu)
- Once the screen freezes: hovering the mouse over to the food section will display the number of food gatherers twice their actual number.
- If the player wins a campaign scenario:
- The victory message reads as "You are Victorious!"
- The screen does not freeze and fades slowly to black (including the victory text)
- As the screen fades to black, pressing F10 will still give the player the same options as if pressed in the middle of the game (the "Save" option is disabled, however)
- After the screen fades completely to black, the player will be given the option to proceed to the next campaign scenario or go to the campaign menu
- The victory message in campaigns is done via triggers. This is the reason why the victory message is re-phrased as opposed to the Random Map one.
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