Age of Empires: Castle Siege

Age of Empires: Castle Siege
Developer(s)	Smoking Gun Interactive
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Studios
Distributor(s)	Windows Store / Windows Phone Store / App Store (iOS)
Series	Age of Empires
Engine	Autodesk
Platform(s)	Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 / Windows Phone / iOS
Release date(s)	September 17, 2014 (Windows)[1] May 20, 2015 (iOS)[2][3]
Genre(s)	MMO tower defense
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Age of Empires: Castle Siege is a free-to-play medieval MMO tower defense game in the form of a Windows app, designed for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone. Released in 2014, the app features micro-transactions to aid in rapid development of a Castle and to improve defensive and attacking capabilities. It was developed by Smoking Gun Interactive and Microsoft Studios, and was formally announced on August 26, 2014. Unlike any preceding Age of Empires game, Castle Siege takes the form of a tower defense game.^[1] Castle Siege was made available on the iOS in 2015.^[3]

Gameplay

In Age of Empires: Castle Siege, the player maintains and develops a castle that produces resources, which can be used to train and upgrade buildings and troops, as well as research new technologies. The trained troops are used to attack other players' castles in order to loot their resources and to earn crowns, the game's scorekeeping mechanism. Upgrading buildings is needed in order to generate resources faster, hold more resources, defend the castle against enemy attacks more efficiently, and unlock new technologies. Researching new technologies grants multifarious advantages to the players, such as additional crowns in case of victory, and reduced resources that can be looted from the player from each attack. Players can also form alliances with each other for various social and strategic functions, such as supplying each other with Relief Forces, which help players to defend against enemy attacks.

Buildings

The castle is built around a keep, surrounded by buildings of various types. Economy buildings produce and store resources, while military buildings are used to train armies. The castle is protected from enemy attacks by fortifications, including walls, towers and various traps. Players can also build decorative constructions that serve no practical purpose. All buildings can be updated to increase their production and to gain additional perks. Updating the keep increases the amount of buildings allowed and makes additional building types available.

Resources

There are three types of resources for construction: food, wood and stone. Gold is an in-game currency that can be used to speed up building processes or to buy other resources. Gold can be purchased with real-life currency. The player's base also produces pennants, used to recruit hero units and special troops.

Troops

The armies consist of four unit types: infantry, archers, cavalry and siege engines. Each civilization also has its own special unit; these are more powerful than the basic units, but also require more resources to recruit. The player can also include up to two hero units in each assault. The heroes are the most powerful units in the game and they all have some special ability. All units can be upgraded to make them more powerful.

Civilizations

At the beginning of the game, the player chooses to represent one of the available civilizations.

Battle

Players use their armies to attack each other's castles. The player has five minutes to break down the defenses and destroy as many buildings as they can. A victory is achieved if the attacker is able to destroy the keep or at least half of the buildings. Resources can be looted by attacking storage buildings while pennants can be looted by attacking research buildings.

References

External links

• Official website