Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, popularly abbreviated RoR, is a historical Real-time strategy computer game that was released in 1998 as an expansion to the original Age of Empires. It is based on the rise of the Roman Empire, and adds the Roman Empire, as well as three other playable civilizations to Age of Empires. Four new technologies have been added which make quite a change of gameplay strategy. Two other new features are five new units and the ability to queue unit production.
New Features
There are a few noteworthy changes that were made to the gameplay, most notably the addition of the Roman architectural style. Other changes included adding larger maps and tweaking the interface; such as production queuing, using the period key to cycle through idle villagers, balancing damage done by catapults and increasing the population limit.
Civilizations
- Carthaginian - Bonuses in naval warfare and war elephant units
- Macedonian - bonuses in priests and missile resistance
- Palmyran - bonuses in economy and trade
- Roman - bonuses in infantry and construction
Wonder
The Roman architectural style of the wonder is the Amphitheatre, which is probably based on the Coliseum of Rome.
Units
- Armored Elephant - and upgrade of the war elephant with blast damage effect
- Camel Rider - a new unit which is effective against cavalry
- Scythed Chariot - an upgrade of the war chariot which damages adjacent units
- Fire Galley - a new ship unit which spews fire to nearby units
- Slinger - a new infantry unit that is effective against archers
Technologies
- Logistics - reduces the population cost of all units created at the barracks by half
- Martydom - sacrifice priests to instantly convert enemy units
- Medicine - Increases priests healing rate
- Tower Shield - increases resistance to missiles
Reception
The expansion was criticized by some fans as the new features were minimal, but on the whole it was well accepted. The most praised features were Rise of Rome's unit queue feature, and the improved all around gameplay and balance. Review website Gameworldnetwork gave the game a score of 93%, and commented that it seemed to be a whole new game.
To celebrate its release, several tournaments were held at Age of Empires Heaven, inviting players from around the world to test their skills in this new game.