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 8.1 Windows 10 Mobile 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 unlock, upgrade and 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. Sometimes players are provided with some "boost buildings" which can boost the production rate of production buildings or training rate of army camps, such as "medieval fair". One of the "boost buildings" called "festival market" can be bought with gold. However, a player doesn't need to destroy "boost buildings" in order to get stars from a battle.
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 and researching 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. Pennants are sometimes used to research new technologies, too.
Troops
The armies consist of four unit types: infantry, archers, cavalry and siege weapons. 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. But by upgrading, the cost of training will also be increased.
A maximum of two heroes can be taken into combat when attacking (but not defending). Each hero has a unique skill, and all heroes have a very high HP and DPS, so they are the most powerful units in the game. Once the player has built the Hall of Heroes, the player will get the first hero of you civilization for free. Players can unlock and upgrade heroes using pennants in the Hall of Heroes.
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. Resources can be looted by attacking storage buildings or production buildings while pennants can be looted by attacking research buildings. A victory is achieved if the attacker is able to get at least one star. One star will be given to the attacker if the attacker destroy either the keep or at least half of the buildings. Another one will be given if the attacker destroys both the keep and at least half of the buildings. The attacker can get three stars if the attacker destroys everything. The attacker takes away some of the defender's crowns from a successful attack and gives some crowns to the defender if the attack is unsuccessful.
References
- 1 2 Hammad Saleem (17 Sep 2014). "Age of Empire Castle Siege now available for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1". WinBeta. Retrieved 21 Sep 2014.
- ↑ "Microsoft Soft Launches Age of Empires: Castle Siege on iOS". Softpedia. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- 1 2 "Microsoft Soft Launches Age of Empires: Castle Siege on iOS". Microsoft News. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.