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A world class expansion pack for a world class game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 78 / 82
Date: April 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Like many who have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Thrones and Patriots, I played a social-life crippling amount of Rise of Nations when it debuted in early 2003. That's why when my co-junkie CIO barged into my office yesterday with this expansion pack I was both elated and petrified at the potential darkening of my social life that might occur if this follow-on was half as interesting as press has made it out to be.

I went home, and savagely thrust the CD into my eager drive, loading....anticipatory sweat began to bead on my backhair....loading...

Fast forward 20 minutes, and if you asked me "how is it", I wouldn't answer you. That would be my answer. Now, sitting here in my office, I'm jones'ing to run home and play again...the crackling of US Marine Machine Gun fire, screaming Persian Elephants....

So much has changed, yet thankfully, for RON lovers, the gameplay is still comfortably familiar. There are however some notable differences in this game.

First off, there are 6 new nations, 20 new unit types, and 4 new maps. But so far, the biggest difference is the ability to choose a government type...

At the Classical Age you establish a Senate and choose a government. Your choices are: Despotism, Socialism, Capitalism, Monarchy, Republic, and Democracy. Your Government gives your nation military and non-military bonuses, and each government type allows you to create a Patriot. The Patriot is a special unit that acts as your leader. They are produced from the Senate and give certain bonuses to units and buildings within a proximate radius of their location. What's interesting is that each of the six governments produce a Patriot unique to their type.

So in choosing government type (which give you global bonuses), you also need to balance that governments value against the unique set of Patriot bonuses. As if there weren't enough choices in Rise of Nations to begin with. But really, as I expressed in my review of RON, that's what I love so much about this game. I know of no "one way to win". Much like chess, there are counters to every efficacious strategy and tactic, "rushing", "turtleing (holing up defensively)", "age leaping"...every game must be played dynamically against your partners strategy. A "thinking mans RTS".

Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I haven't been this excited to game since I was learning Rise of Nations a little over a year ago. If you love RTS's like Civilization, you'll should pick up this habit. If you're already addicted to RON, well, your next fix is on the shelf...

I hope this was helpful.

Enjoy.

jumping into RoN with the expansion pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 24
Date: June 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm a veteran off-line RTS player, but I never got around to trying Rise of Nations before now. So I bought the original and the expansion pack, and am reviewing them together.

First thing, the install: I had to clear some space on my applications drive -- adding the two games took well more than a gig (most of my drive is formatted for linux). I'm running under Win98. But the install was flawless, and the program seems very stable. I've only managed to lock it up once in many hours of gameplay.

Learning the game: There is a very handy "quick start" tutorial for people with previous RTS experience. The main difference with RoN from most games is the multitude of resources required. This is a big improvement over the traditional "food, wood, and gold". You start out needing food, wood, and wealth, but quickly you add requirements for metal and knowledge. Later you need oil.

The other big resource is territory. The "national borders" concept is brilliant, because it makes territory a valuable resource. Normally a player can only expand territory by building new cities and forts on the edge of their existing territory. Sitting back and building a big tech base and army will not work, nor will a simple rushing strategy. The game demands balance.

Playing the game: The game is very good at eliminating micromanagement of the citizens. However, there is still a fair amount of micromanagement of the soldiers to do. The game follows the usual pattern of requiring a mix of units (cavalry is good against archers, who are good against infantry, who are good against cavalry, etc.). Since these are supposed to be strategy games, it would be nice to be able to build a well-balanced army and leave it alone to fight optimally, but as usual the units all attack whoever is closest. This can lead to a massacre unless you do some intense battle micromanagement.

Thrones and Patriots adds a great "library tech control bar" which allows you to see at a glance your main technical status. This is a big improvement over RoN. However, you still need to shift focus from one building to the next to upgrade your unit and building technologies.

Thrones and Patriots also adds the "Patriot" general (not a big deal) and some new cultures (a little more varied in powers than the original set). But the big change is the addition of four new "Conquer The World" scenarios.

The original "Conquer The World" is obviously based on the board game Risk, and is a unique melding of board game strategy with computer gameplay. It also makes for a nearly infinitely replayable campaign. But there is no plot element.

The new scenarios use the same Risk-style play (position armies to contest territories) but add historical scenarios, such as Alexander The Great's conquest of Persia. The technology is limited to the time of the scenario.

All in all, a very fun solo game. I recommend newcomers buy and install both the original game and the expansion pack, and jump right in with playing "Thrones and Patriots".

WoW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 21
Date: July 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a great expansion pack. I liked very much the original RoN but there were some problems with it:
1) After some time it sort of became repetitive--either quick tactical battles or the usual R&D for an hour and then attack with full force.
2) The micro-management was, to put it mildly, a bit too detailed--especially when you had to gather resources, build an army, do research, keep upgrading everything, and possibly have to attack (or fend off one) at the same time.
3) The game was also out of historical context with the only possibility being the solo Conquer the World campaign. As I was playing, I kept thinking (which is apparently quite similar to what the developers at Microsoft were thinking)--what if the game had been infused with more history. What would the great generals do in certain situations? And then, what if resources were limited in certain campaigns--what if you actually had to play at the historical odds? Would be fun, no?
You bet. This expansion pack, I think, corrects all of the above weaknesses. There are new units, and new nations--yeah, yeah, variety is good but I think the four new campaigns are the real gems in the crown. It makes playing the real-time part of the game so much more fun and you actually have to think as quite often the standard R&D for an hour and then full attack is either not avaible or simply would not work. And the best part for me--all four campaigns are historically based. Believe it or not--you can get a pretty good overview of military history by playing this game. There is a strategic advisor at the turn-based part who gives bits of advice that nicely immerse you in the politics of the given era. And at the beginning of every historical scenario there is a short summary of what actually happened when the opposing sides faced off.
So for those of you who liked RoN and for some obscure reason have not yet purchased this expansion--shame on you! For everyone else--if you buy one RTS game or if you are remotely interested in military history/strategy--buy the original RoN and this expansion pack!

So glad they made a great expansion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: May 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I really loved Rise of Nations but I wanted more from the Conquer the World Single player. Thrones and Patriots delivers on this. Now the world map is playable in cool campaigns. What's nice is that I've actually learned some interesting things about Napoleans campaign (that's what I'm playing now) and I'm sure it is the same for the other campaigns as well.

The new nations are great. They did some great art for the new civs like making native american archers, riders and cities made with tipis. It's also cool to play as the Americans and use the new capital building, it looks like the US capital. All the others are represented by cool new buildings and they allow for some cool new gameplay.

To sum it up Thrones and Patriots does what a good Ex-pack should, it really expands the scope of play and content of an already cool game. It's also getting great reviews on all the game sites, which I checked before buying. Oh yeah, be sure to run the credits, they made a cool new song for this Ex-pack, it's really funny, but I still like the RON credits song the best.

Great package, yet it would be nice if it had more

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: May 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am a big fan of Rise of the Nations! I think it combines the best things of Civilization series and the Starcraft series... making me addicted to this darn game.
The expansion pack is great! It comes with great features that make the game more interesting:
1) More units, not puny ones, these new units really get the job done!
2) New civilizations... now you can represent even more countries. Even the Lakotas are there (who in the hell are the lakotas), never heard of them before in any other strategy game.
3) Additional campaings. Sometimes after playing a while, you get bored because you do the same campaings over and over again. With the new scenarios, be prepared to spend some time on the refreshed game.
4) Architecture perks, some new wonders of the world are added. There are only three of them.
By now, you might think that I am crazy for this expansion pack, I am. But I do also realize that there are setbacks. I think that for about 30 dollars, Microsoft could have done a better job. With the thousand programmers that Microsoft company has. Adding 20 units, 3 wonders, some new campaigns seems puny to me and the worst part is that it costs the same as the game itself (even when it involved less time and effort to make the expansion pack). So that is why I give this game a 4 star. Good, but not perfect. Maybe if the expansion pack costs $10 bucks, that would be perfect.

Thrones & Patriots proves: Rise of Nations doesn't get.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Thrones & Patriots proves: Rise of Nations doesn't get boring. I never got tired of this game. The game features new campaigns, nations, wonders, and more.

NATIONS
The game features all of the nations from the original, plus the Americans, Dutch, Persians, Lakota, and Iriquois. The Lakota is cool, because all units in friendly territory are virtually invisible to the enemy, making it so hard to be able to attack. The Dutch have armed caravans, merchants, and supply wagons making them useful in a time of war. The Persians feature war elephants (my favorite) such as Gun Mahouts. The second city you build with the Persians will be a capital (even if you build a Forbidden City). Every new nation has cool features that will help you to win even more.

WONDERS
New wonders include the Hanging Gardens (even though historians have no clue how they look), the Red Fort, and the Forbidden City. All of these new wonders are great additions to the game. Even though none of them have the extreme powers of the Terra Cotta Army and Angkor Wat (is that how you spell it?!?!), each provides a great decoration.

CAMPAIGNS
From Alexander the Great to Napoelon, new campaigns provide a more challenging way to win the game. You also must follow what Napoelon or Alexander the Great did, by conquering the world. You also can choose the Old World and New World. These new Campaigns make a more challenging game.

SENATE
Starting in the classical age, citizens can build a Senate. The Senate enables you to choose your government (Democracy, Republic, Despotism, etc.) By choosing a certain type of government, you will get a leader (Democracy-President) that you must protect. Your leaders can act as generals, if you like them to.

Overall, this game is very cool, and a game you can never get bored of.
Overall Rating: 4.7/5
Pros: Wonderful Features, Senate is Cool, Lakota is wonderful, all the nations provide different ways to help you win, new Conquer the World Campaigns are cool, and provide a large challenge. There is not much to complain about; doesn't get boring...
Cons: With the Lakota: you are extremely powerful leading you to most likely winning the game; some nations will never attack you, and if you want to go to a challenge, you must stay at their pace; for some reason, you can help your enemies out by advancing them ages

The bar for RTS games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game has set the bar for all subsequent real-time strategy games. I tried to play Age of Kings a few weeks ago after playing this game a lot, and all i could do was smile :) the habits i had developed from this game couldn't fit there and the gameplay was just a lot better.

The original was good, but the expansion makes it a lot better. The new nation additions are interesting, with the Americans, Indians, Iroquios, Lakota and Dutch. I like the interactions with realtime history and you can use this game as an excuse for history homework :-D The new campaigns are also a lot more interesting than trying to take over the world one step at a time like Risk.

The one thing I wish they had done is made a campaign with World War 2. Other than that, i highly recommend this game.

Lots of new features, not quite enough to satisfy.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The hit of the first Rise of Nations was hard to overcome, but this expansion makes the game even better. The goverments that come into play just add to what type of nation you want to become: Military or Economic. But you will have to choose wiseley in order to win in harder modes of the game.

Overall: Brings new aspects to the game, but lack of choosing grows dull, you can only choose three. * * * * out of 5

The new nations brought into the game are the best features by far, unfournatley, only 6 are new:
Americans (very good, ability to entrench is excellent)
Iriquios (decent, just another nation)
Lakota (decent, just another nation)
Persians (very good, top 5 nations)
Indians (almost exactly like the Persians, very goood)
Dutch (unique units are somewhat inifective, decent)

Overall: Wish there were 1 or 2 more nations to have more playing time in future. * * * * out of five

The wonders are, again, seem to be to few: only 3 more, and at that one of them is just a city, and the other a huge castle. Of course they have huge benefits but I can think of a few "wonders" off the top of my head.

Overall: Highly dissapointed in the quantity of wonders: * * * out of five

The campaigns were defintely needed for this game, just because everything else seems limited (but good). The "New World" campaign is my favorite since you can be about 10 different nations, with different goals in mind. The Napolean and Alexander are roughly the same thing except of for different ages. The Cold War is my second favorite since you have to do many things in order to keep other countries conent with yours.

Overall: Adds to the gameplay but in Alexander and Naploean the senarios are repetitive in late game: * * * * out of five

Dont get me wrong, I love this game and recommend it for anyone, but just way a week or so for the price to go down.

They Keep On Rising

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Rise of Nations was a really fun game, but with the addition of Thrones and Patriots the game has gained a great deal of depth. The biggest change is all the cool single player missions. You can play through the game during the cold war as Russia or the USA. Or try conquering the world as Napolean or Alexander the Great. They also added a bunch of new nations like Native Americans, United States and India. The Indian elephants look so awesome crushing the enemy troops. Also look at all the details in the buildings! Some of them have running water!

If you like strategy games and dug Rise of Nations, then you should definitely pick this one up. I just took over the world and defeated the Russians last night, next will be some Alexander the Great action.

Rise of Nations Thrones and Patriots

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots
I purchased this for my grandson for Christmas. He loved it. I had to fight to get him to turn it off. He is 12. This follows along the same lines as Age of Empires (Age of Kings) Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings

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