"Time changes everyone, and everything. Empires will rise, kingdoms will fall. The grounds of battle became stained with fire and blood. But our thirst for adventure, exploration, discovery and conquest will stand the test of time. Together, we've battled through history. Now, a new age is upon us."
— Announcement trailer
Age of Empires IV is a Real-Time Strategy game, and the fourth installmentnote of the Age of Empires series. It's developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios, and released on October 28, 2021, on Microsoft Windows.
The game is set in The Middle Ages like Age of Empires II, and it borrows several mechanics from that game. Unlike previous games, progress into the next age is achieved by building "Landmarks", akin to the Asian civilizations in Age of Empires III, with every civilization (sans the Abbasid Dynasty) getting up to two age-up options. Siege mechanics have also been expanded significantly: players can construct stone walls that can be manned and assaulted by infantry units. Eight civilizations were available upon launch: the Abbasid Dynasty, the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the English, the French, the Holy Roman Empire, the Mongols and the Rus'.
On October 25th, 2022, the game received an Anniversary update, which added two new civilizations: the Malians and the Ottomans.
On August 23, 2023, an expansion called The Sultans Ascend, focusing on the Middle East region and introducing the Japanese and Byzantines as new civilizations, was announced. This expansion also introduces four new 'variant civilizations' based on the Abbasid Dynasty (Ayyubids), French (Jeanne d'Arc), Holy Roman Empire (Order of the Dragon) and Chinese (Zhu Xi’s Legacy). It was released on November 15, 2023.
The official site is located here
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The game shows examples of:
- Alarm SOS: Scout units will audibly announce any foe they spot, while Town Centers will automatically sound the alarm. The English, meanwhile, gain advanced warnings and defense perks from nearby Town Centers, Outposts, and Keeps. Either way, a secure perimeter and scouting parties become much more important this time around. Otherwise, the only indication of an attack is the series' iconic two-tone bugle that sounds when that enemy's already right on top of you.
- Anachronism Stew: The Ottoman's flag is depicted as being similar to the modern Turkish one, but with a green background and an eight-pointed star. There is a historical basis to this, as the famous red and white flag was only adopted in 1793, with green being common before then, but pre-1793 flags also lacked the star, featuring only a crescent.
- Annoying Arrows: Regular foot archers do very little damage against armored units, rendering them only effective against "trash units" like basic spearmen.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Crossbows deals extra damage to heavy type units like man-at-arms and knights. Gunpowder units gain no extra attack vs heavy units but have high enough attack to make armor practically irrelevant.
- The Holy Roman Empire has a technology that trades their men-at-arms' swords for maces (which are also available in two-handed form if combined with the "two-handed weapons" tech), granting them bonus attack damage against heavy type units.
- Arrows on Fire: The "Incendiary Arrows" tech from the University allows archers to loose these to deal bonus damage against siege engines and buildings.
- Automatic Crossbows: Chu ko nu-wielding crossbowmen return from the second and third games as a unique unit for the Chinese, though the weapon, and the unit itself, is referred to by an alternate name for said weapon, the zhuge nu note . The high rate of fire makes the zhuge nu devastating to many enemy units, but unlike in Age of Empires II is not as effective against armored siege weapons.
- Badass Bureaucrat: The Chinese get the Imperial Official as a unique unit, acknowledging China's legendary historical civil service. On top of being able to supervise buildings to speed up resource gathering and unit production, the Chinese also have a unique taxation mechanic that gives them gold for every unit produced or resource delivery made; this gold is deposited in their buildings until an Imperial Official comes to collect it.
- Base on Wheels: The Mongols are able to pack their buildings in order to move them elsewhere, fitting their nomadic nature.
- BFS: The Holy Roman Empire gets the zweihänder-wielding Landsknecht as a unique light infantry unit, returning from III, where they are one of the German faction's unique units. They have no base armor and, just like the spearmen, are vulnerable to foot archers, but their zweihänder not only deals a lot of damage per attack, it also hits multiple enemies within a small area-of-effect.
- Bows Versus Crossbows: The game features foot archers with regular bows (or in the case of the English, longbows) alongside crossbowmen, and this trope plays out in how each of these two types of archers have strengths and weaknesses.
- Regular foot archers are treated as the ranged "trash unit"note and are a direct counter to the infantry trash unit, the spearman, as these are easily dispatched with a volley of arrows that are quickly nocked and loosed thanks to archers dealing bonus damage against them. They are weak against the cavalry trash unit, the horseman, who not only have the health to soak up some arrows and the speed to close into melee, which all archers do poorly in, they also explicitly deal bonus damage against archers. They are also ineffective against heavy infantry and heavy cavalry, whose armor they'll struggle to penetrate and do damage against.
- Regular crossbowmen are more expensive to produce and don't have the regular bow's rate of fire, but their bolts explicitly deal bonus damage against any units that tagged as "heavy" (eg. Men-at-Arms, knights and lancers, war elephants), all of which are typically heavily armored.
- Can't Catch Up: "Trash units" such as basic foot archers and spearmen, while useful as situational counters, struggle towards the late-game due to their lack of sufficient armor or weak attacks.
- Color-Coded Armies: As is series tradition, defaulting on 1 vs. 1 maps in single-player as Blue (player) vs. Red (AI). This time, every army gets its own unique flag if a unit is selected, beyond a mere color change, including storyline factions like the Saxon Rebels in the Norman campaign.
- Continuity Nod:
- The announcement trailer displays imagery associated with each of the previous games, such as a gladiator battle, the coronation of Julius Caesar, a castle being sieged, a Conquistador battling in the middle of a forest (possibly the Amazons), a Revolutionary, a naval battle involving a Galley and Native ships, a Native tribe, a Conquistador standing at the top of a conquered empire, a Native army on the offense, a troop of Musketeer soldiers opening fire, and finally Ieyasu Tokugawa in the middle of a siege.
- In-game, the English faction has a number of nods to Age of Empires III by the Imperial Age, whether it’s the use of that game’s theme, or units having many of the same Chaucerian and Early Modern English lines. This also extends to the Ottomans, be it in their Vizier Points and Imperial Council being reminiscent of the Home City shipment system, or their late-game Janissaries looking almost straight out from III.
- To a certain extent, the achievement for completing the tutorial, "A New Age Is Upon Us", is the last line spoken by the announcement trailer for this game. Another line from the trailer ("Empires Will Rise"note , "Kingdoms Will Fall"note ) also gets achievements.
- Damage Is Fire: Unlike the previous games in the series where the fires on damaged buildings are purely aesthetic, Age Of Empires IV uses a system similar to Cossacks: European Wars and Starcraft, where buildings damaged past a certain point will be marked with a flame icon and take slow, continuous damage from their fires until they are repaired by villagers or burn down completely. This time it's also more justified (infantry and cavalry visibly throw torches to damage buildings) and the building becomes visibly damaged before catching completely on fire.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Compared to earlier entries in the series, each civilization has distinct aesthetics, voice lines, building architecture and perks. While there are still some generic units shared by most factions, including those within the same broad cultural group like the English and Holy Roman Empire, no one looks exactly the same.
- Edutainment Game: Unlike the narrative campaigns of previous instalments, the campaigns of Age of Empires IV play out more like interactive documentaries explaining the context for each scenario, and even narrating the historical events as they play out in game.
- The game's YouTube channel also produces "Hands on History," a series of mini-documentaries explaining various concepts, units, arms and armour relevant to the period. These can additionally be unlocked and viewed from within the game by completing campaign missions.
- Enemy Exchange Program: Differentiating from previous Age of Empires games, instead of targeting a single unit to convert to their side, the Monk requires a relic to activate an ability that converts an entire army within their area of effect.
- Eternal English: Averted. Each faction not only speaks their own language, but said language also evolves as they age up. England, in particular, can transition from Old English to Early Modern English over the course of a single match, while the Chinese can shift from the Tang Dynasty form of their tongue to the more recognizable Ming-era strain of Mandarin.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Certain campaign levels, such as the 1382 Siege of Moscow, are eventually revealed to be unwinnable by design, reflecting the historical events being depicted. Completing your objectives in those situations would result in a "Mission Complete" rather than the usual "Victory" screen.
- Fashions Never Change: Averted. As each civilization ages up, not only do the architecture and appearances of military units evolve. So do the outfits worn by non-military ones, reflecting the passage of time. Holy Roman Empire villagers, for instance, gradually transition into wearing Renaissance-era merchant wear, while by the late game, their Chinese counterparts start wearing conical peasant hats and Ming-era attire.
- Gender Is No Object: The game makes no meaningful mechanical distinction between male and female villagers, scouts, or mangudai.
- Hero Unit: The various kings, generals, and other leaders play this role and get special bonuses, which is why the campaigns tend to focus on battles for which they were personally present.
- Horse Archer: Unlike in the previous games, there are no generic cavalry archer units; all ranged cavalry are unique and only available to a few civilisations, namely the Mongols, Rus, Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, and Japanese.
- Hunter of Their Own Kind: Springalds and Culverins are siege weapons that deal bonus damage against all siege weapons, including themselves and each other.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The French arbalétrier carries a pavise on his back that he can, on command, deploy in front of him to boost their defense against ranged attacks for a short while. He will prematurely lose the defensive buff if he moves too far away from the deployed pavise.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
- The Mongols are the only faction that can pack up and move most of their buildings, allowing them to be as mobile as their armies. The Mongols also start every game at the population cap of 200 and so do not need to build houses to increase it, and their villagers cannot mine stone; the Ovoo unique building instead generates stone over time. Conversely, since they cannot build defensive buildings, they also don't normally use stone, but rather spend it on unique unit production boosts and improved versions of upgrades.
- The Rus are notable for lacking stone fortifications and walls of any kind. They compensate for this by having unique upgrades that strengthen their wooden structures.
- The Jeanne d'Arc variant civilization (of France) may well be one of the most mechanically unusual Age of Empires factions to date. Rather than teching up through Wonders or Age upgrades as per series tradition, Jeanne acts like a Hero Unit who gradually gains Experience Points and acquires upgrades. Starting the game as a simple villager who gathers resources and constructs buildings (reflecting her origin as a simple peasant girl), Jeanne gradually grows into a capable foot archer or a swordswoman, then she acquires a horse and armour. By the fourth tier she'll have completed her transition into a heroine of France, and become a formidable handgun-toting warrior accompanied by a retinue of elite riders or infantry champions who fight harder around Jeanne, buffing and healing the forces around her and making them a force to be reckoned with. A more high-risk, high-reward take on France that takes cues from a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game.
- More Dakka:
- The ribauldequin, also known as the "organ gun" from Age of Empires III, is a multi-barreled cannon that can wreak havoc on infantry and siege units.
- The Chinese "nest of bees" is a medieval rocket launcher that fires multiple gunpowder-tipped arrows at hapless foes, and is capable of taking out masses of troops. Moreover, Chinese Town Centers, Keeps, and Outposts have handgunners for defense by default.
- The Musketeer: The Rus' strelzy, which serves as their unique replacement for the generic hand cannoneer, carries both a musket for ranged combat, and a poleaxe for both melee attacks, and as a rest for their musket. A strelzy resting their musket on their axe is granted improved reload speeds provided that they remain in one place.
- Savage Setpiece: Boars won't attack villagers unless being attacked, and they are extremely strong and very difficult to hunt in the early ages. However, they give out a lot of food, as much as 8 Berry Bushes.
- Scenery Porn: The documentary footage is very impressively shot on location with ghostly armies superimposed upon the landscape. The in-game graphics are beautiful, too, with things like rolling hills and fields instead of featureless plains.
- Shout-Out:
- The achievement for winning in the arena without losing more than 10 units in "The Combat of the Thirty" is "Du Bois Are Back In Town".
- The achievement for a Wonder victory obtained without building walls is "Wonderstruck".
- The achievement for destroying 100 enemy buildings using elephants as the Delhi Sultanate is called 'Herd You Like Elephants".
- Siege Engines: As with Age of Empires II there are mangonels and trebuchets, but like in Age of Empires III there are also a broader assortment of cannons like bombards or culverins. Unlike in previous games these are the only weapons that can destroy stone walls.
- Signature Style: Relic Entertainment incorporates some touches from its other titles, notably Company of Heroes, into the Age of Empires formula. Terrain plays a larger role in gameplay, whether it's height, visibility, or concealed ambush spots such as bushes and overgrown fields. Meanwhile, certain units can bolster their damage or defense depending on what stance and abilities they have, such as spearmen being able to "brace spears" while standing guard, or units atop stone walls having enhanced range on ranged attacks and reduced damage from ranged attacks against them.
- Skill Gate Characters: The English are designed to be this. They lack any complex civ-specific mechanical gimmicks, and are a defensive faction with cheap farms, enhanced fortifications and villagers capable of using bows, each of which help to cover for beginner mistakes pretty well.
- Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: The Sacred Site is a neutral, unbuildable structure that can be captured by religious units, provides its owner with a trickle of gold, and can end the game in victory for a team that manages to control all Sacred Sites in the map for 10 minutes.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- Via the game's hard counter system; spearmen deal extra damage to cavalry, horsemen deal extra damage to foot-archers and foot-archers deal extra damage to spearmen.
- On the water: arrow ships are countered by springald ships with their higher armor and damage, which are countered by demolition ships who are fast enough to get past the springald ship's slower attack rate, and are in turn countered by arrow ships which are cheaper, faster and with a high rate of fire.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Not only does the music for each faction seamlessly shift with each age up, but it also changes depending on how a battle plays out. Losing against an enemy results in a grim, ominous tone, whereas victory elicits a triumphant version of your faction's leitmotif.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: The Delhi Sultanate, the Ottomans, and the Abbasid Dynasty are Muslims, and as such cannot collect any food from boars (they make up for this with their mills turning nearby fruit trees into orchards, which provide more food in total before depleting).
- War Elephants: Among the Delhi Sultanate's backbone in the Castle Age are the war elephants (a heavy cavalry unit that is devastating towards buildings and can attack stone walls) and tower elephants (unlike in the other Age of Empires games, the unit remains mobile while shooting).
- Warrior Monk: The Warrior Monks are the Rus's unique unit that replaces the Monk. Like the Monk, they can heal injured units, but they can also fight like any military unit. In addition, their attacks grant a buff to nearby allies that gives them an edge in combat, and they ride atop horses that make them much more mobile than other religious units.
- You Are the Translated Foreign Word: The French have a unique replacement for the generic crossbowman called the arbalétrier, which is basically the French word for crossbowman.
