Warbirth – Age of Empires

WARBIRTH: Age of Empires may be a game mod, but it does so much more: it delves into the profound impacts of economic development and the harsh realities of warfare and conflict in Antiquity – the cost we pay for imperial expansion.

Just as your empire thrives on-screen on prosperity and resilience through your choices, real-world communities however face the consequences of conflict, poverty, and instability – forces which often destroy communities and shatter nations and the semblance of worthwhile human existence which they provide. Too often these issues are swept under the rug, especially in this age of social media and sociocultural communalism.

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In the meantime, please visit our official wiki[warbirth.shoutwiki.com] for more info.
DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS MOD EXCEPT FROM steamcommunity.com, ModDb, beelimsolutions.wixsite.com OR patreon.com !

A fork of Hong Quan Cand’s Age of Empires mod, this chapter – the very first in the Warbirth series of mods – delivers an unparalleled ancient world experience! With a 1,000 pop cap, 24 diverse factions, and 17 unique historical wonders (including Trajan’s Market and the Library of Alexandria) spanning 241 BC to 500 AD, players can orchestrate monumental battles and build empires steeped in authentic history.

Age of Empires can be said to be a historical interlude between New World Empires: Alexander and New World Empires: Swords of the Prophets: in other words, a transition from the age of Antiquity into the Middle Ages, covering the centuries after Kings & Conquerors: The Hellenistic Era with a far larger geographic reach than Kings & Conquerors or Alexander.

In this mod, You will not just raise the usual Chinese, Persian or Hellenistic armies as pop culture reflects them, you can also upgrade them later into their successors as they would have appeared in Late Antiquity/the Dark Ages too. Prepare to prosecute war with Floating Fortresses, Siege Towers, Cataphract Elephants or Roman legions or their famous cavalry, the Excubitores and Bucellari units of the early Byzantine period … or seek a more peaceful path to empire by building the great monuments of antiquity like the Roman Colosseum, Arg-e-Bam, the Temple of Olympus or Sigiriya!

Information warfare and unit tiers
Warbirth: Age of Empires covers a period as the Eurasian world was transiting from semi-feudal communities defended by militia levies to one of empires guided by professional governments and the first instances of standing army formations. As such, there is a tier system for units, with units being trained from Peasant Hovels not being as good as those you’d get from the vanilla Barracks or Corral… or the more elite fighters that can be obtained from Forts or Warrior Halls. Rush tactics may be good, but ultimately learning to boom or secure a strong economy will aid your progress and multiply your opportunities to seize victory, even from the jaws of defeat.

Mercenaries and slavery
Wealth is now a very important resources, probably as important as it was with Age of Chariots and Rise of the Ancients. Mercenaries play a vital role in your military forces. Often, you will discover that mercenaries, while expensive, can often provide superior advantages over what you have in your Corrals or Barracks – so make sure your taxation and trade is maxed out, so you can purchase the mercenary units you’re going to use to defeat your opponents.

Note, however, too, that there is a new mechanic – slavery. Citizen units – Peons – now have a Wealth cost, but are created much, much faster, so that means that those with Wealth can turbocharge their economies at ease, while others that do not have access to both food and Wealth are at a gross disadvantage.

Egypt can be a very powerful faction, while others like China and the Xiongnu may see a nerf to their powers.

Pop caps: Massive but costly armies
The maximum size of armies is now 1,000 : but penalties on Military research demographics remain.

[WARNING] We strongly urge using max pop caps with games of 5 players or more only on high quality machines – anything that does not have the best specs for a gaming desktop PC should not use max settings for players or pop caps for this mod.

While we take pains to ensure a smooth player experience, we nevertherless advise players to take note of all the following data whenever they start a new game:

• Factions chosen
• Map size
• Presence of snow/water
• (if a crash occurs) what you were doing and what age you were in when it happened.
• Your device’s specs.

These are issues that are being looked at and which should be corrected in future. For further information, please consult our wiki FAQ page[kc4-temujin.webnode.page].

In the meantime we advise strongly against the use of random players. For best results, you should take down notes on which games had snow or navigable ocean, and what factions were used. Why not use a virtual dice thrower to select the factions for you instead?

DISCLAIMER:

(1) This mod shall NOT be freely used in mod compilations, or its assets altered or redistributed by none other than Beelim Solutions or Valve Corporation unless permission to do so has been expressly granted by any of these three parties.
(2) Distribution of this mod outside of Steam Workshop shall be held to be a violation of copyright, and will be dealt with accordingly.