Really enhances original game, great RTS!!

I bought Rise of Nations from Microsoft several months ago and while it was a good game, I found my interest in it beginning to lessen. I then heard the Thrones and Patriots expansion was out. I read all the reviews I could and while it sounded good, I didn't have high expectations. I decided to buy anyway and I was very happy after a few hours of use.

This game is a standard RTS game, Real Time Strategy. There are tons of games out based on RTS and I've played a lot of them. I have to say that this is one of the best out there, after you use this expansion pack of course. This expansion pack with the single player scenarios forces you to use different tactics other than build up your base, outproduce the enemy and rush him with massive armies.

The Good:
The conquer the world campaigns are detailed and provide many unique challenges that the original game did not provide. I especially like the various battle scenarios that happen such as ambush or gorilla warfare. These force you to use greatly different tactics in some battles, not just rush, hack and slash tactics common in Real Time Strategy games.

My absolute favorite scenario though is when you start off a battle where you need to convince other computer players on the map to join your side and diplomacy actually matters, be too much of a brute and everyone turns against you. Diplomacy is still not perfect in this game (Is it ever in any game?), but better than most.

I especially like the President unit that greatly reduces micromanagement for healing wounded troops when they are back in your own territory. They will not heal in foreign territory, so my favorite tactic with the president is to use him to rush troops into battle with his forced march command and then have him run back into friendly territory where he can gather the next wave of troops and/or heal the wounded troops coming back from your bonehead attack. Send a general with the troops so you still get the attack bonuses.

This is the best expansion add-on I have ever bought, and I've bought many of them, completely changes the feel of the game.

I found the Computer Artificial Intelligence to be good, if not even above average. They will withdraw when they realize they are being slaughtered(sometimes) or they will cease an attack on one of your cities and draw back to defend their own if you are about to take it. This sucks if you don't have enough troops to take the city AND hold it from their counterattack, but is useful if you want them to stop attacking one of your cities.

But as with any AI, you learn how to use it to your advantage. But playing against multiple computer opponents all against you on a difficult level will challenge even the best player.

The Bad:
Occasional lag of units when the battles are very large.

It can be difficult to click on individual units to save them in the thick of battle. Use control groups to minimize this.

Brian's Game Tips:
Assign your units to control groups. You can even assign them to multiple control groups and this is critical for your little troops survival. Rushing archers into a row of swordsmen is going to result in a lot of dead archers. But assigning them to a control group and letting them fire away from a distance while YOUR swordsmen charge results in the enemy troops going bye bye.

Assign all your production facilities to one group and put their waypoint near the battle front, but far enough back you can organize your new troops. This way you can manage production and battles while your reinforcements get close to the scene automatically.

On the main maps, don't bother attacking a territory with one army when it has a high strength and 2 armies guarding it. You WILL lose unless you get extremely lucky. Take your time and plan out the next territory you will attack so that it gives you an advantage going after the NEXT one.

The Unknown:
I have not tried playing online, but I'm still going through all the conquer the world campaigns that have held my interest for almost a year now(I don't get to play that often).

This is a graphically intensive game, I would expect there is NO WAY you could play this online without a DSL or cable modem connection. Not really a fault of the game, just be realistic that your little phone line won't get you anywhere online.

Summary:
A GREAT addition to a good game. Really adds to the playability of the single player games. Will keep you busy for months unless you have time to play 24/7.

I have not tried online yet, so I can't rate that portion of the game.