About three years ago when the game market was about to become over saturated with real-time strategy titles, Microsoft released Age of Empires, which put a different spin on the popular genre. Instead of going far into the future of a war ravaged earth, or even off to a fantasy world, Age of Empires was set in the distant past and went on to become a highly acclaimed game.

An add-on for the original title and a sequel later, we are now up to the latest addition to the series, the expansion for the sequel called Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. This new title, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, continues the fine tradition and like each update to the Age of Empires name, it has brought new races and new buildings to the game and further enhancements to the individual tech trees of each race. With this expansion, the engine is also enhanced to fix some of the issues that gamers previously had with Age of Empires II.

The addition of new powers is always one of the more questionable enhancements as it can seriously affect the original title's balance. But Ensemble Studios, the developers of the series, already mastered the art of successfully adding a new empire with the Rise of Rome expansion for the original title. After playing all the races in both Age of Empires and Age of Kings it was quite easy to develop a favorite that has certain advantages over the others, like certain military units or the ability to mine gold faster, as the Egyptians could in the first title. In Age of Empires II for example, the Byzantines required less food and gold to get to the final era of the game, the Imperial Age were you gain access to more powerful units and technology. Therefore, the Byzantines had a huge advantage by needing fewer resources and aiding a quicker progression through the ages. Of course, the gameplay style of individual players varies but it is clear to see that some powers have a serious advantage over others.