August 13, 2005 - I'll admit it at the start; I'm a real-time strategy junkie. Whether it’s Age of Empires, Empire Earth, or simply the original Cossacks, if it's a real-time strategy game, I've probably played it. Thus, you can imagine my excitement when a nice shiny preview build of Microsoft's upcoming Age of Empires III arrived on my desk.

It goes without saying that Ensemble's Age of Empires series are well-known; it is still used as a modern-day reference when comparing real-time strategy games. From its initial announcement and conception, to first images, to this preview build, Age of Empires III is shaping up to be one of the premier titles for the PC at the end of this year, and a legendary evolution in the real-time strategy genre.

Age of Empires III takes the classic real-time strategy formula, throws in a few twists and turns, and a good handful of very innovative gameplay elements. When it ships sometime later this year, AoE III will offer a complete single-player campaign; the preview version offered only a brief insight into what looks to be a lengthy campaign. Offline matches on randomly generated maps, as well as full-online support are also to be provided in the final release. It should be noted that this build did not contain any multiplayer functionality, thus we haven't had an opportunity to explore the different multiplayer modes.

You can choose from one of eight different civilizations, French, English, Spanish, and Russian are the most common. Each civilization has a home city, and the game really focuses around this aspect. You build your colony with a town center, and as you grow and expand this empire; your home city (which you don't see on the gameplay map) grows as well. As you gain experience points through battles, trade routes, or simply advancing through the game, you can "redeem" these experience points in exchange for shipments from your home city. Whether its simply crates of resources that can be quickly gathered and added to your stockpile, units, or even fortifications such as outposts (sent on wagons), this element can really influence the outcome of a game. Some shipments, such as food and other resources, are "unlimited", as in you can redeem them as many times as necessary, while others (especially units), are mostly one-time gifts. Home city shipments are a dynamic, innovative element, and while it may seem to simply add an additional complexity to the game, Ensemble’s made the decision to simplify other elements of the game in exchange..

Resource management is a huge part of the real-time strategy genre, and every development team does it differently. Number of different resources, drop sites, gathering rates, and even management of peasants is a major development decision, and Age of Empires III takes the genre back to its roots. When you look at the evolution of real-time strategy games, Rise of Nations having six or more required elements, and Empire Earth II having even more, it seems to be the trend in newer RTS games to spend a lot of time micromanaging your colony rather than actually planning invasions, building units, the more tactical side of the genre. Age of Empires III has taken a different route; there are only three resources to gather, food, wood, and coin. Furthermore, for coin and food, you can construct buildings that can grow crops and plantations, thus providing a somewhat infinite number of resources (although these buildings are expensive, and gathering rates at these facilities is slow). In addition to the simplified resource model, there are no drop sites, no need to build storage facilities, as the resources are gathered they are instantly added to your stockpile for use. It's a simple yet effective model, and really avoids the hassle of micromanaging peasants.

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