RoN features 18 civilizations in the game, each with their own set of unique units and bonuses.  The bonuses touch on all aspects of play - if you like to concentrate on building a powerful economy, then the Germans a good choice with their production bonuses.  Military types would do well with the Turks and their siege weapon bonuses.  Each civilization has four to seven unique units that become available at different points in time, so no civilization has a unit advantage either early on or late in the game.  One slightly disappointing thing about the civilizations in RoN though, is that the look of the structures and common units is not unique between each civilization.  There are a few different looks based on the origin of the nation that you are playing, but nations which originated in the same geographical region will have identical structures - you won't be able to tell the French from the Germans just by looking at their cities.

A border clash.

Skirmish games of RoN take about the same amount of time to play as Age of Empires games, but they feel like they play faster.  The reason is that progression through the game's eight ages, from ancient times all the way through the near future, happens at a fairly quick pace.  You can go from flinging rocks to launching nukes in a few hours as long as you can hold out against the game's excellent AI.  The game supports a myriad of victory conditions based on eliminating the enemy nations, capturing territory, and building wonders, so there's a lot of variety to the game with the wealth of strategies and diversity of nation bonuses available.

In place of a story-based campaign, RoN gives you a strategic campaign game that you'll actually want to come back and play again and again.  The campaign game features a world map divided into territories akin to the classic board game Risk.  Each civilization begins with a home  territory and an army token.  Play then proceeds in a turn-based fashion in which you can attempt to forge alliances, buy territory from other nations, or to purchase stronger defenses for a territory.  In the strategic game the world advances through the ages together, so each battle puts you on an equal technological footing with your enemy.  You can research technology during a battle to give you an edge over your opponent, but you won't be able to advance through the ages and send tanks against his cavalry.  Moving an army token into an adjacent enemy or neutral territory will initiate a battle and move you to the real-time game to fight.  Alliances come into play at this point as any allied armies in neighboring territories will join the fight, adding another player to the skirmish.  The are several different game types for the real-time battles in addition to the standard wipe your enemy out victory condition.  Some are timed defenses in which you need to hold off assaults by your opponent for a set period of time.  Others require that you capture the enemy's capital within a set time limit.  If you win the real-time battle, you either capture the territory or thwart the enemy's invasion.  If you capture a capital territory, then you eliminate that nation from the game and capture all of their holdings.  The territories are not just empty provinces; they can contain bonus resources that will improve your resource gathering in your battles, or special resource points that give you a new army token to move around the strategic map.  In another idea borrowed from Risk, you can also win bonus cards when capturing territories.  These cards can be played before a battle to gain an advantage of some kind.  The strategic campaign is an absolute blast to play, adding world-conquering fun to your RTS enjoyment.

Multiplayer support allows for games of up to eight players.  Internet games are hosted through Gamespy and feature quick-match options, but lag can be an issue without a broadband connection.  Unfortunately the game's excellent campaign mode can not be played online.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 95%.  Rise of Nations is a well-designed, well-executed paragon of strategy gaming, although mouse-click maniacs may be disappointed that the game requires more thought than the typical RTS.

System Requirements:  Pentium III 500;  128 MB RAM;  16 MB Video RAM; 8x CD-ROM;  800 MB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

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