Like many other
real-time strategy games,
Age of Mythology is based on defeating enemy units and towns, building your own units and towns, and training villagers and fighters. In this way, players are able to defeat and conquer rival towns and civilizations. Players advance their tribe through four "Ages": starting in the
Archaic Age, the player may upgrade to the
Classical Age, the
Heroic Age, and finally, the Mythic Age. Each upgrade to a higher Age unlocks new units and technologies for the player, which strengthens their settlement. However, upgrading requires a sum of resources to be paid and a certain prerequisite building to be constructed. There are three playable cultures in
Age of Mythology: the Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse. Each culture has three "major gods"—important deities such as
Zeus,
Ra, or
Odin. The player chooses their major god before the game begins. Every time a player advances to the next age, a "minor god" is selected. Minor gods are slightly less significant historically than their major counterparts. Some minor gods include
Bast and
Aphrodite. All gods grant the player unique technologies, myth units, and a unique "god power"—A one-time special ability that can either damage an opponent, or benefit the player that uses it. There are four major resources in
Age of Mythology:
food,
wood,
gold, and
favor; unlike previous games by Ensemble Studios, this game does not include the
stone resource. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things. Civilian units—namely, the Greek
villagers, the Norse
gatherers and
dwarfs, the Egyptian
laborers, and
fishing boats—are used to gather resources.
Hunting animals, gathering berries,
harvesting livestock,
farming, and
fishing are all methods by which food can be gathered. Wood is gathered only by chopping down trees, and gold is gathered from either gold mines or from
trade. Players can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Favor is acquired in different ways by different cultures: Greek players gain it by having villagers pray at
temples; Egyptian players earn it by building
monuments; and Norse players receive it by fighting/hunting animals or by possessing heroes. Resources can be exchanged at a player's
market, with the exception of favor.
Units Every unit in the game takes up between one and five "population slots". The
rock-paper-scissors model governs most units in battle. For example, infantry does additional damage to cavalry, cavalry does additional damage to archers, and archers do additional damage to infantry. The same rock-paper-scissors formation exists in the three different types of naval units—arrow ships, siege ships, and hammer ships. Siege units are generally exempt from the rock-paper-scissors model but are instead able to destroy
buildings easily while being vulnerable to cavalry attacks. Heroes are extremely effective against myth units, which in turn do large amounts of damage against human units. Heroes are also able to collect
relics, which grant the player additional economic or military bonuses when deposited in a player's temple. Most units can be upgraded, making them better at certain tasks.
Buildings Buildings in
Age of Mythology can generally be split into three categories:
economic,
military, and defensive. The most important economic building is the Town Center, which is similar to the building of the same name in the
Age of Empires series games. Most civilian units are trained at the Town Center, as are some improvements. Most importantly, players advance Age via the building. The Town Center provides 15 population slots, and building additional houses will earn the player 10 additional slots per house. In the Heroic Age, players may claim settlements (unclaimed Town Centres) for additional population slots. In some cases owning all town centres will trigger a countdown to victory. Other economic buildings include the
farm and
market. Buildings are able to research improvements, as well as provide resources for the player. In addition to standard unit placement facilities, the editor allows units to be overlapped, and it facilitates for large mountains, and steep terrain. Triggers, a popular aspect of scenario design in
Age of Empires II, are also present in
Age of Mythology's editor, as well as
cinematics and other
special effects.
Campaign Unlike the campaign modes in
Age of Empires and
Age of Empires II,
Age of Mythology only has one central
campaign,
Fall of the Trident. The campaign is significantly longer than campaigns in previous games, with a total of 32 scenarios.
Multiplayer Age of Mythology included unlimited free multiplayer accounts on ESO. , it is no longer possible to create new accounts but access to already created ones is still possible. Similar in function to
Blizzard Entertainment's
Battle.net, ESO allows players to play matches, as well as chat with other players. In multiplayer games, there are seven different game types available, all of which are provided as standard with the game:
Supremacy—the standard game mode—includes randomly generated map and all gameplay aspects;
Conquest is similar to Supremacy, but victory is only possible by defeating all other players; in
Deathmatch players begin the game with high resources, but the game is otherwise the same as Supremacy; in
Lightning, the gameplay is identical to Supremacy, but the game plays at twice the normal speed; in
Nomad mode, players start with one civilian unit, and no Town Center, and must build up on a settlement; the goal of
King of the Hill is to control a monument in the center of the map for a set period of time; and in
Sudden Death, a player loses if their Town Center is destroyed, and they fail to rebuild it within a set period of time. Multiplayer
tournaments and
LAN parties are popular throughout the world, with many players visiting computer
gaming lounges to participate. ==Campaign synopsis==