[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aoe_cover_2218.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[SpeakingSimlish Roggan?]] [[RunningGag Wololo!!!]]]]

The first game of the ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' series, simply called ''Age of Empires'', was released in 1997. It offered 12 ancient civilizations (Assyria, Babylonia, Choson, Egypt, Greece, Hittites, Minoa, Persia, Phoenicia, Shang, Sumer and Yamato) and was set between the Stone and Iron Ages. The campaigns were set in AncientEgypt, UsefulNotes/AncientGreece, [[BibleTimes Babylon]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Yamato]].

An expansion pack, ''Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome'', added the Roman Empire and 4 related civilizations (Rome, Carthage, Palmyra and Macedonia). The campaigns were set in AncientRome, where the player, depending on the campaign, will side with Rome itself or with their enemies.

At E3 2017, the ''Definitive Edition'' was announced, an UpdatedRerelease that was released on February 20, 2018. The game received a drastic art style change as well as a reworking of some of its campaigns. In 2023, the game would receive another remake, this time in the form of an ExpansionPack for ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII''[='=]s Definitive Edition named ''Return of Rome''. This version of the game ports the original game to the ''[=AoEII=] Definitive Edition'' engine, adds three new campaigns (Sargon of Akkad, Pyrrhus of Epirus, and Trajan), and a new civilization for multiplayer (the Lac Viet) alongside balance adjustments.
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!! ''Age of Empires I'' (and its expansion) features examples of:
* AdaptationalNameChange: Both units from the "photon man" and "e=mc2 trooper" cheat codes are called "Nuke Trooper" in the original game. In the ''Definitive Edition'', the "photon man" cheat unit is renamed "Laser Trooper" to differentiate it from the other Nuke Trooper.
* AggressivePlayIncentive: The third mission of the trial "Rise of the Hittites" campaign has just one patch of gold ore -- across an ocean and solidly in enemy territory. The only way to collect some before it's all gone is to move quickly, ignoring fortifications and non-critical technological advancement in favor of aggressively disabling your immediate neighbor (without time for a thorough cleanup) and launching the first ships you can build to establish a foothold.
* AnimationBump: It's minor, but units introduced in the ''Rise of Rome'' expansion have smoother animations than units from the base game.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: There's a 50-unit cap which isn't affected by converting enemy units. Having such a low unit count means the highest tier units (Legions, Cataphracts, Centurions) move out of AwesomeYetImpractical territory, meaning that such units need to be as good as possible in spite of their cost. [[SpitefulAI On the other hand]], the AI can and will fill the map with Catapults and Ballista Towers to compensate for the strict population limit by the time you have access to those high-tier units. If you didn't have anything that can outrange those towers (most civs in this game don't) you should rush early-game or might as well restart.
* ArrowsOnFire: Alchemy, which gives a damage bonus to all ranged attacks (including the fire ships) except for the slingers and changes the relevant projectile sprites to burning equivalents.
* ArtificialBrilliance: AI ranged units will try to move away from melee enemies before resuming the attack. Not much use for a catapult trying to run from a horseman, but an archer can and will kite your infantry, and unless you have an opposing archer to DrawAggro and make him stop, just one lowly bowman can get a whole squad of your axemen killed. It reinforces the TacticalRockPaperScissors, making cavalry (even the lowly Scout) that much more important overall.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** One of the greatest threats your army will face is your own catapults; since they avert FriendlyFireproof, a badly-aimed rock will kill your men just as dead as the enemy, and the damn things will launch at anything hostile that they see. Some players even forgo them entirely in favor of ballistas, which lack the splash damage but still deal considerable damage and don't kill your own units.
** The units' pathfinding AI has a lot of problems. They can even kill themselves because they chose to go through the worst path possible.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. The civilizations are designed to fight the same way their historical counterparts did. The Egyptians, for example, are good at farming and have powerful chariots and elephants, but no access to decent siege weapons and infantry. The campaigns follow historical events closely, and there's a decent amount of history which can be learned from the games. Being an RTS game, it doesn't strive to emulate the actual scenarios perfectly, however.
* ArtStyleClash: The ''Definitive Edition'', which came out two decades after the original game, gives the game a graphical overhaul which notably changes the DigitizedSprites to actual 3D models. However, cheat units still use their old graphics from the original game, giving them an "out of place" look.
* AwesomeYetImpractical:
** In ''Rise of Rome'', sacrificing priests with Martyrdom, now called Sacrifice in the Definitive Edition to instantly convert enemy units. The strict population limit is what makes it very impractical. Add an expensive price tag of 600 gold to another already gold heavy priest. It's far more practical to use regular conversions then just to have them killed.
** '''Catapults.''' People just simply avoid them because they can do more harm to you rather than the enemy. Thanks to its [[ArtificialStupidity dumbness, they will be happy to try to launch a boulder on a single villager and hit your entire army.]]
** The high-tier upgrades for some units dive into this, as they require resources in the thousands range when the 50-population limit makes the resource gathering rate very low.
* BadassPreacher: ''Priests.'' A good player can beat a match by just using an army of them. Egyptian Priests are even more dangerous, because they get a +3 range bonus that stacks with Afterlife, which also gives +3 range.
* BadWithTheBone: The villagers attack enemy units with big bones until Iron Age where they use pitchforks instead. (the change is only aesthetic though)
* BoringButPractical:
** Axemen are the backbone of most armies, since unlike their Clubmen predecessors, their attack is superior to that of mere villagers, and unlike Swordsmen, they don't cost any gold.
** Bowmen don't get much in the way of upgrades, but unlike their Improved brethren, they don't cost gold to produce, making them a decent choice for spamming ranged attacks even at advanced ages.
* CallForward: In ''Definitive Edition'', the Roman campaign mission The Coming of the Huns was completely revamped to become nearly identical to the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields mission of [[VideoGame/AgeofEmpiresII the sequel]]'s Attila the Hun campaign, except with a PerspectiveFlip as you are playing as the Western Roman Empire.
* CapRaiser: The various economic technologies increase both resource gathering rate and carrying capacity for wood, gold, and stone.
* CarryABigStick:
** If you are desperate enough to send villagers out to fight from the Stone to the Bronze Age, you will find them wielding a giant bone.
** The only military unit available in the Stone Age is the [[{{Prehistoria}} Clubman]], a warrior armed with a spiked club. The only advantage he has over villagers is that he has twice their health points, but since he can't gather resources you have no incentive to train them until the Tool Age, when you will upgrade them to Axemen as soon as possible.
* CastFromLifespan: Priests in the expansion get the Martyrdom technology, which allows a conversion to be automatically successful [[AwesomeButImpractical provided you sacrifice the priest]].
* ClassicCheatCode: [[NukeEm E=mc2 Trooper and Photon Man]].
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Your AI allies in the random map. The diplomacy mechanic is so flawed that they ''demand'' resources from you every few minutes. If you don't, they will ''declare a war against you'' and join the enemy's side. Sometimes they even do this out of nowhere if the game stretches on too long. And no, extorting resources from them is ignored at best. Later games fixed this with the "Lock Teams" function and making giving resources optional.
* ColorCodedArmies: Each of the eight possible army teams is associated with a color, in order: blue, red, yellow, brown, orange, green, gray and turquoise.
* TheComputerIsALyingBastard:
** One of the game's pre-scenario hints for the first scenario in the Glory of Greece campaign, "Land Grab", says "Attack only when you are truly ready; the Dorians are well-prepared for an onslaught.", which could be easily interpreted as "take your time to build your economy before attacking". Maybe it's sufficient on lower difficulties, but on Hardest this is the worst thing you can do as the Dorians will very quickly upgrade their Clubmen into Axemen and send them your way before you can establish your position (and if you attempt to go after Tyrinia first, the Dorians will quickly join in the melee with the intent to melt you). What you should do instead is interpret "when you are truly ready" as "as soon as the scenario begins" and rush them on the spot without even making a Town Center first so that they don't get the chance to become a threat. Just make sure you don't lose all your Villagers, or else you'll have a different problem on your hands.
** "The Battle of Tunes" in the First Punic War campaign suggested that Long Swordsmen are one of Carthage's best units, alongside Fire Galleys and War Elephants. Carthaginian Long Swordsmen don't have any civ-specific bonuses at all, and units such as Horse Archers and Phalanxes are more useful.
* CrutchCharacter: Tool Age units (Axemen, Bowmen, Scouts, Slingers) are useful in said age, but lose power quickly when Bronze Age is reached and they cannot be upgraded[[note]]the Improved Bowman is not in the same line as the Bowman because it costs gold instead of wood, and prior to ''Definitive Edition'', you needed the Axeman upgrade in order to research Short Swordsman. DE removed these pre-requisites, meaning Short Swordsmen are immediately available upon reaching Bronze Age[[/note]]. [[BoringButPractical Very useful for spamming and if you're low on gold, though]].
* DamageIsFire: When buildings take enough damage, they are set aflame, even when they aren't being attacked by weapons that would allow that to happen. Being on fire doesn't cause additional damage, though, it is simply [[ShowsDamage a visual indicator that significant damage has been dealt]]. Averted with the stone walls: early release pictures of the game showed them on fire, but this was changed in the final release to show gradual degradation instead.
* DifficultButAwesome:
** Ballista Towers, though not at first. No matter how cool they look, the upgrade costs a small fortune and the ballista bolts they fire move much slower than arrows; even with Ballistics, there's a good chance whatever they're firing at will move before the bolt hits. However, when they're massed, their bolts are enough to even slice [[MightyGlacier Armored Elephants]] like butter, compounded by the fact that buildings are easily massed, while units (and especially the expensive Elephants) can't, due to the 50 population limit.
** Triremes suffer from the same issue as Ballista Towers with the additional drawback of costing population limit. However, their huge power spike compared to War Galleys outweigh the downsides.
* DigitizedSprites: Every unit and building sprite was rendered from CGI models.
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: The game as one cheat code for losing instantly and one cheat code to kill all the players's units. Because losing all of your units always result in a defeat, both cheat codes are basically the same.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: So many, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/AgeOfEmpiresI it has its own page]].
* EasyLevelTrick: In "Oppression", the sixth scenario of the Yamato campaign, the goal is to destroy an enemy Government Center guarded by a large number of siege engines while they ask you for a huge sum of gold every few minutes. The quickest way to do this is to send a few villagers to draw fire near the building in question. Thanks to the catapults' ArtificialStupidity and massive splash radius, they will fire shots that hit their own Government Center while being easy for your villagers to dodge, and will win the scenario for you.
* EdutainmentGame: The first purpose of the game is entertainment, but there's plenty of historical information available: the campaigns in the first game dealt with the history of four civilizations - Egypt (the tutorial), Greece, Babylon, and Yamato. While the missions themselves certainly sacrificed historical accuracy for gameplay, the mission intros gave decent background information. ''Rise of Rome'''s campaigns covered the history of Rome from both Rome itself ''and'' their enemies.
* EnemyExchangeProgram: The priests can convert your enemies' units. Their priests can convert yours too. And priests can convert other priests.
* FirewoodResources: Wood and Stone, the eventual series' staples.
* ForegoneConclusion: One mission in the expansion has you playing as Hannibal, bringing the elephants over the Alps. You know how it's going to end, even if you win, and the victory text basically says, "Well, you'll be remembered as a genius for this tactic, at least."
* FriendlyFireproof: Catapults and Catapult Triremes avert this; [[SplashDamage they'll damage anything in the area of effect radius]]. Played straight with the Ballistae, Ballista Towers and bolt-firing Triremes, as their projectiles don't have any SplashDamage.
* GaiasRevenge: The "Gaia" cheat lets you play as the neutral animals and gives you vision around every tree. Very limited, however, since you're put in control of units designed to be killed by villagers.
* GladiatorRevolt: There's a mission where you have to defend an Italian region from Spartacus revolts. The Slave Army is on Post-Iron Age, while you're in Bronze Age.
** In ''Definitive Edition'', the tables are turned, making the scenario a bit more appropriate: this time, you play as Spartacus with the small base while Crassus has the post-Iron Age army.
* GlassCannon: Siege weapons, which can be devastating if used correctly, but require constant support from skirmishing units and priests to heal them.
* GoldColoredSuperiority:
** Inverted for the "Swordsman" line of unit. The first one is the Short Swordsman, who wears a gold-colored helmet. It upgrades into the Broad Swordsman, which wears bronze-colored armor, and its next upgrade, the Long Swordsman, wears iron armor.
** Played straight for the Cavalry's upgrade, the Heavy Cavalry. Both the rider and the horse wear golden armor.
** ''Return of Rome'' redesigned the final tier units that look identical to their previous form [[note]]previously they were only denoted with a fiery background in their portraits, but they look identical on the map[[/note]] so that they would have gold in their designs. Heavy Cavalry, which was previously gold, was changed to wear silver armor instead.
* GuiltBasedGaming: If you quit in the middle of the game, your side loses and you get scolded. It doesn't help that there's creepy music and a creepy skeleton in the background.
* GuideDangIt: Want to know about the civilization tech tree and bonuses? Don't have an external guide or expect such information to be in the game? ''Good luck remembering them''. The ''Definitive Edition'' included an in-game tech tree to fix this.
* HeroMustSurvive: Some unique units trigger your defeat when destroyed.
* HistoricalInJoke: One mission in the expansion involving Archimedes includes a one-time appearance from a unit called the "Mirror Tower," which fires [[EnergyWeapon lasers]] at enemy units. Archimedes supposedly found a way to harness the sun's energy in a similar manner. Sadly, the only way you can ever get a hold of a Mirror Tower is by using the Scenario Builder.
* HorseArcher: Come in horse, elephant and chariot varieties. Horse Archers are fast and hit the hardest, but they could not take damage well. Elephant Archers are slow and bulky, allowing them to tank and shield fragile units. Chariot Archers are weaker than Horse Archers, but they could be accessed an age earlier for civilizations that have them, resist Priest conversion, and cost no gold.
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The [=BabyPrez=] chat unit, which is an infant on a tricycle, is the only unit in the game that doesn't die when it's out of [=HPs=].
* InstantWinCondition: Possessing all artifacts or ruins, or having a Wonder survive, for "2000 years", or [[VideoGameTime about 20 minutes in Real Time]].
* IsometricProjection: The map is diamond-shaped, unlike many contemporary games. The practice was carried on in the sequels, though in them you can rotate the map.
* ItsAWonderfulFailure: If you lose or quit a campaign scenario in The Rise of Rome, a short description of the consequences of your failure will be displayed - including a BondOneLiner ("report to Catapult Unit XIV where you'll get another chance to have an impact on the Carthaginians").
* LeadTheTarget: The "Ballistics" upgrade allows your units to shoot at where the target will be, instead of where it is now.
* LowTechSpears: Stone Age Villagers hunt wild animals by throwing spears at them and likewise use fishing spears. Note that these are the only times spears are used before the Bronze Age in-game.
* MadeOfExplodium: Birds fly around randomly on the map, and if you ask a villager to attack one, it explodes harmlessly. It's... weird.
* MarathonLevel: A few, but The Great Hunt is probably the most notable.
* MightyGlacier: War elephants and the Hoplite line are durable and deal lots of damage but move very slowly. The Persian and Greek civilizations, respectively, get bonuses that make those units slightly faster than standard infantry, turning them into {{Lightning Bruiser}}s.
* MisplacedWildlife: This particular installment is really bad at this.
** There are American bald eagles and alligators, despite being set entirely in the Old World (though a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Alligator relative of the latter]] could have been seen by the Shang, and people frequently confuse crocodiles for alligators) and while lions, gazelles and elephants fit in the Ancient Middle East they are a very weird vision when you are playing a campaign set in Europe or Japan. [[TheArtifact They are a carryover from early game development]], when the game was entirely set in the Middle East and Greece, before ES/Microsoft realized that they could make more money in East Asia if they also used local civilizations.
*** Though placing lions in Ancient Greece isn't that unrealistic. Herodotus writes in 480 BC that lions were a common sight in Greece, and even attacked Xerxes's troops as they crossed from Macedonia to Greece. They only became extinct there by 100 AD. [[https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/lions-europe/]]
** Crocodile or Alligator, neither reptile has any business being in the Alps.
** The Egypt campaign features ''whales'' in the Nile.
** All the elephants (wild and tame) are African, but Asian ones would be more familiar to most civilizations in the game.
* NoArcInArchery: Arrows and Ballista Bolts will fly perfectly straight through their entire flight.
* NonLethalKo: The [=BabyPrez=] chat unit, which is an infant on a tricycle, does not die when it's out of [=HPs=], it just falls out of the tricycle and cries, though it still counts as a dead unit.
* PainfullySlowProjectile: Ballista Bolts fly so slowly that one unit under constant micromanagement can never get hit by them. [[TheComputerISACheatingBastard The AI knows this, and will cheerfully dance its units around all projectiles including arrows]].
* PerspectiveFlip: An interesting case of this in ''Definitive Edition''. In [[VideoGame/AgeofEmpiresII the sequel]], there is one mission where you play as the Huns during the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. ''Definitive Edition'' has reworked the last mission of the Imperium Romanum campaign so the map, positions, and teams are all the same, only this time you're playing as the Romans instead of the Huns.
* PowerUpLetdown: It's hard for some players to tell if the Ballista Tower is actually a good upgrade, since its projectiles are stronger but slower than the Guard Tower's arrows.
* PrimitiveClubs: The Clubman is a Stone Age Barracks unit which uses a club in order to attack opponents.
* {{Retraux}}: Classic Mode in the ''Definitive Edition'' allows players to change the graphics to that of the original ''Age of Empires'', though it is restricted to random map modes.
* SavageSetpiece: Elephants can be safely ignored unless they've been attacked by your side. Averted with the stronger Elephant Kings, which will attack anything and everything even if not provoked.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Even if you can out-damage the healing, you don't want the enemy Priests alive long enough to [[EnemyExchangeProgram convert your units]].
* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The Yamato campaign is probably the worst, but all four campaigns have issues with this, ''even the tutorial campaign''.
* ScratchDamage: Any damage is divided by 5 against buildings so most attacks that aren't from siege weapon will be this.
* ScrewTheMoneyThisIsPersonal: Tributing an enemy AI will trigger the following line:
--> ''"Your petty offering will not sway my determination to crush your empire."''
* ShoutOut: "[[Film/TheTerminator I'll be back]]" and "[[UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur I shall return]]" are the names of some levels.
* SiegeEngines: Catapults and ballistae, as well as their fancier upgrades.
* SpeakingSimlish: Units all speak in one fictional language, regardless of civilization, compared to later games that gave more accurate voice clips based on the civilization. "Rogan?" (one of the possible clips a villager uses when selected) and "Wololo!" (one of the priest's clips when converting an enemy) in particular became [[RunningGag an ongoing joke]].
* SpikedWheels: Scythe Chariots in ''Rise of Rome''. They cause splash damage around the Chariot when it attacks.
* SplashDamage:
** Catapult units have a huge and deadly area of effect radius that doesn't tell friend from foe. It's not advisable to send melee units to attack along with them unless you want to see many of your own soldiers killed. Averted with the Ballista, making it a better option for a joint assault.
** The war Elephant do this thanks to their tusks.
** The Scythe Chariots from ''Rise of Rome'' deal splash damage when attacking, thanks to their SpikedWheels.
* SufferTheSlings: In the expansion, Slingers are available from the Tool Age and onward. They receive bonuses against archers and base defences, with the latter making them mildly successful at raiding, but become obsolete almost immediately since they receive very little in the way of useful upgrades once the Bronze Age is reached.
* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Infantry > Cavalry > Archers and Siege Engines > Infantry.
* TechnologyLevels: Stone Age (Paleolithic/Mesolithic era), Tool Age (Neolithic era), Bronze Age and Iron Age, in that order.
* UnitsNotToScale:
** This is quite visible when putting units inside Transport Ships; each embarking unit may be the same apparent size as the transport, or even larger.
** Non-Wonder buildings are a lot shorter than units.
* VanillaUnit: Aside from the slingers, units from the barracks are the most basic units in the game. They have no ability and all have medium stats by the time each of them is unlocked. Their biggest strength is their low resource cost, making them convenient to make an army out of. They also benefit from the "logistics" upgrade, which reduces their population cost.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Villagers, clubmen, bowmen and war elephant riders are shirtless.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Food, Wood, Stone and Gold. Food and Wood are required from the get-go, Stone is used for walls, watch towers and slingers starting in the Tool Age, and Gold starts becoming important in the Bronze Age.
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