History VideoGame / AgeOfMythology

** It is common to disrupt the enemy's economy by killing their villagers and burning their houses. Of course, the Norse is encouraged to aggressively raid the enemy as they generate favor through fighting and their Raiding Cavalry has strong pierce armor and speed that allows them to pick off villagers while shrugging off arrows of towers and town centers.

* RapePillageAndBurn: You will likely end up killing enemy villagers and burning enemy houses, and there is even one mission where you participate in the sack of Troy. Even if you consciously avoid attacking non-combatants (for which you will receive no reward and which actually places yourself at disadvantage), your enemies will hold no such reservations and will gladly kill your people.

During the ''Age of Empires'' 25th anniversary celebration, a new game, ''Age of Mythology: Retold'' was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDto-UL9CI announced.]]

During the ''Age of Empires'' 25th anniversary celebration, a new game, ''Age of Mythology Retold'' was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDto-UL9CI announced.]]

* BalefulPolymorph: During a Campaign mission in which you [[Literature/TheOdyssey visit the isle of Circe]], Arkantos and Ajax get turned into pigs. Thankfully, whilst [[RedShirt ordinary soldiers]] turn into ordinary piggies, heroes become [[FullBoarAction boars]], for some reason.

* TheFourGods: The Chinese Mythic Age Myth Units are based on these.

** The Norse Hersir units are shown by names, which are randomly generated from a pool of first names and last name parts. It is possible, through editing some text files, to add [[AwesomeMcCoolname some]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast more]] [[NamesToTrustImmediately variety]] in Hersir names. Some examples include "Hamal Refreshingbeveragemaker", "Hrolf Eggpuncher", and "Egill Griffonminer".

** Sometimes, the names are so bizarre that you don't know whether they belong in AwesomeMcCoolName or not. For example, Egill Refreshingbeveragepuncher (For Icelandic people this is most certainly belongs).

* EverythingsBetterWithLlamas: Llamas serve as the Atlanteans' caravan units, further adding to their exotic-ness.

** [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greeks]]: Balanced[=/=]Generalist. A versatile civilisation with a tendency towards quality human units and an easy-to-manage economy, the Greeks play most like a faction from ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII''. The Greeks gather Favor like other resources by praying at temples, and the more villagers are praying, the faster Favor gains. Their military is a standard mix of infantry, cavalry and archers who [[TacticalRockPaperScissors counter each other]], slower on the move and more expensive than their Egyptian and Norse counterparts but heavily armoured and quite powerful. In the Heroic age they can train Hypaspists, Peltasts and Prodromos - specialist hard counter infantry, cavalry and archers - and a ranged siege unit called the Petrobolos, the only civ in the game to get one in the Heroic Age. The Greeks also get one hero unit from each god in their pantheon as they advance through the ages, and while effective against humans and mythic units, they are one of a kind. For the Major Gods of the Greeks:

*** Finally Hades is an Archer Unit Specialist - his archers are the strongest of the Greeks with a whopping attack bonus if the right minor gods are chosen, and in addition he also increases the HP of buildings and defences.

*** Odin is unfortunately a Brute[=/=]Pariah - while he offers a good deal of bonuses to human units (especially elite ones) and siege weapons, he is extremely reliant on good early game raiding to succeed and his units are very vulnerable to archers, cavalry and base defences; also his infantry regenerate, but only very slowly unless they are not moving, and the Norse need to be constantly on the offence to be effective.

*** Fu Xi is a Brute[=/=]Industrial who is highly conducive to aggressive play - his Blessed Construction allows for very quick construction of troop training buildings and Wonders; combine with bonuses to Heroes and cheaper technologies and Fu Xi is a god who will become a nightmare if you make the mistake of ignoring him.
*** Nü Wa is a versatile pure Economist - not only is her pop cap higher allowing for more Peasants (or soldiers, if you wish) but she can even resurrect Peasants who die in early animal attacks or raids, giving her a good chance of recovering from a bad start; her key weakness is that she can make her troops cheaper but has no way of making them ''better''.
*** Shennong is a Turtle - all his bonuses are either defensive or economic in nature; his walls are considerably cheaper and his Monks heal quicker, and they can also uniquely convert enemy myth units as well as heroes (an ability that meshes surprisingly well with his defensive playstyle).

* AdaptationalWimp: Heracles. One of the strongest heroes in the Greek mythology, has a mediocre stats for a Heroic Age hero unit in this game. Averted in the tabletop where he adds his opponents battle die to his own, making him the most powerful single unit in the game.

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: There is a [[{{Cap}} Population Limit]], and Mythology added "each unit uses X people" - i.e. a villager counts as one, a soldier counts as two, but a Nemean Lion as 3. One of the few where villagers cost different from soldiers. Though the limit is enforced a little differently than in previous 'Age of' games. Instead of setting a population limit, the game instead limits how many 'Population Buildings' you can build (10 houses -- except for the Atlanteans, who can only build 5 manors, which in return provide twice the population that houses do -- and only as many Town Centers as there are Settlements on the map). The absolute maximum population cap is 300, but it's unlikely you'll see that unless you play 7-8 player games, since you need a ''lot'' of settlements. (You can also award players population cap bonuses in the scenario editor.)

** If you build a Wonder, count on it becoming an instant magnet for enemy assaults as they try to prevent you from earning a Wonder victory - even when Wonder victories aren't enabled in this specific game. This can be turned to your advantage, if you have the resources and inclination - build a gauntlet of towers along their route to your Wonder, then let them keep throwing troops down the drain, while you build up ''your'' army and tear through their relatively undefended cities.

* DropTheHammer: The campaign requires you to build Thor's hammer {{Mjolnir}} [[spoiler:and use it to close the gate to Tartarus that Gargarensis almost managed to open]].

* EasyLogistics

Greeks - Balanced\\
Egyptians - Human Soldiers\\
Norse - Myth Units\\
Atlanteans - Heroes\\
Chinese - Economy
* {{Fanservice}}: Is it necessary for the drawing of most of females within the game to have large breasts? Or the goddesses to be {{Stripperiffic}}? And it's not just the girls - Apollo's image pictures him pretty much naked until a few centimeters above his crotch, and Anubis has a quite well defined chest.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Erebus. Tartarus - the part where the Titans are imprisoned - is never shown, but presumably it's much the same. Interestingly, the Norse refer to it as Niflheim, which in actual myth was more like a Frost And Icicles Hell. [[note]]Norse Mythology doesn't actually have any equivalent to the traditional FireAndBrimstoneHell.[[/note]]

* TechTree: A twist on the tech trees from Age of Empires and Age of Kings by making a different one for all civilizations in the style of Starcraft. Mythology adds a further twist by making you choose one of two gods for each age (3 for the first, which determine the available minor gods). Each of them offers an unique god power, myth units and upgrades. The base tech tree on the other hand is practically identical among all races and main gods - the names and images are different, but what they do is mostly interchangeable.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: The Behemoth is apparently a [[SeldomSeenSpecies Glyptodon]] with long tusks and a ceratopsian style frill.

* {{Fanservice}}: Is it necessary for the drawing of most of females within the game to have large breasts? Or the goddesses to be {{Stripperiffic}}? And it's not just the girls - Apollo's image pictures him pretty much naked until a few centimeters above his crotch, and Anubis has a quite well defined chest...
** It makes a sort of sense that the gods, being "perfect" beings, would be astonishingly attractive.

-->'''Arkantos:''' A giant fortress in the middle of the countryside, protecting a huge pits which leads... ''[[TheUnderworld here]]''... and a cyclops that rains ''fire'' on us from the skies... I'm starting to think this might not be a 'bandit' we're dealing with, Chiron.

** In a similar way, the opening cinematic ends with Athena calling, "Arkantos... awaken." The final line of the game has Athena repeating her call, but this time to raise Arkantos to godhood.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Erebus. Tartarus - the part where the Titans are imprisoned - is never shown, but presumably it's much the same. Interestingly, the Norse refer to it as Niflheim, which in actual myth was more like a Frost And Icicles Hell.[[note]]Norse Mythology doesn't actually have any equivalent to the traditional FireAndBrimstoneHell.[[note]]

-->'''Arkantos:''' A giant fortress in the middle of the countryside, protecting a huge pits which leads...''[[TheUnderworld here]]''...and a cyclops that rains ''fire'' on us from the skies... I'm starting to think this might not be a 'bandit' we're dealing with, Chiron.

-->'''Arkantos:''' A giant fortress in the middle of the countryside, protecting a huge pits which leads...''[[TheUnderworld here]]'''...and a cyclops that rains ''fire'' on us from the skies... I'm starting to think this might not be a 'bandit' we're dealing with, Chiron.

* BookEnds: Arkantos has reccuring dreams in which he fights old foes whom he has vanquished. In the initial opening cinematic, Arkantos declares, "Any who threaten my home or my family will soon have a place in my dreams." The title of the game's final mission? "A place in my dreams."

* BookEnds: In the initial cinematic, Arkantos sarcastically claims that "Any who threaten my home or my family will soon have a place in my dreams". The last mission's title? "A place in my dreams".

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The trolls available to worshipers of Forseti are 9 foot tall grey-skinned ape-like creatures that throw rocks, regenerating health in proportion to the damage they deal out.

*** Kronos is a Gimmick, with a special power that lets him move buildings around the map at no cost, along with bonuses to Oracles to make them better at scouting, and this makes him a good choice for rushing strategies.

*** Loki is a Guerrilla[=/=]Espionage, and he lives up to his status as the trickster of the Norse gods, his unrivalled scouting options and quick unit movement are just what the Norse need.

*** Set is a Ranger, making Slingers and Chariot Archers cheaper and better along with good scouting ability.

** The AI has a major habit of targeting farms and villagers rather than military units, which can result in Series/TheBennyHillShow esque chases that result in the AI being defeated with a few villagers dead at most.
** If you have a large number of military units attacking the AI's base, they may use a god power like Tornado or Meteor on their own base in an attempt to kill them.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The mission midway through the original campaign that takes place in Arkantos' dreams, which exists mainly as a framework for Athena to provide exposition on Gargarensis' plot. Also, the mission on Circe's island, which also serves as a humorous BreatherEpisode between the Egyptian and Norse segments of the campaign.

* Mayincatec: Atlantis architecture has shades of this, along with their use of llamas.