History VideoGame / AgeOfMythology

%%* CrossoverCosmology: The Game.

* ShownTheirWork: Everything, from the trees, to the cows, to the rocks, to the Cyclops have optional descriptions for you to read. You can even access the in-game encyclopedia from the main menu just for some information. The city of Atlantis, for instance, is shown as built on a hill, divided into tiers with fountains between them, accurate to the original myth but often overlooked.

* CivilWarcraft: Throughout the whole Fall of the Trident, The Golden Gift and Tale of the Dragon campaigns, the player only fights enemies of the same civilisation (except the first mission of Fall of the Trident). In The New Atlantis (the campaign added in ''The Titans''), the player fights fellow Atlanteans in Betrayal at Sikyos (7th mission), Rampage (9), Making Amends (10), Atlantis Betrayed (11) and War of the Titans (12).

* DefenselessTransports:
** Transport Ships are armed with no weapons to defend themselves. Same goes with the Egyptian Roc, which can carry units through air but has no means of attacking.
** Very much subverted with the Egyptian Leviathan; it's a very powerful naval unit that can carry units through water (though to compensate, they have less capacity than Transport Ships).
* DifficultButAwesome: The alternate way to beat the final mission of the ''Fall of the Trident'' campaign, which ''doesn't'' require you to build a wonder (advance to the mythic age with Hephaestus, build a temple near the Living Poseidon statue, and then spam Gold Colossi). It's ''very'' resource-demanding (300 gold and 50 favor for each Colossus, 300 Gold and 20 favor for the Hand of Talos tech to upgrade them to Silver Colossi, and 300 gold and 20 favor for the Shoulder of Talos tech that upgrades them to Gold Colossi), and it's generally easier to just complete the objective, but it is one incredible BraggingRightsReward if you manage to pull it off.

* TheTimeOfMyths: It's in the title of the game, mythological creatures make up many of the units, a mythological civilization is one of the main settings, and the story is driven by the actions of mythological deities.

''Age of Mythology'' is a spin-off from the ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' series. It had similar town-building structure and similar units, but veered away from the traditional realism of the Age of Empires series. Rather, it was based in ancient Earth, where there were real Gods and play as [[Myth/ClassicalMythology three civilizations]] [[Myth/EgyptianMythology based on their]] [[Myth/NorseMythology various mythologies]], and followed consistent, original storylines through characters and in-game cinematics.

The ''Titans'' expansion, set 10 years after the original, adds [[{{Atlantis}} one more civilization]] and only a third as many missions as the original game. It revolves around Arkantos' son Kastor being tricked into [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly weakening the gods]] by destroying their monuments so Kronos can escape Tartarus.

The game also received an UpdatedRerelease on Steam in May 2014, known as ''Age of Mythology: Extended Edition''. This, in turn, received a second expansion pack in January 2016, ''Tale of the Dragon'', which introduced the Myth/ChineseMythology into the mix.

The game also received an UpdatedRerelease on Steam in May 2014, known as ''Age of Mythology: Extended Edition''. This, in turn, received a second expansion pack, ''Tale of the Dragon'', which introduces the Myth/ChineseMythology into the mix, which was released in January 28th, 2016.

** The Atlanteans have the Nereid, a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot trident-wielding sea maiden riding a]] [[{{Megalodon}} huge]] [[ThreateningShark shark]] that can defeat any other water myth unit in single combat.

** The [[PteroSoarer pterosaur-like]] [[ThePhoenix Phoenix]] is classified in the [[NobleBirdOfPrey eagle genus Aquila]].

* StoryBranchFavoritism: The Fall of the Trident campaign expects players to worship Athena, Dionysus, and sometimes Hera any time Zeus is the major god of the mission.

* ObviousBeta: The ''Tale of the Dragon'' DLC release features numerous irritating and conspicuous bugs, many of which can still be found in the game even after various patches. Examples include:
** The Chinese gods being bugged out even after a fresh install, rendering it impossible to select them in random matches or advance to the next age if you play the campaign.
** If you skip the opening cutscene in "Trapped", the campaign's fourth mission, all town centers on the map are destroyed, resulting in an instant loss.
** Destroying enemy temples will sometimes result in them switching to the Egyptian temple model for their crumbling animation.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: The Major God your civilization is currently under is always important to the story. For example, when the group is being deceived by [[spoiler:Skult]] the God is Loki and Arkantos, despite worshiping Poseidon personally, is under Zeus for most of the Greek missions. [[spoiler:This is because Poseidon is planning to unleash the Titans himself and Zeus is using Arkantos as his champion to stop him.]]

* ThemeParkVersion: Norse warriors are portrayed as HornyVikings, and the Valkyries are unmistakably Wagnerian, right down to their white horses (as opposed to the wolves they ride in the original myths). The Greeks buildings have the iconic (but inaccurate) pure white columns, and many of the Greek myth units are quite obviously based on the Creator/RayHarryhausen films:

** The Egyptians meanwhile seem to have walked straight out of every ''Mummy'' film and biblical piece ever made.

** Averted with Hades however, who even lends a hand in helping the protagonists.
** Also averted with the Chinese, all three of their major gods are benevolent.

* MythologyGag: Literally. In the original tale, the greeks built the Trojan Horse because the symbol of Troy was a horse. In the game, they do it because surrendering your horse is how Atlantean generals admit defeat.

* TitanomachyRoundTwo: The plot of both campaigns revolve around someone trying to free Cronus so he can wage war against the Olympians.

''Age of Mythology'' is a spin-off from the ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' series. It had similar town-building structure and similar units, but veered away from the traditional realism of the Age of Empires series. Rather, it was based in ancient Earth, where there were real Gods and play as [[Myth/ClassicalMythology three civilizations]] [[Myth/EgyptianMythology based on their]] [[Myth/NorseMythology various mythologies]], and followed consistent, original storylines through characters and in-game cinematics. Also, while it shared some Tropes with ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'', it contained many which weren't applicable to the mother series.

** Legends of Middle Earth, also known as LOME replaces the existing civilizations with ones from the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' series, these civilizations are lumped into general civ groups, such as Elves, Men, Orcs, Southern Folk and originally the Easterlings replacing the Chinese, with the major gods representing a specific race or group, included are a few campaigns, including a WIP voiced custom campaign called The New Shadow, however it should be noted that the future of the project is at risk due to the lead developer wishing to move forward with personal projects.

*** The very first mission features Atlantis being attacked by a pirate fleet supported by Krakens, their presence being taken as a sign that said pirates have Poseidon's favor (which ''is' true). Krakens are a ''Nordic'' myth unit.
*** During a mission of the Egyptian campaign, Amanra mentions that Set had summoned many Giant Turtles to protect Khemsyt's island base. Giant Turtles are a myth unit of Thoth, not Set, and in fact you can train Giant Turtles in that mission should you choose to advance to the Mythic Age by worshipping Thot.

* GiantWoman: Gaia, the Atlantean Goddess in her titan form.

** While not exactly a [[MonstrousSeal seal]], the Walrus can be hunted for food, but you'll need a lot of villagers to take it down as it's highly aggressive and dangerous.

* ACommanderIsYou:
** [[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:
*** Zeus is a Infantry and Myth Unit Specialist, giving Hoplites more mobility and power and increasing your Favour gain for myth unit spam, but he has no "city-nuking" power.
*** Poseidon is a Spammer[=/=]Cavalry Unit Specialist, with cheap and plentiful cavalry with a a few nice economy upgrades to support them.
*** 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.
** [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptians]]: Spammer[=/=]Ranger[=/=]Guerrilla. The Egyptians are a quick-to-grow, quick-to-peak civ with an emphasis on strong defences and quantity over quality. The Egyptians have only two hero units, the Priest and the Pharaoh. The latter is vital to their success: not only is he good at fighting myth units, he can also heal wounded units and most importantly of all he can empower any Egyptian unit, giving bonuses to building speed, unit training, technology research, fire rate for towers and increase Favor gain from Monuments. The Pharaoh must be kept safe and used wisely; Priests can be mass-produced and do some of the things the Pharaoh can, but without him Egypt is doomed. Egyptian units can be produced quickly and cheaply, and they are lightly armoured which means they cannot take much punishment but they are quite mobile; the backbone of the Egyptian army is chariot archers and eventually the mighty War Elephant. For the Egyptian Major Gods:
*** Ra is an Economist, giving substantial economic bonuses to your Egyptian kingdom, crucially he gives Priests the ability to empower like the Pharaoh can.
*** Isis is a Balanced[=/=]Research, offering very good economic and defensive bonuses but with no major military bonuses to speak of.
*** Set is a Ranger, making Slingers and Chariot Archers cheaper and better along with good scouting ability. In a pinch, the pharaoh can also use favor to quickly summon animal units as a meat shield.
** [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse]]: Spammer/Brute. The Norse work very differently from the previous two civs, geared towards mobility and aggression with a "raiding" economy. The Norse gather resources from mobile Ox Carts, and they have two worker units: Gatherers can only build Farms and gather resources, and Dwarves can mine gold quickly but harvest food and wood slowly; buildings are constructed and repaired by their infantry. The Norse build no shrines or temples to their gods, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy instead getting Favor through hunting and battle]][[labelnote:note]]Though their heroes slowly generate favor solely by existing[[/labelnote]]; any time a Norse unit is fighting anything in the game, they are gaining Favor. The Norse army is dominated by melee infantry with very high attack power, cheap anti-myth unit heroes called Hersirs and powerful myth units, but they are lacking in ranged options. For the Norse Major Gods:
*** 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.
*** Thor is an Industrial[=/=]Research, giving cheaper and faster research as well as a fourth line of technologies that are exclusive only to him and thus a much-appreciated shot in the arm for the Norse economy.
*** 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. His Hersirs also have a small chance of creating random myth units while fighting.
** [[AncientGrome Atlanteans]]: Elitist[=/=]Technical. The Atlanteans are a civ that focus on quality over quantity, every unit is more costly but generally the best in their class. Atlantean Citizens are expensive but efficient, able to gather all resources three times faster than other worker units, and they don't need drop-off sites to boot. Favor is gained by building Town Centers, something they are uniquely able to do from the very start of the game. The Atlanteans have no hero units; they can instead pay to convert any human unit into a hero [[BadassNormal who is slightly better at fighting other human units and very good at fighting myth units]]. The Atlanteans are late bloomers, able to become nearly unstoppable in the late game if left unchecked, but at the end of the day their lack of numbers is always a hindrance. For the Atlanteans Major Gods:
*** Kronos is a Gimmick, with a special power that lets him move buildings around the map at nearly no cost (unless they are towers or palaces), along with bonuses to Oracles to make them better at scouting, and this makes him a good choice for rushing strategies.
*** Gaia is an Economist[=/=]Turtle but her name even rhymes with Pariah which should give you a clue: she is considered the worst major god in the game next to Odin, as she has some decent defensive options, but also has lacklustre heroes who are more expensive and less durable than the other two Atlantean gods, her scouting is deficient, and her bonus to buildings (regenerating HP) just isn't that useful.
*** Oranos is a Guerrilla[=/=]Gimmick who has special features allowing for scouting, rapid deployment of troops through Sky Passages and healing units, making him very versatile.
** [[Myth/ChineseMythology Chinese]]: Spammer[=/=]Technical[=/=]Economist. The Chinese focus on growing a huge army and a booming economy very quickly. The Chinese gain Favor through Gardens which also each generate a trickle of other resources as well, and this makes their economy flexible and difficult to disrupt. The Chinese have two heroes: the Immortals, a group of eight versatile heroes capable in melee or range, and the Monk who can heal wounded friendly units and [[DefeatMeansFriendship convert enemy units to his side]]. The Chinese army is focused on cheap, swift cavalry that are capable raiders good for disrupting the economies of others, and their units tend to take up less population cap so their armies can be bigger as well. To top it off, the Chinese have some of the best base defences in the entire game. However Chinese units are quite specialised and pound-for-pound generally weaker than other civs due to limited unit-enhancing technologies. For the Chinese Major Gods:
*** 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).
* ActionFigureSpeech: The models do this, though their gestures are actually rather sensible. Arkantos in particular spends a lot of time [[FacePalm facepalming]] at Ajax's stupidity.

* 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.
** Achilles can be applied to this as well. Justified as having a nearly immortal hero would be majorly gamebreaking. However, this could be viewed as FridgeBrilliance, as Achilles lacked his famous invincibility in the original Greek myths.

** Oddly, the game subverts this too, notably with the Norse Fenris Brood and Jormund Elver, which are noted to be the offspring of Fenrir and the Jormongund, respectively. The same goes for the Battle Boar: It's a lesser replica of Gullinbursti, made by Brokk and Eitri. The original Gullinbursti's creation is the focus of the Golden Gift campaign.

* 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. They can be upgraded to the stronger Hammartrolls, which have two heads.
* AnachronismStew: Needless to say, the Greeks, Egyptians and Norse come from different time periods and are themselves a mash-up of various eras from Antiquity. The Chinese in ''Tale of the Dragon'' also combine elements from different dynasties.
* AncientGrome: The Atlanteans are presented as a mish-mash of Greek, Roman, Byzantian and Mesoamerican influences. They worship Greek gods, their infantry units are based on ancient classes of gladiators, their buildings have pointed roofs and stone construction, and their navy consists of Byzantine fire ships.
* AntiAir: Flying units are vulnerable to most ranged attacks, making them unsuitable to be fielded against groups of ranged units or in a heavily fortified city. The Chinese Vermillion Bird defies this by being able to level buildings very quickly with their special attack.
* 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.)
* ArrowsOnFire: Burning Pitch upgrade for archers. Does bonus damage against buildings, but does nothing against units. Still looks awesome.

** Amanra's and the Anubites' "leaping" attack can often lead to them [[TooDumbToLive leaping over an enemy wall and into their base, without any support]]. Or somehow getting stuck midway through unwalkable terrain, with the only hope of getting unstuck being enemies getting close enough to leap at them.
** 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.
** If you want a demonstration of how well the AI pathfinding works, put a wall across your caravan route, set two gates side-by-side in said wall at the point where the caravans usually cross, and watch your caravans march relentlessly into the single unit of solid wall between them.

** If you have a large number of military units attacking the AI's base, they may use a god power like Tornado or Meteor [[UnfriendlyFire on their own base]] in an attempt to kill them.

** Many unique creatures from mythology became standard unit types that you can train any number of. A certain snake-headed woman with a petrifying gaze may offer the most egregious example: these Greek myth units are named Medusae, a pluralization of {{Medusa}}... even though Medusa herself was actually one of three sisters called [[GorgeousGorgon "Gorgons"]], and worse, uses ''Latin'' grammar rules to pluralize a Greek name. The developers already had a perfectly good generic species name at their disposal, but they chose to enforce AKindOfOne instead!

** [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse]]: Spammer/Brute. The Norse work very differently from the previous two civs, geared towards mobility and aggression with a "raiding" economy. The Norse gather resources from mobile Ox Carts, and they have two worker units: Gatherers can only build Farms and gather resources, and Dwarves can mine gold quickly but harvest food and wood slowly; buildings are constructed and repaired by their infantry. The Norse build no shrines or temples to their gods, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy instead getting Favor through hunting and battle]]; any time a Norse unit is fighting anything in the game, they are gaining Favor. The Norse army is dominated by melee infantry with very high attack power, cheap anti-myth unit heroes called Hersirs and powerful myth units, but they are lacking in ranged options. For the Norse Major Gods:

* DefenselessTransports: Transport Ships are armed with no weapons to defend themselves.

** 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]].

* NoCampaignForTheWicked: ''Narrowly'' [[AvertedTrope averted]], as while the ''Fall of the Trident'' campaign has you playing as Arkantos all the way through, you do get to use the Major Gods favored by your enemies (Hades, Set and Loki) at least once, and let's you play as Gargarensis' forces during a NightmareSequence.

** The Tartarian Spawns created by the Tartarian Gate God Power are a really deadly version of this; they will spawn a certain number of them and if one is killed, the gate will spawn another. The only way to stop them is to destroy the gate, which can be difficult with the spawn constantly attacking. The only disadvantage is that they are neutral mooks, meaning not only that the player doesn't control them, but that they may actually [[HoistByHisOwnPetard attack the player's own units]].