Those first ten minutes or so are crucial in resources gathering-there's no room to fall behind or your town centre could be in ruins before you even hit the Mythic Age. Some online players favour the 'attack early' strategy, which, while effective, means you can wind up out of the running way before the interesting stuff actually happens. The online multiplayer, too, means you won't be short on smarter opponents, and at launch it seems to be running well, even if the process of finding a game you can join feels a bit arduous. I don't hold that against Mythology, though, because it is still cathartic to steamroll the AI on random maps. It was made in 2003, and I wasn't expecting this stuff to be rectified, but it's still worth noting if you're going into this for the first time expecting SupCom-level opposition. On a moderate difficulty, the enemies attack predictably in medium-sized waves while rarely putting up an overwhelming defence of their own territories. The upgraded effects of the Extended Edition, most noticeably the shiny-looking water, help contemporise Mythology, but the character models are the strongest signs that this is a decade-old game. It's still a heck of a spectacle considering it's over a decade old, but I'm not sure whether revisiting this with enhanced visual effects and Workshop support is worth the Extended Edition's steep $30/£23 price. Kraken trouble the seas, dragon-like nidhoggs circle the skies and hydra grow a head for every enemy they slay. Mythology's colourful range of high-level fantasy creatures make the final act of any skirmish much more exciting than units of historical repute did in Age of Kings. The ludicrousness of this scenario, as mythical creatures of various origins trundle in over peaceful farmland to murder everyone in sight, was Mythology's strength over Ensemble's Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings when it was released in 2002. This is my petty revenge against Age of Mythology's AI, to send in every single powerful unit I have at the risk of an army of pink centaurs raiding my two settlements from the North while I'm gone. I am Odin, and my asshat of a thunder god son had the audacity to attack me during the opening 30 minutes of this random map skirmish. Three trolls, four golden battle boars and a pack of wolves have just devastated the last of Thor's town centres, and my gatherers have already moved in to take over their farming network.

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