First of all, I want to say that as an old Age fan, I’m excited to see the continuation of the Age series.
Now, seeing that AoE IV is finally being developed, I will assume that it’s going to pick up where the last #-based game in the series left off, AoE 3 in the Industrial age.
I assume that this game is going to cover everything from the late 19th Century, which saw Ironclads, locomotives, self-contained cartridges, and the first machine guns; to the late 20th Century with it’s jets, missiles, and assault rifles.
Why do I assume this? Well not only has the next major release in the series always followed suite of it’s predecessor, but art released with the release of AoE 3 depicted an Age series spanning from classical era to the future.
In this art, five warriors from different ages of human history can be seen. These five warriors are a hoplite, a knight, a redcoat, a soldier, and an advanced armor clad warrior with what appears to an enhanced optical visor.
Theses five warriors not only represent their respective ages, but the games themselves; and the forth one is what appears to be an American soldier in Vietnam war (1960’S) issued fatigues, hence my assumption of AoE 4.
But lets talk about the fifth warrior, the one that represents AoE 5…
His armor is clearly beyond what any nation fields in today’s day and age; his armor not only clearly states that he’s in our future, but it screams it. So with that, I will assume that perhaps one day, if AoE 5 is made, that it’ll be in the future.
Wonder victory… in the second game it made sense that a wonder, a building representing your great civilization that should be envied by all and represented your dominating influence, would be massive cathedral or a mosque or a large tower.
However, by AoE 5, a large tower or a large mosque should pathetically outdated and unimpressive; Considering skyscrapers, secular governments, and scientific progression and all.
So this begs the question… if AoE 5 had a wonder… what would it be?
A wonder in the late game of AoE 5 can’t just be a building… it needs to be something truly astounding, something never seen before, something Earth shattering and world changing…
A Time machine…
The creation of a time machine that needs to be readied in preparation for it’s first time travelers would provide a reason for a timer to begin, it would give a reason for every other nation/player to mobilize their forces in an effort to destroy this machine… because failure to do so not only means a victory for your enemy, but the entire destruction of your people before they even had a chance to get started.
Finally, the Nuke trooper… Anyone who played around with cheat codes in the original Age of Empires game should know who the nuke trooper and the laser trooper were. Two white-armor clad units seemingly from a far advance future armed with an automatic laser rifle and a handheld nuclear bazooka.
But, besides obviously cheat codes… how did these men from the future arrive in the ancient era? Why did they arrive? Well of course, they arrived from the future through means of a time machine to destroy their rivals before they even got started. Duh’.
So there you have it… AoE 5 should have two generic unit types; one armed with an automatic laser rifle known as a laser trooper, and the other is known carries a handheld atomic powered bazooka and is known as a nuke trooper. AoE 5 civilizations can seek victory by building a time machine and theoretically sending these men back in time. The great loop will finally be complete, it’ll have come full circle.
