Squads can consist of up to 14 units, made up of any combination of the four unit types. The game does not feature any economy management element (mining, gathering or construction), a common feature of later real-time strategy games.Įach mission takes place on a map containing forts, towns, terrain features ( bridges, mountains, forests, etc.), and squads. These settings affected both AI behavior, as well as certain properties such as the speed at which enemy units moved through difficult terrain. Sun Tzu represents the most difficult level. The player can also select from among several Artificial Intelligence opponents represented by various historical figures such as Geronimo and Sun Tzu himself. Advanced rule sets such as Training New Units and Supply Line Lengths allow for more customization. The campaigns include both skirmishes and capture the flags style missions, while the terrain layout and initial starting units provided a variety of strategic options for game play. Spies do not fight, but they can see enemy units twice as far away as anyone else and are the fastest-moving units in the game.Īt the start of the game, the player is able to select from a list of eleven campaigns to play. Knights beat barbarians in melee barbarians have the advantage over archers and archers have the advantage over knights, in addition to being effective at defending against attempts to storm a fort. It uses a rock paper scissors type of unit balance typical of the genre. The objective of the game is to win a series of battles using four types of troops: Knights, Archers, Barbarians, and Spies. A battlefield simulation, the game's title comes from the classic strategy text The Art of War written by Sun Tzu around 400 B.C.

Ancient warfare 2 gameplay