0 A.D. Alpha 23 – A Historical Real-Time Strategy Video Game
0 A.D. is a free and open source historical real time strategy video game developed and released by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the Ancient Age and boasts of a multitude of playable civilisations, including the Republican Romans or the Ancient Greeks.
The latest version, labeled Alpha 23 Ken Wood, adds a series of new features over the previous releases, introducing a brand new civilisation, a mod downloader (for mods such as Millennium A.D. which focuses on the Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxons, and Norsemen), colours for diplomacy, an enhanced AI system as well as many other improvements and fixes.
0 A.D. wallpaper featuring the ancient city of Rome. Image source: www.play0ad.com
The addition of the Kingdom of Kush (i.e. the Ancient Egyptians) is probably the greatest add-on that this new version comes up with. That, coupled with a series of astounding random maps, makes 0 A.D. Alpha 23 Ken Wood a must for real time strategy fans from all around the world.
The new random maps that have been included in the single player mode are the following ones:
- Lower Nubia;
- Jebel Barkal (the holy mountain of traders near the Nile River);
- Elephantine Island (an island on the course of the Nile River);
- Fields Of Meroë (a peninsula in the proximity of the Nile River);
- Hellas (a random map of ancient Greece; it focuses on a unique part of Greece that changes every time the player starts a new game);
- Dodecanese (an archipelago of 12 Greek islands);
- Scythian Rivulet (a winter map).
The new version of 0 A.D. is accompanied by a series of new skirmish maps as well:
- Via Augusta;
- Egypt;
- Butana Steppe.
You can also take a look at the new version trailer here:
- New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 23 Ken Wood on www.play0ad.com
- 0 A.D. (video game) on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
This is a great game. The fact that it is open source makes it easy to mod. This is great not only because it constantly brings in new content, but also because it ensures that the AI of the game will always be improved. Anyone who played AoE enough probably got disappointed with the AI that cannot settle an island with ships. Hope to see more people joining the online community, nowadays we have around 100 players online in peak hours.
PS: The Kingdom of Kush is actually more or less where we have Sudan today.
I’m glad you like it! I tried it a long while ago when I was still a Medialogy student at Aalborg Universitet (AAU) in Aalborg, Denmark and it was well worth the time. At that time, I was looking for a good time with an AOE-like real-time strategy-based video game and there I stumbled over 0 A.D. which was an absolutely terrific gaming experience! 🙂
P.S.: The year I discovered it was 2018.