Forge of Empires

Forge of Empires is a 2D browser-based strategy game from InnoGames, the creator of the incredibly popular Tribal Wars game. Its open beta release date was on April 17, 2012 and was made available for the iPhone and iPad in 2014.

Forge of Empires lets players create their own city and manage it from the Stone Age throughout the different periods in history including the Middle Ages and the Industrial Age, all the way to the present Contemporary Era. Unlike most other strategy games, players have control over building placement in their cities and can arrange them however they want rather than having them placed automatically. This is a nice little touch that gives players a greater sense of control.

Start of a New Era

Like most strategy games, Forge of Empires players are given a plot of land to start with. An in-game tutorial then walks players through the various menus and different building types that they can use to build and improve their city-state. During the tutorial, quests teach players the functions of each in-game menu as well as how to use the research tree.

Players build a variety of structures to grow their small city-state. Residential buildings, like Huts and Stilt Houses, produce human resources needed for the construction of other buildings and structures. Cultural and Decoration buildings provide “Happiness” to your residents which affects their productivity. Higher Happiness leads to increase productivity while low Happiness results in low productivity. It’s important to keep an eye on Happiness to ensure optimum productivity.

Military buildings are where players recruit units for their armies. Armies are used to loot resources from AI villages or other players. On the other hand, Production and Goods buildings generate valuable resources used to support a player’s growing city-state. Generating resources requires time and attention. Players must regularly log in to collect their resources from each building since resources can spoil if left uncollected for a certain amount of time.

It’s important to note that buildings must be connected with the Town Hall to function. Buildings can be connected to the Town Hall through “Roads” which, like buildings, can be positioned anyway the player chooses to. Players will need to constantly think about their city layout when expanding and shuffle their buildings around to ensure that all buildings are connected to the Town Hall.

Advancing Technology

Forge points are the only resource type that is automatically collected and can be left alone. Forge points are utilized to research in the research tree. The cost of research varies on what technology is being learned. It usually takes 3-5 forge points in the beginning, and as a player progresses through the different eras and ages, more topics to research are unlocked. The Research Tree is one of the unique features of Forge of Empire. The Research Tree is where players upgrade technologies to unlock more advanced technologies. Some technologies require other technologies to be unlocked first before the can be unlocked. The more advanced the technology being researched is, the more Forge Points are needed and the longer it takes to finish.

Diamonds are a Player’s Best Friend

Diamonds can be used to instantly unlock technologies and completely fill the Forge Points bar. Diamonds are “Premium” resources which can be purchased using real-world money. They can also be acquired through quests but are very rare and not enough to be useful. Diamonds can be used for a lot of things such as doubling production in residential and production buildings, instantly scouting provinces, unlocking slots in Military buildings, or instantly finishing unit training. Diamonds can also be used to heal units and revive dead ones immediately after the battle. City Expansions can also be purchased using Diamonds, though the price varies depending on how many times the player has expanded his territory. Special buildings in each age can also be purchased using Diamonds. These buildings have the same functions as their normal counterparts but have far better stats. The Theater in the Bronze Age, for example, provides 540 Happiness, whereas the Tavern, which can be bought with normal resources, provides 280 Happiness. The clear advantage available to players willing to buy diamonds creates an obvious pay-to-win environment, but those familiar with the browser-based strategy genre shouldn't be surprised. Just about every single browser-based strategy games operates the same way.

Expanding Your Borders

Expanding the city borders is crucial for a player to succeed in Forge of Empires. Expansions allow the player to enlarge the building area of their city, allowing them to build Great Buildings, which give bonuses and are unique to every age, and to sustain population growth. Expanding also allows players to build additional resource buildings.

There are three ways to expand: through coins, Medals, or Diamonds. Expansions can be acquired by researching techs that reward expansion spaces. These rewarded expansions must then be purchased using coins before they can be used. Coins can be acquired from Residential buildings, by successfully completing quests, and by supporting another player’s city with your troops. Medals and Diamonds can also be used to buy city expansions without the need for research. Diamonds, as mentioned above, can be bought using real-world cash while Medals can be acquired by winning tournament matches against other players. Players can join tournaments through PvP towers which can be unlocked by conquering the province they’re located in. Conquering will be explained in the next paragraph. Players also gain leadership points by participating in tournaments. Leadership points determine your rank in tournaments.

The Conqueror

Forge of Empire’s gameplay is very straightforward and lacks a storyline to follow. Like most browser-based strategy games, players need to expand their empire and acquire more land. However, unlike typical games of the genre, players don’t actually conquer other cities. Expansion is limited to expanding the borders of their own cities and conquering neighboring provinces in the single-player campaign. The single-player campaign allows players to conquer territories in their own instanced continents where they can acquire resources that will help players to sustain the needs of their growing city.

To conquer neighboring provinces, players need the aid of scouts. Scouts, unlike other units, can’t be recruited from military buildings. Players need to pay coins to be able to use a scout. Once a province is scouted, players are given the choice to attack a segment of the province. Players gain resources after successfully defeating a segment of the opposing city. Players then move to another segment until the player has conquered the entire province.

To attack, players must first have an army. Forge of Empires features a turn-based combat system where players deploy their units on a hexagonal grid system. Different units have varying movement speeds and attack distances. Taking these variables into account when formulating a plan of attack will help turn the tide of battle in your favor. Units like the Spearfighter are versatile and very effective even when matched-up against troops of different research ages.

Players can also plunder another player’s city to gain loot and resources. Players can attack neighboring cities by selecting them from the neighborhood list, from PvP towers, or by launching a counter-attack if you were previously attacked by another player. Unlike conquering provinces though, players can choose only one building to plunder. They can loot a Production building, a Residential building, or a Resource building.

Final Verdict – Good

Overall, Forge of Empires is a good, solid game. Despite its lackluster graphics, Forge of Empires offers unique features not found in most browser-based strategy games, such as control over building placement and a single-player campaign. The game revolves around diplomacy and conquering enemies. It’s a fun game in the early stages, when you only have one city to worry about, and is perfect for casual players. However, it does become more tedious and time-consuming as players conquer more and more cities, which, for some reason, appeals a lot to hardcore players of this genre.