New World Empires: SWORDS OF THE PROPHETS is a single-age prequel mod to Rise of Kings: CHRONICLES, and the first installment of the NEW WORLD EMPIRES series of mods.
One of the more well-known mods created for Rise of Nations since its emergence in early 2004, the Rise of Kings mod series is now available as a mod for the Steam edition of Rise of Nations. Whereas CHRONICLES concentrates on the six centuries following the rise of the Capetian Dynasty in France and the fall of the Tang in China, SWORDS OF THE PROPHETS this time hasan earlier start date - 666 CE, and functions as a prologue - albeit much belated - to the 10th century world of CHRONICLES itself.
Factions
- To view a faction, click the roundel associated with that faction. You may hover your mouse pointer over a shield in order to find out to whom that banner or region belongs to.
To view what factions replace which vanilla factions from Rise of Nations, consult this page.
FEATURES
While the Rise of Kings series concentrates mainly on booming and expanding (the historically accurate long run scenario), New World Empires instead is built around rushing. Unlike Rise of Kings where you must first research new techs in order to open up all military options, here the barracks and the hovels are immediately ready. However, as this mod covers only a short span of time - 200 years - cities are understandably costlier, but buildings cheaper.
- 24 completed factions featuring different playstyles - from the melee-heavy Norse and Tibetans, to the more mobile Turks and Arabs (Saracens don't exist).
- More custom units, with many new models and animations.
- A more variegated and complex mercenary management system. The Outpost isn't the only player in town.
- Aggressive gameplay. Barracks and Hovels can be built right away without the need for "teching up".
- Morale and information warfare. The LOS of most buildings and mercenaries is drastically reduced, making spies more useful. Professional units have higher LOS, while levies don't have any.
- Faction-hosing units - they make a comeback from Kings and Conquerors — but this time, their task is usually punishing units from their own same cultural group.
- A full set of medieval wonders to flesh out the Early Middle Ages experience.