Gamereplays.org is currently recruiting writing staff for AoEIII, The Warchiefs, and other sections!

Writers are responsible for finding news related to the game they work for, posting them up for revision, and then posting them on the portals, by way of what we call a newspost, a 100-300 word summary/overview of a piece of news. Becoming a Writer is a great way to improve your reporting and writing skills. You may even get the opportunity to interview video game developers! An application link is below.

You can improve your English and writing abilities while having a fun, pleasant, and rewarding experience on one of the rising RTS community/media sites today. Please only apply if you want to actually contribute to Gamereplays! Any questions about the position may be sent to the application link.

We hope to see you on staff for Age of Empires III and The Warchiefs! Please continue to tune in for more information relating to all the latest RTS genres from Gamereplays and its writing staff.

Applications Can Be Sent Here

Cyclooctane, one of our members, has finished his newest interactive Quick Reference Guide. This guide is a comprehensive spreadsheet which covers Age of Empires III, the War Chiefs and the Asian Dynasties. It answers a lot of common questions and the worksheet tabs are categorized in an alphabetical order.

The following topics are covered by his spreadsheet: buildings, breakeven calculations, the Fire Pit, Home City shipments, Minor Natives, resource rate, general strategy guides, technology information, unit information, and miscellaneous information.

View or download this guide and discuss it in our general discussion forum.

Next week Ensemble Studios are going to be putting up a grand big batch of Age of Empires swag for auction on eBay, and the funds will be available to the Child's Play Charity which helps children in kids' hospitals. The charity was started by the individuals at Penny Arcade who encouraged gamers to give and make a optimistic impact. Ensemble Studios are going to pay the delivery costs and theyll ship this stuff to anywhere in the world so they won't be leaving any of their fans out of this! Here is the gigantic list of stuff that will be up for auction, with every piece being signed by members of the development team. A great gift which will be shipped in a swank trunk for any Age Player:

• Age of Empires
• Age of Empires: Rise of Rome Expansion
• Age of Empires II: Gold Edition
• The Making of Age of Empires II
• Age of Empires III
• Age of Empires III: Collectors Edition
• Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs Expansion
• The Making of Age of Empires III
• Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (Nintendo DS)
• Age of Mythology: Gold Edition
• Age of Mythology Collectors Edition
• Age of Mythology: Soundtrack
• The Art of Empires: Collection of art from Age of Empires book
• Age of Empires III: Board game
• Collection of shirts from various Age games
• Age hats

Finally, after two years of playing Plantation games and some going as far as to hack the game, the Home City Leveling System has changed. Instead of starting a Home City at Level 1 when you create a new one, it starts at a higher level based on your current highest level Home City. Here is a chart showing how the changes will work:


However, here is the catch: If you start a new Asian civilization, it will start at level 10 unless you already have an Asian civilization created. For more information, please visit this post on Age Community

Expect the changes to be effective tomorrow.

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. An action-packed match where the British player defends effectively with Longbows and Hussars against an double xbow rush.

Download & Discuss the replay here

Our 5 card-deck tournament has finished and The_Demon took the win after having to face top 10 players like _H2O, Flooky and NaturePhoenix. Congratulations!

We saw some very interesting games in the tournament, cool strategies and civs used you don't see a lot in normal 1v1 play. Especially the Germans were very good in this tournament, but almost all civs have been used which is great. You definitely want to check out the recs, they are mostly pretty short but very action packed. Download them here

Also, if you have any suggestions for our next weekend tournament, please send it to me or Blue_Gaiden and we may use it. However, we are quite possibly going to host a big tournament shortly after TAD is released so the next weekend tournament wont be any time soon.

The Age of Empires III section here at GameReplays.org is currently recruiting staff members for the The Asian Dynasties! Become a Replay Reviewer or Strategy Specialist (aka Strategy Moderator) and get your name known throughout the community as well as improve your skills by critiquing and helping others.

A Replay Reviewer is responsible for picking out recordings that other GameReplays.org members post and writing up a short summary of the game and the pros and cons of each players' game. Becoming a Replay Reviewer is a great way to start out as a staff member at GameReplays.org. PM Asko for more information or to apply.

Strategy Specialists (formerly known as Strategy Moderators) are responsible for creating guides and new, innovative, yet effective strategies for members to read. Pick a civilization, apply, and start helping out members with their questions and problems about Age of Empires III. PM Homer_J for more information or to apply.

Writers are responsible for finding news related to all aspects of the RTS gaming world, posting them up for revision and then posting them on the portals! Becoming a Writer is a great way to improve your Journalism and English writing skills. You may even get the opportunity to interview video game developers! PM Hooked to apply.

If you prove yourself as a great staff member, there are always opportunities for advancement to Senior or Admin level!

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. An outstanding game with constant action and very good microing performances.
Download and discuss the game here.

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. A very entertaining game which shows how dangerous Ottomans can be even without Trade Route or water.

Download and discuss the game here.

Gametrailers.com have just released a cinematic trailer regarding the new expansion pack, Age of Empires 3: the Asian Dynasties. Featuring astonishing graphics and some historical aspects, the new trailer looks amazing. Experience firsthand the rich and historical influences of Asia while commanding their units and expanding their empire in the Eastern world. Go to this topic to leave your comments.

Next weekend we will be hosting another small tournament, with a nice 50 prize for the winner. This time only 5 cards are allowed in your decks. The tournament is open for 32 players. Looking forward to seeing you all there and I hope we will get some awesome replays like last time.

You can signup and read the instructions here

With the upcoming release of the Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties expansion pack, DanaEileithyia, Game Admin of the AoE3 section, made a few guides to introduce one of the new factions: Japan. The guides contain the new Japanese Wonders and the new Japanese Units. DanaEileithyia plans to release more introduction guides soon.

The new expansion pack will be released in North America on the 23rd of October. If you want to have a sneak peak of the expansion, download the Demo. The demo will give you a good impression of the Japanese and a new map: Honshu. There will be two new gametypes released in TAD. In the demo, you can play King of the Hill where you capture a fort and then defend it until the timer reaches ends. Regicide, the other gametype, you have to protect your Regent (King) and kill your enemy's Regent.

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. An action-packed game with some great micro.

Download and discuss the game here.

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. An enterntaining game with constant action and fighting.

Download and discuss the replay here.

Our Strategy Moderator, Scenario Josh, has posted a Dutch Guide by the name Dutch Hussar/Skirmisher Colonial Warfare. In this guide he explains how to effectively use Colonial Warfare and the advantages one might gain from it.

"I have always leaned towards colonial warfare. Much more exciting and much more micro required. A colonial game is always exciting and if you are pushing in colonial, that means you make it that much more difficult for your opponent to go up to the next age, and you should gain the advantage if he attempts to do so. I prefer to keep pressure on my opponent, rather then to let him develop a strategy too long."

Click here to read the Dutch Hussar/Skirmisher Colonial Warfare Guide.

We are currently looking for TWC players who like to help the Age of Empires: The WarChief community by reviewing replays.

As explained in the Replay Reviewer Applications topic a Replay Reviewer needs to have the following key qualities:

• Good eye for new GOOD BO & Strategy
• Understand what a Build Order and Strategy is, and means
• Understand the difference between the two
• Be able to understand what micromanagement is
• Understand when micro is used well, and poorly

You also need to be good at reviewing peoples games. I know the above sound basic, but you will be surprised at still how many players cannot get these key things correct. You do not, by all means, have to be an expert at the game however you do need to be able to tell when someone is doing something bad, something good, and the most important how he can improve it.

If you're interested in this position, read this topic and pick a game which hasn't been reviewed yet. Once you have finished your review, pm the link to Asko. He will assess your review and pm you further instruction.

Good luck, applicants!

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. Super-entertaining game where an outstanding comeback can be seen and a new definition for fish booming is set. Download and discuss the replay here.

The AoE3 : TWC mentor/mentee project has started, a lot of mentees and mentors have signed-up already. The first pairs have been made, each group of mentors and mentees will get their own topic to discuss strategies, post replays and to give general help to the mentees to improve.

Both mentees and mentors are welcome, being both mentor and mentee is possible, don't be afraid to sign-up as mentor. For example as Captain you're perfectly capable to mentor a Sergeant.

The mentor project will run to the 16th of October and you can sign-up till 1st October

Click here for more information about the Mentor/Mentee project

Gamereplays.org is happy to present another Replay of the Week. An intense and entertaining French mirror where good micro can be seen.
Download & Discuss the replay here.

Both Bruce Shelly from Ensemble Studios and Ike Ellis from Big Huge Games updated their blogs recently. In Bruce's blog, he talks about Ensemble's upcoming game Halo Wars, the Age of Empires III board game, and a brief explanation about The Asian Dynasties at Leipzig.

Our producer on this project, Brian Lemon, says that whenever he checked our Asian Dynasties stations at the Leipzig game show were busy. This show is open to the public so anyone attending could walk up to a machine and start a skirmish game or play one of the early scenarios in the single player campaign. Most of the show feedback will probably be posted on the Internet in German, unfortunately.

Ike Ellis, lead designer for Big Huge Games, also updated her blog on IGN. She starts off by speaking about the early development of The Asian Dynasties. She also speaks about how the Age of Empires series has had an influence on all the staff at Big Huge Games.

The first step was to start in on our “one of everything” art milestone. During this phase, our goal was to build one unit, one building, one terrain set, etc., to capture the “Age” style. We didn’t even import these assets into the game. Instead, we immediately shared them with the talented art teams at Ensemble and Microsoft for critique. After a couple of rounds of tweaks, everyone agreed that we had successfully nailed the aesthetic. Of course, the next hurdle was to get the art working in the game.

GameReplays.org specialises in RTS replays. The very best players post the highest quality replays for all the games we support. We also have a dedicated team of Replay Reviewers who watch replays submitted by members and give feedback on how to improve.

The best way to get better is to watch replays, post replays, take note of comments about your play, and then to go and play some more!

We have a weekly ROTW (replay of the week) for AoE3 which is the most entertaining replay of each week, as well as having Elite and Legendary replays - games you should not miss watching! The best of the best.

Useful Links:
GR Replay terms explained
How to watch AoE3/TWC Replays
Apply to be a Replay Reviewer