Medieval warfare is all fun and games or is it?

AGE OF EMPIRES II

One of my favorite games for the DS was Age of empires II: The age of kings  a  turn based strategy game that allows you to take command of  5 heroes/nations Joan of Arc( Franks ), King Richard I( Britons ) , Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Japanese) , Genghis Khan (Mongols) and Saladin (Saracens) The goal of the player is to either win via a skirmish  which allows the player to chose their difficulty their hero and map or via campaign where the player have to complete objectives for the various nations based on actual historical events.

So what can the game play be classed as?

Personally I would class this game play as Ludus as the only way to win is to fill in certain objectives such as make sure your general doesn't die or destroy all opponents units or win in a certain amount of days. However it is only this strict in the campaign mode where your objectives are based on the actual historical documents of the various heroes. But in the skirmish mode where you control most of the variables such as Map layout opponent AI & Difficulty toggle Fog of war Etc. This is also Ludus( meaning to play by objectives) because the only way to win is by destroying their opponent however it is not as strict as the campaign as it allows for the player to develop their own strategy and it is also dependent on what AI they picked and what difficulty level it is set to.

So what type of play is it

The most prominent  type of play is Agon (competition) as you are essentially fighting for your own units survival as well as be the first to find  and build on all the gold and food resources  be the first to rise though the ages and to research new technologies. The sole purpose of the game to defeat your opponent be it the AI or human player via the hot seating multiplayer option. So what other types of play does this game contain? Well I would say it contains elements of mimicry(simulation as you are essentially serving as the leader of the army or are you?  I say this because the game takes place in God view which means you are the overseer of the whole map (or the parts your nation has explored if you have fog of war on) and you control multiple units albeit one at a time but the turn doesn't end until you decide. So how does this show simulation? well instead of playing one role you can play multiple roles within the role of overseer for example you can either act as the fearless general leading your troops into battle or play as the general who values is town by staying on the town center using his/her skills to help benefit research or increase gold/food yield or decrease the cost of buildings. What I trying to say is that even if the player cant be physically represented in the game and depending on their own sense of imagination they themselves can take on the roles of these heroes and change them slightly to suit their own personal style.