Age of War — Play Free Online

Age of War is less a shooter than a tug-of-war. Two bases face each other across a flat battlefield, and you never aim a weapon yourself. Instead you spend gold on units that march toward the enemy base on their own, while the computer does the same from the other side. The category label says action, but the real game is about timing your spending and deciding when to upgrade.

A match is a slow build into a clash. Early on the armies are small and trade blows in the middle of the field. Gold arrives from kills, so winning the early skirmishes lets you afford better units, and better units win more skirmishes. Players who like strategy that unfolds in real time, without a lot of menus, tend to settle in quickly.

On a site built around Doodle Jump, this is a change of pace: no reflexes, no endless climb, just a match that you win or lose over several minutes.

How to play

The game is driven mostly by the mouse or by taps on a phone. You click the unit buttons at the top of the screen to train soldiers, and each one costs gold. Units queue up and walk toward the enemy base automatically. The page lists arrow keys or WASD for movement and mouse for aiming and selecting, but in practice the clicking is where the action is.

Besides units, the same menu lets you spend gold on defences for your own base and on upgrades. Your base also has a special ability that recharges over time. Fire it when the enemy has bunched up in front of you, not when the field is empty.

Gold is not the only resource. Fighting also builds experience, and when you have enough you can advance to a new era. A new era unlocks stronger units and defences, and it is the main way to break a stalemate. Advancing costs you nothing in gold, but you give up the chance to spend that time on the current army, so choose a moment when your line is holding.

Tips

1. Do not spend every coin the moment you have it. A couple of strong units usually beat a crowd of weak ones.
2. Keep an eye on the experience bar. Reaching the next era before the computer does is often the deciding edge.
3. Save the special ability for a moment when many enemies are clustered, so it does the most damage.
4. If you are losing the middle of the field, build defences at your base and recover rather than feeding units into a losing fight.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

Bloons Tower Defense 2 is the closest match here, because it is also a strategy game where you spend money to hold off waves, though you place towers instead of marching units. Day D Tower Rush shares the defence-and-build idea. Fireboy and Watergirl and Ovo 2 are the opposite end of the catalogue, with platforming and quick reactions in place of planning.

It suits a longer sit-down session, played with a mouse, but touch controls make it workable on a phone as well. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.