Not being able to see the supply cost of individual units is a bit archaic, though.
I did like the ability to man stone walls with archers and footmen (and even storm them with siege engines!), a mechanic I do not believe was present in previous entries, and the ability of scouts to automatically gather livestock is a nice touch. You wouldn’t want to disappoint history, would you? Has history seen your latest report card?) To like the RTS genre is to like this setup, so I’m not complaining, but it would have been nice to see a little more variety on this front, such as an escort mission or two. The odds are in your favor that you will win. Some scenarios have fail states or timers, but it is almost always impossible to fail unless you completely squander your resources. There is almost always a secondary objective or back route to complete your main objective. You will either be attacking, defending, or completing a specific task, such as the building of a wall or the flanking of an overwhelming foe. Your guys are blue, the bad guys are red, allied or neutral units are yellow or white. These battles consist of the tried-and-true scenarios that are part-and-parcel of the RTS scene. You are able, of course, to skip these bits at any time and jump right into the action. Rich people problems aside, you will learn a lot from playing Age of Empires IV, which almost feels like playing through a documentary straight off of The History Channel, but with fewer aliens. Seriously, the scent of history hindsight is so strong in these games that you could almost conclude these old-timers waged war for lack of anything better to do. These story bits do a great job setting up the context for each mission, which– spoiler alert– often come down to three things: ascendancy, family squabbles, and unlimited power! Every encounter is interspersed with high-quality narrated cutscenes that merge dramatization and animation and are quite fascinating. Age of Empires IV spans 500 years, from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, and features four factions over four campaigns: The 1066 Battle of Hastings, the Hundred Years War, the Mongol Invasions, and the Birth of Moscow. Relic Entertainment picks up the reins this time, and they are no strangers to the real-time strategy genre, having previously brought us award-winning titles such as Homeworld and Company of Heroes.