Discover Age of Nations Episode 103: "What Lies Beyond"

[DanQ]

Furthering the (re-)discovery of the machinima and live-action blended series Age of Nations (AoN), this week's focus is on Episode 103: "What Lies Beyond". In addition to being able to download the episode in Windows Media (WMV) format from the course website, you can also stream it off of YouTube. Set in the Rise of Nations universe as the first Real-Time Strategy (RTS) machinima series and first for the game, AoN ran for one season of 14 episodes and ending with a featurette released in July 2007.

As described for the series' third episode:

The three military leaders continue to bicker over best courses of action, though ultimately come to a tense compromise.

As this unfolds business interests advance, research starts to accelerate and an unexpected countermeasure threatens to disrupt it all.

Afterwards, you can also stream the commentary on the episode or download directly if you prefer; first released in February 2006, it has been absent from public distribution for more than three years to today. From the now defunct game developer Big Huge Games co-founded by Civilization II and Alpha Centauri Lead Designer Brian Reynolds, RoN worked to incorporate Turn-Based Strategy (TBS) elements into an RTS environment.