Age of Empires: Castle Siege

The castle was built around a keep, surrounded by buildings of various types. Economy buildings produced and stored resources, while military buildings were used to unlock, upgrade and train armies. The castle was protected from enemy attacks by fortifications, including walls, towers and various traps. Players could also build decorative constructions that served no practical purpose. All buildings could be updated to increase their production and to gain additional perks. Updating the keep increased the number of buildings allowed and made additional building types available. Sometimes players were provided with some "boost buildings" which could boost the production rate of production buildings or training rate of army camps, for instance, the "medieval fair". One of the "boost buildings", called "festival market", could be bought with gold. When attacking, however, a player didn't need to destroy "boost buildings" (if there were any present in the castle under attack) in order to get stars from a battle.

There were three types of resources for construction: food, wood and stone. Gold was an in-game currency that could be used to speed up building and researching processes or to buy other resources. Gold was awarded in daily game play, and could also be purchased with real-life currency. The player's base also produced pennants, used to recruit hero units and special troops. Pennants were sometimes used to research new technologies, too.

The armies consisted of four unit types: infantry, archers, cavalry and siege weapons. Each civilization also had its own special unit; these were more powerful than the basic units, but also required more resources to recruit. The player could also include up to two hero units in each assault. The heroes were the most powerful units in the game and they all had some special ability. All units could be upgraded to make them more powerful, albeit by upgrading, the cost of training would also be increased.

A maximum of two heroes could be taken into combat when attacking (but not defending). Each hero had a unique skill, and all heroes had a very high HP and DPS, so they were the most powerful units in the game. Once the player had built the Hall of Heroes, the player would get the first hero of their civilization for free. Players could unlock and upgrade heroes using pennants in the Hall of Heroes.

Players used their armies to attack each other's castles. The player had six minutes to break down the defenses and destroy as many buildings as they could. Resources could be looted by attacking storage buildings or production buildings while pennants could be looted by attacking research buildings. A victory was achieved if the attacker was able to get at least one star. One star would be given to the attacker if the attacker destroyed either the keep or at least half of the buildings. Another one would be given if the attacker destroys both the keep and at least half of the buildings. The attacker can get three stars if the attack destroys everything in the castle. The attacker takes away some of the defender's crowns from a successful attack, or gives some crowns to the defender if the attack is unsuccessful.