Building an empire isn’t just about meeting new and interesting people and whacking them with weapons.

You’ve got to train your soldiers, feed your citizens and find new and interesting weapons to whack your enemies with. In Rise of Kingdoms you need to think about your own people as well as how best to deal with your many enemies.

First of all, you have to choose your empire. You can choose from eight civilisations including British, German, Japanese and Korean. Each one has its own distinct visual and combat style with upgradeable commanders including Boadicea and Genghis Khan. Then, you have to build your city and your army, strengthening your defences and making your attacks more powerful.

The game world is really, really big, and most of it begins as a mystery. You’ll send out scouts to discover new areas, and inevitably that means discovering new enemies too. You can attack barbarian forts and cities, harvest crops and team up with allies to make your armies even stronger, and you can battle on multiple fronts simultaneously.

Events take place in real time, so you can go and do something else and have your phone or tablet notify you when your forces need your expert attention. It’s a whole world, and all of it could be yours. Now get whacking.