You’ve decided to start a new game of Rising Empires 2. Exciting times are ahead of you, as your scouts and warriors explore the darkness of the Netherworld and the Surface beneath the burning sun.

The process to create a new game is split in four tabs; Race, Religion, World and Computer.

Under the Race tab you decide the foundation of your empire. Most importantly what race to play:

• Dwarf – Short, stocky bearded humanoids with a long memory. Starts in the Netherworld.
• Elf – Long and gracious creatures of the wild. They love their bows. Starts on the Surface.
• Ende – Unliving terror who stand alone against the living races. Starts in the Netherworld.
• Greenskin – Hard and dark creatures from below ground. Comes in all sizes. Starts in the Netherworld.
• Human – This is what you get when you mix elves and dwarves. Starts on the surface.
• Krant – Small, swarming insects that eat everything in their path. Starts in the Netherworld.

Here you can also decide the empire colour and name.

Not deciding is also a decision. If no changes a random name will be selected for a green human empire.

The second tab allows you to decide the beliefs of your loyal subjects. There are seven religions to choose among:

• Cash is king – If you believe money is the answer.
• Protection of the weak – If you believe that defending is the best defence.
• Strength in neutrality – If you’re having trouble deciding what to believe.
• Survival of the strongest – If war is your true calling.
• There can be only one – If you believe that attacking is the best defence.
• Wisdom of the ages – If you believe the pen is mightier than the sword.
• Working the land – If you believe a thriving and well fed population is your true calling.

Not deciding means that Strength in neutrality will be selected as the belief of your loyal subjects.

Under the World tab all game settings and victory conditions can be set. The standard settings are that all empires start with a second smaller town and a wilderness filled with horrors lurking around and hunting your poor scouts. Map size sets how much map is generated for each empire. Fast means that empires start closer to each other while epic means longer distances for your armies to trek before they find their target. The total map size is also affected by the number of enemy empires that are selected under the Computer tab.

If you select observe mode an AI will be created for your empire and will issue orders at the start of each turn. If you wish you can observe the computer as it tries to do its very best to play your empire or you can take a more active part and change or adjust the orders issued by the AI.

The last tab, Computer, lets you decide the number of opponents as well as their race, religion and bonus that you’ll encounter in the game. When deciding what empires to encounter it’s important to know that the game world is divided between the Surface and the Netherworld and that all races have a specific start level (see information above). An equal number of empires must be created at each level. The number of empires that can be selected is 2, 4, 6 and 8 including your own empire. For each individual empire the race, religion and bonus can be set.

The difficulty setting will also set the bonus level for all empires.

There are four difficulty settings:

• Normal – The AI will play with exactly the same rules and settings as the player. No cheats!
• Hard – The AI will receive small bonuses to tax income, research, food production, loyalty and corruption.
• Very hard – The AI will receive medium bonuses to tax income, research, food production, loyalty and corruption.
• Impossible – The AI will receive high bonuses to tax income, research, food production, loyalty and corruption.

When you’re satisfied with you choices and decisions and are ready to start your new game of Rising Empires, just press the Create game button and start your journey to dominance.