Nikephoros II Phokas

Nikephoros II Phokas (Latinized: Nicephorus II Phocas) (Νικηφόρος Β΄ Φωκᾶς, Nikēphoros II Phōkas) (c. 912 – 10–11 December 969) was Byzantine Emperor from 963 to 969. His brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century.

Early exploits

Nikephoros Phokas was born in about 912 and belonged to a Cappadocian family which had produced several distinguished generals, including Nikephoros' father Bardas Phokas, brother Leo Phokas, and grandfather Nikephoros Phokas the Elder, who had all served as commanders of the field army (domestikos tōn scholōn). His mother, whose name is unknown, was a member of another powerful Anatolian clan, the Maleinoi.

Nikephoros joined the army at an early age. He was appointed the military governor of the Anatolikon Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII. When his father was wounded in battle in 953, Nikephoros was promoted to supreme commander on the eastern frontier. In the war with the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Muti, Nikephoros began with a severe defeat in 954, from which he recovered in the following years with victories in Syria, starting in 957.

Age of Empires: Castle Siege

Age of Empires: Castle Siege is a free-to-play medieval MMO tower defense game in the form of a Windows app, designed for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone. Released in 2014, the app features micro-transactions to aid in rapid development of a Castle and to improve defensive and attacking capabilities. It was developed by Smoking Gun Interactive and Microsoft Studios, and was formally announced on August 26, 2014. Unlike any preceding Age of Empires game, Castle Siege takes the form of a tower defense game.Castle Siege was made available on the iOS in 2015.

Gameplay

In Age of Empires: Castle Siege, the player maintains and develops a castle that produces resources, which can be used to train and upgrade buildings and troops, as well as research new technologies. The trained troops are used to attack other players' castles in order to loot their resources and to earn crowns, the game's scorekeeping mechanism. Upgrading buildings is needed in order to generate resources faster, hold more resources, defend the castle against enemy attacks more efficiently, and unlock new technologies. Researching new technologies grants multifarious advantages to the players, such as additional crowns in case of victory, and reduced resources that can be looted from the player from each attack. Players can also form alliances with each other for various social and strategic functions, such as supplying each other with Relief Forces, which help players to defend against enemy attacks.

Age of Empires

Age of Empires is a series of personal computer games developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. The first title of the series was Age of Empires, released in 1997. Since then, seven titles and three spin-offs have been released. The titles are historical real-time strategy games, and their gameplay revolves around two main game modes: Single player and campaign. They competed with another popular strategy series, Civilization, and are set amidst historical events.

Age of Empires focused on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age; the expansion game explored the formation and expansion of the Roman Empire. The sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, was set in the Middle Ages, while its expansion focused partially on the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The subsequent three games of Age of Empires III explored the early modern period, when Europe was colonizing the Americas and several Asian nations were on the decline. The newest installment, Age of Empires Online, takes a different approach as a free-to-play online game utilizing Games for Windows Live. A spin-off game, Age of Mythology, was set in the same period as the original Age of Empires, but focused on mythological elements of Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology.

Nicephorus

Nicephorus, Nikephoros, or Nikiforos is a Greek male name, meaning "Bringer of Victory", which was commonly used among the Byzantine Empire's aristocracy. It may refer to:

People

Other uses