Age of Penguins is easy to play. The play control is very intuitive, and the game concept is very simple.
How To Win
Destroy the computer's city -- or at least his Base and all his Workers -- before he destroys yours. Eliminating all his Bases/Workers effectively cripples him so that his city might as well be destroyed. Workers are needed to gather resources, and build new buildings.
How To Get Started 1. Sign up for a new account (totally free!) 2. Select your Time Zone (necessary if you want your score saved to the Hall of Fame!) Make sure the time displayed next to the drop-down box matches your computer's clock (more or less). This is to help those who don't know much about time zones :) 3. Select which level (map) you want to play. New accounts only have the first level ("Southern Enemy") as an option. As you beat each level, it is added to the list of what levels you can play. By the time you beat the game, ALL the levels will be in the drop-down box and you can select any of them! 4. Click the small red button, [Save Changes]. 5. Now you can Log in with your Login/Password that you chose in Step 1. 6. The [Launch Game Window] button will appear. Make sure your Internet connection is pretty much free, then click it! 7. The Game Window will launch, and the game will load. It may take several minutes, especially if it's the first time you've launched the game. 8. Watch the "loading bar" (in the lower-right corner) to see when the game finishes loading. 9. When in doubt, click [Start Game]. If the game is still loading, it will tell you so!
How To Play
Visit the Play Control page to learn the keyboard/mouse controls (again, they are pretty intuitive and easy to master). Then you should visit the Characters page, to learn what each unit type does. Between these two pages, you can probably figure the rest out. Anyone who has played other RTS games (Warcraft II, Age of Empires, Starcraft, etc.) should have no problems.
But to give you a few pointers:
Create many Workers - They are your resource gatherers, so you want a lot of them. You want to be able to gather resources faster than your computer opponent.
Create an army - Once you have Stone, Ice and Fish coming in, you should build a Barracks and start creating a fighting force. The computer WILL attack so you need to be prepared!
Put up a few Towers - They are tough (made of stone) and help with defense -- but they can be destroyed too, so don't get too carried away!
Build a second Base - Somewhere far away from your first one. You want to conquer more of the board, and gather even more resources.
Don't be afraid of the Computer - You don't want to dig in like a mole and let him become huge -- he will be much harder to defeat then.
Protect your Workers - They are your weakest unit - but losing a bunch of them can be devastating. For a crushing economic attack, take out the Computer's peons instead!
Save before a big battle - Saving takes a minute or so, so you don't want to save every few seconds. You should only save before you go on a major offensive campaign.
Go for the upgrades - You can upgrade Workers' gathering efficiency, and Strength/Speed/Health for ALL units. There are also a few things you can research which will allow you to make new kinds of units!
Balance your army - Variety is the spice of life. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses (speed, strength, range, etc.)
Attack in large groups - To increase your chances of winning a battle (and to increase the damage you do), send more than just a few soldiers out for an attack run. An attack party should have at least 4 members.
