different powers. Fryhtans are fictional beasts that hoard treasure and hold "scrolls of power", objects that enable players to summon greater beings. They are quite powerful and may attack human kingdoms. Interactive Magic later released a free patch that added three new cultures - the Egyptians, the Mughals and the Zulus - and a new war machine, called the Unicorn. The game was re-released on June 8, 1998 under the name Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries with this patch included. Reception Sales Commercially, Seven Kingdoms was overshadowed at launch by competing real-time strategy titles such as Age of Empires, Total Annihilation and Dark Reign. Writing for CNET Gamecenter, Allen Rausch reported that the game was "buried" by the large number of releases in its genre at the time. The game was particularly dwarfed by Age of Empires, according to T. Liam McDonald of PC Gamer US, who placed part of the blame for Seven Kingdoms sales on its "indifferent ad campaign and weak graphics." However, both Rausch and McDonald noted that Seven Kingdoms had attracted a dedicated fan following by 1999, at which point Rausch wrote that it had sold "fairly well". In the United States, the game sold roughly 35,000 units by November 1999, according to PC Data. Global sales of Seven Kingdoms, its expansion pack and its sequel surpassed 200,000 units by 2000. Seven Kingdoms The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings (though almost all of them belong to its sequel rather than the original). Seven Kingdoms was the finalist for GameSpot's 1997 "Best Strategy Game" award, which ultimately went to Total Annihilation. The editors wrote, "Even in light of fierce competition from this year's other top-notch strategy releases, Seven Kingdoms stands tall as an inventive, enjoyable product destined to be remembered." However, it won the publication's "Best Game No One Played" award. In a 1999 retrospective, Computer Games Strategy Plus named Seven Kingdoms as a runner-up for its "10 Essential Real-time Strategy Games" list. The magazine's Steve Bauman wrote, "Its combat is nothing to write home about, but few RTS games have a better build-up phase, with a slick visual representation of trade and economy." Ancient Adversaries The Ancient Adversaries expansion pack received "favorable" reviews according to GameRankings. See also List of strategy video games References Seven Kingdoms II Strategy Guide, M. Knight, Prima Games, External links Official Website (archive 2009) Enlight Software