The Rise & Rule of Ancient Empires is a 1996 empire-building strategy game developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra On-Line. In it, the player is able to choose from six civilizations: the Celts, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Indians, and Akkadians. Much of the focus of the game was building cities and armies. Each city had several buildings that could be upgraded, including a temple, a barracks, and a wall. Like the Civilization franchise, each city produced military units that would take turns exploring the map. It was considered "somewhat slower-paced than Civilization II and gets a bit dull on occasion", but easier for novice gamers as an introduction to the empire-building format. After release, it appeared in best-seller lists for the United States from the week ending 27