This expansion extends Field of Glory II back to 681 BC, and allows players to experience the last flowering of chariot warfare in the ancient near-East. It chronicles the decline and fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the rise of the Median and Babylonian Empires, and the conquest of these and the Lydian and Egyptian Kingdoms by the Achaemenid Persians. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, founded in the late 10th century BC, reached its greatest extent at the end of the reign of Esarhaddon (681-669), stretching from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the East to Cilicia (in southern Turkey) in the north-west, and Lower (northern) Egypt in the south-west. Its last strong king was Ashurbanibal (669-627), though Egypt seceded quietly during his reign. Following his death the situation rapidly deteriorated, with a series of civil wars. In 626 Babylonia rose in revolt. Between 616 and 609 the Assyrian Empire was destroyed by an alliance of Medes and Babylonians. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II then t