You get a special respawning hero from your temple upon reaching the Heroic age. A relic which is visible to everyone and sits in the middle of the map, guarded by strong Gaia animals and rough terrain so you can't build on it. your goal is to capture the flag(relic) and garrison it in your temple with your special Hero unit.
Only the special hero can pick up the flag(relic) to return it. Regular heroes like pharoah and hersirs and greek unique heroes can't pick the flag up. The flag is always visible to all players and if someone takes it, there is a notice to all players. They can see exactly where he goes with it.
A team wins when they capture the relic or destroy all enemy temple.
I see 3 strategies from this game.
Rushing to heroic to snag the relic first.
Rushing in the second age to either defend the middle until you reach the third age or attack an enemy base and try to kill their temple.
Wait for someone else to get the relic out in the open away from the dangerous middle ground and hijack the relic from the hero on his return trip to his base.
Heroes carrying the relic flag will move at 25% of their normal speed to give everyone a chance to react. If your hero goes down while carrying the relic, it sits where it was dropped and you have to wait for your hero to respawn. Guard the area with soldiers and myth units until your hero returns to stop other enemies from taking the flag.
Best for 3+ player Free for all. I don't think 1v1 or team games would be as exciting.