Fighting Old Battles Again- And Need Some Help

Hello Everyone and Anyone!

This is my very first post on Reddit, in fact I just made my account today, and the reason I made the account was to ask questions about this amazing 17 year old game that people are apparently still playing. I have done a lot of searching online for information regarding the game, but a lot of it seems to be outdated or contradictory to other posts I find. This sub and Steam seem to be some of the only places I could find still even moderately active, though I could've searched deeper to be honest. I have a request for help to you all.

Let me lay out my situation for you:

I got EE when I was maybe 10 or so and was absolutely obsessed with it for obvious reason. It is the only RTS game in my entire library of games and the main reason I loved it so much as a kid was because of a heavy interest in mythology. I liked the RTS element of it at that time, but remember it to be challenging and I only ever really played on Easy against AI, never online and only a few times against Moderate AI. My favorite gods were the Norse, because they are Vikings and that is brutal.

I recently pulled back out my old disk and fell in love again. I quickly after bought EE with the Tale of the Dragon expansion on Steam rather than deal with the old disk. I am not a Steam frequenter so that is partially why I was not as inclined to post there, and I do not quite understand the entire patch/extras aspect of the page because I am not as much a PC player. I understand computers quite well, I just have never had any experience at all with adding patches or extensions to games on PC. My issue is that now my tastes and skill level have grown significantly and just playing the campaign on Easy is no longer enough. I want to attempt to go Online to play, but I am concerned about my skill level and more-so somewhat paralyzed by indecision. This indecision comes from my lack of knowledge of the game outside of AI experiences and what I can find video-wise.

I am a mathematician so I really feel that I cannot move ahead until I have the necessary information and data. The first step to getting that is if someone could please point me to a patch/expansion-thing on Steam that gives all the information on units and Gods for EE and Tale of the Dragon. For example, I know that Zeus give +100% infantry damage to buildings, or something like that, but the plain game just says "Zeus improves attack against buildings". I would like to know what the specific percentages and bonuses are and I would assume this lays in a patch somewhere. A small bit of guidance on what to do with the patch or file would be much appreciated as well.

Secondly, I have questions about the Tale of the Dragon expansion adding in the Chinese culture. I am not sure if it is just because it is new to me, but I really like playing these folks. The problem is that I realize they come with a lot of issues, however I do not want this to dissuade me from having fun with them so I would like to ask some questions to better understand and play with them in the future. Most information I find on Chinese comes in clumps of time, I gather that when they first came out they were extremely strong, then they got really nerfed, then any information on them goes dormant. I gather that the Chinese are good for early-game infantry rushes using god powers, and that they lack many good myth units. I have notice the Chinese seem to take a lot of wood at the start of the game making my first/second age very slow, then it booms after that and I never run out. I see that Chinese are a lot of cavalry, which I am not a fan of personally, but I like their archer-siege units and I am in love with the monk conversion, that is awesome. I am really lost as to the benefits and costs of each Chinese god, as I cannot seem to find a nice path all the way up a God Line. For example, if playing Greek I will generally pick archers or all infantry and focus my god choices easily and accordingly, for Chinese culture I find myself going back and forth on which is most beneficial and then not often being happy with my choice. Is all of what I have thus far true? Is there any good tip, strategy, or technique for the Chinese culture that I have missed out on.

To cap things off, I have found a lot of videos online going over strategies and specifics. I have watched a lot of videos by BoIt who I know frequents this sub (hello if you read- big fan). I am lastly wondering if anyone has some general tips for me regarding starting off going Online. I am definitely a more reserved player, I prefer to defend and build out to claim villages using walls and castles/strongholds and amass an army. I have never been very good at an aggressive play style because I am worried about losing an army or being attacked while I am on the offensive. I also usually can exploit AI by not finishing walls and things like that, which won't work against a human of course, so what should I expect or be prepared for so I am not surprised when I see something widely different from the AI. I really still love the Norse, even though I have come to find they are not exactly the best culture. I have been practicing a lot with Egypt as I have gathered they are strongest, but I honestly really like just playing with "Random God" on and adapting. I am also only loosely familiar with unit match-ups, but I think the "details" patch may help with that.

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I am sorry that I am someone who writes books for posts, my emails and texts are always similar haha. I hope someone is willing to help out, and I am happy to finally be a member of the community!