Using this game during the pandemic to fight depression-connecting with friends and family

I struggle with some psychiatric conditions, depression being one of them, and this game has been one of the few that can hold my interest most days. I don't do much other than a game or two whenever my dad and bestie have time to do a match against the computer, but it's super convenient that my new refurbished laptop can at least run this game. It's really nice, and has some great replay value-after being away from HD for a year or so, I was a little rusty playing, my feudal/castle times were relatively slow and comparable with someone who's never memorized a build order-although I did manage a 20min castle age time one game, which on the Art of War tutorial is the lowest grade(and all I had to do was vaguely remember to stop upgrading techs in Feudal and put the bare minimum of gold miners and wood cutters down to make it. Made things a lot easier. Still haven't had the interest to use the Art of War to learn more strategies.). I'm the best of us, and my bestie juuuuust started playing this game about a month ago, whereas my dad is using an old set of skills from back when this game came out in 1999(We played a lot of it back them. Some of my favorite memories are from that game and the Conquerors Expansio). He and I played a little bit during HD, but it never really took off to be a huge past time. Even though we've only tried Moderate AI opponents once(spoiler alert: We lost) and Standard difficulty is kind of getting boring, it's honestly such a nice break from feeling like a sad sack of potatoes all the time. Thanks Microsoft Studios and Forgotten Empires for releasing the DE, and for only 20 dollars, too. I feel so thankful I get to enjoy quality time with some of my favorite people.