Unit selection limit is currently 40 in AOC and 60 in HD/DE. This is very restrictive when trying to manage large armies. Selection limit of 40 was appropriate in AOK, when population limit was 75, so could select more than half of population, which was likely enough for whole army.

Now when people can play with 500 population, which might mean army of 250 units, it is annoying to try to manage it in groups of 60 units. It is unnecessary hassle, which reduces fun in game.

People shouldn't be forced to manage their armies in groups, when it is not appropriate. Let them manage their armies in as big group(s) as they want and micromanage in smaller groups when it is more efficient.

Removing unit selection limit would really be a massive QOL change for DE, which would be welcomed by a lot of people :)

Hey! I'm a 1850 hd pleb that you can defeat in 10min with some towers. I don't want to be this pleb anymore, that's why I'm looking for answers. :-)

I recently had a 1v1 Arabia game where I got rekt to a strategy I still don't know how to handle properly. I was Teutons and he was Incas. He stole my boar and went 20 pop up Man-at-Arms + tower rush.

I have done some research to find the proper way to handle tower rush. What I found out is:
Scout the enemy a lot. Defensive tower asap and rush his tower down with vills. None of that worked for me that game.

Since he stole my boar, I pushed in 3 deers to make up for the food loss. This delayed my scouting heavily and I had no idea what he was going to do since I didn't scout his base.

He walled up his first tower and had Man-at-arm pushing and defending his villagers.

Even if I put up a defensive tower asap and moved 5 vills to stone, he still had 2-3 towers up before I had the stone to do a second defensive tower. He started to cut off all my resources and I just resigned.

I watched the replay as usual when I lose, and I still don't know exactly what I should have done differently.

What would your strategy be when your opponent stole your boar, into man-at-arm+tower rush?

Hello! Long time lurker here. AOE2 was one of my very first video games and I racked up hundreds of hours of it as a kid. It helped me through a lot of history classes, but mostly it taught me critical and strategic thinking skills as well as planning for the future. I want my kids to have the same thing.

I have an opportunity to start my own gaming club next semester for at max 30 students. They all have 1 to 1 chrome books and other than seeing if AOE2 is playable on their laptops, I need to come up with a curriculum of sorts. 1 hour a day, 2 days a week. Tutorial, Campaign, PvP, ect.

I think this would be an incredible opportunity for them and the school. At this point, I'm mostly just doing a big shout out and would love to hear any suggestions.

Age of Empires II celebrates its 20th anniversary today; soon, the second remaster of it, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will be released. The original game has an isometric 2D view, poor quality textures, unit models, and animations. The definitive edition keeps the isometric view, but has entirely new graphics, much better textures, and better/more animations. Yet, I don't like it as much.

I think the reason why I don't like it is because the new graphics detract from the experience as a whole. Different buildings blend together in a way that they don't in the original game, units are less distinctive from one another, resources stand out less, terrain types are less defined... and it makes what it is, a strategy game, harder to actually strategise with!

Having my enemies units pop out at me and being able to see what units I have around to counter them is important, for obvious reasons, and looking at a simple environment makes it easier for me to process things, and helps me feel more in control of the battlefield. In the same manner, I think a fully 3D view would detract from the experience as well, as it's just another thing to bother with that isn't strategy

That's my theory anyway. I'd like to know if anyone has any similar stories about how having poorer graphics makes a game better for them, or if anyone disagrees with my theory?

(Please no "nostalgia" comments, I swear to God)

Ello all,

Pr: 17; Played 2k games. 5 with this strat. Over 30 Russia games at least.

With friends I have played with Suvorovs Reforms and I am curious about the card.

I have some questions to ask the crowd and see what people think of it. In team games I can go strelets early pretty easily.

At age 2: 13 on food, 3 on wood and 400 wood from aging and ship 700 wood. Build two blockhouses securing hunts and wall with houses. Make streletes upon strelets only pausing to have 10-15 musks for cav defense. I can defend or rush with these guys. Then I can send boyars and the two sets of cav and make 6 more to have 15 cossacks and 60 strelets.

After this massing I just fight and save to age and replace strelets as necessary. Age with 17 stre or 5 cossacks and ship the two cannons.

I notice that because of the mass of troops and in base blockhouses I have a pretty good protected eco. I try to fast age to 4 - get Mercantilism and ship the two sets of heavy cannons and Suvorov's reforms.

By this I storm the enemy with 120 musks, 4 heavy cannons, 2 horse artillery, and a bunch of cossacks at the 16 min mark.

If Im able to send the fort card I will then make forts with the musks and keep the spam going.

This really hurts them and I can send factory from all the fighting xp.

My questions stem from Deck choices. I will post the deck pic later tonight but after 4 wins here are my struggles:

• When to send Suvorov? - Crazy good luck where the opponent sees 40 streletes - makes 20 hussar in retaliation and then sees 80 musks 6 min later.

• Very Shipment focused. I need to get a TP or just really take treasures and fight and raid more.

• Ransack good? I just use artillery for buildings and if you have won a battle ur infantry are already burning buildings - does it help much? As russia you also have oprichniks so not sure.

• Should I have strelet cards in the deck? Any way to improve musketeer hitpoints? Is advanced arsenal worth it?

• I know this may not be perfect for Top level play but man does it smash the meta. It stops the 50 ashi/musk/jan attacks in 9 min dead in its tracks. Strelets are mad upgradable/cost efficient. Early game it crushes any player from going mass goons. Im able to rush and crush France before Imp gendarme. Dutch ruyters spam is useless.

• While Suvorov doubles the hp of the unit (Stre to musk) am I losing something? Are strelets much better than musks? I love that also the mass of musks defend artillery well.

What do people think? What would you change or what card must I have?

Time for another weekly round of questions.

Talk about everything from build orders to advanced strategies.

Whatever your questions, the community is here to answer them.

So ask away!

Hi everyone! I just had the thought, that this might be a cool feature to add in DE. Let me elaborate. So the idea is to have units not in only one, but more command groups at the same time. An example: You have your drush in group 1, your scout in group 2 and your whole army (scout+drush) in group 3. If you want to select your scout to go scout, just hit 1 and go scout. Then, if you find a weak villager, hit three and attack with your whole army. This basic principle would apply for many different scenarios, where you divide your army into sub groups which you want to unite again at some point.

What do you think, could this be a useful feature in AoE2:DE? I think it would be nice to have and also not a gamebreaking mechanism.

Just a small thing, but at the moment a vast number of water maps are literally unplayable vs the ai (which represents a vast proportion of what people play) because the AI doesn't transport villagers to set up TCs on the mainland. I can't imagine this being particularly difficult to program, but would go a long way to improve the lives of the single player community.

Today marks 20 years since September 30th 1999, the day that Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings was first released.

What is your favorite memory of AoE2, and do you remember the time you first played the game?

Hey all-- Looking for a casual AOE2HD partner. I've racked up some serious hours (1000+) but still typically rank in the 1560-1650 range. I'm looking for someone USA based, preferably east coast. Just someone I can play with now and then. Add me on steam at WalrusMan7777 and just say you saw my Reddit post. My strategy is pretty good and I know all the counters etc. My micro is alright but my hot keys are shit. Just be a normal person who isn't like some extreme asshole. (What's up with all the racist shit these days in the chat?-- what the hell is wrong with people?) I've had a few people rage quit recently after they weren't communicating with me or they just straight up forgot to wall on BF. --SMH. So I'm looking for someone who knows how to play, but isn't an allstar- Someone around 1550-1650 would be good. In the end I'm hoping to play with someone enough that they'd be comfortable talking over the phone as we play. I just think it's better for strategy. (Totally cool to keep it all online too if that's what you prefer)

The feedback from the last showmatch was that the players loved the idea of teaming those that they don't usually play with for competitive events. They also mentioned that having to sit out games took out some of the excitement from the series. Taking those points into consideration, James, Oracle and I have decided to put together a 400$ Cross Secret aM Showmatch! Daut and I have played several rated games in the past few days to various degrees of success. Viper and Lierrey, while they rarely team up im 2v2 games are extremely strong on paper and have insane potential. It will be interesting to see which of these unusual combinations proves to be the strongest, and whether that will be due to individual skill or team chemistry.

DATE:
Friday October 4th starting at 18gmt

TEAMS:
A --> Daut + Hera
B --> Viper + Lierrey

GENERAL SETTINGS:
- You can't send resources until you are IN the imperial age (not clicking up)
- No restarts

G1: ECL Arabia
G2: HM Loser of game 1
G3: HM of other
G4: Gold rush
G5: HM Loser of game 4
G6: HM of other

G7: ECL Arabia

CIV SETTINGS:
- 1 global ban for each team
- Hidden no repeat for the games

MAP POOL & DRAFT:
- Desert, Cross, Mesas, Mongolia, Steppe, Team Acropolis, Prairie, Land Madness
- bans AB
- picks ABBA

PRIZEPOOL:
Winning Team: 300$
Losing Team: 100$

If anybody wishes to contribute towards the prize of this showmatch or is interested in sponsoring future showmatches, please message me on discord Hera#4278.

STREAMING:
The entire event will be streamed at twitch.tv/hera_aoc
Other streamers are welcome to broadcast the event as long as they give proper credit to the organizer and the sponsors, as well as create a command that includes a link to my stream. They must also include my name in the stream title (Hera's showmatch, organized by Hera, etc).

Hi everyone! Been a long time fan of AOE, played a lot as a kid and got back into the game. My girlfriend and I play together all the time via steam, and just recently we've been having waves of unbearable lag. The game worked perfectly fine a week ago but now our ping shoots up to 15k+ at times. We live close and have no lag on any other game,calls,video chat, anything at all.

If it's because of the steam client, does that mean if I move to voobly I'll have to buy the game again? I don't know what to do. For the last few months our favorite thing is to play AOE together against some bots but we can't do that now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-I'm not very good at the game but I really want to get at it and planning and learning a lot.

-I enjoy talking smack and I can be very competitive.(In a very friendly way)

• I do enjoy talking over voice chat but normal text chat is fine.

-I'm 17 male and live in the USA. I have lots of free time so I will be able to play a lot.

Soon

Upstream

• NEW: Windows/macOS packaging intructions (Link)
• FIXED: Typos and unreachable commands (Link)

Issues

• PROPOSED: Mark special pixels in LSB of alpha channel (Link)
• BUG: Prebuilt Qt and Packaging not working as expected (Link)

Too few bugs for your taste? Build the project yourself for Linux, OS X or Windows and report your own findings to us.

Open Discussions

Nothing new.

Roadmap

1. Rewrite of the coordinate system ✓
2. Merge eventsystem code ✓
3. Implement core gamestate
   • nyan file loading and pong demo
   • run pong with generic openage entities
   • Decouple the simulation from display
   • Define minimal gamestate for displaying entities
4. New converter
5. Create a simple demo for testing
6. Adapt the new renderer to the simulation model

Okay so as I was about to pre-order aoe 2 de on steam and check the system requirements and it says windows 10 (a specific version) or higher.

So my question is that the game won't be running on win8.1?

Both civs can always get 1 fishing ship out before their TC is up, and have solid Calvary and a solid eco bonus. They seem very similar to me. Whose eco bonus is better? Which would you rather play on standard Nomad? 1v1 or Team game?

Persians:

• Start the game with +50 food and +50 wood.
• TCs and Docks have double HP and work 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Team Bonus: Knights have +2 attack vs Archers
• UT: Boiling Oil. Gives castles +9 damage vs rams
• UT: Mahouts. Increases War Elephant speed by +30%
• UU: War Elephant

Malians:

• Buildings cost -15% wood (except farms).
• Barracks units have +1/+2/+3 pierce armor in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Gold mining is free.
• Team Bonus: Universities research 80% faster
• UT: Tigui: Gives TCs an attack without garrisoned units.
• UT: Farimba: Gives Stable units +5 attack.
• UU: Gbeto

Hey gang, been playing some of the AOE2 campaigns and noticed that the AI seems to be...off. Specifically I have played through Joan of Arc and Attila the Hun. In both campaigns (especially Attila), the enemy AI seemed content to pretty much sit back and let me have my way with them. They make little to no effort at attacking or putting pressure on me, beyond occasionally sending out the occasional 3-5 units that just run into my base and die to castle fire, which lets me quickly build up, mass heavy cavalry and trebs, and then steamroll them.

I'm playing Age of Empires II (2013) on Steam, fully up to date, with Forgotten Empires and African Kingdoms installed. I'm playing the campaigns on standard difficulty. Is there a patch or something to make the AI actually put up a fight, or should I just increase the difficulty?

(Original version in Brazilian portuguese: https://www.voxel.com.br/noticias/age-of-empires-4-quero-sucessor-digno-aoe-2-diz-melhor-mundo_845893.htm)

Text by Maximilian Rox (https://twitter.com/forkxx)
Translation by Márcio Medeiros (https://twitter.com/colombiamarcio
Proofreading by Robo (https://twitter.com/robo_boro_)

Age of Empires 4 is expected by many strategy fans and we already know that it will gain more information and gameplay in November. But by then, the best player in the world wants to see one thing just for the continuation of the franchise: make it as epic as Age of Empires 2.

In an exclusive interview with Voxel, the Norwegian Team Secret pro Ørjan "TheViper" Larsen explained his concerns and wishes for Age of Empires 4. "I want to see a worthy successor of Age of Empires 2", explains the player. "Similar gametype, similar time period, similar mechanics, just improved in every aspect and modernized".

Although his desire is to improve what we already have in Age of Empires 2, the Norwegian mentions that there is room to bring unpublished things. "I think they would have to go for new mechanics. RTS is a genre that isn't as popular as it used to be, maybe they would have to be creative and reinvent the genre a little bit. But if it would go too far from AOE2, it would be a disappointment again", says the pro, recalling the community that left Age of Empires 3 to re-compete in the previous game in the series.

Going back in time, TheViper recalls that Age of Empires 3 has had its problems, but the genre needs to strike the balance even more for pros and audiences to enjoy themselves in the process of deepening the game. "I think RTS is too complicated and demanding in terms of effort and skill set, that it can't compete with the less complicated, yet competitive games anymore."

"Those games simply appeal to more people as it's easier to play, yet competitive with a high skill ceiling. Maybe sometime in the future this will change again, but I don't see it happening any time soon", he explains.

The success, for TheViper, will also depend on how Microsoft will conduct the game along with the sports competitions. "I think the best would be if Microsoft laid down the law in terms of rules and settings for most tournaments. Then maybe there could be a cooperation between tournament hosts and Microsoft in order to make some tournaments that can be used in forms of a league/cups that score points with maybe a grand final somewhere? That would be incredible! But I hope Microsoft invests more and more into the competitive scene and makes it super interesting with AOE2:DE", he concludes.

A bit of The Viper's career in Age of Empires

TheViper is not an unfamiliar name for a fan of Age of Empires: he has been touted directly as the best in the world since 2012. The community knows and even jokes about it.

"Who's #2?" was one of the community championships in August this year and brought together four of the best players in the world. And guess what: TheViper wasn't there. Obvious reasons: He is the #1.

During the interview, TheViper also praised the Brazilians who are still present at Age of Empires international competitions. "Brazil has always had some of the best Age2 players in the world, and they're obviously very hard to beat. When I came through and started playing competitively, there was RiuT, dogao, Alive and Wrath to mention a few. Then there were also other players getting better all the time, such as F1Re, FeAge, miguel, St4rk, GoKu, etc. There are plenty more, but Brazil must be one of the countries with higher percentages of really good players", he recalls.

He himself has had the opportunity to almost lift the cup alongside two of them, Daniel "RiuT" Lima and Helenês "F1re" Romano, at the grand final of the Clan Masters: The Final Showdown in China in 2016. But on that occasion in specific, he ended up playing very badly.

"I remember [in this event] it being really rough on us, as all the players on our team had a pretty heavy night before. For myself it has to be one of my worst performances in a tournament. I remember throwing up 3 times before the final begun from being hungover, after 3 hours of sleep. It was just a really hard day, and it showed in my gameplay. It was still really heartwarming to see the Chinese audience and our opponents get so happy and excited. I would still prefer to have lifted the trophy myself though!", he jokes.

And yet, he almost won that championship against the Chineses [and Brazilian, because dogao was in SY and played until the semifinal].

"I remember we lost by a difference of one game. I was very angry. I remember that I was playing very well and precisely the Viper, who was the best in the world, did not play very well that day. And he was decisive. he's fine, we win, if not screwed", commented Brazilian RiuT on this occasion in an interview with Mais Esports.

We have one certainty: TheViper will be one of the names to be beaten in Age of Empires 4. It remains to be seen if it will last as long as the fans' love for Age of Empires 2.

---

TheViper answered more questions that were left out of the story but are worth getting published.

The competitive scene didn't stand long on Age 3 like Age 2. What do you think Age 4 should have to attract pro players?

TheViper: First of all it needs to be fun to play and feel competetive. Secondly, it must be fun for an audience to watch if it's going to become a proper e-sport. Thirdly, it needs investment in terms of tournaments and competitions, from Microsoft or other parties, or both!

We have Age 2 DE, Age 4 and Warcraft 3 Reforged coming up after such a long time without competitive RTS on the mainstream. Do you think that RTS could make a comeback and attract new players?

TheViper: I think RTS is too complicated and demanding in terms of effort and skill set, that it can't compete with the less complicated, yet competitive games anymore. Those games simply appeal to more people as it's easier to play, yet competitive with a high skill ceiling. Maybe sometime in the future this will change again, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

What was the best moment in your entire career?

TheViper: I've had so many great moments, it's really hard to choose. Competitively I can't really decide between winning some tournaments, such as NAC1, NAC2, ECL and World Championship in Maldives. LAN events are just something special, and being able to lift the trophy there is an incredible feeling, as you're able to celebrate and share the victory with friends and fans at the same time. I think even losing events like that is still an amazing experience.

And the hardest match you ever played?

TheViper: It has to be either the World Championship vs Yo in the Maldives or the KOTD1 vs Liereyy. Versus Mr_Yo I was down 0-2 in a Best of 5 in the Grand Final, and couldn't afford to lose another game. I was able to comeback and win. In the KOTD1 Grand Final, I was facing Liereyy, and after having a comfortable lead, he was able to fight his way back to a 4-4 score in a Best of 9. I was able to win that one as well, but both of them were very challenging in skill, but especially mentally, which is why I value them more.

The community is still playing Age 2 for such a long time. What do you think that keep all these players playing the game?

TheViper: I think Ensemble Studios simply made an amazing game that was way before its time. The gameplay never gets old, the civs are incredible well balanced considering the amount of civs, and also fun to play. Different map generations constantly make new games so that no game is ever the same. The new expansions has also freshened everything up a bit.

On top of that there is an amazing community behind this game. Players, fans, everyone is contributing in their own way. We have some amazing people as well that help keep the game alive with their contributions. Noone mentioned, noone forgotten, but we have a lot of people to thank for keeping this game alive.

I found myself in a situation today that I haven’t ever before, as I don’t think it’s too common, but I didn’t have a response and was hoping for an answer so next time I can react better.

Today I played in a 2v2 Arabia match, I was Incas, I can’t remember who my ally was or Enemy 1, but Enemy 2 was Persians.

I harassed him the Persian player a little bit with archers but spent most the time with my ally killing Enemy 1. We destroyed their base and started moving on to the Persian player when he clicks up to imp. All this gunpowder came swarming out of his base and wiped our initial attack, we won the game but it was closer than a 2v1 should have been.

I had been going arbalest but had started switching in to eagles when this happened.

I understand it’s all situational but in this case what do you all think the best move would have been?

BF 4v4 NPL. I was Aztec flank, while my opponent was Turks flank.

I thought I had no chance late game to survive against the turks (may you confirm this is true?) so I tried to rush him.
I think I did good, I killed plenty of his vills and delayed him.
The problem is, after minute 30 I started to suffer anyway. My pocket, which boomed (Franks) tried to help me but was destroyed.

I ended with the lowest score and get the blame from the other players for having thrown away this game with my bad decision. Is this true? What should I have done instead? Boom anyway?

Hi guys! Whenever I'm watching good player I notice they build their buildings in a composition, using them as walls or to take offense. Is there some sort of guide which explains it?

What‘s the best artillery out of: Heavy cannon Great bombard Rocket Flying crow

Hello to all of you.I need help to decide to buy the game or not.

My father wants to play the game on his new computer. He used to have windows Xp or 7, but the new one uses windows 10. When he tried to install the old game (gold edition with 1 and 2 and their expansions) he got some problems and the textures didn't work as intended. Because he is he, it's better to not have any patch or anything weird to solve the problem, so he is thinking about buying the game. this way he can play it without worries.

My doubts are that when we looked at the windows stare didn't let us buy, I see a lot of problems posted, even if they are mostly online, and I feel it's not as easy for my father and I would need to help him constantly about fixes or actualizations. Also, I would like to know if the client installs automatically the actualizations and if it is worth the bundle with aoe 1 and 2.

tl:dr My father wants to play aoe. Don't want complications of patches and other stories. And old games don't work as well with windows 10. Should buy or play with the ones that work more or less well?

Thank you a lot.

Supplies: Militia-line units cost -15F. Cost: 150F, 100G. Available to all civilizations except Goths.

Tracking removed: Effects apply to all civilizations for free upon reaching the Feudal Age. Slavs receive free Supplies instead.

I believe this is an indirect nerf for Goths. Because FU champions have always been decent vs Goths and Supplies would make them even better. It would be nice if they got a small buff or something in return.

In addition, unique infantry units like Berserks and Samurai may snow under when you can just build the cheap alternative: champions.

I also wonder what they are going to change for Malay since 45 food swords would be kinda OP.

Personally I like the idea of buffing the sword-line, but I'm not entirely sure if this will be balanced. Let me hear your thoughts on this!

So I'm fairly new to aoe2 and I have trouble prioritizing upgrades - I always upgrade for resources but what about TC upgrades, or blacksmith or university upgrades? Which are essential and which can wait?

For example: I would think that line of site upgrades at TC's are more important than gathering resources upgrades, especially in the beginning?

I guess it changes in regards to the strategy of your choosing?

I was playing the game perfectly fine the other day. Now it crashes after launch. Anyone else suddenly have this issue? I am unable to play on a different computer of mine with the same issue but this computer has always worked fine. I've tried app store troubleshooter, resetting app .

I'm really late to the party and this was my childhood game when I was 10 years old. Now Im 17 and I bought this game a few days ago and been enjoying it like when I was a kid. I enjoy the Russians (due to cheap mercenaries) and Sioux (unique playstyle and no houses) but what are some beginner friendly civilations for new players?

I just finished playing Bad North and had a ton of fun with its troop maneuvering and clever tactics. It’s a game game, but with only 3 troop classes and a relatively similar setup each battle it was a bit simple. Does anyone have any recommendations for games that would be a bit more complex and life like than this? I’ve played a few age of empires games and I was thinking something along those lines.

Hello everyone!

I'm playing aoe2hd semi competitively nowadays. Here is my question;

Is there a mod for making the trees in minimap more visible ? I did check workshop, but i can't quite find one. It would be also great if there is some sort of mod, that changes sizes/colors of gold/stone on minimap.

I do normaly play 1v1 arabia, but we sometimes play bf tg's with friends, and it's really hard to see the chokes to wall in my little lap top at minimap.

I found this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1302646708&searchtext=minimap

tho this doesn't seem to work at all.

Been playing a lot of 4v4 with my friends and cousins wondering what you guys think are strong civs to pair with each other.

All is in the title need ur opinions

hey choppers, we doing an Forest Prison Tournament 4v4 aoc on voobly.

Everyone is invited to signup, watch & stream this event. Players can signup with a team or alone ( they will team up with the other players that signup alone).

map screenshot: https://ibb.co/j89ytsX  

website: http://forest-prison-tournament.000webhostapp.com  

challonge: https://challonge.com/fptaoe2

Settings for This Tournament:  

~ Age of Conquerors ~

Games: Best of 3

Players: 4v4

Map: FN EFast XXLarge

Size: 8 players

Difficulty: Hard

Resources: Standard

Population: 250

Game Speed: Fast

Reveal Map: Normal

Starting Age: Normal

Victory Condition: Conquest

Team Together: Yes

All techs: No

Allow Cheats: No

Lock Teams: Yes

Lock Speed: Yes

Record Game: YES

MQ: Yes

Patch: 1.5 RC

Everyone picks what civlization wants for whole tournament ( Repeat civs allowed, also all players same civ  

Each Team MUST have 4 players. Each Team Will have an Captain. The Captain Must send his records to the admins.  

The Captains will talk with their teammates and decide a date and hour when they can play their games.

Im not a streamer, i just like playing this map with my friends and we thought that would be interesting an tournament for this. Everyone is welcomed no matter of the elo or experience with this map. I just want everyone to have fun.

Hey there,

My Dad bought me AoC back in the day and my favourite thing to do was to dick around in the scenario editor.

I used to try and recreate famous battles, build a massive city and lay siege to it, make a mazes, etc.

I bought HD recently and I really suck at it, I'd rather watch a T90 stream. But I still want to dick around in the SE. Here is the rub, back in the day if I gave my enemy like 300 units it would seek me out and attempt to fuck my shit up. With the new AI they just kind of stand around and unless I force a fight they do nothing, even then it's only units within the line of sight that do anything.

Help please?

Can anyone explain to me what happen to AM? I was watching mbl stream and he said that he doenst wanned to be on Heras team anymore. I whant to know the drama.

https://i.imgur.com/Wfjgfq5.png

The yellow and pink are both Titan Ai. Despite there being plenty of resources on their side of the map they flock to the TOWNCENTERS of red and green. They build around the starting towncenters as if they were their own, and begin hunting their food. Any Ai in white/red/blue/green works fine. But the 2 up north won't start unless they can get to red/green towncenters.

How ready are you to throw hands at any given moment?

Hello all,

I saw a post on here today that asked a question: "Is there a list with all units and counters to them?"

If you browse this sub you will probably see this question in some form or another a lot.

If you play the game a lot you will know that there is no simple answer in the form of a list. There are a multitude of factors that affect whether a "counter" is effective.

I think a quick answer many experienced players try and lean towards is hard and soft counters. For instance you might say skirmishers hard counter archers, rams are a soft counter.

However, this description brushes over some of the nuance and is, in my opinion, incomplete.

So that brings me to the point of this post, what is the difference between strategy and tactics?

This is the definition from google: "Strategy defines your long-term goals and how you're planning to achieve them. In other words, your strategy gives you the path you need toward achieving your organization's mission. Tactics are much more concrete and are often oriented toward smaller steps and a shorter time frame along the way."

In our example of hard/soft counters you might say: creating skirmishers is a strategic counter to someone going archers. Whereas producing rams is a tactic meant to accompany and empower your existing strategy, say producing camels/halbs any other unit.

There are many situations where we can look at strategy in tactics with reference to aoe2: Strategy: "I am going to ultimately win the game by disrupting my opponents eco developing my own."

Tactics: "To achieve this I will flood small groups of knights into my opponents eco to force him to lose villagers or idle them"

Strategy: "I will create Paladins and Skirmishers to defeat my opponents army of halberdiers and arbalest allowing me to push through into his base"

Tactics: "My skirmishers will sit behind my paladins and kill the enemy pikeman, my paladins will attempt to avoid the halbediers and attack the arbalest"

Even if you haven't thought about it specifically, this is ultimately what all of your decisions in aoe2 boil down to. Deciding on a strategy and using tactics to implement it.

With this in mind, although it may be a nice crutch for newer players to lean on, the idea of a list of counters is not necessarily something that any player should be looking to learn or think about.

Instead, think about what your opponents strategy is and how to counter it, either strategically or tactically.

You are playing a 1v1 arabia in castle age you're opponent is making knights. Understanding how to counter your opponent requires an understanding of what your opponents strategy and tactics are. Bearing in mind they may have multiple motivations.

For instance, knights in small numbers may be a tactical choice, meant to disrupt economy by raiding, pick off small armies and provide some mobility, distracting you while he transitions to another unit composition. Or small tactical groups of knights may morph into a large army of knights, possibly backed by skirmishers and siege forming your opponents strategic plan.

To counter the first threat there are many options: Small groups of knights may be walled out if the map allows it, a few well placed monks can deter knight raids. These counters work well tactically in certain situations. However, most experienced players will tell you they are poor counters to a large army of knights bearing down on your base. They are not a strategy.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you must try and think both strategically and tactically to counter your opponents. You need not strategically counter your opponent if you thwart his strategy tactically. There are lots of discussions about the matchup between xbows and knights. They are the two most popular unit choices in castle age and have quite distinct strategies neither of which directly "counter" the other, tactics decide the matchup. Xbow armies may hold to hills to gain an advantage, or use a chokepoint. Knights can use their mobility to strike where the xbows arent. Tactical counters can be deployed defensively or offensively to sway battles or protect at home while you strike at your opponent.

I realise I may be rambling a bit here so i'll try and wrap it up.

You must employ both strategy and tactics to succeed. Remember, tactics cannot win you a game, you must have a strategy. Too many times people will say, I made x, they counter y, yet I did not win. This is usually either due to countering an opponents tactics, not his strategy, or employing tactics without any thought to your own strategy. No one ever one a game by making rams to counter archers.

Recognising the difference between strategy and tactics can help you understand how best to counter your opponent.

If none of this makes sense I'm sorry, Im drunk.

Perhaps a dumb question, but not something I see a lot of.

I usually play solo VS AI. Various maps, AI, difficulties. What's the best defense method? As in how do you arrange it?

I usually have double walls followed by castles right exactly next to each other against the wall. I never bother with towers unless I have a weird defensive space and someone like Teutons.

Friend and me can't find it, only Episode 1. Anybody have a liink?

Just a fun exercise. Obviously one would have no outside knowledge and may decide to (or not) start from first principals. Assume that you have complete freedom of movement and access to empirical and analytic faculties but no established body of knowledge.

When garrisoning a unit inside a tower or castle, does that building attack increase more if a stronger attack unit is garrisoned?

For example, would a castle have stronger attack if a hand cannonier is garrisoned in it compared to a crossbow man?

I’ve been playing AoE2 since it was first released and always wondered this. Thanks in advance. This community is great.

Hello everyone, I’m doing my PhD in marketing and I’m focusing on esports sponsorships. Until the end of 2019, I will be doing 4 different surveys on this topic. Each survey will be launched only once and on different months to avoid fatiguing the community. The only exception is the 2nd survey which will be launched a second time, one month after all 4 surveys have been launched, because I need a larger sample for the 2nd survey.

​

All surveys are anonymous and done on Google Forms. The data from the surveys will only be used for my PhD thesis and to develop 6 articles that will be published in scientific journals. The participation of all esports fans is extremely important and greatly appreciated (surveys are only for people who watch/participate in esports).

​

This is the 4th survey. It takes about 8 minutes to complete and is related to how esports improve the sponsors’ image. Here is the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyH0RV3AUDqtTb1L9ZJiHZRxBiMFelgh7aVXnBgRsaCBIlWA/viewform?usp=sf_link

​

Thank you so much in advance.

I understand that this subreddit is not strictly related to esports but, since it has a gamer user-base, there may be some who watch/participate in esports.

If you are interested in easily following my next surveys (and their results), you can follow me here on Reddit or on Twitter: @EsportsAnalyses. Results are expected to be posted in this subreddit by the end of 2020.

This survey has been approved by the kind moderators.

Don't upvote I just need an answer from someone who has played Russia or at least knows them well. I know vanilla AoE3 well.

Is there a card or upgrade that gives Strelets a 3x damage modifier against infantry?

I ask because I played a game where a teammate asked why I don't have the "3x upgrade for Strelets... Noob". Hear me out lol.... I just googled, search all cards (even the Church card), played a 30 min round against a sandbox AI so I could check all buildings to see if TAD adds a new upgrade for Stretlets.

I know there are cards such as Stretlet Combat (15%), Boyars (10%), Advanced Arsenal (don't know total % off the top of my head).

Is there some hidden card or upgrade im missing? Or was my teammate the actual noob? He wasn't talking about Age upgrades (we were in Industrial and they were Guard).. I dont know enough about what TAD adds yet, but please let me know if this is even a thing. Thank you!!

I haven't played in a month or so, the last time I played it was still called Age of Empires II HD in my steam library, and the game desktop icon looked different. I don't know when exactly the game title switched to "Age of Empires II (2013)" as I didn't notice it when it happened, but now the game won't launch.
I get the initial desktop menu of "Play, Workshop, AOE website, Achievements" and when I select Play I get the "validating subscriptions" splash screen but it crashes immediately back to the desktop. No error code, nothing, just an immediate crash after the validating subscriptions screen shows up.
I was playing it fairly regularly not that long ago, when it was still titled Age of Empires II HD edition in my steam library, and it ran flawlessly on my system, so Im assuming that whatever patch was released to change the name of the game, also somehow made it unplayable on my system/account.
Does anyone on this subreddit have any advice?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone, I’m doing my PhD in marketing and I’m focusing on esports sponsorships. Until the end of 2019, I will be doing 4 different surveys on this topic. Each survey will be launched only once and on different months to avoid fatiguing the community. The only exception is the 2nd survey which will be launched a second time, one month after all 4 surveys have been launched, because I need a larger sample for the 2nd survey.

​

All surveys are anonymous and done on Google Forms. The data from the surveys will only be used for my PhD thesis and to develop 6 articles that will be published in scientific journals. The participation of all esports fans is extremely important and greatly appreciated (surveys are only for people who watch/participate in esports).

​

This is the 4th survey. It takes about 8 minutes to complete and is related to how esports improve the sponsors’ image. Here is the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyH0RV3AUDqtTb1L9ZJiHZRxBiMFelgh7aVXnBgRsaCBIlWA/viewform?usp=sf_link

​

Thank you so much in advance.

I understand that this subreddit is not strictly related to esports but, since it has a gamer user-base, there may be some who watch/participate in esports.

If you are interested in easily following my next surveys (and their results), you can follow me here on Reddit or on Twitter: @EsportsAnalyses. Results are expected to be posted in this subreddit by the end of 2020.

This survey has been approved by the kind moderators.

When I first got AoE2 I'd sometimes do games in which I was allies with the AI civilizations. I'd then build a complete city, then declare war. It was a different sort of game, more like Civ IV. I can't seem to get this to work with the Steam version, though. Allies demand tribute then declare war on me. I assume it's an AI change. I guess I could just start with more resources so I can give the tributes and keep them happy, but I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on how to get this to work.

I know some people like getting steam-rolled by Cuirassier every game, but I prefer to actually have a chance in the late game...

If, for instance in Starcraft II, would you still play if after twenty minutes you were guaranteed to lose against terran or protoss? I know that I sure as hell wouldn't. Against every other busted unit there is something I can do...not so with these boys, especially since coureur des bois means they get extra pop to spend on military.

Go ahead and call me noob/bad all you want, but if your definition of skill is spamming one unit that cannot be countered cost efficiently, then I'd like to see how that works for you in chess, or any reasonably balanced RTS.

And no, I don't want to rush every single game, if the only way to win is by rushing then it's poor design and no fun.(looking at you Russians)

When redcoats with socket bayonets cannot even begin to touch these guys...the point of muskeeters is to be ranged infantry that can handle cavalry, or at least put up a fight, and most of the time they can, but not here. Dragoons don't have much to say about it either. Black Riders are a different story, but there is no guarantee I will be able to train those, and it is of course one saloon's worth of production versus however many stables the Frenchies can pump out.

If I could count on the French to ever do something other then mass Cuirassier every game I'd be okay with it, but they never do so I've had it.

-End Rant.

https://youtu.be/MAyV44NmGkU

I don't seem to lag so much with feudal and imperial age times. But for some reason I always seem to be very late getting to castle. Like playing against AI on moderate I'm always 5-8 mins late on their castle age times. How many farms and villagers do you have when you do you guys make and how age up?

I try to usually always have a vil producing but then getting the 800 food to age seems to take too long. Looking at replays I usually have a higher pop than others before I age up so I guess I'm actually making too many villagers? Has to be either that or not getting enough farms going quick enough?

So I'm trying to put aoe2 on a usb to play with a friend(via lan)

Problem is the computers we wanna play on don't have "direct play" installed, and we don't have administrator access to install it

Is there any workaround or alternative to direct play? Or a way to put it on the flash drive

Are there any upcoming tournaments next month or so? If yes, how can i join?

I am a noob and I really suck at this game

So I've started playing aoe3 a bit again... I'm more of a fan of aoe2 to be honest but do like a bit of a change every now and then.

I'm wanting to dabble in modding the game but I literally have no idea how really.... can someone a. Suggest some mods (nothing crazy just advanced features, new civs etc) and b. Explain to me like I'm a dummy how to mod (never done so before and I'm no savant).

Thanks in advance :)

Edit; should probably mention I have the disk version

Since it has been posted on AoEZone as well, it makes sense to spread the news here on Reddit, too. VooblyOfficial and MundoAoE are hosting a 3v3 tournament that will last 2 weeks ( 7th October - 27th October ) with a minimum prize pool of $750. The team games will not include any kind of slinging, but there will be fixed positions for the players. In addition to the prize pool for the players, the viewers will have the chance to win AoE2:DE2 keys (provided by Microsoft) during community activities throughout the event.

The registration is open from the 24th of September to the 6th of October, so let's see who is going to sign up.

More information on the announcement on AoEZone.

Wanted to shout out to crazy Cara and Freaanch if y’all are out there. I played my first treaty game with y’all this evening, despite getting a lot of flack in the chatroom. I boomed to V in 25 min to prove all the haters wrong, only for my cpu to freeze and then my game crashed about 5 min into the battle, which kicked me out of the game.

We had great banter and I appreciate the in-game strategic advice.

I’m really sorry I let y’all down, but y’all were amazing to play with and I hope y’all have many more victories on the battle field. Sorry again for my trash computer.