To counter them I made siege plus knights along with a couple of monks. Didn't work. If someone can watch my game recordings and offer their analysis, it would be really helpful.

This question stems from my own desire to only pick up games in future that have a high chance that I'd enjoy them very much.

I must now talk about TLOU2. The leaks made me think the game's pretty shite. More importantly, the metacritic user score tells any casual gamer who's not familiar with the controversy that the game is actually shite. This will probably make them miss out on a fantastic game. Because TLOU2 actually is a very good game. even though I didn't like some of the story elements in it, it doesn't make the game objectively bad. It has great story elements, much better gameplay -- i like it very much.

On the other hand, consider RDR2. It's a great game. A solid journey. I picked it up seeing that both the critic scores and user scores were both outstanding. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Because I found the gameplay and shooting pretty clunky (but the story was great).

Next case -- Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain

I saw raving reviews and picked it up. Didn't enjoy it. The prologue dragged on too long and I just didn't find the characters very interesting.

Another completely different genre. An old game -- Age of Empires 3. Most people say it's the weakest of all AOE games. The reviews are also ok. But I actually enjoyed it the most.

I'm constantly running into this issue where I sometimes pick up games I think I will enjoy, but don't. And I'm afraid I'm missing out on great games ( my style of games) just because they don't have great review scores.

So, do you have a strategy for knowing whether you'd enjoy a particular game? whether it's actually your kind of game?

As an old school Warcraft 3 player, always loved RTS games, never really played Age of Empires 3 until the last Steam sale. I really regret not giving the game more attention in the past because I'm loving it.

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I love the explorer with the abilities/treasure/map interaction frame, am wondering if there is a mod out there with more emphasis on this mechanic, like different kind of explorer for each Civ or different customization.

I've noticed that if you convert a picture with the bitmap conversion tool all the black areas change to a slighty lighter color. Anyone know why this happens and how it can be fixed?

I've noticed that if you convert a picture with the bitmap conversion tool all the black areas change to a slighty lighter color. Anyone know why this happens and how it can be fixed?

Oh boy... two real popular civs here lol

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Hello and welcome back for another Age of Empires 2 civilization match up discussion! This is a series where we discuss the various advantages, disadvantages, and quirks found within the numerous match ups of the game. The goal is to collectively gain a deeper understanding of how two civilizations interact with each other in a variety of different settings. Feel free to ask questions, pose strategies, or provide insight on how the two civilizations in question interact with each other on any map type and game mode. This is not limited to 1v1 either. Feel free to discuss how the civilizations compare in team games as well! So long as you are talking about how the two civilizations interact, anything is fair game! Last week we discussed the Cumans vs Vikings, and next up is the Burmese vs Koreans!

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Burmese: Monk and Elephant civilization

• Lumber Camp upgrades free
• Infantry +1 attack per Age, starting in Feudal Age
• Monastery techs cost -50%
• TEAM BONUS: Relic spawn locations visible on map
• Unique Unit: Arambai (Dart-throwing cavalry with incredibly powerful, but inaccurate, attack)
• Castle Age Unique Tech: Howdah (Battle Elephants +1/+1 armor)
• Imperial Age Unique Tech: Manipur Cavalry (Cavalry and Arambai +6 attack vs buildings)

​

Koreans: Defensive and Naval civilization

• Villagers +3 LoS
• Stone Miners work +20% faster
• Tower upgrades free (BBT requires Chemistry)
• Arrow-firing towers +1/2 range in Castle/Imperial Age
• Military units (including warships but not siege) cost -15% wood
• TEAM BONUS: Mangonels have reducded minimum range
• Unique Unit: War Wagon (Powerful, expensive, tanky cav archer)
• Unique Unit: Turtle Ship (Extremely slow, powerful, ironclad cannon ship)
• Castle Age Unique Tech: Panokseon (Turtle Ships move +15% faster)
• Imperial Age Unique Tech: Shinkichon (Mangonels +1 range)

​

Below are some match up-specific talking points to get you all started. These are just to give people ideas, you do not need to address them specifically if you do not want to!

• Now with favorite maps looming, we can more confidently test these match ups! For 1v1 Arabia or Acropolis, neither of these civs are powerhouses. Koreans are a little too slow and clunky, and Burmese have an awful set of archer options. However, that is not to say these civs cannot do powerful things. Koreans themselves have an awesome toolkit of ranged options, while Burmese do pretty much everything other than archers very well. Who do you favor on open maps?
• On your more closed maps like Arena, Hideout, and BF, both of these civs tend to shine more. Arambai can be a deadly tool here in both 1v1 and team games, whereas Koreans will grind down almost every other civ in the game if they don't have to move much. How does this match up look when players are given a bit of space with which to work?
• For team games, Koreans strike me as a pretty solid flank civ on most maps - if not quite top tier. Their archers are very good, and they have the siege, halbs, and BBTs to accompany their War Wagons in late game. Burmese are a bit trickier. They aren't really much of a flank civ, but it feels somewhat awkward to play them as pocket... kind of like a worse Khmer... What role do you see these civs playing in tgs?

Thanks as always for participating! Next week we will continue our discussions with the Ethiopians vs Mayans. Hope to see you there! :)

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Previous discussions: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Hi, I cannot seem to connect to eso. the screen is hung up on connecting to eso part and after about a minute an error pops up saying ESO Error message received (e_abort ) , I have checked all over the internet for a possible fix but cant seem to find one, My friends that have the same ISP as I do has no issues whatsoever

Things I have tried,

1. Restarting PC
2. Restarting and Resetting Router
3. Reinstalling the Game
4. Verifying Files of the game
5. Installing ESOC patch
6. Disabling firewall

All these were possible fixes that I found over the inernet and none of these worked so far, it would be great if anyone else could help me out with this. Thanks in advance

Are there any notable all in builds in Age of Empires 2? Ones that force you to do severe economic to your opponent, probably even winning the game when performing it, or else you may be severely behind. I know that builds like this are fairly common in Starcraft 2, such as a ling flood or roach all ins. Is there any builds that are remotely like this?

Hi :)

Im a 1150-1250 player on DE and am really looking to improve my game.
Something I have noticed watching my own recs is that I tend to throw games I should in theory have in the bag.
Last night I threw a game on Cross (Four Lakes) where I owned three of the ponds...

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to watch the game and tell me where I could improve and what I did poorly, and if said person also wants to tell me how to upload vods that would also be appreciated 11

Thanks in advance :)

I miss the old fashioned games where you had the satisfaction of razing ALL THE BUILDINGS!! Is there a setting so the AI doesn't give up?

Could you tell me a strategy to counter a goth, frank, italian british team? Wich civs we should choose ?

So I have the disk for aoe 3 and it’s saying I need a dll (Ik what it is) but the dll isn’t working and when I go at a different approach and put in the correct product key (put in multiple times CORRECTLY) it’s saying that it’s wrong.

Right, so I have been trying to figure this out for a while, I am sure it is possible as I am fairly sure I have seen people do it in streams. I know how to message only enemy etc., but I want to know how to message just one specific player. This function would be super useful in diplomacy matches or other games where teams are not fixed. Cheers in advance!

Are the gathering or build rates different between the villager, laborer, gatherer and 1/3 of the citizen? Or are they the exact same?

Is the reason you start with more or less depending on your culture to balance out the villagers? Or for the whole culture?

Idk I want to know mainly the first paragraph

For me, Yamato and Chosun for historical reasons.

I feel like these whole East Asian trait is wrongfully done, because Koreans were Cavalry/Cataphract/Horse Archer people(Goguryo had feared Cataphract cavalry fought Chinese off, and they found Silla Cataphract horse armour recently).

And Yamato Kingdom was all about religious war. Like in campaign, they had series of civil war for Buddhist vs Shinto stuff, and many Shinto shrines are worshipping old shamanism gods who were defeated and assimilated into new religion of Yamato Kingdom with its worshippers(local tribes).

I honestly don't know why Yamato got Cavs and Chosun got Inf.

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Title. I'd also like to know where to share input on balance for this patch as well. Glad to see some Chinese nerfs but Uproot is still stupid OP. Literally stronger than earthquake lol.

But anyways as for the bug, I had a Poseidon lure that got me exactly 3 gazelle and then expired. It had attracted a Rhino and then the rhino ran away? It got entirely reset and it seems to have taken that off of the lure's power. Please fix

can someone give me a step by step on how to install and activate the 256x mod

I don't get it. What does one get out of making 4v4 "ULTRA NOOB" games only to boom 1K+ ahead in a flash and scout rush some dude with 3 blacksmiths and 9 militia? Why are there so many of these people? Why would they not rather play ranked to continue to get better at the game and challenge themselves?

I guess this is more of a rant but fuck it's annoying.

can someone give me a step by step on installing and activating the 256x mod in aoe2 de

So I just started playing ranked I’m around 980 Elo and so far every single game I’ve played they went fast castle. So my question is what’s the best way to counter it?

We all know that the key to beating Extreme AI (at least as a scrub like me, ~900 on the 1v1 ladder) is to fast feudal and get archers into their base about 45-60 seconds sooner than you normally would. You can snowball from there (if you can pull that much off) with relative ease. If you're someone like TheViper you can do it to two of them at once even on the current patch.

What I learned yesterday is that they are even weaker to initial pressure at 20 minutes... if you do it on Arena. They almost always anticipate an untouched boom, and if you let them do that they'll be at your gates with a dozen rams and infantry less than 30 minutes in. Based on my observations they start making military on the later end of that 10-minute window.

I went for a standard Spanish 27+2 FC into conqs build. Immediately after hitting castle, I got loom and sent six vils forward for a castle drop. Start building my second TC around the time the AI hits castle age, a minute or so later. Queued up two petards and 3 conqs, busted in, and started vanilla castle age raiding while booming behind.

The extreme AI just kind of stopped trying. They seemed to be playing like a moderate or hard bot, except the APM on their town bell micro was higher if not effective. Their score was still under 2500 when I hit imp for a bombard cannon/cavalier switch and they didn't resign until I got spies.

So devs, if you're reading this, now you know your extreme AI can't handle a castle drop on Arena.

So so I have Age of Empires 3 and when I’m trying to download it, it says that there’s a dll error or if I go at a different approach it says that my product key is wrong even tho I put in the right one that’s in the case multiple times correctly. Can anyone help with those two problems please

What's the deal with it? There used to be alot of CBA games, LoTR & GoT Diplomacy Games, Paintball, Tower Defense... you name it! HD had a great modding community and DE's seems lackluster at best. I ran a few of the higher ranked mods from the 'workshop' and they didn't work. I'm begging you, if you can easily import some of the old mods from HD, please DO!

Hi!

I've played around 1k Age of empires 2 HD version and there were always a bunch of diplomacy lobbies every day and personally that's my favorite game mode. But when I play on DE I never see any diplomacy.

Long story short there should be more of a diplomacy scene on DE.

Has this ever happened to anyone? I was the mongols playing the mayans in a 1v1 ranked game. Very clearly in the castle age with my 2TCs. Had the resources. It was just greyed out for some reason.

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Edit: Apparently you're supposed to build a blacksmith first and there was so much fuedal pressure that I forgot to. I will leave this up so maybe someone else can learn from it. Still a noob I guess. Don't worry though fam, I still won the game.

I know it's a noob question but I just started playing and can't seem to find the hotkey to for force dropping resources from villagers.

I think Egyptians have problems to counter myth units which have big pierce armour because they have to use primary priests. Only the Son of Osiris has hack attack but he is only available if you go with Osiris as god in the mythic age and still it is a slow unit.

You can see clearly how bad they are when you compare the other civlizations against the Titan. If the Greeks, Norse and Atlantians have a powerful armies and heroes then the Titan can be defeated way more easily than with the egyptian army. The priests are weak and cannot outrun the Titan. Also they are killed as easily as normal soldiers by it.

I suggest some unit which can be available from the Mythic age because the egyptians don't have any unit except the catapult which appears in Mythic and maybe to be called Medjay. It does not nececerly needed to be builded in the Midgol Stronghold. Can be also in the Lighthouse or from another special place.

Thank you very much for you attention!

I usually enter the feudal age in 9-10 minutes, and I usually enter the castle after in 15-17 minutes depending on how I play. The issue I’m having is, right after I hit the castle age my my points drop drastically and I’m like 5th in terms of points. It’s really demoralizing, and I figure the opponent is maybe making troops? But I’m confused on how I can maintain my position at number 1?

Usually just as I enter castle, I always get either double rushed or rushed scout rushed which doesn’t really hurt my economy, but hurts my ability to micromanage. What should I be doing just as I hit castle age? I typically make 3 towncenters and try to boom as fast as possible and that doesn’t even go well.

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We want regular games, lots of games, all the games, and we need you to do the games!

seriously tho, our discord usually has about 15 people in VC each night for league; but we need that on age <3 https://discord.gg/sswUcnn

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I got wrecked twice this week by a fast Arabai build order using 2 castles on Arena Does anyone have a build order for this? I think they did 28+2 with about 18 on food in dark age and 14 on stone when going up to castle age. It was a really funky build.

I am not trying to suggest that it is or isn't, I am just genuinely asking for your opinions or personal experiences.

I think I remember reading this somewhere on the game's details itself

But is it true that the controls are much more optimized and not so hectic in the DE editions?

Or are the controls the same?

Mods aren’t counted, so uPatch HD isn’t its own version.

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I think I remember reading this somewhere on the game's details itself

But is it true that the controls are much more optimized and not so hectic in the DE editions?

Or are the controls the same?

100 wood for TC and resources dropping after buildings die. Are they generally still the same civ as the base game?

And is there a recommendation of a civ in WoL that is OP, good rushing and late game, and good all-around.

I can't find where they put the product key

I like indians for their cheaper vils and good camels.

​

Yesterday I played Indians, and enemies are Aztecs, Goths and Britons. Yes, they didn't use Cav, and I confuse what can I do.

I used C.A. and anyway I won because of my team Franks(real insane mass paladins)

​

So I wondered what is best choice in this case.

Training C.A. is good choice or are any better choice ?

This past week I have gotten tons of teamate with high elo 1300ish 1v1 and 2k TG, but in game they are complete clueless of the game mechanic. I remember one guy doing mass scout using franks as pocket. and no we werent in late imperial.

I've wanted to host some kind of esports event for a long time, so I'm finally biting the bullet and doing it!

Introducing: The Crikey Cup!

I plan for this to be a a weekly community tournament, with a bit of prize money (currently AUD$50) up for grabs each week! I will stream every game live on my twitch channel!
Games to be organised on discord.
I plan for the first ever cup to be held on Friday 10th July at 6pm AEST.
Sign up here and be in discord then for your chance to play!

The Format:
Each week 4 challengers will square off in round one. In round two the winners of last weeks cup will be waiting for them! (For week one, two lucky sign-ups will have byes). The winner of the Grand Final will get $50, and the both the winner and runner up are guaranteed a spot in next weeks cup! The losers will go back to the start of the queue.

Maps:
Chosen by chat on the night (from the current 1v1 RM map pool)

Spectator Delay:
At the discretion of the players, but at least the default 2 minutes is recommended.

That's the basic plan, anyway. Please give me any questions or comments!

SIGN UP HERE TO GET IN THE QUEUE
THEN BE IN DISCORD ON FRIDAY NIGHT (starting July 10th) TO PLAY YOUR MATCHES

Why:
I was just getting interested in competitive AoE2 recently, but was dismayed to see lots of tournament content was not in a good timezone for me: either I was asleep or at work! I figured that if I had to host my own tournament to watch some action, then I would do it!

I chose this format because it seemed like a good balance between being 1) not too complicated, 2)not too expensive, and 3) not too time consuming. A full 8 player bracket would be too long, even in Bo1. Spreading the bracket out over multiple days would be too tiring (and community members might not always be available), and I wanted the prize money to be proportional to the work done by the participants (or vice versa).

Hopefully this should be a lot of fun!

Again, questions and comments are desired!

I've wanted to host some kind of esports event for a long time, so I'm finally biting the bullet and doing it!

Introducing: The Crikey Cup!

I plan for this to be a a weekly community tournament, with a bit of prize money (currently AUD$50) up for grabs each week! I will stream every game live on my twitch channel!
Games to be organised on discord.
I plan for the first ever cup to be held on Friday 10th July at 6pm AEST.
Sign up here and be in discord then for your chance to play!

The Format:
Each week 4 challengers will square off in round one. In round two the winners of last weeks cup will be waiting for them! (For week one, two lucky sign-ups will have byes). The winner of the Grand Final will get $50, and the both the winner and runner up are guaranteed a spot in next weeks cup! The losers will go back to the start of the queue.

Maps:
Chosen by chat on the night (from the current 1v1 RM map pool)

Spectator Delay:
At the discretion of the players, but at least the default 2 minutes is recommended.

That's the basic plan, anyway. Please give me any questions or comments!

SIGN UP HERE TO GET IN THE QUEUE
THEN BE IN DISCORD ON FRIDAY NIGHT (starting July 10th) TO PLAY YOUR MATCHES

Why:
I was just getting interested in competitive AoE2 recently, but was dismayed to see lots of tournament content was not in a good timezone for me: either I was asleep or at work! I figured that if I had to host my own tournament to watch some action, then I would do it!

I chose this format because it seemed like a good balance between being 1) not too complicated, 2)not too expensive, and 3) not too time consuming. A full 8 player bracket would be too long, even in Bo1. Spreading the bracket out over multiple days would be too tiring (and community members might not always be available), and I wanted the prize money to be proportional to the work done by the participants (or vice versa).

Hopefully this should be a lot of fun!

Again, questions and comments are desired!

I have the AOE2RECORD file for a game I recently played that I'd like to create an analysis video about. Is this something CaptureAge could do? Ideally the video would look like normal gameplay from the player's perspective. Thanks for any help!

Which maps do you think should be played more?

My vote is Deccan

Recently bought Aoe 3 on a Steam sale (only 7.50 atm until the 9th) have played loads of aoe2 and love it, aoe3 is quite different, just curious on other lovers of Aoe what's the general opinion?

I did not receive any message to justify the ban.

I'm not here to complain, I simply submit this post to keep the community aware of it.

Are there any mods in DE that help see which farms are idle (no villager farming on). Maybe something like the grid outline is a distinct color or something like that.

I stopped playing AoM same year tale of the Dragon was released. And im curious if Chinese in general are good. And how good are individual gods? Are they powerful? Too powerful? Or not powerful enough?

Is there anyway to make an account other from the eso menu in aoe3? He has a product key from Steam. Is there somekind of website on which you can create an account with the product key? Please help. He is at the moment playing like a conscript with my 2nd account although the account is master sergeant:(

This is the very first game I've ever played in my life, and came back to it after quite a while.

By this time, I'm only able to win 1vs1 against AI frequently in Hard (not Hardest. I mean the 2nd tier of the rank, not sure of its name in English) when I play Goths in Black Forest. I try to boom as Goths. It takes me a while to reach Imperial, but as soon as I do I can sustain 4-5 barracks pumping Elite Huskarls towards enemy Town Centers and that is usually enough to win AI on Hard for me, if I wall correctly. I also had some luck trushing, even as goths (I know is far from optimal).

But I really want to try another strategies. I have been a few days trying to archer rush, as mayans and ethiopians mainly. I reach feudal just seconds before AI, I start sending archers and that's it; he already has some skirmishers that destroy my plan.

After this, I also tried to do a scout rush; I chose mongols, my favorite civilization all the time, and the same thing happens. I reach feudal shortly before AI, but when I have my first scouts ready and send them off, he already has some archers and a few spearmen that destroy my attack and I lose my advantage.

What's wrong? Am I being too slow? Or perhaps my micro is so bad? I would love to switch from my noobish Goth late game strategy towards something more aggresive. Is there any specific strategy that I should try to improve? I feel I'm so passive while playing and it would be great if I could fix that.

Play 2v2 vs mates who always go goths and spanish. Thoughts on the best civ/ally/strategy to counter that combo?

Their farm techs make their villagers gather food faster and the last one make herdables fatten faster. What do you think about?? (nr40)

I've heard people say they're a top civ and I'm just curious what people see in them ?

Don't get me wrong to each they're own I make hussars cause I just think they're cool and maybe that's how people feel about throwing axe men, but I'm just curious what the actual pros vs cons are of them vs some of the other Calvary civs. (Lithuanian, bulgarians, ect.)

Hi I would like to suggest a small but very useful feature. Can the devs make it so that when you click the tech tree ingame your civ is selected? Now Aztec is selected by default. Usually you are in a hurry. 🙂

P.s. there is no better game out there!

Hi, does anyone have the issue in DE when you saved the game during the campaign, but the saved game has not been saved at all?

I lost a couple of saves like this and had to restart the mission.

Is there some trick I'm missing here?

I'm going for a relic victory, I've found most of them, but it seems there's always one relic off on the coast that's being hidden by fish.

I can, and do, cycle through my map types/colors and eventually find them, but I feel like there's some way to catch them that I'm missing that doesn't involve manually perusing every inch of coastline to find the one(s) I missed.

Hello, I just installed the game a few days ago and after trying out the 256x mod my game crashes after 5 or so minutes. I see that there is a cheat to accomplish this same effect but can only be obtained from an event that is now over?

Is there any way to unlock it now? Game file modifications, mods that enable the cheats, etc.?

It seems like a really poor choice to lock content behind a limited time event. Surely there must be some way to unlock it?

What villagers(is it woodcutters, gold miners, foragers..etc) do u use to wall your base very early game ?

In dark age into feudal age

I was remembering a build order that if I recall correctly was used by some of the Finnish players on NAC3, was with Persians on hybrid maps starting by building a dock, a house and a fishing ship at the start of the game, then use straggler trees to create an extra house and later a lumber camp. Then this build came to mind, the idea is to use the Lithuanian bonus to get a dock the first 4 fishing ships as fast as possible. If someone has come up with this build before and is not popular then it means that it is probably just a bad build.

I don't often play water maps and therefore I'm not sure how good or bad the build compares to a good water map build so someone will have to try it to confirm it, and someone better than I should refine the build and complete this build (I'm just 1150).

Somewhat complicated build at first but after a few tries I got it almost perfectly:

• You start by building two houses, look for a close woodline to place a lumber camp with your first three villagers they will be chopping wood there from the start of the game. Scout desperately with your scout sheep to find a woodline fast. If you can't find it immediately then put your first three villagers in stragglers until you find it.
• The next three villagers go to stragglers trees (I'm so sorry T90 but I want that dock and 4 ships ASAP).
• Next villager goes to sheep, wait about two seconds and take the villagers from stragglers to sheep (don't forget to drop off the wood they are carrying), you should have 4 on sheep.
• The next villager goes to build a dock, then a house and finally keep him in shorefish duty, you can use the house to help you wall him in later, in case you're worried it may get sniped by the enemy scout.
• Next two villagers go on sheep. If you are short on food and can't make a vill you can drop off the food from the sheep villagers and have enough to maintain constant production. While this is happening as soon as the dock finishes you should have just enough for a fishing ship, every time a fishing ship is produced you should have just enough wood to build the next one (except the fourth, for that you will have to wait a few seconds), build 4 fishing ships nice and early
• Next two villagers go to the lumber camp.
• Next one builds a house and then to wood
• Next lures boar.
• Send the next villagers to food... etc.

And here is where it ends you can do 18-20 vills feudal and have a more or less normal water map experience where you fight with fire galleys and do water maps things, I'm not water expert so you'll have to figure something out from here. The most important part of the build is the first part, depending on the map you may do different things later. As I said before, I'm not a water map expert, but my common sense tells me that getting the fishing ships earlier should pay off in some way.

And there could be some improvements. While writing it I just realized that you may put just 5 on sheep because you have the shore fish plus the fishing ships, also for more high level people who get lamed more often taking the boar this late could be bad, not really sure.

So... What are your thoughts?

My bf and I bought DE and started playing against the AI around 12:30.... It's 3:20ish right now, and we're still trying to finish our first game.

It's mostly me just getting kicked out of the game every so often, and (part?) of the reason might be that my Vram is less than two. I say part because my bf also gets crashed 3 times and he has 8 vram.

We just ended up quiting trying to restart the game. Currently we can play about 10 minutes real time, before everything crashes. It's just, exhausting and infuriating.

Is the only way for me to play to get a new pc? TT____TT

I was really looking forward to playing, not just with my bf, but also with other friends and trying out ranked. This is just, disheartening...

So I'm fairly a noob and was playing the Mongols a bit lately. The gather rate increase is great, but it's kind of throwing me off as I end up with a bunch of idle villagers once the animals are done because I don't have enough wood to support farms.

Usually my BO is scouts rush (22 pop) into fast castle into cav archers.

I'm wondering what the strategy here is to prevent idle time of my villagers. I was thinking I could potentially move one or two of the villagers to wood earlier, but then that means I'm collecting food slower and might not have enough for the 4 scouts after feudal. Another tactic might be to push in some deer, I'm not so good at that, and I would prefer to use my scout to interrupt the opponent. I could also try to go up to feudal at a lower pop cap, but I'm not too aware of what the drawbacks to that are.

Thoughts? What do you guys do to account for eco bonus differences of different civs?

Just an opinion, but I loved hideout and have been sorely missing it these passed few months. It was certainly a far better map than Continental, Bog Islands, or Megarandom.

Hello everyone, I used to play AOM a few years ago and now I want to try to play it online so I downloaded voobly and I can't seem to figure out how do I download the game or where I can find it, I found the update aomx103 but there's no link for download for the standalone version, I mean there's only the update but no game Can anybody send me a link to download aom for voobly?

Path out of map cleared, but the allied army that spawns to exit the fortress just stands around [no buildings near flagged area where they spawn].

They stand around until they're killed by a group of Paladins/Champions that manage to get in.

So I figure the second spawn group will go through. More of the same.

This did not happen when I first beat the mission in Moderate when the game came out. Trying it again in Hard after the latest patch.

Is a trigger broken?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GbAT_m-EOo

Both are great, however they pale in comparison to their respective predecessors. Ergo, were they released as standalone products, the public reception would have been strikingly different.

Hey everyone, had a question about the best way to counter a tower rush. Ran into a situation where I was full walled going FC and had a tower dropped on my woodline. Not a big deal, just moved to my other woodline.

They then bashed down my wall with vils and built another tower inside. Still not an issue able to move to away from it. But this kept going for 5 towers. I was able to go fc and ram it down but it crippled my eco to the point that they had a 15-20 vil lead that I couldn't make up.

TL:DR whats the best meta to fight a tower rush when going full walled FC?

I'm tired of fc builds.

Hello, need someone to teach me how to play aoe2. Have been watching since a long time. Just started playing. Have a lot of dumb questions in mind. Need to ask and learn. :(
Any takers!?

So recently my friend got me into Age of Empires 2 and I really enjoy it. But I thought it would be really cool to have an RTS style of game but with less of a win or lose aspect. I was curious if anyone knew of any games like AoE2 that had more of an MMO feel to it?

Edit: I play on PC and I'm not really interested in mobile games like clash of clan (which technically could work in this categoey)

While you can't run the installation program (let alone the converter) in WinXP, you can actually play the mod, as long as you've:

a. Installed the HD version via Steam, from a partition with a modern OS (Win7, Win8.1 or Win10) and with at least one, two or all of the expansions. b. Copied the installation files of both the base AoC and WK into your own; just make sure you create a backup.

Also, funny bug, but if you play the Barbarossa campaign with the mod, there'll be Gaia Elite Shotel Warriors.

So I recently convinced two of my friends to play buy DE and get into playing AOE a lot more which has been a lot of fun. We've mostly been playing a lot of team games, 3v3 specifically and I've noticed that our skill levels are fairly disproportionate. Our games usually go one of two ways, I defeat whatever player I'm facing directly which then allows us to get a 2v3 which will eventually lead to victory. Or, the player I'm facing fights me to a standstill/holds me off while my two friends get steamrolled. We've played like 20 or so games and I want to help them improve, but not sound too coachy or criticize them too much.

They both come from playing other RTS games so the switch hasn't been too rough, but they just miss some things that I have pointed out in passing, but they never change so I'm not sure how to help. If anyone has any tips of how to help or advice from helping their friends get better at the game, I'd really appreciate that.

TL- Friends are lower ELO, we play team games and the ELO disparity leads to not competitive games.

Seems like a fun little buff that fits with the theme of the civ.

So, I know there are, and have always been straggler trees, but is it just me or are there A LOT more single trees than there used to be on Black Forest maps? It is to the point where it restricts where you build town centers, other large buildings, and even gates and walls. (The game doesn't even want you to place gates if you are within one (two?) peg of a straggler tree in front or behind the gate. I have played for 20 years, and I never remember having so much trouble as I've had in the last couple of months with trees restricting building sites. Has anyone else had this thought at all? Or is it just me? Was something changed in this regard in the last couple of months?

I've seen a few posts about how 900 players aren't bad or there are a lot of smurfs at that ELO and since I didn't have much to do this week so I took some time to spectate games and see how true this is, (to me it seems to be false) and give some advice. Note that I don't have a big sample size, about 7 or 8 games, I'm also not a good player being 1150 at the moment also I'm not looking to make fun of these players.

So looking at the games I saw so many mistakes through all the games, however not all players make the same mistakes and a lot of players seems to have many different weaknesses, this can make some games onesided at certain points in the game, a boomer player tend to have a better late game, an aggressive player can kill someone who messes up their dark age, etc.

However all the players I saw look really bad to me so it makes sense they are at these ELO, I didn't see plays that screamed SMURF! to me.

Here is a list of things that I saw as bad plays and lead to getting behind at this rating, they are not in any order.

• Bad buildorder: many players have weird builds, too many on berries, some take gold too early, some put a lot into wood, or go fast feudal into nothing (generally if you click feudal early it means that you are planning some sort of rush, if not then just go FC). There is a reason why most people say that if you're at this level focus on buildorder, but is not all that is bad at this level.
• Messy dark age: some players struggle with the dark age even if they are using some build order, they idle they TC a little, have problems scouting their res, kill boars far away from TC and sometimes loose vils luring boars, is not rare to see one player have two villagers more than his opponent. This should be fixed just practicing vs AI (what I did) or playing lots of games.
• Bad lumber, mill, mining camp and TC placement: This in the grand scheme of thing may just a nitpick, but when I see a lumber camp two tiles away from wood, or someone places a bad TC in between gold and stone, which gives you two badly placed TCs for the price of one, it annoys me because is such an easy thing to fix and will increase your income a lot.
• Not using their army, or using them badly: The reason for this is probably because they are focused in their eco or they are overestimating their opponent army. If you make some units you need to use them, they cost a lot of your resources, put some pressure on your opponent, or at least scout the map. I saw a few times a guy with 20 knights that could destroy his opponent eco and did nothing with them, 1200 food and 1500 gold badly expended. Do note that this is especially bad because of the next point.
• Everybody is extremely bad at defending, really really really bad: If you are stuck at this ELO I guarantee you, if you apply just a little pressure to your opponent there is a big chance that they die right there, that would be an easy way to boost your ELO, also PLEASE learn to defend yourself from a rush!. I can see now why so many games are stomps, is not smurf, players are bad at defending. It was so bad, that I saw someone die to 4 eagles scout and 2 archers without fletching, that was enough to idle the all his eco and get a resing from him, also saw someone die to a tower rush with only two villagers, he knew the tower was there and sent two spears which died to two spears of his opponent, he could build a counter tower, or send a few villagers to fight it would have been fine, but he let that tower get up, and three more, since he had autofarm on (don't use autofarm in the early game) when his farm expired the villagers went to work the farms under the tower putting him behind. When people get rushed they tend to panic and overreact, they get a lot of idle time and TC idle time, a lot of times they only have one lumber camp and have to relocate the whole woodline to another or to stragglers if they don't have 100 wood, and if they don't die to the pressure then they eco suffers and they die later. Of all the games I watched (except one) the first one to attack was the one who won, the fix: don't panic, wall your base, scout your opponent, if your opponent gets in then you will have idle time but make your best effort to minimize damage, this comes with experience so just play more, and of course, you should be aggressive yourself, it will give you a big advantage and you have fewer chances of being attacked.
• Bad imperial: Usually if you hit imperial it means that you have a big eco, and therefore, you should be able to produce a big army, a lot of people struggle here because they don't build enough production and die with a lot of resources in they can't expend, the fix: get a lot of production buildings.
• Early resign (104): a few players resign too fast when there is still a chance for them to comeback,
  even when they have a lot of resources. They lose a few vills, lose a fight or a castle and give up immediately. You're not playing vs AI where you can save the game and try again, instead if something goes wrong try to keep playing until it gets really bad, then you can resign. People at this level make so many mistakes that you can cockroach it up and comeback later and personally I have done that a lot in my own games (of course if it is really over please don't be toxic and resign, don't hide your villagers).
• Ninja base: I saw this a few times and it didn't work, you can maybe justify it if you are getting all-in and need a safe gold or stone, but generally, don't do it. You are just delaying your extra TC and if your opponent fin out can take advantage of this, in one game they did.
• Not walling, not walling in time: if you're going to be passive just wall up your base, it helps a ton, if you're going to be aggressive you can delay your walls. I saw someone die because he didn't wall at all and a lot of players be damaged because they don't have their walls in time.
• Upgrades: I saw players get their eco upgrades, but blacksmith upgrades not so much, some didn't get any upgrade even in imperial with thousands of resources. It sounds really obvious, if you're planning to go some unit, upgrade it.
• Capping your villagers: In castle age you should keep producing villagers almost always and try to get above 100, about 120 should be fine.

People at these ELO have bad micro and I could have included that, however, I fell that wasn't as important as the other ones, they could easily win if they fixed some of their mistakes before focusing on micro.

Lastly, it would be really appreciated if someone else made a guide on how to defend from different rushes (maybe there is, idk), it felt like a lot of people struggle on simple defences and the only advice I can give them is don't panic, get good and it depends...