I think they should give us actual map selection not just map favourites and bans.

- On one hand queue length will increase.

+ One other hand queue length will decrease because no-one will be ALt+F4ing.

- On one hand the more obscure maps will drop off.

+ On the other hand you will only play the maps you want.

----------------------------

Or how about:

1. Arabia League - Arabia only
2. Clown League - Arena only
3. Open League - Current rotation of maps.

View Poll

I know it seemed like a minor thing, but I really wish the little connection bar, in the game lobby, would be put back in the game. It's really f***ing annoying having people constantly drop, because no one has the intelligence to understand they should play in their region. If we could get rid of the bad connections BEFORE the game starts, I think players would far more consistent games.

I’m a noob, looking to find people to team with. Is there a subreddit for that? Or is this the one?

It’s surprising me how often you’ll play a game and there will be no chat or replies. Just played a 2v2 where my ally left after about 10 minutes so I was left fighting 2 enemies. I stuck through and the game ended up lasting over an hour. No gg’s or anything after it finished. It would have been easy for me to just throw my toys and quit right then and there. Played about 5 games this afternoon and it’s really odd how quiet it is.

I know I’m just complaining about what’s a pretty small thing really, it just bugs me the lack of sportsmanship I’ve come across. Might as well just play AI if people are going to be this rude. It takes very little effort guys.

On the flip side - I’ve played a lot of games in the past where players were really helpful / funny, even when I was a pretty average player.

The first el cid is a good example, like what if el cid runs away from the tournament, and gets a new set of goals/scripts to work arround.

Also an achievment referencing t-west would be cool, since the achievments already reference part of the comunity, something like, complete a scenario without killing units would be amazing.

The skirmishers are awful so it doesn't feel like an option, and you also don't get SO or siege ram.

I faced an arbalest + camel composition just now and felt like I had absolutely no answer to it.

Thoughts?

Just wanted to share this proud moment, i wasnt able to beat this mission because of the massiv unit spam from Sarus. I just countered him with the sam until i saw him attack with the Sarus Unit itself, after killing he finally gave up and i played the damn mission like a normal game.

​

Never felt so proud in RTS haha

Does anyone else have vils that you are SURE you tasked to several sheep in order, suddenly just go walk away and kill a different sheep? I feel like I have to keep an eagle eye on them! Am I doing something wrong? Or is this just normal vil behavior and I have to delete one to teach the others a lesson?

If they wall themselves completely early, then scouts and militia rushes aren't gonna work. Archers have some range but can't impact too much. Maybe I should go for fast castle?

picked teutons because I kept facing franks on golden pit and instead got against burmese, truthfully I didn't knew what to do vs aramai + knight

since I had a horrible dark age and basically walled myself a lot he castled the center and and ran out of gold.

I just couldn't think of an army compostion late game that could keep to arambai except skirms and those die to either knights or hussars.

hi, 1200 player who was 1 point short of 1300 trying to figure out how to play properly when i know my opponent will go archers in feudal age. i could go skirms but often times you can't get the fight you want and investing the food into them delays your castle age so much that i'm too far behind in tempo when they get to castle age and have a giant ball of archers with seige to back it up

Started running into a lot more early aggression with drushes and MAA now that I'm 1400, had 2 games recently where both my stones were pretty forward, but not close enough to easily wall in and also close to each other and could be covered by a single tower.

In both games I opened double range archer which seems wrong I guess since the drush/MAA can hold off long enough for my opponent to have 2 towers on my stone and then the game gets hard if I can't find another stone to build my own towers, etc.

Also, I mainly play as Chinese so I tend to have food problems early. What am I supposed to do in this situation? Do I go up 1 or 2 vills faster than a normal 23 pop and pre-emptively tower my stone? Get my own MAA? If anybody has a replay or a twitch/YT example that'd be really appreciated as well. Thanks!

I have absolutely no idea how to outplay Turks in feudal age unless I get a decent cav civ. It feels like if I get an Archer civ I really struggle. Any tips from the pros out there? I play at a 1550 level so anyone above that with advice would be great.

I generally either try to play scouts then xbow pike in castle age or I go m@a into archers and try for a quicker castle age. I know full walling will work but if I can't get walled it feels near impossible to counter those scouts.

Cheers

I was watching a game in which the Aztec Eagles, Xbos and Jaguar warrioirs got destroyed by this Incan comp. How to deal with this when benig Aztecs?

Europe is cool. European civilizations are cool. But I really think this game could use more non-European civs and, even considering the choice of adding more European civilizations, the Sicilians and the Burgundians are odd choices. Why add the Italian civilization at all if the goal was to break up the Italian peninsula into multiple civs? And the Burgundians were not an empire-civilization like a typical AOE 2 civilization and never controlled a particularly large area.

It is like if, instead of the Spanish, AOE 2 had "the Iberians" as a civilization and then added the Portuguese. The Sicilians ARE Italian. I get that the Kingdom of Sicily was multicultural yada, yada, yada, but so were the Lombardians and the Milanese.

It seems silly to have Burgundians and Sicilians when the Slavs encompass Russia plus a ton of Eastern Europe and there is a single Indian civilization.

There are just so many better options, even if you wanted to stick with Western civilizations. The Georgians! Split the Slavs into Russians and Romanians!

Anyway... I will probably buy this expansion because I want the developers to keep adding content to the game. That said, I really hope they add new non-European civs in the future (assuming they continue adding civilizations). I'd love more African civs but more Asian civs would be cool, too.

I don’t play competitively much but I’ve been wondering what it’d be like if civs had access to a tech or two early on. Specifically for generally underpowered civs.

Example: While not under powered by any means Britons getting access to crossbow in feudal or Franks getting cavalry chain mail in feudal.

Are there any particularly weak civs that would benefit in a meaningful way from this kind of buff?

Before any pikemen come out I'm not going to smurf, i have an archer strategy that I'm really good at but it inflates my elo and when i do literally anything else I'm pitted against opponents far better than me and it's hard to practice without getting demolished ten games in a row.

I'd like to have one account for my strategy then another for normal play. Do i have to buy the game twice to do this? Tried googling how to but didn't see any info. Thank you.

I know the answer to this kind of question is always "don't let them get to that stage..." but I'd be interested to know people's thoughts on this matchup. Not really about this actual game, more of a general civ matchup/counters question.

The game:

I'm 1200-1250 elo. I started with 22 pop m@a, got a kill and some idle time so happy with that. Was walled off before his milita got to my base and held off his militia and 5 archers easily with 3 skirms, so I was up to castle pretty quick. I made a couple of knights in early castle but couldnt do much because he was walled and he dropped an immediate defensive castle when he got up and started making jannies. I upgraded to elite skirms and got some good trades vs his jannies but then his light cav with pierce armour came in. Again I traded pretty well with my cavalier vs light cav. But then he went into camels to clear up the cavalier then back to light cav and later hussar. I couldnt get near his bombard cannons with anything - jannies just standing ground beside them. Hussar raided my base left, right and centre and my halbs couldn't keep up with them. I had map control in early castle but it was still pretty even in terms of map area at the end of the game, and I had 120 vills to his 80 (all the way through the game) so my eco was damaged but not ruined. He was just going through my production buildings too fast and i couldn't mass army so i had to resign.

So I felt like I played okay (especially early game) against a civ that I don't personally rate v highly, but still lost. I probably should have attacked him more early castle (forward siege workshop, somwhere out of range of his defensive castle). But this game aside, what is the best strategy in this matchup?

• Should I have gone xbow/pikes (later arbs/halbs) - and is archers the meta for japanese unless they go full UU?
• As above but go HAM (like 1 TC) in early castle to try and prevent the game going to imp?
• Mangos/pikes in castle age?
• Japanese towers (and pay for unique upgrade) for defense against hussar raids (seems expensive and wouldn't really work)?
• Samurai and jannies counter each other but I guessed the samurai would come off worse, right?

One thing I think I'm learning recently that trash counters gold units in early game but in late game even the direct counter doesnt really work - either cos of mobility (in the case of halbs vs cav) or frailty (in the case of skirms). Hussar is the best trash so he beat me on that, I only had light cav.

I recently got DE and am not too familiar with all the new civs. How can people guess their opponent's strategy right off the bat and choose a rush of their own? I'm trying to make a list of the best civs for each rush.

... having started re-playing this game a short while ago, watching a lot of build order / strategy videos and watching pros on Twitch...

I feel like higher tier games are all about precision in dark age -> feudal and then attacking / aggressiveness in feudal / early castle.

Very few, if any, games seem to go to imperial or, if they do, units are never really upgraded.

This is why deathmatch used to appeal to me but I really am enjoying the progression of an economy / civ this time around.

I would love a 3v3 / 4v4 where I have time to establish an economy / defense / army and then go all in for a huge battle but it seems that’s not the meta or style for higher level games...

I am playing on 1600 elo now and it keeps happening that I have a huge army in my base (mostly in Imp while I am pushing the front) and I just don't realise. What do you do against that? Constant checking of the mini map seems the pro solution but it doesn't feel even close to possible for me to do that often enough.

Afaik, there are different types of getting-attacked-sounds, I think there was a SotL-video about it, but I can't hear the difference during the game, especially when tons of fighting sounds are going on. Is there a way to change those sounds? I am fine with the normal trumpet when my army gets caught somewhere, I will jump to the army anyways, but when my base is under attack, I want something that I WILL DEFINITELY HEAR, like a sirene or whatever, for sure something that is much more different to the normal sound. Is there a mod for that? Is it possible to do one?

It just feels super unfair because it doesn't make sense to not get the information of your base getting destroyed. I realise it's a skill in a multi-tasking game but there IS actually notification for it and it's just impossible (for me) to recognise it. It's so stupid.

Also, is it possible to change the getting attacked flare on the mini map to be bigger and longer there!?

After climbing a lot with my friends, I decided to queue alone this week while I'm on vacation, as they're busy. I though team matchmaking in games like League was bad, but AOE3 is so much worse.

• You constantly get people that never communicate. Ask them if they want to rush? They don't respond and then just build up an idle army in base and dont join your FB or join when you attack. Tell them you will fast fortress? They say nothing, then rush without you and die.

• People frequently just quit for no reason. I'm not talking about quitting due to connection loss, I'm talking resigning over the slightest thing. Enemy raided and killed 2 villagers? Better surrender, doesn't matter that your teammates are 10k up in score. Enemy stole your 90 coin treasure? Better surrender. Teammate doesn't want to rush because they're not a good civ for it? Better surrender.

I don't understand how opponents like this are at such an ELO. My opponents will know how to scale their economy and how to micro, but then I get teammates that seemingly don't understand the basics of the game.

Hello,

A couple weeks (Months?) ago I posted on this sub asking for tips for the game. All the tips you've given have been extremely helpful.

Here is my understanding:
- Always keep TC active (Need to work on this one)
- Never have idle villagers (I've also been having difficulty with this one, but I'm doing okay with it)
- Use Hotkeys (Sort of use this one, I do know it's important tho)
- Don't float resources or units (This one is easy)
- Always force the opponent to react, rather than being the one reacting to the opponent. (Starting to work on this)
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Keep Scouting in the early game

Here's my dillema:
I've been trying to get to beating Moderate AI (someone reccomended going straight into ranked after that, so that's what I'm doing). However, I'm stuck on Easy AI.

Here's why:
The first time I played the AI, he started pressuring me right as I was about to start pressuring me. I couldn't be able to force him to react because he kept killing any armies I sent at him, and then proceeded to send his troops towards me.

The second game I played against the Easy AI, I was able to build up a castle and a few millitary buildings and started pressuring him with siege, archers, and cavalry. However he proceeded to kill all my units and then started pressuring me. I also ran out of gold (And even with the help of the market) could not retaliate or get him to respond to me.

Is there something I am missing? What could I do to get better?
Thanks in advance,
u/Crusader_2

PS: I am brand new to this game. I'm not old enough to have played it 15 years ago and only discovered it in the last 6 months.

Hey there.

As a noob player who only plays against AI for fun (in HD version), I recently had this thought about a normal, regular, default civilization. Here's the idea: The civilization will have

-All units&their upgrades available

-All techs in the tech tree available

-No bonuses of any kind

-No castle unit

-No unique techs

So basically like All Techs mode, but with no unique unit or unique tech.

Is there such a thing in any AOE2 mod? If not, how would you compare such a civ with the other civs? Would it be two weak due to the absence of bonuses or too strong because it has all the techs?

I like playing a variety of custom scenarios (tower defense, roll the dice, or just creative maps) but it is often hard to fill a lobby with 8 players because most people use the auto match making. is there a community (discord or otherwise) that focuses of making and playing custom maps ?

Good day, I've been looking for streaming this game for a while, but it seems my specs are a bit limited. How well would a i7-7700HQ perform with a GTX1050ti? Ram isn't an issue for sure though. Also, is there any specific configuration I have to look for general improvements on performance? Thanks in advance!

Last civ match up discussion of the year! And yes, this makes 52 total discussions for all of 2020 - one discussion every single week!

​

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 Khmer vs Tatars, and next up is the Chinese vs Japanese!

​

Chinese: Archer Balanced civilization

• Start with +3 Villagers; but -50w, 200f
• Techs cost -10/15/20% in Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age
• Town Centers support 10 population, have +5 LoS
• Demolition Ships +50% hp
• TEAM BONUS: Farms +45 food
• Unique Unit: Chu Ko No (Powerful foot archer that rapid-fires in quick succession)
• Castle Age Unique Tech: Great Wall (Walls and Towers +30% hp)
• Imperial Age Unique Tech: Rocketry (Chu Ko Nu + 2 attack; Scorpions +4 attack)

​

Japanese: Infantry ^{and Naval} civilization

• Fishing Ships x2 hp; +0/+2 armor; work +5/10/15/20% faster per Age
• Mills, Lumber Camps, and Mining Camps cost -50%
• Infantry attack +33% faster starting in Feudal Age
• TEAM BONUS: Galleys +50% LoS
• Unique Unit: Samurai (Fast-attacking infantry with bonus damage vs other UUs)
• Castle Age Unique Tech: Yasama (Towers shoot 2 additional arrows)
• Imperial Age Unique Tech: Kataparuto (Trebuchets attack +33% faster, pack/unpack 4x faster)

​

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!

• You all know the drill (not the Mongol UT)! For 1v1 on open maps, Chinese are usually considered to be one of the very best civs out there, whereas Japanese are typically seen as solid, but not outstanding. However, I think this is one of the times we have to ask "how open of a map are we talking?". Chinese can struggle in early Feudal Age, and Japanese are one of the best civs at applying early game pressure. Do you think this match up hinges on the Japanese player doing damage early?
• On closed maps, Chinese used to be considered top-tier, whereas Japanese were again thought of as somewhat middling. However, since Chinese lost Redemption, their weakness to Onagers has been exacerbated on these types of maps. Japanese do not have SO, but they do have decent Onagers and a very cost-efficient army. How do these civs compare on maps like Arena, Hideout, and BF?
• In team games, both of these civs would certainly rather be flank than pocket. Both have fully upgraded Arbs and deadly late game tower pushes, the difference lies in the fact that Chinese have a stronger eco and access to Chu Ko Nu and Siege Rams, whereas Japanese are better able to apply early pressure, have top-tier halbs, and super strong trebuchets. Which one do you think is the superior flank?

Thanks as always for participating all year long! Unfortunately the timing is *slightly* off, as next week we will finish round 10 with the Byzantines vs Mayans. Hope to see you there! :)

​

Previous discussions: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I think this is a great feature on other RTS games. Being able to see how many units a unit has taken out is very helpful when looking at replays and makes for a fun dynamic in game as well.

Possible addition in the expansion?

Are there any AI mods that disable the insane AI micro? I'm just looking for playing through the campaigns at a relaxing pace and I do like that the AI is able to build more substantial armies, but the insane micro is just dumb and is the exact type of thing that turned me away from rts's in the first place. Is there a mod that keeps the AI strategically smarter but prevents the crazy micro?

Franks are in the top spot for quite a while now and in fact they have strong bonuses that are all streamlined torwards their desired comp without any glaring weakness. While I dont want them to be gutted, I believe some small adjustments are needed.

I would suggest taking away the free heavy plow, as they allready save 150 res on horse collar and 250 on bloodlines(which they basically get for free due to their hp bonus to cav), while already having a decent eco bonus in faster forging.

Hey guys! My AOE2 Definitive Edition(Steam) started lagging recently. I have the graphics DLC installed, but even if i turn it off and set the settings to minimum the FPS stays at 30-35. My PC is pretty fast(R7+1660Ti) and AOE2 should work fine. What can be wrong?

If you see your opponent has picked Celts always have in your mind that they could be playing a Hoang. Scout them out and see what they're doing, in my experience all the way up to 1600 they mostly just go straight fc, sometimes drush fc. Your job is basically to apply pressure in the very early game and take him off gold then get yourself up to castle age asap. Scout for his forward stable and siege as they always sneak a vill somewhere. Don't make extra TCs, just make knights, spearmen and monks. Generally these players will fall apart as long as you don't play the way they want you to. Just don't go xbows really and you'll be fine

It always amazes me how they get so high but let's stop this being a strategy, it's a waste of time for everyone and for me artificially pushes my rating up because so many people do it

When I try to install it stuck at downloading package I want it for aoe2 de

Deletions:

1. Villagers attack bonus against boars (transferred to Magyars instead, maybe)

2. Infantry attack bonus against buildings.

3. Perfusion

Changes:

1. Team bonus: Barracks work 25% faster.

2. Castle Age Huskarls -1p armor, Elite Huskarls -2p armor.

Additions:

1. Plate Mail Armor

2. Plate Barding Armor

3. Imperial Age UT: Cavalry +1/+1 armor

4. Arson

Dicey opinions:

1. Extra population space in Imperial Age dropped or changed to a +5% straight.

2. Infantry and Cavalry +1 attack vs buildings starting in Dark/Feudal Age (basically reverting back with added bonus to Cavalry).

3. Stone walls addition

4. Dark Age barracks +20% work rate, Feudal Age onwards +25% work rate (absolute; doesn't stack).

5. Dropping Ring Archer Armor due to presence of better hussars.

6. Removing Blast Furnace and giving Elite Huskarls +1 attack.

Opinions anyone?

I brought my dad a new pc nothing fancy very basic and cheap but it's meeting benchmark test for aoe2 de and I've been planning on getting myself one to play de specifically.

It's got i3 processor with 3.1 ghz T61 motherboard Intel 4000 graphic card 8gb ram 1 tb memory Should i get myself the same or if i need to upgrade what needs to be upgraded.

Thanks

So lately i have been going cavalry in 1v1's but just realized that i need some seige to counter archers or pikes so yah pls suggest a civ to me

Me and friends like doing "FFA" Matches (We all start unallied...but alliances tend to form and shift a lot). One of them was playing the Huns and I was playing Incas. We play on Highlands so I'm stonewalling the crossings near his base for him...and he builds two Stables in my base. I temporarily unally and convert the Stables he built for me...and we wipe out his neighbour with a Xolotol Rush (said neighbour was springboarding for another player).

View Poll

I see a lot of you guys posting new/updated mods on here and steam workshop has so many! I was curious if anyone has made or knows of mods with new god powers, creative and thoughtful new maps, new civilizations, etc. Just anything that would really change up my experience with the game (I’ve had it for about 8 years and started modding it 3-4 years ago, what a blast!). If possible, I’d love some links or something.

Please let me know if this is an FAQ, unreasonable request, or if there’re any other issues.

Hey all, top 200 (team player here). Having played more Nilla than TAD, I'm learning the new civs. Does anyone have a solid Jap BO for DE ? I saw some for EP but it seems the civ has been changed a good bit.

Any help appreciated !

As a casual player with limited time, I cannot learn how to play all civs. I just want to learn the build orders of one specific civ and improve my learning curve by staying with this civ. Otherwise I always begin from the scratch when switching between civs.

I am wondering which civ is viable and strong as pocket and flank in TG Arabia. I often play 2v2 with a friend but he likes to switch civs and role (melee/ranged) regularly. That's why I want to learn playing both roles too, but stay with one civ to master it. When I play alone, I am open to play everything from 1v1 to 4v4.

I think the most important requirement for the civ is to suit Arabia TGs because in 1v1 most civs can be played with no devastating disadvantage.

What is the difference between Age of Empires 2 HD and Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition?

For example would the moderate AI be ___ ELO?

Hi. I'm Niels, a bloke whose parents got the game 20-ish years ago and wasn't able to put it down ever since. I didn't think up until today that there could be a fairly active bunch of redditors discussing a fairly under-the-radar game, but I'm extremely happy to have been proven wrong. It's like finding a 5k ruble bill in your winter coat :D

Now, if you were to indulge me for a wee bit, I have an issue with my steam launcher of EE/Tale of the Dragon version: it refuses to load. More specifically, it displays a very unfortunate message any time I would try and boot up the game. Naturally, the steam client itself is running, so I'm not sure why this might take place. If anyone knows how to fix it, please advise

In this achievement u should

(Deploy '6 Cuirassier' from your shipments as the French)

I did that in more than one game, still I wasn't able to achieve it :/

According to aoestats Franks are the top tier(~55% winrate) and most picked(~8%) civilization right now. It's not just this.

In Win Rate by Map section, as you can see they have more than 50% winrate for land& hybrid maps. They only struggle in water maps which isn't a surprise for a civ lack of water bonus.

And according to Lowest Win Rate section , They have higher win rate against 30/34 civs , only beaten by Indians, Teutons, Celts and Incas. Their 5th best counter civ(Burmese) have 49,15% winrate against them if I'm not mistaken which is insane imo. I couldn't find any other civ with numbers like these.

I think these stats should be enough for nerfing Franks. What are you guys thinking?

Hi,
I recently got banned from multiplayer (not permanently, will be able to play again in 8 hours). Yesterday I had a teamgame when my door ringed, so paused the game, went to door, came back some minutes later and saw people have unpaused rigth away. I am totally fine with people not liking to wait for me, but also its pretty pointless to play any further when being so far behind in a nearly balanced match, so I told them I was afk for last couple of mins and resigned. Can this already be a reason to be banned?

Someone else already had issues with something like this?

I read all 5 articles in one go! Funny commentary and things to learn for new players!

Articles are by Nate Crowley from Rock Paper Shotgun, I hope there will be more content :)

​

1. I've decided to get really good at Age Of Empires 2- https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/11/ive-decided-to-get-really-good-at-age-of-empires-2/
2. I defeated both tigers and my enemy to win my first ranked Age Of Empires 2 game - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/19/i-defeated-both-tigers-and-my-enemy-to-win-my-first-ranked-age-of-empires-2-game/
3. I am the Tower Bully now: an Age Of Empires 2 match report - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/05/25/i-am-the-tower-bully-now-an-age-of-empires-2-match-report/
4. Ships in the knight: an Age Of Empires 2 match report - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/10/15/ships-in-the-knight-an-age-of-empires-2-match-report/#comments
5. Age Of Empires 2 is about to drop a new expansion full of wine-powered nightmare men - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/12/17/age-of-empires-2-is-about-a-drop-a-new-expansion-full-of-wine-powered-nightmare-men/

So if i am using my steam account it pulls through the data ok, but when playing through Xbox Game pass, how do i change the command to pull through my data on that account?

So what beats Franks Economy

I am playing at 800 – 900 Elo and Franks Just own, age up quicker, get Castles quicker, do everything quicker (Knights, Farming, Castles, earlier Age up, massing armies) than normal civs it would seem.

Stats I’ve won 90% of my game like 10 or so after switching to Franks, having never played them before with only limited 100 games experience. I just feel like the Civ is overpowered, even Aztecs seem to fall behind. ( edit prior to Franks I was playing Vikings a lot)

I have noticed that I get to Castle age 16min -17min on average vs my opponents (18-20mins) typically with 20 villager feudal build.

2nd of all, Franks are one of the most popular picks and percentage of wins on AOE stats at every Level <1000 Elo, <1600 elo, and >1600 elo…

A) Which Civs are faster at advancing Ages and have quicker economies?

B) Which other civs can beat a 13 minute castle age for franks with castle drop on Arena?

C) what strategies do you use against franks that win? which civs do you use?

I've played a few games against them recently and they're an annoying civ haha. From about 5:30 I'm getting harassed by heavy and ranged cav making it very hard to collect resources and build anything. I send and make pikes but they don't seem effective especially for ranged cav.

So I'm a fairly new player. But I've known the game for quite some time, when I was younger I always used to watch my nephew play this game. Now I finnaly get my own hands on it, definitly some nostalgia. Anyways, I already knew the basics: make sure no idle TC or vills, scout, basic unit counters, etc. . But I struggled A LOT with getting my eco going (I didn't know that build orders were a thing untill a week ago... lol).

So I found a mod, which is fairly popular, I forgot the name but it is basically a step by step build order guide in-game. So I began with practicing the fast castle into cav. I did a couple of times, got the hang of luring my boar, and the hotkeys. And after 7-8 tries I got an A+. This felt like an achievement, but at the same time it felt like I wasn't really learning the game, it felt like I was studying.

I learned that after 6 vils to food, send 4 to wood, without thinking about why I should do that, and why 4 and not 5? All these kind of questions, because I don't have a feeling with the game. In other words: I don't have a sense of how fast a vill gathers and how much I need to get to a certain goal. Which leads to me not being adaptable, at all. So my question is, should I just keep going on with practicing build orders? And by doing many different ones, I will maybe begin to see some paterns? Or should I do something different?

Recently I have been having an issue where there is no sound when an enemy (or teammate) ages up. I tested it a few times in a custom lobby and confirmed the lack of a sound. My friends have also noticed the same thing, but could there be a setting or something else interfering with it?

Hey all,

Tried google, I have unique player colors turned on.

No matter what I do in mulitplayer games my color changes to blue, if I select another team as blue, then we both turn blue.

Really irritating, I end up having to make my friend the host so I can play the color i want.

Anyone have any advice here please? Playing AOE 2 DE via steam install.

Have tried alt+g etc in game.

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Edit: this is only when I am the host of the lobby.

Port Dragoons will direct counter Wakina inside full teepee + 25 on attack dance. Absolute garbage balance. Why is this a thing? Port base builder laming seems to be the new thing lately.

Usually Ottoman start with 1TP 1house.

But in non tp map they can't get tp so have to build mos instead of tp. So how think about Ottoman in non tp map? They anyway decent or poor?

Just played a game where it got to fully boomed post-Imp. I randomed Turks, opponent was Persians. He went full stone wall and boomed into Elite War Elephant and halb. My answer was Hussar spam, some Heavy Camels, and I eventually teched into Champion to kill halbs. (Gold was low and I'm not a fan of Hand Cannoneers). I eventually won due to my better boom, map control, four relics, and hussar raids.

I know that ideally I don't let it get to Elite War Elephant (duh), but Turks aren't exactly a strong early-game civ. In the event that you do have to fight Elite War Elephants as Turks, were my decisions the best possible? My Heavy Camels didn't seem to trade well at all, and thinking about it I doubt they're even cost-effective in terms of gold. I barely won this game even though I collected 25,000 more food than the Persian player, and my K/D was atrocious.

I've been playing mainly as Inca since the DE came out. I've gotten decent at aging up and forming a decent eco with a large army by the end of the 40 min treaty. However, it seems that the longer a battle drags on my eco can't keep up. A big part of this is that Inca units rely a lot on wood and when that runs out, you have to switch to making units that only cost food and gold. When that happens one of those resources ends up going down way too fast. Maybe I'm not micro-ing my army good enough so my guys are dying too fast? Or I'm just not using the right cards. I followed the suggestions of a video I found on youtube.

Is there a way to make the Inca viable for a drawn out battle in a treaty game?

I sort of miss the old rating system of private, corporal, sergeant, etc. I played the game a lot back in the day and I always wonder how my rating today would compare to back then. Does anyone know how the new ELO system matches up to old ratings? IE what ELO would be sergeant, what ELO would be captain, etc.

Just wondering...

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My mouse is acting up mostly when I try to drag click... I'll drag over villagers to select but they won't click them. Mouse works just fine when I'm not in a game but right when I start ranked games.... I use the logitech g-502 but I don't think the problem is my hardware as it works fine everywhere else.

Anyone have this problem or know of a solution? I'm afraid to start RM again as it has made gaming AOE2DE impossible hurting who I team with...

I've been experiencing random freezes throughout the game. I am unable to click but could move my mouse around. The freeze last approximately 3-5 seconds but could go up to 10+ seconds. The frequency of this happening is about once every 2-3 minute. Any solutions/help would be appreciated. Benchmark test ~1060s. Internet is stable.

Hi everyone,

This was my fav game over 15yrs ago and I have just bought definitive edition at the age of 33yr to relive it again! I used to play only deathmatch and really loved big 3v3s on maps like oasis.

Anyway... I have just restarted and on twitch it seems no one really plays deathmatch anymore. Is this true?

It seems random map with the map unexplored is the way I should play the game now, as scouting, drush / frush etc are all essential tactical components of the game.

So my question: after about a week I have just been spamming Britons - I really like mass archers... still I struggle to beat the computer on moderate / hard 1v1 and esp 2v2 - my comp ally always gets over-run. The comp seems to rush ASAP @ Castle Age and often they have such a lot of military even when I’m following strict Briton archer rush builds for example...

So, do I keep plugging away at this until I consistently can beat it 1v1 / 2v2 or even 2v1 on hard before venturing online or is the gameplay so different that I should just get online and accept my rank will be low until I’m more skilled?

Thanks in advance. :)

There is a very fun cheat code ("going above and beyond") which allows players to research any technology an additional 255 times. This can make for a very fun single player experience where you fight 1v7 against the AI, or mess around with your friends. The 256x Tech Mods which exist on the workshop are utterly broken, and not a reasonable substitute.

However... this can only be obtained through an event that happened earlier this year. If you did not participate in the event, there is no way to use the cheat code. The only thing that should be locked to events are avatars and harmless seasonal cosmetics (on that note: making onager projectiles more visible is far from harmless but that's another topic entirely).

What were they thinking?

edit: also, btw, it should probably be an official mod and not a cheat code... for obvious reasons (namely, that it makes it easier to use in multiplayer)

I grew up playing AOE: Age of Kings and loved all the campaigns, then discovered the Conquerors and loved all of it. Currently catching up with all the DLCs in Definitive edition. Can't place some of my least favs but definitely love all the originals.

Magyars are probably the preferred choice? Wouldn't Frank's also be able to do a good scout rush? Given they have 25% harvesting rate from bushes?

The 2v2 tournament continued this week with some close games. The Monthly Deathmatch Cup had its first Event day as well. Still hoping to see the final of the New Players Tournament this week but the resident reddit mod here; Iron Maiden is missing in action, leaving NyanRacingCat to wait and see like the rest of us.

Some of these streams will expire after 14 days on twitch. I will update some to permanent links on the original thread over here: RTS-Sanctuary thread

DoD Winter 2v2 Tournament

Scheduling and recs: Discord Original Bracket: Image Updated Bracket: Image

Played - Dragon_kr & Spamt v Nyan, Swiss & Heimdal - Rnd1 Bo3 Live cast
Played - Nyan & Swissboy v Old habits never die(Themista & Iammagic) - Rnd 2 Bo3 Live cast
Played - Goldlion & Player v NoMercy & GrandMonster - Rnd 2 Bo3 Live cast

Naka's Monthly Deathmatch Cup - Nov 2020

Schedule and Info: Discord Bracket: Challonge

Played - Redo v AltCtrl - Winners Semifinal Bo3 Live cast
Played - WesternLong v AltCtrl - Losers Rnd 5 Bo3 Live cast
Played - Nakamura v Shelty - Winners Semifinal Bo3 Live cast
Played - Houdini v Shelty - Losers Rnd 5 Bo3 Live cast