The revolt is the nuclear option after all.

For those that do not know, Mexico's settlers convert into Vaqueros upon revolt. Vaqueros can gather from livestock, train cows and attack four times with a repeating ranged attack. Mexico has outlaw type units, infinite forts, and infinite iron clads for notable cards.

After taking a month break from age I come back and find I'm still able to easily defeat extreme ai. Even 1v7 hard seems easier than it used to be. I used to only do it about 1 in 10 times, but now its almost like they are on peaceful and dont attack until attacked

One game I went M@A into archers and really did some damage especially the archers. However, the next game my opponent reacted with good quick walls and scouts into skirms, which is a full counter to archers. How can I do damage with M@A if my opponent is quick walled and what could've I done better?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur36Y3IRIi0&t=3s

I aged up from 1-2 with the Messenger and when I got into 2 there was no option on Chaquis to accept shipments from my home city.

What gives?

Was playing some random noob lobbies and found very cool how people really want to spam m@a/longswords. Sadly it just doesn't work. Not even close. Most unique units are meme only.

Just wondering why infantry is stuck at this filler role. For comparison:

Archery range can produce 4 types of units. Everything counters regular infantry and most really destroy infantry.

Stables have 3 main unit lines and elephants and lancers. A whole lot of flexibility and powerspikes.

Barracks can produce 2 types of units, pike (counters cav, if they stick around) and militia line (counters nothing really well). Can also produce eagles, but they are more as cav replacement.

I have suggested the corpse catapult many times in the forums as a cool concept for an UU. The problem is that I wasn’t sure about the mechanics. An area with a slow damage on time seems difficult to program. A weak attack but with bonus against Calvary and elephants is just a worst onager that has already a strong attack.

So, I came with the.idea of using a trebuchet, instead of a catapult. Turks, Mongols and tatars used to throw corpses over enemy walls, so a trebuchet fits more into that role.

-It would have long range, and mounted and dismounted configurations, like a treb.

-It would have a really weak attack, but ignores armor.

-It could have a BIG area of effect, that is the main difference with the treb.

-It could have a bonus against Calvary, and farms.

-Lastly, it could affect garrisoned units inside a building, as long the building is affected by the area of impact.

Now, if you compare the effect of 4 of these units against four trebuchets, the normal trebuchets are scary because they break TC, castles and buildings from afar. The corpse trebuchets don’t, but they can weaken the farms and all the units in a big area, so it forces the enemy to answer it.

Another possibility is that the corpse impact doesn’t damage the farms, but it removes part of the remaining food. Although practically this is the same than killing the farm by damage.

If it is too broken, other possibility my is that the damage done by the impact can not kill the unit, leaving the unit at 1 hp. They can be used to weaken a settlement before the raid.

What do you think?

Is there a build that tries to optimize their ability to research econ upgrades early and turn that into something useful?

Is it entirely bugged like the Penguin one or does changing the turkish tribes to enemy during the ally period f*ck it up?

Just what the title says, I have been playing all of my games with random civs to get used to them (I have played like 100 games and I'm elo 900 more or less). Should I continue using random civs? Or should I pick one for all my games and try to get better at it? Thanks!

So hear me out guys. I know there's been a lot of talk about the historical innacury of the Indians civ, but I don't think its actually that bad.

The Indians are clearly based on the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals. We know this to be true, because these empires used camels, and fittingly, the Indians have Imperial Camels. The Mughal Empire was known as one of the first great gunpowder empires. So what do the Indians have? Shatagni, a Hand Cannoneer technology. The other unique technology "Sultans" refers to the Delhi Sultanate.

So I suggest that the devs should lean into this idea. Make the Indians solely represent these empires by replacing their Elephant Archer UU with the Zamburak, which were essentially camel-mounted cannoneers used by the Timurids, Mughals and Safavids (Persians). This could be a great unique unit for Indians, with a bonus against infantry and elephants, as historically they were used against the war elephants of other Indian empires.

Subsequently, by creating a clear focus for what people the "Indians" civ represents, it makes it easier to add other more specific peoples from India to the game, like the Tamils or the Bengals. And the Tamils could get the Elephant Archer.

And this is all in the name of keeping civs distinct as more and more are added over the years.

I'll say that AoE2 is historically accurate most of the time and is a fantastic game. It's my favourite game but the historical inaccuracies in the Indian civ makes me cringe really hard.

First, Indians didn't use camels expect for the people who lived in and around the Thar Desert. So giving them the best camels doesn't make sense to me. Saracens are way better contender for having the best camels (in other words - give Saracens the Imperial Camel instead)

Second, Indians used Knights (i.e. horse heavy cavalry) a lot. But for some freaking reason, they don't even get Knights and every other non-meso civ does.

Third, Indians were really well known for using elephants in wars and battles. They had the best fighting elephants. For example, Alexander the Great ended his campaign in India mostly because of their powerful Elephants. In contrast, in AoE2 they don't get any elephants in their stable (while even the Vietnamese get them) and their Elephant UU is the worst elephant unit in the game. How tf does that makes sense.

All of this, excluding the fact that it doesn't make any sense to have a civ called "the Indians", it'll be like having a civ called "the Europeans" (*during the Medieval Period). India is and has been a very very diverse sub-continent. It has 3000 languages, 1500 ethnicities and double the population of Europe. If you go back in time, in India during Medieval times and ask people all across the sub-continent their nationality then, none of them will call themselves Indians. They'll call themselves Bengali, Cholan, Rajput, etc. This is because there was no country called India and no Indian nationality before the British. Today people of India proudly consider themselves Indians but they didn't in the Medieval Period and the game is set in the Medieval period

TLDR: Indians should get Knights and Battle Elephants and their Camels should be nerfed because I consider the civs should be at least somewhat historical accurate.

Extreme difficulty. It’s pretty interesting watching the difference. CD version advances faster some of the time but will do 17 pop feudal?? They build walls and group units in formations. They seem to stop building vills around 80, although one stopped at 24 and one at 106

DE AI doesn’t build walls, does a more standard build order into boom. Also doesn’t group Ol units in formation. They seem to keep producing vills and don’t leave resources in the bank.

Does anyone know how to beat Sundjata 5 on hard mode for DE?

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The HD version is somewhat beatable, but what makes it hard in the DE version is that the red's units now scatter periodically when idle, and they even have bombard cannons. They also seem to rebuild their armada faster than usual, thus getting more edge in the water.

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There was this one attempt I managed to blitz the Wonder with my trebs, shortly before red's BBCs and orange mangonels crushed the trebs. Unfortunately after I destroyed the Wonder (which was not easy, took several tries), Kombi Saleh breached my defenses and I was overrun by them.

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What are your strategies?

Because they are really, really good. They are both immersive and fun to play gameplaywise.

I just finished the last mission in the Sicilian campaign (Hautevilles) and it's a crowning jewel.
Huge map, lot of diplomacy potential, many different win conditions.

Two defense missions in the Holy Land were another highlight.

Burgundian and English campaigns were a blast as well.

I noticed this today in a 3v3 game as pocket. Map was seize the mountain and both my flank teammates are Bulgarians. Since your starting tc are so close together I ended up sending all the extra sheep I found to both my flanks. I also let one lure one of my boars. This allowed my mates to research economy upgrades early without missing a beat on their scout rush. I was able to come in with halbs and castles later to help hold while they carried. This begs the question Are the Bulgarians the ultimate sling target?

***This is my opinion for playing the Sicilians in the lower ELO ranges. (650-750 personally)***

If you play as the Sicilians, you will quickly find where they fall short. Here is what advice I'd give anyone who struggles against them in the lower ranked queue's:

1. Serjants are slow. It's pretty easy to avoid fights with them.
2. Counter raiding will be more effective if you can push them off stone or gold. Using quick walls and defensive towers at home until you have your upgrades.
3. Donjon's can be battered down if they dont have Serjants babysitting them. You can get quite a few vills around the base. This keeps the Serjants within range of the Donjon's, or they risk losing substantial resources.
4. Scout wide, try to spot the vills going forward to drop the first Donjon right around the time they go up to feudal and batter it down with your own vills. They likely wont have the resources for another forward drop.
5. Get armor upgrades before engaging Serjants with militia line units. Serjants do less damage, but have more armor, and cut all bonus damage received in half. Don't use ranged units right off the bat unless you 100% kite them with micro. Serjants have 1 melee/2 pierce armor in feudal, and 3/3 automatically in castle. Use melee units, get your upgrades before engaging, create them while getting upgrades.
6. Try to apply as much raw melee, or pierce damage as possible to any kind of land unit. Do not rely on typical counters that have bonus damage, they only apply half of their bonus. MAA do more nearly the same damage to their scouts as spearmen. Coming out to (at most depending on damage rounding) .5 DPS less while upgraded. (if DPS rounds down, it comes out to .167 less when upgraded). And the extra pierce armor of the MAA helps out if you are going to fight under a Donjon.
7. There is not much room for error on the economy for supporting early aggression. Disrupting wood, stone or gold hinders the building of Donjon's, or spawning of Serjants. (Not saying its ok, but laming REALLY hurts)

TL:DR Losing to a civ you don't know how to counter might make it feel OP, and while there might be some balance tweaks coming, I wouldn't count on them being very aggressive. Play with them, see for yourself where their challenges are, and put pressure there when you go against them.

EDIT: First Crusade does need a bit more balance, I could see it being more expensive, and going from 10 out of 5 TC's, it does 5 out of 10 TC's. Still helps with countering a raid, but requires much more investment into the TC's if you want to quickly raise an Army. It currently costs 20% (at least I think so) of what it takes to build those same units in a castle or Donjon. That seems pretty low, and needs either a cost increase, or a long term consequence for using it. Like decreasing their future build speed in castles, to Donjon speeds.

I'm currently trying to perfect my Magyar play, and often, the opponent goes with heavy halbs/pikes (which is the thing to do). What would y'all back your knights/mag hussards with to counter the pikes ?

Looking for the choke point idea but with more building space.

If there isn’t one, i will try and make my own, but how do I make it generate for X amount of players?

They really are just the "Norman" faction, hence why you see them renamed as Normans in the updated Bari Scenarios, the Longshanks and Hauteville campaigns, and their icon is a Kite shield.

Yet go to the diplomacy tab, and you see that Edward Longshanks is fleeing from a Sicilian town.

Also, if it were representative of the Kingdom of Sicily, it should at least have token access to camel units (not Heavy Camels) to represent Berber influences.

As is, they really should have been billed as Normans. Change my mind.

So I was doing some testing with the new patch as Saracens and was surprised with how well they performed against the Frank paladins so I ran some tests to try and quantify how good the camel civs are against frank paladins in particular. Notice that this testing does not take cost into account, but it does justify the mamlukes insane cost to me somewhat. Anyhow, I hope you all find it interesting.

Testing was done using triggers in the scenario editor to attack move the units into each other so that things remained somewhat consistent run to run. This is by no means a scientific test but I think the results are interesting. Also, note that even without micro the 20 Saracen Mamelukes only lost 2-4 units making them about as hard a counter to heavy cav as you can get. The Indian Imperial camel performed slightly worse than expected, although I imagine they make up for this against other unit types.

Hey y'all, I've never posted on this sub before, but I've been thinking of some ideas to balance the new civs out a bit and make them feel more in line with other cultures in the game, without them losing their unique traits. Here are the changes I'd make:

Sicilians:

Civilisation Bonuses:

• Farms upgrades provide +100% food > Farm upgrades benefit existent farms, and grant +50% food

This would mean that a Sicilian player could place down farms early and delay getting farm upgrades, without having to worry about them expiring, as they could just get Horse Collar/Heavy Plow right before the farms expired and it would grant existing farms the extra food. This would be a stronger economic bonus than the current one, which takes a while to really come into effect.

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• Land military absorb 50% of bonus damage > Cavalry units absorb 50% of bonus damage

I feel this change is better than just weakening the existing bonus to 33%, as the bonus specifically applying to cavalry would nicely reflect the power of Norman heavy cavalry.

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• Town Centres and Castles are constructed 100% faster > Villagers construct Town Centres and Castles 66% faster (starting in the Castle Age)

This change is fairly self explanatory. It's really important for nomad maps that the Town Centres aren't constructed fast at the start, and the current 100% bonus for Castles is too much, allowing one Villager to build a Castle at the speed of four generic ones.

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• (TEAM) Transport Ships +10 anti-ship armour, +5 carry capacity > All ships +1 ship armour

The current team bonus seems a bit too similar to the Saracen civ bonus and it feels right that the Sicilians should have a bonus affecting their naval units at large, rather than just Transport Ships. This new bonus would allow the team's FU Galleons to survive an extra hit from enemy FU generic Galleons. It would have a more noticeable effect on Fire Ships which have high ship armour.

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Unique Technologies:

• Scutage ((TEAM) Receive 15 gold per military unit > Receive 150 gold for each Castle currently owned and for each subsequent castle constructed) (400 food, 300 wood)

This change would make Scutage less like paper money, as it would no longer affect the whole team, and synergises nicely with the changes to First Crusade below, just as the current versions of these two technologies work well together aswell.

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• First Crusade (each Town Centre spawns 10 Serjeants > Serjeants can construct Town Centres and Castles) (800 wood, 400 gold)

This bonus would better reflect the building of fortifications and castles by Crusaders in the Holy Land during the First Crusade. Serjeants would not be affected by the civ's construction speed bonus and would build slower than Villagers. A tab for flicking to the next page could be placed where the Serjeant's Donjon button currently is, and the buildings could all be put there, as they wouldn't all currently fit on the Serjeant's first page.

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Tech Tree: can now research Thumb Ring and Ring Archer Armour

This change would compensate for the armour bonus no longer affecting Archers, and allow the Sicilians to try other strats rather than just Donjons/Serjeants or Stable units.

I know that the stats of the Serjeant and the Donjons could be slightly altered in some other ways as well, but these are all the major changes I would make to the civ.

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Burgundians:

Civ Bonuses:

• (NEW) Foragers generate gold whilst gathering (around 1 gold for every 10 food collected from Forage Bushes)

This bonuses would give the Burgundians a nice little boost early on, as I don't think the early eco techs alone are good enough to make them strong on open maps. This helps the Burgundian player go for Militia/Man-at-Arms. Also this fits in with the whole gold and food theme the civ has going.

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• Stable technologies cost -50% > Stable technologies cost -40%

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• Economic technologies can be researched an age earlier
• Cavalier can be reasearched in the Castle Age
• (TEAM) Relics provide +0.33 food/second

These three are cool. Especially the first one.

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Unique Technologies:

• Vineyards (Food swapped for gold at 2:1 ratio, Farmers slowly generate gold > Farmers slowly generate gold) (300 wood, 150 gold)

The food to gold swapping thing could be too strong in some situations, and it isn't necessary imo, as the other effect is unique enough on its own. With this change the technology still has a strategic element, as you have to think about whether the technology will pay for itself in the long run; just like with collecting Relics.

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• (NEW) Mons Meg (gunpowder units +25% attack) (600 food, 300 gold)

I think Flemish Revolution should be replaced because it's either not useful or it's too powerful and imbalanced, being able to completely swing a game into one player's favour in an otherwise even matchup. This change would make a nice little historical reference, as Mons Meg was a massive bombard cannon constructed on the orders of Philip the Good. Alternatively, the gunpowder bonus could stay as a civ bonus, and Flemish Revolution could just turn all your Spearmen/Pikemen/Halberdiers into Flemish Militia instead.

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Unique Unit (Coustillier):

I'm not that sure about how to balance this unit, but maybe by reducing Charge Attack to +15 (+20 for Elite), but increasing Base Attack to 10 (13 elite). Also by removing all bonus damage against archer units, at least for the charge attack.

Alright, that's all! Let me know what you think!

When AOE 2 DE came out, the new civs were overpowered, but I thought the kits were so cool! Konnik being able to fight again after being de-horsed, Cumans having the option go aggro or defensive in fuedal age through their second TC/Siege Workshop option, Tatar hill bonus and Lithuanian relic bonus. These are all new unique additions to the game that add a new element and style to gameplay. I was a huge fan of the konnik idea in particular from a coolness standpoint. But, after playing today with the new expansion I realized both of these new civs are cheese civs. Yes, they do add a unique element, and honestly the power level wouldn't bother me either way, I just wish they weren't so cheesy. Let's be honest, people would not play as much if every game was a Persian douche or Incan tower rush, it's just not as fun (if you are the defender). I get a similar feeling playing against Burgundians and Sicilians, since I know their own cheese strategy is coming for me. Anyways, I am still very thankful for the new expansion, and I think we have a great game here! That's just my review on this particular expansion.

TL;DR don't like the new cheese civs as much as the stylistic civs of DE. 2/5 Stars for me

Is there a decent website to browse where people upload user-made scenarios and campaigns?

I've noticed that AoE2:DE doesnt have steam workshop support and the list in the game is....well not gonna lie its fucking awful. No details, no descriptions, the categories are a total mess and no user-reviews.

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Is there a website that actually has some good support for these or have they basically just left the map-making side of the game to die?

Just downloaded the game tonight and playing for the first time in years. The game only plays for about 5 minutes before it freezes cant get it to run properly. Please help

Hey everyone,

The problems:

A lot of you are probably facing the same issues I've been facing since the new DLC:

• Launching the game makes your game freeze and stop working.

• When you are in a lobby (skirmish or mp) and start the game (14) during loading, your screen freezes on the loading screen and then you crash to desktop.

• Sometimes you survive the loading screen but then during gameplay seemingly randomly you click something and you just crash to desktop, usually between 5 and 15 minutes of gameplay.

I did not have these problems before the new DLC.

The solutions for me:

I tried a lot. A lot did not work. Some things that did seem to improve the quality and stop the crashing alltogether were these:

• first problem: empty your %temp% folder. This solution helped loading the game up much faster and reduce the crashing to basically 99%. Other than that I have no other solutions

• 2nd and 3rd problem are linked together.

My solution for the crashing:

I uninstalled aoe2 from steam. Right clicked aoe2 de in my steam library list. Went to 'options'. Then went to 'DLC'. It shows 'Lords of the West' as checked on.

Check it off

Then reinstall the game.

This really worked for me. I can still play Sicillians and Burgundians in multiplayer, but I can not play the Campaigns. I don't really care: I don't crash anymore which is great.

Hope this helps for some of you. Let me know if you find other solutions.

Also good to try:

Try at least updating Microsoft Visuals and your drivers to the latest version. These weren't completely helpful to me but maybe they can make a difference for you. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0

I play on Windows 7.

Assuming all gold in the map has already ran out and its time for a trash war.

View Poll

I wasn'r sometimes able to make them gather from natural silver mine. Also it seems that if I send the Black berries card, torps won't gather the bushes unless I have sent blueberries card first. Also torps don't seem to gather natural berry bushes either. Is this intended?

They have the pope. They have catholicism. They had catholicism during the time period of the AOE2. GIVE THEM HERESY! IT'S NOT LIKE IT WASN'T EVER FOUND IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM TIME TO TIME!

So I heard devs have fixed the game and it doesn't drop frames and crash anymore. And thats great news, but I wanted to know how balance had changed since release to somewhat prepare myself to what's coming online?

I play multiplayer with a close-knit group of friends. It usually is fun but lately games have begun to snowball out of control because I can't seem to handle the Cuman player on the other team. I am tired of losing and need to step up my game as well as my skill to play in teams. Hit me with your best tips and civ comps to improve my winning chances. The games are 3v3 on open maps like Arabia and I am beginning to think I need to learn better comunication and strategies with my team.

Hi. I need help finding a torrent copy of Age of empires II - the conquerors edition would be neat as well. For some reason with mine I get the message

“aoeHD” is not optimized for your Mac.

And also.

The application X11 could not be opened.

Suggestions?

Burgundy

1. Coustilliers charge attack is 15 (18). Another option is 9(10) but decrease recharge time. I would love if the charge could be given a different bonus class and monk and pikes (and some cav counters) have resistance to that
2. Cavalier and one age behind upgrades take twice/thrice the timebto research. This will keep the techs viable after a certain amount of investment has been done for the current age.
3. Food to gold conversion is 40% or 50%, not 100%

Sicily

1. Bonus absorption decreased to 15%
2. First infantry armour free/ Stone mining free
3. Villagers create donjons faster than serjeants
4. Castle, town centers created 40% faster
5. Scutage gives 10 gold per unit
6. Crusade generates sejeants at the speed of 3s each.
7. Serjeants created 18s from castle, 25s from donjon for non elite
8. Garrisoned serjeants shoot arrows from donjons

Just something I stumbled upon while watching old Hidden Cup games. While dogao's performance in recent tournaments has been lukewarm (highs: Battle of Africa, lows: RBW1/3), his history in the past two hidden cups has been fairly strong. (The following is not super in depth, just a talking point I am keen upon)

Hidden Cup II- dogao returns to the game, qualifies, and defeats Villese 3-1 in the opening round. In the quarters, he throws everything at Liereyy forcing a game 5. Unfortunately, he also becomes part of Hidden Cup history with one of the biggest throws ever; snagged five relics in a Slavs v. Berbers matchup (!!!), but he got exceptionally greedy with tech switches and lost what was to be a game ending advantage. While I mean to take nothing away from Liereyy, dogao was only one poor decision from challenging TheMax in the semifinal which I believe he had more than a decent shot to win (though that's pure speculation).

Hidden Cup III- Once again blitzes through qualifying. Dominates TheMax in R1 (2 Finns in 2 Hidden Cups) before besting MbL in 5. In doing so he prevents Norway from having two semifinalists in each Hidden Cup*. He is the only qualifier (of 8) to defeat a non-qualifier and does so in consecutive years. It is an inauspicious end in the semis however: he runs into Viper and only snags one game in a best of 7.

Point being, dogao has dominated qualifiers and was inches from being a two time semifinalist (something only achieved by TheViper and MbL). You certainly can pick apart my fairly Swiss Cheese argument and I don't think he should be a favorite to win. I just wanted to shine a light on someone who has never garnered significant consideration and would typically be mentioned behind the likes of Yo, TatoH, DauT, MbL, and TheMax.

Hi guys. Over the past few updates, it takes me so long to load into matches. I validated my game cache and tried a bunch of different things. Any tips to load in faster?

I was playing as Ethiopians vs the Burgundians(AI) in a team game and when I wanted to attack them, they research that tech and suddenly there are many Flemish militias(like 120) and had to retreat. I managed to kill many of them but it was too difficult.

I am not playing vs the Burgundians again until they are nerfed.

The Flemish militia's attack is too high. That tech should be more expensive. And they should take away their pierce armor.

When you attack the Liege villagers outside (north and south) of the city, they will not garrison into the TCs and simply walk around to be slaughtered. So that means you can simply send your initial troops to north and south of the city and kill the villagers until the number is below 15, and you will win and get the achievement pretty easily.

UTs, UUs, Arquitecture and techs can be changed, so civ bonuses are what I'm interested in. Also team bonuses that would really help them (I'll figure out a way to introduce the civ/civs through the campaign so they feel natural). I am thinking of giving Hussites only feudal units and rams (data mod so archers look like xbows) + mercenaries (FM, Condos, Genoese Crossbowman, Dismounted Konnik and Janissaries) and their strength (War Wagons, HC and BBC). I was thinking of Sicilians so War Wagons can tank pikes, but gunpowder civs look tempting. Just for the record, they'll get full upgrades on infantry and archers as well as a good bunch of UTs to make them unstoppable. I don't know by now how to create units but once I do I have a rather long list. First real war wagons (Serjeant armour in melee and pierce, tanky as fuck and with organ gun attack damage and animation with bonus against cav)

It's kinda strange that Coustillier Non charged Attack Animation is just him wailing his long Glaive, which is pretty heavy, that's why the Glaive is often a 2 handed pole weapon, not a 2 handed slashing cavalry weapon.

Also there should be a Animation change that could allow the Burgundian Opponents to see if the Coustillier attack is charged, one way to do it is that when a Coustillier attack is not charged yet his animation is using a sword, and his spear would appear again once the charge is ready.

The only drawback is to make the unit have another 4 Animation, each one for the new Sword Coustillier for their idle, walking, death, and attack animation.

I have a nice new PC, a Dell Aurora R11. DE normally runs great on here.

Right at about the same time as this new update, when I play a game in DE for around 5-15 minutes, the screen turns black. Audio still plays for a minute. Then the PC just starts making a buzzing noise out of the speakers and needs to be restarted.

I'm trying to figure out if the problem is with the game, or with my PC? Has anyone else experienced this issue, and if so, have you solved it?

I've noticed when analyzing my games with aoe2insights.com that, despite being on a win streak, all my opponents have significantly higher EAPM than me through out almost every stage of the game. My micro isn't bad or anything, and I'm definitely more of a macro player - most of my wins have also been because I spread out, outboom the opponent, and then get positional advantages. Most of my mistakes, on the other hand, are not because of poor micro or slow reactions (although I do fail some quick walls), but instead poor decisions. Whether I'm the one at their base or the one on the defense, my APM is consistently lower in games that I win.

Yet, especially in the early game, I'm not sure where my apm are being lost. I don't spam click pretty much ever - 1 click per action. I use the shift-queue, select all, and multi queue a lot and I frequently just let units run around on wood lines instead of trying to micro them - I usually try to hit a few places at once.

My EAPM is usually around 30-40, sometimes even around 20, and in some games I decisively smack players whose EAPM spikes up to 70. I also notice that my opponents EAPM will fluctuate much more than mine, with peaks and valleys at different points of the game where my EAPM is relatively consistent.

If we look at some of the pro players, we also see a really wide variance in EAPM. Of course players like Lierry or Hera have high mean EAPM around 70-100(!!!), MBL around 60, but then a player like Daut usually has around 50. Surprisingly enough Villese has the lowest mean EAPM I've seen so far around 40. 40!

Villese is by no means slow, but somehow he only plays marginally faster than me, a player 1000 Elo below him. People joke about him being a robot probably mostly because his personality, but clearly he's making calculated, efficient decisions and using his actions sparingly. Many games he never breaks 50 EAPM!

So it begs the question, how effective are the effective actions per minute? What counts as an effective action (I'm aware aoe2insights gives a measure, explaining how moving the map to the scout selecting the scout and clicking move is only 1 action)? Presumably any action that causes an in game effect: moving a scout, queuing a knight, building barracks. But if I queue a scout to move to four points, is that one EAPM because it's counted as one action? If I 5 halbs at once with multiqueue, is that 1 action? Presumably rapidly clicking the scout or moving between each barrack and queuing halbs individually would count as many actions. Is moving between the town center an the scout an action when you're doing it just to see things? Is clicking on the mini map an action? Is split micro an action?

Of course effective decisions will always be more important than quick clicks, but how important are quick clicks and how important are they compared to efficient clicks?

Why does the patch notes say that the Saracen team bonus has increased? Since AoC it has always been +2 (the AoC tree always incorrectly said +1).

If I'm going for a scout into knights build, then I usually will research techs such as forging and scale barding armor during the way to castle age. Is that too early? Doing that will get me low on resources when arriving at castle but is it worth it though if my opponent did the upgrades but I didn't?

Since the update released, I haven't been able to play any of the new campaigns. Every time I try to open the campaign screen, a padlock icon appears over each of the new campaigns. If I click over it, the game tells me that I need to install the expansion first. However, I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the game and expansion, cleared the cache of the microsoft store, changed installation path, pretty much everything and the game still tells me that the expansion needs to be installed. I also have sent a support ticket to the aoe support, but still haven't received a response. This is so frustrating :(

Thoughts on making boars spawn have the ground tile unique around them to display that they spawned here?

Aesthetics + makes instant laming less detrimental as you know it happened at some point earlier.

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Thoughts?

The Coustillier, and history, has got me thinking of a good use for the stand ground command. What if when put into stand-ground mode, foot-soldier melee units got a bonus versus cavalry based on their use?

Like the champion line and other misc melee would get a small bonus when using it, but Spears and other anti-cav units would get a large bonus vs cav when using it? And I'm talking "LARGE BONUS" like +80 anti-cav damage to off-set the fact that your melee units are in stand-ground and to make it worth using against high HP cavalry units/Coustillier. This bonus would also have a charge bar so it can't be spammed ruthlessly between stand ground and defensive mode.

Since Update 44725, unofficial mods are disabled upon game updates to prevent compatibility issues. I understand the reason behind this, but it is truly a pain to re-enable them one by one after each update. Therefore, I think it'd be nice to have the option to elaborate a list of mods that could be enabled with a single click.

Recently it’s not showing win/loss for about half the games. Is it because of the new update?

Any one else feel like they are commanding legions when using the Sicilian serjeants? They can build, they are versatile fighters, (especially with 50% reduced bonus damage against them) and with unique tech you can get enough to feel like a decending Roman force.

Personally I've always wanted the Romans in aoe2 (obviously a different time period) and this feels like a great civ to rp my Roman fantasy.

Am I the only one? Thoughts?

In a team game if it goes late, tell your allies to send you food for a 2:1 exchange like in a game of settlers of Catan. I tried this, team sent thousands of food and I converted my own thousands of food and we generated 11k+ gold to be redistributed to the team. This obviously won't work for a game where everyone is using their resources super efficiently, but in games where gold is the issue this is game ending for the other team. Especially if you have another Burgundians player and your team can do this for another round if needed. If teams coordinate, this kind of makes team matches on arena and BF a bit broken right?

Hey Guys,

I am watching a youtube video from Hera right now. It looks like when he sends vills to straggler trees, he doesn't have them return the wood they collected before making a farm. Doesn't this mean that any wood they chopped is wasted? I am around 1100-1150 ELO and I always will send my vil to the TC to drop off the wood before making a farm.

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If I am making a mistake please let me know.

I don't know if this is normal but all my mods (grid, small trees, etc) get disabled when a new update arrives. Is there a way to prevent that?

Play on steam. When the update came every time I click to play I see “opening AoE2”, the box disappears, steam shows I’m playing for about 3-4 seconds and then nothing. Back to as if I never opened anything. I have tried: verify game files, reinstall game, updating gfx drivers, running game as admin, opening steam as admin, running game from the exe in the file rather than from steam (same result), running the vc_redist.exe file (says already have it)... any other suggestions?

So I just finished the campaigns on Hard, and wow. These are probably the 3 best campaigns in AoE2 at the moment.

Super high quality missions, fun and enjoyable, and most of them very unique. The only thing that slightly annoyed me was the overly aggressive narrator, but that's a choice.

Edward Longshanks

Easy campaign, one sword rating, and really matched that rating (unlike, say, Tariq). Lots of standard build & destroy missions. Missions 1 and 3 have a small twist on that formula which is pretty fun, but overall pretty standard fare. Never really felt pressured except for moments in Mission 2. Mass Longbowmen just slaughter everything, and the Celts never did built enough Siege Onagers.

A Man of God: By far the hardest mission. You're hit with increasing waves of stronger enemy attacks, while you can't collect many resource and are stuck in Castle Age (or are you? I didn't manage to unlock Imperial, but I couldn't finish all the side quests). Small exploit where you can actually build a dock outside of the city and be relatively safe from raids. Going out to hunt down the small towns and the blacksmiths/supply depots really felt like foraging during the lulls in a siege.

The Grand Dukes of the West

A step up in difficulty compared to Edward Longshanks. Each mission has a stronger set of side-quests, but nothing too difficult. This really feels like what the Franks campaign could have been - large masses of cavalry pushing through enemy forces.

The Cleansing of Paris: a better version of The Siege of Paris, very interesting side quests, but a bit too easy since you can avoid the centre island full of Siege Onagers

The Hook and Cod Wars: the only mission that felt more challenging - being stuck on small islands while being pressured by two enemies was a bit hard, but Cannon Galleons and going on water can easily wipe out Red, and once you have the first Green base down you're pretty much set.

The Hautesvilles

The finale to this expansion. I really wish that this campaign was six missions, as there were so many interesting parts to it. A bit harder, but since there's no infinite resource spam anymore it has nothing on Le Loi or Bayinnaung. Seeing how tanky the Serjants are really help reinforce the Sicilians as an infantry-archer civ, unlike the similar-region Franks and Burgundians.

Guiscard Arrives: Pretty good initial scenario, the betrayal of your overlord definitely hurts, and Cyan step up their attacks enough so that pushing on the castle while defending yourself is a bit tricky. The tight population space means that engagements have to be more carefully thought out.

Roger in Sicily: Unfortunately easily cheesed with your starting army, but if not a challenging build-up and defend mission.

Bohemond and the Emperor: The most annoying mission of this xpac. I ended up using two groups of cavaliers just to drag the army back and forth so I could snipe buildings. There's no build up, no early pressure, just a long and tiresome grind through three large regions.

Bohemond in the East: Really reminds me of Philly's The Last Romans. I think having one more attack wave would've helped, but a fun scenario where you really do feel stretched out to your limits across a massive city. If you want to cheese it, just sacrifice the outer rings of buildings and build a few castles close together.

Wonder of the World: What a mission, probably my favourite mission in AoE2. Lots of potential choices in this mission, super open ended. You have a good amount of resources and a ton of flexibility to choose what to do. Excellent replay value. Having everyone collapse on you as you scramble to finish a wonder is a bit more fun than hunting down the remnants of Yellow and Cyan.

All in all, kudos to the devs for such a fun experience. And for only $10, an incredible steal for quite a few hours of fun.

1568 upvotes for a thread supporting the devs breaking our game and releasing 2 civilizations that are unusable because they're unbalanced.

https://old.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/l6t2gx/10_for_dlc_for_a_game_that_is_updated_every_month/

What is wrong with people?

So fairly new player (not new, but new to DE) here. i played my first multiplayer games on the new maps today and got a game on archipelago. So in the preview picture of the map every player starts on own his island.
I know, you have to scout and stuff, but I was fairly surprised meeting me opponent on the same island than me. schouldn't that something that the preview implies because it impacts building placement, build orders etc?

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/fwqxab/hear_me_out_goths/

This was to balance then through the ages more as it would strengthen them a bit in feudal and nerf in postimp

What if Slavs UU was Cossack instead of Boyar?

Did cossacks exist during that timeframe?

New Formation call " no Formation " or " Dont Line up " or " Queue Jump Allow" or " Archer shooting my as "

Please !

Wanted to give some historical insights on the Sicilian civ bonuses.

Civilization bonuses
Castles and Town Centers are constructed 100% faster.
Land military units absorb 50% of all incoming bonus damage.
Farm upgrades provide +100% additional food to Farms before they need to be reseeded.
Can build Donjons, which replace the regular Watch Tower line.

Team bonus
Transport Ships +5 carry capacity and +10 armor versus anti-ship bonus damage.

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Castles and Town Centers are constructed 100% faster.
Faster building Castles/Town Centers reflects the Norman penchant for castle building. While famous for building castles in England, the Normans also constructed many throughout Southern Italy and Sicily, such as the Castello Normanno ("Norman Castle") in Aci Castello, Sicily (built impressively on a rocky outcrop facing the sea) or the Castle of Melfi in Melfi, Italy. There are several castles and towers in the region referred to as "Norman Castle" or "Norman Tower" in Italian, reflecting the ubiquity of these constructions during the relatively brief period of Norman rule.

In fact, this period of Norman Italy/Sicily (11th and 12th centuries) was known for incastellamento (encastellation), as castles sprung up so rapidly. Castles gave the Norman elite -- always relatively few in numbers -- the ability to control territory and manage very large and diverse subject populations, especially in Sicily. Castles and simple keeps or donjons also provided effective defense against feuds with Norman families (such as the conflicts between the Hautevilles and Drengots) and other invading powers. Castles also served an almost-offensive component, as represented by Count Roger's conquest of Sicily which was made possible by his gradual expansion out from his power bases of castles and towers.

In fact, the geography of Southern Italy and Sicily, with its mountain ranges and narrow coastal plains, encouraged the construction of castles as a means to control and defend key terrain such as valleys and coastal cities.

Land military units absorb 50% of all incoming bonus damage.
During their height, the Normans (and especially their cavalry) were militarily unstoppable on the battlefields of Southern Italy, the Balkans, and the Near East, such as at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081) when the Normans broke the center of the Byzantine lines with a direct charge. The Normans would have similar successes in direct melee with Arabs, Berbers, and Turks despite often being outnumbered. For example, at the Battle of Cerami (1063), a little more than 100 Norman knights decisively defeated a much larger Arab/Berber force, estimated in the thousands, through direct cavalry charge. Simply put, the Normans did not have a lot of tactical tricks up their sleeves to make up for their small numbers, but could still win with sheer ferocity.

In addition, this bonus reflects the Italo-Norman success against their enemies. Similar to how the Lithuanian Leitis -- with an attack that ignores armor -- is especially effective against Teutonic Knights and Boyars, the unique units of two civilizations the historical Lithuanians fought and had successes against, the Sicilians being able to mitigate bonus damage reflects the Sicilian/Norman successes against their historical opponents: the Byzantines (with their anti-infantry Cataphracts and their other counter units -- spearmen/skirmishers) and Saracens (camels).

Farm upgrades provide +100% additional food to Farms before they need to be reseeded.
Dating back to Roman times, Southern Italy and Sicily has always been an agricultural center, owing to its warm climate and the fertile volcanic soil in the region. The Roman latifundia, or large farming estates, were long a feature of Sicily into the Middle Ages. While some historians suggest that the persistence of latifundia had long-term negative effects on the development of the Sicilian economy, the bonus makes sense when one considers that these large estates would have contained significant agricultural area -- hence the increased amount of food for a given farm.

Can build Donjons, which replace the regular Watch Tower line.
The design of the Donjon itself is based on the Castello di Adrano in Adrano, Sicily (built in 1072 by Count Roger I of Sicily) -- which features a square tower above a recognizable larger base, possibly built up over an older Arab structure. Count Roger is believed to have erected this tower as a fortified outpost to assist in his conquest of the nearby city of Catania. The Normans often used such structures as bases of operation for offensive actions throughout a region. This history of offensive building is also reflected in the fact that the Donjon can train Serjeants and Serjeants themselves can build Donjons. In the game, the high armor value of the Serjeants allows them to hold their own in hostile territory a bit longer than regular infantry can until players can send in their Knights from their main bases.

Transport Ships +5 carry capacity and +10 armor versus anti-ship bonus damage.
The Italo-Normans were not particularly effective at naval combat -- as evidenced by a number of naval defeats against the Byzantine/Venetians -- notably, the Battle of Corfu in 1084. They were, however, extremely innovative at transporting armies and horses, as well as undertaking amphibious operations, most notably in their initial conquests in Sicily as well as later in the Balkans. For example, in May 1061, Roger crossed the Strait of Messina separating Italy and Sicily with a surprise night-time crossing while the city of Palermo was taken 11 years later by an amphibious invasion. Transports having additional carry capacity and armor reflects this Norman/Sicilian ability to strike out via sea.

Overall
While the Italo-Normans were relatively few in numbers, they showed impressive ability to strike quickly into, seize, and control disparate areas, as reflected by their pretty wide territorial range (also seen in the Hautevilles campaign). The combination of the Transport Ship Team Bonus, the Donjon, the Serjeant, and the faster-building Castles reflects this history as it gives the Sicilian player ways to strike out on both land and sea and hold territory for follow-on forces. The ability to ignore bonus damage reflects their sheer military dominance throughout the 11th and 12th centuries.