Wow the jump from Standard to Moderate is...insane.

So I used to play AOE1-2 a lot as a kid, cheated often of course.

But I got DE recently, booted it up and played a made on Standard. It was super easy, I don't think I could've lost even if I tried. Like I was really phoning it in and trying to re-learn the game.

So this time I bumped it up to moderate...and then hundreds of Crossbowmen. I had 15-20 knights and 10 archers...and I wiped out like 60 of them...and then they kept coming...and coming.

And then there was this weird 2-3 minute period where they went from base, to Fuedal, to Castle age all within 3 minutes. I was so confused!

Damn I know I am shit at the game but that felt bad, I was trying, fast tehcing my way and getting a big economy going, I got rushed when they captured all the artifacts and had like 5ish minutes it appeared on the countdown. But even then, I had maxed upgraded units and specials as well and they just had...hundreds of Arbalests.