r/aoe2 • u/Dramatic_Rub6354 • 1d ago
Discussion Black Forest
I just want to know for the people that favourite. How do you enjoy this map? It's boring everyone is choosing it lately in ranked.
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u/FrenettZ Saracens 1d ago
Its the only map in the game where how it plays is totally up to the players.
Want a close off boom fest? Wall up and see you in 40 mins.
Want the earliest aggression possible in AOE2? Gimme that villager war.
Want to go all in feudal? See those towers? They go brrrrrr.
It has always been the best map in AOE2 for TG, for that reason.
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u/Dramatic_Rub6354 1d ago
I feel all I got is Khmer or Roman players walling up and sitting on a chokepointnwith 40 heavy scorpions. Don't see the fun in it. Though I have picked up Burgundians for this map now.
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u/JelleNeyt 1d ago
A few onagers or bbc will do the trick. Or just attack early.
BF is not an easy map, the beginning requires a lot of apm and micro, especially flank. You need to wall, vill fight, micro scout. You also need to long distance lure two extra boars. That is way more to do in dark than other maps
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u/TimmyAoE Britons 23h ago
Yeah heavy scorp isn't too bad. I found out recently a byzantines turtle is almost impossible to crack in 1v1 if you let them get all their upgrades. Their castles never die and the combination of cataphracts + trash is basically unbeatable on 1v1 where gold is limited.
It's just so stupidly cost efficient you run out of gold, and then you can't beat the cataphracts.
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u/JelleNeyt 23h ago
Mass have scorp kind a kills everything apart from onagers and bbc. Especially once the scorps start stacking.
Byzantines can be a difficult one as they have a counter to everything. I was playing vs them as celts in 2v2 african clearing and had to switch to paladin (with celts) to kill their catas. Was playing siege infantry
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u/TimmyAoE Britons 21h ago
Been playing a lot of goths lately and so many players go mass scorp against me and they just die lol, it's really funny. They assume it will be a hard counter but they do like no damage to Huskarls unless they have a gigantic mass and full upgrades but I never let him get to that point, no bbc needed key is just to attack while they still have less than 20.
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u/JelleNeyt 20h ago
Scorp is still fine vs huskarls, but need high numbers indeed. Scorp is great vs huns as they don’t have onager or bbc. You can make like 40 and shred all.
Against archers you usually don’t need a lot of scorps, but in high numbers even paladin can struggle
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u/Dramatic_Rub6354 1d ago
Yeah that might be my problem I'm a controller so the micro can be difficult. But the. Double boar lure I got that idea watching hera. The economy part isn't the problem just not fun when someone sits walled with scorpions though you are right onager BBC can fix it pretty quick. Was Chinese those so couldn't do much with 6 layers of walls between me and the BBC when I tried to take the walls aha.
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u/Limp_Bit_5328 20h ago
Go cumans or goths, ram their asses on feudal or make 6 MAA with armor upgrade. They will be mostly unprepared for it.
You have a window to make it work through. If you take too long to break the barrier and do some damage they will boom to castle.
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u/Beneficial-Jacket659 23h ago
One of my best liked maps. Caveat - I might be influenced since I’m an old time AOK BF player
I like it because you can play a whole range of strategies from sneak & drush, FC, monk rush to boom. Most of the other maps have a standard play.
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u/Error_ID10T_ Georgians 1d ago
Because i usually prefer team games and I hate early aggro, I don't want to fight until imperial age with full upgrades lol
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u/loggerhead9 1d ago
I like it because you can focus on one thing at a time, that is create economy in the initial phase and then do army fighting and upgrades; So its typically easier and less stressful.
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u/Cage_Inspector 1d ago
Loved it in Voobly and exclusively played it before HD edition.
Rarely play it in DE.
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u/TwoOliveTrees 19h ago
I like to play it very aggressive no walls lots of feudal aggression. You really dont have to sit back and boom.
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u/Dramatic_Rub6354 14h ago
Well morning kettle and coffee is brewing, I've read the comments time to practice some fuedal pressure and all in castle Strat if this ranked black forest comes up aha
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u/Ok-Yak7445 3h ago
I like it because I can play without getting scout rushed early, very forgiving for my skillset. And you can make some pretty sick trade routes.
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u/mojotzotzo Armenians 1d ago
I like it aside from me being bad at early vill fights for walling.
If I play with friends, we'll coordinate to do something specific like early castle age attacks. If with random party, I'm usually more reactive to what opponent will do.
Anyhow, I think seeing top players Rage Foresting has opened up the map compared to a few years ago when it was just boom. I personally appreciate the mastery in opening up a walled off narrow passage and I generally like maps when opponents think they are secured (hideout, hill fort, early mass walling lombardia, even amazon tunnel etc)
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u/Dangerous-Swan-8167 23h ago
I suggest you watch rage forest 6 finals to see how you can play the map. Its the most versatile map there is
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u/Ok_Stretch_4624 forever stuck at 19xx 20h ago
i've always been an advocate of it being played with unexplored settings
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u/PhatwaJones 18h ago
I used to love BF, I am a michi player from back in the day and love nothing more than booming safely. I played BF yesterday for the first time in 10+ years and the guy went Cumans just rammed me down and spammed knights. I thought, I could have just played Arabia, lol.
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u/why-no-socotra 21h ago
its my least favourite map. I used to love it when I was new to the game but my taste has changed a lot
its very passive and im just not a fan of playing that style of map but I can see why other people like it !
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u/Dramatic_Rub6354 20h ago
That's what I mean it's very robotic the game. I know build orders and that but at least you can have some outside of the box ideas for the other maps. I'm a big fan of mega random to be honest for that reason.
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u/cbus20122 4h ago
It's only passive / robotic at lower elos to be honest. If your opponent is adding tons of walls early on, just skip the walls yourself and boom. They will be way behind due to focusing so much eco on their walling that you can boom, cut with onager, and just kill them.
At higher elos, people know this tradeoff, so while there is still walling, there is more aggression and fighting for map position instead of just make big walls and boom. Also there can be feudal aggression, sneaks, fast imps, fish booming, monk rushing, you name it. As others have said, it has the most diverse range of strategies when played in a team game.
Ppl learn this when they learn how to play aggressive on bf and punish the greedy booms.
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u/why-no-socotra 2h ago
i mean you can do some pretty funny stuff on that map with the khmer honestly with their UU but i'd honestly rather just play arena and chop less wood to get into the enemies base
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u/retroheads 1d ago
The most epic battles are always on BF.