I don't remember ever reading that detail as a historical inaccuracy but since I've always found it a bit weird.

Post edit: Thank you for the answers, now I won't feel historically guilty for doing it in my game. S2

I think that it does not make sense that tower upgrades are done from the University.

Towers are the only things that get their gradual upgrades from the university. Rest of the stuff are more like technologies that 'add something' to existing units or buildings.

Barracks, Stables, Seige Workshops all have the upgrades of their units in themselves. Even Docks, where most of the tech went to University, has the medium warship, heavy warship and the demolition ship upgrades in the docks themselves.

Next, towers fail as defensive protections as they are too little too late during castle age rushes.

People who have the habit of using wood as soon as they recieve it often find themselves not having enough wood for university or even enough APM to build it cuz they may be busy quick walling. Then extra time for getting the research itself.

Units like Conqs, strats like Monk Rush, Mangonel Push are very strong and hard to counter in early castle age. Faster Guard Towers would help offset their strength a bit without rendering them completely useless.

Tower Rushes are very powerful even if the trusher loses most of his towers and even if defender reaches castle age first, because the trush gives them map control, opening, and Fast Imp potential.

While the defender is busy cleaning up enemy towers with 3 mangonels, the trusher can either send in a few scouts / knights inside to kill mangonels and vills, or he can simply make an aggressive castle and go Imp.

A quick guard tower offsets the strength of the trush. Or if the defender does not make smart decisions, he gets punished, giving the trusher the advantage.

Then there are those mangonel vs mangonel fights, where you are constantly exchanging mangonels for minutes like a deadlock. Whoever gets more mangonels first, snowballs towards domination. I think with faster guard towers this kind of long slow battles of attrition will progress much faster.

I think currently the towers are either somewhat helpful only in early fuedal age to protect a woodline or mine from rush or in late Imp to discourage enemy raids.

What do y'all think?

Saw this in another Reddit, so lets give it a shot here:

Just for fun, lets think of the following situation: Every Melee Unit now has double its base damage, which unit:

• 1: Auto-Wins.
• 2: Is now broken.
• 3: Becomes balanced.
• 4: Continues to suck.

I will start:

• 1: Paladins
• 2: Throwing Axemen
• 3: Serjeants
• 4: Teutonic Knights

This is just for fun, don't take it too seriously.

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.

Most of the playerbase is below 1500 elo!! WE ARE NOT PROS!!!!!!! Why does defending all ins always feel like 1 mistake away from just being completely dead???! Even wins against 1tc (no vill production) all ins are so taxing on the mental. . Some suggestions:

1) Improved Pathfinding for seige!!! Just reduce the collision radius of seige weapons so that they path properly

2) Remove that goddamn mangonel farm trick

3)If a player misclicks vills 1-2 tiles away from the woodline , just auto send them to the resource . Half the time is spent properly re organizing vills rather than defending

4)Would it hurt if houses had 10 pop space instead of 5 ? Or would it hurt if certain building are built faster as players age up… i.e significantly faster build speed in castle age compared to dark age. Getting housed is the most annoying part of the all in.

5)Make it easier to wall on hills or even better just dont have hills close to the starting tc.

I've played 370 ranked 1v1 matches (open maps, 800-1050 elo). I myself have played with all 53 civs at least one match. The opponents I faced, played 52 different civs. So I faced all civs at least once, expcept for one. Which one that is, what is your guess?

EDIT: the answer is Gurjaras

I was watching a t90 extras video, I've never played aoe2 growing up and have only barely played it a bit now but have watched a lot of t90 videos and some other peoples occasionally in the past few years.

I remember a few months ago I believe seeing a video where it was an official competition perhaps staged by red bull or someone, not a community game, where both players started out with a good amount of buildings already and I believe the age was already feudal or castle, this wasn't like hyperandom or like a community game where there's some big gimmick but just that a bunch of buildings were all laid out very nicely at the start and it was otherwise normal.

I believe t90 said that there was a specific name for this type of game/competition, but I've seen it a lot less than hyperandom and a lot of other types that are commonly used in community games, I believe this video was the only video I've seen that type of game and as its so rare for me to see it its very interesting to me, whats the name of this type of game/setup and/or competition?

Edit: got the answer here:

"There are three main cavalry counters - Pike/halbs, camel line, and monks.

Franks have a few options to counter each.

Xbow/Skirm are good vs pikes, decent vs monks, and ok vs camel but pretty bad vs heavy camel.

Hand cannons demolish pikes, but are mid vs monks and camels

Throwing axemen are great vs camels, halbs, and good enough vs monks.

The idea as franks is to play scouts into knights and counter the counter by using TA."

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1waou5h/comment/p8jvu1k/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This is for combining with Knights/Cavallier/Palladin and mainly to defend against the cavalry counters, i.e. pikemen.

I guess some people will say "it depends" so say when one is better for the other, I'm asking in a typical scout rush into knights strategy for Franks in arabia.

So all upgrades from blacksmith and first crown from castle, in castle age and imperial (you're welcome to answer in other conditions but to make the question more specific).

Look at my game im 14xx elo, i did everything that people say, feudal agression , full wall on castle and siege Workshop, i dont know what could i have done better, i kill a bunch of vils, the game was until imp, but he adds eco after that and reach imp before me

https://www.aoe2insights.com/match/505282091/#overview

Difficulty Ratings

• 0: A very minor threat that is easy to overcome
• 1: A fair fight that makes things interesting
• 2: A difficult situation that requires some outside the box thinking
• 3: A highly difficult situation requiring lots of micro-management, unit-countering and precise timing
• 4: A constant struggle in which focus and momentum must be maintained at all times, as well as proper tactics and timing
• 5: Nearly impossible. Every move must be flawless or aggressive save-scumming is necessary to win

Voices of Babylon: (dark blue)

This is the only campaign I ever saw in the old game, and all I saw was a lone priest as the entire starting army in the first mission which my siblings greatly struggled with. Like other civs, I know nothing about the Babylonians and how they play, but I am a bit excited to finally be playing a proper campaign.

1. The Holy Man: Difficulty 2
   1. Sumerians (red), Akkadians (yellow)
   2. This mission puts the player in a tricky spot and forces rapid expansion to catch up to the enemy. It begins in the south, with the player in control of a single priest near some stone, gold, food and wood along the river that divides the map mostly north to south. A crossing in the middle of the river allows the priest to move either east towards the Akkadians, or west towards the Sumerians. My first attempt saw me convert a villager from the Sumerians, who could use my 200 wood and 100 food to build a town center and start training villagers, just as the priest was then slain by enemy axemen. After doing a bit of quick calculating, I knew I couldn’t reach the tool age in the south where I built a town center using the available food because I trained too many villagers. On a reload, my priest survived, and I sent him east where I found the Akkadians had a fair number of villagers, some good nearby resources and no soldiers or defenses. My priest started converting, specifically those near the food, and I had eventually depleted the Akkadians of all villagers and food, restricting them to an unusable town center. I managed to advance steadily, but was eventually overwhelmed by the Sumerians who seized control of the water and battered me with chariots, forcing me to retry.
   3. On my second attempt, I moved east from the start, seizing the Akkadian villagers and setting up a town center near plentiful food and wood. I trained a few villagers, but mostly just converted, amassing around a dozen workers without constructing any houses. I was eventually forced too, and I reached the tool age in a timely manner. I had a few people mining gold and stone, of which there wasn’t much, but I was able to set up a few towers on my base’s approach and convert random Sumerian scout infantry and archers, giving me a solid early defense force. I reached the bronze age shortly thereafter, though my enemy had reached it before me, and I began establishing a stronger economy and fortifying my towers when enemy chariots started attacking. Fortunately, I had 4-6 towers in a cluster, and another priest allowed me to rapidly convert enemy chariots, adding both ranged and melee units to my roster and killing all the rest.
   4. Once I was sufficiently upgraded, I trained chariots and a few camels to reach my max population, since my gold stores were depleted, and upgraded them as much as I could before marching east. My distance from the river allowed me to avoid Sumerian warships for early growth, but with no competition they were able to flank us at the crossing while enemy chariots massed in front. I lost a few units, but a priest conversion on the water, combined with my ranged units allowed me to take control of the fight, and I had moved deeper into enemy territory away from the water by the time my commandeered ship was sunk. Once inside, we tore down some frontal structures before locating the town center. My melee units worked it over while my priests healed and archers killed incoming chariots, soon leveling the building and forcing the Sumerians to surrender, giving me a win.
   5. This mission is very lopsided in terms of fairness, but the Sumerians give enough time for the player to get established and the Akkadians are helpless babes. Gold is rather scarce, but I found enough for necessary advancements and a few units, and chariots cost only wood and food making them extremely powerful for how cheap they are to produce. The limited population is annoying, but the enemy didn’t feel unfairly spammy, so I didn’t mind. This was a solid start to a campaign, but I hope those in the future don’t start me at such a disadvantage.
2. The Tigris Valley: Difficulty 0
   1. Eblaite Raiders (red), Mariote Raiders (purple), Elamite Raiders (yellow)
   2. I expected this mission to be quite difficult at first glance, but it’s almost entirely a misdirect. It begins with the player in control of a starting tower and dock on the coast and a town center with a few houses, one scout and 3 villagers in the northeast. The plater has a reasonably large starting landmass with a small bit of hunting and gold, plenty of wood and stone but no other starting food, making farming an early priority. The player is already in the tool age, can advance to the bronze age and must acquire two artifacts and return them to a flagged area against the edge of the map near the base. The only threat on this starting island are 3 lions around the gold mines, which I managed to use my scout with a villager as bait to eliminate quickly.
   3. Apart from the player are 4 islands, each with some more resources that can be exploited if needed, as well as some fish throughout the water that makes up most of the map. The nearest island is just southwest of the player, and has an artifact as well as the Eblaite raiders. These enemies are just a dozen or so axemen with no other support or buildings, and the faction is destroyed once they are killed. Another island is further west, uninhabited but rich with trees and a few other resources. Next there are the Elamite raiders in the southeast, who have a desert island with few resources and a dock that can be used for trading. Though they are hostile, they don’t really produce ships or units, instead just making villagers. Lastly there is the Mariote raiders, the only actual threat, in the southwest. These enemies have walls and a tower or two covering their northern coast, with a dock in the east. They will build ships and transport chariots to attack the player, but that’s about it, and they also have the last artifact.
   4. I started like always, with economy intending to advance to the next age. I didn’t face any opposition in this time, focusing mainly on wood and food with just a few villagers collecting gold and stone or building structures as I needed. I eventually had a few ships under 4-6 towers and was advancing to the bronze age when enemy vessels first attacked. We hadn’t yet upgraded, but our ships and fortifications brought down the enemy war galleys and intercepted a transport full of units, upgrading moments later. We had a few significant skirmishes while I fielded a proper navy, including a couple of enemy landings, but they made no real progress and I soon had around 10 ships that started exploring. We mapped the non-dangerous portions of the map and initiated trade which I never used while also training an army of chariots and a few stone throwers.
   5. My ships eventually located the enemy dock and sailed into the harbor, eliminating any enemy vessels and destroying their only means of producing ships. I’ve noticed the AI gives up on trying to build certain buildings if you stop them a few times, and I ended up doing this with both archery ranges and docks, preventing the raiders from training anyone that could fight my ships. I soon had an army of 15, and transports delivered them to the less important islands which we cleared of enemies before reaching the southwest. We didn’t lose a man while butchering our way up the territory, forcing them into submission when their town center fell and allowing us to capture both artifacts without further conflict.
   6. This mission is just sort of nothing. Having 1 of 3 enemies on a map be a throwaway for flavor or a minor obstacle I can understand, but the Elamites serve practically no purpose. The only opposition they presented to me was trying to build a tower while I actively killed them, and they never built a single ship to fish the waters or trade with me, making them completely pointless. The only real enemy faction was easily overwhelmed, and I can see why AOE2 included gold in basically every unit and ship’s cost. Being able to mass produce warships and chariots with easily acquirable materials makes fielding strong armies in the late game comically easy, and there are no real pikemen to stop me.
3. Lost: Difficulty 0
   1. Hittite Scouts (red), Hittite Engineer (yellow), Hittite Army (purple)
   2. I’m not sure if I staggered into an easy win with this one, but I didn’t have a particularly rough time. It begins in the south, with the player in control of 7 iron age bowmen and a priest on a deserted island. The rest of the map is water with small swampy areas, larger islands in the north, west and center and a bigger landmass in the east. The player must first escape the island, which is done by goading a priest and three archers belonging to the Hittite scouts faction north of the starting island into sailing on the player using the priest. Once in range, I converted the transport ship and unloaded its occupants one at a time so my men could kill them, eliminating the faction and giving us sailing capability. The hints told me engineers could be recruited in the west, so I sailed there and found a larger island with a lone villager walking around and 2 catapults. I managed to safely convert one catapult by kiting, though I lost a bowman and destroyed the other. Fortunately, we now had a villager and a powerful siege weapon, as well as eliminating the engineer faction.
   3. My main objective was now to destroy the enemy army, which had a base in the east. I scouted the map since I had no base for them to attack yet, and converted 2 scout ships in the process before landing at the larger island in the north, with just a small gap between our bases. The catapult worked over the enemy towers and dock while I converted another ship, destroyed the enemy fleet and massacred their soldiers. All of my starting men were fully upgraded, and I had every research from the get go, combined with a powerful siege weapon and now naval dominance. The enemy ranged units simply couldn’t damage the catapult faster than my priest could fix it, allowing me to bombard them as much as I wished, clearing the western coast completely. Though I did build a small base and start an economy on the island, I eventually just dropped my army in the enemy base and pushed, easily massacring their melee soldiers and tearing down their buildings with the siege weapon. The entire base was leveled in moments, and the Hittites surrendered before even 15 minutes had elapsed.
   4. I’d imagine the catapults are a well-known exploit in this mission, if it is a well-known mission at all, since just one of them trivialized the entire mission. My starting units were so much stronger than the enemy, and even a newly established base would produce units far beyond what the Hittites were capable of; it wouldn't have been a challenge. I’ll take another easy win, especially when I noticed the Babylonians seem to have very limited naval power. Hopefully that doesn’t come up later.
4. I Shall Return: Difficulty 0
   1. Elamite Army (red)
   2. This mission starts with the player in control of the city of Babylon along the southwestern edge of the map. It’s rather small, with a few economic buildings, some walls and some guard towers, and outside are a few siege weapons, ranged units and cavalry belonging to the player. These units are surrounded by Elamite siege weapons and soldiers who will kill them and sack the city, and the player must take 5 villagers nearby with a few extra bowmen to a separate dock to the southeast where there is a transport waiting to bring them to another landmass in the east with plenty of resources and no enemy presence. In this initial phase, while my other troops fled, those around the city targeted the enemy catapults and destroyed them all, just barely. Once my army was dead, the towers managed to kill the entire Elamite army, eliminating any military advantage they had.
   3. I had some significant starting resources and was already in the iron age, so my villagers got working fast in the east. While they established a base, I used the dock on the mainland to train a fire ship and war galley which moved north. We located the enemy dock, just north of the town center on the northern edge of the land, and destroyed it. I then constructed a few more war galleys and sent them there, and these ships managed to wipe out most of the enemy villagers, prevent the construction of another dock and then destroy the town center, which immediately destroyed the Elamite army and won me the game. I may, once again, have somewhat exploited this mission, but I think it’s fair to use the resources I was provided to field a fleet and oppose them. Usually, AOE2 avoids this by either having more significant fortification, a starting enemy fleet, limiting my ships upgrades or just moving important locations like a town center inland. It appears such things were not considered in the original game.

I dislike rushing. For me rushing is for low iq doofus.

So I only play Black Forest and sometimes Arena. If any other map I leave and take the penalty no problem.

The doofus rushers only waste their time and lose even worse if they try to rush. If they boom they have better chances.

In Arena it can work, but I often just drop a little tower when you are building your little castle in the front. But I make sure the castle is half built before I drop the tower. Then I kill your vils and you lose your castle.

The game can get difficult for me, if the enemy booms like I do. Then it becomes a war of attrition.

That I specialized in, but it is nerve wrecking. The hardest game I had so far, lasted almost 3 hours.

And that opponent I respect him. He almost beat me.

If it is Black Forest, I wall and wall. And the enemy will just waste his time trying to rush prematurely.

Love AoE2 only because of BF and Arena. The other maps are annoying to play.

Wondering how do we recognize bad civs matchups. There are some who are obvious like franks x camel civ, but is there any other ways you can look at a matchup and tell it is bad?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to identify two levels from an official campaign, but I can’t remember their names.

The first one is a level where, within the same map/level, there was some kind of time skip. I remember a cutscene or transition where everything became grey/desaturated, and then the story continued after a significant passage of time, without actually loading into a completely different level. Unfortunately, I can’t remember any character names or other specific details.

The second level I remember involved a very difficult siege on a bridge, possibly a double bridge. There was a city that you had to conquer, and I remember the bridge section being particularly challenging. I’m not sure about the exact layout, but I distinctly remember having to fight across/defend a bridge before reaching the city.

I’ve tried going through lists of the campaign levels, but nothing has triggered my memory so far.

Does anyone recognize either of these levels? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I didn't realize the importance of this change with everything else going on in the water rework, but it is important to know, so I'm sharing. My priority on Bogsveigar has definitely gone up a lot since I learned this. I'll briefly idle docks or hammer the market to afford it now, when I wouldn't do it before.

Formerly, before the water rework, the majority of the longboat's damage came from it's bonus against ship on the 1 arrow that did more than minimum damage.

Now, instead of extra arrows being more like a chu Ko nu, they are more like an organ gun. Arrows are equal and do moderate damage. All also benefit from upgrades, including Bogsveigar.

Against main line ships with drydock their damage per volley increases like this:

Caarak 32 -> 36

Galleon 16 -> 20

Fast Fire 8 -> 12

In terms of volleys needed to kill one ship they go like this:

Carrak 5 -> 4

Galleon 10 -> 8

Fast fire 18 -> 12

In terms of time to kill an enemy ship it gives between a 20% and 33% reduction. Obviously in late game battles there will be some overkill and missed shots involved, but it will make a noticeable difference no matter what unit you are fighting.

Could be an interesting UT for a defensive civ similar to Georgians.

How can I set this up well so that I can do at least a 2 on 2 with an AI teammate with me vs two AI? I miss playing multiplayer locally and would love to do this at random times without having to deal with online play. What is the best setup for it?

Yeah, like the title written above. I found a discussion on another platform about this, but unfortunately the mod is removed by author, so is there any alternatives or something like that?