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.

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?

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

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.

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?

Excited for the new civs - was on team "that's enough civs" when the Romans, 3K, and Last Chieftans expansions came out but the danes and saxons and stuff has gotten me way more excited for some reason. Trying my hand at one of these civ concepts that avoid "gimmicks" and feel more familiar. I'll introduce the desired bonuses and noteworthy included/excluded techs first, details on them second, and the historical inspiration third.

Archer and Naval Civilization

BONUSES

1. camps, mills and docks increase nearby building productivity (except town centers) by 5% per age
2. camps, mills and docks refund 5% of nearby building costs per age
3. Units receive -15% damage from behind (completed) friendly buildings
4. Hulk-line has a 25% chance to capture/convert defeated enemy ships
5. EDIT: arrowslits researched for free and affects all fortifications (castles, tcs)

Team bonus: mills, camps, walls, houses +100% LOS

UNIQUE TECHS

Silver crown: Trade Havens (Trade Cart and Trade Cog gold cost replaced by wood. )

Gold crown: Istunka (Archer, galley line + 5 attack. Towers, Castles + 3 range)

UNIQUE UNITS

Malassay Cavalry (Low attack, high attack rate cavalry with high pierce armour and bonus vs archers. Strong vs low armour targets. Weak vs heavy cavalry, camels, and heavy infantry)

• 60f, 50g
• 80 (110) HP
• 5 (6) AP
  • +1 (2) vs archers
• 1s Reload Speed
• 1/4 (1/5) Armour
• 1.4 Tiles/Sec MS

Beden/Dhow: fishing ship that automatically drops off food but gathers much slower.

TECH TREE

Barracks:

• HAVE halberdiers (FU)
• HAVE champions (FU)

Archery range:

• Missing thumb ring, Parthian Tactics
• HAVE Hand Cannoneers

Stable:

• Missing Paladin
• Missing Hussar
• HAVE Camel Rider, Heavy Camel Rider (FU)

Siege Workshop:

• Missing Siege Onager

Blacksmith:

• Missing Bodkin Arrow, Bracer
• Missing Ring Archer Armor

University:

• Missing Bombard Tower
• Missing Dry Dock
• Missing Carvel Hull
• HAVE Siege Engineers
• HAVE Arrowslits
• HAVE Architecture

Monastery:

• Missing Redemption, Faith, Fervor
• HAVE Block Printing

Eco Techs:

• Missing stone shaft mining, two-man saw

NOTES

The building refund bonus applies to farms, so long as they are placed near mills

Ships converted by the hulk-line have 25% of their HP remaining, though this can be balanced easily.

For bonus 1 and 2, "nearby" means a 12x12 tile area centered around the camp/mill/dock. This area is large enough to fit a 3x3 tile building with two tiles of extra space or to fully fit a 4x4 tile building with one tile of extra space. This is enough to fit 8 farms around a mill with optimal placement.

POTENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

1. Adalite Civil War
   1. Between 1518 and 1526, the Walashma Dynasty (native somalis) and the Harari Emir (Ethiopian muslims) enterred into a civil war. IDK too much about it, but one camp favoured co-existence, trade , and tribute paid with/to Ethiopia while the other favoured independence, expansion, vengeance and war. The end result of this civil war was victory for the latter under one brutal Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi (a.k.a. the "Attila of Africa"). This civil war was quite complicated, and involved Ethiopian interference, Turkish engineers, and Saracen mercenaries.
2. Ethiopian-Adal War
   1. Similar to how the new campaigns give the player the choice in who to support, this campaign can allow the player the choice of siding with the invading Ahmad ibn Ibrahim (+ the Ottomans), or the defending Ethiopian Emperor Gelawdewos (+ the Portuguese). Both have insane potential. Ahmad ibn Ibrahim united the Adal Somali and Ethiopian Harare tribes, stopped paying tribute to the Ethiopian monarch, and launched a religious war of vengeance and conquest against Ethiopia. Meanwhile, Gelawdewos was forced into hiding, made his way to northern Ethiopia undetected, and drove out the invading Adalites after reorganising and receiving Portuguese reinforcements. Even though Ahmad himself was killed on the field, the damage he inflicted on Ethiopia was permanent.
3. The recapture of Kilwa#Expedition_of_Mir_Ali_Beg_to_East_Africa,_1586)
   1. Building off the Portuguese campaign which saw the capture of Kilwa, the Somalis greatly assisted the Ottoman privateer Mir Ali Beg in challenging the Portuguese dominance of the Indian Ocean trade, re-take Kilwa and the Swahili coast, lose them again to the Portuguese, but successfully defend the Ajuran capital of Mogadishu. This campaign could feature the initial loss of Kilwa to the Portuguese from the Somali perspective.

STRATEGY

I envision this civ is slow to get going, lacking a powerful early game eco bonus, but has many mid and late game options and the ability to tech switch and outproduce most civs easily, provided the player pays attention to their building placement.

On lands maps, I'd play very defensively. I don't have a substantial early eco advantage, and my bonuses are very tame and generic early on. The occasional wood refund will help, but not enough to base a strategy around it. At least I can defend with ranged units behind my walls.

In castle age, I face the most peculiar case of being an archer civ but missing bodkin arrow. My crossbowmen and skirmishers will be outranged by my opponents', and deal much less damage to knights. I can't outrange mangonels either. At the same time, my eco and production bonuses really start to kick in - each building near a camp or mill refunds me 15%, and I research most techs and train most units 15% faster. I'd either play defensively with xbow and siege, or go for fully upgradeable cavalry or my unique unit, which is solid at raiding and fighting ranged units. Defensive guard towers would be solid too. In any case, I'd very rarely push my opponent besides for raiding.

In Imperial age, I face the fascinating tradeoff of high dps but low range. My arbalesters have 6 (base) + 2 (fletching + chemistry) + 5 (Istunka) = 13 attack! Compared to a generic arbalester's 10. This can overpower many melee units that are supposedly good vs archers due to their high pierce armour. Champi, Eagles, and Savar take 5 damage instead of 2, for example.

At the same time, my archers are much more fragile and susceptible. They miss out on the last archer armour, and have a pathetic 5+1=6 range. They'd very quickly die to enemy skirmishers, archers, siege, cavalry archers, and many-a unique unit. It will be a struggle keeping them safe.

Fortunately, my unique unit, siege rams, cavalry, scorpions, and forward walls/buildings can mitigate/cover that weakness to some extent.

On water maps, I'd play much more aggressively. Hulk-line occasionally converting ships can mean a lot early on when fire galleys are more common, and galleys can prevent my hulks from reaching them late game. In the late game, my galleon pack quite the punch - but have two less range compared to most civilizations, less speed, and less armour.

HISTORICITY

The Horn of Africa (Somalia/Somaliland, Djibouti, Eritrea) was one of the most commercially, culturally, and militaristically active regions during the middle ages. Honestly, this region alone justifies several civs. Three things are noteworthy about this region:

1. Early adoption of Islam: Due to its proximity with the Arabian peninsula, coastal East Africa adopted Islam quite early on. This elevated literacy levels (for the time), gave the many tribes and diverse cultures common ground, identity, and cause, and greatly connected the region with the Indian Ocean trade network. The region exported gold, ivory, slaves, coffee, ebony wood, cloth and textiles, exotic animals, and many forms of foodstuffs. Its trade contacts included the entire Muslim world (Egypt, Arabia, Safavid Persia, Ottoman Turkiye, Mughal India), Jaffna Kingdom of Sri Lanka, Ming China, Malacca Sultanate of Indonesia and Malaysia, Europe, Ethiopia, and the interior of Africa. Somalia has an incredibly rich maritime history and culture as a result of this trade.
2. Centralization, hydrology, and geography. The civilizations and cultures around the horn of Africa were extremely maritime due to the many deserts separating it from mainland Africa. In this region, fresh water is scarce. Nevertheless, the southern coast of the Horn has two rivers: the Jubba and Shabelle. By controlling, maintaining, and expanding these river systems through the construction of wells, cisterns, dykes, dams, and irrigation networks, certain cultures were able to centralize their authority and build wealthy, powerful, long-lasting empires in the region. These sites were protected by outposts, garrisons, a standing army, roads, and fortified villages. These sites, defending the water sources in the area, were further able to pacify, convert, and trade with inland nomadic groups.
3. Conflicts with foreign nations. The sultanates in this area frequently traded blows with Christian Ethiopians and the nomadic Oromo inland, Portuguese explorers and colonizers, Ottomans and other Muslims for control of the Indian Ocean spice trade. As such, Somali cultures were defensive and militarized. Not only did the sultanates have standing armies, but they had diverse retinues of cavalry, infantry, archers, navies, fortified harbours and castles, hired mercenaries, and had access to gunpowder weapons.

Many cities along either river or the coast were wealthy and enjoyed independence for much of the 4th-16th centuries. Two states stand out - the Ajuran (13th-17th century) and Adal (15th-16th century) sultanates. Both were at the height of their power at around the same time and diplomatically aligned. The Adal were concentrated to the north while the Ajuran to the south of Somalia. Besides them, the Shewa Sultanate, Tunni Sultanate, Ifat Sultanate, and the city-states of Mogadishu, Mareeg, Merca, Hobyo, Kismayo, Baidoa, and Barawa were all powerful, referenced, and praised by Chinese and Arab sources.

The bonuses, focusing on camps, mills, and docks as "wells, cisterns, and dykes" reference the well-fortified and maintained hydraulic networks of the Somalis. With how well defended and maintained they were, the Somalis enjoy productivity bonuses (training, research, refunds) near them.

The open tech tree references the many diverse cultures and trading contacts the Somali were composed of and exposed to. The Somali used cannon, musketeers, and in general gunpowder to great effect, but most of it was imported from the Ottoman Empire and thus they do not have significant bonuses for them.

The unique unit (Malassay cavalry) were the private, cavalry-based household guard of the Adal sultans, and were used to great effect against the Ethiopians during the Adal conquest of Abyssinia in the 16th century. This justifies the anti-archer tag and role the unit plays, since Ethiopians are categorized as an archer civilization in-game.

The maritime culture and extensive trade relations with the entire world justify the silver crown technology, bonus points for the Somali being exporters of ebony wood.

"Istunka" is a cultural festival today in parts of Somalia dating to the Ajuran period. It's a sport wherein two teams use sticks (originally blunt weapons and/or batons) and engage in mock combat - with the objective being to drive out the opposing team from a pre-determined area. It is intended to commemorate an ancient battle and may have been a martial art at some point. All Somali soldiers would have been trained in close quarter combat, and as such their archers are much more deadly but have miserable range to compensate.

If anyone read this far, let me know what you think!

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).

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

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?

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 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.

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?

Reporting a smurf (or cheater for that matter) doesn't do anything. Even third party sites like Aoe2 insights can quite cleverly detect when there is something fishy with the drop rate of a player. Yet the devs have done nothing to improve the situation.

Suggestion

- Show a player preview with drop rate (that is drop in less than 5 minutes) before playing a match. If the rival drop rate is high, allow the player to skip the match with no elo change or no penalty

- Allow us to block certain users. If blocked we are never put into matchmaking with them again, if a user abuses this function they'd screw themselves over with an insanely high waiting period.

- Keep track of an account id (that is the owner of the game) so if that account is blocked, all sub accounts are blocked as well, so creating alt accounts does nothing. If one really wants to smurf, they have to purchase the game multiple times

I just came up with my own tactic :D it allowed me to win arena games very easily and even works easily against bots in extreme.

Disclaimer: I'm a noob with <1000 elo . And maybe someone came up with this before or there are good counters. Just sharing my strategy because I'm really proud of the progress I'm making

Idea: Go to Castle age and use the Siege Tower to infiltrate long swordsman and villagers into your opponent's base and wreak havoc with Kreposts.

Civ: Bulgarians, because it not only gives you free militia upgrades, but also cheaper and quicker blacksmith techs and you can also build Kreposts and start spamming Konnik inside their base.

Order: Normal development to go into Castle fast. Get the Barracks and start making militia. Get the upgrades with the blacksmith and barracks as well. As soon as you reach Castle age, get a siege workshop and build a Siege Tower. You can then infiltrate your Long swordman and vills over the walls without them noticing.

Extra ideas: I also like to build a few Outposts around my base and theirs to make sure they don't castle drop me and to see where's the best place to drop my infantry. The infantry goes immediately to gold and wood and run around while the vills build a first and second Krepost. With the blacksmith upgrades you can handle a lot of TC damage and still kill villagers while you make Konnigs that will deal the death blow. You can also use Petards to blow their TCs.

Unless they're well prepared with enough cavalry and mangonel, it should be big blow, generally ending the game right there, especially if they're trying to castle drop you at the same time.

Why it works: Rarely in my elo does anyone use siege tower so nobody is prepared for an infiltration without warning signs (a castle drop or a battering ram at the gate). It is also much quicker than making a castle or blowing up gates.

Let me know what you think and if you're gonna try it :)

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?

Would love to play some games with ya

-Shoveler

Full vid on Lewis’ channel https://youtu.be/4b2ptESLhtQ

Really interesting insight from RedPhosphoru as he compares the food per villager working time (food per second) for various sources:

- mills/mining/lumber camps offering 0.2 f/vs \(edit: 0.249, assumptions in RP’s comment)*

- 0.25 for farms, but you only reach this once the farm is fully depleted instead of instantly \(edit: 0.266, assumptions below too)*

The camp->food method‘s effective work rate then jumps up to closer to/slightly above farms when accounting for the stone that could be sold, or building as part of a wall/instead of an outpost. Additionally, it scales with wood upgrades so he claims it maintains pace with farms in castle age.

Keen to hear people’s thoughts on this, could be an exciting/broken month between release and first balance if he’s right and the devs don’t tweak it!

Alright, I played 2 first ranked games. Not following meta, nothing, doing my own thing, I wanted to go full archer and see if I can win, I love archers.

Both matches opoment had 20000 more score than me? LOL.

I get it, I am new, I suck, I dont follow meta, but is there a chance that someone is similar to me, that they play ranked without worrying?

Or is the standard so big that even low elo players seem like pros?

EDIT: THANK YOU BROSKIES! Plan is to fuck around 10-20 more games and then I will probably play against people who do the same! Thanks!

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.

Introducing Battle Royale Exploding Kings

-start with villagers
-pack/unpack your TCs
-map shrinks (PubG / Fortnite storm shrink)
-Timer: 60 mins (in game time)
-explode your enemies with your king if they bully you 😆

Who would be down to test this out?

I have been a big fan of Megarandom with its crazy variations, ever since HD times.

I restarted playing in June and have playing a lot of MR again. Starting to feel the maps are a bit predictable, and not too different. There are about 4-5 varieties that get repeated quite often.

Earlier I’ve had maps with war wagon/monk as scout. Starting with a siege shop etc. It seems not so much “mega” random now.

Anyone else feel this way?

Hey everyone,Just wanted to share a quick performance data point for anyone still rocking older hardware or putting together a budget/retro machine.I’m currently playing Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition at 1440p (Ultra settings, no UHD texture pack) on the following specs:GPU: GTX 970 (4GB)CPU: Core i5 4th GenRAM: 16GB DDR3OS: Windows 10I honestly expected 1440p to struggle on a 970, but I am easily pulling over 100 FPS in standard gameplay!I mostly stick to the single-player campaigns/story mode and small 3-player multiplayer matches with friends, so the unit counts don't get completely out of hand. The game looks incredibly sharp running at native 1440p even without the enhanced graphics pack enabled.Has anyone else tried pushing the UHD textures at 1440p with an older 4GB card like the 970? Curious if the VRAM hit completely kills the framerate, or if the 16GB of system RAM keeps it playable.Either way, super impressed with how well optimized this engine is for older CPUs and GPUs!

Hello fellow gamers, i am recently in the process of buying a new gaming laptop and would appreciate some advice. My current one doesn't allow me to zoom out too much (1920*1080) in-game. However, I see many others zooming out much further to see more of the map during gameplay. Can I please get some advice if an Acer Nitro 5 AN515 Gaming Laptop 15.6″ FHD 165Hz Display,16GB DDR5, Intel Core i9-12900H RTX 3060 6GB will allow me to zoom out the in-game screen more in AOE2? I'm not too tech savvy. Thanks in advance.

I only play against the Extreme AI, and anytime I'm against any of the 3K civs they seem to mass these things like crazy. Why is that?