• Breaking News

    Friday, December 24, 2021

    Home Unlabelled Age of Empires II Some thoughts/notes on making 14xx

    Age of Empires II Some thoughts/notes on making 14xx

    3 years ago

    Age of Empires II Some thoughts/notes on making 14xx

    Some thoughts/notes on making 14xx

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 11:58 PM PST

    I recently made 14xx going random civ and so far have been managing to stay there. Here's a few thoughts on getting there. You are welcome to add to or refute any of the things I've written here.

    GENERAL

    • I favourited Arabia and typically ban megarandom and nomad if in the map pool.

    • I've been playing random civ to learn more about the different civs and also to improve my archer play (I'd been picking a lot of Berbers but it was leaving my archer play wanting).

    • Late game used to be my biggest weakness. I've improved a lot on this front by increasing my number of army production buildings dramatically. Instead of 4 ranges, 10 or more ranges. I find that in imp I'm basically almost constantly adding some type of production building and preparing those for possible counters that I don't need yet.

    • Keeping army numbers up and having bigger military numbers in late game has been important for me.

    • Learning how good monks are vs knights. If it's knights vs knights in castle age, a few monks can flip fights and heal your wounded ones. Andre_2i said on his stream that pikes in castle age is typically a mistake. Indeed they are kinda food heavy and not that strong unless you have large numbers. Monks are better.

    • When going archers, trying to have them ready to break into the enemy base as soon as xbow comes in. Important to use the power spike.

    ARABIA - I've pretty much stopped going for scout openings unless I have scouting to confirm the enemy is also going scouts (confirmed no gold is being taken or I see their stable going up)

    • Pre-mill two militia drush has been highly effective for me. I find it pretty much acts as a deterrent to man at arms since either the opponent's eco is sufficiently messed up for them to get them out fast enough or they chase your militia instead of coming to your base, buying you time. Behind that I can still get up to feudal at 22 villagers and follow up with one or two range feudal aggression with good eco.

    • I typically go for fairly heavy military pressure early on in castle age and prioritize my eco upgrades. I will generally only add more town centres as my wood count starts to climb due to the eco kicking in.

    • Following a discussion I started on the sub about hiding your strat, instead of waiting for larger army numbers I've been getting what military I have to the enemy's base asap lately. This has been good because the enemy tends to then show their army and I can see what they are making and where their army is. If their army is better than mine I retreat or choose to trade for as many vill kills as I can if I have sufficient army behind. I've also been getting town watch much more and doing outposts around my base to try and spot sneaks.

    • When I'm playing against someone going archers, I've found that town centres are super strong at slowing aggression and protecting vills and resources. Then you can defend with a mangonel and meanwhile counter with your own army. The way I learned this was by playing archers and analyzing what tended to limit the damage I could do as an archer player. And it was often finding a bunch of TCs so I couldn't run into the base. So I started doing this myself Vs archers.

    Arena notes - Push deer asap (just copying the higher elo players) then go scout

    • I've massively improved my win rate on Arena by going for castle drops and fast imp behind. Low eco all in clown style inspired by the things I've seen on Jon Slow's channel.

    • You don't need to inevitably die to Turk fast imp. Feudal age tower rush has been very effective to mess up enemies fast imp build. With eco upgrades behind as soon as I hit feudal to give me an eco headstart. I can then decide to full boom and go mass knights in castle age. Should the Turk still pull off a decently fast imp, mass knights can kill the hand cannoneers and bombard cannons quite well.

    submitted by /u/f91w_blue
    [link] [comments]

    Scout got stuck in barracks; couldn't move, attack, or receive attack 11

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 11:37 PM PST

    Spanish build faster you say?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 09:35 AM PST

    [Discussion] Arabia, Meta, Possible Changes

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 02:49 PM PST

    [Discussion] Arabia, Meta, Possible Changes

    Claim #1: Meta is a single-dimensonal manifest of pseudo aggression

    Aka Skirmishers meta, even during the KOTD tournament, no matter how games begin, no matter the civ match up, no matter the map generation, it always involves a defensive Archery Range with a production of the most passive-aggressive unit- the Skirmisher. Masses of Skirmishers throwing spears at each other, buying time for either of the opponents to establish walls and farm eco. No real strategical progression of the game nor gaining any map control. Status quo of nothingness.

    Claim #2: Arabia isn't the Arabia we've been playing for 20 years.

    I've been writing quite a lot about the Desertification of Arabia, including comparisons between the Different Maps, getting into details regarding the major parameters, the fact we have about 40% less trees, Larger Distance From the TC, and overall the amount of woodlines per player/map.The common misconception is that AOC Arabia was extremely open, practically it's wrong, though the terminology of openess/closeness is too reductive to begin with. Arabia had much less woodlines, and therefore less wallable, yet more trees. (per woodline)

    Clain #3: The evolution of the Meta is highly correlated to the desertification of Arabia

    Arabia has now tiny woodline that reward by default every Archery Range play, both defensively and offensively, the game has been stripped of its strategic aspect once a tactic becomes mandatory. Multiple tiny woodlines that can be easily harrased by Fletchingless Archer, that just call for a wall to connect between them. Followed up by a mass TC Castle Age (unless you were forced to build a defensive tower), most of the voluntary 1 TC strategies has been brought to extinction, no more 1 TC Arbalester, even Hoang goes mass Skirms these days. One is simply busy with his own unrelenting survivablity- lacking the time and resources to establish a strategy, a gameplan, an actual power spike.

    Suggestion: More Trees (per woodline). Less Woodlines.

    I modified Arabia to become a hybrid between AOC Arabia and the current KOTD Arabia we have, for maximum strategic diversity while increasing the inablity to fully wall a quarter of the map with a chain of tiny woodlines. This won't nerf the current Militia into Archers meta directly, but would enrich it with more proactive Scouts play that doesn't rely on a Skirmisher follow up necessarily, and would even bring back the viablity of Tower Rush due to lack of multiple wood options and the fact resources are closer to one another. FC will still be hard to be pulled off and most importantly the midgame will be free of the mass TCs enslavement, having a reliable long-term-ish woodline.

    https://preview.redd.it/015lat8bfd781.jpg?width=855&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=115f86a26d89284ac6dc5cb75b7dfb4a2a64f184

    Thank you for reading! would love to hear what you guys think, it means a lot.

    submitted by /u/SHAWNSHAWNAOE
    [link] [comments]

    Walls, villagers, and unit's aren't displaying on the map.

    Posted: 24 Dec 2021 08:18 AM PST

    Hey guys, for the past couple of days my map hasn't been showing anything but trees, grass, and the unit I'm controlling. I tried uninstalling the game and reinstalling. Still isn't working. Have you seen this? Any ideas?

    submitted by /u/JoshCaleb27
    [link] [comments]

    map ban in team game

    Posted: 24 Dec 2021 08:14 AM PST

    Today I was watching someone's twitch and saw he banned three maps in TG ranked. How is that possible? I am only able to ban two maps for 1v1 and one maps for 3v3. I don't want to play Baltic, Blackforest, or Normad and hate to waste other people's time. Can the devs allow more map bans?

    submitted by /u/justingreg
    [link] [comments]

    [CIV Suggestion] Yemen

    Posted: 24 Dec 2021 07:04 AM PST

    Specialty: Infantary, Camel Riders

    • Unique units: Faris, Mujahid
    • Unique technologies:
      • Coffee Trade [Ally Tradecarts move 5% faster]
      • Zaydi Revolt [Grants Mujahid +2 attack and +20HP, Mujahids can be recruited in all Monasteries]
    • Wonder: Dar al-Hajar
    • Civilization bonuses:
      • Can recruit Mujahid in Monastery if it has at least 1 garrisoned Relic
      • Camels +11% attack speed
      • Castles count as having +1 Hill Bonus
    • Team bonus: Completing a Marketplace for the first time spawns a Tradecart

    The Faris should be similar to a Hussar in speed but stronger in attack costing only low ammount of Gold.
    The Mujahid should be a Trash unit costing only Food, performing similar to a Man-at-arms

    Some Thoughts about it:

    Faris (Knight in Arabic): Yemen was always known for their champions in the arabian peninsula.
    Mujahid: Yemen was always struggling against other Caliphates or Sultanates trying to take over the region, but due to their militarised society they were always prepeared for conflict, till today its culture for yemenis to own traditional daggers.
    Coffee Trade: Yemen was always known for their trade (especially Hadramout region)
    Zaydi Revolt: the Zaydi sect which was always dominant in Yemen encourages uprising and holy war.

    I would love to see more Middle eastern CIVs, also christian ones like Armenia or Georgia, share your thoughts :)

    submitted by /u/Godrelia
    [link] [comments]

    Nomad Wars Duos - 2v2 mixed 'Nomad' style tournament - in aid of Homelessness - details in comments - sign ups close in a few days!

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 10:27 AM PST

    Comment your celebrity-unit mashups below

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 03:22 AM PST

    It took me forever to break this Indian (AI) nut.

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 11:52 AM PST

    «Silly tourney» (200% handicap for all players) BO3 final to go live at my twitch channel 21 GMT today!

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 04:40 AM PST

    So, I run frequent events on my channel, both «official» larger tourneys, and small, fun side events exclusively announced in my discord channel. This is the craziest small tourney so far, the «silly tourney». Open ELO, random seeding, and all players are given 200% handicap, which makes some civs hilariously overpowered!

    Since the game mode is unfamiliar, we have had some upsets too, like a 1180 ELO player taking one game against a 2k+. Most of the sets will make it to my youtube channel as well, and the final will be cast this evening at 21 GMT, at https://www.twitch.tv/akkalno !

    submitted by /u/Akkal-AOEII
    [link] [comments]

    Campaign Genocide Episode #12 Barbarossa #5 #6

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 05:53 PM PST

    Campaign Genocide Episode #12 Barbarossa #5 #6

    Crossing Marmara Sea.

    I expected this to be epic. It was. I expected this to be hard. It wasn't.To be fair, I cheated to an extent by checking the map after resigning before I started and mid-game.

    But I never really struggled, partially because I had a battle plan in mind, partially because of a stroke of luck, partially because the Seljuks and Saracen Navy ground forces are on a defensive stance.

    First off - A Saracen ship in a river. Good test subject if enemies have Heresy. They do. That sucks. Less than I thought in the end. Then it's Mameluke ambush from the House. ETKs take 1 dmg per hit so they take this fight. Then it's Treb time to take down Castle and towers. Paladins bait Siege Onagers to dive on them away from Mamelukes and then ETKs take down the remaining Camels and Mamelukes. This means Gallipoli is accessible. And that ETKs won't see any action from now on.

    Now it's time for some shenanigans. At this point, I still believed I would have more issues with Naval battles so I tried to soften up Saracen Navy as much as I could. I baited several ships with a Treb only to destroy them with Monks. I had to reload a couple of times because I was too close to shore with Demos. Once I combined the Treb pull + conversion attempt with Siege Onager attack ground. Felt really crafty after that. I also traded three Transport ships with enemy demos. The last transport ship picks up Frankish castaways. I also discover Gaia Monks on a cliff thanks to Treb vision. Throughout the entire mission, I use Trebs as Scouts. Since the enemy doesn't Patrol they work insanely well.

    Satisfied with the Northwestern side of the map I turn to the part I dreaded. Constantinople. I have to kill all their units without too many losses and then get the ships and clear the sea. I decided to try taking down their Outposts to deny them vision with attack ground on Siege Onagers... I took down the first Outpost, which triggered their forces to come out, but since they were still Allies with me because I didn't trigger their change of stance from ally to enemy they couldn't attack the Onagers. So I attacked ground their entire army of Catas, Halbs and Onagers. And flattened it. Once this fortunate occurrence transpired I was free to Treb down Constantinople towers, wreck the city for good measure and then put Trebs to Hagia Sofia. They are allies again. I get the ships. I do the Treb Pull + Monk Kill combo again on nearby Fire ships. Then I go to take the seas. There were 3 remaining groups and 3 lonely ships. I haven't even lost many of them... Besides Demos it was just a Galleon and Fast Fire ship each. Crucial thing is I received the best damn Fire Ships in the game, while Saracens don't have the Fast Fire upgrade. 7 or 8 Galleons is more than enough to target down a Demo.

    I also took out some shore forces with the Galleons. Mostly Onagers, because everything else ran away.

    So I safely landed, then I started to clear Anatolia of Seljuks. Which was mostly Trebs taking down fortifications, Paladins baiting (Heavy) CAs and Siege and then killing them and then killing Camels. Camels are good against Paladins. But not in 2v12. On the way I picked up Gaia CAs and also had one larger fight which was the only one of two where I used my ranged force (10 crossbows, 6 Axemen and 4 CAs). The other one was about killing Monks on a cliff. I picked up Siege Onagers on the easternmost edge of the map for good measure. Cut down some trees to get better access to a cliff with Turkish BBCs on top of it...

    And that was it. This mission that scared me so was made lot more easy simply by ground attacking an Outpost.I never used Halbs in the entire mission. I think the pointy bois were happy not to be cannon fodder.

    DEAD. EVERYONE. DEAD.

    I am not sure what was the second Seljuk kill. I know I lost one Crossbow to them. Saracens killed 3 Transports, 3 Demos, 1 Galleon and 1 Fast Fire.

    They wanted 10 troops, I brought 89 (rest is ships).

    Jerusalem

    Ah the conclusion to Age of Kings.

    I enjoyed this one. Lots of resources, lots of stuff to kill and I have access to trade + I am already in Imp.

    I spent the first 10 minutes dropping 1 Castles to the southwest of my base next to a goldmine and dropping 3 more right to the walls of Damascus. Also setting up normal infrastructure. Picked up a relic south of the base. Damascus initial army came out swinging. It was not enough though. I tried some Elephant conversions, but they felt... really weirdly conversion resistant. Managed to take three. More importantly the foothold I built held and it helped me to take down their production. And since Damascus has no gate to the south they were largely stuck against my Forts of Death. This helped me to take them out early. They haven't surrendered for ages, because I left a Stable up for like 15-20 minutes, but score wasn't growing so I knew they were no threat. Saladin kept suiciding units from his eastern base, so I turned west in the meantime. Helped Richard with his initial struggles by... dropping a Castle. Set up some military production there and secured trade. Once again I pushed with the trusty combo of Paladins and Siege and cleared the western side of the map. This helped me secure some more Gold and Stone which was handy. Proceeded to push to the center and cleared most of the stuff. Then it was time to take the Eastern Saladin base. The opposition was decent, but once again the Teuton might prevailed... and Richard actually helped... and with Siege?! Richard in this mission is by far the most useful ally in the entirety of Age of Kings campaigns. It must be noted he didn't have a base before DE. He did have a Market and an army he sent against Saladin, but he was nowhere near this.

    I couldn't research Spies so I had to look further. And just northeast of Damascus I found some buildings and units still hiding from the Grim Reaper. AND OH MY GOD IT'S SIEGE ONAGERS. Good thing I sent Paladins to check. Then Saladin surrendered. Remaining obstacle was Jerusalem who actually is fairly annoying because they use Monks and Siege Onagers. Pikes and Skirms are no issue, but those were annoying.So I did the good old Castle drop that helped me Siege stuff better and took it slowly and carefully.The goddamn MVP of this was this Bombard Cannon who killed about 15 Monks and 10 more units and destroyed way too many buildings to count, while avoiding conversion the entire time. He survived.

    The only man who can compare himself to Jean de Lorraine.

    Credit also to these three girls who were the survivors of the Castle building crew.

    Jerusalem seems to have a weirdly high amount of gold, to be honest. They never really stop pumping units, so you have to take down their production. In the end I took it all down though. Wrecked rest of the city for good measure. And then Barbarossa's dead body reached Rock Dome.

    ​

    Genocide complete

    With this I move on to the Conquerors. Attila is going to be a bitch. First mission wants you two defeat 2 out of 3 and in fourth mission I have to actually kill Burgundy (I will just turn on them later in case, but I need a Market in that one). I am also worried by El Cid #5, but there is apparently a cheese with walls that allows you to stay in Lérida. In case I can't kill Berenguer within the construction time of the Wonder, I might use Onagers to kill Valencia's villagers or use said cheese.

    I do look forward to killing Alfonso in Cid #3 I have already done Lepanto, Manzikert, Noryang Point Vinlandsaga and Azincourt in this manner, so the old Battles will be largely a replay. Only one I look forward to is Kyoto.

    Age of Kings MVPs
    Joan - 1. Jean de FRICKIN' Lorraine in #5
    2. Arbalests from the beginning of Joan #6
    3. Bertrand and de Metz in #1
    4. Crossbows in #1
    Saladin - 1. The pause button in #5
    2. Mamelukes
    3. Cavalry Archers from the southern base in #3
    4. The Treb that took down Ascalon wonder in #5
    Genghis - 1. All the units that were stranded on Hungarian side of the Sajo river in #6
    2. Villagers that built the cage for Kushluk in #2
    3. That Steppe Lancer that poked Kushluk to death
    4. Mangudai

    Barbarossa - 1. Siege Onagers in #5
    2. Hand Cannoneers in #4
    3. That one Bombard Cannon in #6
    4. Crenellations

    General MVPs
    1. Spies
    2. Castles
    3. Trebs
    4. Paladins
    5. Bombard Cannons

    submitted by /u/iSkehan
    [link] [comments]

    Incas vs Gunpowder

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 07:12 PM PST

    Played a Blackforest 4v4 game the other day as Incas flank. My oppsite flank wasn't very good so they were a non-factor but by the time I got to the opposition pocket player (Bohemians) They had full boomed into Halb/HC/Hussite Wagons with some top of the line BBCs at the back.

    As Incas my Infantry obviously weren't going well and the switch to arbs hurt as they just moved the hussite wagons to the forefront.

    What's Incas best chance against lategame Bohemians/Gunpowder civs?

    submitted by /u/Catalpa_
    [link] [comments]

    Is the capability that scouts can push deer to the town center a planned part of the game or a happy accident?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 10:31 AM PST

    Civilization position ranking for team games.

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 11:31 AM PST

    Hi everyone!

    My community is working on a tool that will pick random civilizations for team games, but place these civilizations in more common positions, for example, putting Britons on the flank instead of the pocket.

    As part of working towards creating this tool, we put together a survey where one can rank each civ's ability to perform as a flank and pocket.

    It would be extremely helpful if you can take a few minutes to complete the ranking survey so we have a good number of results. https://forms.gle/7kZptS7d1oTFysUK6

    submitted by /u/BSHammer314
    [link] [comments]

    Why don't fishing ships, merchant ships and trade carts count towards the villager count?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 06:17 AM PST

    Title.

    submitted by /u/omeggga
    [link] [comments]

    whats the 2v2 tg meta

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 01:17 PM PST

    knights and crossbows, yes, but what about dark and feudal age? im playing some 2v2 with a friend were about 1600 (tg)elo and were struggeling a bit on the kotd arabia since we had a small break.

    some tips please?

    submitted by /u/BETTERGETLOOM
    [link] [comments]

    Best Of…. Low ELO Legends- can you guys link one or some of your favorite LEL games?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 11:39 AM PST

    Got whooped in two games consecutively.. I thought I was a reasonably good player, beating the DE hard levels consistently. 1vs1 tiny in an islands map. I am always caught napping because I am not aggressive or build muscle early on. Help me out :/

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 04:27 PM PST

    Is AOE2 dead? NO.

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 07:41 AM PST

    AoE2 DE bug: Menu buttons not working after screen turns off from standby?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 06:46 PM PST

    First of all, I need someone else to corroborate/reproduce this bug on their end, so if you have the time could you please do the following:

    1. Open Power & sleep settings (type it in Windows Search). Click Additional power settings. Click Change when the computer sleeps. Set Turn off the display to 1 minute and save.
    2. Open AoE2 DE, start a Skirmish, open the in-game menu, then don't touch the computer and wait one minute for the screen to turn off.
    3. Wake the screen out of standby. See if you can still click the menu buttons. On my end, none of the menu buttons give the hover animations let alone work when clicking them. I have to click Winkey or F10 to get out of the bugged menu.

    If you are able to reproduce this bug, can you please go to the Age of Empires 2 bug report forum and paste this bug report? I am unable to log in to their stupid forum, when I click the Log In button on the top right it just gives me a blank page with some long Xbox Live redirection URL. I suspect it's because I removed Xbox Game Bar and other Microsoft adware crap that I didn't want with some powershell script or something a long time ago from my Windows 10 installation, and the login probably requires the Xbox stuff, but whatever that's a separate issue. Thanks.

    EDIT:

    Nevermind I wrote a launcher (C console program) as a workaround. It opens AoE2DE and prevents screen standby while it's running.

    #include <Windows.h> #include <stdio.h> int main(void) { const char* PATH = "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\AoE2DE\\AoE2DE_s.exe"; STARTUPINFO si; PROCESS_INFORMATION pi; HWND hwnd = GetConsoleWindow(); HMENU hmenu = GetSystemMenu(hwnd, FALSE); ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) ); si.cb = sizeof(si); ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) ); if (!CreateProcess(0, (char*)PATH, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &si, &pi)) { printf("CreateProcess failed (%d).\n", GetLastError()); return 0; } if (SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS | ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED)) { printf("Disabling standby while %s is running.\n", PATH); EnableMenuItem(hmenu, SC_CLOSE, MF_GRAYED); } WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE); if (SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS)) { printf("Standby re-enabled.\n"); EnableMenuItem(hmenu, SC_CLOSE, MF_ENABLED); } CloseHandle(pi.hProcess); CloseHandle(pi.hThread); return 0; }

    Just make sure the path is correct for your case (take note backslashes have to be "escaped" with double backslashes here), compile it with gcc (by installing mingw or tdm-gcc on Windows), name the executable something sensible like no-standby.exe, place this file in your AoE2DE directory (doesn't really matter where), right-click it and click Properties, make sure Run this program as administrator is checked, and if you want you can create a shortcut of it, put it in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs so it's in your start menu, right-click the shortcut and click Properties, click Change icon, and navigate to AoE2DE_s.exe and select it as your icon for the shortcut, can also pin this shortcut to Start if you want.

    submitted by /u/jenkins_fisherman99
    [link] [comments]

    4k monitor makes me really zoomed out. Any fix?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 09:27 AM PST

    Aoe2DE. I begin really far out and cant seem to zoom in to normal levels…

    submitted by /u/footlongker
    [link] [comments]

    Does anyone have a M@A into Archer/Skirm + more M@A build or does that not work?

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 12:15 PM PST

    Campaign Genocide Episode #11 Barbarossa #4

    Posted: 23 Dec 2021 08:02 AM PST

    Campaign Genocide Episode #11 Barbarossa #4

    Lombards... This. Goddamn. Mission.

    I expect Crossing the Marmara sea ( #5) traits to be madness. I didn't see this one as an issue. Runaway. Get both bases. Build Castles. Tech up. And it was fine for Venice and Padua. Paladins and BBC/Treb with Castle drops. The norm. Ships against Venice. And mostly for Verona as well. But that bastard known as Henry the Lion... doesn't run out of gold. Ever. And while his attacks are slow, hence easy to deal with. The immovable object known as ETK is really goddamn annoying when you run out of gold. Lots of selling... in the late game, but eventually 25 Hand cannons and Castle on a hill as a foothold against his base with Paladins to destroy rams... was enough. Slowly Trebing his base down. And ultimately Verona survived him because I triggered his surrender condition. Which was nice because it didn't mess up the goal of the run.

    ​

    You can see one small dark purple line. That's a lone Halb.

    Next mission will be insane.

    submitted by /u/iSkehan
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment