@ElJansConsJ Thought you might find this interesting. SPOILERS though, if you're somebody else who wants to try this without any guidance, I'm about to reveal my tactics. It turned into a lot more than I anticipated, so I'm gonna split it into digestible chunks as replies to this. I think it's a fun read, if you're really into AoE2.
I immediately send my three nomads towards the centre of the map. Any sheep I find are sent to explore/find relics and opponents. The first nomad to find berries builds a town centre and the other two head there. Quickly build a mill and lumber camp. Preferable in useful locations, though it doesn't matter too much. I focus all 5 on food to get to the Feudal age. Once I have another 175 food I send them all to get 425 wood. (Usually complete shortly after advancing happens.) 175 for a market and 150 for a blacksmith. This is where I almost always realise I made a small error, and should have collected a little more food and wood to make a mining camp and do gold mining research. 😂 Usually I counter it by collecting 150 (or 175, I forget) wood, enough for both. Build a mining camp near some gold, preferable a big source, and focus entirely on gold for a while. At this point food and wood both still cost 130 gold at the market, but the extra time it would take to get the food for gold mining research makes it worth buying 100 food. Once I have around 1700 gold, I hold onto it and go get 600 stone.
By this point food should start rapidly dropping in price. I send my villagers back to the town centre to start getting wood. When food gets to around 40 gold for 100 food, I buy 200, research coinage at the market, and continue chopping wood until I have 600. Now my remaining gold should be enough to buy 600 food and have 600 gold left. Ally with the most advanced opponent and get back to stone mining. Start frequently requesting food, wood, stone and gold from your ally. Usually they will only give food and wood at this point, so get another 600 stone, then back to gold. Both food and wood should have bottomed out now, so getting 600 of both costs very little. Repeat until allied with everyone who hasn't quit yet. Usually 5 or 6 teams. It gets quicker each time as asking for tributes becomes more fruitful. With a bunch of allies, I never need to get resources again. At this point asking for all resources can boost each one by 100-1000 depending on allies stockpiles. So I quickly type 3 then 4 then 5 then 6 every so often. Wood and food are now abundant, with gold and stone steady, allowing for a bunch of neccessary research to be done. And buildings built. Advance to Castle age asap, build a castle and create 20 more villagers.
At this point the allies are way more advanced and are causing havoc, so I split my villagers into teams of five and wall each ally off from each other with palaside walls. No need for stone when nobody can actually attack them. I make airlock gates so I can lock them, then use them without letting others through. Complete control. As soon as the walls are finished I use the villagers to relocate my castle and town centre to a new area and build 4 or 5 monasteries. I can't recall the name, but I use the race that has missionaries (priests on cavalry), so I replace all the villagers with those. Apart from one, at some point I will have walled around a relic to save it for later, so I make 1 normal monk to go get it. Go find a big group of ally lumberjacks. Change diplomacy to enemy. Convert a bunch. Change back. If done quickly enough they'll just ally again. If not, pay the tribute again (then ask for it back 😂). Send a few to each zone to build embassies, (a small area near their city with a market and a few bombard towers for garrisoning) There will be big groups of trade carts stuck near some of the airlocks. Convert a load using the diplomacy manipulation trick and again, send a few to each city.
The next part is something I refer to as "Post Minecraft gameplay", cos I swear I never used to manipulate game mechanics in quite the same way pre-Minecraft... As allured to earlier, allies can use my gates unless they're locked. And priest naturally try to gather relics. So I find an ally monastery that is secluded and build a priest farm. Dropping the relic in an 'room' with gates that I can lock as an ally priest approaches, leaving the only exit another lockable room where I trap and convert them. Complete control and as many priests as I want. The formula stops here and I have already won a few different ways from this point... Now what? 😂 Well... Having learned enemy/ally spawn mechanics and how to control trapped units (to some extent), aswell as controlling the zones, I decided to build an arena. I'm trying to build around all ally "spawners", Town centres, barracks, castles, etc, without any of them quitting. Then funnel all the troops into four holding cells around a big arena. There are 5 teams left including me. Then I'll be able to throw big battles when I want. I can grab all the other relics using bombard towers and diplomacy manipulation to take out ally monasteries. So. Between having all but one relic, loads of trade carts with each city, frequently asking for tributes and selling the abundant wood and food... All while the opponents are ticking along... I think I can actually become a millionaire on this map. I got to a million food on a random map back in the day... Playing on the PS2 port... But never understood the game well enough to be able to get a million gold until playing again recently. 😅 Resources are technically infinite, done right. Also, each time there's a battle, the last troops standing can be converted and join my ranks. And whatever team they're from gets a bunch of resources tributed to them as reward. My gold generates fast enough to keep all cities alive, if they all win occasionally... So eventually the development of each should come down to solely Arena results, with frequent winners being able to rebuild better. I wonder if anyone else has taken control to this extent? It's almost like I'm playing a different game at this point. I'm not trying to win, I already have, I'm just government now. 😂
@@tobygarfield402 Damn, you basically manipulate the game into becoming Sim City, Medieval Edition. Interesting use of mechanics and quirks to your advantage. My warmongering ass didn't think about using diplomacy at all. I have the feeling that you would enjoy the Civilization series, if you don't play it already.
Interesting take on the turbo mode. Your micro is amazing. I play with my friends on lan in turbo mode only. But our gameplay is pretty fast the castle timing is 8 and imperial is 18 or earlier.
@@ElJansConJ yup. The way it works is you have to have 18 villagers to click feudal age at 6 min then add 2 more to click castle at 8. I will see if there is a way to share the recorded game. Would love to have your take on it. 🍻
My current challenge is: • Nomad map (largest available) • 7 hardest enemies • Not allowed to build houses. • Only 1 town centre and 1 castle at a time. - So 5 population limit until castle age then 25 when you build a castle. • Wonders and relics must be ON, but you can't win that way, only the AI can. • You must defeat the last opponent in a head on attack... Use whatever tactics you like to take out everyone else, but it should end with a real fight. If anyone happens to see this and try it, let me know how it goes. I've beat it a few times now. Takes some perfect gameplay just to get to the castle age without getting wiped out.
That's an interesting challenge, although doesn't seem like my cup of tea. Props to you for doing it. Some questions, though: - 7 enemies on free-for-all or on a single team? - Hardest classic AI or the improved AI from the HD version? - How many starting resources? - No houses, so I assume playing as the huns is not allowed? lol - Is converting units with monks to bypass the population cap allowed?
@@ElJansConJ - Free for all - Improved - Standard starting resources - Is the Huns the team that doesn't need houses? Yeah, that's a no go. - Yes, my population is currently about 250/25. I do utilise the pause button a tonne though. Seeing you beat it without pausing... Kudos for that! That's next level, honestly. ✌️
No shit. I love AoE for exactly that function. The ability to pause and issue commands or set research is integral to how I play. So much so that 20 minutes can pass before a villager completes building a keep, cos I have it paused so much while issuing commands and checking things. The challenge I mentioned in the main comments would be impossible without it. At least for me. I'd be gobsmacked to see someone achieve that.
@ElJansConsJ
Thought you might find this interesting.
SPOILERS though, if you're somebody else who wants to try this without any guidance, I'm about to reveal my tactics.
It turned into a lot more than I anticipated, so I'm gonna split it into digestible chunks as replies to this. I think it's a fun read, if you're really into AoE2.
I immediately send my three nomads towards the centre of the map.
Any sheep I find are sent to explore/find relics and opponents.
The first nomad to find berries builds a town centre and the other two head there.
Quickly build a mill and lumber camp. Preferable in useful locations, though it doesn't matter too much.
I focus all 5 on food to get to the Feudal age.
Once I have another 175 food I send them all to get 425 wood. (Usually complete shortly after advancing happens.)
175 for a market and 150 for a blacksmith.
This is where I almost always realise I made a small error, and should have collected a little more food and wood to make a mining camp and do gold mining research. 😂
Usually I counter it by collecting 150 (or 175, I forget) wood, enough for both.
Build a mining camp near some gold, preferable a big source, and focus entirely on gold for a while.
At this point food and wood both still cost 130 gold at the market, but the extra time it would take to get the food for gold mining research makes it worth buying 100 food.
Once I have around 1700 gold, I hold onto it and go get 600 stone.
By this point food should start rapidly dropping in price.
I send my villagers back to the town centre to start getting wood.
When food gets to around 40 gold for 100 food, I buy 200, research coinage at the market, and continue chopping wood until I have 600.
Now my remaining gold should be enough to buy 600 food and have 600 gold left.
Ally with the most advanced opponent and get back to stone mining.
Start frequently requesting food, wood, stone and gold from your ally. Usually they will only give food and wood at this point, so get another 600 stone, then back to gold.
Both food and wood should have bottomed out now, so getting 600 of both costs very little.
Repeat until allied with everyone who hasn't quit yet. Usually 5 or 6 teams.
It gets quicker each time as asking for tributes becomes more fruitful. With a bunch of allies, I never need to get resources again. At this point asking for all resources can boost each one by 100-1000 depending on allies stockpiles. So I quickly type 3 then 4 then 5 then 6 every so often.
Wood and food are now abundant, with gold and stone steady, allowing for a bunch of neccessary research to be done. And buildings built.
Advance to Castle age asap, build a castle and create 20 more villagers.
At this point the allies are way more advanced and are causing havoc, so I split my villagers into teams of five and wall each ally off from each other with palaside walls. No need for stone when nobody can actually attack them.
I make airlock gates so I can lock them, then use them without letting others through.
Complete control.
As soon as the walls are finished I use the villagers to relocate my castle and town centre to a new area and build 4 or 5 monasteries.
I can't recall the name, but I use the race that has missionaries (priests on cavalry), so I replace all the villagers with those. Apart from one, at some point I will have walled around a relic to save it for later, so I make 1 normal monk to go get it.
Go find a big group of ally lumberjacks. Change diplomacy to enemy. Convert a bunch. Change back. If done quickly enough they'll just ally again. If not, pay the tribute again (then ask for it back 😂). Send a few to each zone to build embassies, (a small area near their city with a market and a few bombard towers for garrisoning)
There will be big groups of trade carts stuck near some of the airlocks. Convert a load using the diplomacy manipulation trick and again, send a few to each city.
The next part is something I refer to as "Post Minecraft gameplay", cos I swear I never used to manipulate game mechanics in quite the same way pre-Minecraft...
As allured to earlier, allies can use my gates unless they're locked.
And priest naturally try to gather relics.
So I find an ally monastery that is secluded and build a priest farm.
Dropping the relic in an 'room' with gates that I can lock as an ally priest approaches, leaving the only exit another lockable room where I trap and convert them.
Complete control and as many priests as I want.
The formula stops here and I have already won a few different ways from this point... Now what? 😂
Well...
Having learned enemy/ally spawn mechanics and how to control trapped units (to some extent), aswell as controlling the zones, I decided to build an arena.
I'm trying to build around all ally "spawners", Town centres, barracks, castles, etc, without any of them quitting. Then funnel all the troops into four holding cells around a big arena. There are 5 teams left including me.
Then I'll be able to throw big battles when I want.
I can grab all the other relics using bombard towers and diplomacy manipulation to take out ally monasteries.
So.
Between having all but one relic, loads of trade carts with each city, frequently asking for tributes and selling the abundant wood and food... All while the opponents are ticking along... I think I can actually become a millionaire on this map.
I got to a million food on a random map back in the day... Playing on the PS2 port... But never understood the game well enough to be able to get a million gold until playing again recently. 😅
Resources are technically infinite, done right.
Also, each time there's a battle, the last troops standing can be converted and join my ranks. And whatever team they're from gets a bunch of resources tributed to them as reward.
My gold generates fast enough to keep all cities alive, if they all win occasionally... So eventually the development of each should come down to solely Arena results, with frequent winners being able to rebuild better.
I wonder if anyone else has taken control to this extent? It's almost like I'm playing a different game at this point. I'm not trying to win, I already have, I'm just government now. 😂
@@tobygarfield402 Damn, you basically manipulate the game into becoming Sim City, Medieval Edition.
Interesting use of mechanics and quirks to your advantage. My warmongering ass didn't think about using diplomacy at all.
I have the feeling that you would enjoy the Civilization series, if you don't play it already.
Interesting take on the turbo mode. Your micro is amazing. I play with my friends on lan in turbo mode only. But our gameplay is pretty fast the castle timing is 8 and imperial is 18 or earlier.
That's quite a fast castle!
@@ElJansConJ yup. The way it works is you have to have 18 villagers to click feudal age at 6 min then add 2 more to click castle at 8. I will see if there is a way to share the recorded game. Would love to have your take on it. 🍻
Looking forward to it!
My current challenge is:
• Nomad map (largest available)
• 7 hardest enemies
• Not allowed to build houses.
• Only 1 town centre and 1 castle at a time.
- So 5 population limit until castle age then 25 when you build a castle.
• Wonders and relics must be ON, but you can't win that way, only the AI can.
• You must defeat the last opponent in a head on attack... Use whatever tactics you like to take out everyone else, but it should end with a real fight.
If anyone happens to see this and try it, let me know how it goes.
I've beat it a few times now. Takes some perfect gameplay just to get to the castle age without getting wiped out.
That's an interesting challenge, although doesn't seem like my cup of tea. Props to you for doing it.
Some questions, though:
- 7 enemies on free-for-all or on a single team?
- Hardest classic AI or the improved AI from the HD version?
- How many starting resources?
- No houses, so I assume playing as the huns is not allowed? lol
- Is converting units with monks to bypass the population cap allowed?
@@ElJansConJ
- Free for all
- Improved
- Standard starting resources
- Is the Huns the team that doesn't need houses? Yeah, that's a no go.
- Yes, my population is currently about 250/25.
I do utilise the pause button a tonne though.
Seeing you beat it without pausing... Kudos for that! That's next level, honestly. ✌️
you should pause the game. it evens the odds against an AI.
No shit. I love AoE for exactly that function.
The ability to pause and issue commands or set research is integral to how I play. So much so that 20 minutes can pass before a villager completes building a keep, cos I have it paused so much while issuing commands and checking things.
The challenge I mentioned in the main comments would be impossible without it.
At least for me. I'd be gobsmacked to see someone achieve that.