r/aoe2

I’m playing extreme AI so they usually show up with tons of siege (mostly ballista) and wood raiders and halbs. I can usually do a perfect dark age but investing into scouts to contest relics takes away my initiative

For those of you who have not seen it... Just now, in game 4 of the Brazilian Dynasty semifinals, ACCM's built a monastery and a house inside of Hera's base from outside/ across Hera's Diagonals Gate.

A couple of minutes later, he then proceeds to use a second glitch to remove his army from inside Hera's base by using a siege tower through the diagonal gate again.

>!He won the game mostly due to this play.!< Thoughts?

I post here often with my experiences and looking for advice. I will not say any opinions because I just get drawn into debates which is not productive.

I just want to get through this rut I'm in which is characterized by losing a lot to all-in strategies.

Things I've tried:

1. Doing them myself to learn the counter. This inflated my elo a lot, eventually I start losing but I don't really get much of a clear takeaway other than once I get to 1400 (my usual is around 1200) the level of execution of my opponents is high enough that the strategy doesn't matter.
2. Scouting. I have gotten much better at this, but even when I see it coming I still lose a lot.
3. (assuming I scout that it's an all-in) Walling up. I just find that a hoard of early castle knights / UU or whatever melt the walls. It helps only to prevent a really really bad forward castle position.
4. (assuming I scout that it's an all-in) Heavy feudal pressure. This sometimes works, but you can still get so much military if you a) sell stone / other res at the market and b) turtle up super small. I will say that if they have a bad map, I have found the feudal pressure a bit more effective.
5. (If I don't succesfully scout / realise it's an all-in). In this instance I really don't see any hope of winning without an enormous skill differential.

After quite a bit of practice I am still more-or-less hard stuck against these strategies. Any other recommendations for things to try / examples from other's experiences are very welcome.

I'm particularly gunning for the Harp-based Italian theme.

Other Top-picks would be the Bengali, Burgundian, Spanish and Thracian themes.

I don't know how one would transcribe either the Khitan theme or the Old Spanish HEEEYYAAYY, but I like and would like them too.

Basically as the title suggested: Why is ornlu not attending the event as caster? It seems that only Membtv is missing due to personal reasons.

Feeling bad for him. Love especially his campaign content <3

Just that. Achievement hunting and it would make it much easier to set them by DLC, instead of percentage of people that have unlocked it.

I think getting things one age earlier is a pretty unique concept, and has only been done with Hand Cannoneers as far as I know. Cav Archers are potentially the best unit for something like this since they normally rely pretty heavily on both Castle Age blacksmith upgrades and stable techs. They'd probably need some stat nerfs while in Feudal but I can see it being a really interesting alternative to standard Feudal play.

Is this a feasible concept by any means?

Just my opinion from a fairly new player but i’m watching the Brazilian Dynasty tournament and theres so many interesting maps available but if I wanted to play a game the only option I have to play an interesting map is by hoping for mega random and that’s only half the time, surely there is a better way to decide how the maps are picked?

I'd like to present a rework for the Turks based around giving them Steppe Lancers. This rework is going to be constrained by three primary principles:

1. The primary identity of the Turks as a gunpowder civilization must not be diluted. If possible, this rework should be complimentary to their gold & gunpowder intensive late-game

2. The Stable should provide a compelling alternative to their Cavalry Archers in the mid-game

3. The design must be unique & flavourful, but also functional, while being in-line with the currently established identity and parameters of the civ

Steppe Lancers - Cost 70 Food 45 Gold (+5 Gold) / Melee Armour 1 (instead of 0)

Base Steppe Lancer - HP 70 (instead of 60)

Elite Steppe Lancer - HP 90 (instead of 80)

The idea is to shift Steppe Lancers slightly away from the Light Cavalry & Hussar blueprint, and closer to the Knight-line blueprint. This way they can more meaningfully replace Knights for various civs

Now for the Turks specifically:

Technology Tree - Lose Knight & Cavalier / Gain Steppe Lancer & Elite Steppe Lancer

The lower gold cost of the Steppe Lancer (compared to the Knight) should synergize better with the Turks, as they want to save gold for their gunpowder units

Lose - Light Cavalry & Hussar Researches are free

Instead (New Bonus) - Stable Technologies don't cost Gold

While the free Light Cavalry & Hussar upgrades are kind of iconic for the Turks, I think the gold-free Stable upgrades would be more useful overall. You would save gold on Bloodlines, Light Cavalry, Hussar, Elite Steppe Lancer, and Heavy Camel Rider upgrades. The gold savings would be complimentary to the gunpowder based late game. This in turn is an incentive to play Stable units over Cavalry Archers in the mid-game

Pierce Armour Bonus applies to all Stable Units (i.e. Camel Riders & Steppe Lancers as well)

A glaring weakness of Steppe Lancers in the Castle Age is that they have only 1 base pierce armour, making them rather vulnerable to Crossbows. But the Turkish Lancers would have +1 pierce armour from the get-go, giving them the same pierce armour as generic Knights & Light Cavalry. Their own Light Cavalry also already has 3 base pierce armour

Extra pierce armour on Camel Riders is also a deceptively strong bonus, as they can shut down Knights and resist Archers in team games. It used to be a bonus for the Indians before they were reworked to be the Hindustanis. The Turks, however, don't have the same economy as the Indians/Hindustanis, so it should be okay for them. They could also use a slightly better anti-cavalry option

Base Janissary - Base HP 36 (45 after Bonus) / Attack 18 (+1) / Accuracy 60% (+10%) / LoS & SR 9 (-1 each)

Elite Janissary - Base HP 44 (55 after Bonus & +5 compared to current value) // +5 compared to Turkish Hand Cannoneers

Finally some small buffs for the Janissary. The non-Elite Janissary gets +1 HP, +1 attack, and +10% accuracy as compensation for previously having their range reduced by 1 (8 -> 7)

The Elite Janissary gets +5 HP compared to their Hand Cannoneer which kind of overshadow Janissaries nowadays due to the various buffs they've received over the years. The slight increase to their HP would also justify the rather expensive elite upgrade

1100 here, having fun with the Ethiopians 😁

Let me know how you play with them!

Am I silly to go for this combo?

Arb, camel, BBC late game?

I feel like the opponent often end up with knights and skirms, then I feel like camels are better than halbs.

Also I like BBC for taking out trebs :)

On arena i make some archers on my way to castle age, and fight for relics.

I’m around 1100 Elo, and one thing I struggle with is quickly understanding unfamiliar matchups, especially when playing random civ.

With all the DLC civs and reworks I often find myself asking things like:

• What should I open with here?
• What is my opponent likely to go for?
• What do I do if they show scouts / archers / monks / siege?
• What does this matchup usually scale into?

So I built a website for it: aoe2matchups.com.

It covers every unique 1v1 civ matchup (including mirrors), which is over 1400 permutations. Right now it supports Arabia and Arena but I plan to add more maps in the future.

There are two modes:

• Compact: quick unit-icon suggestions for openings, counters, and compositions
• Full: more detailed explanations for how to approach the matchup and adapt during the game

It’s definitely not perfect. With this many matchups, I’m sure there are some questionable calls, outdated assumptions, or places where better players would recommend something different. But I tried to make the advice practical rather than generic, especially for people who know build orders but get lost once the matchup starts branching.

I’d really appreciate feedback, especially if you spot bad recommendations for specific civ matchups. If people find it useful, I’ll keep improving the data and add more maps.

Thanks all!

Not sure if it’s cuz he didn’t have time/went home, but I wonder if he should’ve played his BO1 vs Hera for seeding. Hera was awarded the “auto-win” and gave him ACCM and got to play Andy. Don’t know if it would’ve mattered in the end, but it could’ve been Hera v ACCM and Viper v Andy today.

I keep trying diff civs and keep getting clapped. I like the Spanish bcuz I can go Conqs FC. However, I’d like to try some more fun, all-in strats that are fun.

Which 3-5 civs should I focus on and which Strats to use?

Map pool: Steppe, Hideout, Arena, BF, Hyper Random Nomad, Mega Random, Pilgrims

**Typically I ban BF/Arena.

Civs I enjoy: Persians, Spanish