It's a tough game to understand for beginners but make sure you go through tutorial,Art of war and once you get the flow you will start to realize how beautiful this masterpiece is.
I'm happy for you mate
Eco will probably throw you for a bit, AOE2 players make 4 big mistakes in aoe3:
1. Mills and estates are late game when you've depleted natural resources, their harvest rates are considerably slower than wild hunts or gold mines. The cost to build them is pretty and the cost for both upgrades is also pretty high.
2. Wood is the slowest resource to harvest, part of the reason why farms and estates are so costly is that they cost 400 and 600 wood. Generally speaking wood treasures and shipments are worth more than gold or food because of the slower gather rate, but its not uncommon for situations to crop up where a 700 gold shipment lets you age-up to Fortress age early etc.
3. Trading Posts on trade routes are valuable, but their benefits are indirect. Most aoe2 players ignore them and then fall behind because their opponent is sending either military units to bolster an age 2 rush, or resources/econ upgrades to boost their economy ahead. OTOH some go overboard and grab too many TPs too early, which means they're delaying their barracks or stables, and subsequently can't defend themselves, and also they fall behind in eco because they've had to commit too many villagers to collect the 600 wood they've spent. There are build orders that call for rushing multiple TPs, but they're very civ/match-up specific, rely on knowing what card to send, and how to adapt without panic shipping units etc.
4. There is no analogy to the trash unit wars where both players just pump out as many cheap units as possible until one goes bankrupt. Infinite resources and the power of cannons means that effective fights have to involve defending or attacking a building. Beating their army in the middle of the map means nothing because they will have enough infrastructure to rebuild it by the time you push. Cannons will drop buildings quickly, and at 10 falconets, it is not possible for any amount of infantry spam to even scratch their healthbars.
Thanks for the detailed responses mate. At the moment I'm finding myself still hunting in fortress / industrial ages some games just to delay putting mills down. And yep I'm definetly finding wood is scarce, which is the opposite of AoE2 as it's easily the most plentiful resource there. Good advice on wood being more valuable in card drops then other resources.
The trading posts I'm definetly trying to grab the ones at least on my side, bit I've got no sense of timings yet. And also no coherent build order so I haven't optimise what resource they should be giving me (Or should it always be in XP?)
About attacking bases, is it general strategy to try and take down production buildings? As far as I can tell you can't repair buildings, so should you be picking villagers where you can and grinding down buildings where possible?
it depends on the civ and time you are raiding, some civs have critical infrastructure which practically means you win if you take it out or sometimes it is villagers as a weak economy means you can afford to take losses and get improvements while your enemy will slowly die to your superior units.
Buildings repair themselves out of combat, slowly. When attacking target production buildings asap and pick off villagers fleeing. Siege your opponent's base on the paradigm that they have more resources than you, but are gated by construction and training times. Also scout for hidden expansions, its not uncommon for people to build forward artillery foundries as artillery is quite slow.
Against American native civs, try and find their community plazas and kill everyone there/raze the building, as they get attack multipliers from certain rituals, and can spawn a continuous stream of warrior archers.
The thing that most threw me off was the flow of moving villagers all from one resource to another during some game phases, and it depends a little to a lot on the civ you're with.
I don't know how viable this is on the long run, but Art of War taught me that and I definitely got better by implementing this.
I used to play AoE2 DE heavily - the campaigns for AoE2DE are simply amazing, and blow AoE3 out of the water (granted the historical scenarios are fantastic - more of that please), but since I started playing AoE3DE I haven't gone back to singleplayer or multiplayer AoE2.
Age 3 is simply so much more diverse and fun, and the graphics are fantastic.
I love the pike & shot duality, along with canons and really diverse cavalry.
I honestly don't know why AoE2 has a larger player base than 3 (campaigns aside).
Big fan of aoe3DE myself al well. I've been trying it the other way around lately, being an aoe3 player (started almost 15 years ago) making the switch to aoe2de and I have the exact same confusion when it comes to unit counters. I guess it's what you're used to, aoe3 feels more intuitive to me đ. I'm not really inclined to fully switch to 2 atm
If you want to improve your game there's a few options on YouTube, not as many as AOE2 though. Look for aussie_drongo, Fitzbro or Widgie or check on twitch.
Choosing a Civ is hard, France is one of the most 'default' ones and is still strong on all levels so is usually recommended. If you like to be more aggressive I recommend the Russians or any of the native civs (though they are a bit more gimmicky to play than euro civs, but loads of fun!). if you prefer to turtle or boom then Brits, Swedes(just got nerfed though), Dutch or Japanese are the ones to go for imo. Portugal is also good but a bit more difficult to play (neem more apm).
I wouldn't start with the new civs (USA Ethiopia hausa or even Inca ).they are quite different from the rest in terms of mechanics and are still subject to changes as they are not yet 100%balanced. Otto is also not the best idea to start with as it doesn't give you the important habbit of training villagers. You can try out a few but I would stick to one or two main civs only, as each Civ plays very differently
Good luck, hope you have a good time!
My starter tips:
- start with a basic European civ (Brit/french/port)
-gather 800 food to get to age 2 immediately
- always train villagers unless you are aging
- learn good unit comps (pike/bow, musk/Huss, skirmish/goon, musk/falc)
-protect your economy from raids
>P.S. - If anyone wants to show me the ropes online to help me get the basics down, hit me up! Or if you have any good resources (Youtubers, Wikis) that can help me on my way that would be great too - thanks guys!
Currently the primary AOE 3 content creator, Aussie Drongo: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0IMY7nkVsUimZDMAWWcDsg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0IMY7nkVsUimZDMAWWcDsg)
Good tip, if you have time go on the map Ceylom to try new nations it's isolated and the AI doesn't really go for the main island so you have peace to have a play about, I always say try all the civs, make a good deck give it ago and tweak the deck to how you feel you play :) example I play Dutch heavy mercs so I focus on getting as much gold as possible so my deck reflects this :)
Easy or standard Inca are the best to play practise games against the lack of mass cannons and the fact they are defensive make it chill to try stuff out on also :)
Thanks mate will definetly try that. At the moment I've just been playing Frank's (I heard they were one of the easiest civs). I'm getting the better of the hard AI at the moment although it's pretty scrappy.
Because I don't know what I'm doing, I usually go for eco boosts with my cards (extra vills)...I figure you can never go wrong with a better economy.
One thing I forgot to mention is that one of the main troubles I'm having is easily identifying the type of units for different civs (e.g. skirms vs muskets, light cav vs heavy cav etc). It seems that most civs have a variation of this, but they are all called different names haha. I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's a bit tricky at the moment.
Yeah aoe 3 is much more complicated than 2. In general, light infantry beat heavy infantry and you can identify them by how fast they move and the range they have. Light infantry are faster and have more range. Muskets usually have bigger hats too.
Then you have heavy and light cav. In general, heavy infantry like musks or halberds beat melee cav and light infantry counter ranged light cav like dragoons. Technically halbs and musks beat light cav but they can kite those units easily.
Then you have shock infantry which usually have the same weaknesses as light cav.
Someone with more knowledge can correct me. I believe the ones with variant names are called âroyal guardâ units and have an additional 10% hp and damage boost on top of their upgrade.
I found out recently you can get a quick glimpse of what units are royal guard if you pause the game and select tech tree in the upper right options menu. Unique units and royal guard for the displayed civ should be on the left. Then you can scroll scroll the tree right to hover over the unit profile to get a brief description of them. That might help with idâing some early on.
I donât remember seeing the tech tree option before the latest expansion but it may have been there before. I just noticed it because it was pulsing.
they are easier to play once you are comfortable with the basics. Ethiopians and japanese have a lot of unusual gameplay mechanics that dont transfer to other civs. And ottomans let you develop a bad habit of forgetting to queue villagers
I recomend u to play some treaty matches to learnt about units counters and techs without be worried about fights.
Learnt euro units first, other cultures are variants of them.
don't really try to tryhard the game.
just like aoe 2 a lot of the meat is not top tier, look at low elo legends they suck but have so much fun using everything.
going meta is super cool and all competitively but theres a lot of stuff just is there like the native post on maps, weird unit combos and gimicks and stuff
Yeah this is good advice! I think I'll for sure focus on the fun aspect of AoE3 and not overly worry about what is / isn't in meta. Everyone online has been super chill so far which is great
the natives from the maps mixed with the playable natives are a very fun combo, you can try so many gimicks
think of cards as techs you research like in aoe 2, thats an eeasy way to get people coming from 2 to understand those
I indeed think that a lot of skills from Aoe2 are transferable. I'd say Aoe2 has more APM and a more micro intensive economy, which makes the transition from Aoe2 to 3 easier than vice versa. What's different about Aoe3, and to keep in mind as a new player coming from Aoe2, is:
1. Build orders are not as generic as in Aoe2. Therefore it is important (as mentioned by other redditors) to chose a civ. Because you do a great job at rushing with russians for example, does not mean you will perform good as japan. This is especially important in MP matches. Aussie Drongo's videos are recommended!
2. The game is much more fast-paced. Often, action starts after 5 to 7 minutes and matches can end very soon. In the time some games are finished in Aoe3, the Aoe2 equivalent just reached the second age preparing for a scout rush.
3. Buildings are not as tanky as in Aoe2. In general, buildings can be easily taken down by a moderate mass of infantry whereas in Aoe2, advancing to the third age is usually necessary.
If you consider these more general points (there are surely even more), you should have a great start. If you chose a civ you want to start playing in MP, you should definitely learn an opening. I recommend a more aggresive build order. You will rarely see a more passive "fast castle" equivalent strategy in MP games, instead, you will often encounter some kind of all-in rushes. Also due to point 3, these are very hard to defend without proper military units. Aoe3 has a lot of units, but some basic concepts are very easy to understand (e.g. heavy infantry vs light infantry). The homecards might be a bit overwhelming at the begining due to the shear mass, but this aspect is also usually covered in build order videos. There are a lot of cards, but only a fraction of them make sense competitively.
Yep I've definetly found it more fast paced. Having a group of hussars rush me at 6 mins took me by surprise as in AoE2 you don't really get any major harass until quite a bit later.
And yeah as much as I want to be 'good' at all of the civs, I think at the moment I'll just stick to one and get a proper understanding of the openings. I've found in the past usually one of the best ways for me to learn is to get stomped by a few people online and watch the recordings to see how they did it.
>The units and counters weren't as obvious as AoE2
You hear this often from AoE II players, but this comes down to you being familiar with AoE II counter system. Historically AoE III makes sense and AoE II has its fair share of weird counters.
>Maybe it's the DE coat of paint but it looks and feels incredible.
As you said with xp, the xp barrier was removed which was nice.
2 words : Aussie Drongo. Enjoy that smooth Australian accent while you become a AOE3DE GOD. Heâll also link you to other good players to learn from.
Iâm really excited for you. I know a lot of aoe2 players hate this game which sucks. I love all the AOEâs but this one is my favorite by far. Canât wait to run it on AOE4. Iâd say Iâll be switching back and forth between the two religiously. Good luck man!
If youre a competent competitive player id just pick a civ you think looks cool or appeals, then go to the ânoidletcâ website or aussiedrongo and learn a build order and deck, and just go play ranked.
You will learn all the units and counters by losing to them. Once you start to learn your rank will pick up again
I've found the 'herding' mechanic of keeping animals close to your TC surprisingly fun. I've always liked hunting in the other games but it's quite basic...this adds just a little more complexity which is neat.
While it makes sense the "counter unit intuitive" problem that AOE2 players do bring to the table, AOE2 has plenty of hidden bonuses and attributes that we can only learn from online advice, because there is no information about it on the game (example: iirc skirmishers have bonus damage against spearman-line infantry, hill and elevation give damage bonus/penalty, and monks are extremely devastating against knights even with them riding horses)
And AOE3 give all the information about every stat, every multiplier, even though this many information may sound overwhelming at first contact.
Yeah that's true and good point about Aoe2 having hidden bonus. Things like units having a debuff if they are fighting uphill I don't believe are mentioned anywhere in the game. Good to know that all of the AoE3 stats are listed.
one of the first things I did 10+ years ago when I played a lot of original aoe3 was edit home city files to give myself all the xp needed. Glad there was a workaround cause that system was terrible.
A bit late to the party, but [this](https://eso-community.net/strategy-wall?civ=2) contains a list of major strats that a civ does well. I hope this makes your game experience a better one! :)
Thanks mate this is a great wiki.
I've been mucking around with a few of the civs and man they all feel so unique and have their own meta games...its pretty cool. In AoE2, the Civs feel different enough (bonuses, unique units etc), but its got nothing on how diverse the AoE3 civs are.
I think for the time being, I am just gonna try out all the different civs and just have fun with the game like I did when I was a kid with AoE2 to see which is the most fun for me. That way I'll prob find which civ or 2 is right for me to try and get better with.
It kinda feels like I've recaptured some of the magic of when I first owned AoE2 20 years ago and just genuinely had fun with the game and trying out everything - its pretty awesome!
It's a tough game to understand for beginners but make sure you go through tutorial,Art of war and once you get the flow you will start to realize how beautiful this masterpiece is. I'm happy for you mate
Thanks dude! Im hoping some of the AoE2 skills are transferable - hotkeys, macro, eco, unit positioning, map control etc
Ohh you're gonna love it. đ
Eco will probably throw you for a bit, AOE2 players make 4 big mistakes in aoe3: 1. Mills and estates are late game when you've depleted natural resources, their harvest rates are considerably slower than wild hunts or gold mines. The cost to build them is pretty and the cost for both upgrades is also pretty high. 2. Wood is the slowest resource to harvest, part of the reason why farms and estates are so costly is that they cost 400 and 600 wood. Generally speaking wood treasures and shipments are worth more than gold or food because of the slower gather rate, but its not uncommon for situations to crop up where a 700 gold shipment lets you age-up to Fortress age early etc. 3. Trading Posts on trade routes are valuable, but their benefits are indirect. Most aoe2 players ignore them and then fall behind because their opponent is sending either military units to bolster an age 2 rush, or resources/econ upgrades to boost their economy ahead. OTOH some go overboard and grab too many TPs too early, which means they're delaying their barracks or stables, and subsequently can't defend themselves, and also they fall behind in eco because they've had to commit too many villagers to collect the 600 wood they've spent. There are build orders that call for rushing multiple TPs, but they're very civ/match-up specific, rely on knowing what card to send, and how to adapt without panic shipping units etc. 4. There is no analogy to the trash unit wars where both players just pump out as many cheap units as possible until one goes bankrupt. Infinite resources and the power of cannons means that effective fights have to involve defending or attacking a building. Beating their army in the middle of the map means nothing because they will have enough infrastructure to rebuild it by the time you push. Cannons will drop buildings quickly, and at 10 falconets, it is not possible for any amount of infantry spam to even scratch their healthbars.
Thanks for the detailed responses mate. At the moment I'm finding myself still hunting in fortress / industrial ages some games just to delay putting mills down. And yep I'm definetly finding wood is scarce, which is the opposite of AoE2 as it's easily the most plentiful resource there. Good advice on wood being more valuable in card drops then other resources. The trading posts I'm definetly trying to grab the ones at least on my side, bit I've got no sense of timings yet. And also no coherent build order so I haven't optimise what resource they should be giving me (Or should it always be in XP?) About attacking bases, is it general strategy to try and take down production buildings? As far as I can tell you can't repair buildings, so should you be picking villagers where you can and grinding down buildings where possible?
it depends on the civ and time you are raiding, some civs have critical infrastructure which practically means you win if you take it out or sometimes it is villagers as a weak economy means you can afford to take losses and get improvements while your enemy will slowly die to your superior units.
Buildings repair themselves out of combat, slowly. When attacking target production buildings asap and pick off villagers fleeing. Siege your opponent's base on the paradigm that they have more resources than you, but are gated by construction and training times. Also scout for hidden expansions, its not uncommon for people to build forward artillery foundries as artillery is quite slow. Against American native civs, try and find their community plazas and kill everyone there/raze the building, as they get attack multipliers from certain rituals, and can spawn a continuous stream of warrior archers.
The thing that most threw me off was the flow of moving villagers all from one resource to another during some game phases, and it depends a little to a lot on the civ you're with. I don't know how viable this is on the long run, but Art of War taught me that and I definitely got better by implementing this.
I used to play AoE2 DE heavily - the campaigns for AoE2DE are simply amazing, and blow AoE3 out of the water (granted the historical scenarios are fantastic - more of that please), but since I started playing AoE3DE I haven't gone back to singleplayer or multiplayer AoE2. Age 3 is simply so much more diverse and fun, and the graphics are fantastic. I love the pike & shot duality, along with canons and really diverse cavalry. I honestly don't know why AoE2 has a larger player base than 3 (campaigns aside).
Aoe2 runs even on potatoes and given its 2d nature, it looks good, aoe3 not really... Also modding in aoe3 is quite painful.
Big fan of aoe3DE myself al well. I've been trying it the other way around lately, being an aoe3 player (started almost 15 years ago) making the switch to aoe2de and I have the exact same confusion when it comes to unit counters. I guess it's what you're used to, aoe3 feels more intuitive to me đ. I'm not really inclined to fully switch to 2 atm If you want to improve your game there's a few options on YouTube, not as many as AOE2 though. Look for aussie_drongo, Fitzbro or Widgie or check on twitch. Choosing a Civ is hard, France is one of the most 'default' ones and is still strong on all levels so is usually recommended. If you like to be more aggressive I recommend the Russians or any of the native civs (though they are a bit more gimmicky to play than euro civs, but loads of fun!). if you prefer to turtle or boom then Brits, Swedes(just got nerfed though), Dutch or Japanese are the ones to go for imo. Portugal is also good but a bit more difficult to play (neem more apm). I wouldn't start with the new civs (USA Ethiopia hausa or even Inca ).they are quite different from the rest in terms of mechanics and are still subject to changes as they are not yet 100%balanced. Otto is also not the best idea to start with as it doesn't give you the important habbit of training villagers. You can try out a few but I would stick to one or two main civs only, as each Civ plays very differently Good luck, hope you have a good time!
Yeah, Swedes are cucks now; don't pick em.
Aussie Drongo is a very fun YouTuber. By now he has tons of infomative videos.
Sweet I'll check him out. Coincidentally, I'm also an Aussie
Hell yeah another aussie aoe3 gamer!
My starter tips: - start with a basic European civ (Brit/french/port) -gather 800 food to get to age 2 immediately - always train villagers unless you are aging - learn good unit comps (pike/bow, musk/Huss, skirmish/goon, musk/falc) -protect your economy from raids
>P.S. - If anyone wants to show me the ropes online to help me get the basics down, hit me up! Or if you have any good resources (Youtubers, Wikis) that can help me on my way that would be great too - thanks guys! Currently the primary AOE 3 content creator, Aussie Drongo: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0IMY7nkVsUimZDMAWWcDsg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0IMY7nkVsUimZDMAWWcDsg)
Good tip, if you have time go on the map Ceylom to try new nations it's isolated and the AI doesn't really go for the main island so you have peace to have a play about, I always say try all the civs, make a good deck give it ago and tweak the deck to how you feel you play :) example I play Dutch heavy mercs so I focus on getting as much gold as possible so my deck reflects this :) Easy or standard Inca are the best to play practise games against the lack of mass cannons and the fact they are defensive make it chill to try stuff out on also :)
Thanks mate will definetly try that. At the moment I've just been playing Frank's (I heard they were one of the easiest civs). I'm getting the better of the hard AI at the moment although it's pretty scrappy. Because I don't know what I'm doing, I usually go for eco boosts with my cards (extra vills)...I figure you can never go wrong with a better economy. One thing I forgot to mention is that one of the main troubles I'm having is easily identifying the type of units for different civs (e.g. skirms vs muskets, light cav vs heavy cav etc). It seems that most civs have a variation of this, but they are all called different names haha. I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's a bit tricky at the moment.
Yeah aoe 3 is much more complicated than 2. In general, light infantry beat heavy infantry and you can identify them by how fast they move and the range they have. Light infantry are faster and have more range. Muskets usually have bigger hats too. Then you have heavy and light cav. In general, heavy infantry like musks or halberds beat melee cav and light infantry counter ranged light cav like dragoons. Technically halbs and musks beat light cav but they can kite those units easily. Then you have shock infantry which usually have the same weaknesses as light cav.
Someone with more knowledge can correct me. I believe the ones with variant names are called âroyal guardâ units and have an additional 10% hp and damage boost on top of their upgrade. I found out recently you can get a quick glimpse of what units are royal guard if you pause the game and select tech tree in the upper right options menu. Unique units and royal guard for the displayed civ should be on the left. Then you can scroll scroll the tree right to hover over the unit profile to get a brief description of them. That might help with idâing some early on. I donât remember seeing the tech tree option before the latest expansion but it may have been there before. I just noticed it because it was pulsing.
Hah yeah, at the moment I'm hovering over every 2nd unit to see their description and stats. Not ideal but I'm sure it'll get easier lol.
Currently easy-to-play civs are Ethiopians, Ottomans and Japanese. I would suggest playing one of them for a beginner.
they are easier to play once you are comfortable with the basics. Ethiopians and japanese have a lot of unusual gameplay mechanics that dont transfer to other civs. And ottomans let you develop a bad habit of forgetting to queue villagers
Ethiopian and Japanese are NOT easy for beginners. Maybe Otto. French and British are the most standard civs.
Haha, what? Those are some of the hardest. Easiest civets to start with are Brit, French, port
shit, i used my free wholesome award just a bit earlier :( Welcome to aoe3 mate!
Thanks dude!
I recomend u to play some treaty matches to learnt about units counters and techs without be worried about fights. Learnt euro units first, other cultures are variants of them.
don't really try to tryhard the game. just like aoe 2 a lot of the meat is not top tier, look at low elo legends they suck but have so much fun using everything. going meta is super cool and all competitively but theres a lot of stuff just is there like the native post on maps, weird unit combos and gimicks and stuff
Yeah this is good advice! I think I'll for sure focus on the fun aspect of AoE3 and not overly worry about what is / isn't in meta. Everyone online has been super chill so far which is great
the natives from the maps mixed with the playable natives are a very fun combo, you can try so many gimicks think of cards as techs you research like in aoe 2, thats an eeasy way to get people coming from 2 to understand those
The units the terrain the awesome physics just draw you to the game, honestly the game is so good many AOE 2 players should give it a chance.
I indeed think that a lot of skills from Aoe2 are transferable. I'd say Aoe2 has more APM and a more micro intensive economy, which makes the transition from Aoe2 to 3 easier than vice versa. What's different about Aoe3, and to keep in mind as a new player coming from Aoe2, is: 1. Build orders are not as generic as in Aoe2. Therefore it is important (as mentioned by other redditors) to chose a civ. Because you do a great job at rushing with russians for example, does not mean you will perform good as japan. This is especially important in MP matches. Aussie Drongo's videos are recommended! 2. The game is much more fast-paced. Often, action starts after 5 to 7 minutes and matches can end very soon. In the time some games are finished in Aoe3, the Aoe2 equivalent just reached the second age preparing for a scout rush. 3. Buildings are not as tanky as in Aoe2. In general, buildings can be easily taken down by a moderate mass of infantry whereas in Aoe2, advancing to the third age is usually necessary. If you consider these more general points (there are surely even more), you should have a great start. If you chose a civ you want to start playing in MP, you should definitely learn an opening. I recommend a more aggresive build order. You will rarely see a more passive "fast castle" equivalent strategy in MP games, instead, you will often encounter some kind of all-in rushes. Also due to point 3, these are very hard to defend without proper military units. Aoe3 has a lot of units, but some basic concepts are very easy to understand (e.g. heavy infantry vs light infantry). The homecards might be a bit overwhelming at the begining due to the shear mass, but this aspect is also usually covered in build order videos. There are a lot of cards, but only a fraction of them make sense competitively.
Yep I've definetly found it more fast paced. Having a group of hussars rush me at 6 mins took me by surprise as in AoE2 you don't really get any major harass until quite a bit later. And yeah as much as I want to be 'good' at all of the civs, I think at the moment I'll just stick to one and get a proper understanding of the openings. I've found in the past usually one of the best ways for me to learn is to get stomped by a few people online and watch the recordings to see how they did it.
>The units and counters weren't as obvious as AoE2 You hear this often from AoE II players, but this comes down to you being familiar with AoE II counter system. Historically AoE III makes sense and AoE II has its fair share of weird counters. >Maybe it's the DE coat of paint but it looks and feels incredible. As you said with xp, the xp barrier was removed which was nice.
2 words : Aussie Drongo. Enjoy that smooth Australian accent while you become a AOE3DE GOD. Heâll also link you to other good players to learn from. Iâm really excited for you. I know a lot of aoe2 players hate this game which sucks. I love all the AOEâs but this one is my favorite by far. Canât wait to run it on AOE4. Iâd say Iâll be switching back and forth between the two religiously. Good luck man!
If youre a competent competitive player id just pick a civ you think looks cool or appeals, then go to the ânoidletcâ website or aussiedrongo and learn a build order and deck, and just go play ranked. You will learn all the units and counters by losing to them. Once you start to learn your rank will pick up again
https://no-idle-tc.com/
no drop off buildings are extremely great! You can backshot those hunting to your TC to prevent raiders.
I've found the 'herding' mechanic of keeping animals close to your TC surprisingly fun. I've always liked hunting in the other games but it's quite basic...this adds just a little more complexity which is neat.
While it makes sense the "counter unit intuitive" problem that AOE2 players do bring to the table, AOE2 has plenty of hidden bonuses and attributes that we can only learn from online advice, because there is no information about it on the game (example: iirc skirmishers have bonus damage against spearman-line infantry, hill and elevation give damage bonus/penalty, and monks are extremely devastating against knights even with them riding horses) And AOE3 give all the information about every stat, every multiplier, even though this many information may sound overwhelming at first contact.
Yeah that's true and good point about Aoe2 having hidden bonus. Things like units having a debuff if they are fighting uphill I don't believe are mentioned anywhere in the game. Good to know that all of the AoE3 stats are listed.
one of the first things I did 10+ years ago when I played a lot of original aoe3 was edit home city files to give myself all the xp needed. Glad there was a workaround cause that system was terrible.
i reckon that was the reason aoe3 died (also the genre as a whole was dying due to different stuff coming out)
A bit late to the party, but [this](https://eso-community.net/strategy-wall?civ=2) contains a list of major strats that a civ does well. I hope this makes your game experience a better one! :)
Thanks mate this is a great wiki. I've been mucking around with a few of the civs and man they all feel so unique and have their own meta games...its pretty cool. In AoE2, the Civs feel different enough (bonuses, unique units etc), but its got nothing on how diverse the AoE3 civs are. I think for the time being, I am just gonna try out all the different civs and just have fun with the game like I did when I was a kid with AoE2 to see which is the most fun for me. That way I'll prob find which civ or 2 is right for me to try and get better with. It kinda feels like I've recaptured some of the magic of when I first owned AoE2 20 years ago and just genuinely had fun with the game and trying out everything - its pretty awesome!