I know a lot of AOE4 players don't care too much about historical accuracy, but as someone who studies and teaches history, it's always been one of my favorite aspects of the game.

The fact that all the civs are speaking their native language that even evolves with every age, the focus of scholars for the Delhi and cattle/pitmine economy for the Malians, the Mongols' nomadic mechanics, or the Rus focussing on preserving the forrest and receiving bounty for all the animals they hunt. It's not a perfect historical simulator by any means, but the historical inspiration really reinforced each civ's unique identity.

A lot has been said about variant civilisations, and personally, I think gameplay wise most of them are fun additions, but it bothered me that historical inspiration seemed not to be a strong consideration when these civs were developed. The order of the Dragon is just HRE with stronger units; the Macedonian Dynasty is just Byzantines with some random units that have Viking names; the Tughlaq has some historical inspiration with the focus on forts, but the huge focus on elephants is just completely ahistorical. Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc and Zhu Xi feel like super random additions focused on single historic figures who never led an independent civilisation.

But this year, with the addition of the Jin Dynasty, the Scots, and the Vikings, it seems the focus on having them be inspired be real historic elements has fully returned. The fact that the Jin features reindeer, Mohe tribesmen, and all unique landmarks that showcase their amazing unique architecture; the Scots having pikemen, Highland cattle, and gallowglass warriors; and the Vikings with the longhouses, shield wall formation, and the shift from the Viking raiding units in the early game to the more settled Scandinavian kingdoms in the late game are all great references to the real history behind these civilisations. Even if the Scots borrow some assets from the English and the Jin from China, they have a unique identity that sets them apart.

I just love this kind of stuff and the Age of Empires series has always been a great medium to get people interested in history and learn more about all these unique cultures throughout the world. I hope the devs continue with this direction in the future.

I’ve recently started playing GH and I like the civ but never really pay attention to the edicts, I usually just stick to the production speed edict and forget about it. Are there any edicts worth the cost of research or is sticking to production speed best?

These aren't arranged teams. So for example in this case the conq3 guy was in queue for a long time, his search expands him to include the 2 x 1400s. Eventually it expands and simply matches with the first team it can find.

I still find this bizarre AF, and indicative that the devs literally do not care about the health of matchmaking.

If we consider the number of smurfs (easily solveable) as well as this obscurity around actual skill level (rank vs hidden MMR) there just seems such basic issues that constantly damage the viability of the game.

I keep ranting about these (and other issues) because fixing them, leads to a healthier player base. Which leads to more players, which leads to more money for development and game maintenance, including combating cheating. Which includes a higher likelihood of more tournaments or whatever people happen to specifically prioritise.

So while people might not care about TGs, or matchmaking, this still indirectly affects them.

are you tired of well-constructed, precise, and grammatically correct terminology in your favorite game Age of Empires IV? well, look no further than the google translate mod!

featuring slightly misleading and absurd, but positively hysterical translations for every* piece of text in the game.

• enjoy maps such as "Fire-gun", "Water supply", or the popular "Conflicting islands"
• try out units such as "The man with the guns", "Troubled Spearman", "Lancer the main character", "An elderly driver", and the infamous "The ball handler"
• construct buildings including the french "Equestrian School" and the notorious "Stay tuned"
• don't forget to Manufacture "Wheelchair" early to "Increase City dwellers’ carrying capacity"!

this is something i did a few months ago, but never shared. i find it too amusing to keep secret though, so here it is!

*the mod is not yet updated for some of the recent changes, like the new abbasid wings

more funny lines

303  NOTE: Physical intelligence is not enough to play well. Your system must have at least 8GB of RAM.

1754  Fatal Scar Error - Stopped killing

1309  The A.I. It’s easy to do
1310  The A.I. The Middle School
1311  The A.I. It’s a difficult one
1312  The A.I. It’s very difficult
1411  That’s fine

2550  This is not a good message. Type /help for more information.

11215220  Reduce the cost of rubber engines near the Rubber Workshop by -20%. Includes special rotary engine technology.
11215203  The pig
11215204  Challenged pig
11215205  Veteran Pig
11215206  Elite Dog
11215231  Transforming a Dog into a Complex Dog.
11215232  Convert hard Dosno into old Dogs.
11215307  Dragons are equipped with armor for ranged attacks, but can easily be burned by torches.
11215866  The Village Man
11215881  Scout wife
11215901  Khan is employed

11246577  Add a defensive mangrove placement to the structure. Only one gun rack can be added.
11246587  An elderly forest raider
11246796  Religious group on horseback. Can carry Relics, upgrade enemy units, and capture Sacred Sites.

11143076  Lower the meat
11161216  Tax evasion management

however, i only scratched the surface of what's translated, and it's all the more amusing when you experience it yourself. thus, the only solution is to:

try it yourself!

this is not a standard mod, because it loads at game start rather than during a match.

therefore, to install it, you will need to use my mod loader https://github.com/maxcana/spearman

• you can find the mod file as google_translate.sga under Releases.
• to install, download spearman.dll and follow steps 2 and 3 of "usage". just use "google_translate" instead of "AmogUs". check the entry in the FAQ for more details.

it should only take like 3 minutes, let me know if there are issues:)

It's easy to see something newly added when playing variants but damn do I hate having to stare at the civ bonuses and tech trees trying to figure out what you miss out on playing as Jeanne instead of French, or Lancaster instead of English. Is there any resources where it's listed like "hey if you like Enclosures don't play Lancaster"?

Last 20 1v1 games:

- 9 Zhuxi
- 8 KT
- 1 French
- 1 Malian
- 1 Golden Horde

New season and hopefully patch can’t come soon enough.

I realized that having an ideal base layout in mind really helps throughout the game: you can manage the balance of resource production, protect your economy from potential cavalry raids, and satisfy your simcity instincts.

Building it ideally is not always possible, but it's a good and a hopeful start.

Here is my ideal base for the late game. It can accommodate a total of 52 farms, they are all built efficiently, and there is enough room and protection in the TCs and Keeps for the farmers to quickly escape from cavalry raids.

I was playing yesterday with a friend (team1) against the Malians on Easy AI (team2) and the Romans on Intermediate AI (team3). After we both got to age 2 they attacked me one after the other they even walked past each other to do it without attacking each other! I barely had an army because I was focusing on economy so they destroyed a lot of my base and basically left me with a town hall and a few houses. Why did they seem to focus on destroying my buildings and not my friends? My friend was actually closer to the Romans but they ignored him.

I am trying to figure out which HRE strategy works best in which situation.

My default in most games is Meinwerk Fast Castle into Burgrave.

It works excellently against Abbasid or KT 2 TC. It works great against most feudal all-ins. It works okay against most FC civs since the Burgrave powerspike lets you compete for relics and put pressure on the opponent.

I have tried HRE 1 TC Feudal, but that does not work for me since it relies too much on micro. I also really dislike playing 1 TC long Feudal with any civ.

I tried Regnitz, but it is just very unreliable. The lack of a powerspike when you skip Burgrave means that you often cannot secure enough relics. And even when you do, you often get overrun shortly afterward.

I am contemplating going 2 TC Semi-FC Burgrave against civs where the typical FC Burgrave is not that good.

But the problem with going 2 TC is that:

1. You diminish the powerspike Burgrave gives you, since spamming MAA at 8 minutes is great, but mediocre at 14 minutes.
2. You make Swabia much worse, since Swabia is great when you have 60 workers, but very mediocre when you already have 100 workers and 2 TC.

We can see it, don't try to deny it

Both civs have a safe 2 TC.

Lancaster has a sheep bonus, which makes their economy slightly stronger in the early game.

English get a King for free, which is excellent for pressuring your opponent while booming back home. Both civs have an easy time holding Feudal all-ins and early Castle Age attacks due to the White Tower.

In order to get their eco bonus, the English need to build half-priced farms for 37 resources each.

In order to get their eco bonus, Lancaster needs to build Manors for 275 resources each. Manors are better than farms but require more investment.

Military-wise, I would say English is stronger. Their rate-of-fire bonus is better than the Lord of Lancaster hit point bonus. And if you go Lancaster Castle, you have better protection in Feudal, but give up your military bonus.

I do not understand why Lancaster is considered better than English. In my mind, they are about equal, but English is easier to play.

Link: https://www.ageofempires.com/news/the-crucible-reforged-in-aoe-iv/

In my other post, I asked why Lancaster is considered stronger than English.

The answer most people seemed to give is that Lancaster has a better economy and tempo compared to English.

But if that is the case, why does Lancaster have a 43% win rate against English in both Diamond and Conqueror? What makes English the stronger civ in this matchup?

https://reddit.com/link/1x8ctkf/video/agra6g69o1wh1/player

Bad spawn tbh

As an English player I have a very bad record against these guys… I’m not really sure how to punish them going FC

2tc you get stomped by a burgrave or lose all the relics(or both)

Fast castle you are too slow to get units out and they spew burgrave units all over the map and get all relics/map resources

And it seems they hit castle too fast for me to play feudal longbows

Anything I am missing? (Probably a lot as I am gold lmao)

I just had an hour long game vs them but pls ignore cus it was a total mess. It was over after the first fight and he got full map control

Based on the Wallace Monument overlooking Stirling Scotland. Interestingly dates much further in the future than the folk hero it is based on (1869), similar to the Monument of the Great Khan though much older than the latter, which was finished in 2008.

Likely chosen as Castle Rock is already an imperial Landmark, but that's just imo. Looks absolutely badass and I never knew this place existed until now.

Edited because got schooled.

Not sure if this has been addressed yet, couldn't rlly find details on the homepage. So I currently have the eastern dynasties dlc, and my friend simply has the vanilla version, so would we need to own both the eastern and the new raider DLC to play co op with each other? Or do we simply need the raider DLC and that's it?