My dad died in 2016, and when I was a kid I liked to watch him play computer games (and some console games). Since then I've been on a mission to beat all the games I watched him play as an ode to him. The most recent game has been Age of Empires 2 and since it is not (easily) available to play the original game I played the Definitive Edition and beat the original Age of Kings campaigns!

Let me just say, I was trying to beat them on Moderate difficulty and they were HARD. I didn't realize Moderate meant 'you've played this game recently and you know all the tactics to beat it'. To you all, I know the AI is brainless and dead but to me it was overwhelming. Thus, I lowered the difficulty to standard.

However, this game is a 10/10 and watching this subreddit over the last few weeks, I am happy to see a thriving community. This game, along with Heroes of Might and Magic 3 are at the top of my 'Best Dad Games' that I will include in my Youtube video with 2+ million views when I review my Dad games! (is that presumptuous)?

Anyways, who wants to play me?

List of Dad Games Completed

Age of Empires 2 (original 5 campaigns)

Diablo 1 (+ Hellfire)

Dragon Warrior (NES)

Fallout 1 + 2

Gauntlet IV (Genesis)

Heroes of Might and Magic 2

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (+ HOTA)

The Horde (DOS)

Jagged Alliance (DOS)

Lemmings (DOS)

Myst

Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis)

Redneck Rampage

Shadowgate (NES)

StarCraft 1

Total Annihilation

Ultima Underworld

Warcraft 2

Xcom (DOS)

yet to beat:

Wing Commander

Destroy all humans!

I'd personally go with the Romans. Good economy for early game, good on Arena-esque early Castle Age battle maps, and good deathball in the lategame.

Also I think for closed maps Arena is different from most other ones because there are some strats that mostly only work on it and not other closed maps, though they can. And the false sense of security from the stone walls and the fact that your base actually often traps you in when you get castle dropped or pushed. But Romans I think are fine on Arena so my pick still stands.

Because in Arabic, "Khitan" means circumcision. So I get that psychological twinge the way you would when you read "papercut urethra". 11 just some fun trivia I wanted to share.

Since we have a fair amount of Chronicles (and other) assets, and some civs will likely never come to the game mode, I thought it would be fun to create some screenshots depicting hypothetical civs (some from the Rome at War mod).

Here I made screenshots depicting:

- An Assyrian siege of Babylon

- A Han Dynasty army marches by a river

- A Gupta city

- A Scythian settlement

Let me know if there are any civs you want to see and I can take a crack at it.

Farmers could be faster at making farms. Right now if you click them all to build one farm they go to the middle of it after its built then they each find a farm to build individually. They could instead immediately go build the other farms. Reduce wasted time fighting for that farm.
Race you to the middle gets the farm haha. Right at 12 seconds they could of started walking to the other farms already. Wasting 4 seconds going to the middle first.

This isn't repeated content mod. It's a different aspect of the farming building coding that can be better.

Part 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/s/KDu9enNLwX

Cranequins is a regional replacement for Parthian Tactics, so as far as I know you won't ever see both of those techs used for a single civ outside of scenarios. So I think this makes sense to indicate that and also to make the UI look a little nicer.

Is this an upgrade or something cause it says my castles heal infantry but it doesn't heal infantry?

Difficulty Ratings

• 0: A very minor threat that is easy to overcome
• 1: A fair fight that makes things interesting
• 2: A difficult situation that requires some outside the box thinking
• 3: A highly difficult situation requiring lots of micro-management, unit-countering and precise timing
• 4: A constant struggle in which focus and momentum must be maintained at all times, as well as proper tactics and timing
• 5: Nearly impossible. Every move must be flawless or aggressive save-scumming is necessary to win

The Last Viking: (purple)/(teal)

This final campaign of the DLC is, I think, the first one I’ve played with fewer than 5 missions, apart from an old port of an AOE 1 campaign. I know the Saxons have an infantry unique unit, but that’s about all, and I expect I’ll be facing plenty of archery since this campaign is focused on England. Let’s see if it can stick the landing.

1. Westward, the Carrion’s Call: Difficulty 3
   1. Halldor Snorrason (teal), Friendly Saxons (grey), Dover (red), Welsh (green), Harold Godwinson (orange), Harold’s Patrols (yellow), Norman Scouts (dark blue)
   2. This is a pretty brutal mission, but it’s more manageable than it first appears. The player starts alongside Halldor in the southwest, with the option of attacking a city either to the north or to the east. The north is nearer to the Welsh, who employ traditional British units from the west, while Dover is a Saxon power in the east. I always chose the north, leaving the player with a mounted hero, a few knights and a decent number of hearth infantry and crossbows to seize the city by garrisoning its castle with the hero. Between the player and the otherwise neutral city is a storehouse, a palisade wall and a decent number of dangerous soldiers acting as Harold's patrols. Once bypassed, the player takes the town and gets a cramped city with a monastery, blacksmith, castle and university, but no mainline military production buildings.
   3. The main objective is to destroy 6 of the 8 storehouses on the map, each one giving hundreds of resources. These storehouses are located across the map, guarded by Harold’s patrols which grow stronger as they are defeated. These patrols also hold 3 towns, 2 near the starting cities and 1 between them, as well as a military camp north of the center which can be seized if the damaged monastery in each one is repaired. This not only gives a town center and some other nearby buildings, but also 5 monks, one of whom has a relic. The Welsh and Dover each have multiple relics, and there are 2 others near storehouses in the northeast and southwest on islands.
   4. Halldor helps the player by commanding a massive force in the other starting city. He is not overly aggressive, but he will occasionally help and is practically undefeatable to the enemies. He will field a navy of longships that mostly acts defensively, and both Dover and the Welsh will train fleets of different ships that will rarely attack until provoked. More dangerous from the sea are the Sicilians from Normandy, in the southern corner of the map, who endlessly train cavaliers and elite serjeants from a few donjons which are then transported around the map. Their galleons and hulks are formidable, especially because the Saxons are not a particularly strong naval power. The water covers much of the southwestern edge of the map, and curls along the edge all the way to the northeast. The entire northern portion of the map is under Harold’s control, practically impregnable and heavily defended. Fortunately, the Welsh and Dover can be recruited if a particular spot in each base with a town center is cleared and then replaced with a player castle, though they aren’t particularly aggressive either.
   5. My first attempt saw me mostly learn about the unique mechanics and try very hard to convert the Welsh to my side early, which didn’t work since they kept destroying my castles. On my second try, I used my starting army to rapidly clear the two nearest towns before bringing my men home to defend against imminent Welsh attackers while leaving my crossbows to clear the town near my ally. A single villager went town to town to repair the monasteries, giving me multiple early relics, as well as enough town centers to jumpstart a powerful economy. There was a bit of a lull as I reached the imperial age, but I used the abundant stone during that time to construct a few castles in my base, which was quickly under constant Welsh attack.
   6. I made liberal use of the cheap hearth infantry and a few cavaliers, supported by monks who converted enemy infantry and archers and could rapidly heal my own forces. At this stage of the game, I ignored storehouses and main enemies and instead focused on sea power, trying desperately to eliminate the Norman scouts that plagued my southern flank. I lost several fleets to their superior ships, but a wave of galleons with a few siege ships eventually pushed them back and finished the last of their docks, forcing them to surrender. My fleet then entered the river between myself and the Welsh, clearing a nearby castle and the enemy town center for castle construction. I lost a few ships when their navy responded, but we won regardless, and I then sailed in 2 transports full of infantry and cavalry as well as 4 villagers. They managed to hastily construct a castle in the midst of brutal combat, converting the Welsh to my allies and making my base safe from attack.
   7. The transports loaded up again and headed to the east with my fleet, which soon engaged the ships from Dover and held them against the cliffs while my catapults destroyed their town center and opened the way inside as well. I faced heavier resistance here, but my army was enough to hold the line against their powerful army, soon constructing another castle and converting Dover, which ended my main threats. I spent the remaining time seizing the military base in the north and trying to grab the remaining 2 relics as well as a legendary item in the southwest that improved all future military building production while Halldor steadily sacked storehouse after storehouse, his comments making me think I would soon have to fight him. I was prepping since I didn’t know what was going to happen in this mission, but eventually the 6th storehouse fell and Harold came from the north, hitting my recently acquired military base first.
   8. The castle was durable, and withstood significant enemy fire, but Harald’s army was made up of hundreds of infantry, mounted crossbows, cavaliers, siege rams and trebuchets, while also being backed up by waves upon waves of close, mid and long-range ships. This endless stream of units gradually overtook my base and pressed south, butchering one of my towns in between and then reaching my walls where my main garrison and several castles were waiting. The fighting was fierce, but we held the line comfortably, repelling him again and again until his 20 minute timer for attack finally ended and I won the mission.
   9. This mission looks really complicated, but it’s actually pretty easy. The game offers plenty of early resource generation, from towns that are rarely really attacked to storehouses that can be plundered and abundant resources on the map between. Halldor isn’t an aggressive ally, but he does hold the line perfectly, and I never really felt the need to fight Dover myself since he had it handled. The Normans are annoying to clear out, but the naval battle is completely trivial once they’re gone, and control of the water means control of the whole map in this scenario. The final battle was massive, since Harold was also besieging Halldor at the same time, but I never felt like I was really in danger since my economy was so strong, widespread and heavily guarded. This was a great introduction to the Saxons, in my opinion, both how to play them and fight them.
2. The Storm-Driver of the North: Difficulty 4
   1. Danes (red), Scots (dark blue), Saxons (purple), Vikings (green), Scarborough (grey), Earl Morcar (yellow), Morcar’s Guards (orange)
   2. This is a two-part mission that is on a pair of timers. The first begins immediately, with the player tasked with destroying the wonder of Scarborough in the north corner, which is being constructed by 25 villagers, 5 of which are Scarborough’s itself. The city is heavily defended by a small fortress around the wonder, staffed with imperial age units and with a small budget for recruits from its few military buildings, but it is mostly defended by Earl Morcar, who staffs a colossal military and navy from his fortress just south of the wonder and his strongholds further southwest and in a peninsula in the northeast. Water is open in the east, but a single river runs north of the player’s base which is near the center.
   3. The player starts in the castle age with some starting villagers, a meager town and a small army of infantry and archers, as well as 3 heroes. Sadly, one of our infantry heroes has left, but our mounted hero from the previous mission is here. Using these heroes, the player must try to recruit as many allies as possible from the minor factions in the south, each of which has contributed 5 villagers to the construction of the wonder, which will be withdrawn if the faction is defeated or recruited. Each faction is plagued by several of Morcar’s guards, a faction who otherwise has only a few melee ship compliments in the east and an island with a tower and a diverse defensive fleet in the northeast, which contains the only relic in the map. These guards also hold a small but heavily guarded palisade in the southwest, which contains a legendary item that permanently gives Harald or the other infantry hero armor penetration.
   4. The Scots are a faction in the west, but they are harassed by a fort held by Morcar’s guards in the western corner. If every one of the 52 knights, hearth infantry, archers and scorpions are eliminated from this fort, they will join the player and give the fort as well. Just east of the player are the Vikings, who have a coastal town that is bothered by shipyards on the easternmost shore. These shipyards are guarded by walls, towers and a small but hardy garrison, and the 3 shipyards must be destroyed to have them join you. In the south are the Saxons, who want a relic just west of them which is guarded by more enemy guards. This includes 3 towers and several monks, as well as some infantry and archers. Lastly there are the Danes to the northwest, who want the player to destroy 3 siege workshops to their northwest which are defended by dozens of hearth infantry and around a dozen mangonels. The player has only 16 minutes to recruit allies, after which they shift to the enemy and all otherwise static factions will start moving.
   5. On my first attempt, I probed the defenses of each minor faction’s request and weighed who I thought was most valuable when the enemy started attacking while trying to reach imperial age quickly. On my second attempt, I settled on starting with the Saxons, and spent my starting resources on units and upgrades instead of an age advancement, due to the time restriction. My starting army along with a monk and some rams focused on the south, using heroes to draw out a few enemies before sending in rams filled with infantry. I lost some units, but successfully damaged the enemy monastery into releasing its relic which I took and retreated from the remaining towers with. With the Saxons under my banner, my army marched west to the Scotts where I hit the enemy guards with everything I could. I had to train and send help, but we eventually did defeat the powerful garrison and allied the Scots with us. I had been training some units to hopefully free the Danes, but the effort was clearly futile so I abandoned it and instead started pooling resources for the imperial age while building a castle on my northern flank. The timer expired, and everyone began to move.
   6. Initially I thought I would need a strategy guide, especially when Morcar’s men descended on my northern flank with imperial age soldiers very quickly. Fortunately, I learned that neither of the two minor powers were very aggressive, and that both of my allies would rush to my defense if I was attacked. I invested in a trebuchet which felled the Danes’ castle and town center, but they remained active and destroyed my trebuchet, stopping only when we barely leveled one of their barracks for some reason. I was now in the imperial age with a flourishing economy, and had constructed a few castles to the north which were producing berserkers as often as I could manage. My trebuchet destroyed the Viking castle, but what followed was a desperate battle as Harald almost singlehandedly contended with the endless Viking longships and Morcar’s ships which sailed into the harbor while my trebuchet and few remaining units held the line against Viking arbalests. We finally leveled the final archery range, and a fresh wave of berserkers found the opportunity to roll in, destroying the Viking docks and eliminating them completely. This left the enemy wonder with only 5 villagers, and only one mighty defender.
   7. My army was rapidly swelling to enormous size, though it was almost entirely berserkers with a few trebuchets. I had no navy, as the enemy dominated the waters, but my allies aggressively repelled enemy ships from the lands so I didn’t have to worry about catapult galleons hitting my castles. My army slowly but steadily pushed north through the less-fortified section of Morcar’s fortress which we completely cleared over time, with help from our allies. I brought in some villagers to build a forward base, since enemy ships were harassing any new berserkers and trebuchets I constructed, but enemy scorpions, rams, trebuchets, skirmishers and mixed infantry constantly berated us from all sides. Fortunately, I eventually finished the castle and built others as I was able, slowly pushing further north where we eventually gutted the heart of Morcar’s military power and finished a town center, though he had another to the west. His army would retaliate from the east and west every so often, so I always needed a garrison to handle siege weapons, which berserkers could fortunately accomplish.
   8. I couldn’t wait for a better opportunity so I felled Scarborough’s stronghold, which acted as a castle in the front, and then punched open the front gates, activating their formidable garrison. Though my army didn’t survive the monks, siege onagers, towers and castle inside, my mounted hero and a few berserkers did reach the villagers, killing them and halting production of the wonder. I now had all the time in the world. I steadily trained another army and marched west, slaughtering the villagers of Morcar and leaving him with nothing but his base in the east which we soon attacked as well. I had no navy to handle his ships which surrounded us, but my men were enough of a sponge to distract them until I destroyed his castle on the peninsula. Most of his ships disbanded soon after when he surrendered, and I constructed some docks of my own to search the water while a few light cavalry scouted the map for the legendary item.
   9. I captured the item before long, and cleared the remaining enemy guards from the sea before bombarding what portions of Scarborough I could from the water. My army moved in, dying to the force once again but killing their units and clearing the way for a few trebuchets to finish the castle and then, moments later, the wonder. Scarborough converted its buildings to me and I won the mission at last.
   10. This mission is pretty brutal, and requires constant momentum and adjustment since Morcar isn’t a stupid enemy and the minor factions don’t surrender easily. I would’ve had a slightly easier time if I focused on the water, but it takes time to win a naval battle, and I had none to spare. My forward castle base was absolutely the game changer, allowing me to rapidly field new armies of berserkers, which are just a great unique unit, as well as trebuchets when the need arose. Assassinating the Scarborough villagers was all it really took to win, and then we could handle the much greater enemy at our leisure, even though it wasn’t strictly necessary. I’ll miss the hero who left, but hopefully Harald is strong enough to make up for it by now.
3. Fullford Gate: Difficulty 3
   1. Tostig Godwinson (purple), Fulford (grey), Morcar’s Army (yellow), Eadwin’s Army (red), York (orange)
   2. This is a rather brutal mission, playing as a constant fight from start to finish. The player starts just southwest of the center, with a rather large starting army and villager force in an undeveloped town. There is a road leading east and a large river crossing to the north, which is covered by 3 guard towers. In the east is a military camp belonging to Tostig Godwinson, who has a much larger walled city with a monument at its northern tip in the southern corner. If the monument is captured by enemy forces, it must be recaptured in 2 minutes or the game will be lost. Tostig will train a small army, but mostly acts defensively and will be swiftly overwhelmed if not helped. Fortunately, he has a market for trade that is eternally safe.
   3. A river divides the player from the western portion of the map, and docks cannot be constructed in this scenario. Just over the northern crossing is a camp belonging to Eadwin’s army, which stretches across other river crossings to the southwest before peeling up to the western corner with a final crossing. A narrow strip of land, secured by a few towers and patrols belonging to York, runs up the northwestern edge of the map, and the legendary item is in the southwest and will provide significant damage reflection to one of the player’s 2 remaining infantry heroes. Just north of Tostig’s military camp is Fulford, a small town guarded by many keeps and patrolled by many powerful Saxon soldiers and monks. If its military is reduced to 8 or fewer soldiers from over 60, it will convert to player control, giving 2 free castles that must be built and the only relic on the map, while disbanding its units.
   4. While Eadwin will focus on harassing the player, Morcar has a massive base in the east from which he will launch constant raids against Tostig. Their armies are similar, though Eadwin trains more archers and mangonels and Morcar builds trebuchets and skirmishers. In the north is the mighty city of York, with mines and farms outside its southwest and southeast gates and a heavily fortified town with many production buildings inside. The castles defending its 3 main gates must be destroyed to conquer the city, and there is a final castle in the northern corner, surrounded by many military buildings and towers, which belongs to Eadwin along with its surroundings. All 4 castles must be razed to win the scenario.
   5. At the start of this mission I immediately set about training more villagers, though I didn’t need that many more since I already had quite a few and was in the imperial age. Some instantly traveled to Tostig’s base where I used most of my starting stone to construct a castle near his monument. Ulf kept a few soldiers near my towers to guard against Eadwin while Harald and my other men moved towards Fulford, which I knew would be important to defeat. In between establishing economy, building castles on my northern flank and around my ally and fending off constant raids that quickly picked up, I was using Harald and his men to kill the guards of Fulford as well as a trebuchet to bring down keeps that bothered us. My resources were significant but food was being expended constantly to keep my berserkers on the field, but that was when we captured the town of Fulford at last, immediately training villagers to build its castles and preparing for York who was now antagonized.
   6. Morcar revealed himself in the eastern corner, surrounded by several cavaliers, and my mission was now to kill him. The trebuchet and what berserkers I could spare marched east into Morcar’s lands, tearing a hole in his forward production but completely missing when he himself led a charge towards Tostig, right under my nose. Fortunately, the fool himself and his cavalry were ahead of the others, so I managed to kill him and his guard and then waylay his rams and trebuchets before they caused real damage. Things were difficult on both of my defensive points, as York was sending large but easily killed armies supported by monks and trebuchets, and Eadwin was hitting both my base’s northern castles and Fulford’s western flank, and their onagers were devastating to my soldiers. Fortunately, the damage I had done to Morcar’s base had slowed his production to a halt, and I managed to force them to surrender after felling a castle and a few more buildings since they endured even after their leader was dead.
   7. With Morcar gone, my army moved west, striking Eadwin hard and successfully destroying the stronghold structure he had holding his forward base together. I lost my entire army in the process, so I trained another using my now almost endless food and gold stores, along with more units and trebuchets in both the south and center. It was brutal, but Ulf led an army from the south while another swarmed in from the east, crushing his base between them even as siege weapons, archers and towers killed my berserkers. Harald held the line in Fulford against York, and I gradually pushed deeper and deeper into enemy territory until Eadwin had lost all towers and economic buildings, making his villagers useless. Unfortunately, this triggered something in him, activating his northern fortress within York which had regular massive influxes of resources. They were, however, farther away, and now a bit more predictable.
   8. The castles of York would be difficult to destroy since they could reheal over time, but I had learned if I moved 10 villages to a specific point along the northwestern edge of the map this would be stopped by blockading York’s river. I expected it wouldn't be too complicated to get there, but constant raids from both York and Eadwin held us back, even after we had eliminated the patrols and initial towers. It took around 5-10 minutes for us to reestablish a strong foothold in the area, since Eadwin had a few loose villagers that kept rebuilding military buildings in his own camp that waylaid us, but I eventually finished these villagers off, purged his influence from the area and blockaded the river, which I followed with 2 castles immediately built in the northwest. I dispatched a rider for the legendary item whose location I had divined, and then trained massive armies in both Fulford and my new base in the northwest.
   9. With Ulf in the west and Harald from the south, my armies hit York’s outer walls, making slow but steady progress against their hardy fortifications. To my surprise, Tostig started sending serious armies to wait outside the enemy gates, and they swarmed inside with archers, rams and infantry to help my own men once we pushed in. The fighting was constantly fierce, but there was no chance the enemy could drive us out, and inch by inch we felled fortifications and military buildings until at last York’s castles were all destroyed, giving me what remained of the city as well as a victory over all of my enemies.
   10. This mission is a good time, mostly because it doesn’t feel terribly unbalanced. All 3 major enemies here are truly threatening, but the player’s army feels stronger, and I used a basic setup of just berserker spam. Each objective I completed or enemy I defeated felt truly significant, and resources were so abundant I was spending them like water, giving me almost 200 berserkers alone by the end of the mission. This was very cool and enjoyable, and my only real complaint is that I wished Tostig did more offensively against enemies other than York once he has some breathing room.
4. The Battle of Stamford Bridge: Difficulty 4
   1. Tostig Godwinson (purple), Ulf Ospaksson (dark blue), Foragers (green), Harold Godwinson (orange), Earl Eadwin (red), Harold’s Raiders (yellow), Saxon Guards (grey)
   2. This is a pretty brutal mission, playing out a bit similar to the Victors and Vanquished Constantinople defense mission. It begins with the player witnessing a small skirmish between a few foragers and some of Harold's raiders in the west. The player is called to defend these foragers, as they give influxes of resources every couple of minutes and the player has only 1 town center, a 50 population limit, few villagers and limited resources. Though the player has an imperial age start, none of the castle age upgrades are researched, and certain imperial age blacksmith upgrades are restricted. Most of the map will center around Stamford bridge, a wooden bridge in the center of the map. The player has a few towers northwest of the bridge along with the main base southeast, though there are few starting buildings for the player at all. In the east is Tostig, in the south is Ulf, both with small forces that will aid the player as well as markets for trade. Ulf also has a castle on the player’s side of the bridge.
   3. I used my first attempt to learn how the mission worked, desperately pushing towards some of the training buildings in the west that the raiders used to produce units in an effort to eliminate an enemy quickly. Unfortunately, this did not work, as I did destroy half of the buildings but lost most of my soldiers and did not prevent raiders from coming. After a few minutes of defending, Harold himself arrived in the northwest with a colossal army from behind heavily fortified Saxon lines and began marching on the bridge, whose northwestern face I had fortified with a castle. I lost most of my men but defended the bridge, though Eadwin also surprise attacked us from the north, killing Tostig and seizing his forward military base while leaving the player in command of the eastern economic base. Along the way, however, I had received a large number of powerful Viking units, a permanent population buff and a few jarls from Ulf, so I wasn’t alone. Once I understood how this scenario would play out, I restarted, as I wasn’t prepared for a soon-to-be sustained battle.
   4. On my successful attempt, I immediately massed all military units save a few scouts in the west, ready to defend the northern route the raiders used to attack the foragers. A few scouts held the southern path to draw incoming raiders to my army, which mostly consisted of spearmen, and the other scouts remained northwest of the bridge, to draw a few incoming riders that would otherwise destroy my towers which I wanted to keep for now. I also instantly established a few trade carts and built a university to research ballistics and murder holes while also focusing on fortification and infantry advancements in the blacksmith. All villagers northwest of the bridge were working on stone, with me buying a bit extra to construct a new castle on my side of the bridge, near Ulf’s. My monks collected 3 relics and then waited near the castles, and Harald and my starting army guarded the foragers up until only 20 seconds or so remained until the enemy attack, prompting us to flee since the raiders stopped.
   5. Using mostly Harald, I was able to bait enemy attackers into ignoring Ulf’s forward fortifications, killing enemy units surprisingly fast and keeping them from properly massing at first. Eventually, the skirmishers and mounted crossbowmen focused on the towers, forming an arc that stopped enemy infantry from moving downward and properly threatening buildings. While this was going on, I took about half of my army and took them northeast, waiting around Tostig’s town center while also producing a trebuchet that waited outside his base. When Tostig fell, my units destroyed the town center and killed all but a small handful of enemy villagers before the units could respond, greatly slowing their forward progress before retreating to safer ground to survive the counterattack.
   6. My units were now pretty well upgraded, especially berserkers, so my men continued to push towards Eadwin’s base and his castle slowly but steadily while my main army pressed outwards towards a blacksmith we were told of to the west of the bridge, though there was another to the north. Destroying this blacksmith rewarded us with imperial age blacksmith upgrades, though we still had to research them. Unfortunately, the foragers were quickly wiped out by renewed and larger raider armies, depleting my resource generation rate and leaving me almost entirely alone in that regard.
   7. Eadwin was eliminated before long, and I received new reinforcements as well as another relic in the north before withstanding another enemy assault, this one more intense. Fortunately, my powerful units were able to hold the line similar to before, though siege weapons were a growing concern. When the attack ended, we pushed to the last blacksmith, sacking it for more upgrades (which I don’t even remember) and pushing further to a legendary item that gave an armor boost to my berserkers. A small army of mine eliminated the raider buildings in the west, but it no longer mattered as they had repositioned to attack our southwestern flank, giving me control of Ulf’s entire base save his market with which I could still trade. I barely put down a castle in time to help repel the raiding cavalry, and new reinforcements brought our population limit up quite high.
   8. The enemies came at us again, this time nearly destroying both my castle and town center in the southwest, killing Ulf which gave me control of his remaining castle and sending powerful siege weapons, as well as more units. Things were getting hairy, so I spent the last break erecting an additional castle on each remaining front. My first attempt saw me lose as I did not train aggressively enough. On this try, I used my accumulated wood and gold to spam mounted crossbows behind my castle, and maxed out all of my units that I could before the final attack came. 
   9. This one would have regular influxes of trebuchets, siege rams, scorpions and endless soldiers, as well as massive piles of raiders from the southwest. I used some purchased stone to place another castle behind my lines on the bridge, and small groups struck when openings presented themselves, allowing me to destroy trebuchets at times and rams as they got close, though my numbers and resources were dwindling. The final reinforcement group gave us our previous melee hero back, so we still had him, and I needed to kill 1066 enemies before they destroyed all my town centers, and I was also restricted from retraining heroes now. The battle was brutal, but I barely managed to get the required number of kills before my resources depleted and my army was spent, though the castles themselves continued to kill for a few hundred more men before collapsing under overwhelming numbers and siege weapons. I declared victory, though we all know it was a terrible defeat.
   10. This mission is interesting, but felt a bit too rushed. I get that the point is a feeling of desperation, but it was too punishing at the start, preventing the player from actually developing an economy and forcing the research of a bunch of stuff that should already be researched, since it is in the imperial age. The allies here aren’t very useful, mostly just serving as set pieces that convert a bit into the game, and side quests, though important, didn’t feel very fun or satisfying to complete. That said, the final spectacle was quite impressive, and that may be more men I’ve killed in a single mission than any other yet, though I couldn’t say for certain.

And so the Viking Sagas are completed, leaving only chronicles for me to conquer. I may take a short break before tackling the long journeys, as I have some personal difficulties of late, but I don’t intend to delay too long. This DLC is, in my opinion, worth being its own collection, and it feels like AOE2 adequately enough despite its odd mechanics at times. I didn’t get much experience with the Saxons, and I thought the Danes weren’t all that impressive, but I am a big fan of the Varangians, and I had great fun with their campaign.

At one point they were considered a castle age power spike, but now the Jian swordsman feels kinda lame. Looking at their stats, maybe they need some of the melee armour back? Recently played against the newer civs, got totally wrecked by the Varangian guards. If they are only good against range units, may as well just make skirms and save some resources.

And what’s the point of the unshielded mode?? Adding 3 ATK but losing 3 pierce armour when HP is lower seems like a bad thing. Anyone has any strategies around how to use this mode switch to advantage?

As mentioned before by others, some of these 3k units would benefit from an elite upgrade

The writing and voice acting is awesome. The art is gorgeous. I really enjoyed the scenario design and gameplay 10/10. The developers did a great job.

If three civilizations from the "Forgotten Empires" era were to get their own campaign DLC, which one would you choose?

I've always wanted to know which ones generate the most hype in this second phase.

Also, please mention which character and their story you'd like to explore.

Me and my friend did a 1v1 on a snowy map and all my units left behind firey footprints. My seige equipment left behind fire trails like a damn back to the future car. Is my game bugging out or is there a reason i was seeing this?

Yes this annoying a**hole rushed me hard very early and as I was struggling to keep my economy up and defend, he kept spamming 11 in my face.

(Yea I shouldve muted him)

But Well his cockyness paid off in my favour. Soon I was able to defend, counter attack and it was a gg for him.

Omg I really really resisted the urge to type 11 when he resigned but no sire, this is a gentlemans game 😎

We aint football hooligans

One that gives them an edge over other pros, and represents their playstyle, in a funny way. Give me your ideas. Dont have to be balanced civ wise, but its mirrored effect so both player has the same thing.

I am thinking:

Viper - arabia, but players start with 2 scouts and one of your starting vil is near the opponent Tc, both player will try to save that vil with quick walls against the other scouts. Or they will be one vill down.

Daut - arabia, but both of player have an unfinished castle at 99% at the opponent base at the start of the game. You probably have to wall it in. Otherwise they can sneak in.

Hera - both player start with 5 hussars at the game.

Jordan - after every 1 minute there is 2 minutes where no input registered from both players

Vinch - both player starts with a university with ballistic researched

Lierey - the middle of the map there is a gaia stonewall arena where both player have one mangonel, whoever wins the mango duel has a big advantage.

Yo - Arabia but with a nomad start. Or something with knights.

Would be cool if in a tournament every player could design their own home map and that would form the map pool.

I know people here beat Extreme AI with ease on any civ, but I am so happy I finally beat them. I could easily beat moderate especially following along with Hera's build, but the step up to Hard was "hard" because they attack so early on and on mass. Yay!

My wife would love to learn a cavalry civ, and asked my help on picking one. Instantly replied Byzantines, Franks and Bulgarians because they have alright eco and a wide selection of troops. For example didnt want to say Huns since 99.9% of the players know they are a cavalry only civ and have no other use in low elo. Same would apply on Franks as well, but since they buffed the axe thrower unique and gained acces for the crossbow, they can be rather surprising, their weakness actually formed their strength for a while until the players gets used to it.

I wouldn’t say she is a complete newbie, already learnt the counters, know one building order and played ~100ish hours. She is just getting ready to play against players in quick match, but for that she needs to learn a good order. Could you guys help me out with opinions and if possible orders?

I don't have ideas for civs anymore, or even to update the civs I have in my notes, so I am going to take it into Animal kingdom instead

This list is outdated in some aspects, but I uptated it to fit Viking Sagas update, so here it is

HERDABLES:

1. Yak(150f). Spawns in Asian mountain maps
2. Zebu(150f). Spawns in South Asia maps
3. Domesticated Reindeer(100f). Spawns in Northern Europe maps.
4. Domestic Rabbit(65f). Spawns in bigger groups. And yes, where i live, we eat a lot of rabbits, raised on farms.

Huntable

1. Wild Reindeer. Just like normal reindeer, but this one is just reskined deer
2. Wildebeest. Spawns in Africa maps
3. Oryx. Again, African maps
4. Bharal. Spawns in Central Asia/Mountain Asia maps

Aggresive huntable

1. Hippopotamus(400f). Spawns in Africa
2. Warthog. Reskined African boar
3. European Bison(400f). Spawns in Eastern European maps
4. African Buffalo(340f).

Aggresive animals

1. Cheetah. The fastest animal in the game. Spawns in Africa
2. Hyena. Spawns in Africa. Strong bite
3. Wolverine. Fastest attacking animal, spawns in Northern Climates
4. African wild dog, the only wild animal that spawns in groups, and are weakest of them all

I'd like to discuss some future possibilities for these two civs. More specifically, the Chinese have something I that think would be better suited for the Vikings

Chinese

Movement Speed Bonus - Applies to Rocket Carts / Does not apply directly to the Fire Galley-line, but is preserved as a part of Dragon Ships

So Rocket Carts move 5% faster in the Castle Age & 10% faster in Imperial. The Chinese don't get Siege Engineers, but the movement speed should help them cover more ground to offset that. Fire Ships don't move any faster, but Dragon Ships do so innately

The idea is to shift them completely towards being a Fire Lancer & Rocket Cart civ

UT2 'Rocketry' - Base Cost 1000 Food 1000 Gold (instead of 1100 Food 900 Gold) i.e. 850 Food 850 Gold after Discount / Does not give +25% Damage to Scorpions / Additionally, gives the Fire Lancer's Special Attack +25% Damage

The Fire Lancer's special attack's projectiles do 3 & 4 (as Elite) damage per projectile, this will be boosted to 3.75 (rounded up to 4?) & 5. Not a big buff, just a little flavour addition

They lose the boost for Scorpions as it feels redundant with Rocket Carts also benefiting from the tech ever since the 3K rework. You either go Rocket Carts or Scorpions, but not both. I'd prefer to keep the Chinese focused on the regional Rocket Cart and give the Scorpions with extra attack to the Vikings instead. The Chinese already get Chu Ko Nus as a source of massive pierce damage output

The focus on Rocket Carts over Scorpions is also in-line with their identity as an expert player's civ

Dragon Ships - Movement Speed 1.794 (instead of 1.56)

Dragon Ships will innately move 15% faster than generic Fast Fire Ships, but the civ does not get Carvel Hull. Currently the movement speed bonus only compensates for Carvel Hull, and only for Fire Ships. This way, their Dragon Ships will be slightly faster than generic Fast Fire Ships, but still slower than Berber ones

Vikings

New Bonus - Battering Ram-line Units & Siege Towers have +50% Garrison Capacity (i.e. +3 & +5 respectively)

While they lost Gambesons, this way they can protect more infantry units by garrisoning them in Rams or Siege Towers. Conversely, their Rams will move faster and output more damage than generic ones with a full garrison

Infantry has +15/20/25% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age (instead of +20% starting in the Feudal Age)

The Vikings are strong in the early game and weak in the late game. This tries to address that

They were a big beneficiary of the Men-at-Arms buffs which compounded further with their economy and HP bonus. This way, their infantry units will have 52 HP in the Feudal Age instead of 54

They were always kind of weak in the Imperial Age, but this was further exacerbated with them losing Gambesons for their Champions. With the extra 5% HP, their Champions will have 87 HP (instead of 84), Pikemen will have 69 HP (instead of 66), and Elite Varangian Guards will have 100 HP (instead of 96)

Technology Tree - Lose Cavalier / Gain Keep

They already get all relevant tower techs except for Keeps themselves. I mean Architecture and Arrowslits. This gives them a defensive option in the late-game

While this looks similar to the Danes, I've wanted Keeps for the Vikings ever since they lost Thumb Ring. Once they got Bogsveigar, the plan was to exchange Cavalry Archers for Keeps. With even the Bohemians gaining Mounted Crossbowmen, I don't think the Vikings would be approved to lose MT Xbows, so I'm picking Cavaliers instead. This gives the Vikings a consistent theme of not getting any Imperial Age cavalry line upgrades

UT1 'Chieftains' - Cost 0 Food 600 WOOD 450 Gold (-600 Food +600 Wood) / Additionally, gives Infantry Units +5 Bonus Damage vs. Elephant Units / Additionally, enables Longships to transport 5 Infantry Units

Chieftains regains a new secondary effect of Longships transporting infantry units. Longships (Longboats) were Viking unique units, and the civ should have the best synergy with them even as a regional unit. This can be used to launch small in-land raids with their infantry

UT2 'Bogsveigar' - Research Time 50 Seconds (instead of 40) / Additionally, gives Scorpion-line Units +4 Attack (but no extra Bonus Damage, unlike the Chinese)

This gives them a solid late-game option in addition to Arbalesters. While they do get Siege Engineers unlike the Chinese, they have very poor cavalry and cannot really protect those Scorpions from Bombard Cannons

This has no real basis in history (just like Danish Siege Onagers), and is a reference to the Norse Ballista unit from AoM. Much like how the Danes are an Onager civ, the Vikings would become a Scorpion civ

Berserks - Cost 65 Food 25 Gold (+5 Gold) / Movement Speed 1.1 (instead of 1.05) / Gain Bonus Damage vs. Monks

Base Berserk - Attack 13 (instead of 12) / +3 Bonus Damage each vs. Buildings & Shock Infantry (instead of +2) / Gains +4 Bonus Damage vs. Monks / Regeneration Rate is 30 HP per Minute (instead of 40 like the Elite version) / Line of Sight 4 (instead of 3)

Elite Berserk Research - Cost 1075 Food 575 Gold (+100 Gold)

Elite Berserk - Base HP 64 (instead of 62) i.e. 80 after the +25% HP in Imperial Age Bonus (instead of 74) / Attack 16 (instead of 14) / +4 Bonus Damage each vs. Buildings & Shock Infantry (instead of +3) / Gains +6 Bonus Damage vs. Monks

New Ability - 'Berserkergang' - Berserks double their Regeneration Rate while in Active Combat (i.e. 60/80 HP per Minute as Base/Elite)

It is intended that Berserks should fully take over the 'standard heavy infantry' role from the Militia-line

The anti-Monk bonus is just a flavour or gimmick bonus like Winged Hussars & Kona vs. gunpowder. It is also a reference to the previous effect of Chieftains which let Berserks loot 20 Gold from killed Monks. They're by no means supposed to replace Light Cavalry as Monk counters, but it does mean that non-Elite Berserks two shot Monks without Sanctity (30 HP), and Elite ones likewise two-shot Monks with Sanctity (45 HP)

This is how many 1v1 matches players from each elo typically play per week.

Statistics pulled from aoe2companion.com's website

In general I try to play agressive in feudal. Scouts are the easiest to me. Recently i’ve got better at raiding, while still maintaining my economy. That way I can get to decent castle age time. Then either follow up with more agression or booming TC’s/ getting relics etc. It depends. Until this moment I pretty much know what to do and when. With civs I play I don’t usually go for UU right away, unless is directly counters something. I make Castles as a defensive building and not very early in the game.

This got me thinking. When should I make castles? Even if just defensive one. When do you guys put vils on stone? How many and when? I feel like this hurts my map control, which ultimately can cost me a lot in a late game.

Apperciate your help or tips!

Im a newbie and i see that there are many strategies and probably all of these strategies you need to decide before the game starts

Scout rush , fast castle,fast imp this and that

How do you decide what to do ? I know that there are civs that are better early game like Mongols i think and then there are late game booming ones like byzantines

But also there are civs that kinda do both

Does this come just by playing hundreds of games or are there specific guides on each civ and how to play them?

I hope this makes sense, my English is not so good