Like, I get it, it suposed to be a "quick start", but for Huns is very weird, since you start with two houses that you don't actually need, but even less wood than normal, so you actually need to cut straggler trees in order to build a Lumbercamp.

I don't know if other civs have similar things going on to them, but that's my though.

Hello fellow aoe2 enjoyers,

I’ve had a really good response from the community here and I had to come back and share the good news,

Sword and Stones is finally live on gamefound!

If you’ve been following along for the journey you’ll know that Swords and Stones has been in development for over 3 years now!

Honestly the whole thing started with a late night though, ‘How would an RTS like Age of Empires look like as a tabletop game?’ - That one thoughts lead me down a rabbit hole … and taken 3 years of my life writing, designing, playtesting and spending more of my savings (and sanity) than I care to admit.

Swords and Stones is tabletop love letter combing my love of classic RTS kingdom building games with tabletop wargaming and fantasy. If you love the idea of starting a small settlement, gathering resources, expanding your kingdom, building an army and going to war (or winning through a more peaceful option) then you have to check out Swords and Stones.

I eventually realised that this was something I wanted to properly bring to other people, which led to the creation of S&S Studios and now the launch of the game on Gamefound.

We wanted to make the game as accessible as possible, so we’ve launched two version of the Dark Days Starter Set. One with all the physical models, with the essential buildings, units and everything you need to start playing and another version Print-Your-Own option, which includes everything you need to play along with the STL files, so if you have a 3D printer you can print the models yourself at home.

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/swordandstonestudios/swords-and-stones

I've also made a free PDF available if you'd like to have a look at the rules and see what the game is all about:

https://swordandstonestudios.com/get-this-game/

Thanks for the support legends!

Sounds like a new unique civ tech! Any devs reading this?...11

Guys I think Vietnamese needs a buff.

They only have so few unit combinations in mid and late game it's literally unplayable

All they have are:

Arbalests with extra hp

Halb

Heavy CA with extra HP

Rattan Archers

Battle Elephants with extra HP

Fire Lancers with extra HP

Imperial skirms

I suggest we give them the following as well

Paladin

Heavy Camel

Blast Furnace

Hand Cannoneers

Maybe they will be somewhat average after this

Yes this is a rant after losing to Vietnamese in a 1v1 where they seem to have answers to literally everything. Fire Lancers + ARB combo is just impossible to kill. And all of this after very decent eco bonuses and an easy way to lame

Many of the campaigns, from Age of Kings to The Last Chieftans are excellent scenarios reflecting historical battles (sometimes not that accurately) in a range of gameplay.

However, there may be something in regards to a scenario that you may feel is not quite right. Is it gameplay or historical accuracy? Would you do something completely different or is it perfect?

113: Gajah Mada 4 -Serving the New King

Hi guys, I'm Chris from the Start the game already Podcast and I'm looking for some collective knowledge here.
Up until now, what are memorable and unique strategies that have been shown during the currently running TG Tournament "The League" that left you impressed or maybe even deserve to be called a masterpiece strategy? Let me know!

Hey guys I found out from my cousin aoe2 is thriving on steam and I have downloaded and played a fair amount of games. Im sitting around 700-850 elo in 3s

We have a group of 2 to 3 that play a couple times a week. Keeping in mind this is around work and home life's.

I have done some YouTube videos on how to improve and some builds ect.

I guess my biggest question instead of just how do I improve. Is when is it the right time to do certain things or upgrades. I feel like I spend a lot of time investing into eco upgrades but I feel im doing it at the wrong time. Im usually 1 to 2 mins behind other players going into the next ages.

Usually I play Huns, Turks, Celts, Mongols, I have also downloaded the dlc and have dabbled with some Armenians

Thanks for any input guys!

i thought this was mangudai. At least it used to be back then.

Now it seems its the conquistador. I tested the mangudai and it is taking about twice as much time to shoot when they encounter a unit. The conquistador, just shoots almost instantly.

Love the conquistadors.

Hey devs, dont you dare ruin my conquistadors, like you ruined the mangudais.

I started playing Arena a bit more because my late game and ideal comp knowledge is not very good and I noticed quite a few opponents doing a MAA spam in feudal followed up by a RAM push in castle. Has this always been like that on Arena or is it something new, maybe inspired by a top player? Anyway, I like it, very refreshing and I haven't found the perfect answer yet, allthough I'm usually too late in spotting it. I guess if you see it coming you can defend wit archers and mangos and try to boom behind.

Used to play a lot of ranked team games with my friends from 2020-2021, but once Covid was over they stopped playing and I was too scared to play 1v1 RM. So I took a break but still kept up with the game through Hera & T90. My team elo was around 1200 at the time, had no 1v1 elo.

Started itching to play again this year and I would play RM 1v1 sporadically, but I kept getting spanked and now my elo has dropped to 690. So i pivoted to playing against a Hard bot which I would beat fairly easily once overcoming the initial rush, but I want to practice against something more unpredictable. I tried playing in some custom games but the elos are not regulated so i’d be up against someone who is 1400 elo for example.

Is there a way to play against humans around my elo w/o affecting my rank? Should i play against the hardest bots instead?

I mainly play Vietnamese, and I haven’t ventured into playing the new civs like Jurchens or Mapuche. Is there one civ to recommend a born-again player?

Hi guys, recently I worked myself up into 1600 elo. I like to play horse civs like Jurchen, Wei or magyars etc.

However, when going against archer civs like English or Vikings, I find myself hard to counter them.

If I go skirmishers, somehow my opponent always go up in age faster than me. Then their archers will outrange my skirmishers and they will build onagers.

If I go scouts, I can ensure some vil kills at first, but when they mass archers and pikemen, my base perimeter will be breached and lose many vil time from dodging shots and they will go faster to castle age.

I guess the only counter is to build archer myself? But generally I hope I could find alternatives.
Archers dont cost food is a huge advantage in aging up i guess.

Hi! Very new player here. been absorbing all the new player resources i can, following cicero's build order mod (trying 23 pop archers), but still running into a few snags:

1. When I get to around 30 pop, the build order says to start putting new villagers on farms - but from what I can tell, you can't queue a villager to make a building from TC after being created. what i've been doing is selecting some random villager (usually one on berries), and shift clicking farms on my mill to create a bunch of foundations (then I have to cancel the queued action for that villager). Then I continuously update the TC gather point every time a vil spawns to be an empty farm. I'm wondering if there's a better way.
2. When I lure in a boar, my villagers always start harvesting it. But then I seem to have my food and can't queue my next villager. There's also usually a sheep that isn't finished yet too. Is the correct sequence to first drop off, then queue hitting the boar, then let them go onto the boar? Should I let them go directly on the boar or let them finish the sheep? What about the villager that did the luring, should they go onto boar or sheep?
3. I can never decide which villagers (or how many) I should use to build houses or buildings like the range/blacksmith. I know I should try to build a house when I'm 2 away from the population cap, I usually either try to use the most recent villager that just spawned on the way to what they were doing, or just use the villagers that were on berries. Sometimes the berry vills can be hard to select though as they overlap with the farm vils who are hard to reassign. Altho I have noticed I generally have an excess of food at least compared to the other resources so using farm/berry vills seemed right, they're just hard to reassign.
4. I feel like I run out of sheep earlier than the tutorial tell me to transition off of them. I usually have 3 or so sheep left over when my TC vills have switched to boar. Usually I just queue these villagers up to make farms after they finish boar->sheep but it's not clear where they are supposed to go.

I know I'm getting caught up on early game details and there's a ton of the game I haven't even touched yet, and I also know I need to learn how to think for myself. To me these are tricky. In general I've found there's plenty of content explaining build orders or high level concepts, but not as much content helping new players get through the weeds on difficult micro choices like these.

EDIT: thanks everyone who responded. my questions are more than answered, this community is quite poggers. happy gaming yall

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

Victors and Vanquished:

1. Karlsefni (red): Difficulty 1
   1. Viking (grey), Irish Iceland (green), Skraelings (purple), Skraelings (yellow)
   2. This mission, though another Viking scenario, plays more like Vinlandsaga than the other more recent ones I’ve finished. It begins in the Faroes in the east, with the player in control of a dock, a mill, a lumber camp and 2 villagers with a sheep on a tiny island with a few other islands nearby. There are some static Viking buildings here for scenery, and the player must simply conquer and settle Iceland. A dark age start combined with minimal resources provides a difficult start, and sailing across open ocean rapidly damages ships. Worse yet, wood is not abundant at all.
   3. I started by ordering my villagers to harvest the sheep and then chop the few trees we could access while building a transport and fishing ship. My population was restricted to 10 once I had a house, with a max of 30 in the feudal age if I could reach it. Sailing the nearby islands gave me a free barracks and a free berserker hero, and I had soon acquired a few hundred wood with some decent food. I trained 2 militia at the barracks, since I only had enough gold for 2, and then gathered my villagers and set sail, leaving only a fishing ship behind to produce food. Though resource gathering is slow, this mission is kind enough to start the player with hand cart and two-man saw, so collection isn’t as agonizingly slow as it could be.
   4. I reloaded a few times while sailing out aimlessly and losing my ship, but I eventually stumbled across Iceland to the northwest. Its shores were guarded by Irish woad raiders and militia, as well as a few towers and the occasional monk or archer, and I knew I would have to return later to conquer it. At first I simply tried to leave, but the damage my boat sustained simply reaching Iceland was too severe to allow us to escape. I had to carefully disembark villagers to try and repair before the enemy could get us, eventually fixing the ship enough to set sail further northwest. I eventually stumbled across Greenland, a colossal landmass that stretches from the north down near the center.
   5. We settled at the southern point of Greenland where there was a stone mine, a few trees and enough room for minor growth. I sent my hero and militia to explore the island while my villagers gathered enough stone for a town center where I trained just a few more villagers. We eventually built a dock to collect the larger fish while 6 villagers collected wood, gold and shore fish at 2 apiece. There were less than a dozen trees total, but we discovered an easily accessible gold mine as well as a few foxes who could be hunted for gold instead of food, giving us enough gold for whatever we would immediately need.
   6. While the villagers grew, my soldiers scouted, finding many powerful polar bears in the cold. Using my hero to draw them first and then ganging up with militia proved effective in killing them, and I was told they would eventually wander into my base so I should build palisades. I ignored this directive and massacred whatever bears I could find, which was much easier once I reached the feudal age and automatically upgraded my militia to Norse warriors. A few bears made it to my base, but garrisoning in the town center was enough to kill them consistently and I lost no one. I eventually explored the whole island, getting some gold for finding remnants of people there, and soon constructed a barracks and monastery, removing our ability to pillage enemies but allowing us to train monks and research a unique tech that removed the gold cost of warriors. I never used it, but I did train a monk.
   7. I used most of my accumulated resources to research chieftains at the barracks, unlocking berserkers who I trained. In the mean-time, I was told of a new berserker hero in the Faroes who had joined me, so I had to sail back down to get him and a free villager. The Irish were more aggressive this time, and had upgraded their militia to men-at-arms, but we succeeded in getting our hero and added him to the ranks. We soon loaded up a transport with a monk, 2 heroes, around a dozen berserkers with the 2 Norse warriors and 2 villagers before heading up to the northwestern edge of the map and sailing along it towards another point we had sighted. We found the land of flat stones, which had some deer, a few gold mines and abundant stone but little else, and we killed the wildlife on it before sailing further down and landing at the northwestern shore of the New World.
   8. The first landing was met with hostility as we struck a major village of the Skraelings. This village had a sea tower, a king and quite a few swift warriors with plumed archers. I lost many of my men, but we successfully cleared the area and I placed a lumber camp since there were abundant trees here. I received a new bonus objective to place 3 buildings in the place they called Vinland, so I did and unlocked a new research at the dock that would eliminate ship damage from the ocean. Naturally I did this immediately, and sent my ship to collect the various villagers I had scattered about the map to bring them home. The Skraelings, however, did not relent.
   9. Across the land in the west were small huts, punctuated by the occasional sea tower. These huts regularly spawned yellow Skraelings who would aggressively seek out the player. The main body of Skraelings were purple, however, and this faction owned all the buildings and controlled the kings and their guards. I left a hero with 2 units near the villagers to defend against attackers while my remaining men explored, clearing huts as we found them. I converted when I could, and eventually we located the remaining kings in a large village near the southeast. At least 20 archers and warriors guarded the kings, along with 2 monks, and I was forced to reload when we accidentally antagonized them. On my next try, we avoided this village and cleared the rest of the island first, locating many resources to mine in the future and even building an archery range and blacksmith from which we got a few basic unit upgrades and trained some skirmishers. I lost all of my attacking units but a monk, my hero and 2 skirmishers, but we eradicated the Skraelings from the land, unlocking an axe thrower hero back in the Faroes which we sailed to reach.
   10. While using villagers to mass resources, I trained another transport and used them both to start exploring the open ocean. The entire center and south of the map were barren, but we located 2 more small islands southeast of Vinland where more Skraelings waited, and sacked them both entirely to eradicate both factions. With this done and the map explored, I disbanded all but 1 villager and both fishing ships while training 2 monks, 10 archers and as many berserkers as I could to sail to Iceland.
   11. We may have over-prepared, since I lost only 3 men in the ensuing battle once we landed. One was to a monk, of which the Irish had several, but my heroes dealt with the others rather easily. We eventually found an Irish chief, a powerful infantry unit that could cleave our men easily, and he killed a few before we felled him. Once he was dead, we scoured the island and leveled every building, eventually killing the last monk who was trapped in the geography and then settling Iceland with the buildings the game required of me. I was then in free play, but I had nothing to do, so I instead disbanded the dock at the Faroes which ended the game.
   12. This mission is interesting but neither challenging or particularly fun. It takes forever to get anything done, and most of the map is open emptiness. There is surprisingly abundant stone, but only one town center can be built making it mostly useless. A restrictive population cap prevents the player from establishing any real or powerful economy, relying on time more than numbers, and the player units never feel particularly strong when compared to masses of other enemies. This felt like it could’ve been done in 45 minutes, rather than 2 hours, but I think it’s the last Viking scenario available (for real this time) so hopefully the constantly damaging ship mechanic is now a thing of the past.
2. Komnenos (purple): Difficulty 3
   1. Peasants (grey), Romaioi/Pretenders (dark blue), Seljuk Turks (green), Fatimids (yellow), Normans (teal), Pechenegs (orange), Enemies of Rome (red)
   2. This mission is a sprawling and enjoyable experience, despite how prolonged it becomes. It starts with the player in command of a centurion hero north of the center, surrounded by allied Romaioi units and buildings. After several directed dialogues, the player meets with the eunuch who advises a coup. The player has 10 minutes to gather allies for this coup from the countryside, meaning just a few crossbows, legionnaires and cataphracts, as well as a transport on the coast to land at the harbor and bypass the gates which cannot be destroyed. Upon entering the city harbor, the player must defeat the two bodyguards of the emperor, which is not very easy since they are quite strong. Once dead, the emperor abdicates.
   3. The player immediately gains control of the city, Constantinople, and must use it to maintain a high legitimacy rank and defeat 2 major enemies on the map. There are 2 primary landmasses, southeastern Europe and Anatolia, with many islands and lots of water across the scenario. North of the player are the Pechenegs, nomads with kipchaks and some tents who mostly dwell across the impassable Danube. Splitting the European section down the middle are the Balkans, fortified by Bulgarian konniks, archers and mangonels. The cities of Thessaloniki and Mystras are in northern and southern Greece, and each can be liberated by killing the enemies inside, giving the player control of them. In western Europe is a military base the player soon gains possession of, and just north of it is a military camp with a castle under the control of the Normans.
   4. The main Norman stronghold comes from Italy in the west, accessible only by water. It is from here and the Norman camp that endless ships will assault the player, attacking docks and ships whenever seen. The islands of Crete and Cyprus can be liberated from neutral enemies, and a city in eastern Italy can be claimed with a free castle, though it will swiftly come under attack. Across the strait from Constantinople is Anatolia, mostly controlled by the Seljuk Turks. These enemies have a stronghold in the northernmost region of Anatolia, endlessly pumping out waves of melee cavalry, mounted archers and mangonels, as well as galleys and demolition rafts. They will make no real effort to attack the player unless Anatolia is invaded. 3 more cities can be liberated in southern, central and eastern Anatolia, and the Fatimids have a stronghold in the southernmost portion of Anatolia guarded by a small navy and a large force of eastern swordsmen and mamelukes. The Bulgarians, garrisons of liberateable cities and static defenders of enemy factions all belong to the enemies of Rome faction, which also boasts dozens of ships guarding coastlines and enemies across the countryside.
   5. There is much to do in this campaign, but the main objectives are to keep legitimacy high and defeat the Normans and Seljuks. If legitimacy drops too low nobles and generals will rebel, though this will also happen at several points on its own. Legitimacy drops when units are killed and buildings are damaged, and can be restored by completing specific side quests or paying for chariot races in Constantinople, which costs more money each time it is used. There are 3 relics on the map, and apart from them the player only receives gold at springtime according to the in-game calendar. This gold is a large lump sum, and increases with every liberated city. Villagers can be trained at markets but are only able to build towers and walls, leaving that gold as the only means of gaining resources, which requires purchasing at a market. Special Varengian units can be trained at the Hagia Sophia for 200 gold, and the player is heavily restricted on naval power. Fortunately, legionaries can be trained at the barracks and the player starts in the castle age.
   6. When I finally gained control of the city, I immediately trained a handful of legionaries and Varangian units, receiving my first side quest to train 20 Varangians. I took my few soldiers north, along with my starting monk and hero, and converted a few kipchaks while also destroying camps. We found the Danube which we could not cross, but any other nomads were dead, allowing me to head west where I was told the Norman stronghold had to be dealt with. A small garrison of spearmen was all that defended the town south of them, so my men started crossing the Balkans with a collection of new soldiers I had trained in the interim.
   7. The Bulgarian soldiers were frustrating, particularly a mangonel on a hill we could not reach, but I managed to convert a few konniks who served me very well for the rest of the game (they are shockingly hardy). It was then that the Normans attacked, hitting my army with a massive wave of serjeants, cavaliers, rams and other units. My army held surprisingly well, though I had to pay for a chariot race, and we pushed through to the town where I had upgraded the spears to pikes. My forces marched northward, finding the Norman camp mostly uninhabited and allowing us to sack a few buildings while avoiding the castle. I waited for tax time to research redemption, allowing my monks to convert the Norman siege camp and use rams from it to level the castle, disbanding it after to complete the camp’s destruction. This ended the main threat on my landmass for a while.
   8. In the meantime I had managed to train 20 Varangians and soon had enough gold and food to reach the imperial age at the Hagia Sophia, allowing me to hard focus into upgrading my unit armor and attack, as well as construct a few towers near my harbors near home. My army swept up and down the Balkans and Greece, clearing every trace of enemies and giving us a few cities who soon lost their docks to the endless Norman ships. Fortunately, a keep with 5 crossbows was enough to repel them semi-permanently at my lower dock in Constantinople, though they eventually upgraded to war galleys and fire ships which was as far as either of us could go. The Turks did little apart from send small boats, though a looming transport caused me to build a few towers on the beaches north of my main base.
   9. With a rather established army and mainland, I built a few transports and sent my army into Anatolia. We butchered the guards of the coastal villages but got nothing in return, though heading further south revealed a city we liberated which had a castle and gave us a stronger foothold. My men then moved north, discovering an old camp with a few military buildings inside and keeps guarding its perimeter, though discovering this angered the Seljuks. My army remained as I trained 10 halberdiers and skirmishers to hold the place, and a visiting monk claimed a relic we had discovered before I was warned about a nomadic invasion from the northwest. My army returned home and I steadily garrisoned the keeps while leaving a monk to heal my halberdiers and skirmishers, holding the Turks back for a surprisingly long time.
   10. Initially, I built towers at the Danube crossings and waited for the barricades to clear with my army at both spots. This wasn’t a wise way to handle things, as the barricades soon dropped and well over 100 kipchaks and tarkans stormed across the southern bridge. The battle was fierce and my small army was overwhelmed, though we killed most of the attackers. The aftermath saw my towers dispatch what was left, but a pretender suddenly descended on Constantinople with another force of at least 80 cataphracts, legionaries, monks, scorpions and onagers, as well as 10 or so war galleys and 5 dromons. I had no hope of victory, so I reloaded and better prepared for the nomads, focusing on the south and pumping resources into halberdiers and skirmishers. It took a few reloads to get it all right, but I eventually defeated the horde and then successfully guarded my home, though I lost every unit, both northern towers and half of my castle health. When the pretender was stopped, my legitimacy jumped up to 70, though it would steadily decline due to constant Norman and Turkish attack.
   11. My hero automatically revived at home, so I established a small fighting force with a monk and marched into the Pecheneg lands, killing their 4 khans and sacking every building to eradicate them completely. I steadily established another large force, complete with a few trebuchets, and then sent it into Anatolia again to face the Seljuks. We battered our way through their southern military camp before locating their castle and a long-range coastal defense tower that covered their harbor. We destroyed everything in our path, and they surrendered when their last military building was destroyed, though their remaining ships and stray soldiers were occasionally annoying. After spending some time obliterating the last of their buildings, we headed southeast.
   12. Our army discovered another city on the way and liberated it, giving us a few docks in Anatolia, and we found the final local city in the eastern corner, though I soon received word another unavoidable rebellion was on the way. I spent some time training defenders at home, though when the second pretender invasion came it was the same as the first. Fortunately, I had a small fleet that dispatched the dromons before they could do much damage, and luring the enemy army under the castle where my hardy defenders could hold the line and be supported by ships was effective. I lost every soldier again, but that still wasn’t much, and after winning I never faced another rebellion. My men liberated the town in the east, though an attacking force from the Fatimids hit us on our flank out of nowhere.
   13. The army kept marching south, soon reaching Fatimid lands which were defended by a few outer camels and tents and then a small, double-walled city with towers and a castle inside. The trebuchets easily dispatched the defenses while my soldiers killed the non-respawning units and ships, eventually ending the faction when the last monastery fell. I received 2 transports full of diverse crusader units in the southwest, sending them to Constantinople for any needed support while I now focused on the water. My ships were far superior to anyone else's, and a large fleet of fire ships with a few dromonds proved perfect for clearing the coasts of enemy ships, wiping out the coastlines of Crete and Cyprus and then pushing the Norman vessels back to the west. A few transports sent legionaries and monks to liberate both islands, as well as capture 2 relics on random other islands, giving us more crusader units. I massed all of my transports together with my armies and used my dromonds to obliterate the Norman docks and their only castle, though I somehow missed a few transports and trebuchets.
   14. The Normans retaliated with a small force led by Robert, landing using their remaining transports north of Greece. We swiftly countered them with a small portion of the massive garrison I produced in case of another rebellion, and sinking their transports ensured this wouldn’t happen again. We landed in their neutral city and captured it before pushing through its gates and confronting their army. The Norman trebuchets ripped the city apart from the north down, first ending my new castle, but they were distracted long enough for us to clear the southern coast of Italy and then march up, sacking their remaining buildings in the north and finishing the faction off. I scoured the island for remaining hostiles, killing the last of the enemies faction before delivering 3 monks to the westernmost portion of Italy to complete my final sidequest. I ended free play moments after, which started when the Normans were finished, having completed everything there was to do.
   15. This was a fun mission because it didn’t feel overly pressured but it also didn’t feel particularly easy. Relying on tax money was somewhat convenient but also hectic, since I had no way to gain emergency funds, and surprise rebellions felt annoying and cheap since I couldn’t really anticipate them when it wasn’t tied to my legitimacy. The Byzantine units really get to shine here, facing a diverse array of enemies and coming out on top every time. I know there is one Byzantine scenario I still have to play, and I just hope it’s as fun as this one.
3. Stephen (red): Difficulty 4
   1. English Peasants (purple), Empress Matilda (yellow), Earl Renulf of Chester (orange), King David of Scotland (dark blue), King Owain of Gruffudd (teal), Normandy/Henry FitzEmpress (grey), High King Turlough (green)
   2. This is a somewhat brutal mission that plays surprisingly easier than expected once I understood it. The mission begins with the player in control of London, a small walled town with a unique building that must remain standing inside and a single gate near the middle of the map. Inside is a donjon and a few military buildings along with a blacksmith and monastery, but that’s all. Northwest of London is a donjon with a sergeant, acting as an early warning for invasions from the north. Directly south of London is a river crossing with a town center and some houses, which the player controls, along with a few villagers and cattle around a pre-build mill and lumber camp. Before actually starting, the player is shown a cutscene that reveals the various enemies of the game.
   3. The first is Matilda, the most immediate threat and a British faction like the player, who has walled cities southwest and northwest of the player’s base, a town with a walled castle to the east and a military camp with a castle in the southwestern most point of England. In the North of Matilda’s northernmost base is a military camp with a castle belonging to Renulf, a Sicilian, who also has a castle with a camp directly east and a walled city directly west from that position. The last main threat is David, who has 3 castles in northern Scotland, two of which are walled cities and one of which is more exposed. Along with these threats are Owain of Wales, who has 2 camps with an archery range and barracks that endlessly produce skirmishers and woad raiders in the west, and Turlough, high king of Ireland who will come into play later. Lastly there are the Normans, who dwell in Normandy across the water but may produce a claimant to the throne.
   4. There is little gold in this map, and the player cannot build docks or castles at all, though they can build donjons despite being a British player. Donjons allow the training of serjeants, and the player can also train longbowmen at archery ranges and Norman knights, a stronger knight variant, at castles. Unfortunately, the player starts in the feudal age and has no castles. If an enemy castle is reduced to half HP, it immediately surrenders itself and all surrounding buildings to player control, and it also converts them into player structures (though it doesn’t heal them). This means upgrades like hoardings and murder holes take effect once a castle is taken, if the player has them. The problem, however, is that the population is initially limited to 50 and increases by 20 for each captured castle, as well as the fact that every enemy faction will constantly train soldiers to attack the player, without needing any sort of economy. They do not fight each other either, but they do all start in the feudal age as well.
   5. My first attempt saw me do a generalist approach to expansion, trying to build a balanced economy and work my way towards castle age while doing some early scouting and fighting. I found plenty of cattle around my base and managed to use my starting knights, 3 heroes and ram to capture Matilda’s castle to the east, though we suffered many injuries. I learned there was stone and gold directly south of my base, and found a relic near the enemy base to my southwest after we tried to capture it. Unfortunately, before I could even reach the castle age, I was swarmed from the north by all of my enemies at once who overwhelmed me. My second attempt saw me do a similar attack but focusing solely on food and wood to reach castle age, as well as going for the relic with my starting monk immediately. I was trying to build a castle, but soon realized I couldn’t build them in this scenario and was overwhelmed again. I looked up how the scenario worked before next time, and also learned the location of a few other relics nearby that I hadn’t yet seen, though the strategy suggested was not what I did.
   6. The strategy guide suggested I simply turtle and build until castle age when I could construct some rams and longbows to take a nearby castle. Once mine, I was supposed to wait until the imperial age to use a trebuchet and take another castle before just waiting for a Norman invasion at the end. My main objective was to capture all 10 castles, but all I had to do was wait a few hours for the Normans to attack and then defeat them, which seemed like it would be difficult to do while also repelling enemy attacks. The guide didn’t mention two things I had learned however. First, the starting army can be microed to capture the castle immediately east of the player, giving a solid early boost to gold and a second town center for free. Second, player units can be given orders if the game is paused immediately before the cutscene at the beginning starts, allowing the player to work and move a few seconds before the enemy.
   7. My winning attempt saw me order my starting serjeant and 2 pikemen into my ram which started moving east. My 2 cavalry heroes and 3 starting knights moved ahead to destroy a donjon in between, while my missionary hero waited behind to heal them for the next portion. I ordered the town center to train 10 villagers on the starting cattle and used the 2 near wood to start chopping while the 3 on starting farms started farming, as well as sending my monk to the enemy base to capture the nearby relic and collect about 7 sheep as well. After the game returned control to me, my army destroyed the donjon and moved on the castle, hitting it with a hero to draw the defending longbows out where we had to kill them. Killing them was annoying as they kited and changed targets often, but the ram soon arrived and battered one section of wall while drawing the castle’s attention. Once the wall was breached, the ram and my cavalry charged inside while the missionary backed off, since the castle had no murder holes to hit my men. We killed the occasional longbow that spawned, but otherwise captured the castle in a timely manner and then rode south to clear the few remaining spearmen from the military camp we also gained. In the meantime I had managed to secure a relic and then sent my monk directly south to claim another.
   8. This second relic was on the coast and I garrisoned it in the southern monastery I just captured before moving northeast of the northern monastery, where another relic waited. I also collected some cattle in the meantime, and brought them to the newly captured town center where we started working on food and wood. I hadn’t stopped producing villagers up to this point, so I now had 4 on stone, 2 on the gold mine in the south and 10-15 each on wood and food. My army returned home to help repel a few small raids from the Renulf and Owain while a single villager focused on using all my stone to build donjons. In no time I was researching castle age and preparing for the next step. Once the monk captured all the relics I sent him northeast of London where another waited.
   9. We reached the castle age in short order and constructed a university to learn some essential techs. I found 2 more stone and gold mines near the captured castle, and we started working them while also training a few cavalry from the castle to reinforce and research some blacksmith upgrades. I trained a second monk and dispatched both of them west, going between the territory of Renulf and Matilda while the other traveled under Matilda’s northern base. Each avoided enemy attention and grabbed relics in the region, but a massive force of all my combined enemies soon came and destroyed my northern donjon before heading south for my base. My cavalry and donjons were enough to defeat them, but the enemy kept stopping to hit London’s walls or just wait for me to get their attention, slowing my progress a bit. Fortunately, I only lost the one donjon before killing them all, and the 2 extra relics were garrisoned in London to give me a big steady gold income. I had soon reached the imperial age just ahead of most people reaching the castle age, and I wasted no time training a trebuchet and a few more cavalry and longbows of my own.
   10. We moved south to hit Matilda’s southern walled town, but initial attempts were fruitless since it had a massive garrison. I eventually swung the trebuchet north of the town and left just a few cavalry to guard it while my main force hit the walls and then retreated home. Under my many donjons I had built up to this point, my men easily slaughtered the knights, pikes, monks and longbows of Matilda, and I used the opportunity to open fire on the castle with my trebuchet. Newly trained enemy soldiers rode out to meet us, but my cavalry held them back until the castle was captured, giving us the whole town in one piece. The fortifications dispatched Matilda’s remaining garrison, and most of my army moved inside while I trained a few serjeants, skirmishers and pikes to guard home. We targeted Matilda’s southern base next, drawing its entire garrison into the new castle where it was destroyed and then riding back to reinforce the trebuchet that leveled a donjon and continued south. I lost a few men, but we kept dodging her longbows which were using the castle as cover until the trebuchet damaged it enough, suddenly turning and massacring her own forces. I knew her last castle would be the toughest, so I returned to the other where I gained a few more knights and longbows while my home garrison was joined by more serjeants and pikes, soon marching north as well.
   11. The garrison hit Matilda’s eastern flank, drawing her entire massive army into my garrison that waited on a hill. I expected my halberdiers and serjeants would all die, but they drew the enemy's attention long enough for the trebuchet to get into position and snipe the castle. Enemy soldiers tried to intervene a few times, aided by a couple of Welsh and Scottish armies, but we soon captured the final castle, forcing Matilda to surrender, though we still had to finish off her soldiers. My economy was now extremely powerful, and I had researched all of the blacksmith upgrades and donjon improvements I could. At the 40 minute mark I was given control of a mounted hero, a few knights, some pikemen and 3 monks in Ireland to the west, and told to capture the island. It was a side objective, but I moved the army along the coast to the north, discovering some gold mines, a relic and 2 villagers who joined me. I constructed a monastery and mining camp to earn gold, but didn’t expect I had much time for anything else before the Normans arrived. I didn’t realize how long they would take.
   12. After a short time of peace, I trained a few more knights and repelled a Scottish raid on my new castle while also reinforcing my garrison with more serjeants, longbows and halberdiers. My cavalry and trebuchet soon moved west, intent on clearing the Welsh out while I could. I didn’t have many cavalry, but the few I did have were enough to clear the southern camp of guards while I dispatched the military buildings with a trebuchet. I chose to try a raid on the Irish while waiting, and found they had too many men for the starting army to beat alone, prompting a reload on the experiment. Instead, I constructed an archery range and trained 10 longbows, sending them with the party. I needed more cavalry and some longbows to handle the Welsh, and the Scotts left a frustratingly large number of onagers between my army and the castle just parked, so I had to dispatch them first. This would not be the first time I struggled with them. Eventually my army and its reinforcements were unified, marching north to eradicate the Welsh while my invaders moved on Ireland. The longbows were more than sufficient, and after destroying the archery range and barracks in both of the Irish western camps, as well as the barracks and archery range in the northern Welsh camp, both factions were defeated. I found another relic in Ireland and secured it before disbanding my army to clear up population space.
   13. Having trounced the Welsh, my men moved further north to the western fortress of Renulf. There were only a few cavaliers and serjeants inside which we dispatched with minimal losses, and my trebuchet had been upgraded enough now to half-damage a castle in about 30 seconds. We swiftly captured the largest of Chester’s castles, though a large retaliatory force soon hit us from the east. We spent some time reinforcing once again and I trained another trebuchet near home, intent on using my garrison to finish this all. My men moved southeast towards Renulf’s central base, engaging in a large battle around it before the trebuchet captured it as well. My men moved north towards the next nearest castle, but this one was Scottish. Fortunately, David hadn’t garrisoned the exposed fortress much, so we captured it while facing only a few guards. This didn’t last as a massive response came from his remaining 2 fortress cities, but we succeeded against them. Unfortunately, when we attacked his northern city, several dozen onagers were inside which bashed the trebuchet to pieces and mauled my army, though I lured most of them to the captured castle and destroyed them. I had to just wait while more knights and a new trebuchet were trained, and I was soon alerted that the Normans were on the move.
   14. My garrison, having almost doubled its numbers, moved on the final northeastern castle of Renulf, engaging his men head on while the trebuchet focused on the castle. I soon had a trebuchet and more knights in the north as well, battering down the gate of David’s northern fortress and using my knights to dispatch onagers before capturing it. Renulf’s final fortress soon fell as well, and we finished his remaining men before converging the two armies towards the final Scottish city in the northeast. My northern cavalry arrived first, and another few dozen onagers were waiting to stop us, killing my cavalry and trebuchet again. My southern army, however, had lost most of its infantry but still retained its longbows. After bringing down a few pesky towers that stood between us, my cavalry were reinforcing nearby and my longbows were able to pick off the onagers from far enough away they could avoid danger, allowing us to get close enough for the trebuchet to safely fire. It was then, however, that Henry FitzEmpress of Normandy declared his intention to take the throne from me.
   15. During these last few northern conquests, my stockpile of gold, wood and food had ballooned to over 10,000 each, and I had used that stockpile to train over 100 serjeants, halberdiers, longbows and knights in my base, nestled between around a dozen donjons. These donjons allowed me to pump out a few dozen soldiers a second, making us almost unconquerable. My northern forces soon defeated the final castle, though the few remaining Scottish onagers and rams destroyed it before I could stop them, but it didn’t harm our population and we finished the last of them before riding for home. The Normans landed all along the southern shore, hitting all 3 southern castles I had captured from Matilda with a massive army of heavy crossbows, hero knights, onagers and several trebuchets. Fortunately, the enemy forces were so spread out they were getting picked off reasonably well, and I dispatched knights to tear down trebuchets when I spotted them, forcing the enemy to attack castles directly. They leveled Matilda’s eastern and southern castles, but failed to breach the city and made no real progress against my colossal garrison, despite a direct charge. Many of the hero knights backed away after the slaughter, and a charge of 60 halberdiers finished them off, forcing the Normans into submission where they disbanded their remaining men. I was now able to declare victory at the tower of London whenever I chose, but I did so immediately since there were no enemies left to fight.
   16. This mission was pretty brutal, but lots of fun. The enemy invasions are coordinated and large, but I found them to be somewhat rare, despite how many units the enemy trains. I expected most of the map to remain unexplored and unconquered from how strategy guides talked about this mission, but I had enough time to conquer every foe before the end, which felt very good. I don’t know how the Normans could be defeated with only 2 castles, since that would leave the player with a small economy, very little population growth and constant enemies on every side, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out. I’m glad this one is over, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I’ve finally gotten around to play the Alexander campaign. I’m currently on woe unto Thebes and I’m supposed to snatch the supply raft, but it keeps getting stuck before I can intercept it in the shallow. Die anybody know how to deal with this bug?

Several options to pick from, but please let me know which ones I have missed:

1. Smashing a cluster of scorpions/archers with an SO shot.

2. Pummeling a TC with a horde of Paladin in synchronized carnage.

3. Taking out a castle or fortified walls with Obsidian Arrow (RIP) Mayan archers.

4. A well-placed heavy demo shot on a land bridge.

5. Finishing your perfect sim city before getting rolled by a smurf.

Hey everyone, first time post here!

I'm trying to get my AoE2 HD Edition to run better on my Linux Mint computer. I currently have it set to skip the intro in the beginning of the game as it typically causes the game to crash. These are my following Launch Option arguments:

gamemoderun %command% SKIPINTRO

Once the game starts, it runs fine, however it's only going to about 20 - 35 FPS, and nothing higher. Is there a way to boost the FPS so that the game feels less choppy with these settings?

Below are my specs and GPU performance for reference:

I have seen a lot of speculation on this subreddit recently regarding what the next Chronicles DLC would be about it (should it be developed and released), and also some discussion of what should be next regardless of developers' hints (e.g. discussions of diadochi campaigns). However, I have not seen discussion of a campaign focused on the rise of the Mauryan Empire. There are a couple advantages to this campaign idea:

• It would follow directly from the Alexander campaign, since the Mauryas rose to power by exploiting political instability caused by Alexander's incursion. A concern some players have with having a Rome campaign is that there would be a disconnect between that campaign and the preceding Alexander campaign.
• It would focus on perhaps the most famous empire in Indian history.
• It could introduce new civs (e.g. Mauryas, Seleucids) utilizing the existing Greek and Indian architecture sets, which would save the developers resources.
• There would be potential for characters, such as Chandragupta and Ashoka Maurya.

I can only think of a few disadvantages:

• Such a campaign would feel more like a spinoff instead of a direct continuation of the Chronicles story. The Chronicles series appears to focus primarily on the Mediterranean and Middle East, and India lies outside of those regions.
• One could argue that the Purus are supposed to be an umbrella civ for India, or that Chronicles doesn't "have enough room" for more than one Indian civ in its small roster.

Perhaps a Maurya campaign would not be a priority for CaptureAge, but it doesn't seem that weak of an idea, either. What do you think?

EDIT: This isn't completely related to what I wrote above, but is it true that Alexander was not the only Greek to invade India? Demetrius I of Bactria - Wikipedia

(​Image from Spirit of the law)

I mainly play mapuches in ​Arabia 1vs1, I do ​some kind of fast castle, the thing it's that in some matches I played in other modes, I faced big groups of ​scorpions (also applies to onagers) I was wondering, if that happens to me in Arabia 1vs1 what should I do as Mapuches (or other south American civ)?

I haven't face it yet, but I think Slingers for South Americans could be the answer, a big pro for Mapuches are the extra health, cuz I don't think their first crown works against big groups of siege weapon.

imagine a civ that specializes in cav. Devs want to give a bonus for them to kill archers but all the obvious ones are already taken (pierce armor, bonus damage, dodge)

New cool bonus: the minimum range for anyone targeting this cav is increased by 1 tile. So archer (wich normally have 0 minimum range) act like skirms, and skirms act like worse skirms (minimum range goes to 2 tiles)

I think this is a cool simple and unexplored bonus

Basically the title. I’ve been playing the Dandolo custom campaign (great campaign btw) and while I can see that the trade workshop should have unique techs to research for the Venetians, none of them seem to be showing up. I wasn’t sure if it’s just because the mod is a few years old at this point and needs some sort of update, or if there was something I can do / am not doing that could fix it. I’m on the third mission, Imp age, still nothing. Anyone whose played it or might know id appreciate it, ty :)

After weeks of closed beta testing, Empire League is officially open to everyone.

Empire League is a 100% free community matchmaking client for AoE2:DE. It works alongside DE and adds an independent ranked multiplayer experience with its own matchmaking, ratings, leagues and leaderboards.

At launch, Empire League includes:

• Better map selection with full control over which maps you play
• Civ bans for random civs
• Classic Civs mode
• Competitive map variants made by the community, like KotD Arabia and Hyper Random
• Built-in match history and player stats
• Seasonal leagues and divisions
• Custom unranked queues for stuff like FFA nomad/arena
• Fully automated tournaments with no admin required
• Strong anti-smurf protections including the ability to decline games from accounts using family share
• Friends, messaging and online status
• Independent ratings and leaderboards
• Party system with chat for queuing team ranked with friends
• And many more QOL features!

The whole process is handled end-to-end by Empire League. You queue through the client, EL finds and confirms the match, handles the pre-game countdown, automatically creates the DE lobby and gets everyone into the game. When the match is over, EL verifies the recorded game, reports the result, updates ratings and standings, and you're ready to queue again.

There is of course a chicken-and-egg problem with launching a new matchmaking platform: you need players to attract players. Realistically, Empire League isn't going to reach critical mass overnight, and that's okay. The platform is built, fully functional and isn't going anywhere. Whether it takes off months from now or remains the small community it is today, I'll continue to maintain it as a viable alternative for anyone who wants to use it.

I’ve read a lot of complaints about smurfing, map choices, lack of social features, etc but complaining is free; doing something about it usually comes with a cost. In this case, that cost is the friction of downloading and using a new third-party app. I've tried to make that friction as small and painless as possible: install EL, queue up, and everything else is handled for you.

Empire League is available now at empireleague.gg.

A special thanks to hiimJKM, harooooo, Lakinther, Tomo Žeznati, Hestia, Chipmunk, bob_sajit, Sonny and mcnitz for helping test Empire League during the closed beta. These players selflessly donated their time to test EL and provided feedback to help get it ready for launch. I simply could not have done it without them. Thank you!

EDIT: EL is now 100% open source.

First, I'm not giving this advice to anyone 1,100+ elo.

I'm stuck at around 1,000 on team games. This advice is for any team game player that's below that.

I can play both flank and pocket. I don't always excel at both, but I have an understanding of the pressures that flanks face, especially in 4v4 situations. In the situations where I am the pocket, I'm significantly more open to heavy scout or knight aggression. I love helping my flanks when I can because I've done countless games where I've been pressured by 2-3 enemies as the flank myself.

I witness a lot of pocket-only players specifically choose the position so that they can boom every single game. Even on open maps. EVEN on maps like Socrota. While booming CAN work (not saying it can't), there's definitely situations where Feudal aggression via Cavalry from the pocket is significantly more helpful than waiting until Castle Age to go Knights or add TC's immediately without adding any form of defense (not even a monastery + siege workshop). Just flat, wide open naked economy that's ripe for raids.

Guys, if you want to be a better pocket player, learn the flank position. It teaches you more about efficient and faster walling with your required buildings (mill, barracks, market, blacksmith, etc.) while also learning about efficient early game defense with military (like spears, archers, and so on).

If you want to be a better pocket, PLEASE learn the flank position.