Age Of Empires 2 Strategy Guide Pdf

Hi everyone!!! The Writers: My name is Mike, I have been playing the AoE series since 1998. I started in Age of Empires: Rise of Rome and then moved to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings in 1999, and finally to Age of Empires II: Age of the Conquerors in 2001. My nick names are [LTP]SprinteR, [LTP]PsychoMantis_, and RoR_Sprinter I've had various nick names over the years(probably over 200) ranging from 1600-2000+ rated Favorite Civs: Mayan, Mongols, and Britons. I normally play on Note: I do not play here anymore, but i will keep updating the guide.And my name is Dave, I've been playing this game since 2001. My nick is [Zenith]NuCL3aR and my favourite civ is Mayans.

Jul 17, 2013 - 15 min - Uploaded by ZeroEmpires - Age of Empires 2Follow me on TwitchTV: Age of Empires 2 Strategy Guide.

Also information gathered from L_Clan_Chris aka [RVK]OrCuS slam _Ares_ The_Sheriff Lightning_CN Halen kkab _DauT_ AoCZone Over 5000 forum topics searched and 19 years of experience with AoE (16 with AoC). Introduction to AoC The Conquerors is a game that defined an age, when it came out on August 24, 2000 and rocked our world. It is the ULTIMATE RTS game. No game has ever topped it in Micro/ Macro control on economy, military with 18 civilizations to choose from giving the game thousands of unit counters. The shear numbers that you have to control and keep an eye on is intimidating and overwhelming even to the TOP asain experts out there( lol but no seriously those guys can do calculus with there fingers n shiz).

With a community of over 10,000 players which are still playing the original and currently over 15,000 playing the HD it is due to grow even bigger as the weeks go. This game has been re-released with new improvements and features not affecting the original game mechanics that we all have loved for over 16years. This guide will go over ALL aspects of Age of Conquerors Random Map it take about 30-minutes to 1 hour to read. You will benefit from this guide. It has the potential to make you a top gamer if you follow the guidelines.

Note: read the tips and tricks section. Hotkeys What you will want to do is to take a look at the hotkey section, and read over all the villager build commands to learn some basic hotkeys. You have to use what you’re going to be comfortable with, some high skilled players like The Viper have remapped their entire hotkey section. But this is pretty much up to you.

You will need to learn all the basic hotkeys and some very simple ones that I can help you with. Download Song Pehla Nasha Pehla Khumar Songs Pk. My setup looks like this: Tab = idle villager Spacebar/Mouse wheel up = idle military Mouse wheel down = last notification Those are some simple hotkeys that you can set to keep track of everything that’s going on. Starting Hotkeys: When you press 'H', it selects or scrolls through the Town Centers you have.

Normally when you start a game you will start out by pressing 'H' and then the villager build command 'C'. Example: pressing H+CCC will trigger the Town Center to create three villagers. This is a lot faster than clicking the Town Center manually and selecting villagers. Or you can press 'H' and then press Shift + C. Shift will create multiple of any hotkey. Or create multiples of 5 when creating units.

So let's say you want to build multiple houses in a game of Death Match, select a villager and press B+E. Then hold down 'Shift' and left click multiple times to assign multiple locations for houses to be built. The 'G' key will Garrison selected units into a building and the 'W' key will put them back to work. This is a very quick trick so you can drop off food at the Town Center very quickly with civilizations that need it like the Aztecs or Chinese. The same can apply when you want to quickly get boar meat. Note: you can also select villagers, click your town center and then click your sheep/or boar, this should be done quickly though.

Its the main drop method used by an average, to pro level player. I use most of the default hotkeys so you'll be able to use these ones too. Now you can press V or B to build any building, you don't have to use the exact letter you can use either one. B+B = Barracks B+A = Archery Range B+L = Stables B+K = Siege B+P = Palisade Wall B+W = Stone Wall B+V = Castle B+T = Tower B+J = Bombard Tower B+Z = Lumber Pit B+G = Mining Camp B+I = Mill B+D = Dock B+S = Black Smith B+M = Market B+U = University B+N = Town Center These are very common ones used, the hotkeys get much more in-depth and can be customized completely. You can even set your own hotkeys to each and every building.

Having a quick and effective way to use hotkeys in games will make sure you keep moving at a good pace in any situation. By pressing and holding down Ctrl, you can then press any number from 0 to 9 to assign the currently selected unit or units to this number.

You can then just press the assigned number and it will select those units. Pressing the same number twice, will move your screen towards those units.

You can re-assign any number as many times as you want. These numbers are very useful, and you will want to use them. I usually number my first scout 1, Town Center 2 and Dock 3 (if I have one). Playing space and gear Now this is a very common part in all games. Obviously some people will have a better setup than others, but the most important part is to be able to use what you got and be comfortable with it. Make sure you have a enough space cleared so you can use your hotkeys and mouse decently and be able to relax while you play, it’s hard to think when you’re uncomfortable and tense. Some players have money to get good gear, but some don’t, if you don’t have the money to get good gear to use, the best thing would be a light weight mouse to move it quickly and lighted gaming keyboard to use the hotkeys in the dark if you don’t remember them all by heart.

Lets go over a couple things when choosing a civilization Many games people choose random civilization. When you are allowed to pick what you want you should consider some things.

What map are you playing? Does your choice benefit the team? It's a water map should I pick Vikings for the cheap dock team bonus, and the cheap boat cost? Yes you should! My partner has Vikings already but I can choose; Japanese: +50 LoS(Line of Sight) to Galleys-Team Bonus Saracens: 20% Faster attack speed on Galleys Koreans: to have the ultra strong turtle ships, there towers upgrade automatically too.

Celts: 15% Faster Lumberjacks A good land map team combination is Mayan Huns Chinese Mongol. +20% quicker stables -50% walls +45 food on farms +2 line of sight on scouts You don't always need to pick one that is focused towards your team. You can also pick one that counters the enemy teams choice(Example: Goths vs. Brits= Huskarls vs. Archer) Also Remember, use your benefits!!

Brits only need 5 on sheep, and town centers are cheaper Mongols have good hunters, eat as much deer or lure boars early to go up quicker Sacrens have a market bonus, you can sell resources Mayans have cheaper walls Celts have quicker lumber jacks, less villagers are needed on wood early on Japanese have cheaper mills and lumber pits you can use this to avoid villager bump on certain areas Tuets have cheaper farms, you can make more farms!! Franks get all mill upgrades this gives you more food over all when farming!!

Vikings have the best economic boom in the game, they get wheel barrow and hand cart free!! Anyways yeah make sure you know so you can use this to your advantage You should pick out a couple ones that you like the most and get used to using them. This will make the game more enjoyable when you know what you can do, and what you can build. Huns,Mongols,Mayans, and Vikings, are commonly used because they are all very versatile. Eventually you will learn each one, but it will take time and dedication.

When you do, you will then know each bonus, along with all stats to each civilization. General Map Details Arabia Arabia is one of most popular maps in the game.

There are two variants to Arabia: Yellow Arabia and Green Arabia. Green Arabia features bigger forests and has little to no water, whereas Yellow Arabia has smaller sized forests, oases and larger open expanses. Archipelago Archipelago is around half water, half land. However, whether that land is one solid mass, or various islands, is random. In team games, enemies will sometimes be on the same island, whereas your allies are on another.

There are also small islets to be found. Arena On Arena, players start protected by a wall and forest, with the outside of the map covered with forest. The map is completely flat.

Batlic Baltic is a large sea surrounded by land. However, on Baltic, some of the land around the edges can be very narrow. Black Forest Black Forest is another popular map, predominantly because it's easy to wall. Each team is separated from the other by various small chokepoints in the forest that surrounds the map. In team games, a path leads you to your allies, so any chokepoint with no path is one to your enemy.

Continental Continental features two large areas of land, which are connected by a smaller land mass in the middle, with water surrounding the land masses. Sheep are plentiful on Continental. Costal Costal is a large island, surrounded by water. Everyone is on this island, including your opponents. Crater Lake Crater Lake is almost identical to Baltic except for one major difference.

In the middle of the water is a large, hilly island, which has lots of gold on it. Fortress Unlike Arena, Fortress is a map where you are surrounded almost entirely by stone walls. You also start with farms and a barracks. Fortress can sometimes feature large amounts of water, which usually favour one player over another. Because of this, players will usually agree to simply not use water, or will play a custom Fortress variant, which features no water. Ghost Lake Ghost Lake is similar to Mediterranean in structure, except the water is ice. It can't be built upon but can be walked on.

Extra sheep will usually be found on the ghost lake. Gold Rush Gold Rush features huge (and I mean huge) piles of gold in the middle of the map, which is also home to various packs of wolves. Each player starts with some gold, but not a lot. Highland Highland features rivers which separate players, with each river having a small crossing.

Sheep are plentiful on Highland. Islands Islands is a popular water map. Each player starts on their own island and there are also a various amount of unclaimed islands, the amount differs depending on the map size and players involved. Mediterranean Mediterranean is similar to Baltic except that the sea is smaller, and the land around the edges is larger.

Migration On Migration, each player starts on a small island that has some sheep, deer and berries (but no boar). In the middle is a much larger map, with plenty of resources on it. Mongolia Mongolia is an open map but is filled with cliffs. Nomad Nomad is unique in that players do not begin with a town center or scout. You do, however, start with the resources to allow you to build a town center immediately (as opposed to Land Nomad, where you do not). Nomad is similar to costal, whereby water surrounds a large island. Oasis Oasis features a small sea in the center (with lots of fish), which is surrounded by large forest on all sides.

Sheep are plentiful on Oasis. Rivers Rivers is similar to Highland in that players are connected by small crossings over rivers. However, the water aspect in Rivers is more predominant than in Highland, with islets to be found in the larger expanses of water. Salt Marsh Salt Marsh contains lots of marsh, small seas and huge forests. Scandinavia Scandinavia is a snowy map, which features two small strips of water either side from each other, and land in between the two. Scandinavia has no berries but has more deer to make up for it.

Team Islands Team Islands have two islands; the one with you (and your teammates) on it, and the one with your opponent(s) on. Water seperates the two. Yucatan Yucatan has large forests, plenty of food and can also have rivers separating players. Land Nomad in this map you start with enough wood to build a lumberpit, you need to scout with villagers to make sure you got good hunt and resources and try to build a town center as quikly as possable, this map test your adaptation skills. Michi This map divides each team with a huge tree line, most players will cut through the tree line at 45 minutes with siege ongars, this is a pure boom map. How to play your map Each map has its advantages, and disadvantages, your goal is to work with the advantages and try to avoid the disadvantages.

An example is Arabia, in general this map can be a very open map, so walling correctly is usually a hard task to do.You can get raided very easy, and the wood can sometimes be miles away putting you in danger, you have to be a 100% pro waller to wall a very open based map when you get one. My advice would be to wall just the key points where your economy can get raided, use your buildings as walls, and put up a tower on your gold when you suspect a rush, dropping a tower to have protection is more important then having the stone to build TCs in castle age, because you can just place a couple villagers on stone to get it back. Use your scout you dont want to leave a spot untouched, here is your main goal to what you want to analyze. Choke Points- Wall your choke points, you dont need stone walls on them right away palisides are ok, enemys are always thinking about new ways or suprising ways to attack, they are just like you, they are going to try and attack you were you wont suspect it and suprise you when your unguarded in certain area's. Choke points can also be used to attack- such as running into a small lake/wood area to protect archers, or between builidings. There are a vast majority of maps that you need to wall certain spots • Highland, Rivers, Salt Marsh; wall the spots connecting the land masses over the rivers • Baltic,Oasis, Crater Lake; wall the sides on each side • Continental,Mediterranean, wall the land area connecting • Mongolia, Black Forest; wall the choke points to divide you or your team and protect bases point is, where ever you can wall, wall it when you get the chance, this gives you more chance to survive and less chance to get raided.

ResourcesYou want to evaluate were they are located and how they can be protected A lot of times you will see a wood spot were archers can hit your villagers, you will think your villagers are good to go because your walled, WRONG!! Archers can kill those villagers without even noticing, a bad lumberpit spot can make or break the game.

Gold can be towards your enemy making it vunerable to attack, you want to tower it, when you know your enemy is going to rush it, mass army at your gold spot, or drop a town center on it. You should always protect your key resource spots with a town center or a castle when your trying to expand to resources near your enemy or facing there position. The Villager This unit is the foundation on why we survive, they build, attack, and defend. Why its so Important to keep them and avoid losing them • Economic life line • builds everything needed to create all other units • builds defences (walls, towers castles, town centers) • can be used to push enemy bases • can defend early rushes (towers,militia ect) • can destroy buildings • used to expand your power and map control even losing one villager to a wolf,wild boar, or scout during dark age can decide the game. Scouting is the one thing you will need to learn how to do. You can number your scout 1 so you have quick access to him.

Almost all maps have a scout other then Nomad,and Land Nomad. When you start the game the best way to scouts is by going in a big circle or a U shape, side to side revealing the map, since you are a newer player this is what you should do Once you get more experience you can use a couple sheep to scout aswell because you will have better unit control You should always keep you scout moving throughout dark age and feudal age. Later in the game, you can still use a scout, or just use mounted,or quick moving units to keep an eye on whats going on. • scout resources and choke points as I said in previous sections • scout your enemy see what resources he has • you can turn the tide by knowing what the enemy is building • you can steal boar with experience • many players do not research loom early on you can use this to your advantage and kill a villager or two • when being chased by an enemy scout you should get the highspot on a hill and attack back, keep moving him uphill should your enemy try to get more uphill than you. • if you can't move him patrol him!!!

• know thyself, know thy enemy- The Art of War. The most important key is scouting and economy at this point You will need to scout out your resources, choke points and your enemy those are the most important First off you want a basic plan, what is your ultimate plan, are you going to drush? Go to castle?

Flush with scouts archers/skirmisher's?Rush with Galleys? Back to planning, as I said already in the previous section your plans are very important. This is the age were you will put them into effect depending on what you planned already Most commonly players will ether research some economy upgrades and military upgrades or build the buildings they need to go up to castle age When your going straight to castle, other than making a couple villagers, maybe some walls,and a couple buildings, you will not have to worry to much. You might want to research some economy upgrades.Keep in mind each economy upgrade you do will make your castle time slower. Feudal Age Warfare When you reach this age I usually always get double bit axe and horse collar at the mill( or gold mining on water to increase galley production) right away when I'm going to be doing a rush strategy or a big feudal war.

At some point you will want to get 'Wheel Barrow' when you suspect your going to be in this age a while.Most player's will get 'Wheel Barrow' before 20 minutes. Normally you want to be long gone and out of the feudal age by at the LEAST 25 minutes, but some hardcore battles can happen here and some people may not reach it until 30 minutes So just try to aim with that goal in mind that you want to be up to castle age between 20-25 minutes IF you have to be in there longer make sure your complete economy/military upgrades are set. BUILD YOUR BLACKSMITH AS SOON AS YOU CAN You need army to upgrade so make your army buildings first than your black smith ( example:6-10 archers go to attack, fletching should be researched by at least 16 minutes if not sooner, this is the expert mentality, always look for the edge on the enemy) At this age, normally a good player will get: 'Fletching' and then 'Padded Archer Armor' later when there doing archers(fletching also upgrades galley attack, however padded archer armor does not upgrade galley armor). 'Bloodlines' (+hp) and/or 'Scale Barding Armor'/'Forging' when there doing scouts. 'Scale Mail Armor' in extreme cases to upgrade infantry You'll want to try and hit enemy resources as soon as you can try to always be attacking when you can surprise attack gold,wood,or sea economy, it can cripple an enemy's unit production or castle time Keep working on your economy and building military, most good players will not make mass skirmisher's or spearmen because they use both wood and food it will slow there castle time( you need wood to make farms and food to reach castle), and usually make archers because they only use gold and wood. But dont let this scare you from not making skirmisher's and spearmen, normally in most flush cases you will see a player mix there units.

Goal of a Feudal Rush aka Flush When opting for a fuedal rush, you are obviously wanting to gain an advantage because these reasons. - Slowing an enemy economy: when you rush someone early on it puts there economy at a disadvantage by killing enemy villagers early on they lose the ability to produce military units. - Ending a game early on: by rushing you may be able to end a game right away, lower skilled players will almost always be slower and less effeciant in defending a rush.

- Protecting your own economy from being destroyed: the last thing you want is someone else flushing your economy and killing villagers. Like i said above, you will then lose the ability to produce military like your enemy. - Gaining map control: by flushing you can stop an enemy from collecting resources close to there base, losing resources such as gold, or stone needed to build towers can ultimately end the game. - Stop or Slow an enemy Castler: when you suspect an enemy may be trying to pull a quick one on you by going to castle right away your goal will be to take out his gold and/or slow his castle time by preventing him from creating buildings needed to go to the castle age. Goals of a Galley Rush aka Grush When opting for a galley rush, you are obviously wanting to take control of the seas for a particular reason or another.

- Control of deep sea fishing: The power of the dock boom has be witnessed many times, controlling the fishing sea is controlling huge economic power in a game. - Destroying enemy buildings or units near the shorelines: You often start very near the shores on Rivers, Islands and Continental. An important force of galleys in feudal could harm enemy farming, sometimes even mining or wood cutting. Also, a galley rush opens the door for Cannon Galleons later on if available. - Controlling crossings: Simple, if you win the river, your opponent will not be able to cross to attempt a land Feudal Rush using transports or through walking if you walled your crossing. - Migration: Migration can be cruel and an above 13-14 minute Feudal Time if very possible, which makes transporting until 15 hard to do in those cases. A galley rush could totally prevent your enemy from landing the main isle – death.

Boom or Attack? In this age you may have to adapt, you might not be able to always build your economy untouched and have to make some sort of defences, lets take a look at booming and attacking in general. Note: even when your not booming try to get economy upgrades asap, very important to your survival, Booming section- Most good players will start dropping town centers and researching things like 'Heavy Plow'at the mill, and 'Bow Saw' at the lumber pit right away Do not get carried away, you can lose your momentum real quickly when you make town centers that you can't provide food to produce villagers. You'll want to make sure you have many villagers on wood so you can make farms, keep your economy balanced so you can keep on producing villagers non stop. Do not build a town center you know you can't keep producing villagers constantly with.

Building just 1 extra town center is okay when you first hit castle age if you have around 500 extra food and wood then you can make 2 town centers, remember at this point its all about adapting. Also remember where you make your town centers is vital to surviving, you want to make sure they are always protecting your key resources like, wood, gold, and stone. Research 'Wheel Barrow' if you haven't got it yet, and 'Hand Cart' when you get the chance this will give you even more production output with your villagers. You can make some monks to convert enemy knights trying to raid Wall up spots were you can't protect with your town centers You can also place some pikemen in those unprotected spot to help you protect vs.

Knights, or a couple mangonels for ranged units. Once you've hit about 80-90 population you should be able to go up to imperial age, and plan on making an army. Not completed----------------------- Dark-Imp lol • Drush+FC- normally you can or your enemy will go up make xbows and/or Cav Archers pretty common, you can use a super quick archer/scout rush and try to break in through there walls or hit there main resources right away, or you can block the drush and adapt to what ever strat you see them doing just hit the economy quickly or match it. • Scout+Archers+Spearmen-countered with the same style/ drush/quick castle+walls ect ect • Toflow+Archers- countered with good scouting, villagers, skirms, scouts • Xbows, Cav Archers and/or Knights- can be countered with skirms/pikes+monks(with knights)/ mangonels( with ranged) • Heavy Cav Archers- countered with Skirms/Cavaliers/Pallys/Same thing Arbs,- kills villies right away used vs halbs, villagers, champs, Can kill Pallys but needs good micro, depends on pally mass. Countered with Skirms/Heavy Cav Archer/Cavlers/Pallys/Ongar Cavaliers, Pallys- countered with Halbs, Scorps/ Heavy Cav Archer( with good micro) • Light Cav/Hussars-used to raid normally or go vs elite skirms,siege-scorp/mangonel or used against monks countered with Halbs/Arbs/Heavy Cav Archer/Pallys/ -----------------------not completed. Goals in Imperial Age • Production- you want to be to your max population before everyone else Produce AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, keep working on your economy keep pumping military units never stop, work on this constantly, your goal will be to have 200 pop by 40 minutes or sooner, if the game is at 40 minutes and you have less than 130 pop you are clearly in bad shape. • Booming out More- most will have about 4-6 town centers,a common build is about 40 wood 40 farm 30 gold 10 stone-120 pop-------->with relics you can do 80pop and still collect the same amount with 5 relics eliminating the need to have many gold, you can produce bigger armys this way too in late games or also make it so you can have 10-20 trade carts with a big army as well 100 military 100 economy.

• Build Mass Buildings!!, I think this is super important, if you watch a pro games they will have around 10 or more of the same building to keep production in tip top shape, buildings like Stables, Archery Ranges, and Barracks can be used as a pushing tool as well, if you have a forward base and alot of buildings, this can stop an enemy dead in his tracks, be used to raid, and ultimately becoming a road block to help avoid being seige or raided by the enemy. • Raiding- raid raid and raid some more, send out strike teams to multiple locations, kill villagers Siege Castles or fortifications with your main army, take out town centers, aim for villagers when possible • Trading, and Collecting relics • Reinforcing your base overall, Stone walls in key Area's( unless your goths than you can research masonry/architecture and build mass house walls). Making Castles, Town Centers, and Military buildings to protect big economy area's • Covering Ground, taking key resources, and moving forward in the map, gaining map control, locking down resources to avoid enemy moving there way to them, blocking your enemy and slowing him from covering ground. If you haven't collected relics yet you should do this immediately, you will need the gold trust me. Market- The market is a very important key building here are some reasons why. Trading In late games past 30 minutes Trading is key to winning those extra long battles, in death match people start trade really early because gold is always needed to create the best units.

Once the gold on the map runs outs you will be in bad shape without trade. -Build your markets as far as possible, the longer the distance the more gold is gained - Protect your trade routes, you can do this with a huge wall, asking your teammate to help you wall helps, pro players will normally place castles at each trade point to prevent an enemy pushing there trade route and destroying the return markets. Keep in mind it does not need to be walled but it must be protected in someway when you see an enemy trying to raid it or destroy your markets - Make sure you research 'Caravan' to make your tradecarts and tradecogs move 2 times faster - When you see that each side is even past 30 minutes and the game is going to be a long one, or when you only have one gold spot in your base left, start trading right away -Trade cogs are good to use in water maps were you cant have a long distant land trade. Keep in mind that you will also need navy to protect the trade.

Stone Walls Good Point- Stops enemy advanced completely without seige, huge protection to economy Bad Point- Takes time to setup, taking your concentration from economy, may use needed stone for town centers, towers, or castles with a walled enemy you have three choices 1. Break in quickly, hoping you have a good enough army to harass and damage there base 2.

Boom and try to counter there army until you can seige. This can be used to your advantage you can gain map control and take over the extra resources on the map 3. Wall your own base and mass army like they are. Normally the reason why a person should wall is because it gives you more time to focus on economy and you don't have to micro army as much.

This pisses people off who are ultra aggressive and have high micro skills forcing them to play the macro side of the game and mass army. Also thats why I point out through out the guide over and over again to always wall and wall as much as you can, because this is a noob guide, even though many experts will find this usefull, my main goal is to give the noobs a fighting chance and a headstart on things to come. When you wall you don't need huge walls, just walling small in key points is ok, you can make bigger walls later on if you want. Recorded GamesRecorded games are one way to learn how to play correctly, see mistakes you make, and review reasons why you win or lose a match. You need to watch your own recorded games, watch expert recorded games when you can get access to them, in AoEII HD there are not many expert recorded game websites out yet By watching what an expert does, and how they re-act to certain situations is key to learning you can learn more in one recorded game being played by experts than you can in 500 games played when you are a new player.

Things to look for in a recorded game, Yours and Expert view. Watch Economy, and Town Setup You-see what you are doing to build an economy, and what you may be able to do better the next time you play.

Maybe you didnt have enough on wood, or didnt have enough on food or gold. Expert- Watch how they are building economy see how many villagers they have placed in a certain spot and what times they start making buildings or gathering resources, look at the way they setup there buildings, Building placement is very important, houses, economy buildings, military buildings, farms. Watch Military You- Watch the way you defend or attack, what could you have done better, maybe by walling 1 little spot you could have stopped an entire rush, or by making a castle to stop a big army from desroying a town center. Expert- Watch how they defend or attack, look at the way they re-act to certain units, and how they control there military units. See what they commonly use You- Look for the reasons why you won or what you did better then the enemy, or why you lost. Expert- Same as Above.

Remember that a build order only gives you a general idea on economy structure, you will always need to adapt and calculate each and every map. Build orders are the easyest way to learn how to make a decent economy and military. Keep in mind that you will need to adapt to each map you play, you will not always get your build order down 100%. You will not always hit the exact times as stated in the guide. With these build orders it would be best to write them down or print them out on a peice of paper. Another method would be to remember it by heart, not all but some, you can pause the game and keep reading over the build order to keep on track. I recommend you play 2-5 games with a buddy on an all visable map until you got the build order down as much as you can get it.

Than practice it on a normal reveal map a couple times before using it in action. A pro will not need to do this as much as a newer player these are just some tips so you can learn them easy. Mayan Castle Rush (for pocket) LOOM FIRST! Aztec Boom (for pocket) Villagers 1 - 3 make 2 houses then eat sheep Villagers 4 - 7 go to sheep Villagers 8 - 11 go to wood (first makes a Lumber Camp) Villager 12 makes a house then lure boar, sheep eaters kill the boar Villagers 13 - 14 go to wood Villager 16 makes mill and then goes to berries Villager 17 makes a house and then lures boar Villagers 18 - 20 go to berries Villagers 21 - 22 go to deer (first makes mill) Villagers 23 - 24 go to gold (first makes Mining Camp) GO TO FEUDAL AGE During transition, send 2 of your boar eaters to hunt deer and finish your sheep with the others. If you finish sheep before getting to the feudal age, either make farms (but make sure you have 325 wood when you get to the feudal age) or send them to berries or deer, which ever is nearer.

Also make one house with a wood villager. Once you get to the Feudal Age, make two villagers and put them on wood. Make a blacksmith with one wood villagers and a market with two wood villagers. GO TO CASTLE AGE During transition to the Castle Age, distribute your villagers accordingly: 4 Berries 6 Farms 3 Gold 13 Wood (make a second lumber camp) Also research double bit axe and horse collar. When you reach the castle age, make a town center by your wood and one by your gold. You want to have one town center making vills for wood, one for gold and one where all villagers make farms.

Keep this up until your wood starts to pile up. When it does, take 3 - 4 from wood and make farms.

Keep this up until around the 24th minute. Make a Monestary and University and go to the Imperial Age as soon as you can after that. Stop villager production temporarily if necessary. You want to aim to reach the Imperial Age at around 29 minutes.

During the transition, make Barracks, make Eagle Warriors and research the Infantry Armor upgrades. Also start to send villagers to stone (from the Wood town center). As soon as you hit the Imperial Age, upgrade to Elite Eagle Warriors as quickly as you can. Get the final Infantry armor upgrade and then attack with the Eagle Warriors you have as soon as possible. Keep making villagers and Elite Eagle Warriors and keep raiding your opponent.

Get the attack upgrades and, once you have enough for a Castle, get the the Aztecs unique technology. Elite Eagle Warriors, this quickly, are very powerful. Hit villagers continuously until you can make some Battering Rams to finish the job off properly. Halen Rush TacticsHuns-- Villagers 1-3 Straggle wood around base, place them on sheep once you find them 4-6 Sheep 7 Lumberpit Loom Lure Boar with a sheep villager 8 Sheep 9 Wood 10 Boar- place all shepards on wild boar as soon as you can 11 wood 12 lure boar #2 13 wood 14 build mill- then go berrys 15-16 berrys 17 sheep build 2 farms with the most hurt boar villagers 18 sheep 19 wood 20 build lumberpit #2 21-23 wood press feudal under 9' 20' once all sheeps and boars are gone build 2 more farms then place rest on wood build barracks and then stable once you reach feudal. Grush- with Vikings Villager 1-2 - Build house, then sheep.

Villager 3 - Build house, then sheep. Villager 4-6 - Sheep. Villager 7-11 wood Villager 12 - Make a house, then hunt boar. Loom Villager 13 - Build dock, then house (make 4-5 fish boats,) Villager 14 - Wood. Villager 15- lure boar Villager 16-23 sheeps boars Go Feudal Put all food vills on wood except 5 that go to gold. Build more docks/houses with 1-2 vills.

Reach Feudal. Make gallys, que vills, get lumber upgrade asap. Keep making docks until you got 5.

Make a black smith then get fletching Keep putting villagers on wood until you can handle 5 docks then make 6th. Put some more villagers on gold before putting them on berries. Get farm upgrade and start making farms.

Go castle when you can. Keep making gallys. FireShip Rush Villager 1-2 - Build house, then sheep. Villager 3 - Build house, then sheep. Villager 4-6 - Sheep. Villager 7-10 - Build lumbercamp on a good wood spot.

Villager 11 - Make house, then hunt boar. Loom Villager 12-20 - Food Villager 21 - Build second lumbercamp on a good wood spot. Villager 22-25 - Build gold mine and mine gold. Go Feudal Keep all food villagers on food just send 1 to wood Reach Feudal. Build Market/Blacksmith, Villagers go to gold.

Go to Castle as soon as villagers are done Put all food vills exept 5 on wood. Make 3 docks with 2 vills. Make 2 houses. Get double bit axe.

Build fireships from 3 docks all the time. Make villagers when you can.

Put them on food first then either gold or wood whatever you need. Most strategies can be used with just about any Civilization you choose were marking the common and uncommon strategys used with them to show you what you may or may not have to come up against more then likely, this will give you an advantage in knowing what you should create to counter the enemys attacks. High Skill RefiningRefining your skills can be a daunting task, just take it from me. I have played over 15000 games over the years and my skills always go up and down. Your best bet in getting your skills up is playing 1v1 constantly, most high skilled experts play around 300 games a month minimum, some players play 100+ a week. If you can get your game play count down to about 10 games a day that will be an weekly average of about 70 games played, you'll soon see your micro/macro skill increase by far.

Players at the top level don't need to play as much to retain their skill level because they have huge experience, but in most cases even the very best need to do hardcore training to get the speed,micro,and macro in shape. Researching recorded games is a must, talking over tactics and practicing a few various strategies overall is whats gonna boost your skill. Practice 1v1 with the same set strategy over and over again until you got it down so good no amount of flushing or tricks an enemy can do is going to throw you off. Basic Grush- This is the primary strategy used on water maps that have alot of water, some water maps with less water like rivers, and salt marsh, you may want to do a basic flush instead, remember its all in scouting and adapting. These will help you get down your early game play, which is much needed, but like I have said time and time again adapting and practice is much needed. For Imperial Age warfare you'll want to learn Death Match, sure you can learn unit counters in Random Map, but in Death Match you will be able to learn what tactics are needed in late game warfare much faster.

Just remember practice makes perfect, or at least makes you better if anything. Getting a Partner Why? Why should of you all players have to play with someone? Getting a buddy to play with you is key to advancing, mostly you want someone around your skill level to help you advance and you help them advance, the reasons are so you can both critisize each others game play, you want to tell them what they think there doing wrong and you want them to tell you. Because you will not always see things that others will.

Training and viewing each others recorded games and game play is key to helping to hone your skills and advance to the next step. You dont want your partner to take it easy on you, have them tell you EVERY thing they can see wrong with what your doing and try to work on it. Clans/Teams to advance in skill you will also want to join a team, they will have players that you can play with often and work on your team game skills, having some buddys that know your style and game play always helps, its easyer to play with them and win matches because you are better coridinated to there game style so it will be easyer to know what there going to do and when to attack. Your team may also play in tournaments and events, this helps you be able to practice playing under pressure because you are more passionate about your team winning. Patrols: Patrolling is accomplished via pressing the “patrol” button in unit commands, and then left clicking on the location you want your units to patrol to. The default hotkey for patrolling is ‘Z’. To begin this it’s best by asking this question: Q.

What’s the main difference between 40 ranged and 40 close combat units? The 40 ranged all attack at the same time. On the other hand, the 40 close combat units will all wander and try to attack, but only those that are next to their enemy will be able to.

What patrolling does is make units go “on top” of each other. That way on the same space you can have 3, 4, even 5 close combat units, attacking the same 1 enemy unit. Put simply, using patrol makes your close combat units much more effective.

Patrolling in practice: Patrolled units will generally “target” the first enemy unit that “attacks” them. That’s why sometimes you will see patrols go by each other – the units simply did not detect the enemy, and therefore did not target anyone. There are 4 stances that units have – Aggressive, Defensive, Stand Ground, and No Attack.

You can patrol units using any stance. In order of strength, patrolling goes like this: Aggressive >Defensive >Stand Ground >and last is obviously, No Attack.

Therefore, aggressive is the main stance that you will use in most of your gaming. Defensive patrolling you can use when you want your units to stay around 1 general spot.

BUT if they see an enemy, they will chase after him anyway, so this one is not pointless just hard to explain and takes practice to know when to use. Stand Ground patrolling is how I first discovered patrols. I thought it was the only way you can patrol until I accidentally changed stances haha. When I was beginning 1v1 CBA wars, I started to think that it was useless: Every time I used it vs any other stance I would get♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Later however, I found a really cool way in which to use it. Finer points of patrolling: And now, we reach the finer aspects of patrolling, of which I think there are only two. The first, and possibly foremost point of which (and for which I am both loved AND hated among the CS community) is. (drum roll please): runners.

Runners are units used solely for the purpose of distraction. In close combat wars, they “lure” enemy units away to give you a numbers advantage. In ranged wars, they are used by taking advantage of the bad accuracy of ranged units. A few runners are patrolled in between your army and the enemy, and are replaced when they die. All runners use No Attack stance.

No Attack patrolling was also my COUNTER to runners, when they started being used against me. I would use No Attack stance, patrol with all my men, and when I got past the runner, and close to enemy, I would switch to aggressive stance. This still remains as one very effective way in which you can use it. The second point is the cool part I mentioned earlier – Stand Ground patrolling, which has three uses. A) Instead of No Attack, I later began using Stand Ground stance. The reason for this is – in stand ground, your units still “target” the enemy units.

So when you change them to aggressive, they already KNOW who to attack, where as in No Attack stance they must first target something. B) Since they don’t attack until you tell them to, you can get more units closer to the enemy before you switch stances. This is just advanced micro; with time most should begin to see it. C) This is a continuation of b, but here goes: If my ally needs help, I will send my units(close combat) to him on stand ground patrol.

This way they don’t get distracted by every single enemy unit along the way, AND if they get ambushed, they are already on patrol, so it’s simple to switch to just switch to aggressive and get the most effective use out of them, even in a situation where they will die anyway. Navy Patrolling: Attacking: When chasing enemy, but your units on stand ground stance, and constantly re patrol.

This will make the units even more clumped, and they will move more smoothly (WITHOUT REGROUPING WHICH SLOWS YOUR CHASE DOWN). Stand ground stance is for them noticing/attacking less things such as docks (which keeps them more ordered), and every time they DO attack something meaningless, or even say 1 enemy ship, re patrol right away to keep them moving forward. The anti-ballistics trick I showed you works here too. Another anti-ballistics trick is: Micro one boat on the side. When the enemy boats fire, RIGHT AWAY you move the boat into a different direction, causing them to miss.

The reason why ballistics can be countered is: it predicts where the unit will go based on it's current path. Next it sends a arrow/cannon ball TO THE PREDICTED point. If you move your unit back, when they shoot 2 tiles forward, you'll make the arrows miss. Defending: When defending do really tight close patrols, by patrolling units close together. Do 15 re-patrols like so: (U = units, X = re patrol point) UUUU -------------- X (this kind of distance, in game) When you do this, move them so that they will be facing the most likely enemy attack front.

Ie, don't do something like this: (E = enemy) EEEEEEEEEEEE VV EEEEEEEEEEEE VV _______UU _______UU _______UU _______UU _______UU _______UU _______UU In the above situation, your units will get♥♥♥♥♥♥♥as he will have more vs less, EVEN THOUGH you have the same starting #'s. Retreating: Brahma asked this question, and I can't believe I did not address it- You retreat in two simple, but VITAL steps: 1. STOP your units (X hotkey for me) 2. Put units on NO ATTACK STANCE (O hotkey for me) Then just click wherever you wanna go. Reasons for this: Patrolled units go to the point you PATROLLED them to. Stopping them releases the units from this 'obligation'.

They no longer do anything and wait for next order. No Attack Stance - Sometimes units will fight back if attacked. Probably a bug in AoC. No Attack Stance prevents that.

Here's the main guideline for all fights by which I play: (Not only navy, but everything) 1. Make all your battles More vs Less.

If you have 40 champs vs enemy 30 champs, and you fight, you will have 20 CHAMPS REMAINING, NOT 10. Numbers are EVERYTHING. Say you have 20 boats. He has 10 boats by your 20, and another 30 coming in support a screen away, FIGHT THE 10, then gb as soon as you see the larger army. In big fights, try to come in from a front, like shown above. 40 vs 40, make it 40 vs 20. IF only for 5 seconds.

That will give you the win. If you think you lost, GB. NEVER fight losing battles.

ALWAYS save units. Each unit you save can then be later used to outnumber enemy. Keep this in mind: When enemy is fighting you, it's because of (a) he thinks he won or (b) he has no other choice [protecting his and pockets fish; his vills, etc] IF it's A, think about GB. UNLESS you think you won the fight. Isaac Newton said, 'If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.' I have always liked to take very key aspects of these giant’s styles and intertwine them with my own. Over the years, I have felt this way against these giants (presented chronologically): _IamCat, Anycall_PD1, Aluba007, RD_ChampioN, Arch_Koven_, _IamKmkm, Grunt, Halen, _DauT_, Ruso, Alive, Ding, Feeling, and now Kyo.

I am going to briefly cover the small (in my opinion, major) things that have fine tuned my style of thinking into understanding AoC a little better. Each and every one of these players has demonstrated their abilities by giving me a sound whooping at least once (every one of the games discussed are categorized as a severe destruction of yours truly). Push Push Push The game with Cat It was mid AoK, where everyone would fast castle and boom to imperial age. TCs were cheap, feudal rushes were assumed ineffective, and castle was more of a lay over to imperial. In my game against Cat, I assumed this would be the same as any other game. It was a china war, I started upgrading to imperial age at 30 minutes. I had nothing other then my initial scout, a castle in the center of my base with a siege shop nearby.

I walled in a mangonel by the castle, but cat did a full out castle push. 10 rams, 20 knights, I probably killed about 6 of the rams by repairing my castle and using that mangonel, but I was still utterly overrun. I was dead by 36 minutes. Mix it up a bit Anycall_PD1 In the game with anycall, I used a castle push strategy similar to what cat used on me.

Anycall responded with a castle and some solid unit defenses, he used kts to continually focus rams while letting his castle shoot my army. He pretty much sacrificed his entire defending cavalry army to take out all my rams, and sent the other half of his army to raid my base. He killed loads of villagers. That game taught me why a 'defensive offense' is sometimes better then a 'pure offense.' This can apply to the feudal, castle, and imperial ages! Who Needs Villagers Aluba007 So I've taken up the 'defensive offense' style, but this was another game fought mostly in the castle age. I decided that defending and imperialing would be my best choice.

Aluba showed me why it's extremely necessary to gauge the particular situation and continually adapt to it. The details aren't necessary, but the main thing I took away from this game was how army management can make a huge difference. I remember watching the game from his perspective and noting that his economy management was particularly poor in that instance. I figured out why I was completely destroyed. The key to the game: raiding. This was my first true run in with the multi angled raids, in many many spots, at the same time.

He had roughly 25 knights, it was an extremely open map, one tc, while I had 3 tcs, probably twice the number of villages, a vastly higher score, but yet I still managed to lose (and quite bad). When I met up with him in WCG 2001 in Korea he mentioned that he used to number groups of his kts from the numbers 1 through 9. In that game I am sure he had at least 9 groups of knights. He would just scroll through the numbers, attack at the same time, and as soon as I responded to any he would retreat them, watching his army instead of his economy. His knights also had +2 armor while my ranged attacks were unupgraded. From this game the main things I took away were. Looks can be deceiving RD_ChampioN Armed with awesome raiding tactics, I decided to try out this part of style addition on a player known as RD_ChampioN.

I don't think I've been as hilariously destroyed, ever. I raided excessively with knights. He straight out boomed, except he used a very smart cost effective weapon, one that I can't believe I overlooked: monks. That's right, those old guys in the robes, yelling gibberish and costing an excessive amount of gold, are extremely cost effective.

At the end of the game, there were 54 conversions. The funniest part was that they were mostly knights and he used them to kill me.

He didn't make any other unit in the whole game. As a small army where it is easy to control monks, there aren't really too many good counters, which is why monks can often be seen with certain arena castle age push strategies. (at the time of this game I wasn't aware that light cavalry are more resistant to monks or of their attack bonus). Bring it, boy! Arch_Koven_ He had a 'I see you rushing, I won't bother trying to defend with towers and walls, lets fight!' Style, especially in early feudal age. I rushed him with a 9:50 4 vil china feudal rush.

I made 2 ranges near his base, and some spears. He feudaled at 10:10. This was the time when archers were predominant, so fighting with villagers could be extra dangerous because 5 archers vs less armor vils meant a lot of 'blood in the streets.'

I had the hill, he spotted me. Within 10 seconds there were 10 angry villagers, with 2 militia and a scout storming my 4 villagers, 2 spears and 1 archer.

2 minutes later: my entire army dead. 6 of his villagers dead, all my production buildings walled, with 4 of his archers marching towards my base. I resigned, and I was impressed. Who needs villagers, Part II _IamKmkm If you've ever gone up against a kmkm rush, you know why it's effective.

Strategic hills, controlling the game and the resources, and an offensive tower at your disposal make rushing a lucrative option. You know its kmkm, you know hes rushing, and sometimes it felt like there wasnt a solid thing you could do about it. Even iron-manning it like koven didn't necessarily work.

He would choose hills, use 5 villagers forward, and if you rushed his buildings, he would stop making villagers, and he would put all of his resources into army production. After he won the fight (which was almost always), he would use hit and run tactics combined with excessive towering of key resources. Games against him were often less than 15 or 20 minutes. The Makings of a Fortune Teller Halen Another teamgame, Arabia, typical civs on both sides (china, mong, hun). Halen on the same side as me, him mong, me china. I understand that late game mongol is a powerhouse, so I use all my power to push halen – in feudal and castle. He plays well, defending properly, not too much of an advantage either way.

He makes sure to do pure defense against my pure offense, but he manages to use less resources defending than I spend offending, by building a castle dead center between his 3 town centers, and using camels to stop my knights. Once the castle is up, I immediately sent my army to his next door neighbor (incidentally koven), because I know I can’t do any more damage to halen. His knowledge of the game allowed him to predict what I would do before I do it, so he sends his camel army at the exact same time, to the spots I was planning on hitting. The Knowledge Mafia _DauT_ I would have to say that DauT was one of the first ones to constantly find when and where my feudal rushes were before any initial fight. He scouts, then scouts, and scouts, then scouts again. If I didn’t know better I would have to say my villagers are consistently shouting “I’m here, come kill me, I’m right here!” with the amount of times they are found.

Scouting is even more necessary than predicting the future – because if you see what your opponent is doing now, you have a much better idea of what could happen in the future. In the particular game I am thinking of, I opted for a very fast feudal – in the range of 9:30, on a typical Arabia map. Daut had one main wood pile, and before this particular game that used to be my favorite thing to do: tower the single wood piles!

It was sitting there attracting me like a giant pot of gold attracts leprechauns! My plan for the map: use 3 forward vils, tower the only noticeable wood, whilst stone walling my town and then hiding a stable until daut was forced to use another, far away, forest.

Mass scouts killing far off unprotected wood vils. I thought it was ingenious, but wow, I was mistaken. Not only did daut notice my 3 unprotected villagers and kill them with his own vils before I even had a chance to start the tower, he also predicted that I would try to wall and sent all of his scouts to the edges of my base, where he killed another 4 villagers. A World of Peace Ruso Sometimes I wonder if Ruso is secretly Canadian.

The extent to which he will go to not fight you is sometimes unbelievable. We are playing a game of war – and he will do nothing but try to stop the war from happening. Such is the case in a 2vs2 tournament where Geek and I faced off against Ruso and Rukie. The map – Arabia, with huns and Aztecs on both sides. The situation: a relatively open map where both Spaniards chose to wall. We had a sizeable advantage, with much larger armies and clear map control.

At one point in time I had 40 castle age eagles banging on wooden buildings. Houses, blacksmiths, markets, palisades, a university, and a siege shop. I made sure to focus as many different spots as possible. My experience tells me that usually after a couple minutes someone will miss a spot or two and allow your entire army to flood through their undefended base. Not Ruso though, he smartly added to his building walls, for at least 5 minutes. I probably pushed 4 tiles worth of walls, and I still couldn’t break through, and we ended up losing as he was continuously slinging rukie allowing him to kill geek, then me.

The Map is MINE! Alive If you’ve played against both Ruso and Alive, you feel like they are mentally related. Alive very commonly tries to keep you on the defensive at the beginning of the game, while walling in and going for a quick castle. In one particular game, I did what I often do, focus on a defensive defense style with tactical offense. There was relatively little action throughout the feudal age – even early castle age, with small skirmishes going back and forth. We opted for two very different strategies.

I often go to imperial age with roughly 90 vils and rely on my defense advantages to let me survive the transition – followed by a heavy push the second my units are upgraded. He opted for a full out castle push. It was a huns war – I had mass CA while he had lots of CA and knights and was continually adding to them. I also tried to save resources for army by not mining stone. The result: I had a very strong more upgraded defensive army, but I could never truly get on the offense, because of his larger economy and tactical castles.

This caused me to be eventually gold starved and lost because of it. There are only 2 types of units in this game, and I will use them both!

Ding The game: a mongol war from one of the more recent 1vs1 tournaments. It was on Mongolia, we both walled and boomed, typical of a Mongolia game. We had relatively close armies, but I made the mistake of making units other than mangudai and trebuchets. With only those 2 units – and castles, I was utterly destroyed.

He used tactics noted above, such as map control and good army control, but I believe that the capitalization point of the game was that he focused his entire economy on producing the two most useful units for the situation. The Height Advantage Feeling The game: an Arabia 1vs1, a huns war, where feeling pushed initially, towering my main gold pile, and making 2 archery ranges there. We had some skirmishing, both lost a few villagers, but around mid feudal I had a very tough situation to deal with. We both had mass ranged armies (roughly 35 skirms/archers), but I think that in that particular situation it was extremely difficult to win. I had an open map – and maybe even a better economy – but he had the full advantage of deciding where and when to fight. On Arabia there are often lots of hills. In this one there were two hills that I had to make sure to defend in order to keep my economy safe.

If he managed to get on either one – I would lose. I knew this was the case, and closely watched his army. He sent roughly 25 ranged units to one side, leading me to bring my entire army because I thought this was his as well. Then, as I got closer to his army, and farther away from the other hill I needed to defend, he ran with his 25 unit army.

At the other location, 10 archers promptly arrived shooting the better half of my farm villagers dead. Kyo Knows Best Kyo The game I am sure you all know is the very recent Goths vs Mayans game posted in this topic.

I chose to use palisade walls, boom, and try to use my civilization advantage to my benefit. I was wrong on several accounts, and Kyo was there to show me how very wrong I was. I thought palisade walls took a single point of damage against archers, and that they would last much longer.

I didn’t realize that plums shoot fast, and are effective, at taking down wooden walls. Kyo utilized strategies presented here such as suiciding army to kill villagers, controlling the map, and scouting your enemy. He walled in a very key section of the map where there were several gold piles. He used the mayan advantage to ensure he gathered all the relics. And he knew that a pure offense would force me to play pure defense because of the way my gold was laid out.

I thought huskarls received the same bonus that champions do against eagles, and I believed that mayans had no reasonable counter to them. He knew otherwise. Morale: Know your units, unit bonuses, and have a general idea of how the game will play out. Trust your adversaries. Since he was confident playing mayans against Goths than I should have had more of a reason to wonder why that was so. You can also learn from Kyo by seeing that he used many of the tactics learned above.

This is why I think Kyo will have the potential to be a major player in the future. * * * * * I have enjoyed AoC for many great years, especially in times of fiercest competition. I think it is one of the most trying games in terms of strategic outlook, style of execution, and the random maps. There are many skills that have yet to be fully developed. I have seen several games that have been near-perfectly played for the situation, but they are rare, which means we all have the chance to improve ourselves.

There are many players that have taught me other things throughout AoC that I haven’t mentioned here, but these instances are the ones I have been most impressed. • When pressing loom, if you quickly click to make a villager, as soon as finish researching loom, the town center will immediately begin making that villager, with no delay. Especially useful if you're Mayans. This can be used in other buildings too, if you want to make a unit immediately after researching something. • Build docks either behind your base or in the corner toward the back of your base. This makes your docks easier to protect on most maps there will also be more fish in the corners and at the back of your island.

Note: when you play vs. Vikings with another civilization it's good to dock backwards because they will have more production than you, Also in some maps this option will not always be available, when you are trying to rush normally docking foward is the best option,and keeping a single dock in back to move ships to in emergencys.

• Shore fish are harvested slower than Sea fish, try to keep and eye on your fishing boats so they do not gather towards the shore on a sea map. • Build mining camps one tile away from the stone or gold.

This gives more space for villagers to mine and move around. Do not do this for lumber camps, though. • Never fight uphill. You will lose. • Defend hills that overlook your base by building on the hill or building a wall around it. • Use houses and buildings as walls.

• If you're playing Islands or Team Islands, use your scout to lure your boar (if there isn't too much lag.) Which leads me onto. • If you want to steal someone's boar, or lure your own with your scout, the best technique to do so is the zig-zag method. Attack the boar twice, then retreat in a zig-zag pattern. This prevents your scout getting too far ahead of the boar and it losing interest.

Stealing boar isn't easy to do, however, so only do it if you can concentrate on your economy at the same time as doing it. • If you suspect that your opponent is mining gold or stone, but you are unable to get your scout to their base quick enough, just build the foundations of palisades around their gold or stone mines. You can see enemy units when they walk over foundations you've built. • Similar to above, if when scouting you find a wolf that is in between you and your opponent, build one palisade foundation on top of the wolf. Check it every 30 seconds or so and if the wolf is gone, trouble is on the way. • During big assaults on opponents, if your opponent is using mass ranged units, use battering rams.

Instead of attacking buildings, simply move it into the group of ranged units. If your opponent isn't micromanaging properly, his units will attack the rams and not your units, and since most ranged units are like wet paper towels when attacking rams, it will take some of the heat off your main units. • If you have a lot of ranged units and your opponent starts using mangonels, switch to the staggered formation, get right up next to it, switch back to line formation and kill them.

If you're fast enough, use the split formation and you may avoid all damage from the attack. • Never use your town bell. Garrison villagers manually instead. • On water maps, use a fishing boat to scout your opponents docks.

• If you can, wall. • As soon as you have more wood than you can spend, buy farms at the mill. Keep buying farms until the queue is full. I always hotkey a mill, so every few moments, I just press the hotkey and re-queue the farms. • Make new lumber camps once your villagers start walking more than 3 tiles from lumber to the camp. • If your villagers accidentally kill a sheep before you can stop them, put 2, not 1, villagers on it.

The amount of meat that rots from 2 villagers eating sheep instead of 1 is much less. • Always eat a deer with 4 villagers, they eat the entire deer, making it so the meat doesnt rot. • In the Imperial Age, make Hussars and raid opponent villagers.

Don't micro them, though. They are simply meant to harass everything that goes near them. • During Galley fights, take a ship and move it up and down between the lines of galleys.

If your opponent isn't microing properly, some of the ships will try to attack the galley moving and because moving objects are harder to hit, it will give your other galleys a chance to kill them without taking damage. Please note that once your opponent has ballistics, this no longer works. • If you notice some villagers wandering to cut wood from the opposite side of the forest to where the lumber camp is, build another camp that side. • Straggler trees can be built on once they're destroyed. • Put villagers that got hurt luring/shooting boars onto farms next to your town center so you can garrison them quickly, and protect them when the enemy raids. • Collect relics as soon as possable, the extra gold can make or break a game, by imperial or late imperial age you should have every relic you can get, also and extra monk helps out which leads me onto.

• Make monks!!, you dont need them right away but these guys are important to help grab the relics, heal units, or convert enemy raiders early on. • Microing villagers is important, you should try to divide them correctly so they do not bump into each other, this can be pain staking to newer players so try not to worry about this too much, just practice doing it when you have the chance. An easy start would be to have 2 villagers on each side of your lumberpit on seperate tree's.thats just a start though, it gets harder to control with the more you have, and that leads me onto. • Look at your villagers working when you have 3 or more villagers just stopped because they cant access a resource you should move them to another resource. • Always check enemy units when you see them, this is so important there should be an entire section devoted just to this. You will need to see what upgrades they have, you have +1 attack they have +2, gg.

Check the health on enemy units when you can, attack the unit with the lowest health first. • you can repair boats with villagers, you do not see people doing this very much- dont ask me why because i dont know- but its very usefull • build houses on the shore line in water maps to catch enemys trying to land or to view enemy navy approaching strategic locations • you can notice when something is building in explored territory when you see patching in the terrain • you can scan land areas with a farm to see if anythings being built. • you can prevent your scouts from going crazy and attacking random villagers when scout rushing by putting them on stand ground and selecting 1 villager at a time to attack this helps you not lose your scouts so easy to tc fire, keep them scouts from getting killed!!!

• when attacking with archers/ hand cannons keep them on stand ground alot of the time, this helps you attack in a more organized fashion and prevents them from spreading out in an attack. An important thing in AoC is your mental game. You need to be relaxed in calm in all situations. Think about what your doing, dont panic, take a step back look at the situation, what are you going to do next? Do you have idle villagers?

Do you have upgrades on your economy and units? Are you scared you may lose because the enemy is putting pressure on your base and you lost many units? Think about quick solutions to your problems, i could be as easy as a quick wall, garrison, or cheap counter units. Is your base well protected? Do you have every spot covered?

Sometimes you may have to escape your base entirely, ive seen players run across the map with 100+ villagers and restablish there base, in a team you may be able to help quick wall your partners base and have him hold until you can move. Do what ever it takes to survive. You need to understand that this game takes complete concentration, every second counts. When you start a game out its normally comming up with a simple strategy even when the game is not launched when picking civs.

You know there civilazation and yours, what can yours do better. And what can theres do better. When you get attacked by a rush dont panic, just think on how to counter that rush.

Everything in this guide should help you on what to do with any rush that comes out you so think back to it and say oh hey i can do that! I have almost no resources and a huge archer army is attacking my base, build a mangonel! The point im getting at is never allow the enemys pressure to make you defeat yourself. If you put it into your mind that your going to lose you have already lost.

Section Devoted to Good Players VP= Voobly Page Rec Games comming soon. More Guides • [aoczone.net] • [aoczone.net] Note: you must have original version to view the recorded games in this pack and must register to the website, you can either buy a new copy online or download the original game if you have already owned it, go to [voobly.com] and they will correct any update issues with your game by entering a game lobby automatically. (hoping that they allow original version recorded games to be played on hd version, it would open up so much more resources to newer players) *cough* patch it please*cough*. 7/24/2013 Thanks for reading my guide, It's still not completed, I'm sure within a couple more months I will have thought about everything to add into it, and correct any mistakes I've made, maybe add some more build orders, and some recorded games.

Special thanks to- RoR Clan: I was in this clan from 1998-2007 and learned to love the game through bonding realationships and memorys RoR_BlackKnight/RoA_Flash for training me in 2000-2001 L_Clan_Chris/Halen/slam/HyM Che: for giving me the chance to play with top gamers, these guys were always really nice to me, even though at some points I would only be 15xx and other points i would be 1800-2k, they never cared. Nomatter how much you read this guide, it can only give you an general idea, this game is all about adapting to each situation and reacting as quickly as possable, kkab said ' its not about how many mouse clicks you have, its about knowing what to do at the right time' want to become decent- play 100 games a month and study want to become good- play 200 games a month and study/watch recorded games want to become great- play 300-400 games a month study/watch recorded games, and only play with people at your level or above. And the most important thing, relax, and enjoy the game!! TY very much PsychoMantis_ for this very complete and interesting guide, very good work!! I've been using your guide and watching videos/replays of Zero Empires, TheViper etc.

For a long time and they helped me very much to improve my gameplay. I mostly play with friends when playing against humans (since Voobly version, and after with the HD one, but as aidenpons said sooner, 'I've a real life beside AoE II' and PC games in general.) so playing even 100games a month is faaaar too much for me, but at least using your helpful guide completely changed the few hours spent on AoE II:) Big TY again!!! It would be an honnor to meet and play against you once online (even if I'll certainly loose:D:D but I'd certainly learn many new things too).

September 30, 1999 • Windows, Mac OS •: September 30, 1999 •: 1999 PlayStation 2 •: November 2, 2001 •: February 14, 2002 HD Edition • WW: April 9, 2013 Mode(s), Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a developed by and published. Released in 1999 for the and, it was the second game in the series. An expansion,, was released in 2000. A version was released by in 2001, and a spinoff, was developed by in 2006. A port, by Konami, was canceled.

The Age of Kings is set in the and contains thirteen playable civilizations. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are five historically based campaigns, which constrict the player to specialized and story-backed conditions. There are three additional game modes, and is supported. Despite using the same and similar to its predecessor, development of The Age of Kings took a year longer than expected, forcing Ensemble Studios to release in 1998 instead. The design team focused on resolving significant issues in Age of Empires, but noted on release that some problems remained. Reception of The Age of Kings was highly positive.

The significant number of new features was praised, as were the gameplay improvements. Some reviewers, however, were critical of the presentation of units—they were seen as bland and uninteresting—while others considered The Age of Kings to be too similar to its predecessor,. Three months after its release, two million copies of The Age of Kings had been shipped, and it topped sales charts in seven countries. The game won multiple awards and is today considered a classic of its type, having had a significant impact on future games in its genre.

Both the original Age of Empires II and the expansion pack were later released as 'the Gold Edition'. In April 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released on the platform for Windows operating systems. The HD Edition includes both the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. It also supports user-generated content through the and multiplayer games provided through the Steam servers.

Three expansions have been released for the HD Edition: in 2013, The African Kingdoms in 2015, and Rise of the Rajas in 2016. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Gameplay [ ] The Age of Kings focuses on building towns, gathering resources, creating armies and ultimately conquering opponents by destroying their units and buildings. Players conquer rival towns and empires as they advance one of 13 civilizations through four 'Ages': the, the, the Castle Age (being the ), and the Imperial Age, reminiscent of the —a 1000-year timeframe. Advancing to a new Age unlocks new units, structures, and technologies, but players must first build certain buildings from their current age and then pay a sum of resources (typically food and gold).

Civilian units, called 'villagers', are used to gather resources; they are either male or female—gender does not affect their abilities. Resources can be used to train units, construct buildings, and research technologies, among other things; for example, players can research better armour for units. The game offers four types of resources: food, wood, gold, and stone. Food is obtained by hunting animals, gathering berries, harvesting livestock, farming, and shore fishing and fishing from boats. Wood is gathered by chopping down trees.

Gold is obtained from either gold mines, trade or collecting relics in a, and stone is collected from stone mines. Villagers require checkpoints, typically depository buildings (town center, mining camp,, and ), where they can store gathered resources. Each civilization can purchase upgrades that increase the rate of gathering these resources. Players can construct a for trade; players can trade wood, stone, and food for gold, and use gold to buy other resources. Market prices fluctuate with every transaction.

Furthermore, markets and docks can also generate gold by using trading carts or cogs which are used to visit foreign markets and ports; once they return to the player's market/dock, gold is added to the stockpile. The amount of gold a trade unit earns on each trip is related to the distance it had to travel to a foreign market; more gold is earned on longer trips. It is possible to trade with enemies' markets or docks, but the player's trading units may be attacked or destroyed by enemy units in the process. Players do not need to keep trading manually, as once they select the port or market the trading units infinitely continue to trade. There are five campaigns in The Age of Kings, containing historically based scenarios such as 's invasion of, 's, or 's defence of the. In the and campaigns, the player can control a unit based on its namesake; in others, players take orders from guiding spirits representative of the army's commander. Additional game modes are available to the player in The Age of Kings.

One mode,, generates a map from one of several randomly chosen map generating scripts, with players starting in the Dark Age with a Town Center, three villagers (or more depending on civilization), and a scout unit. The game can be won through military conquest, by constructing a special building known as a Wonder and keeping it standing for a certain amount of time, or by obtaining control of all relics on the map for a set amount of time. Mode allows players to begin with large amounts of resources, creating a focus on military dominance, while in the mode each player is given a king unit, winning by killing all of the other monarchs.

Units and civilizations [ ]. The civilization in the. The Town Center is visible and has several farms surrounding it; villagers of both sexes work there and elsewhere to gather resources.

A scout on horseback is also at the ready. Military buildings such as the, archery range, and are visible, as well as economic buildings—the market, and mill. The right-bottom corner of the screenshot shows the player's walls and a gate. Every player has a limit to the number of units they can create—a population limit—but may not immediately use the entire potential population. The population capacity, which can be capped at anywhere between 75 – 200 in intervals of 25, is based on the number of houses, Castles, or Town Centers—the main building in a player's town—which have been built.

The Age of Kings introduced two significant new features for unit management: the idle villager button, which helps players identify villagers that have not been assigned a task, and the town bell, which sends all a player's villagers into their Town Center, Castle, or tower for safety; units garrisoned within these three buildings, especially archers, increase the building's firepower (towers fire more arrows with units garrisoned inside) including the town center, which cannot fire anything at all without someone garrisoned there. The Age of Kings also includes five types of military units: infantry,,, weaponry, and units.

Certain types of infantry, archers, and cavalry are 'counter units' with special defenses against other types of unit. The three human classes of military generally follow a model. For example, infantry are generally powerful against buildings but weak against cavalry, thus the infantry counter units— and —have attack bonuses against cavalry.

Each Civilization in The Age of Kings has one or two special units that are exclusive to that Civilization. For instance, the have access to, an archery unit with increased range. These Civilization-specific units are generally more powerful, but still follow the basic model. The is a special kind of military unit that has the ability to convert enemy units to the player's civilization, and to heal allied units.

Monks are also used to collect relics; relics accumulate gold once held in the player's monastery—the more relics are captured, the faster the gold is accumulated. Collecting all relics on the map is one method by which a player can win a random map game, depending on the victory setting. Once a player has all in their monasteries, a timer is shown to all players. If an opposing player does not destroy a monastery holding a relic after the set time, then that player wins. Players choose to play as one of 13 civilizations split into four architectural styles—,,, and —that determine building appearance in-game.

The civilizations have varying strengths and weaknesses with regards to economics, technology, and battle, and each has access to a different, very powerful 'Unique Unit'. Additionally, each civilization provides an individual team bonus in team games.

To add variety, each civilization has a set of in its native language that are uttered by units when selected or instructed to perform a task. Buildings [ ] The buildings in The Age of Kings are split into the economic and military buildings categories.

Buildings can research technologies and upgrades that increase economic, military or unit-based efficiency, as well as provide resources for the player. The most important economic building is the Town Center, where villagers are created, all types of resources can be stored, some technologies are researched, and the player can advance to the next Age. The Town Center can fire arrows at enemy units within range if villagers or archers are garrisoned while under attack. Other economic buildings available include storage buildings for resources, farms, docks (the dock may also produce several military ships), and houses to support a higher population. Military buildings include unit-producing buildings such as barracks, archery ranges, stables, and castles, as well as defensive buildings such as walls and towers.

Military buildings can perform research to improve the abilities of military units, increasing their strength, defensive capabilities, or other attributes. Castles are a key offensive and defensive building as they can build, train the civilization's 'unique unit/s', and a hail of arrows at enemy units within range, with garrisoned units firing extra arrows. Castles can only be built after a player has reached the Castle Age, although in some game options, players begin with an already-built castle as early as the Dark Age. After advancing to the Imperial Age, players can also construct a Wonder, an extremely expensive non-military building. Project Engineering Of Process Plants Howard F Rase Pdf Creator here. On many gameplay modes, building a Wonder triggers a victory countdown—unless it's destroyed within a certain timeframe, the building player wins.

Every civilization's Wonder is in the shape of a landmark unique to that historical culture—the for the Chinese, for example, or for the Franks. Singleplayer campaigns [ ] 'The Age of Kings' originally shipped with five extensive campaigns: William Wallace (), Joan of Arc (), Saladin (), Genghis Khan () and Barbarossa (). The Campaigns are sorted numerically to distinguish difficulty—The William Wallace Campaign being the easiest, and Barbarossa being the most challenging. William Wallace The Campaign of William Wallace acts as a tutorial campaign, much like the original game, and emphasises on how to move units, collect and gather resources, obtain and store holy relics and defeat the enemy, which in this Campaign is presented as the during the, commanded by the evil, torturous but skilled commander. Joan of Arc Joan of Arc puts the player in command of the battered, bloodied and demoralised during the against England.

At the beginning of the campaign, nearly every major and decisive battle fought by the French has always led to defeat to the English. In France's darkest hour though, a seventeen-year-old girl— intends to save France by the command of. She intends to drive the English from France forever. Her presence at the earns her the nickname 'The Maid of Orleans', and she earns the confidence of the uncrowned by being given command of the entire French Army, although the Dauphin's advisors begin to plot against Joan of Arc.

At several turning points in the Hundred Years' War, namely the where the entire English and forces were cleared out, hope for a free France begin to inspire more men to join the fight under Joan of Arc. However, the crowned Charles VII's advisors convince the King not to send the promised reinforcements to Joan at the pivotal.

Joan of Arc retreats to the Castle at where the English and Burgundian troops lay siege. Trapped outside the safety of the, Joan is captured by the Burgundians, trailed by the as a, and burned at the stake. The final campaign mission, the, has one of Joan's most trusted Lieutenants muster a huge force of vengeful French troops, and utterly destroy the English and Burgundian forces around and in Castillon, ending the Hundred Years' War and expelling the English from France, spare. Saladin This campaign takes places years after the events that led to the and capture of. Saladin (who the player acts as throughout this campaign) is first tasked with establishing himself in and removing the there, in order to become of. A villainous Crusader by the name of has continuously violated the fragile peace between the Crusaders and the Saracens, causing great concern to Saladin. Raids by Crusaders in the are eventually suppressed by the Saracens.

At the, the Saracens win a decisive victory over the combined strength of the,, and the Crusaders, capture Reynold de Chatillon (who is the only prisoner executed by Saladin personally) and obtain a piece of the as an important relic. With the strength of the Crusaders now heavily reduced since Hattin, Saladin launches the to free it from Crusader control. However, the Saracens must take great care not to destroy the Monasteries within the holy city, and must also deal with Templar and Hospitaller encampments that flank the city. The Siege is successful, the now once again in Saracen control, spare the Crusader states of, and, but are subsequently captured by Saladin. When the is informed of the Crusader defeat in the, the is launched, threatening to undo Saladin's conquest. The final missions tasks the player with defending a heavily fortified from constant Crusader attacks, most notably King, as well as constructing the, the unique Wonder building available to the Saracens in game. Genghis Khan The concentrates on the rise of the divided, constantly warring tribes of into the mighty, fearsome.

Early missions of the campaign concentrate on uniting the several steppe tribes whilst also dealing with the ', sworn enemies of Genghis Khan. With the other tribes either united or destroyed, Genghis now sets his eyes on world domination. The vast riches of the Khwaremia domain in would be the obvious choice, but despite a pledge of support to the Mongols, the technologically superior Kingdoms have refused, thereby setting another example where. With the entirety of China now under Mongolian rule, the Mongol horde now has the capable of knocking down the fortifications of Persia, and beyond. The following conquests of and the, the latter by leaves as the last continent yet to be conquered. However, Genghis Khan who is now 80 years old, dies before the conquest can be complete. His son, Ogatai, promises to continue the war, marking as the first target.

The Mongols, using numerical superiority alone are able to defeat the mounted Knights of Poland, as well as the several German Duchies that rally to Poland's support. The final mission of the Genghis Khan campaign focuses on, the term used to describe the height of power enjoyed by the Mongolian Empire. The last major power in Eastern Europe,, is all that stands in the way of Mongolia's further incursions into Europe. Barbarossa This campaign focuses on the expansion of the by integrating the squabbling German duchies under the rule of, the first Holy Roman Emperor.

The first campaign missions sees the player establishing Barbarossa's dominance over the powers of,,, Bohemia, Burgundy as well as by collecting relics. Although having established dominance, Barbarossa still finds rivals to challenge his Empire's power in the form of, as well as, a respected ally of Barbarossa.

Henry is spared his life and titles as long as he promises to fully declare allegiance to Barbarossa. With Central Europe now under the Empire's dominance, Barbarossa turns his attention to, namely and the. The rise of the Holy Roman Empire has challenged the power of the Pope in Europe, hence why Barbarossa must be able to Once again, Henry the Lion betrays Barbarossa, only this time he is stripped of his titles and forced into whilst Barbarossa is able to ascertain his superiority in Italy. The begins in the Middle East, and Barbarossa pledges his Empire's support to the coming campaign. But the Holy Roman Empire's army is far too strong for any Navy to carry, forcing Barbarossa to march his troops through hostile and, which is crawling with Turks. During this march, Barbarossa drowns by the weight of his armour in a river current, leaving his army to continue to the in Jerusalem with their dead Emperor to fulfil his wishes.

Multiplayer [ ] The Age of Kings supports over the, or via a (LAN). Up to eight players can take part in one game, with all of the single player game modes available. The supported the game until the service closed on June 19, 2006. Development [ ] Prior to the completion of, had signed a contract with for a sequel. The design team chose to set The Age of Kings in the as a logical progression from the setting of Age of Empires. The design team was conscious of attempting to capture the broad appeal of the first game without making the game's design too similar.

Nonetheless, they attempted to appeal to the vast demographic who played Age of Empires. The Age of Kings 's design team intended to complete the game within a year by using from the original and reusing the. Several months into the process they found they would not be able to complete a game of the quality they sought in that time.

Ensemble Studios informed Microsoft they would need another year and instead created, an easily developed expansion pack of Age of Empires, as a compromise which could be released for Christmas 1998. To help meet the next year's deadline, additional, artists, and designers were employed. To overcome another significant objection to Age of Empires—that of path finding—the team completely redesigned the 's movement system.

The original Age of Empires had been criticized for its (AI). Because the original AI did not ' by attributing itself extra resources or using other techniques the human player could not, it was easier to defeat than in many other real-time strategy games. For The Age of Kings, Ensemble Studios attempted to develop a more powerful AI system that did not compromise by cheating.

Industry veteran Mario Grimani led Ensemble Studios in the creation of the new system. The Age of Kings saw the introduction of a system for its scenario editor. The triggers allow messages to be displayed, or actions to take place, based on pre-set criteria or 'events'. The scenario editor was also improved by the new AI system. The AI and trigger systems interacted regularly in the single player campaigns. The team was less successful in resolving other issues; programmer Matt Pritchard complained following the release of Age of Empires that there was still no process by which could be issued.

Extensive in multiplayer games of Age of Empires came as a result of several bugs in the game, which resulted in Microsoft promising Ensemble Studios there would be a patch process for The Age of Kings. On release, there were several bugs that needed immediate attention, but the patch process was not yet ready. The first patch was released 11 months later. Ensemble Studios developed a new for The Age of Kings, with presentation capabilities that were vastly superior to those of Age of Empires.

Pritchard noted an improvement in the team's artistic abilities following their work on the past two games, and he is noted as saying that ' AoK became a showcase for their improved talent'. However, he complained about the lack of an art asset management tool, while other departments gained new tools and automated procedures to assist in design and. The for The Age of Kings was directed by, who has since taken that role for.

Music for the game was split into two categories. For 'in game' music, Rippy's team took musical elements from a variety of cultures and combined them to create a mixed sound. 'Pre-game' music was designed to be unique to the civilization in question. Campaigns based on historical figures would include 'a theme that will at least be rooted in [the character's] culture'.

A of The Age of Kings was released on October 16, 1999. It featured the learning campaign, a sample of a random map game, and the ability to play via the MSN Gaming Zone. Much to Ensemble Studios' disappointment, numerous incomplete versions of the game were leaked. These were picked up by sites, and sold illegally throughout the; warez versions of the game were even sold outside Microsoft's offices in. High-definition remake [ ] In 2012, began working on a high-definition of Age of Empires II, an effort spearheaded by Matt Pritchard, an original Ensemble lead programmer. On March 7, 2013, its release was announced, branded as Age of Empires II: HD Edition. It has improved graphics, widescreen support and new multiplayer options through.

It was released on April 9, 2013, and there was a pre-order available on April 5. Definitive Edition [ ] On August 21, 2017 at, Microsoft announced a remaster titled Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is in development. Reception [ ] Reception Aggregate score Aggregator Score 92/100 Review scores Publication Score 9.0/10 8/10 9/10 A– 9.1/10 89/100 8.8/10 9.0/10 The Age of Kings received 'universal acclaim', according to video game.

According to 's Geoff Richards, 'the list of new features and improvements over the original game is over a page long'. 's review similarly focused on 'new additions to the genre itself' which it argued made The Age of Kings outstanding. These included the idle unit button and town bell. 's Carlos Salgado was appreciative of other features; he praised the ability to create individual profiles for different players and to customize. Meanwhile, appreciated the new abilities given to the villager unit—the review stated villagers 'now play an important role not only in the collection of resources, but also in town defense and even in combat.'

's Michael L. House enjoyed the use of sound bites in civilizations' native languages, which he said was 'very influential in developing an era-enhancing atmosphere'. Eurogamer said this feature 'gives [villagers] a personality, rather than the standard 'Acknowledged' grunt of military games', also stating that the use of female villagers provided a good variety. 's review explained that by being set in a more recent epoch of human history, The Age of Kings was able to 'add character to an otherwise impersonal style of gameplay'. Approved of The Age of Kings ' use of shorter, more focused campaigns, compared to its predecessor, while Game Revolution noted that even in slower sections of the campaign, the historical narrative helped maintain player interest. Said that with the screen full of units, 'you can begin to imagine how their historical equivalents once prospered', while GameSpy said The Age of Kings presents 'realism rarely seen in the RTS genre'.

IGN staff argued that while the strengths and weaknesses attributed to different civilizations made the game more realistic, the fact that they were still mostly the same prevented The Age of Kings from 'delivering the same battlefield impact of or '. House also praised the gameplay interface, which he said 'couldn't be simpler', as well as the advanced grouping and path-finding systems. Nash Werner of GamePro said that the formation tools were wonderful, and complained only that they could not be assigned to naval units. Computer and Video Games generally agreed, stating that 'the controls are very user-friendly and well explained'. GameSpot's wrote that despite the game's improved graphics, 'there's nothing foreign about its appearance' and that most game features will be 'immediately recognizable if you've played a real-time strategy game before'. Agreed, but in a negative sense—it argued that The Age of Kings 'is essentially an update of a two-year-old game'. Richards was surprised by the quality of The Age of Kings ' graphics, considering they were all.

However, AllGame complained that units were sometimes difficult to tell apart, a point numerous reviewers agreed on. It also called the sound of The Age of Kings as a negative, but not something significant enough to draw players away from the game's overall quality. IGN stated that cutscenes were somewhat bland, but that overall the graphics added 'an amazing amount of detail to the actual game'. IGN's main criticism was for the in-game speech used in campaigns; it rhetorically asked 'why can't they just find a Frenchman to do a French accent?' Alex Constantides of Computer and Video Games rated the graphics highly, saying that some in-game buildings are 'so grand you'll even feel guilty about burning them to the ground'. Werner agreed; 'the most noticeable graphical advancements', he wrote, were 'the sheer size and scale of things'. Game Revolution stated ' AOE2 is the best looking of the 2D RTS games out there right now'.

In January 2000, three months after its release, Microsoft announced that they had shipped two million copies of The Age of Kings. The game topped sales charts in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and South Korea.

It would spend the next two and a half years on top 20 sales lists. The Age of Kings was top selling game in October 1999, and the fourth highest selling game in 1999. It received a 'Platinum' sales award from the (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

The Age of Kings won GameSpot's Strategy Game of the Year in 1999, and was a nominee for. GamePower also named it Strategy Game of the Year, while and gave it Editor's Choice awards. The editors of PC Gamer US named it their 1999 'Best Real-Time Strategy Game', and wrote that it 'takes everything we know about the real-time strategy genre and polishes it, and polishes it, and then polishes it some more.' The Age of Kings won Strategy Game of the Year and Computer Game of the Year at the 2000 awards. It was also nominated for Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. IGN ranked The Age of Kings the 53rd best game of all time in 2005, and the 10th best PC game of all time in 2007.

Users placed it 56th in a poll of the best games ever. The Age of Kings was highly influential on its genre., a 2001 game by, shared The Age of Kings ' game engine, and was heavily influenced by its mechanics. 's design was also similar to that of The Age of Kings; GameSpot said it 'borrows most of that game's controls, interface features, and even some of its keyboard shortcuts'., designer of Age of Empires and The Rise of Rome, designed Empire Earth. GameSpot's Scott Osborne argued that the gameplay of was heavily based on The Age of Kings. HD Edition [ ] Age of Empires II: HD Edition received mixed reviews with aggregate review website Metacritic assigning a score of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics. Critics agreed that the HD Edition changed very little from the original game. Daniel Starkey of Destructoid added that the reluctance to change the game features encourages 'a much more aggressive, and obsessive style of play'.

He highlights the fact that many of the problems of trying to run the original game on a modern computer are gone, and calls its compatibility with 'an amazing bonus'. Paul Dean of Eurogamer was less forgiving; although he agreed that the Workshop compatibility was a good addition and praised the players in the online community as 'remarkably calm and friendly', he thought that the game should have been updated more, citing its 'boring campaign' and poorly-aged gameplay mechanics: 'It just doesn't play very well, and its flaws are more blatant than ever before'.

Underscoring his criticisms of the lack of significant changes to the game, he described it as 'a mouldy time-capsule that will likely mar your memories of the original'. Expansions and sequels [ ] An expansion for The Age of Kings,, was released in 2000. It introduced numerous new game features, including unique technologies for each civilization, and five new civilizations. Two of these, the and the, represent the and have new distinctive architectural style. Other new civilizations are the,, and., released in 2002, broke away from the historical trend and instead focused on,, and. It shared many gameplay elements with The Age of Kings and was considered a of the main Age of Empires series. The third historical game in the Age of Empires series,, was released in 2005.

The game portrayed the. Aside from one significant feature, the, the game's design was similar to that of its predecessor. In 2012, a free-to-play title was released in the series, called.

While the game was freely accessible, it featured premium content which could either be earned through gameplay or purchased, enabling the player to use higher-tier equipment and new game modes. Active development of the game ended on January 1, 2014, when executive producer Kevin Perry stated that adding new content was 'no longer cost effective,' and announced that the game would be moving from 'development phase' to its 'support phase'.

The game servers were subsequently shut down on July 1, 2014. Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten [ ].