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Hi,

I was hoping someone could shine some light on a problem I have been having playing a custom map from a Mod in the Return of Rome expansion with a friend in multiplayer. We just want to play against some AI, which we've been having fun with using the normal random maps in Return of Rome, but when we try a custom map from a Mod (in this case "ROR Amazon Tunnel 2",which I just got online in the MOD browser, unchanged), the AI will almost always get stuck in the Stone Age and stop building villagers too, all under pretty standard game conditions. Is it just that the standard AIs just don't cope well with the custom map? If so, is there a way I could make my own map and mod from one of the random maps that the AI works fine with and expect the AI to still do fine after I make terrain modification (like adding water here and there, some cliffs...)?

Any help would be appreciated, thank you in advance!

Every day, it feels like this subreddit gets a new "here's my idea to buff the militia-line"-post. Some interesting, most terrible, all wrong. Here's my "hot" take: the militia-line is fine where it is, it is a good thing it is a niche unit only worth going for in very specific cases and for a limited number of civs, and this from both a gameplay and a historical perspective.

First, it's important to distinguish the "infantry is underused" from the "militia-line is underused" line of complaint. The first honestly makes very little sense - the spearman line is used a lot, both at high level (including every game of the RB final to give just one example) and lower ELOs, and in different stages of the game (from the classic couple of spears to make it harder for scouts to find damage, to spear/skirm openings, to various imp comps to post-imp deathballs like halb+SO).

The second is the more popular variant though, as for some reason this subreddit really wants to see more people swinging a massive sword around like... well, let's not finish that thought. Yes, the militia-line is cool. Yes, the sjchonk, sjchonk, sjchonk sounds of 40 champions standing in a TC and slicing it to shreds is satisfying. Yes, historically infantry was the main part of medieval armies. No, we don't need to see more of them in games.

Let's start with the gameplay perspective. First off, I don't even think you can create a balanced version of militia in an RTS that will be used a lot without creating all sorts of new problems. Compensating the lack of range and lack of mobility enough to make the unit an option worth going for in most games would take so many buffs I'm sure it would break a ton of other things, but second, and perhaps even more importantly, it wouldn't be fun. What would a meta with a more dominant militia-line look like? A bunch of melee units crashing into each other (or knowing AoE2 pathing, bumping into their buddies, getting stuck in woodlines and spending a lot of time regrouping back into formation), winning mostly through sheer numbers and upgrades.

I would claim that the nature of AoE2 balance will always mean that there's only room for one "generally best" food + gold melee unit. I would claim that the nature of RTS games means the more mobile unit will almost always be that unit. I would claim that making militia faster is a dead end: if they're slower than knights, knights will still be better in most situations. If they become faster than knights, you've simply reskinned knights and birthed an entire generation of "buff the knight line"-posters. I would claim that if you don't make them faster but buff them enough in other ways, slow melee units fundamentally make for uninteresting gameplay. Compared to the hit-and-run tactics of cavalry and the (distinct) hit-and-run tactics of archers, there's very little to micro with infantry (other than frantic "don't get flattened by my own SO" Halb micro). There's relatively little use in splitting your mass, positioning for a good fight would be boring af to watch...

Finally, historically speaking, it's time to lay the "but medieval armies were mostly infantry"-canard to rest. Yes, that statement is factually accurate. What it does NOT mean, however, is that infantry was the most relevant component of a medieval army from a strategic perspective. Infantry was cheap and quick to train, but cavalry reigned supreme. To quote Wikipedia on "The nature of infantry combat" (article: Infantry in the Middle Ages): "Tactically there were only two ways for infantry to beat cavalry: firepower and mass. Firepower could be provided by swarms of missiles. Mass could be provided by a tightly packed phalanx of men." For all its flaws as a historical simulator, this is actually reflected very accurately in AoE2. The historical medieval counter triangle expressed in AoE2 terms is cav v archer, cav v halb and cav v archer + halb. Dismounted swordsmen simply weren't of huge tactical importance.

Tl;dr: as much as we may fantasize about swinging our Zweihander around, bringing dismay to our foes and adulation from our fans, militia are and should remain a niche unit in Aoe2

How to Play:
Connections requires you to make 4 groups of 4 items. Groups are created one at a time by clicking on 4 tiles and clicking submit. Wrong guesses will take away from your 4 hearts until you run out and the solution is presented.
Items can fit into multiple categories, but all of the items can only fit into all of the categories in one way. Thinking ahead will help avoid mix ups.

Game Link: https://connectionsplus.io/game/UUwskJ

Feel free to paste your results in the comments and use the spoiler tags > ! spoiledMessage ! < (just remove the spaces between the marks) if you have any questions or feedback. Enjoy!

Hints:

1. ! Civilization based shipyard inequality.!<

2. ! Pimp my ship, unique upgrade edition. !<

3. ! When is the last time you researched that upgrade?!<

4. ! Bam, bam, bam, bam.!<

Previous Week: https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1glws55/aoe2_connections_quiz_week_4/

Most of "Infantry and Naval" civs are mostly playing archers : Vikings, Japoneses, Malays... and Dravidians.

They twisted all of them recently to promote infantry plays.

But what about giving Rams to Dravidians instead of EleRams ?

It will buff their infantry play by hiding them in Rams, and buffing the civ too because of the % discount on siege.

Because their EleRams are bad (no husbandry/bloodlines), maybe dont give them access to Siege Rams in Imp.

Have a nice day !

I believe the problem with balancing Melee-Infantry, or just have them be an interesting unit type in general, is that they don't really serve a key battlefield role outside of the generic cost/benefit equation. Being able to deal damage at range like Crossbows, or being able to pick fights and reposition like Cavalry, are key battlefield roles in and of themselves, even before we start looking at cost/benefit. Melee-Infantry doesn't really have anything like that.

Now imagine if Rams were really slow, maybe almost as slow as Onagers, and certainly no race-car when garrisoned. On the other hand, they didn't cost any gold, and had a reasonable wood cost. So Rams would be unable to roll up for a quick snipe, the trip to their target would be a long trudge, but they could cheaply be fielded in numbers if necessary, and losing them would only be a minor setback.

With this in mind, the ability to maintain melee-superiority in a given area, over time, should become a key battlefield concern in both attack and defence. Something each player would have to evaluate according to their situation. Just to be clear: the idea is not for Ram + Melee-Infantry to become some hail marry push (ideally, the Rams would be too slow for that). The idea is that if a player is allowed melee-superiority for an extended time, then cheaply available Rams would be be able to do their thing, and so Melee-Infantry would serve a key role in both challenging that superiority and take advantage of it should be opportunity present itself.

As a final note, I realize this might be too radical for an established game like AoE2. Although I would personally be interested in seeing the devs experiment with stuff like this, I can see why that would not be practical. So this post is primarily meant as a thought experiment just to see what you guys think.

Anyone else annoyed that maps with large bodies of water are hardly ever voted in for Ranked Solo? I just feel like naval civs are unrepresented and it’s a whole section of the game that can hardly ever be played. Is this just me lol?

The Berber movement speed bonus was nerfed because people were using it to lame in the dark age, but scouts laming boars is perfectly normal nowadays, and far more efficient (resource-wise) than Berber laming.

What's the idea here? That was the bonus' main use, too. The only thing left now is maybe not losing them to archers or crossbows (if pathing doesn't screw that up).

Hey, any experts around? 🙃 ...

When using Trebuchets, you can use:

1. Ground Attack on Trees
2. Right-Click on Trees
3. Ground Attack on a target close to enemy units
4. Right-Click on an enemy unit => usually missing it if it's moving, but potentially hitting another unit
5. Britons with Warwolf technology... changing everything again?!...

What are the differences concerning

• area affected = danger zone for units
• damage dealt
• probability of dealing damage

Are there any formulae out there?

---

It seems when attacking trees there's a 'blast radius' of 1.5 similar to Siege Onagers?!

But when ground attacking enemy units, the area where units can potentially be damaged seems to be much larger?! Is there a difference between 3. and 4.? Seems damage is either full 100% or none at all?

Are Warwolf-Trebs totally different in the sense, that they operate strictly like other siege weapons with a 0.5 blast radius?

*totally confused* 🤪🙃

Everything else is full upgraded?

https://preview.redd.it/hwzhkbigtg0e1.png?width=856&format=png&auto=webp&s=578c311c3119e8bf3d9c2bc37d99368b878f0bfc

you know what time it is

I’m very interested to see how many of the single-player only gamers resurface for this DLC. Would really love to see a new all time high! Victors and Vanquished didn’t deliver as expected but this DLC has had a much better response on youtube and social media so hopefully we see a different effect.

Wandering Warriors Cup 2 starts today. The link to the 128/64 bracket is here:

https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Wandering_Warriors_Cup/2/Ro128_%26_Ro64

Who is your favorite to win this one?

Does anybody know when it releases? I know its the 14th but would love to know the hour Im so excited¡

Thank you¡¡

Alright so the most fun I have in this game is 4v4 team games. Unfortunately getting 3 friends to play this game with me is a challenge. So ill occasionally go into ranked 4v4 and one thing I notice is that almost every single game 2 people will pick a pocket. Forcing me to play flank the majority of the time.

Does this continue in all elos? is it really just a game of picking color faster than your allies if you want to play pocket?

I can't seem to get the side buttons on my mouse to register on xbox. They work in other games, and in the edge browser but for some reason AOE2 doesn't recognize them.

Also, the scroll wheel is defaulted to zoom in/out. Yet if I map it to something else, like cycle TC/make vills, it does nothing. Kinda frustrating as I'm trying to cut down idle TC time.

Anyone know of a fix, or is this just an issue I have to make due with?

I am a big fan of aoe2 and I love mordheim. So it was time for me to build an aoe2 warband for the city of the damned.

https://preview.redd.it/uaetrqwifh0e1.jpg?width=1098&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fde95edaaaa5f7b64c63126503f87b1cc8ecb3bd

https://preview.redd.it/utbk8lxifh0e1.jpg?width=852&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ea0b3c7edda82866462edd3638f5bf62c7894613

https://preview.redd.it/ckrt0swifh0e1.jpg?width=918&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e70a8c548657c2ac318cd738e9cbf37ca4db1616

https://preview.redd.it/1rsr4swifh0e1.jpg?width=1101&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21041e04da531d280d64d3bc331c323bc605030b

Hey all

Google has failed me, so I am hoping someone here might be able to assist. Whenever I play ranked I keep disconnecting, and then it takes a few seconds to reconnect, after which time the game speeds up to catch up to live time.

I've tried playing with no mods, updating windows, and the issue does not occur on any other games or online programs.

Anyone of yall have a suggestion or fix for this? I'd be eternally greatful, cus I am really itching to try those new scorps.

I was wondering if there was a way to see if a game you played in has previously been uploaded to YouTube with commentary (e.g. t90 doing a lel or being the opponent in a Hera coaching). Would just be curious to watch it if there was (I'm aware there's a gazillion aoe2 games and the chance of being in one is very small)

I'm searching 3 more people that are interested in masterpiece achievement to obtain it in a boosting session. I'm playing through Xbox, but shouldnt be a problem if you play in steam/PC. My GT in Xbox is Heisen22999. If you want, you can talk me there or comment in this threat with you GT so that I can talk to you. :)

I can't believe how good Obuch's are. Should we give them a buff against scorpions because AOE has just become scorpion spam? Like poo from a butt, the new patch.

To clarify, at least in lower elo and as someone who prefers non-arabia maps, scorpions are such a ridiculous unit now, with all the buffs it feels like the FC all in rushes in which it takes a significant amount more skill to defend against than to execute. Why did they make this unit so cheap to use out the box? and people wonder why cavalry is OP and infantry is terrible in the meta, probably because almost every other unit in the game is not only way cheaper and faster to tech into, but also a lot more pop efficient, but that's just a little tangent of mine, for example

-Mangonel-line is ridiculously expensive, costs gold just to upgrade, often require siege engineers to even start becoming an effective counter due to the khmer bonus, and are as we all know the SLOWEST unit in the game and thus extremely easy to counter with practically any unit. if you have to spec into Onager against an opponent's Heavy scorps you are just permanently down 500 gold before your onagers can even effectively counter their units since for whatever reason scorpions only cost food and wood to upgrade.. why?? on top of having heavy scorp cost reduced.. not only that it's such a ridiculously good upgrade for a ranged unit esp now that it gets ballistics, ive had incan maxed eagles get melted even with onager support.

pierce armor doesnt matter on units slower than light cav they will almost always lose the fight

-Bombard Cannons can be effective (certainly moreso at higher elo) but feel worse now thanks to the extra HP and +1MA, you basically kill 1 scorpion then have to go back to reload your shot again and hope to god the enemy's hussars havent already penetrated your vanguard to destroy them. halbs often just sit there attacking the air behind cavalry if they havent been dissolved by the volley of scorpion shots, they are probably the 2nd best counter but not every civ gets them

-Siege rams are great but not every civ gets them and obviously your enemy isnt going to just let them approach their scorpions and melt them, also scorpions do bonus to rams for some ridiculous reason? hussars or light cav are the biggest issue for them

-Hussars are an effective counter and some civ's hussars are better than others but it just feels so cheesy making hussar+scorpions now in order to counter the opponent's halb + scorp, not to mention that again, not every civ gets these units in combination. infantry civs left in the dust yet again, with few exceptions

UU that counter scorps are few and far between not to mention are much more expensive than scorpions to spec into by virtue of them all costing GOLD to upgrade and needing castles to mass. i guess houfnice is an extremely effective counter in general bohemians are strong in this regard

is there a problem with how i see this? i'll admit i'm not a great player but I don't think one should have to be some sort of pro player to be heard, I can't help but feel that the power creep of scorpions is getting out of hand in lower elos

I think it's pretty boring having to go FC or feudal all in rush to destroy the enemy with the same 3 civs because having to deal with scorpions late game is a headache, to the snobs that think i can't just take out an opponent in feudal or castle age and therefore my opinion is invalid i'll just say that's both wrong and missing the point. I can do it, but as i said using the same couple civs every game doing the same rush against what is often a civ with strong scorps or a player i know is going to spam scorps at some point is incredibly BORING

I wish something would be tweaked to the dps of this unit, it doesnt overkill so why should it do so much damage? also the bonus damage just doesnt make sense, i wish elephants wouldnt take bonus since it would actually give insentive to use them and actually make then useful for once, for what reason do scorps need to do bonus to elephants and rams?