Age of Empires

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Why is there no AoE thread?

[Abel]

Why should there be? Is it still popular? The last game in the series is already 8 years old.

[Avron the S'wit]

I don't know if it's popular, but it's deeply nostalgic. I still get out AoEII to play. I wasn't a fan of the newer AoE games in light of the newer Civilization games (which are more fun than new AoE games, in my opinion), but I just love the second installation. And the Age of Kings expansion pack? Man. Many a day I lost to that glorious game.

Plus, we were going to have a UESP tournament...but...

[Abel]

I played quite a bit of AoE II as well some years ago. Still one of the most enjoyable RTSs I've experienced.

[Avron the S'wit]

Heck yeah. I was always awful at multiplayer, though; I'm much more concerned with how awesome my towns look than building armies...

[Unionhack]

I haven't actually played it yet, but I really want to once I get a better gaming rig.

[CBR JGWRR]

I found AoE more fun than Civ, couldn't figure out what to do on it...

Unionhack - it runs on windows 98. I highly doubt you need to upgrade. A smartphone could run Age of Empires 1 or 2...

[Unionhack]

Maybe I confused it for a different series. xP I do that sometimes.

Just looked it up, I might pick it up somehow.

[Archea47]

Has anyone tried Age of Empires Online?

I still have (even the boxes of) AoEII and an expansion but haven't played them in ages. I was thinking about trying AoE Online but it looked kind of cartoonish and simplistic by the images on Steam

[Abel]

Has anyone tried Age of Empires Online?

Meh, don't bother. It was recently announced they won't be developing extra content for it anymore, since it wasn't making enough money. That's not a good sign. And seeing it's a social game, I suspect a lot of forced in-game purchases.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I wanna have a tournament!

To anyone who wants to answer: What is your favorite civilization?

[CBR JGWRR]

Honestly, it varies. Sometimes Egyptian, sometimes Roman, sometimes greek, sometimes babylonian (IIRC they had the coolest looking wonder...)

For AoE2 I usually went spanish, Byzantine or mongols, depending on how I felt...

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I luv Mongols, Persians, and Britons. But mostly I play random civ, and I adjust my plan according to their bonuses and weaknesses.

[Lindai]

Any of you tried the unofficial expansion pack, Forgotten Empires? It adds 5 new civilizations(Incas, Slavs, Magyars, Italians, Indians[from India]) and balances some of the existing civilizations.

Favourite civilization? Difficult to say, but Aztecs. Their monks get +5 HP for every monastery tech researched giving them 95 HP with every monastery tech researched. They can easily convert a Paladin hacking away at them. Also there's the Garland Wars tech that gives infantry +4 attack, giving them the strongest infantry in the game. Their Eagle Warriors are spectacular with their 8 ranged defense and 17 attack. The new Magyar civilization come in at 2nd favourite with their outstanding cavalry.

I'd be well up for a tournament.

[Avron the S'wit]

I always loved the Japanese, but I have played equally between them, the Turks, and the Byzantines.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

Any of you tried the unofficial expansion pack, Forgotten Empires? It adds 5 new civilizations(Incas, Slavs, Magyars, Italians, Indians[from India]) and balances some of the existing civilizations.

Favourite civilization? Difficult to say, but Aztecs. Their monks get +5 HP for every monastery tech researched giving them 95 HP with every monastery tech researched. They can easily convert a Paladin hacking away at them. Also there's the Garland Wars tech that gives infantry +4 attack, giving them the strongest infantry in the game. Their Eagle Warriors are spectacular with their 8 ranged defense and 17 attack. The new Magyar civilization come in at 2nd favourite with their outstanding cavalry.

I'd be well up for a tournament.

That's if you don't get rushed early. But if I ever do play you, we had better be playing random civs.

[The Tom]

I was just about to mention Forgotten Empires. Questionable voice acting aside, it's really well balanced and could pass for a decent professional expansion even without the campaign. I haven't played it enough to become attached to any of the new civs, but from the base game my favourites are the Byzantines for their ridiculous defensive capabilities, and the Turks because free gunpowder.

I think the massive variety is what really makes Age of Empires something great. There are loads of great RTS games like Starcraft, Command and Conquer, Total War and Homeworld, but I don't think any of them have come close to how Age of Empires got the balance between manageability and impressive scale just right. You can't 'learn' AoE like you can learn Starcraft. There are too many variables. You have to adapt and improvise to every new situation. No two games are the same, and that's why people still play it.

It's a shame Ensemble was shut down. There was a really interesting picture in the Collector's Edition booklet that hinted at a future we'll probably never get to see.

[Lindai]

Didn't even realize that new campaign scenarios had been added. The Byzantines are pretty ridiculous indeed with their cataphracts that are not only buffed against infantry(Halbs) but also do area of effect damage. The downside of being the Byzantines : The other players will almost certainly gang rush you to prevent you from reaching the Castle Age and unleashing a swarm of cataphracts.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

When I was younger I liked the Byzantines for their techs, seeing as they have like all of them (except for Blast Furnace, which was a bummer) and I could create a ton of troops and stuff. Of course, if your opponent has a lot of Mamelukes or Halbs, you are in for a lot of trouble, even though the cataphracts have the bonuses.

[The Tom]

But the best part about getting to the Castle Age with Byzantines is that castles are cheaper and stronger than the other civs, and when you want to go to Imperial and upgrade all your units you can do it much earlier than everyone else. Besides, Byzantine walls and buildings are the strongest and you can hole up until you're ready to break out.

When playing as the Turks, I use bombard towers instead of walls. It works well.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I usually like the civilizations with economic bonuses, like better hunters, more vils at the start of the game. My brother says that the Byzantines aren't very good, because they have no economic bonuses, but I'm inclined to disagree.

[Werozzi]

I truly loved AoE, since i was 6.
There's a fun mod for it called Age of vampires. Is hillarious to chase fat people to feed.

[Derp53]

I usually like the civilizations with economic bonuses, like better hunters, more vils at the start of the game. My brother says that the Byzantines aren't very good, because they have no economic bonuses, but I'm inclined to disagree.

Normally I like pure military bonuses, because for some reason people and AI's always attack me first. So I normally need a strong militia force by the 3rd day of game time to make sure whatever I have isn't left a burning ruin in age 1. Civilization wise I like throwing axemen and heavy cavalry. So the french(or was it franks?) normally fit the bill perfectly. But I haven't played AoE in a while.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

All you need to do to prevent a rush is to wall. It's better if you wall with stone, I guess, to prevent archers.

[Derp53]

Is that all it takes? Normally I station two skirmisher units or one unit of archers and a standard infantry to patrol an area. When I do encounter a large invasion force(which is 5 turns) I at least have a unit to hold that army off while I mobilize my defense force(which only takes about a turn). But that stone wall tactic might work better.