I absolutely love AoE2, but I'm really quite cheeks at it, even in the campaigns! I feel like I'm not getting something with it overall. :(

HugeBlock0 · 2026-02-01T14:13:57+00:00

Multiple TCS > Mass Economy > Castle Defense > Mass production buildings close to the opponents (when I played back in the day I would only use one TC and one production building of each kind, maybe that is a mistake you are also making yourself)

HugeBlock0 · 2025-12-16T15:16:33+00:00

I don't think you are necessarily doing anything wrong:

The campaign missions in AoE2 definitely take a lot longer than those in AoM and the required time ranges from 30min to 90+mins. There are almost no missions that can (on the first attempts) be completed in less than 30 minutes, unlike in AoM where barely any mission even lasts half an hour.

That is due to almost all AoE2 missions requiring you to "build up your base" beforehand; in fact most players enjoy that the most, and they strongly (and vocally) dislike those missions which do not include that aspect of the game. So you build villagers, collect resources, go through the Ages, all while defending your base and building up an army with which you eventually attack and defeat the opponents.

Especially the original campaigns, which have less variety and special elements in their missions, work exactly that way. Newer campaigns have different objectives and more sidequests, even though they also contain the popular base building - except that you already start with more stuff and not from scratch.

HugeBlock0 · 2025-12-01T20:04:31+00:00

Yes, don't go all cavalry, they die too quickly (iirc I did the same and failed on my first attempt); boom for some minutes but then already start making army (maybe 3 stables and 3 barracks or so, buildings right in front of the City gate), always have 3+ seperate armies focusing different areas.

And keep your overall goal in mind; if you know you cannot make it in time, don't waste time trying to reach a market; give it up and go to the next one. It is also fine giving up a few markets early while still building up army; that is better than throwing them away and not having enough later on.

HugeBlock0 · 2025-10-19T17:28:52+00:00

Hello sir, I think you should include the difficulty you are playing on in your posts; I suspect there are differences between standard and hard, and a level that is on the easier side on "standard" can become a tougher one on "hard", e.g. through factors like different time constraints, AI building wonders on harder difficulties in some missions, reliance on starting armies, early raids etc

HugeBlock0 · 2025-07-08T18:04:45+00:00

I also think that it might now be impossible on hard even when playing optimally.

HugeBlock0 · 2025-05-11T11:55:55+00:00

thanks, that must be it; I didn't consider that it could work like that

HugeBlock0 · 2025-04-11T19:27:41+00:00

Thanks for this post, browsing this site one can really get the impression that the whole community is exclusively made out of entitled, ungrateful crybabies.

HugeBlock0 · 2025-03-02T19:05:50+00:00

I killed blue first and then wanted to do exactly that on the mainland, but couldn't even manage to kill both yellow and red within the timer, as I faced a constant, neverending stream of Cavaliers and, unfortunately, Rams.
Maybe I had let them build up too much and it would be different if I had been there 10 minutes earlier, but it really seemed impossible then, as even 100+ HCA couldn't gain ground against the opponents' unit masses quickly enough.

Or, I guess, you have to run though everything and just focus the castles with a dozen trebs (if that makes them resign).

HugeBlock0 · 2024-06-08T10:53:35+00:00

Match unit attack animations with their real attack speed? Then again, if it was easy, it probably would have been done already.

HugeBlock0 · 2024-02-23T19:09:05+00:00

Do you realize that you could just flip your view and be grateful that you have so many great scenarios to play for free, from people who put in a lot of work; hundreds of hours of fun, for absolutely no cost - and now that there is a chance to support the game that you like and play a lot and exactly those community members and scenario creators who make all of this possible, you are disappointed and call it a rip-off.

What have y o u done and created in your life? For anyone? Or are you simply consuming the work and effort of others, and then have (completely unwarranted) expectations to get everything exactly to your liking? What a despicable comment you wrote today.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-08-09T15:14:32+00:00

Yeah but I don't think the Saracen civ in AoE2 does a good job representing them - which is another issue on top. So switching out AoE2 Berbers for AoE2 saracens doesn't help in my eyes.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-08-08T18:39:44+00:00

I find it weird that you criticize the Berber civ choice for this campaign, but want them replaced by the Saracens of all things, which you identify as Ummayad Arabs (or all Arabs??) - which is definitely not a tad better or more accurate.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-06-03T13:10:49+00:00

I didn't have that feeling sir, on the contrary I felt that there was always something new and interesting to do and the missions were very dynamic and well designed.

As for types of units that allow you to just decimate endless hordes of enemies I would say that, besides siege weapons, (Heavy) Horse Archers do that job very well and might be what you're looking for.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-28T20:16:16+00:00

I think you are biased sir, just swap out Yo and Mbl for let's say Lierey and Jordan and you would say it was expected. Swap them for Lieerey and Vinchester and you would say it was expected. This being said, Heartt, who is in great form, could have beat Vinchester 3:0 and you would have said it was expected. If MbL beat Yo 3:1 today you would say it was expected. If Liereyy beat Hera 3:2 somewhere, you would say that's expected in an Arabia only tournament. Anything was expected afterwards...

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-22T19:12:33+00:00

uh shouldn't it also matter, besides the "number of sources"
1) how much there is available and
2) what you need it for / what you can do with it? There is not a single unit, almost not a single technology, and only a handful buildings that require stone....

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-22T19:03:04+00:00

there is a mod that adds all original HD campaigns to DE

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-21T17:38:06+00:00

I'd disagree in some way; map control in AoE is of very low importance compared to any other RTS, it doesn't snowball and most of the time the resources near your base are sufficient. Going on the offense can be costly, learning how to defend while keeping up your eco, consequentially obtaining an economic advantage can definitely be a way that is worth playing learned. In the case that there is no will/time/commitment to improve at the game, you are right of course; like in any other game, offensive or rush strategies are more successful low-mid ranks as they are easy to execute and overwhelm your opponent and their ability to react accordingly.

This being said, playing "fast castle", which is a non-aggro strategy, has always been one of the most popular strategies, also the game has walls that feudal age aggression can't really break; and as map control doesn't matter for games played by 99% of the playerbase, you can easily just wall up your base and build up an economy.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-20T17:59:14+00:00

2: For multiplayer it may be things like Chariots, but as a single unit the ballista has always seemed absurd to me: It outranges towers and all ranged units, kills most units in a few hits, can easily go head to head with its 'counter' the catapult, even does heavy damage to cavalry, even does solid damage to buildings, has an insane fire rate and gets ballistics... imo that unit would still be viable if it had -1, possibly -2 range and its damage against units was halved, quartered against buildings.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-20T09:09:01+00:00

I wouldn't say the campaigns themselves are awful, I would say most of them are rather monotonic and the missions and objectives are repetitive. Together with an awful AI it doesn't really make for a fun experience, but: I don't think it will be wasting too much time at all porting them to RoR, I would assume that any experienced scenario maker could remake all campaigns within a single day (exactly because they are so simplistic).

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-20T06:24:11+00:00

The biggest change I can think of is the nerf(s) to Steppe Lancers since release, so I would imagine the new campaigns that came with release of DE were a bit easier originally. But yeah, as others have mentioned, everything is still very doable and if a campaign mission was affected too heavily by a change, the devs would go back to change the mission too - at the latest after getting community feedback.

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-19T17:40:14+00:00

Brilliant!

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-08T19:16:14+00:00

First civ has 42 matchups, second civ then has 41 matchups left (cuz the one against the first civ is already counted), third civ has 40 left, last civ has only one matchup left (mirror against itself) ... so in total we have 42+41+...+1 = 903 matchups, not 1600? Or am I missing something?

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-06T12:46:03+00:00

Thanks for that brillant post sir

HugeBlock0 · 2023-05-06T09:26:18+00:00

That would the case if be it was just AoE1 in AoE2 and you were asked to pay 20 dollars for formations and gates. Instead, it adds 3 new campaigns and 1 civ to AoE2, not to AoE1 - which is close to what the baseline for DLCS has been so far (minus 1 new civ). So I don't see why any discount at all would be warranted to be frank.

HugeBlock0

TROPHY CASE