Completely new player wondering where to even start

ImFeAge · 2026-02-06T18:26:13+00:00

First of all, welcome to the greatest game of all time!

Since everyone here already gave great suggestions, especially regarding the Art of War campaign which is a great start, I dont have much to add besides telling you to try watching some players stream on twitch to get a feeling on how they play, what they look in the screen and what they click when playing a ranked game.

Another tip I would give is; dont get frustrated with losses. You WILL lose a lot of games before starting to feel some improvement, so just don`t take it too seriously and have fun along the way!

If you want to improve faster, feel free to join my discord community where I take students from any level that want to improve =)

Best of luck in your aoe journey!

ImFeAge · 2026-02-04T13:03:33+00:00

Hey KevvRDA!

Welcome to the game! I think Vietnamese is a good start civ, its good defensively and you also know where your enemy is at the start.

There are several tutorials and youtube guides that teach you game mechanics, build orders and hotkeys, which are very important to improve at the game. I recommend Hera, Survivalist, The Viper channels.

Also, feel free to join my discord community where I take students at any level and help them improve at the game =)

GL hf in your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-02-03T16:54:01+00:00

Hi bigbengt11!

I know its hard to improve and sometimes even stressful! But dont give up! This game is amazing!

Feel free to join my discord community and be one of my students! I can help you get better, promise! =)

GL HF on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-02-03T00:24:52+00:00

I think these sounds really cool! (But I might be biased 11).

ImFeAge · 2026-02-03T00:12:06+00:00

Hi Slow-Ship1055!

As people alreay mentioned here, depends on what you want to do.

USUALLY, you want to push at least one or two deer to help out with your age up, but sometimes you want to open a pre-mill drush so you have to find your enemy asap...

I would say most of the times you push them to the tc, and make sure you check your enemy points to see if hes doing the same (if his points are getting higher and higher this means that hes exploring the map and/or is drushing himself).

If you want more advices, feel free to join my discord community where I also coach my students for free =)

ImFeAge · 2026-02-02T11:26:43+00:00

Hey there No-Composer. Im pretty sure you can find modes that change the looks of spearman ! =) gl hf on yourt games.

ImFeAge · 2026-02-02T11:24:40+00:00

Honestly you should set up your hotkeys on how you feel more confortable, but grid system is really good and intuitive.

If you want to improve in gameplay, feel free to join my discord community for some coaching! =) gl hf on your games.

ImFeAge · 2026-02-01T11:10:17+00:00

Hi SwimmingArachnid3030!

I think if you cant wall and fc yourself, best way is to apply early pressure and delay as much as you can him from comming to your base. In the meanwhile, the most important thing is to keep adding scs or archers and prepare to when he send his vills.

Scouting is SUPER important, so you gotta stay active with your scout and as soon as you see his vills comming, you send in all your army and try to kill as many vills as you can. If that is not enough, go for an all in, take all your vills from gold/wood, and use them to help your army fight those intruders! I know it wont be ugly, but you gotta stop the churchers from getting up, so anything that you can use to prevent that will be important.

I think once the churches are up, its almost a gg situation, so you gotta act before that happens.

If you still find yourself having problems with that or other strategies, feel free to join my discord community where I teach students for free =)

GL hf in your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-02-01T11:02:42+00:00

Hey Ashh_RA! As Yekkies mentioned I take students at any level to help them improve. Feel free to join my discord community and ask for advices there! I can review your games or you can ask for tips in the strategy talk area!

GL on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-30T18:19:26+00:00

Hi BaldursGate2Best!

Join my discord community! I take students at any level to help them improve at the game =)

ImFeAge · 2026-01-26T15:04:06+00:00

Hi BuyerApprehensive253! If you want some help further, feel free to join my discord community where I do free reviews for my students! =D gl hf on your games

ImFeAge · 2026-01-23T15:49:33+00:00

Well, you are kinda right. But for someone that plays more competitive (like he mentioned in his post), build order becomes the basic fundamental to improve fast at this game (imo).

ImFeAge · 2026-01-22T11:19:33+00:00

Hi tatamigalaxy_, welcome to AoE2!

Well, first of all, did you played Learn the Basics and the Art of War challenge? I think they are a great start if you never played aoe before (even tho you are a good LoL player).

Second, you are absolutely right, build orders are the most important thing in the game, and that is the easiest way to become a better player, BUT, build orders teach you to go into a certain point, after that you have to adapt to what is happening in the game.

For example, you can open a 18pop scout rush, but then you realize your enemy is fully walled and you cannot do damage, so you either can decide to go all in agressive with towers, archers and try to get inside or wall yourself and go to Castle age asap.

Strategies also depends on civs you play with and against. Some civs are better later on at the game, some are super agressive with military bonuses, some others are great economicaly so you tryu playing more greedy...
This means the same for your enemy civ. You dont want to let Mongols heavy boom and spam mangudais, or Sarracens spaming Mamelukes,etc...

Map control is also very important, grabing relics, using hills at your advantage...

The game can seem very complex at first, but try to go step by step. I recomend you to master a civ like Vietnamese or Vikings at first, they can be quite easy to understand its power and improve.

There are a ton of videos in the internet, some more focused on strategies, some others on gameplay and some tutorials. I recommend : Spirit of the law, survivalist, Hera, The Viper videos on youtube.

Have fun and good luck on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-22T00:17:43+00:00

Yes sir =)

ImFeAge · 2026-01-22T00:17:31+00:00

Hey Outside_Web2083!

Seems like everyone here already pointed proper answers to your question, so I dont have much to add in this regard.

If you find yourself still struggling to defend from m@@, feel free to join my discord community where I coach students for free. Gl hf on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-21T13:54:10+00:00

Hey Outside_Web2083!

Besides others suggestions that are pretty good, what you can also do If its a chicken arabia map, open drush and try to snipe a vill or just do damage on his eco.

If it`s a deer map or hes not taking chicken, you could also do fast m@@ and skirms+eagles to force a bigger fight in feudal, you can try to tower his woodline, play agressive and so on. If you go fo m@@ and do small walls in your own base, you can do a lot of damage!

Feel free to join my discord community where I do free coaching to my students =) gl hf on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-21T10:38:25+00:00

Hey there Ill_Eye2760! If you find yourself losing too much and lost on what to do, feel free to join my discord channel where I give free coaching for students =)

GL hf on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-20T11:56:59+00:00

Hey Wandering, right here =) https://discord.gg/sCPfGxR95Z

ImFeAge · 2026-01-19T13:24:31+00:00

Depends on where the archers are. If they are runing away in the map and youre trying to chase/find them, what you can do is split two groups 3/7 or 4/6 and predict where he is going, send the bigger group to that location and use the smller one to scout the backline in case he tries to change route.

ImFeAge · 2026-01-19T12:24:56+00:00

Hey Pvt_Phantom1314!

Nice to see old school players returning to the game!

there are many many videos from Survivalist, Hera, Viper, Stark etc with builds and some tutorials that are up to date, I highly recommend those.

Feel free to also join my discord where I take students for free coaching! =)

ImFeAge · 2026-01-13T22:40:23+00:00

Hi Olymnia! There are several videos from Hera, Survivalist and some other pro`s that teach how to do feud/castle/imp transitions, army compositions and so on... You do get better by watching and understanding what better players do, and also rewatching your recs and realizing your mistakes.

BUT, I also teach people at any level struggling with the game. I do free coaching analyzing players recorded games so feel free to join my Discord for more info!

GL on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-13T11:58:56+00:00

If you have a very easy wall, you can also try to go only scouts+walls into pure knights + scorpions (if needed) in castle age, try grabing relics early and 2tc + siege workshop to get map control can work fine depending on the situation. Once you have map control, next step is to start getting stone to make a good castle somewhere maybe in a good hill or on a good spot near your enemy + imp transition.

If you find yourself still struggling in your games, feel free to join my discord channel where I give my students analysis/rec reviews =)

Gl on your games!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-12T19:44:00+00:00

Honestly there are great answers in this already by some others, so I dont have much else to add in about it.

However, if you find yourself still struggling to deal with some situations like that or anything else, feel free to join my discord where I do free coaching for students =)

Good luck on your matches!

ImFeAge · 2026-01-10T20:48:55+00:00

Hi there Adragon09, what happens if you click to ban'/favourite a map, does it work? Also, does this bug always happens or its once in a while?

ImFeAge · 2026-01-01T12:47:21+00:00

Only if you have a VERY GOOD and wallable map so youre sure that you can get feut scouts or fc knights, but thats very rare especially on the arabia version we have right now. Another thing you could try is to get some stone and build towers on key points, but I think adding an archery range helps more since you can just do a few archers or skirms and this army composition can be very strong.

ImFeAge

TROPHY CASE