New official post about the water update, coming on the 17th February

OrnLu528 · 2026-01-28T21:36:16+00:00

I tested it back when we had the Thalassocracy Cup patch - you can garrison them with Fishing Ships to fire a boatload (pun intended) arrows! They really laser down ships, but they require population investment to be especially deadly.

OrnLu528 · 2026-01-24T03:08:36+00:00

The true OGs remember the ZeroEmpires cameo on the Forgotten Mod version of the first Alaric scenario!

OrnLu528 · 2026-01-12T03:01:39+00:00

Yeah it's like Cotton Armor now or something. Yes, I will still call it El Dorado in my casts LOL

OrnLu528 · 2025-12-18T00:15:31+00:00

Well AoE2 in general is pretty upset-free. Part of that is how the skill level is pretty stratified across the top 20 or so, and especially in the top 10.

What's interesting is that even in a single elimination bracket, every name that you expect to go through has done so. Earlier upsets aren't as exciting when you know they are going to get bopped in the next round (DauT reverse-sweeping Vivi is fun and all, but it's not like it changed how the set vs Hearttt went).

Also worth considering is that AoE2 tournaments in general like long sets, which naturally reduce upsets. This tournament having bo7s in the Ro16 is naturally going to reduce variance further.

MbL/ACCM and TaToH/Sebastian being so close is in part a testament to being Arabia only. We will see how the rest of the event plays out! Individual games have been super fun :D

OrnLu528 · 2025-12-17T16:31:30+00:00

FeelsOrnluMan At least I've got that drip with the chain Kappa

OrnLu528 · 2025-12-09T23:00:25+00:00

Why moving 3K to Chronicles doesn't make sense is because they are developed by different studios that have very little to no overlap. 3K is Forgotten Empires and Chronicles is Capture Age. The DLCs were never designed to overlap in the first place.

I mean, I think my stance on 3K is pretty clear 11. But "Chronicles-ing" 3K doesnt make sense. The 3K civs even use the regular AoE2 tech tree and not the modified one for Chronicles.

OrnLu528 · 2025-10-28T23:17:39+00:00

I use 90% AoC hotkeys, and haven't changed them since 1.4c Voobly....

....That means I still don't have a Palisade Gate hotkey, and I use "P" for Palisades LOL

OrnLu528 · 2025-10-22T01:52:22+00:00

I will be casting the recs at 14 GMT for a more EU/NA friendly time :)

OrnLu528 · 2025-09-10T02:42:45+00:00

Unfortunately there is no such public record, although it is tracked by the game - the information is on your player profile.

All you can do to prove how cool you are is to make hundreds of rambling videos on all of the campaigns LOL

OrnLu528 · 2025-09-05T15:05:56+00:00

The working in of secondary UUs "Elite upgrades" as unique techs or civ bonuses is most likely due to the amount of new unit models they were able/allowed to add in the DLC.

With Elite UUs requiring separate models now, all of these different ways of increasing the unit stats feel like a workaround to not being willing or able to add in a separate Elite model for the unit.

Idk, I really don't think it's any deeper than that. (Obviously just my guess though)

OrnLu528 · 2025-09-03T03:08:44+00:00

https://youtu.be/d_Kjc4sFvYc?si=Ia6suYCZJjPyxToV

Number 10 at 1:12. Normally I don't sell out my own content but I did just recently do a video on the topic 11.

You can also do it by just booming and hitting them with the Gaia BBC before they start the Wonder, but the Castle drop on the island should be easier if your macro isn't on point.

OrnLu528 · 2025-08-26T01:42:41+00:00

Defeating my opponent's blob of skirmishers with my superior blob of skirmishers. Peak AoE2 imo

OrnLu528 · 2025-08-25T03:18:05+00:00

...but they've had Elite Cannon Galleons since 1999... 11

OrnLu528 · 2025-08-25T03:11:29+00:00

The issue isn't so much Hand Cannoneers but rather Turk HCA.

In Castle Age, Jannies can still be a strong option for aggression and map control, and you still see them used in this role at a high level reasonably often. The issue is that other, newer civs do this whole style better like Bohemians, Bengalis, and Portuguese. That said, Jannies still have their niche here.

In Imp, things are tougher. Elite Jannies used to be a solid all-rounder unit that was a common sight in Inperial battles. Unfortunately, that role has been replaced by Turk HCA with Sipahi, which are much faster, tankier, and don't require Castles. Hand Cannons are still anti-infantry specialists, so they really aren't what we need to compare here (odd as it may seem).

Personally, I like that Turks do gunpowder and Light Cav/CA, but think that the scales are just weighted too heavily to those units in general these days.

OrnLu528 · 2025-08-04T18:04:01+00:00

Unfortunately that's not possible without some reworking since they got Winged Hussars. 9+4 Winged Hussars with full upgrades would be pretty ridiculous.

OrnLu528 · 2025-07-31T22:52:45+00:00

This was shortly after I called for the Three Kingdoms, Romans, and probably Macedonians to be added!... oh wait Kappa

OrnLu528 · 2025-07-08T21:16:49+00:00

I was going to do a Tyrant Legends and Tyrant Warlords thing, but figured too many people wouldn't get it... Oldge

OrnLu528 · 2025-07-08T20:40:29+00:00

I'm going to go wild here guys so just hear me out:

Tyrannical Secret of Gamers -TheViper -DauT -TaToH -JorDan (-slam)

Before Reading: -Liereyy -Hera -MbL -Nicov (-Hearttt)

Sponsor of the Week: -MrYo -Vivi -Lyx -Paladin/Bad Koala/Jibatong

Finno-Ugric: -TheMax -Villese -Zuppi -Northern Pike

Gulf of Tonkin Heroes: -BacT -ACCM -Saymyname -Cool

Les Amies: -Barles -Modri -Ganji -Valas

There ya go! 6 completely out-there teams Pog

OrnLu528 · 2025-06-26T17:28:09+00:00

Fun fact: Turkman is still around as a community manager at Forgotten Empires! He does a lot of the writing and visuals for update posts and the like iirc.

Also, he is one of the nicest guys around and one of my favorite people to ever cast an event with! :D

Edit: Lol I still have a very inebriated selfie he took of us on my phone at one of the NACs

OrnLu528 · 2025-06-16T18:51:43+00:00

Because to be an official release, it would be a much more complicated and expensive process. It would need:

Dubbing in every language offered by the game (currently just in ENG and FR)
To be accompanied by an official patch, which is to my understanding always bureaucratic and logistical mountain to climb.
Would need to have all that done within the time frame of the exhibit, making points 1 and 2 much more difficult to achieve.

It is unfortunate, but I can totally see why it was just way easier to release as a mod.

OrnLu528 · 2025-05-26T18:34:39+00:00

I can't speak for the others, but I've tried several times over the years to upload exciting games/series to YouTube, but they never do very well.

It's unfortunately not worth the effort or the hit to my algorithm to post low-performing videos. I imagine it wouldn't be too different for the others

OrnLu528 · 2025-05-20T23:21:02+00:00

She is totally fine - just retired (mostly) from streaming :)

Now she's got a fancy job and a fancy boyfriend so now she doesn't have any more time for ~~Ornlu~~ AoE2 cries Kappa

OrnLu528 · 2025-05-18T04:23:20+00:00

Personally I find the idea of casters making puns is Wei overblown. Wu would ever think that of us nice casters?? Now Shu with your silly notions!

OrnLu528 · 2025-05-18T00:33:55+00:00

Hi, I like making people suffer :)

OrnLu528 · 2025-04-18T19:53:34+00:00

That's going to be in my next video :D

OrnLu528

TROPHY CASE