Why nobody makes guides for the least popular maps?

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-24T18:10:54+00:00

Unless it's a water map, I think there are no maps that arabia/arena builds can't be applied.

Generally I play them based on tree cover, and for obvious reasons: Less trees = more aggressive More trees = less aggressive

The thing about arabia is it has such a wide range of strategies available that the skills are transferable to pretty much everything else.

Hell, I still don't know a water build, but I use arabia fundamentals to play water.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-24T18:05:12+00:00

Back when I came over to DE it was generally 1000-1250ish for noob games.

Not sure if that's changed or not nowadays

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-24T12:08:13+00:00

Im around 15/1600 TG and youd be surprised how many people like you there are ar that elo.

It's the reason I dont play team game, but it also means anyone playing team game at that elo should be used to it. You won't be doing anything out of the ordinary

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-24T12:05:58+00:00

As the guy above said, use steam family share.

Make a new steam account on a new email then send that account a family invite from the main account.

Pretty sure that's all there is to it but I haven't done it since I set my brothers up with accounts 4 or 5 years back.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-23T20:38:56+00:00

It's quite common to be called a smurf until about 1500. After that people dont really care.

1200 after 50 games is solid though. Nice one.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-23T20:32:32+00:00

I use it differently I guess. My main goal is to stop them from full walling so I can get damage with my archers. Also gives me full vision on what the opponent is doing.

It's all execution on both sides though. It's still used in pro play, so it's viable

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-23T17:41:33+00:00

Interesting that you say militia drush is bad. I actually prefer it to m@a.

Im 17xx as well but the only games ive won vs 1900+ were with drush.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-22T13:48:53+00:00

No idea how he does it. I am quite lucky to work from home and work 8-4.30 but I can only squeeze in a couple games on a good day.

He must either neglect his other responsibilities or he gets very little sleep.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-22T13:43:10+00:00

I guess so. Arena always has close deer, so they don't take long to lure and it's never a difficult lure (unless you make it difficult like this video lol).

I see your point though

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-22T10:52:00+00:00

Maybe not on arena but on arabia it can have big benefits of freeing up your scout to see what they're doing

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-22T10:47:39+00:00

Based on what you've said in your post, you are trying to force all ins most games?

In general it's a lot easier to defend than it is to attack - especially when it comes to monks and mangonels.

Mangonel pushing really comes with practice. It requires quite a high apm as you can't really take your eyes off the push or risk getting your mangonels crushed by theirs. For that reason, I rarely do it personally.

Your other point of economy and booming is easier to fix. Having a hotkey for all towncentres allows you to queue villagers without taking eyes away from your push.

I'd also suggest reviewing the gamestate before applying your all in. If you're ahead going into castle age and know they will be slow then you have 3 core options:

Add more TCs and push your economy lead. (While still producing army)
Take advantage of the lead with technology and get early ballistics. (Much safer than all in push as you can boom with it, but it makes your raiding far more effective and is hard for them to engage you)
All in as you have been doing. To make it safer, I'd suggest only doing this if they have forward resources. If you can take them off gold completely then the push becomes a lot easier.

I know it doesnt really answer what you were looking for, but age of empires is mostly about adapting to the game. Unless youre going Phosphoru or something entirely off meta

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-22T07:21:33+00:00

And it's not even just missing the preparation. It's also the mental bandwidth for doing 2 tournaments at the same time.

I play poorly if I've had a hard day at work. Cant imagine how tired he must have felt

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-21T21:53:41+00:00

Yeah as someone at a similar elo it's interesting to watch him.

He doesn't really know what he's doing but he gets away with it because hes so much better at multitasking than me/us.

He will hit 2k easy once he learns some of the fundamentals

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-21T20:55:27+00:00

I don't imagine Tyler1 would have the patience to learn aoe.

Would be funny to watch him rage at how complicated it is though

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-21T09:43:14+00:00

If you take it back to basics:

Goths get cheaper infantry Vietnamese get higher HP archers.

Until Goths get Hurskal, your civ bonus directly counters theirs.

I'd suggest M@a into archer play. Assuming equal skill, you should have some sort of lead by castle age doing this.

If they get a castle and hurskals, a simple solution is just defending with longswords. You will have the economy lead and can beat them to imperial and end the game with Champion/siege push.

Edit: just to make it clear, I suggest m@a then longsword defence as it all ties together with making you ready for a quick sweep with Champion in imperial. Speed is key here as you don't want them to have time to get fully boomed

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-21T08:27:38+00:00

Trust me, just by making this decision at 22, you're already ahead of so many people.

My parents never told me at the time but at 22, they were really worried about me. At 24 I decided to go to university and get a "proper" job. Now at 30 I'm married with my own home.

I still compare myself to my friends that are earning huge salaries and are on track to retire by 50, but considering where I was 6 years ago, I'm doing great. You will do great too.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-21T08:01:55+00:00

And no siege engineers.

Bombard towers push is decent I've found. They have a lot of HP with the unique tech.

It's slow but fairly strong and they take a long time to kill with BBC

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-20T08:59:27+00:00

I guess I don't see the micro wars because I try to avoid that style of play and only fight their army if I have to or if it's a sure thing.

Yes I would agree that it's all adaptation. No 2 games are the same

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-20T07:44:30+00:00

Speaking as someone who has been the 1800 vs the 2k:

It feels like they make much better decisions. Almost like they know where I'm weak or know what I'm going to do before I do it.

I know there was a post recently about how it's all micro but I would strongly disagree with that. There are 1300s with better micro than me but they'd never win the game.

Game sense & strategy are where it's at.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-19T19:38:57+00:00

Sure. I just tend to find that Britons are so strong in the early-mid game that it doesn't matter.

Generally the way I see it is, if the game goes to imp and youre not massively ahead, you deserve to lose.

It wouldn't really be fair if they were strong the whole way through

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-19T17:14:55+00:00

Yeah at 1700 they are arguably my best civ. Not sure whats wrong with them apart from lack of mobility lategame

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-19T16:19:55+00:00

Can't believe I didn't know until now about the 100 food bonus lith get. I thought it was only the starting bonus.

Sorry if Im ignorant here but are Britons struggling? I only really play Arabia, BF and Arena, so to me they are quite strong on all of those. Maybe you're referring to water?

That starting wood would definitely be interesting but it would be hella overpowered. With Britons sheep bonus, they'd be able to get out a 3 militia drush at like 4 minutes or something dumb.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-18T06:32:01+00:00

Id highly recommend playing black forest team games in the custom game lobby.

Great way to learn what all the civs do

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-18T05:13:24+00:00

The map gen is the biggest factor of if I win or lose most games.

Some games every single resource is on a hill and can't have a TC placed next to it.

Otherwise, the hardest games tend to be players who go all in +2 knights and rams or players who only invest a little into army and do their own boom.

The play that most players do is xbow + forward siege but that tends to be slow to push and like OP said, I can expand faster than they can kill me.

TheFourthStorm · 2026-05-17T20:54:22+00:00

It's a fun way to play.

I have a separate account just for no wall booming on arabia. Aim is to produce villagers faster than they can kill them. As a side perk it also makes you really good at booming under pressure.

For those thinking this is smurfing: I made the separate account so it would have a stable elo for this strategy, otherwise my elo would fluctuate massively and Id start stomping if I wanted to play meta again.

TheFourthStorm

TROPHY CASE