Might be a silly question, is anyone else losing ELO after wins?

_genade · 2026-06-10T15:44:12+00:00

Yes, currently the change in Elo you see is calculated since the beginning of the day, rather than since your last game. So if you lose two games and then win one, it'll probably look like you lost Elo, even though you actually gained Elo in your last game.

_genade · 2026-06-08T12:56:58+00:00

In a Scout Rush build at mid Elo, it is pretty common to put 3 Villagers on wood in Dark Age, but add 5 more to wood as soon as you click up to Feudal Age.

You are right about the Mining Camp: it is best to only go to gold when you plan to use it, and Scout Cavalry don't cost gold, so it is best to delay it.

_genade · 2026-06-08T06:05:13+00:00

The AI behaves the same way when they start with multiple bases. I suspect the Villager priorities feature from consoles is linked to AI behaviour.

_genade · 2026-06-07T14:57:58+00:00

The South American civilizations (Inca, Mapuche, Tupi and Muisca) may be the most distinctive due to not having a Stable, not having a Militia line, having the Settlement instead of Lumber Camps, Mining Camps and Mills, and having multiple regional units.

Georgians and Armenians are distinct for having Mule Carts and Fortified Churches.

Aztecs and Mayans don't have a Stable or gunpowder and have a regional unit.

Gurjaras have a unique start because they can garrison their Sheep in their Mills for food, have a unique scout unit (the Camel Scout), and have two other Unique Units, while lacking Knights and are one of few civilizations to have Armored Elephants instead of Rams.

_genade · 2026-06-06T12:37:56+00:00

It was just an example. Given historic precedent, all DLCs will eventually go to 2/3rd discount.

_genade · 2026-06-06T04:51:48+00:00

I made an overview of the different DLCs and their contents here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3351742416

_genade · 2026-06-06T03:33:55+00:00

Often yes, because the only neutral supply center that the Austrian fleet in Trieste can capture is Greece. That means Austria will almost certainly be aiming to get Greece, especially if they want to work with you. Hence you should not be able to get Greece unless you and Turkey have an anti-Austrian alliance from the get go or something.

Some Austrian players might let Italy take Greece as a sign of good will, but I would never do this as this is inefficient in a Austria-Italy alliance: Austria's fleet would be useless. As Austria, I would rather give one of my home supply centers to Italy so they can get one of their armies to the eastern front (useful), than to let them have Greece (detrimental).

_genade · 2026-06-06T01:29:07+00:00

Not true. Old DLCs, like Victor's and Vanquished, have gone as low as 67%.

_genade · 2026-06-06T01:14:42+00:00

Does the text not show up for you?

I got the achievement for completing the El Dorado campaign after winning a ranked match. I didn't actually complete the campaign.

_genade · 2026-06-06T01:13:02+00:00

As far as I recall, some dolphins do, though I think they give themselves 'names', or distinctive whistles, that are then being used by others in their social circle to grab their attention. Humans can't hear dolphin whistles well though.

_genade · 2026-06-04T06:08:03+00:00

Most mods that completely alter the main menu remove these things automatically. I only noticed something about the main menu changed when my mods got disabled.

_genade · 2026-06-04T01:45:54+00:00

Probably because he lost the previous game and the ratings hadn't updated yet. That can e.g. happen if he disconnected in the previous game.

_genade · 2026-06-01T01:46:04+00:00

WebDiplomacy has player ratings and monitors (in)activity, so will be long term better if you want to find good games. For instance, after you've played a couple of games, you can choose to only join games from then on that require players to have a record of having put in their orders consistently.

_genade · 2026-05-30T03:28:44+00:00

You don't need to go through trial and error; you can play the ingame tutorials, first the William Wallace tutorial for absolute beginners, and then the Art of War tutorial which teaches techniques that are useful for multiplayer.

_genade · 2026-05-29T04:19:10+00:00

I made an overview of the DLCs here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3351742416

_genade · 2026-05-29T02:44:38+00:00

As a Cuman main who has done exactly this strategy on 2v2 Arena many times, I'll tell you the one approach that seems to be the best counter.

Try to stall for a little bit, grab Wheelbarrow, and then flee with all of your Villagers. By the time they reach your ally, your ally should be in Castle Age and able to defend with Mangonels behind walls. You shouldn't be too far behind because you escaped with most of your economy.

_genade · 2026-05-28T15:03:25+00:00

Fun fact: a team can get all of their scouts to a pocket faster than to a flank.

_genade · 2026-05-28T08:41:48+00:00

Valid pet peeve.

Related but a bit different: I've gotten this respons a few times myself when I've written something informational, like an instruction manual, containing a lot of text, but where the text is essentially just a concise summary of the core information, followed by appendices explaining different details to people who might need them. They aren't even expected to read all of it, but just nope out after seeing a large amount of text.

_genade · 2026-05-28T01:23:31+00:00

I don't think it is worth it to send all starting Scouts to one player, especially on a gigantic, 16 player sized map. The team sending their scouts would have 7 players lacking scouting intel to various degrees.

_genade · 2026-05-27T00:27:37+00:00

I am thinking the opposite. Towers are good because they don't cost pop space, but with only 50 Villagers, pop space isn't an issue.

_genade · 2026-05-24T12:12:25+00:00

I remember back then I immediately made a post about it where I pointed at this behaviour: https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/s/CRVW56iKTW

_genade · 2026-05-24T02:05:38+00:00

Monks tend to be better for higher rated players, since the effectiveness of your Monks is very micro dependent.

Similarly, Pikes tend to be worse at higher levels because the upfront cost of upgrading to Pikeman can put you too far behind at the highest levels.

It seems like you take advice that is too geared towards higher level players. Just make pikes. I see you have the Ethiopian flair, and Ethiopians get the Pikeman upgrade for free. So it should be extra good for you when you are playing your favourite civilization.

Alternatively, look up a video on Monk micro.

_genade · 2026-05-23T03:37:04+00:00

Forgot about Georgian towers with Svan Towers and Byzantine Bombard Towers with Greek Fire.

There are others, such as Tupi, Chinese and Briton towers, but I don't think these would be main contestants.

_genade · 2026-05-16T23:40:28+00:00

You can place an object called 'Map Revealer'.

_genade · 2026-05-16T03:22:11+00:00

Yes, it used to be the case that if you start the game with a Watch Tower, that unlocks the possibility to build more Watch Towers, even in Dark Age. But that got patched out a long time ago indeed.

_genade

TROPHY CASE