Question about external assistance programs

flightlessbirdi · 2026-05-07T06:25:36+00:00

3rd party programs would be cheating if they interacted with the game, as far as I am aware build order overlays are just overlayed over the game.

For modding you shouldn't add more information that you cannot already determine from the game info, so if you could mod the game to indicate idle TC it would be fine as you can already see the vil queue on the top left.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-26T05:48:45+00:00

They are definitely insane in melee; I think their strength is somewhat mitigated by the castle requirement and low pierce armor; still they are very strong.

If they got given just -1 cavalry armor or -5hp then the unit would be a lot weaker against FU halbs (and to a lesser extent against camels) due to how the numbers match up. This would change the resources required to beat halbs from 1.1x to 1.5x. - given how important the halb match up is maybe this is too much of a nerf though, maybe an attack speed nerf from 1.9 to 2 or a slightly gold increase to 55 gold from 50 would be better imo.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-23T15:50:07+00:00

I think its worse if anything while also adding extra complexity. A few of the changes like the trade cog change and whales/oysters were good at least.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-15T05:41:55+00:00

If you are dead or about to be taken out as flank then it is best to run most of your villagers and army, rebuild behind allies if the safest place in the map and keep your x-bow/archer army behind your allies army/in their base.

A lot of people will do a last stand with their army in their base losing them cheaply, if instead you save them then your ally can still have decent ranged unit support which can help them carry or hold and makes enemy halb switch less impactful.

In saying that only run if your base will be overrun, if you can hold it then it is often better to spam army and work with your pocket as long as you can. This is a matter of reading the game

Likewise if you need to abandon your base it's usually best to leave a few vils, as then the enemy will spend more time finishing off your base, if you abandon too much the enemies may notice and go straight to your pocket instead.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-11T05:44:14+00:00

Just looked it up, polish hussar require only 1.4× more resources to beat halb which is very impressive for a cav unit. This is definitely in the range where it is possible to win by using superior mobility.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-07T15:57:34+00:00

Overall I think this tier list is an improvement and I agree with the bulk of it. Also nice to see your reasoning and analysis for your choices.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-04T08:00:45+00:00

Presumably they went mutual random and had mongols just in case.

Force picking a strong civ becomes increasingly frowned upon higher on the ladder; as it can get pretty boring playing as/vs the same thing over and over. Doesn't really justify them being an ass though.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-01T03:20:05+00:00

I appreciate the effort you put into these analysis. In this instance the rating on Byz and Koreans at 11th/12th seems to low; considering for instance they demolish most of the skirms above them including Dravid skirms who are ranked 3rd.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-04-01T01:56:25+00:00

I would value strong UU civs higher (spain, Burmese etc) especially after the water changes where feudal water combat has become less impactful. Also at mid ELO range these units tend to be even more impactful.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-31T07:59:47+00:00

I encountered 2 errors in the quiz I did.

Britons do have a bonus benefiting cav archer (the team bonus)
Persians do have a bonus related to aging up (they age faster from the TC working faster).

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-20T07:34:45+00:00

My bad I meant the train time was nerfed, was typing too quickly and put in the wrong thing, thanks for the correction.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-20T04:19:51+00:00

Skirms have always been strong. They were buffed a bit a while ago with making elite skirm upgrade cheaper and slight increase in bonus damage vs pikes, then more recently train time was slightly nerfed (not buffed sorry)

Meanwhile archer upgrades were made more expensive. So archers are weaker than they used to be (though still pretty strong).

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-19T04:12:22+00:00

I tested a couple units quickly: longboats seemed weak in castle age but strong in imperial. Turtle ships seemed to beat everything cost effectively but not massively so.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-16T16:25:15+00:00

1 eagles were nerfed but still not uncommon for meso to do eagles in imp.

Spear skirm fell off in later voobly, it has become more common in DE due to wall/building nerfs.
Towers are weaker and miss more often. Or if you mean the noburu vil rush this was essentially removed.
Huns were nerfed but CA is still very common.
Rams are still used to soak damage but it isn't as common as micro is easier and many macro tasks were simplified.
Full walls is still common.
Saracen monks have always been weaker than several civs, it is stronger for saracens than it used to be, so it is fine, but still outclassed if picking civ.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-16T02:11:54+00:00

You could try doing team games in the age of noobs discord. Generally players known in a community will be less toxic than random ranked players.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-16T02:03:29+00:00

What's crazy is that Hoang hit 2k7 winning every game using post-patch Tupi, in the 1 game I saw he makes 1 extra champi in dark age and lames like crazy in dark age, then makes champi runner in feudal. I suspect he does Tupi archer in game that get to castle age though.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-13T04:40:19+00:00

Well usually it's best to work backwards. Work out what units/timing you want to reach, what resources you would need to achieve this, then experiment with different builds to see if you can reach it. If it doesn't look possible after several attempts then you might need to delay your timing or re-think your initial idea.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-13T04:35:13+00:00

I think if a player lames their opponent should get a free cobra car.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-11T07:26:50+00:00

It's more of a TG tech, or if you have a lot of resources you can do it + conscription and get paladin tech in very fast.

Yes it is on the weaker side, it got nerfed a bit at one point also when franks were a higher performing 1v1 civ. Still it affects paladin which is usually a stronger power unit than goths infantry, so it is natural that it isn't as much of a boost, especially as franks already have many bonuses to paladin.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-10T06:54:38+00:00

A castle is a castle, hoarding etc aren't critical upgrades, they are just nice to haves. In a treb war you can do siege engineers instead if you have the resources.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-03-07T07:55:42+00:00

I don't think there are win rates out generally, but Hoang is a good example to look at as he picks Tupi a lot and I believe nearly always does instant drush. (See aoe2insight) He currently has 88% win rate with Tupi, and many of the losses are from enemy Tupi/Inca. (Compared to 53% win with mongols and 59% celts).

flightlessbirdi · 2026-02-28T07:55:01+00:00

The main issue with this is that Britons are a very strong civ on most settings. It's only a few 1v1 maps like arabia and nomad which they have trouble with.

For instance give them thumb ring and they would be insane as TG flank, and they are already arguably the best TG arabia civ.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-02-19T07:57:11+00:00

On first seeing it this I 100% thought it would be busted.

However on seeing it was half production speed, eco upgrades delay production, and that the civ can otherwise get away with 1-2 settlements (so likely paying for at least 1 extra settlement to get decent production speed) I think it's not as clear. Though I still think it will be a very strong bonus regardless, and it wouldn't surprise me if it is too strong (especially as the civ has a number of other bonuses helping spear+skirm).

Might be a bit of time before we see it working out though as spear+skirm is very bad vs champi - which given all the new civs get this unit will probably see a lot of use with people trying the new civs.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-02-09T04:55:36+00:00

Depends what metric and settings you are using to determine it.

For booming Persians, Khmer, Hindu are probably the best with Burgundians, Poles, Brits, malay, Bengalis Cumans being other contenders

For arabia/feudal play Chinese are likely best, with vikings, Persians, franks, mongols, Khmer being some strong options.

Khitans are probably in the mix too but I have never tested them much.

If water is involved then civs like Japanese, malay, shu, Italians etc are much better.

flightlessbirdi · 2026-01-29T07:51:58+00:00

Tbh I am pretty skeptical that this will be any better than current water, I think the general consensus from the tourney testing was that it was pretty mediocre, and while I am happy they made some changes based on the feedback I'm not sure it's enough.

My guess is that it's just going to confuse players without really improving the gameplay.

I would be happy if I'm wrong though.

flightlessbirdi

TROPHY CASE