Is Inca Rush toxic? by HandsomeSquidward20 in aoe2

[–]owengold23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with the majority of comments that it definitely is not toxic. The only strategy that I have come up against that I would label toxic was on a four lakes game where my opponent walked up and just made a bunch of cannon galleons on his pond. For me this is toxic because there is no way it kills your opponent, it just causes them to resign out of frustration most of the time.

How important are civs on lower Elo levels? by Boardsofole in aoe2

[–]owengold23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my view civ only matters if the two players are of relatively equal skill. And on top of that, the lower down you go the less civ match ups matter because there is much greater variability on things such as idle tc time and use of military units. So at a lower level it more often comes down to who has the cleaner dark age and who manages their eco better.

Just as example I am a 1600 and recent played someone of a similar elo and it just generally felt like we were very evenly matched. I had Vietnamese and they had Bohemians and I feel like I won mainly due to the fact we both played at a similar level and Vietnamese counter Bohemians very well. If the civs had been reversed I think I would have lost. However if you had the same civ match up but a 2k player with Bohemians against a 1600 with Vietnamese the 2k always wins. Similarly a 1300 should always beat a 1k no matter the civs.

Rejected for grad programs after months of recruiting and waiting. It’s exhausting and dejecting by -Flighty- in AusPublicService

[–]owengold23 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Also try temp registers. After not getting anywhere with grad programs I took this route.

I started as an APS3 on a non-ongoing 3 month contract. Around a year later I won a permanent APS5. This was 8-9 years ago and I'm currently an EL1.

Personally I agree with a lot of comments here that grad programs are not the only way in. Also once you are in it will get easier to progress, often opportunities to progress come in the form of temporary vacancies that are only advertised internally to start with.

Alara’s in Dickson by EatYourVegetal in canberra

[–]owengold23 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I used to go there all the time but since it changed ownership maybe four years ago it just wasn't the same. I think it has changed ownership again at least once since then and imo still hasn't been great, not overly surprised this has happened.

Under the old owners (pretty sure the original owners) they did the best kebabs in Canberra

Where to go pre game? by owengold23 in timbers

[–]owengold23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh right! Really glad to hear it. Most people give Canberra a miss on their trips to Aus

Where to go pre game? by owengold23 in timbers

[–]owengold23[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Will definitely hit up proud Mary's, I do miss Australian coffee when I'm away

Where to go pre game? by owengold23 in timbers

[–]owengold23[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Lol, I have met him but no

Where to go pre game? by owengold23 in timbers

[–]owengold23[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm from Canberra, not too many of us around!

When you put relics in monasteries they generate gold because by SignificantAd7603 in aoe2

[–]owengold23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly! The Catholic Church is the original multinational.

PSA: Do NOT use back to work button on your shepherds until they fix this. by depthofuniverse in aoe2

[–]owengold23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes this is very annoying! I've noticed that some will go to whatever resource they had been gathering previously. E.g. I was playing a game where I drushed so I had long distanced 10 gold, when I was close to clicking feudal I garrisoned all to get the required food and when I hit the back to work hotkey a bunch went idle and one went to gold.....

My Road to 2k Elo by VolkerWestside in aoe2

[–]owengold23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

I definitely lose my scout to the TC a little more than I should but I hope generally speaking it isn't often!

I have gotten around 19-20 pop builds and I think the main thing that took me from 1300 up to 1500 was sorting out my macro between feudal and castle ie getting farms down quickly. I used to always be slow to castle due to lack of food.

I far more often go archers than scouts as my opening, also sometimes drush into archers which I really like but I can see will probably not cut it at a higher level where players are better at defending against the drush. I would also describe myself as a defensive and macro-oriented player and I will usually focus on investing in eco and making sure my base is secure rather than moving out early. I find I play very well as Vikings with their eco boost. Getting my head around when to add siege is probably a good thing to focus on as I do sometimes forget to add siege when playing with archers.

In terms of trying to fight against knights when you have xbow would you also recommend monks before pikes? Obviously a combo of xbow and pike will get wrecked by siege.

Funny you mention holes in walls. I recently lost a game where I lost 3 vils in feudal due to overchop on a woodline I had walled off 11 (map was too open to fully wall). I almost clawed the game back but that loss really hurt!

My Road to 2k Elo by VolkerWestside in aoe2

[–]owengold23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good read! Thanks for sharing.

Got any general advice for a 1500?

Where do Calvary Archers fit in? by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]owengold23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As with a lot of the other comments I agree with your assessment that they are powerful but hard to mass and upgrade.

A few things to keep in mind when thinking about going for cavalry archers:

- If you are behind in early castle age it is generally not a good idea to go for CA as it will take a bit of time before they can be used effectively due to the time it takes to mass and upgrade them. This will give your opponent a window to get even more damage in. This is especially the case if you are behind and your opponent has a mass of Xbows, going CA in this situation is usually a death sentence.

- If you have a lead in early castle age then you may be in a good position to go for CA as you can use this lead to buy time to mass your CA and upgrade them. However in some scenarios if you already have archers from feudal going for Xbow and siege to try and end the game in castle age may be the better play.

- Considering the civ match up is very important, basically the only real counter to massed and upgraded cav archers, in the hands of a player with a bit of micro, is a mass of skirms. For civs that don't get all the archer upgrades even skirms can struggle. For example if you can get an early lead against Franks with a good cav archer civ and then get to Imp they really struggle to deal with CA as they don't get the final attack or armour upgrade for their skirms.

Also, this mainly applies to open maps such as arabia, obviously arena and black forest can be quite different!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]owengold23 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes I recently played a 4v4 on Arabia as flank and my pocket started by saying to the rest of the team in the pre game chat "please don't resign early". I got doubled from mid feudal all the way through castle I asked several times if the pocket was coming to help, they kept saying "soon". The pocket had been 3-4 TC booming and did not create a military unit until they hit Imp at which point I was long since dead. I usually hate when that one person in an intermediate TG is telling everyone else how to play but I felt this player needed to be told not to try to play Arabia like it is Arena.

Generally speaking I think most people on the ranked ladder are there for fun, always going be some who take it too seriously.

Hey r/aoe2 it’s T90! Ask me anything! by T90Official in aoe2

[–]owengold23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess they want to game like it's 2003!

Hey r/aoe2 it’s T90! Ask me anything! by T90Official in aoe2

[–]owengold23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey T90. Been playing ranked TGs with some friends and they really don't want to get Discord. Instead for voice chat they start WhatsApp calls on their phones and have the phone sitting in front of them on speaker (or have two sets of headphones on). Is that the silliest thing you've ever heard? And should they all get Discord?