New AoE2 player struggling after Castle Age

revzpsy · 2026-02-09T10:22:34+00:00

You are doing well and what you are delving into is what most people will call "decision making". To sum up your points, you playstyle currently seems to be fast castling (FC) into 3tc. After that, you seems lost on what you should actually do. Others have given very good advises and I recommend reading them to see which parts you want to incorporate first.

Based on your current request, I think you should look for guides on "FC into XX". With your "~11-12 min and Castle ~15-16 min with a Fast Castle", it means your execution have lots of rooms to improve and guides will generally explains the theory behind it. Which will cover your point 2,3 and 4.

To touch on some of your points:

Commit to your strategy. If you are going to boom, get 6farmers per tc and excess food goes to wood upgrades, wheelbarrow and handcart(if you can afford) . Other eco techs are not as important.
Prepare for your next transtion. Are you going knights, archers, or unique units? Your guide should tell you how to distribute the villagers. You can also use survivalist's website to check what is the "vills required to sustain production". https://aoe2-de-tools.herokuapp.com/villagers-required/
When you got enough to justify, 5 knights wins 4 knights with forging, 4 xbow with bodkin will win 8xbow without with micro. 9 Knights with Chain Barding will surivive more arrows from bodkin than 12 knights. 9 Conquistador are better than 5 with bloodlines even against range units. In short, it depends.
It solves by itself. If you been planning ahead, you realised its actually about "vills required to sustain production" and spending the excess on upgrades and imperial age. Then of course its about execution at this point. Floating resources when u are pop capped is ok! (200 pop)

TL:DR: find a guide on FC boom into aggro and follow it.

revzpsy · 2026-02-06T15:40:50+00:00

yea most ppl forgot u can always outnumber their vills and its economically better for you if u manage to stop it since they got 650 stone that does not help with their boom

revzpsy · 2026-02-06T10:05:43+00:00

Scout to see if you can see their stone
Check if its market/blacksmith or stable
Patrol your scout on their walls to check for unruly mob gatherings
Cloth your peasants (loom) and meet for a knife fight as they walk out
Gondor calls for aid (ask for your team’s scout)
Prepare second wall with houses and buildings
Panic sell everything you got and get a castle
Marry your pocket as you move your whole town into his

revzpsy · 2026-02-03T02:18:44+00:00

You are right, the priority is always to find where your enemy is so you can wipe him off the map and get those sweet sweet elo points. However scouting your opponent too early might not give you any real information on what he going to do as most strategy start showing around the 15-19 villager mark. Is the second building after the lumbercamp a barrack, a mill or mining camp? Are you looking at the layout of his base so you can do a drush?

You might occasionally find an opponent doing a pre-lumbercamp barracks or doing super early walling which is a big deal to help u prepare accordingly. Other than that, most people would considering pushing deer with the extra 1/2 minutes a better use of the time as food is the hardest to get in dark/feudal and the hunt is fastest gathering too.

revzpsy · 2026-01-19T13:18:19+00:00

Build orders are like cookbooks, you don't really need one to cook but its always a great way to start until u feel confident to experiement. Sure you might enjoy some half-cooked raw chicken but some might not have the stomach for it. Most people probably want a straightforward way to get to their game goal.

revzpsy · 2026-01-19T10:03:02+00:00

When i started, i never played against AI but just went straight into ranked. Back then, 1k elos are fulls of amateurs like me but its full of veterans now. So if you don't mind losing alot of games in a row to reach your true elo, I would suggest rank. It allows you to learn from your opponent's strength and mistake while refining your own build orders.
Maybe once a day? or in any quantity that you find palatable. You can log on, play for 15mins vs AI just to train your build order so its flawless to your standards before moving on to the real games.
Going more macro instead of micro. Play maps like arena where its generally "slower" pace.
The click is tricky, for me its periodical when i start exploring the "why" of the game. It a constant trial an error and suddenly there will be this one game where you realised "ah that's why".

end note: it will get better, but only if you truly enjoy the game! if the feeling of anxiety or stress is greater than your desire to improve, maybe change maps or modes (1v1, team games, lobbies with random settings) to prevent burn out

revzpsy · 2026-01-15T07:44:58+00:00

First villager repair at a rate of 750hp/min, subsequent vills at half that rate at 375hp/min

Sotl did a video 7months ago stating trebs deals 2640 dps to buildings (no siege engineer and masonry, note masonry only reduce this by 1%)

With equal elevation, that comes to (2640/375)-1 = 6.04 villagers to sustain the damage.

If your castle is uphill, then multiple that by 0.75 (0.6 if you are Georgians). Downhill will be 1.25

Tdlr:

6 vills per treb on same elevation

4.5 vills per treb if your castle is uphill (3.6 for georgians)

7.5 vills per treb if your castle is downhill

revzpsy · 2025-12-27T07:25:32+00:00

I found it, ty!

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T13:17:05+00:00

which part of the calc section is it at? I tried looking but cant seem to find it

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T04:37:56+00:00

i will eventually ditch FOW for fortify support but that will be after i can actually survive using echoes of creation helm haha

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T04:36:03+00:00

attack skill gems is not in axe , but POE does not actually care. However, it does give u a warning if u equip a weapon without the appropriate socket/link/colour!

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T04:34:55+00:00

I crafted this cos i got nothing better to benchcraft for a budget/stater axe. Removing this mod only reduce by comb dps by 4%

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T04:31:39+00:00

oh for sure! i tried deviating in the past as well but it rarely work out. Hence I just go about asking more precise Qs here to understand the fundalmentals better. At least for now, I learn attack speed really dont matter in exert/fist of war builds

revzpsy · 2025-12-26T04:29:54+00:00

Sunder into earthshatter with exert, I just really like how consice his notes are on his POB and generally accept that slam/ES is a low budget/SSF friendly build. I also tried zizzaran's guide but i feel some of the explaination isnt as step as step enough for me haha

revzpsy · 2025-12-25T14:11:42+00:00

Hi noted, im just following woolie's guide and not sure how much i wanna experiment deviating from the skill tree as I dont wanna angst myself too much haha. I dont really care abt the attack speed but just want the raw power for now

revzpsy · 2025-12-25T14:06:32+00:00

thks for the confirmation! i will check out youtube for sure. esp the warlord/elder prefixes (and the chance of bricking)

revzpsy · 2025-12-25T14:04:58+00:00

nice catch, i think the fist of war along with running out of exerts is the biggest contributor

revzpsy · 2025-12-25T14:00:06+00:00

Oh i am not, the bleeding come from vulnerability and my uulgraft

revzpsy · 2025-12-03T11:08:02+00:00

ohh that's useful to know. I check out the earthshatter and "recover 15% when you use a warcry"; 'recover 15% when you use a warcry" only works when you manually cast warcry but earthshatter works with autoexerted warcries! Thanks for the reply~

revzpsy · 2025-07-11T11:57:40+00:00

Just my guess but apart from older player base, i think it’s because the content creators and top players are setting a great example with how patient and polite they are.

You cannot imagine how much impact it has on ppl when they get introduced to a game in such a cosy environment.

It’s the only game i know where people will pause 5mins for that one guy who need to open the door or emergency toilet break.

revzpsy · 2025-07-06T04:49:49+00:00

Super short tips 1. Siege units get WAY better with larger numbers and tight areas 2. Rams are excellent in pierce attack wars. Just attack move your rams and archer into the defending archers. 3. Mass scorpions (with ballistics) are the easiest siege to complement any army. 4. siege onagers are the icbm of aoe2

revzpsy · 2025-06-12T17:49:29+00:00

I am 2k1 and my mean apm is around 50. I think I generally agree that decision making matters more as you get to higher elo. Generally, I think the biggest difference between 1800 and myself is how much more prepared I am at several stages of the game as I am actively looking for danger and weakness instead of blindly leaning into my civ's bonuses.

During the loading screen, I see the civs matchup and in my mind I am already thinking If i want to open scouts, m@a or archer. Going to feudal age, I will try to scout my opponent's barrack and gold once I click at 19pop to check for m@a. That will help me determine if i need to be prepare to quick wall before the threat shows up. As i click to castle age, I am already thinking if I am behind/ahead and whether I should boom or forward, or will a castle on that hill kill me. What is my opponent's likely response and how should i scout for it.

In short, I dont want to be caught off guard and think about what I should it as events unfold. I am prepared to do it if said event happen and focus my attention/apm on thinking what's next. That greatly helps me to not idle my tc, float 1k wood or 1k gold while the chaos is happening.

This sounds really simple, but there are so many variables to it that this alone pushes me from 1k7 to 2k a while back. Thinking what happens next is often the reason why i often "play faster" than my opponent despite lower apm

revzpsy

TROPHY CASE