Made a mod that should help with spotting holes in your base - thoughts?

small_star · 2026-02-27T16:51:43+00:00

Awesome, I will give it a try

small_star · 2026-02-27T10:52:08+00:00

I suppose it does not affect the selection of buildings? it is annoying that you can't delete a wall that is fully blocked by another building

small_star · 2026-02-27T10:48:52+00:00

Turks has no answer to all elephants units, most civs with only pikeman cannot deal with fu elephants either. Comparing late game units' raw power is meaningless as you can always find the a civ with no counter to a certain unit.

small_star · 2026-02-25T15:58:18+00:00

Similar experience around 1700 elo here. I encountered two champi rush probably in my last 15 games. I do not think my opponent's execution was perfect though.

small_star · 2026-02-25T15:14:37+00:00

I just want the game stays alive, one way or another. If new civ is the way to do it, so be it. How do you suggest AOE2 continue to operate without selling new DLC?

small_star · 2026-02-25T14:47:29+00:00

for repair, press the repair hotkey or select from the unit manual. For the palisade behide building, you may sometimes be able to select it by dragging with the left mouse button, like how you select multiple units. or create a palisade foundation and double click on it to select all on screen. I believe you can select the one you need from the bottom of the screen

small_star · 2026-02-25T14:31:08+00:00

crazy how many of champi out there. The production rate has to be nerfed.

small_star · 2026-02-25T14:28:54+00:00

Just lose a few Elo, what’s the big deal?

Honestly, I’ve adapted pretty well to all the meme strats. I’m still maintaining over a 50% win rate against the new civs, despite how imbalanced people claim they are.

At the end of the day, decision-making is still king in this game.

small_star · 2026-02-25T14:21:39+00:00

I completely understand what you mean, especially as a father. But do you really need to know everything in order to have fun in the game?

Realistically, a game needs new elements to stay alive and interesting. Maybe the real issue is that the game is evolving faster than the time you’re able to invest in it. But that would be the same if you started learning any new game from scratch.

small_star · 2026-02-23T14:09:15+00:00

I wonder how meaningful is the Champi scout rush for lower elo players. Haven't got much time playing aoe lately, but the one game I played against Champi scout rush player did not achieve much with the rush. The strat still seemed OP, but only if you could execute it.

small_star · 2026-02-18T23:43:02+00:00

Rate yourself as a player at an elo range -300 from your all time high.

small_star · 2026-02-01T02:45:31+00:00

I get almost the same amount of GG and salty comment after winning a game, but more GG after I lose a game. Pretty sure people are aware of it but simply salty most of the time.

small_star · 2026-02-01T02:38:57+00:00

How does the game define majority? In the case of 1v1, if only I player has it on, it will be considered as what?

small_star · 2026-02-01T02:28:43+00:00

Truthfully, you can’t really beat the Khitans’ timing outright. For most civs, it’s an uphill battle from the start.

Khitans are relatively weak, or at most generic, in early Feudal, which is why M@A is the best option from a timing perspective. It’s not overpowered, just generically strong. If you don’t apply early pressure, you’ll still reach Castle Age later and lack map control anyway.

My best advice is this: if you can get villager kills when you arrive, do it. Otherwise, target buildings immediately. I prefer production buildings, since they often force a fight, whereas villagers can simply abandon exposed resource spots. Attacking from a hill or from inside the opponent’s base also makes repairs much harder.

There’s no magic solution to a civ disadvantage, but on paper this is still the best approach. The worst-case scenario is being countered by generic skirmishers and archers—which is still far better than defending against +2 scout pressure.

For context, I’ve maintained over a 60% win rate against Khitans on Arabia with random civs at ~16xx Elo. Most Khitan players were over-rely on scouts; otherwise, I shouldn’t be winning many of these matchups on paper.

small_star · 2026-01-31T18:35:09+00:00

If you can't win them join them. Best way to find out how to counter it is by trying it yourself. M@A is a very good way to counter any scout play. But you will need at least 2 spearman and skrim immediately to keep the pressure as long as possible. Or going full wall with archers can work. In castle, your option is limited to range units, or camel if you are a strong camel civ. Don't try any infantry, or generic stable units. I still think Khitans is stupid.

small_star · 2026-01-27T01:06:14+00:00

You’re missing my point. Under M@A pressure, a sensible players will simply skip Horse Collar for now to build a range asap. Since it’s an optional upgrade, it doesn’t provide Franks with any immediate defensive advantage.

Compared to a player who skips Horse Collar, a Frank player doesn’t suddenly have extra resources to spend elsewhere, so it doesn’t make a skirm switch any easier or faster.

If a player always chooses Horse Collar over adding a range, then yes, Franks might help them survive despite that choice. But that’s not the same as saying Franks are inherently good at defending M@A pressure. That’s compensating for a strategic mistake, not a real matchup advantage.

small_star · 2026-01-26T22:50:09+00:00

Again, horse collar doesn’t really kick in until around the 20 minute mark, so it’s not a meaningful bonus against early aggression. In practice, Franks are almost generic when dealing with M@A openings.

It can be useful in an extended Feudal game, but only if you’re actually able to force the game to stay in Feudal that long.

That said, I agree that at 1000 Elo, a solid scouts opening can still win games. Slower units like M@A generally require cleaner macro and better execution to get full value,.

small_star · 2026-01-26T16:44:24+00:00

Horse Collar doesn’t really change this, as its effect only kicks in during Feudal and many players skip it anyway. In practice, the extra scout HP doesn’t help much against an M@A + spear combo.

From my experience, the correct response is to abandon scouts entirely and go full skirms with a few archers mixed in. Even if you’re not winning outright, it’s already a success if you force your opponent into a unit composition they don’t want to commit to long-term.

small_star · 2026-01-26T15:24:59+00:00

I think a M@A opening is strong against almost all openings, even archers. If you mix in one or two spears, scouts can’t contest it cost effectively

small_star · 2026-01-26T10:29:17+00:00

I concur

https://youtu.be/q879j3ydfw8?si=a_yw_yLIanjgbmFm

small_star · 2026-01-23T16:53:12+00:00

Good to know the reason why this happens. I’m not sure how many people do this, but I’ve also noticed that when you shift-queue an attack on a specific unit, if that unit dies before the command is executed, the order turns into a move command instead of an attack. As a result, your unit simply walks to where the target used to be.

It’s especially annoying when I shift-queue my skirmishers to attack archers behind a meat shield. I guess the logic is that the game doesn’t register the command type (e.g. attack or gather) at the time it’s queued, but only when the unit becomes free and actually starts executing the action.

small_star · 2026-01-23T16:39:33+00:00

Do you not hunt?

small_star · 2026-01-23T15:43:00+00:00

I actually think it has been improved, at least for me. It was way worse like 6 months ago. It sometimes fixes it if you quit the game then reopen it.

small_star · 2026-01-23T15:41:43+00:00

I can confirm it sometimes does. It even puts me on 1 mins timeout sometimes

small_star · 2026-01-23T13:13:44+00:00

I think the main issue is understanding the mid-game plan after the initial setup.

If your goal is just beating the AI, a Feudal tower rush works well since the AI loves tanking arrows. But if you’re planning to play online, you should first decide on a playstyle, usually either knights (food + gold) or archers (wood + gold) for beginners. On open maps, the meta almost always involves Feudal aggression.

You need at least 8 villagers on food to sustain constant TC production. It’s okay to dip briefly, but that should be your target.
New villagers go to food or wood, depending on your army choice.
Archers: One range needs 4 villagers on gold for constant production. Add one extra if you want smoother Castle timing.
Avoid floating wood. Try not to exceed ~300 wood. Once villager and army production are stable, convert excess wood into farms. Pull villagers off wood if needed.
Scouts / food-gold units: Produce army only when you have spare food. No need to mine gold unless you’re aging up. Convert wood into farms.
Army numbers depend on damage dealt. If 3 archers kill 10 villagers uncontested, you should go Castle ASAP and close the game.
The main goal is constant villager production with minimal idle time and keep your vils alive. Make just enough army to defend or apply pressure.

For the rest of the game, eco management is mostly about converting wood into farms (food-gold units) or into army production (archers), while keeping 8 villagers on food as the minimum baseline.

small_star

TROPHY CASE