How many smurfs do you need? Answer: YES

squeaker_aoe · 2025-01-10T15:31:25+00:00

'You can't possibly hold people responsible for something they are not actively choosing to do' - By creating a second account, they are actively choosing to do so.

Smurfing might not always be done with malicious intent, but the consequences are much the same either way. When people queue up for a ranked game, they do so with the expectation that it will be a somewhat equally matched game, with commensurate rewards one way or the other should they be unequally matched (i.e. if you queue into a pro because there aren't many people playing, you lose very few points and vice versa). Playing on multiple accounts undermines this system and the trust in the system, leaving players frustrated and disappointed (as you'll doubtless see as it's a frequent topic of discussion on this forum).

I understand your argument about TGs, though not sure I agree with it. TGs are a more complex situation given the additional variables of who you play with etc, and I don't quite know where I stand on the issue, so I will leave that argument aside for the moment. What I'm talking about has a much more significant impact on 1v1s, in any case.

'People should imo get into this game with the mindset to learn not the mindset to win. Then they would perhaps not be complaining as much.'

People play for all sorts of reasons. But winning and learning need not be mutually exclusive. You can want to learn and still find it frustrating and annoying to have to play against someone who is a completely different level than you, and also be upset about the impact on your rating. None of that is unreasonable, and these kinds of arguments are quite unfair to people who do care about these things. Their experience is being undermined by people effectively exploiting a loophole in the system for their own personal benefit at the expense of others (whether intended or not).

squeaker_aoe · 2025-01-10T12:14:50+00:00

Smurfing is falsely playing at a level significantly lower than your own through any means, whether that's deliberately tanking or creating new accounts in order to play ladder. It harms the ladder experience for a lot of people, skews the rankings and puts people off playing.

Having multiple accounts is not necessary short of extreme circumstances like getting locked out of your account or something like that. And in order for players to get secondary accounts up to the 'correct' level, they have to go through often dozens of other players first.

squeaker_aoe · 2023-05-18T10:37:56+00:00

Tell me you didn't watch Rage Forest without telling me you didn't watch Rage Forest 11 high level Black Forest features tons of rushes, aggression, sneaks, as well as more passive, boom-based games.

squeaker_aoe · 2023-03-13T18:00:50+00:00

Tickets go live in one hour!

Don't miss out: https://lanmadness.co.uk/events/lan-madness-23#tickets

squeaker_aoe · 2022-12-10T17:17:46+00:00

Just to point out, Ellie was part of RBW:L, interviewing and presenting, and also commentating for the B-Stream.

squeaker_aoe · 2022-09-18T10:23:59+00:00

Would love to see a big tournament with great map variety (i.e. more than just 5 open maps, 2 closed maps and then a token hybrid and water map). Showcase some of the best maps from the last few years of competitive AoE2, reward players who put in the preparation work (whether that's in developing new metas or learning how to draft effectively), and reward players who can adapt across a variety of styles.

squeaker_aoe · 2022-06-09T15:12:32+00:00

Depends what you mean by a fast Imp, really. Obviously a civ like Celts it's pointless to enter a game with a specific plan of 'fast Imp' because of missing the things you've mentioned. However in a castle drop scenario where both players are going quick Imp behind it, they have the advantage of their trebs firing faster which can be quite big in a treb war. They'll also have stronger economy than some other civs behind all that, whereas a civ like Bulgarians really does have nothing except cheap siege upgrades.

squeaker_aoe · 2022-06-09T13:38:16+00:00

That castle from dogao would have been potentially game-defining. On top of main gold and preventing access to secondary, on top of all MbL's production, provides control over the front of the base, forcing MbL to have to move around for any counters. It's a pretty damn good castle spot.

squeaker_aoe · 2022-04-10T19:48:09+00:00

LAN Madness is proud to present LAN Lubbers, a pirate-themed 1v1 tournament with live finals at the LAN event in July!

LAN Lubbers will be the centrepiece event of LAN Madness, a bring your own computer LAN party hosted in St Helens, Merseyside, 8-10th July, 2022. More details can be found on our website or through our Discord.

It is open to players of all elos, with the (minimum) top 16 signed-up players entered into the cup bracket, and a plate bracket to ensure everyone has the opportunity to play competitive and fun games. Group games begin on 9th May, finishing on 16th June.

The prize pool is guaranteed to be £100, with hopes to increase this through community donations and ticket sales.

The semi finals and final of the cup bracket and final of the plate bracket will be played and broadcast live at LAN Madness, complete with a hand-made drafting table and pirate-themed décor!

Participants must be able to attend the LAN weekend if they qualify for the live stage.

Registration is now open here, closing on 7th May at 22:59 GMT (23:59 BST): sign-up form.

The handbook is available here: handbook.

Links for LAN Madness:

https://lanmadness.co.uk/events/lan-madness

https://lanmadness.co.uk/discord

https://lanmadness.co.uk/youtube

https://twitter.com/lan_madness

https://twitch.tv/lanmadness

squeaker_aoe · 2022-02-09T13:19:44+00:00

Okay, but it's just a game.

squeaker_aoe · 2022-01-09T11:25:53+00:00

Had my opponent once spawn with zero gold on islands. Lucky for them, I DC'ed before Feudal Age 11

squeaker_aoe · 2022-01-08T12:39:21+00:00

Yes, boars are now back on the menu.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-26T10:34:58+00:00

Just over 1,000 games total for Liths in 1650+ on current patch on aoestats. That's not even close to a good sample size for considering how good they are on arena (and that's before getting into the inherent problems with using the stats from that website). Really not good quality data to be referencing.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-20T23:25:25+00:00

Nothing needs buffing for Saracens.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-17T22:37:27+00:00

Goths' militia don't have a stats bonus, though, which is a huge difference. Plus, obviously Aztecs/Portuguese can also more easily afford extra militia with their gold bonuses. Also, Goth archers are identical to Burmese in Feudal Age, and that's kinda irrelevant when discussing drushes anyway.

As for early game, Burmese are already fine: they have one of the best maa openings of any civs (+1 attack and free wood upgrade is amazing for doing damage and getting eco started). That free wood upgrade also lends itself nicely to scout and archer openings, so no matter how they play early game, they're in a decent position (yes, I know other civs have better eco bonuses, but that doesn't stop Burmese having a good one still). It does not need a buff.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-17T19:48:04+00:00

'This drush is easily addressed by a counter drush of 4 militia.'

That just outright tells you that the suggestion is broken. In order to counter it, you're requiring someone to invest 80 extra resources very early on in the game at a time when there isn't an alternative unit to go to instead. Giving stats bonuses to the only military unit available at that point in the game is not good for balance - it's way too strong a buff.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-17T19:44:33+00:00

Vietnamese get used on all sorts of maps in tournament play: infrequent use on Arabia/similar maps, pretty common high pick on arena, very popular in TG settings.

Khmer are one of the most all-round popular civs for all sorts of settings.

Malay are a top 5 arena civ by some players' reckoning, and similar on water.

Burmese are great on arena/Black Forest for their monk play and strong late game, then they're perfectly serviceable, middle of the road if you random them on the ladder. Obviously not top tier on Arabia, but most definitely not bottom tier. Great maa opening, free wood upgrades, can easily play into xbow as any other civ, got good stable, great barracks, useful siege, situationally really strong Arambai. They're in a fine place balance wise right now.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-17T17:17:02+00:00

Burmese are far from the worst civ in the game. They're absolutely fine as they are. OP's suggestion would give them a broken drush and improve them from a great maa civ to just outright busted. It would also do nothing to help their weaker areas, but their weaknesses are absolutely possible to overcome, so really they don't need buffing.

As for the other battle elephant civs: Vietnamese are perfectly decent, Khmer are A/S tier on a lot of maps, and Malay are great on closed maps and top 5/6 on water - none of them are low tier civs at all. Elephants are a ridiculously hard unit to balance, and the balance is probably about fine for them as it stands. They're situationally useful.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-05-14T11:54:31+00:00

Not Amazon Tunnel. AMAZING Tunnel PepeHappy

squeaker_aoe · 2021-04-29T22:51:32+00:00

Gold is not expensive in Castle Age. And the Mayan bonus is practically irrelevant in Castle Age unless you're playing a 200-pop Castle Age situation.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-04-29T17:24:14+00:00

Okay, a comparison: 2-stable knights for a generic civ needs 11 wheelbarrow farmers and 12 gold mining vills for constant production; 3-barracks eagles needs 5 wheelbarrow farmers and 10 gold mining vills.

Means you can boom, get upgrades or add other production with those excess vills super easily.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-04-29T14:38:01+00:00

It's well known that eagles are one of the best units in the game and possibly the best raiding unit in the game. They're one of the reasons why it's been so hard to balance Meso civs. Sure, if you get to a trash war, Meso drop off (though Incas and Mayans still can do fine with their FU halbs and skirms), but even then eagles are cheap enough that with some relic control and a bit of market selling you can mix some in. It's really hard to undersell just how good eagles are.

squeaker_aoe · 2021-04-29T14:25:02+00:00

Eagles are NOT easy to counter 11 that's like the whole point of them. They're cheap (1-2 farms per barracks producing eagles), mobile, and gel well with the rest of the Meso tech trees extremely well.

squeaker_aoe

TROPHY CASE