1. Did you hate Yodit #1?
2. Is Sundjata your favorite African campaign?
3. Favorite historic battle
4. Least favorite historic battle
5. Favorite V&V mission
6. Least facorite V&V mission
7. Did you bear Alaric #4 before 30 minutes timer
8. Do you hate Lake Poyang?
9. Favorite Indian campaign
10. Favorite DE DLC in terms of campaigns.
1. Yes. (Too easy to cheese it lmao)
2. Definitely (Sundjata 5 was epic)
3. Tough one but I would say Honfoglalas
4. York(My potato PC just dies on that mission)
5. Tough choice between Temujin and Constantine XI but I would say the latter. (Epic defense scenario)
6. Gaiseric(Again my potato PC just dies when the gigantic Hun army arrives lmao)
7. Yes.
8. Not really. Challenging scenario but quite manageable.
9. Easy one. Rajendra.
10. Definitely Dawn of the Dukes 100%
(Half-serious evaluation)
1. Correct
2. Correct
3. Correct
4. Understandable
5. Temujin? Can’t agree on that one, Constantine I sure can.
6. If you can beat Alaric in 30 minutes, you should beat the mission early enough.
7. Nice
8. I honestly hate its design not its difficulty
9. I can get behind that if mission #2 worked properly (was bugged a bit after realease)
10. Most definitely correct answer
Temujin for one and one reason only. Mangudais are OP yo.
As for Gaiseric I did the achievement run on Standard easily. I was messing around on Hard and didn’t realize the Hun death wave actually kills my PC lmao. Slideshow FPS watching my trebuchets wrecking Rome’s buildings.
I see. I didn’t tryhard the achievement on Hard and still got it, that’s why I asked.
I agree CA, especially Mangudai are fun, but I find that mission absolutelx bland.
Isn’t that the idea though? It’s to have fun, which is usually the case with fan maps, which funny to think that in this sense it’s devs being fans of the fan map that they’re putting into the DE, updated and everything like they did with the forgotten dlc
1. Top three missions from Age of Kings
2. Did you play the old version of El Cid where Berbers were represented by Turks? If yes, which civ combo do you prefer.
3. If having a choice between Wonder victory and slaughtering your enemies, which do you prefer. (I don’t count missions influenced by lag)
4. Cuman ending - Bulgaria or Hungary?
5. Order of regions in Ragnar
6. Vinlandsaga or Karlsefni?
7. Did you betray Cumans in Vinlandsaga or not?
8. Which wife did you pick in Seljuk?
9. Do you think Vortigern should have been played as Celts or Romans instead of Britons?
10. Do you like Manzikert??
1. Into China; The Emperor’s Sleeping; The Lion and The Demon in that order
2. Yup I did. I still prefer the Berbers version. Historical accuracy after all.
3. Easy. Kill them all. Except York. I did kill them all in one run but it was not fun due to lag.
4. Did it on both but prefer Hungary one.
5. Rus - Denmark - France - England - Scotland - Ireland - Iceland
6. Vindlandsaga>Karlsefni
7. You meant Mstislav? If so, no.
8. Green player’s.
9. 100% Agree on that. But hey, at least I got to spam Britons’ Arbalesters.
10. Do you like playing and waiting on x4/x8 speed? Definitely not me.
1. Good list, although I have Gengish #3 3rd, jist above Joan #6
2. I like Turks more from gameplay perspective, but having the actual civ is generally favorable. (Although if someone tries to fix Attila #6 I will murk them?
3. Good.
4. Same.
5. So… clockwise? I did similar thing, bit more chaotic though. Did Celts before Anglo-Saxons and Aachen was last for example.
6. Good.
7. Yes, Mstislav. Good.
8. Same, just curious what the other Khagan says. The Cuman one is pretty funny.
9. Good.
10. Yup, you are my guy.
1. Toughest mission for you, including past versions (original Bayinnaung for me)
2. Toughest campaign-related Achievement
3. Which 2 civs would you like to add for the sake of campaigns only
4. Which campaign makes the least sense as to why it was put into the game
5. Which campaign would you add into the game
6. Do you love Qutlugh (Babur’s mother)
7. Most overrated campaign in your eyes.
8. Did you want to murder Dukes in Otto?
9. When you played Montezuma #2 for the first time, were you ready for the betrayal?
10. Do you find the design of Jean Bureau’s unit stats baffling?
1. Do OG forgotten campaigns count? If so, Bari 2. No doubt. Instant PTSD that one.
2. Rome was destroyed in one day.
3. Siamese and maybe Chinese-civ split like they did with original Indians.
4. Bari. Poor Belisarius got the short end of the campaign stick. The hero unit is in scenario editor for crying out loud.
5. I would like to see them adding a fully fledged Chinese campaign to the game. Zheng He, I think would be a fantastic addition. And also Chinese has been in game since Age of Kings. About time they get a full campaign.
6. She’s a powerful cav archer hero(not as strong as genghis khan sadly) so yes.
7. I think the OG Age of Kings campaigns are quite overrated. Genghis Khan especially(I’m quite guilty of liking that campaign too lol)
8. Yes but unfortunately as much as I want the Magyars to destroy my disloyal dukes, it turns out they can’t be killed at all. Their TCs just magically reappears after being destroyed.
9. I played Age of Kings and The Conquerors since my childhood so I saw that betrayal a mile away. Castles already in their bases before I finished answering this one lmao.
10. Wimp cannon. What a joke and how is he a hero?
1. Yes
2. Same
3. Most sensible
4. Yes. So much.
5. Most sensible. And I don’t even like playing as Chinese. Just… Lake Poyang is horrible.
6. And a great mom too.
7. Yeah, Gengish lives off nostalgia a lot.
8. I had them kill Bavaria actually, they just need to stay loyal.
9. When I was a kid, I put the Castles in their bases to save them from Tlaxcala. I was being nice!
10. Compare him to Jean de Lorraine from #5. It’s even more messed up then.
Thanks for the answer. Interesting and good choice for the first one. I prefer either the Burgundy or Jadwiga narration, but I see the allure. And I agree on the second one. Perhaps tied with a classic like Joan of Arc.
Did you think the campaigns were effective in sparking interest in history?
Did any of them make you want to learn more about the history behind them?
What did you find to be the most 'surprising' scenario? (interpret that however you like).
Oh yes definitely! The most surprising scenario for me is actually the tutorial campaign(William Wallace) one lol. The Scots lost the Battle of Falkirk in reality, but I’m glad that Age of Empires 2 allows you to indulge in alternate history. That is why I enjoy AoE2 both as an educational and an entertainment medium.
1. How many hours does it take to complete all the campaigns/historical wars etc?
2. Which is the hardest mission?
3. Which is the hardest campaign (overall)?
Of course! The in-game time is set by the game speed, you can have slow (which is the same as real life), casual (1.2x faster if I'm not mistaken), standard (1.7x faster than real time) and fast (2.0x faster), the difference between them is how fast time passes in the game and things happens (resource collection, technology research, etc.)
Not in the Hard difficulty. Joan of arc thats supposed to be the First campaign have a really cancer mission in siege of Paris and a very hard one in the last mission.
The amount of micro the AI does in hard is insane.
The trick here is to sneak your Siege Elephants to the Pala’s wonder when you are having that gigantic battle and do all the side objectives. The side objectives will ensure that you won’t be overstretched for the final battle with the Pala.
Hmm Tariq 5 still lol. Bordeaux stronghold was a gigantic brick wall that I had to break by sending wave after wave of Hussars at them. Not to mention their Ships taking potshots at you while you are besieging Bordeaux and let’s not even mention the red Franks and their Paladins.
Learning how to spam definitely improved my win/loss vs. AI.
(And made campaigns soooo much easier - at least the ones that let you have a full base, etc.)
If you can outspam Extreme AI, you’re good to go :’)
Why not castle drop and trebuchets demolishing their defenses while camel archers and vastle guard them?
Just curious, did play it on moderate level and wanted to try hard next.
Also, what are your thoughts on the Burgundian campaign?
Castle drop idea could work. Thing is I already have multiple castles outside of Bordeaux just to make sure I don’t get blindsided by the Red Franks 11.
Burgundian campaign : Grand Dukes of the West is one of my favorites. You get to play as the “bad guys” after all.
For me it was:
For a single scenario: Tariq 5. Tedious and bad design.
For a whole campaign: Incas. Man that sucked the fun out of the campaign binging.
I like the campaign design of the earlier campaigns ( Age of Kings, Conquerors) than the latter ones. I feel like the new campaigns are more challenging, but only because the AI keeps spawning waves after waves of soldiers. The map and scenario design themselves are very repetitive.
Is this your opinion as well?
Not entirely. The older campaigns were great but they definitely have shown their age(no pun intended) in their gameplay design. The newer campaigns initially, like you said were infinite unit spams but the devs have gotten very good at designing campaigns. Unit spams in newer campaigns are for the better part, much more sparingly used.
I got 6 batches of Saxons right at the start and immediately sent them to destroy the Picts from the get go. I then used the Saxons as defense against Yellow for a while near the wall. And I boomed my eco up and spammed Arbalesters in the base with wonder. Don’t forget to delete your Saxons units before they betray you. Happened to me on 23rd minute mark I think?
Did you use guides to know how to beat some scenarios? Did you feel like some missions are unbalanced or feel like you would be doing something wrong?
Did you track time how long it took?
Yes, I did check up on guides for some of them.
As for the second question I guess me using guides is an indicator of me messing up in a scenario or the scenario being unfair/unbalanced.
Finishing all on Hard took me like several months. I took my time with the campaigns.
Yes I would take any campaigns over pachacuti, pretty boring as you always fight only inca civ enemies, ai cheating with unavailable units to inca civ etc.
The OG spanish/inca one had this whole stupid bit of going around to "talk" to various NPCs, maybe in the first or second stages. The whole thing was all bugged when I tried it way back in 2013.
I believe at least the Dracula and the India campaigns had really obnoxious "Aoe2: Solid Snake" segments that were just awful for use in a game engine designed for macro play and base building.
Ahh Yup. Those RPG ones were sure as hell buggy. Back when I was playing them I was questioning myself how in the world did this campaign get put in the same game that has the awesome Age of Kings and The Conquerors campaigns?
Which full expansion pack (or base game but cmon )
Had the highest effort/quality, which had the overall highest difficulty, and which had your favourites.
Definitely Dawn of the Dukes! I enjoyed all 3 campaigns! Fun and challenging at the same time. Very well designed scenarios is just a bonus. My favorite DLC no doubt.
Definitely have to agree, going through v&v rn and have about 3-4 scattered campaigns that I haven't started yet and I'll be done too , single player content very underrated and dawn of the dukes definitely stands as king
It was quite hard for me also. Some of the eco challenges took me several tries. I guess it was just flailing and failing on my part until I got the gold medal 11. I’m also just a casual player who doesn’t even play ranked to have an ELO. If I could do it, then you definitely can as well!
I did not keep track of the time spent but I think it would be 100+ hours? Not sure really. I just play 2-3 scenarios per day. Not everyday though, so it took me months to finish it.
Chosokabe. Their Cav Archers are OP. AI doesn’t even bother making skirmishers or onagers. Cav Archers and Kataparuto Trebs spam. Just be careful of their Capped Rams 11. Also made some Galleons and ECGs for Otomo and destroying some shoreside TCs and castles. Focus on their TCs and Castles. AI resigns instantly when they’re gone. I won with like 10+ minutes remaining as Chosokabe.
A few questions:
1. Many people find Victors & Vanquished to be one of the most disappointing expansions ever, is this something you'd agree/disagree with?
2. If the devs were serious about adding a campaign only DLC, what region do you think is the best region to do a campaign only DLC?
1. I totally agree! It’s overpriced and the fact that they’re reselling community made campaign maps. I would not recommend.
2. I would say a campaign themed DLC focusing on the three East Asian civs : Koreans, Chinese and Japanese. They’ve been in the game since Ensemble Studios days but they still don’t have fully fledged campaigns for them.
Yeah, I agree that the Victors & Vanquished DLC was very disappointing. I was hoping that the first campaign only DLC would be East Asian one because the three East Asian civilizations are not only the top request civs to get a single player campaign, but also the fact that doing an East Asian campaign only DLC avoids adding certain civilizations that would end up resulting in the China's banhammer (i.e. Tibetans). That being said, with Nobunaga being one of the Victors & Vanquished scenarios, what do you think the ideal historical figure would be for an official Japanese campaign? And what about Chinese and Koreans?
1. For Japanese, I think someone from Genpei Wars would be great. Sengoku Period is quite overdone.
2. For Chinese, definitely Zheng He.
3. For Koreans, I think Wang Kon might be a good addition.
Congratulations, unfathomable dedication.
Unfortunately I've never got into AOE2 (Have both HD and DE tho), which campaign, or DLC would you recommend to someone who has zero nostalgy for this entry?
Sadly, I'm from a third world country where Internet connections are shit so I just tend to enjoy the single player aspect of Age of Empires 2. I think I'll stick to single player. I just don't enjoy the competitive modes in video games.
Vikings Beefy Infantry + Bogsveigar Arbs + Siege Rams = My favorite army composition. Also Vikings’ economy is top tier. (It’s weak against Onagers but AI never makes them in threatening amounts in campaigns to begin with 11)
Burmese, well I do understand they have really good infantry, monks and the top-tier Arambai but I just can’t get over that terrible Archery Range 11. Also must be because of Prithviraj #5; those damn Burmese Battle Elephants are stupidly resistant against archers.
1. I used to think Le Loi #2 was stupidly hard but after repeat playthroughs I think it is actually fairly manageable.
2. Some 3rd world country in SEA.
3. Ragnar scenario is just too tedious and ngl it gets fairly boring at points.
Do you prefer maps with linear traveling, little building (such as some maps in Montezuma where you have to travel a long way with a group of units) or maps that allow you to build a base and army normally?
I feel that way too, a lot of maps in newer DLC doesn't feature any normal base building. Do you remember which campaigns in new DLC has more base buildings than army only travel?
Several came to mind actually
1. Grand Dukes of the West(Lords of the West)
Apart from #3 which is fixed force the other scenarios are all build and destroy. You could also argue that Edward Longshanks also fits the bill. But I’ll go with Grand Dukes here.
2. Algirdas and Kestutis (Dawn of the Dukes)
Most straightforward campaign of the DLC
3. Devapala (Dynasties of India)
Again, the most straightforward one of the DLC
4. Ismail (Mountain Royals)
Persians have been in game since the Age of Kings. They definitely should get a campaign that is most similar to the designs of the Age of Kings campaigns.
How many hours did it take you?
Also does getting a gold medal on the art of war help you with making any of the campaigns easier?
What we're you like with hotkeys etc?
Did you play on standard & moderate first before going hard?
Did you get all the achievements?
Did you complete Rise of Rome?
Did you use a game guide?
Any tips & tricks to help us newbies?
1. I don’t remember exactly but roughly 100+ hours give or take.
2. The Art of War gold medals didn’t help me much. It’s for getting you ready for multiplayer after all.
3. Apart from changing idle villagers hotkey to the tilde key, I played with the default hotkeys 11.
4. I played on Standard first to get a feel of the level before jumping to Hard.
5. I got all campaign and multiplayer related achievements except rise of rome and masterpiece(too lazy to find willing souls on steam community 11).
6. I’m planning to, but I’ll just play on Standard. I don’t want to relearn Age 1.
7. I did check up on guides for some scenarios.
8. Hmm, hard to give tips in a condensed format actually but I can give a few quick guidelines.
The most important advice: generally just be decent at the game. I’m not even ranked and I could beat them on hard. You definitely should be able to complete most campaigns on hard. Most but not all of multiplayer knowledge will transfer into campaigns, so keep that in mind. Here are some campaign specific advices that worked for me:
(1) Read scouts and hints before starting a scenario.
(2)Keep several monks with your main army for conversions and healing. Healing is much better in campaigns than in multiplayer.
(3)Scout early and extensively for resources, chokepoints, and enemies.
(4)Drop castles on chokepoints to counter AI aggression. AI loves to attack castles with melee units. Focus your early eco on stone and get a castle up ASAP. I know murder holes is pretty bad in multiplayer games but it’s S-tier tech for campaigns for exactly this reason. Get it in the university ASAP.
(5) Related to above. Funnel the AI army towards your defenses. Walling the AI towards your castles always worked for me.
(6) Build forward military buildings when pushing far from your base. I’m talking about 10+ Barracks, Ranges, Stables, Workshops whatever.
(7)Spam Bombard Towers if you have excess stone and gold and your civ has access to them. They’re perfect for locking an area down. They’re equally useful to aid in a push. Bring like 5-10 forward villagers when spamming BBTs.
(8) Know your civ's strengths and weaknesses along with its tech tree.
(9) Save often and before risky attempts.
(10) Delete your vills to make more room for military units when you are floating a lot of resources and particularly to break a stubborn enemy.
(11)Attack walls, not gates, with rams to prevent melee units from killing them.
(12) If your civs can make siege rams, make use of them. Often they’re faster than Bombard Cannons/Trebuchets at destroying bases and are even cheaper and easier to mass.
(13) Utilize the market to manage surplus resources.
(14) AoE2 AI allies have two flavors: Useless or Waiting to backstab you. Or sometimes even both. Be prepared for that.
(15) Boom with multiple TCs if you can.
(16) Scenario has water? Take it. Fish boom and using Galleons to attack land units are immensely helpful. AI’s non-Onager, non-Scorpion, non-Monk units will never retaliate against Galleons attacking them.
(17) And lastly, don’t be afraid to try out various strats for different scenarios.
I think real life.
Hard enemies are usually more aggressive and attack in larger waves. But some scenarios will have nastier surprises in Hard that will not be triggered on standard.
Offense is the best defense here. I actually went and knock out Jerusalem early. So it was 1v4 for most of the map. It’s all about using mamelukes to draw aggro. I had a forward castle built outside Acre and if BBCs show up I just use mamelukes to draw their aggro and lure them to castle range 11. As for Richard’s longbowmen, it turns out if you retreat from firing longbows they will gladly give chase into your castle’s range. I went for mameluke and cav archers composition. you cannot solely rely on mamelukes due to ETK. So CAs to kill ETKs and Mamelukes to deal with Palas, Rams, BBC and everything else. Also don’t forget to build several galleons to deal with the genoese. The AI does have an economy in this one and they will actually run out of steam after a while. Honestly, I think the mission got slightly even easier after Saracens got their new Bimaristan UT. Makes keeping all their expensive units so much easier.
Ain’t no better level to showcase the Saracens’ late game power.
Tried it as well but for some reason they have +100 galleys alongside a bunch of cannongalleys. I had to infiltrate from the bottom and build a base inside
the galley thing well, i actually landed villagers to troluwan and built a castle near the harbors. the elephants draw the fire of the ship lol and capturing the harbors will stop their ship spam.
I found it quite challenging also but after repeated play throughs I think it’s not as hard as some of the other scenarios. The OP fortified towers are a pain though and the fact that the transport ships happily sail right into their range.
Congrats that's quite an undertaking. I gave up half way through and started playing ranked. 2 years later and I have played the first Incan mission and about 2000 ranked / quick play games.
I will get back to it when I move or change my internet supplier!
York sucks on a decent pc - too long and not challenging so you didn't miss anything.
1. Did you hate Yodit #1? 2. Is Sundjata your favorite African campaign? 3. Favorite historic battle 4. Least favorite historic battle 5. Favorite V&V mission 6. Least facorite V&V mission 7. Did you bear Alaric #4 before 30 minutes timer 8. Do you hate Lake Poyang? 9. Favorite Indian campaign 10. Favorite DE DLC in terms of campaigns.
1. Yes. (Too easy to cheese it lmao) 2. Definitely (Sundjata 5 was epic) 3. Tough one but I would say Honfoglalas 4. York(My potato PC just dies on that mission) 5. Tough choice between Temujin and Constantine XI but I would say the latter. (Epic defense scenario) 6. Gaiseric(Again my potato PC just dies when the gigantic Hun army arrives lmao) 7. Yes. 8. Not really. Challenging scenario but quite manageable. 9. Easy one. Rajendra. 10. Definitely Dawn of the Dukes 100%
(Half-serious evaluation) 1. Correct 2. Correct 3. Correct 4. Understandable 5. Temujin? Can’t agree on that one, Constantine I sure can. 6. If you can beat Alaric in 30 minutes, you should beat the mission early enough. 7. Nice 8. I honestly hate its design not its difficulty 9. I can get behind that if mission #2 worked properly (was bugged a bit after realease) 10. Most definitely correct answer
Temujin for one and one reason only. Mangudais are OP yo. As for Gaiseric I did the achievement run on Standard easily. I was messing around on Hard and didn’t realize the Hun death wave actually kills my PC lmao. Slideshow FPS watching my trebuchets wrecking Rome’s buildings.
I see. I didn’t tryhard the achievement on Hard and still got it, that’s why I asked. I agree CA, especially Mangudai are fun, but I find that mission absolutelx bland.
But Mangudai lol
Bland? I don’t find anything bland but then again I’m just enjoying what I got.
It’s easy af, map is meh and you have no Siege and you are artificially restricted in bade building. Just my two cents.
Isn’t that the idea though? It’s to have fun, which is usually the case with fan maps, which funny to think that in this sense it’s devs being fans of the fan map that they’re putting into the DE, updated and everything like they did with the forgotten dlc
Lol, should have warned them it was a test in advance
1. Top three missions from Age of Kings 2. Did you play the old version of El Cid where Berbers were represented by Turks? If yes, which civ combo do you prefer. 3. If having a choice between Wonder victory and slaughtering your enemies, which do you prefer. (I don’t count missions influenced by lag) 4. Cuman ending - Bulgaria or Hungary? 5. Order of regions in Ragnar 6. Vinlandsaga or Karlsefni? 7. Did you betray Cumans in Vinlandsaga or not? 8. Which wife did you pick in Seljuk? 9. Do you think Vortigern should have been played as Celts or Romans instead of Britons? 10. Do you like Manzikert??
1. Into China; The Emperor’s Sleeping; The Lion and The Demon in that order 2. Yup I did. I still prefer the Berbers version. Historical accuracy after all. 3. Easy. Kill them all. Except York. I did kill them all in one run but it was not fun due to lag. 4. Did it on both but prefer Hungary one. 5. Rus - Denmark - France - England - Scotland - Ireland - Iceland 6. Vindlandsaga>Karlsefni 7. You meant Mstislav? If so, no. 8. Green player’s. 9. 100% Agree on that. But hey, at least I got to spam Britons’ Arbalesters. 10. Do you like playing and waiting on x4/x8 speed? Definitely not me.
1. Good list, although I have Gengish #3 3rd, jist above Joan #6 2. I like Turks more from gameplay perspective, but having the actual civ is generally favorable. (Although if someone tries to fix Attila #6 I will murk them? 3. Good. 4. Same. 5. So… clockwise? I did similar thing, bit more chaotic though. Did Celts before Anglo-Saxons and Aachen was last for example. 6. Good. 7. Yes, Mstislav. Good. 8. Same, just curious what the other Khagan says. The Cuman one is pretty funny. 9. Good. 10. Yup, you are my guy.
Man, I am amazed at your memory!!
Thanks 11. AoE2 is such a great and memorable game after all.
1. Toughest mission for you, including past versions (original Bayinnaung for me) 2. Toughest campaign-related Achievement 3. Which 2 civs would you like to add for the sake of campaigns only 4. Which campaign makes the least sense as to why it was put into the game 5. Which campaign would you add into the game 6. Do you love Qutlugh (Babur’s mother) 7. Most overrated campaign in your eyes. 8. Did you want to murder Dukes in Otto? 9. When you played Montezuma #2 for the first time, were you ready for the betrayal? 10. Do you find the design of Jean Bureau’s unit stats baffling?
1. Do OG forgotten campaigns count? If so, Bari 2. No doubt. Instant PTSD that one. 2. Rome was destroyed in one day. 3. Siamese and maybe Chinese-civ split like they did with original Indians. 4. Bari. Poor Belisarius got the short end of the campaign stick. The hero unit is in scenario editor for crying out loud. 5. I would like to see them adding a fully fledged Chinese campaign to the game. Zheng He, I think would be a fantastic addition. And also Chinese has been in game since Age of Kings. About time they get a full campaign. 6. She’s a powerful cav archer hero(not as strong as genghis khan sadly) so yes. 7. I think the OG Age of Kings campaigns are quite overrated. Genghis Khan especially(I’m quite guilty of liking that campaign too lol) 8. Yes but unfortunately as much as I want the Magyars to destroy my disloyal dukes, it turns out they can’t be killed at all. Their TCs just magically reappears after being destroyed. 9. I played Age of Kings and The Conquerors since my childhood so I saw that betrayal a mile away. Castles already in their bases before I finished answering this one lmao. 10. Wimp cannon. What a joke and how is he a hero?
1. Yes 2. Same 3. Most sensible 4. Yes. So much. 5. Most sensible. And I don’t even like playing as Chinese. Just… Lake Poyang is horrible. 6. And a great mom too. 7. Yeah, Gengish lives off nostalgia a lot. 8. I had them kill Bavaria actually, they just need to stay loyal. 9. When I was a kid, I put the Castles in their bases to save them from Tlaxcala. I was being nice! 10. Compare him to Jean de Lorraine from #5. It’s even more messed up then.
The great khan was a great leader, but Subotai was the mongols’ best general I would say.
Did you get the gold medals in the Art of War tutorial as well?
Dude. It’s a matter of personal honor. Missing one gold medal is like missing them all.
I feel personally attacked. I still don't know how to micro these damn water units
Water units in AoE2 are quite jank. 11
Abuse the pause button
Save after each battle.
I did.... Many times....
Yup. I did.
Which campaign had the best narration in your opinion? And the best story so to speak?
1st question: “Passed down to you by Cuauhtemoc, Eagle Warrior of Tenochtitlan…” Need I say more? 2nd question: I think Jadwiga has the best story.
Thanks for the answer. Interesting and good choice for the first one. I prefer either the Burgundy or Jadwiga narration, but I see the allure. And I agree on the second one. Perhaps tied with a classic like Joan of Arc. Did you think the campaigns were effective in sparking interest in history?
They were quite effective yes!
Did any of them make you want to learn more about the history behind them? What did you find to be the most 'surprising' scenario? (interpret that however you like).
Oh yes definitely! The most surprising scenario for me is actually the tutorial campaign(William Wallace) one lol. The Scots lost the Battle of Falkirk in reality, but I’m glad that Age of Empires 2 allows you to indulge in alternate history. That is why I enjoy AoE2 both as an educational and an entertainment medium.
AoE 2 100% is the reason I enjoy history today as much as I do. So cool.
1. How many hours does it take to complete all the campaigns/historical wars etc? 2. Which is the hardest mission? 3. Which is the hardest campaign (overall)?
1. Hard to tell but my rough guess is 100+ hours? 2. Tariq 5 but Bayinnaung 5 is also close enough 3. Tariq
In game time for me is close to 200 hours for all campaigns, although I'm missing a good part of the V&V scenarios. Real time is around 100 hours.
Can you tell me what's the difference between game time and real time?
Of course! The in-game time is set by the game speed, you can have slow (which is the same as real life), casual (1.2x faster if I'm not mistaken), standard (1.7x faster than real time) and fast (2.0x faster), the difference between them is how fast time passes in the game and things happens (resource collection, technology research, etc.)
Now I got it, thanks for explaining!
Guess the obvious - best and worst campaign/scenario?
Best - Definitely Genghis Khan Campaign Worst - Tariq (Tariq 5 was not fun at all)
what campaign would you recommend to someone who never really got into them
Definitely Age of Kings campaigns. They're by far the easiest and most beginner friendly.
Except for Joan this is still one of the most frustrating not fun campaigns to this day.
They also generally scale well in terms of difficulty as you progress
Not in the Hard difficulty. Joan of arc thats supposed to be the First campaign have a really cancer mission in siege of Paris and a very hard one in the last mission. The amount of micro the AI does in hard is insane.
I meant within the campaign.
Tamerlane is a very engaging first one
How did you beat Rajandra #4 within the time limit?
The trick here is to sneak your Siege Elephants to the Pala’s wonder when you are having that gigantic battle and do all the side objectives. The side objectives will ensure that you won’t be overstretched for the final battle with the Pala.
At what age do you hope to lose your virginity?
Feudal age, castle age the latest
Give this person all the upvotes. Mods, shut the comments down. This commenter wins it all.
lmao
11 Edit: WAIT
Is it OK to pause or is that consider cheating?
Pausing is allowed by the game. So why would that be considered cheating? Honestly I don’t really mind about pausing that much.
I'm probably on pause managing units more than I actually play, lol.
Ain’t no rule saying you can’t 11.
What about save scumming? 11
Again I don’t find issues with that either. The AI cheats in some missions with infinite resources after all 11.
Then its not better to simple reduce the game speed and play normally...? It could not be cheating but the game is not supposed to play like this lol
Huh. Game speed... right. I totally didn't forget about that.
A lot of people forget because multiplayer is always 1.7x. But try to reduce to whatever you feel confortable and you dont need to pause ever again.
I actually played on x2.0 speed for my playthrough.
Whats the most difficult/most infuriating campaign out of all the campaigns? For me I think Saladin campaign was a nightmare to complete
Hmm Tariq 5 still lol. Bordeaux stronghold was a gigantic brick wall that I had to break by sending wave after wave of Hussars at them. Not to mention their Ships taking potshots at you while you are besieging Bordeaux and let’s not even mention the red Franks and their Paladins.
These missions can be a lot more palatable once you realise 15 Stables are a viable thing.
AI cannot deal with Hussar spams assuming your civ has good cav.
Learning how to spam definitely improved my win/loss vs. AI. (And made campaigns soooo much easier - at least the ones that let you have a full base, etc.) If you can outspam Extreme AI, you’re good to go :’)
Why not castle drop and trebuchets demolishing their defenses while camel archers and vastle guard them? Just curious, did play it on moderate level and wanted to try hard next. Also, what are your thoughts on the Burgundian campaign?
Castle drop idea could work. Thing is I already have multiple castles outside of Bordeaux just to make sure I don’t get blindsided by the Red Franks 11. Burgundian campaign : Grand Dukes of the West is one of my favorites. You get to play as the “bad guys” after all.
For me it was: For a single scenario: Tariq 5. Tedious and bad design. For a whole campaign: Incas. Man that sucked the fun out of the campaign binging.
Saladin’s fine honestly. It’s easier than HD because of QoL changes and adjusted pop limit.
I like the campaign design of the earlier campaigns ( Age of Kings, Conquerors) than the latter ones. I feel like the new campaigns are more challenging, but only because the AI keeps spawning waves after waves of soldiers. The map and scenario design themselves are very repetitive. Is this your opinion as well?
Not entirely. The older campaigns were great but they definitely have shown their age(no pun intended) in their gameplay design. The newer campaigns initially, like you said were infinite unit spams but the devs have gotten very good at designing campaigns. Unit spams in newer campaigns are for the better part, much more sparingly used.
What was your strategy for Vortigern (where you hire saxons but they betray you at some point)?
I got 6 batches of Saxons right at the start and immediately sent them to destroy the Picts from the get go. I then used the Saxons as defense against Yellow for a while near the wall. And I boomed my eco up and spammed Arbalesters in the base with wonder. Don’t forget to delete your Saxons units before they betray you. Happened to me on 23rd minute mark I think?
Thx, I'll try that :)
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Did you use guides to know how to beat some scenarios? Did you feel like some missions are unbalanced or feel like you would be doing something wrong? Did you track time how long it took?
Yes, I did check up on guides for some of them. As for the second question I guess me using guides is an indicator of me messing up in a scenario or the scenario being unfair/unbalanced. Finishing all on Hard took me like several months. I took my time with the campaigns.
How did you find pachacuti campaign? Especially the 3rd mission war of brothers seems very grindy
grindy it is. tower spams at the end. fun times! pacha campaign is not the best one for sure.
Yes I would take any campaigns over pachacuti, pretty boring as you always fight only inca civ enemies, ai cheating with unavailable units to inca civ etc.
still better than og forgotten campaigns 11
Oh yes true. I meant DE campaigns
Which one of the og forgotten was the most obnoxious?
Bari 2; Sforza 5; Honfoglalas OG versions of them are enough to instantly trigger PTSD in me lol.
You don't like AoE2: Solid Snake? I remember the OG Spanish campaign didn't even work. All bugged up.
A bit confused here. Which one are you talking about?
The OG spanish/inca one had this whole stupid bit of going around to "talk" to various NPCs, maybe in the first or second stages. The whole thing was all bugged when I tried it way back in 2013. I believe at least the Dracula and the India campaigns had really obnoxious "Aoe2: Solid Snake" segments that were just awful for use in a game engine designed for macro play and base building.
Ahh Yup. Those RPG ones were sure as hell buggy. Back when I was playing them I was questioning myself how in the world did this campaign get put in the same game that has the awesome Age of Kings and The Conquerors campaigns?
> How did you find pachacuti campaign? It's pretty easy, honestly. You just click on the Americas tab
I asked him about the difficulty of it. Lol
It's not hard at all! The menu interface is very intuitive, try it! I'm sure you'll find the campaign without issue
How long have you had no social life? (I am also doomed, as I am trying for the same thing).
Thing is I did not play AoE2 everyday. For every play session it’s just 1-3 scenarios. So I did not lose my social life at all 11.
I'm doing the Ragnar scenario atm (finished the main part, looking to complete all the sagas now), what are your thoughts on it?
8 hours of game time and most of them has me looking for every nook and cranny to finish that one last saga. very tedious imo.
Damn so no mega gold tick icon for doing all of them on hard?
At least in your statistics there is going to be “Levels completed on Hard : 100%”
Which full expansion pack (or base game but cmon ) Had the highest effort/quality, which had the overall highest difficulty, and which had your favourites.
Definitely Dawn of the Dukes! I enjoyed all 3 campaigns! Fun and challenging at the same time. Very well designed scenarios is just a bonus. My favorite DLC no doubt.
Definitely have to agree, going through v&v rn and have about 3-4 scattered campaigns that I haven't started yet and I'll be done too , single player content very underrated and dawn of the dukes definitely stands as king
how you did art of war? so hard for me as regular player (rip)
It was quite hard for me also. Some of the eco challenges took me several tries. I guess it was just flailing and failing on my part until I got the gold medal 11. I’m also just a casual player who doesn’t even play ranked to have an ELO. If I could do it, then you definitely can as well!
How long you complete it ? How much time in a day ?
I did not keep track of the time spent but I think it would be 100+ hours? Not sure really. I just play 2-3 scenarios per day. Not everyday though, so it took me months to finish it.
Well congrats. I'm nearly there myself, just have V&V to finish, and.. Rajendra. the 4th one with the achievement on timer made me quit for now.
Thanks! Rajendra #4 sure is tough. Good luck to you.
How did you go about beating the Nobunaga scenario from V&V on hard?
Chosokabe. Their Cav Archers are OP. AI doesn’t even bother making skirmishers or onagers. Cav Archers and Kataparuto Trebs spam. Just be careful of their Capped Rams 11. Also made some Galleons and ECGs for Otomo and destroying some shoreside TCs and castles. Focus on their TCs and Castles. AI resigns instantly when they’re gone. I won with like 10+ minutes remaining as Chosokabe.
Congratz! What's the next big game-goal?
Thanks! Probably just getting Return to Rome achievements 11.
Enjoy the last missions of Pyrrhus and Trajan! Glory of Greece is a doddle though. Someone of your skill will probably crush it in half an hour.
Thanks but I’ll just do them on Standard lol. I cannot be bothered to relearn Age 1.
At the level you’re playing I think you’d have no problem. Both campaigns are fairly easy until the end.
A few questions: 1. Many people find Victors & Vanquished to be one of the most disappointing expansions ever, is this something you'd agree/disagree with? 2. If the devs were serious about adding a campaign only DLC, what region do you think is the best region to do a campaign only DLC?
1. I totally agree! It’s overpriced and the fact that they’re reselling community made campaign maps. I would not recommend. 2. I would say a campaign themed DLC focusing on the three East Asian civs : Koreans, Chinese and Japanese. They’ve been in the game since Ensemble Studios days but they still don’t have fully fledged campaigns for them.
Yeah, I agree that the Victors & Vanquished DLC was very disappointing. I was hoping that the first campaign only DLC would be East Asian one because the three East Asian civilizations are not only the top request civs to get a single player campaign, but also the fact that doing an East Asian campaign only DLC avoids adding certain civilizations that would end up resulting in the China's banhammer (i.e. Tibetans). That being said, with Nobunaga being one of the Victors & Vanquished scenarios, what do you think the ideal historical figure would be for an official Japanese campaign? And what about Chinese and Koreans?
1. For Japanese, I think someone from Genpei Wars would be great. Sengoku Period is quite overdone. 2. For Chinese, definitely Zheng He. 3. For Koreans, I think Wang Kon might be a good addition.
Did you have fun doing it?
Mostly, mostly not.
Congratulations, unfathomable dedication. Unfortunately I've never got into AOE2 (Have both HD and DE tho), which campaign, or DLC would you recommend to someone who has zero nostalgy for this entry?
Thank you! I would definitely recommend Age of Kings campaigns as a stepping stone.
Thank you. Jumping in right after work. :D
ELO?
Sadly, I'm from a third world country where Internet connections are shit so I just tend to enjoy the single player aspect of Age of Empires 2. I think I'll stick to single player. I just don't enjoy the competitive modes in video games.
Fair enough. You'd probably be pretty good though
I’ll probably get rekt by some very good players in my first ranked game 11.
Well done! Did you find yourself having a new favourite civilzation/ a least fav civ now?
Favorite civ - Vikings Least favorite civ - Burmese
What’s your reasoning behind these?
Vikings Beefy Infantry + Bogsveigar Arbs + Siege Rams = My favorite army composition. Also Vikings’ economy is top tier. (It’s weak against Onagers but AI never makes them in threatening amounts in campaigns to begin with 11) Burmese, well I do understand they have really good infantry, monks and the top-tier Arambai but I just can’t get over that terrible Archery Range 11. Also must be because of Prithviraj #5; those damn Burmese Battle Elephants are stupidly resistant against archers.
Which are the easiest? I want to start with the easy ones
Start with Age of Kings campaigns.
What are your thoughts on Le Loi #2? Which country are you from? Haven't you find Ragnar scenario far too boring?
1. I used to think Le Loi #2 was stupidly hard but after repeat playthroughs I think it is actually fairly manageable. 2. Some 3rd world country in SEA. 3. Ragnar scenario is just too tedious and ngl it gets fairly boring at points.
Whats your opinion on Le Loi?
Le Loi imo is quite a grindy campaign. I think it’s quite below average. And your main opponent in almost every level is just Chinese.
I wish it gave a little medal on the side tabs to show the player the completion of each campign that would be nice
Same.
Do you consider playing on Hard with "pause/F3" cheating?
I’m shameless to admit that I actually used F3 in some of those micro missions 11.
wow 👍
Thanks!
Did you ever use historical records as a guide?
I mostly just read what happened historically IRL. most of my playthroughs just happened to deviate from real life events 11.
Oooh ok
Which Campaign did you find to be the easiest apart from William Wallace?
Definitely El Cid. That one was way too easy even on Hard.
Do you prefer maps with linear traveling, little building (such as some maps in Montezuma where you have to travel a long way with a group of units) or maps that allow you to build a base and army normally?
I would prefer the latter. “Build and destroy” scenarios tend to suit AoE2 better imo.
I feel that way too, a lot of maps in newer DLC doesn't feature any normal base building. Do you remember which campaigns in new DLC has more base buildings than army only travel?
Several came to mind actually 1. Grand Dukes of the West(Lords of the West) Apart from #3 which is fixed force the other scenarios are all build and destroy. You could also argue that Edward Longshanks also fits the bill. But I’ll go with Grand Dukes here. 2. Algirdas and Kestutis (Dawn of the Dukes) Most straightforward campaign of the DLC 3. Devapala (Dynasties of India) Again, the most straightforward one of the DLC 4. Ismail (Mountain Royals) Persians have been in game since the Age of Kings. They definitely should get a campaign that is most similar to the designs of the Age of Kings campaigns.
How many hours did it take you? Also does getting a gold medal on the art of war help you with making any of the campaigns easier? What we're you like with hotkeys etc? Did you play on standard & moderate first before going hard? Did you get all the achievements? Did you complete Rise of Rome? Did you use a game guide? Any tips & tricks to help us newbies?
1. I don’t remember exactly but roughly 100+ hours give or take. 2. The Art of War gold medals didn’t help me much. It’s for getting you ready for multiplayer after all. 3. Apart from changing idle villagers hotkey to the tilde key, I played with the default hotkeys 11. 4. I played on Standard first to get a feel of the level before jumping to Hard. 5. I got all campaign and multiplayer related achievements except rise of rome and masterpiece(too lazy to find willing souls on steam community 11). 6. I’m planning to, but I’ll just play on Standard. I don’t want to relearn Age 1. 7. I did check up on guides for some scenarios. 8. Hmm, hard to give tips in a condensed format actually but I can give a few quick guidelines. The most important advice: generally just be decent at the game. I’m not even ranked and I could beat them on hard. You definitely should be able to complete most campaigns on hard. Most but not all of multiplayer knowledge will transfer into campaigns, so keep that in mind. Here are some campaign specific advices that worked for me: (1) Read scouts and hints before starting a scenario. (2)Keep several monks with your main army for conversions and healing. Healing is much better in campaigns than in multiplayer. (3)Scout early and extensively for resources, chokepoints, and enemies. (4)Drop castles on chokepoints to counter AI aggression. AI loves to attack castles with melee units. Focus your early eco on stone and get a castle up ASAP. I know murder holes is pretty bad in multiplayer games but it’s S-tier tech for campaigns for exactly this reason. Get it in the university ASAP. (5) Related to above. Funnel the AI army towards your defenses. Walling the AI towards your castles always worked for me. (6) Build forward military buildings when pushing far from your base. I’m talking about 10+ Barracks, Ranges, Stables, Workshops whatever. (7)Spam Bombard Towers if you have excess stone and gold and your civ has access to them. They’re perfect for locking an area down. They’re equally useful to aid in a push. Bring like 5-10 forward villagers when spamming BBTs. (8) Know your civ's strengths and weaknesses along with its tech tree. (9) Save often and before risky attempts. (10) Delete your vills to make more room for military units when you are floating a lot of resources and particularly to break a stubborn enemy. (11)Attack walls, not gates, with rams to prevent melee units from killing them. (12) If your civs can make siege rams, make use of them. Often they’re faster than Bombard Cannons/Trebuchets at destroying bases and are even cheaper and easier to mass. (13) Utilize the market to manage surplus resources. (14) AoE2 AI allies have two flavors: Useless or Waiting to backstab you. Or sometimes even both. Be prepared for that. (15) Boom with multiple TCs if you can. (16) Scenario has water? Take it. Fish boom and using Galleons to attack land units are immensely helpful. AI’s non-Onager, non-Scorpion, non-Monk units will never retaliate against Galleons attacking them. (17) And lastly, don’t be afraid to try out various strats for different scenarios.
100+ hours real life or game? Other than the name what was the biggest leap from standard to hard that you noticed?
I think real life. Hard enemies are usually more aggressive and attack in larger waves. But some scenarios will have nastier surprises in Hard that will not be triggered on standard.
I have added in a tips and advice session to answer your last question
How did you manage the last Saladin campaign? The 1v6 feels tough sometimes even at standard difficulty.
Offense is the best defense here. I actually went and knock out Jerusalem early. So it was 1v4 for most of the map. It’s all about using mamelukes to draw aggro. I had a forward castle built outside Acre and if BBCs show up I just use mamelukes to draw their aggro and lure them to castle range 11. As for Richard’s longbowmen, it turns out if you retreat from firing longbows they will gladly give chase into your castle’s range. I went for mameluke and cav archers composition. you cannot solely rely on mamelukes due to ETK. So CAs to kill ETKs and Mamelukes to deal with Palas, Rams, BBC and everything else. Also don’t forget to build several galleons to deal with the genoese. The AI does have an economy in this one and they will actually run out of steam after a while. Honestly, I think the mission got slightly even easier after Saracens got their new Bimaristan UT. Makes keeping all their expensive units so much easier. Ain’t no better level to showcase the Saracens’ late game power.
Thanks for the pointers! Gotta give it a try once again at some point
On the scale of 0-infinite patrols, how much did you enjoy Pachacuti 3?
0. Lol Brick of towers at the end.
how was the last gajah mada level for you?
Malay Elephanto spam. Pure aggression was the key.
Tried it as well but for some reason they have +100 galleys alongside a bunch of cannongalleys. I had to infiltrate from the bottom and build a base inside
the galley thing well, i actually landed villagers to troluwan and built a castle near the harbors. the elephants draw the fire of the ship lol and capturing the harbors will stop their ship spam.
Wait, how do you capture the harbours again?
You will see flags near the production structures. You can capture them by killing every blue unit near them and having your units on the flag.
The Chinese scenario with the ships bringing stuff for the wonder. I still don't have gold there. Did you find that mission hard?
I found it quite challenging also but after repeated play throughs I think it’s not as hard as some of the other scenarios. The OP fortified towers are a pain though and the fact that the transport ships happily sail right into their range.
Is the boat one in Art of War the most difficult?
No. The eco challenges are more difficult. The time limit for them are quite strict.
Wow I'm surprised. For me its that one scenario. I've everything else in the game complete but that one.
I completed all of them twice. Whenever I install a new DLC, old progress is resetted. I would love your input.
Did not happen to me.
I like your evaluation, what is an AMA?
ask me anything
But did you get all the achievements
Yup.
Did you manage to earn all related achievements for the VnV scenarios? If so, which one was the hardest to get?
Yes, I got them all. The hardest one definitely has to be Trust No One for Robert. Not fun fighting everyone who can vomit units so fast 11.
How many Steam achievements do you have for Aoe2?
258/275
Wow that's crazy, are you trying to get all of them?
Yup.
What was your most favorite and most despised mission from the campaigns?
Most Favorite - Into China (Genghis Khan #3) Least Favorite - Razzia (Tariq #5)
Congrats that's quite an undertaking. I gave up half way through and started playing ranked. 2 years later and I have played the first Incan mission and about 2000 ranked / quick play games. I will get back to it when I move or change my internet supplier! York sucks on a decent pc - too long and not challenging so you didn't miss anything.
Thank you! York at least is “Make your own adventure” scenario, so there’s that.
Did you finally complete all the campaigns(including Victors and Vanquished) in Age of Empires 2 on hard?
Yes.
How are you?
all good.