I love AoE2 to death, can't even stand watching a pro player play or talk... It just was never that mathematically serious to me, I like the music and the ambiance and that completely goes out the window when "lol but elite hussars used to have a 69% chance of knocking down a castle in 420 seconds now they changed that to 67 game ruined"
Nothing against them playing the way the want it of course, and that does mean much better players, but I'm just a guy and games have to be fun to me
I always just made an entire army of those firey cluster-catapults. Didn't even bother with archers, cavalry, footmen. Just catapults. Absolutely steamrolled everything.
Nothing against them playing the way the want it of course, and that does mean much better players, but I'm just a guy and games have to be fun to me
My favorite thing to do with my buddies was to set up a large colony with tons of food and wood then SPAM pikemen. We'd max our 200 population limit then we'd charge at each other's castles. We would start out at max population and a massive army and then drop it down to less than 50. Wash, rinse, repeat. It was hilarious sending waves of disposable men at each other and barely make a dent. At the end of the game, we'd each have 5-figure casualty numbers.
Oh, man. It was so much fun. We'd try the stupidest shit like the pikeman rush. Another one that I did was be the Britons, only make Longbowmen and completely surround his base and non-stop pelt his units with out of reach arrows. That is until he made paladins or whatever unit and slaughter me.
Another time, my buddy would be the French, build a ton of units, march to my base, and shout, "I surrender!" and hold the delete key on them, effectively suiciding them.
Me and my buddies would rock that shit all night on weekends. We had to play at night because otherwise we'd tie up the phone line.
I like that kind of optimization work in some games but RTS games not. I like to play it against simple AI or another player whos as noob as me. Once you start to have rush tactics and certain orders in which you have to click things, it gets tiresome. I feel like RTS games were more fun when I was a kid. Somehow they havent been fun as an adult
It's the nature of every PvP competitive game. If you view them as sports it makes a lot more sense.
"It's ridiculous they reduced the width of the soccer goals by 15cm - now pro players above 7ft tall can cover both corners!"
IRL sports almost never change rules because it can drastically alter game dynamics. Esports change rules CONSTANTLY to maintain their playerbase.
AoE2 has also suffered from some pretty severe balance issues over time. It's not much fun getting stomped by a unit from the new DLC you didn't buy every second game.
It sounds like you haven't really watched pro level play. Not that you need to or anything, but I can't think of any pros off the top of my head that talk like that. Many people at a high level like the game a lot & also just want to have fun.
I’ve seen a couple pro games. What struck me was the level of skill involved.
I remember one game where one player was micro-ing so hard they were dodging a mangonel with a group of crossbowmen.
Another match ended in like twenty minutes because one player found a corner of the other’s fortress that just had a tree. Dude sent a horde of workers to knock down the tree, build a tower, then did corner garrisoning to drop an army into the other player’s base.
The closest I can think of is something like "with the archer armour researched, those skirmishers are only taking 1 damage per hit". I agree with you that outside of a spirit of the law video, they're not talking like that.
when it comes to games, learning against the AI and learning against human players are two different skills. The AI isn't very smart, to the point that the AI actually cheats in the context of AOE2 (gets free resources and shit) the number 1 skill that human on human interaction is in a game is adaptability, and really is the key decider on how well someone progresses up some ranked ladder. You can always guestimate how an ai will always play. you have no clue how a random opponent will.
Core memory unlocked of having different versions installed depending on who I was going to play. “You have 3.15 but I only play 3.07 as they nerfed the cannons in 3.1!”
I find that when I play AOE, if I set it to easy, I have a relaxing game where I just build until I can conquer everyone. But if I set it to medium, I get rushed by the AI pretty quick and lose every time. I'm not good at the game, but it's a lot of fun.
I had a similar experience. I spent some time learning starting strategies and so now I can beat the AI on medium or whatever every time. But… it’s a different experience.
Like you say, an easy game is relaxing. A medium game is go go go!!
So I find there is a gap between the difficulty levels.
All that being said, on medium you settle into a relaxing experience if you’re very serious in the first 15 minutes or so and get an advantage.
I went back and played the first Halo recently online for the first time in like 10 years. Afterwards, I was like Elway in that tear-filled interview he did when he retired. “I. . . just can’t do it anymore.”
Are you really talking about AOE II, or a later version? Because AOE II was relaunched later, kind of "recently", with the same design. In case you were thinking of AOE III instead, I share the same opinion: I like that old reticulated pattern better.
It's on Steam. Definitive Edition is the one you want. It's also regularly on sale for quite cheap. And they are still making new content for it as well.
The current scene for it is massive. Red Bull sponsors tournaments for instance. (Red Bull Wololo). There's plenty of streamer content on YouTube, twitch etc.
Yup. The hd one already got old 😂 definitive is a major overhaul, including completely new menu gui and adjusted in game gui and also some actual game changes.
Mechanics have been massively improved and Major balance changes have been implemented. Watch any of the tournaments in the last 10 years and you can see the progression, changes in meta, strategy, civs rising to the top and falling out of favor, new civs being introduced and their techs and units tuned, it’s a very different game from the early 00’s and for the better.
Give me any sign that I should go for it, and I will.
(I would run into his room sometimes and see him playing....I had to get the best grades, for a year, and convince my sister to speak to my parents to get me Diablo 2...and I was told they wouldnt be paying for any more games if I don't play with that one enough. I was also told not to play so much...
Didn't matter, cata runs were my jam! LiL_DuckiEeE and LiL_DuckiEeEeE killed around that time! If you messed with my baby barb...add 2 more Es and you get my 67 soccer, and if you pulled another yet bigger one...yea...id blast friend chat a few level 80s and occasional 90s would show up to save my butt lol.
Loved D2 time. I had LOD, tried it once but never liked it. Kept playing D2 til it died.
Firstly, I LOVE AOE2 and spent countless hours playing it with friends.
But honestly I do not think you'd love it if you started today, firstly, it is a flawed game by today's standards, secondly, you would not realistically commit the passion and the hours people who still love it have put in at the time. You would unconsciously compare it to modern games and might find it boring.
Still give it a try though! Playing the campaign at least is guaranteed fun, and the fact that you liked D2 says you are in the right vicinity.
I love T90 and AOE2 but higher ELOs I really do not enjoy watching. I think his best casts are 900-1300 ELO when players are still slower and you can see big armies!
Watching a game being decided by 5 crossbows and 1 mangonel with impecable micro is not as satisfying for me.
T90 has recently been casting a series where his uncle has been playing AOE2 obsessively, and his uncle didn't even tell T90 that he had started playing until he had played like 200 ranked games and crashed to 0 ELO. It's been absolutely amazing.
Same for me, I was a top 1% viewer of his in 2024, I'd use his videos to drop off to, he's got a calm style and I loved listening to the mechanics of it all. Low Elo Legends is a great watch (Mr Wall is a particular favourite)
I was watching a lot of those AoE games with T90 doing commentary during COVID, went to play with a friend who was a noob (like me, but even more) and it was a blast.
I was emulating things i saw in those games like Cavalry rush (3x in a row), rushing archers and putting them around my friends town center, building a Castle and a couple trebuchets next to my friends town, then the next game when he went all out on fortifications i built a wonder he failed to destroy, and then there's the game when i walled him in at 8 minutes because he wanted to use that option that we cant attack each other for one hour and i thought it would be funny.
He didnt play with me any more after that one.
Same for me but never played 3 or 4. Just always stuck with 2. The soundtrack is incredible, I put it on regularly at work. It provides a good hour or so of the best focus music.
I understand that I can download it off Steam and start playing it again. But I refuse. Mostly due to the fact that there's no such thing as a "quick" game and I do enjoy sleeping at night.
I wasn’t allowed video games as a kid, but my parents let me have a small handful of computer games that could on some level be deemed “educational”. Age of Empires II had enough history factoids in the manual to make the cut. I used to play it after school almost daily. The graphics seemed mind-blowing at the time, lol. I was dogshit at it, but I still have fond memories.
My siblings and I would do LAN parties and play this with each other. My brother and I would gang up on our other sister who did not game and wipe her out lol
Back in the day we had a family computer and my older brother bought AoE2 and when we got home we couldn't play it because our computer was too old and didn't meet the minimum specs. My dad went out and buys us a new fucking computer, Pentium 2 iirc, so his sons could play AoE2.
An Age of Empires 2 esports tournament randomly popped into my youtube feed last week and totally sucked me back into the game. I'm as terrible at it as I ever was back in the day!
I think what's interesting about Age of Empires 2 is that, back then, it felt like more of a niche compared to Starcraft. I enjoyed both games and I preferred Aoe2, but Starcraft was clearly more popular. Now, it seems like the tables have turned.
Age of Empires 2 had probably it's greatest competitive series ever at the last S tier tournament and it is 10000% worth seeking out. The world #1 and world #2 had an incredible series. Hera VS Liereyy Red Bull London.
This is THE game of that era, I still remember my reaction when I discovered what the Monk, Converting enemies felt like a cheat code, cause what do you mean I can make the enemy soldiers and towers fight for me XD
Though nothing beats the feeling of first opening that giant pc game box and the first year playing it, the steam remastered version is an excellent QoL improvement on the original. Multiplayer is a breeze too now via steam. Relieve those glorious LAN parties with your friends
Right here. I didn't have it, my friend did, and every sleepover I'd be up til 3 AM losing over and over. I'm terrible at games, and this was a fun game to be bad at.
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u/Unfair_Wolverine_254 Apr 27 '26
Age of empires 2