Instead of new civs, I'd like to see new game modes, like bigger maps with 5v5 or more players. Would it even work? There would either be 1 or 3 pockets, and one person would be kind of a tie-breaker player since 4v4 usually ends up with two teams against eachother on either side of the map. Then I was thinking 5v5 may not work because of how many teams could gang up on one opponent.

I also think just way bigger maps would be interesting even if it remains 4v4. It would make early rushes less convenient due to travel time.

Also another idea is just a map with no natural gold, you HAVE to trade to generate it.

I ve got 1000 matches played multiplayer

And I build maybe 5 outpost and produced maybe 3 petards during those games. Am I broken?

Also wanted to make another thread but will post here:

what is most satisfying part of the game for you???

me: denying a castle : )

I (30m) am an aoe2 player since I was 5 years old. I don’t want to play very regularly and i don’t want to overdo it. Just maybe three four times a month. 2,3 rounds each. If someone is interested PM me.

Hi, as the title says, I have issues playing Poles after the new update, varangian guards are so strong even if I go double archery range archers since feudal, I feel like the only real answer to varangian guards are hand canooneer and maybe mass heavy scorps, and Poles don't have either, is there any good strategy that you could suggest?

Many of the campaigns, from Age of Kings to The Viking Sagas are excellent scenarios reflecting historical battles (some more accurate than others) in a range of gameplay.

However, there may be something in regards to a scenario that you may feel is not quite right. Is it gameplay or historical accuracy? Would you do something completely different or is it perfect?

127: Pachacuti 2 - The Field of Blood

Ever feel like you've just reported one of the worst trolls in the community and the report will achieve exactly nothing? I've felt like that for a while.

That changed yesterday.

I faced an opponent in ranked that was really spicy in chat, giving me the impression that they practiced the hateful shtick.

After the game, I built a simple tool that downloads all available recorded games for a designated player and parses their chat history, putting it in a readable format, or a format you can feed into an LLM for rapid review.

In this case, the 174 recorded games that were available were full this player harassing others in clear violation of the code of conduct... in every. single. game. They were regularly saying some genuinely awful stuff. I compiled a list of the most definitive examples and sent it to the moderators through the support page of the AOE website.

I received an email 33 minutes later notifying me that they had taken action against the offending player. I confirmed the player has played 31 games subsequently and has not had a single line of chat since the chat restriction.

This method of reporting, with not only the specific example of code of conduct violations from occasions you've suffered, but a more comprehensive presentation of many such examples, is a more effective way to ensure the moderators get the baddies in the AOE2 community and take appropriate action. In this case, the action was swift.

The tool I built is open source, free to use, and comes with detailed instructions. You can find it on the github link below. It is built atop another open source project, MGZ-Fast that parses recorded games chat histories, my complements to the creators of mgz-fast.

AOE2 Chat Investigator https://github.com/winning-condition/aoe2-chat-investigator

What it isn’t:

• Not a toxicity detector. It doesn’t flag or judge anything; it gives you an accurate record and you decide what’s reportable.
• Not a shame list. Watchlists, replays and logs stay on your machine and never get published. The point is to send better reports to support, who are the only ones who can act.
• Not for stalking randoms. It’s for players who’ve already been abusive to you or your community and where a “he was rude, trust me” report won’t cut it.

Everything it reads is already public through the game and community sites; it just organizes it.

Optionally runs daily against a short watchlist, so if someone you’ve already reported keeps at it, you get an alert and fresh evidence instead of starting from scratch.

My thanks to the AOE2 moderators who acted so quickly to chat restrict the person who kicked off this little project.

I mean come on how is this fair? The extra food you can gather is insane. Nothing against the Huns and I would't mind them getting a buff somewhere else, but to have this particular advantage on nomad starts feels unbalanced .

EDIT: I forgot Huns started with less wood so there's a delay on the dock on regular Nomad. That does make it more balanced. Still, it feels a bit gimmicky to have such a specific bonus on nomad starts.

Sorry for the rant, but I need to get this off my chest.

At around 1200 ELO in team games, it’s not rare to get someone who leaves after 2–3 minutes or just goes AFK. Today:Team Game, i got AFK guys in my team, four games in a row !!!! . That’s not bad luck anymore, that’s a system problem. Sometimes they are AFK at the start sometimes they leave after 10 minutes sometimes 15.

The report system feels completely broken. I have never seen anyone get banned. We are sold DLC/expansions while basic features like reporting don’t work. It really feels like we’re being taken for granted.

• Ability to avoid/report AFK/leavers and actually see consequences. Ability to track the records of players
• Better lobby/team game tools: kick undesirable players before playing if majority decides,
• Proper in-game social features: add friends, chat, party up inside the game, not forced through Steam. Maybe then we would play more with our good fellows than having bad surpises.
• Better smurf detection --> direct ban.
• Map system rework: let us select preferred maps. I hate Nomad maps. Right now I can only ban one of the two, and I still get Nomad regularly. Once the timer starts, I’m forced to play it. I don’t mind Arabia, Arena, Black Forest, etc., but I don’t want to be forced into Nomad.
• Stop flooding the game with too many civs. It is just making the game harder to balance while, there is a need to focus on some major issues.

The game is great, but there are so many small things that ruin it. ELO/smurf issues are also not great. Since 2020, apart from new civs, the improvements haven’t been very tangible. I’m at the point where I’m going to stop playing. Today I wanted some fun just got frustration and i t happens more and more.

That guy was 200 elo lower than me and lost to Scouts into Knights. (And I didn't even do bloodlines in Feudal.)

Decisive moment was that he failed to quickwall vs 3 Knights and at the same time lost his army at the front. Varangians famously have a civ bonus that stops you from multitasking and walling.

People should stop telling this idiotic "new civs are op" fairytale. I mean..

Long story short, my wife is going to be out of town for work for a while, so I’m looking to dip my toes into a tournament if there’s any that is about to start? I think I just missed the deadline for aoe2leagues but I don’t know more options

I based them on notes I made when I was in woods, bored and with little signal, I wrote stuff for AOE2

Some of them are older than Viking Sagas, and some of them are based loosely. Take them with a grain of salt, I am no historian, I am just a guy, who plays AOE2

If you have different suggestions, you can tell me

1. Crusader Knights(For Crusader civs, knight replacement. I made them before the Danish got their Extra damage per low HP bonus. Strong against ranged and cavalry, weak against camels and spears)
2. Gallowglass(Regional shock infantry for British isles. Anti-infantry Shock infantry, that has a special cleave attack, that hits three units ahead. Thats the best word I can put it.)
3. Landsknecht(Shock infantry for German civs. This one is more like Kamayuk, except German, and weak against swordsmen. Good against cavalry, weak against infantry. Oh and they also have generate 3 gold per kill(I made them before VIking Sagas).)
4. Mounted Samurai(Cavalry archer replacement for Japanese civs(I made them Here is ))
5. Native Scout(Archer line replacement for North American civs, but the problem is I don't have much for them planned yet. Scout unit for NA civs. They are the only scout to be an archer, weak archer at that, but they make up for with speed and fire rate, and also with price.)
6. Flailman(Regional Shock Infantry for Western Slavs and some Balkan nations. They have blast radius like War elephants. Strong against cavalry, weak against infantry. Archers are minor threat to them since they have pierce armor.)
7. Kobaya(Again, Japanese split. Replacement for Galleon line. Like Galleons, it is upgraded with Fleet upgrades in dock. It has weaker damage, but costs a bit less, and have a projectiles like Viking Longboat. Yes, this also was made before Longboats became Regional unit.)
8. Naffatun(The most Recent unit of them all. He is a mix of Jurchen Grenadier and MOunted Trebuchet. Originally replacement for hand canoneer in Arab civs. Yeah its Grenadier but fiery, rather than Blasty. I have doubts about them, since Arabs also used guns.)
9. Tomahawk Thrower(North American Shock Infantry. Also for native americans, he is the ranged melee Heavy for them. He is basically Throwing Axeman and a siege specialist for them)
10. Rajput(Knight line for Indian civs and some adjacent. This one is meant to be knight for Indians, who lack heavy cavalry anad no, camels and elephants don't count. In his case, he is a specialist against siege. Strong attack, Weak HP for cavalry unit.)
11. Warrior Monk(Again for Japanese Shock Infantry. HE is a reverse Guecha Warrior, in that he regenerates per kill, not per death(Difference? Monk heals per kill he deals. Guecha's Death heals fellow Guechas))

i often play 1v1 arabia against hard or hardest AI , and i noticed that since more then a week orso the AI is like not taking its boars. also not doing feudal attack and going for some sort of FC . anybody know whats up with the AI ? is it bugged or they trying some new programming ?

Bueno, básicamente eso, quiero aprender a jugar teutones porque me hace gracia los templarios y hunos porque bueno, son los hunos, por ahora vengo jugando en familia contra mi hermana y cuñado, así que me e dedicado a rushear edad de castillos con los teutones pero se que en el online eso no funcionará, algún consejo para empezar fuera de "completa el tuto del arte de la guerra"

(NA Clan)
Break out of the ordinary. Build your legacy

Looking for people to play Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition with? Welcome to Alkatraz — a new clan built around teamwork, improvement, competition, and community.

We’re building something bigger than a group of random teammates. Our goal is to develop an active community, help players improve, organize clan events, and eventually compete in tournaments and clan wars.

🐺 WHAT WE OFFER
● ⚔️ Ranked and unranked games
● 🏰 Team games and looking-for-group sessions
● 🧠 Build orders, strategies, and replay reviews
● 🏆 Clan tournaments and organized events
● 🔒 A Discord community
● 📈 Opportunities to improve and climb Elo together
● 🤝 A welcoming environment for beginners and veterans

NEW TO AOE2? YOU’RE WELCOME HERE.

You don’t need high Elo or tournament experience to join. Whether you’re learning your first build order or already grinding ranked, there’s room for you.

OUR LONG-TERM GOAL

We’re working toward building a competitive roster that can represent Alkatraz in tournaments and organized clan competition. We want members who enjoy improving, playing as a team, and being part of something that grows over time.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

● Active AoE2 players who want teammates
● Beginners willing to learn
● Experienced players willing to share knowledge
● Competitive players interested in tournaments
● Good sports who can win and lose without drama

We’re still growing, so this is your chance to join early and help shape the community.

🔒 CLAN: Alkatraz
⚔️ GAME: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition/Starcraft II
💬 DISCORD: https://discord.gg/MWSvrutgc2
Enter Alkatraz. Earn your place. Make your mark.

Hello! Relatively new player here, and I mainly play against the AI and do campaigns for fun. I've recently been enjoying using Magyar civ against the AI, and have been beating the AI regularly on moderate by using scout rushes and transitioning to CA and Magyar Huszars.

I wanted to try diversifying my strategy a bit by doing a scout rush followed by skirmishers. I noticed the AI tends to mass up some spearmen and archers after I kill off their villagers with my scouts. Normally I just circle around and use the high mobility of scouts to avoid any fights, but I wondered if adding some skirmishers can help give me a lead.

However, whenever I do try to mix skirmishers with scouts, I tend to do poorly or lose more units or mismanage my eco. I try to target the spears with my skirmishers, then use the scouts to dive in on the archers.

I'm a bit confused though if, when making skirmishers, I should keep them at my base while scouts continue to kill of villagers, or if I should send them forward to support my scouts and knock a few villagers as well?

Additionally, microing skirmishers against spearmen is a bit tricky, and most advice I see online is for microing skirmishers against archers. Do you guys have any tips on this?

Thank you!

For those who have played Chronicles, are they using the Chronicles civilizations as a testing ground for civilization design?

I haven't downloaded the two Chronicles DLCs because I'm not personally very interested in ancient Greek history, but that's the impression I get. Since civilizations are generally quite well balanced now, at least, with the exception of the Kitan, for reasons many of us already suspect.

I know that at least ManuLaCampuche's "Battle of the Golden Spurs" scenario served as inspiration for Harald's first scenario, specifically the part about holding flags and resisting enemy attacks.

I think it would be cool if some of the Secondary gamemods would be on Rankedespecially Sudden Death, because i think it gives a Diffrent experience than Normal 1v1the growth of your Economy is dependent on just one TC, also your Life wich means every tilematters and you can not just rebuild in the back. What do you think about it ?

From my experience playing a bunch of Danes and looking at the overall data they seem to be underperforming a bit, especially in team games and open maps.

I'll keep it short, but I think they could use a small buff to their versatility, here are a couple ideas:

1. 10% speed boost also applies to mounted Crossbowmen.

Mounted crossbows are one of the only fast response units the Danes have for team games. Giving just a bit more speed really help them with Castle age raids or supporting allies.

1. Raise the extra food drop off to 10% starting in feudal.

Jomsvikings and Varangian guards are extremely food heavy, making it really hard to balance your eco. 5% food drop off is a little underwhelming on a civ that is so pressured for food. Additionally, they also need onager and siege onager, which gets very food expensive to research.

Anyways, what are your guys' thoughts on the Danes currently?

I see a lot of people saying that extreme is stupid easy these days. Do you think it would be good to have an AI that is constantly learning?

Would it completely change how we play the game?