F. A. Q.
Q. Which civ is best?
A. As a beginner, you should pick France, British or Spain . These are the most basic civs. Ottoman is easiest to win with at first but you will learn bad habits the other three are the best choice.
Q. What do all these abbreviations mean?
A.Go here for most of them.
Q. Which Unit is best?
A. None of them is best. They all counter different units
Q. How many villagers should I age up with?
A. really depends on the civ.
Let us say 15.
You could make your vills 1 at a time and whenever a vill get half done make another 1 till you reach 700 food then stop making vills till you are ready to age.
Q. What time should I be in colonial?
A. At the latest five minutes.
Q. When do I stop making villagers?
A. Generally you never do.
Q. My enemy attacks me before I even get to the second age or right after. How is this possible what do I do?
A. Do not build walls or towers and only a single house. Then get to 800 food as quickly as possible and age. Get your wood for barracks while aging. (Unless your Dutch or India)
Q.I do not understand, I always have excessive food and never enough wood although I have equal villagers on both resources.
A. That is because wood gathers a lot slower then food and gold. Food gathers faster then gold and food. Gold is in between.
Plus different things are gathered at different rates.
For example.For food crates are fastest followed by herdables (sheep etc) then hunting berries and mills gather at same speed.
Complete list seethe gather guide
Q. How should I distribute my villagers?
A. Depends on what unit you are making and which politician, if you aged with 500 food.
1. If your making X-bow or pike, twelve villagers on wood and the rest on food.
2. If muskets you should do eight villagers on food half of the rest on gold and the other half on wood, gold or food.
If you aged with 400 wood. (Recommended)
1. If your making X-bow or pike, ten villagers on wood and the rest on food.
2. If muskets you should do ten villagers on food half of the rest on gold and the other half on wood, gold or food.
Q. I keep losing to rushes, even though I am aged to colonial.
A. If you aged with 500 food you should build get 200 wood then build a house every time you reach 100 wood till you age up(Using a food vill). Build a barracks and have new villagers gather the food crates. Make either muskets or X-bow/pike and you will have an army in which to fight his rush.
Or
If you aged with 400 wood you should build houses with a single villager from food while aging up till you get 60 pop. Use two villagers that are on wood to gather wood crates and build a barracks. and make either muskets or X-bow/pike.
Q. Why don’t my X-bow kill light cavalry and many things do not seem to kill what their supposed to?
A. Unit classifications tags are messed up. Here is basic list.
You have RI (All infantry with ranged attacks except musketeers and Aztec Eagle runner Knights)
HI (Musketeers and all Hand infantry except Aztec Coyote runners)
Calvary (All hand Calvary)
Ranged Calvary (All ranged Calvary)
Mercenaries (All mercenaries)
Artillery (Cannons, Mortars, Flame throwers etc.)
LI (Coyote runners same thing as Calvary and Eagle runner knights which are the same thing as Ranged cavalry)
RI beat HI and Ranged Calvary.
HI beat both types of cavalry but Ranged cavalry can just hit and run.
Cavalry beat RI and Artillery.
Ranged Calvary beat Artillery, Calvary and can hit and run HI.
Artillery beat ships and all infantry.
Q. It so hard to control my economy and military both.
A. Use shift to have your villagers automatically go to something else when done with what their doing.
Example you can shift villagers to gather crates then build a house then gather food by clicking on the villager and holding shift click on the crates, then click build house then click on gather food then let go of shift. In addition, make sure your HUD is on completely and that economy right click is only for town centers find this under game options.
When you get better at micromanagement and know your hotkeys, I recommend you turn off *find* hotkeys centers on units. It is annoying.
Q. How do I get all that stuff on my HUD?
A. Go to options and in the first tab that reads UI options turn the UI options on that you want. I recommend all of them except, the first two. Friend foe colors and invert cntrl + shift key stroke are optional.
Q. Why is my score always so low and I always lose even though I have an army?
A. You need constant Villager production and market upgrades.
Q. I can’t get close to his X-bow/skirms with my HI. How is he doing that?
A. Simple he is hit and running you. Keeping out of your range while shooting you. You need to learn this yourself.
Q. What cards do I send?
A. Depends on civ. However, generally speaking get vill cards to send first and unit cards for second age get the factories and refrigeration.
Q.When I rush what do I attack first?
A. Generally you first go for villagers then houses then military buildings.
Unless your facing Japanese,Sioux or British then you go for villagers then military.
Q. I have played for two weeks straight. Stopping only to work and sleep (No longer then 4 hours). My Family has left me my dog has left me I have no real friends and every waking and sleeping moment is filled with thoughts of AOE. Is there something wrong with me?
A. No there is not. That is a healthy response to AOE though I recommend getting a powerful laptop in order to play while at work (Don’t let the boss catch you.) Stock up on red bull and cut your sleep to 3 hours. Nap while waiting for games and use a bot to tell you when you get one and wake you. The fact you had to ask suggests you may lack commitment.
These will help you get past the difficult beginning there are multiple guides to give you more advanced help.
Or more general advanced help gohere.
For mercenary help gohere
For help with herded animal gohere
And very Important go here to see gather rates.IMPORTANT
To help micro.here
Try out this scenariohere this will help you defend against a rush.
I will update this whenever I think of something.
Q. Which civ is best?
A. As a beginner, you should pick France, British or Spain . These are the most basic civs. Ottoman is easiest to win with at first but you will learn bad habits the other three are the best choice.
Q. What do all these abbreviations mean?
A.
Q. Which Unit is best?
A. None of them is best. They all counter different units
Q. How many villagers should I age up with?
A. really depends on the civ.
Let us say 15.
You could make your vills 1 at a time and whenever a vill get half done make another 1 till you reach 700 food then stop making vills till you are ready to age.
Q. What time should I be in colonial?
A. At the latest five minutes.
Q. When do I stop making villagers?
A. Generally you never do.
Q. My enemy attacks me before I even get to the second age or right after. How is this possible what do I do?
A. Do not build walls or towers and only a single house. Then get to 800 food as quickly as possible and age. Get your wood for barracks while aging. (Unless your Dutch or India)
Q.I do not understand, I always have excessive food and never enough wood although I have equal villagers on both resources.
A. That is because wood gathers a lot slower then food and gold. Food gathers faster then gold and food. Gold is in between.
Plus different things are gathered at different rates.
For example.For food crates are fastest followed by herdables (sheep etc) then hunting berries and mills gather at same speed.
Complete list see
Q. How should I distribute my villagers?
A. Depends on what unit you are making and which politician, if you aged with 500 food.
1. If your making X-bow or pike, twelve villagers on wood and the rest on food.
2. If muskets you should do eight villagers on food half of the rest on gold and the other half on wood, gold or food.
If you aged with 400 wood. (Recommended)
1. If your making X-bow or pike, ten villagers on wood and the rest on food.
2. If muskets you should do ten villagers on food half of the rest on gold and the other half on wood, gold or food.
Q. I keep losing to rushes, even though I am aged to colonial.
A. If you aged with 500 food you should build get 200 wood then build a house every time you reach 100 wood till you age up(Using a food vill). Build a barracks and have new villagers gather the food crates. Make either muskets or X-bow/pike and you will have an army in which to fight his rush.
Or
If you aged with 400 wood you should build houses with a single villager from food while aging up till you get 60 pop. Use two villagers that are on wood to gather wood crates and build a barracks. and make either muskets or X-bow/pike.
Q. Why don’t my X-bow kill light cavalry and many things do not seem to kill what their supposed to?
A. Unit classifications tags are messed up. Here is basic list.
You have RI (All infantry with ranged attacks except musketeers and Aztec Eagle runner Knights)
HI (Musketeers and all Hand infantry except Aztec Coyote runners)
Calvary (All hand Calvary)
Ranged Calvary (All ranged Calvary)
Mercenaries (All mercenaries)
Artillery (Cannons, Mortars, Flame throwers etc.)
LI (Coyote runners same thing as Calvary and Eagle runner knights which are the same thing as Ranged cavalry)
RI beat HI and Ranged Calvary.
HI beat both types of cavalry but Ranged cavalry can just hit and run.
Cavalry beat RI and Artillery.
Ranged Calvary beat Artillery, Calvary and can hit and run HI.
Artillery beat ships and all infantry.
Q. It so hard to control my economy and military both.
A. Use shift to have your villagers automatically go to something else when done with what their doing.
Example you can shift villagers to gather crates then build a house then gather food by clicking on the villager and holding shift click on the crates, then click build house then click on gather food then let go of shift. In addition, make sure your HUD is on completely and that economy right click is only for town centers find this under game options.
When you get better at micromanagement and know your hotkeys, I recommend you turn off *find* hotkeys centers on units. It is annoying.
Q. How do I get all that stuff on my HUD?
A. Go to options and in the first tab that reads UI options turn the UI options on that you want. I recommend all of them except, the first two. Friend foe colors and invert cntrl + shift key stroke are optional.
Q. Why is my score always so low and I always lose even though I have an army?
A. You need constant Villager production and market upgrades.
Q. I can’t get close to his X-bow/skirms with my HI. How is he doing that?
A. Simple he is hit and running you. Keeping out of your range while shooting you. You need to learn this yourself.
Q. What cards do I send?
A. Depends on civ. However, generally speaking get vill cards to send first and unit cards for second age get the factories and refrigeration.
Q.When I rush what do I attack first?
A. Generally you first go for villagers then houses then military buildings.
Unless your facing Japanese,Sioux or British then you go for villagers then military.
Q. I have played for two weeks straight. Stopping only to work and sleep (No longer then 4 hours). My Family has left me my dog has left me I have no real friends and every waking and sleeping moment is filled with thoughts of AOE. Is there something wrong with me?
A. No there is not. That is a healthy response to AOE though I recommend getting a powerful laptop in order to play while at work (Don’t let the boss catch you.) Stock up on red bull and cut your sleep to 3 hours. Nap while waiting for games and use a bot to tell you when you get one and wake you. The fact you had to ask suggests you may lack commitment.
These will help you get past the difficult beginning there are multiple guides to give you more advanced help.
Or more general advanced help go
For mercenary help go
For help with herded animal go
And very Important go here to see gather rates.
To help micro.
Try out this scenario
I will update this whenever I think of something.
[This message has been edited by Humility (edited 05-06-2008 @ 01:04 PM).]