Age of Empires races/strategies

[Rett Mikhal]

Just curious what races everyone uses, of those that still play the best and most stable strategy game ever invented, Age of Empires II (and its expansions).

I used to be big into the Chinese and Teutons for their strong economies and wide range of units/upgrades. Teutons have the best mix of units (heavy cavalry archer, paladin, heavy scorpion, hand cannoner, bombard cannon) and Chinese have almost all the upgrades. Plus their elite units (Teutonic Knights and Cho-Ko-Nus) are among the best in the game. Teutonic Knights are just tanks, and Cho-Ko-Nus pump out so many arrows it's pretty much impossible to get close to them.

However, since I finally got the last expansion, the changes in dynamics have made me lean more towards the Turks. The regular hand cannoners are almost useless now, while the Janissaries seem even better. Plus, they have all the upgrades for Cavalry Archers, which are my favorite unit. The only thing I dislike about them is their lackluster economy which really runs you into trouble with their expensive units; but a Janissary army is an unstoppable one.

As for strategies I like to take a slow approach coupled with fast defense. I scout out and build forward outposts, then build an army in the back and move it forward carefully, with blocks of men putting down suppressive fire for the siege weapons.

So, just curious who you like, if there are still players out there.

 

[Rii]

Ah, AOK. I haven't played for years and was never any good at it, but I recall favouring Persians for their elephants. Jus because I liked 'em.

Oddly, despite the myriad improvements AOK brought to the table I still have a fondness for AOE. I guess it's more the historical period than anything else. AOE didn't have Trebuchets, though.

 

[Ralphis]

I haven't played either one for years, and I can't remember which one it is, but on one of them you can enter the code "Photon Man" and you get a man with a photon gun. I always got a kick out of it. The computer would be about ready to kick my @$$ and I would just type Photon Man like 8 times and have a squad of Photon Men. It's cheating, but it was fun. It would just pretend that my civilization was using black magic. =) There was the E=MC2 Man too, but he wasn't as fun.

 

[Lor'Vela]

I play against stock AI, so my strategy is rather primitive in a multiplayer sense. I just tend to build Cavalry and Infantry and send them into battle. I only create archers to fortify inside towers. I tend to neglect siege except for trebuchets.

As for the civs, I usually find myself playing as either the Britons or Spanish.

To be honest, I don't like rushing through technologies and ages. I like to take my time and just enjoy the experience.

 

[Canadave]

Ah, AOK. I haven't played for years and was never any good at it, but I recall favouring Persians for their elephants. Jus because I liked 'em.

Oddly, despite the myriad improvements AOK brought to the table I still have a fondness for AOE. I guess it's more the historical period than anything else. AOE didn't have Trebuchets, though.

I'm the same, actually. AOK just never grabbed me the way AOE did. Dunno why.

Both seem pretty dated to me know, though, I have to say.

 

[Rett Mikhal]

I found Age of Empires to be a poor prototype of a game. A lot of the units only sounded good on paper. For example, the phalanxes couldn't keep people at a distance or deploy their shields into a wall. They were thus just really slow pikemen and died with the worst of them.

The races seemed to lack unique factors. I played Age of Empires II long before the first one, though, so I might be biased.

AOE II doesn't seem dated to me, but I'm an old fashioned kind of gamer. AOE II is so magnificently programmed, it never fails and works on any system and any computer at any time. AOE II even works on wireless LAN, a technology that was barely on the drawing board when the game hit shelves. Games nowadays struggle with wireless LAN because they're too complicated in their multiplayer structure.

 

[Canadave]

^ Ah, see, my first RTS was Command and Conquer: Red Alert, so AoE always seemed relatively advanced by the time it came out.

I think what hurts AoK in my books is the fact that it came out around the same time as Homeworld, which absolutely blew my mind with regards to what you could do with an RTS, making AoK just seem like more of the same.

 

[Lor'Vela]

Well, I got into AoK first and was immediately hooked. AoE by comparision was primitive, so I never really got into it. I don't seem to enjoy AoEIII much either. Something about it doesn't seem to appeal to me as much. AoM I hold in pretty much the same regard.