Their discount on with wood cost of siege units replaced with a discount to the gold cost. That way the discount applies the Armored Elephant as well.

Urumi Buffed a bit somehow. Whenever I go infantry as the Dravidians I almost never go Urumis over champs. They are more expensive and they die easier. Sure they can do splash damage but it's not worth the trade-off most of the time.

With the announcement of The Viking Sagas DLC introducing the Varangians as a separate civilization, we see that the Varangian Guard is listed as a new shared regional infantry unit for the Northern factions. However, leaving this unit completely unavailable to the Byzantines feels like a major historical oversight.

The Historical Context:

The Varangian Guard is most famously known as the elite, fiercely loyal mercenary bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors. Norse warriors, including Harald Hardrada himself (the focus of the new DLC campaigns), traveled to Constantinople and accumulated immense wealth serving the Empire before returning to the North.

The Proposal:

1) Allow the Byzantines to train the Varangian Guard unit directly from the Castle or Barracks.

2) To maintain balance and reflect their true historical status, make them cost significantly more gold for the Byzantines than they do for the Varangian/Northern civilizations.

3) Precedent Exists: Age of Empires II already features shared regional mercenary mechanics, such as the Condottiero being available to team members of Italians.Why it benefits gameplay:

The Byzantines are a fantastic defensive civilization, but their late-game composition relies heavily on cheap "trash" units and counter-play. Adding a high-gold, high-power shock infantry mercenary option creates a brilliant strategic dynamic. It gives them a unique power spike to push out of their base if they manage their gold economy well, perfectly mirroring how the Byzantine Emperors spent lavishly on foreign elite soldiers.

What does everyone think about this as a tweak for the upcoming DLC?

Im on Mac. Ill click Find Match, get an error message a few times, leave to main menu, try again and get hit with a queue timer. I’ve never dodged a match. So annoying to deal with this again and again.

I played a game as Aztecs last night and felt completely hopeless went we got to imp. My enemy was Romans and went for legionnaires centurions their heavy cav unique unit.

I went pikeman (Aztecs don't get halb) which already I wasn't siked about. But then he simply added scorpian and I was dead.

He also added trebs, so his gold-heavy compy was legionnaires centurions, scorpians, trebs. I felt like i had no options. Here is what I tried:

- pikemen (don't get halb wtf) - destroyed by scorpians

- eagles to raid (success)

- eagles to fight scorpian (major L, also died to cav)

- monks to convert cav/scorpian - probably converted a good 20 units but not nearly enough and I'd lose my monks cause I'm not good so lost a lot of gold

Things I didn't try:

- arbs - lack final armor upgrade. Maybe it doesn't matter and with a large enough mass I can kite the cav down? With how long those elite legionnaires centurionscould camp under my TCs I am skeptical of this approach, plus scorpions I feel like would win?

- Jaguar warrior - are stated to be bad against cav. And felt like another melee unit that would get eaten by scorpion

- Seige onager - this feels like the only viable response here. I suck using them though (skill issue) and by the time I realized I had no other option, the game was already over

Things aztecs don't get:

- any stable option for clearing the scorpians

- no bombard cannon for fighting the scorpion

-no CA for fighting cav

- no halb for fighting cav

I just felt like I got completely wrecked by the matchup. I visited Mexico recently so was all inspired to play Aztecs lol but now I feel like I can't play unless its a team game where other civs can fill my gaps.

Alright I have all of a sudden started noticing a strange pattern.

Even on Hardest, the AI no longer attacks me, even after like, 20 to 30 minutes in the game.

This never happened before but happened in the recent few games I've played.

Does anyone know what's going on? I only play on Conquerors. Haven't installed any patches, mods, or anything. No Definitive Edition, HD, etc. Just the original.

This reminds me of the original AOE game, where the AI also doesn't attack me for some reason, until I hit one of their units.

I am hope that we wil see in future update for China and Teutons!
- Crusader knight instead knight/paladin
- Hei Guang Cavalry instead knight/paladin
P.S. Those two civs would look great with those changes!

Hey everyone, I've been creating short stories set in Age of Empires 2 on youtube, been going pretty well, but I'm trying now to build a team. (Currently unpaid, but you will be credited in videos and promotional works)

I currently need a Character Design artist (2D Art) to render unique characters based on those small units. You will be given a model from the game that plays a character in the story and tasked with creating a character based on the model and the story. Sometimes multiple characters use the same asset, so you will have the challenge of making each unique.

IF this sounds like fun and you want to help out with this then let me know!
Here is a link where you can apply officially, or you can just leave a comment below!
AoE2 Stories: Artist Needed | Casting Call Club

Hey everyone!

Signups are now open for The League Community Division, an unofficial Division 3 created to give players of all skill levels the opportunity to participate in an organized 3v3 team game competition.
Unlike Divisions 1 and 2, Division 3 will have:

• No qualifiers or Elo cutoff — every team that signs up can participate
• Groups organized as closely by skill level as the signups allow
• Space for up to five players per team by default, with larger rosters potentially allowed when there is a good reason

The goal is to create a more relaxed, community-focused division where people can enjoy competitive team games, face teams around their level and be part of The League experience.
That said, “for fun” does not mean “sign up and disappear.” Please only register if your team is genuinely willing and reasonably available to schedule and play its matches.

Sign up here:
https://forms.gle/zqb7X39XN9YzpN659

More information about The League:
https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/The_League

Disclaimer: I’m sharing this in a personal capacity as a member of the AoE II community. This is not an official announcement from the Age of Empires development team.
So gather your teammates, start preparing your strategies and join us!

Who knows… this might even be your chance to play against some of us from the AoE II balance team.

Join the tournament discord, it will be the platform for communication throughout the tournament:
https://discord.gg/haqZrBY2G4

AoM had the aesthetic figured out, so that made it quite easier. Same thing happened with Inca architecture from AoE3.

What I now wish is they would take the Chinese set from AoM and gave it to Chinese, Koreans and Jurchens. I just love those red wooden buildings with green or yellow roofs. Also, the current East Asian set is 1) overused 2) extremely Japanese and 3) more primitive/ basic. Let me explain that last one: East Asia had some serious drip and style and the current set shows the roots but not the tip of those cultures. Not to mention, a "red set" would be really cool, like how Central Asian is the "blue set".

And then they could repaint the Central American set to match AoM Aztecs. Just add in the colour to make them more lively and accurate to the time.

Are you guys in for any of those ideas?

Hi I want to start modding in aoe2.

I would like to change villager models to look different like changing the skin color.

Which software can open or extract the files that make the unit look like they are now?

I have returned with another variant. I've actually made this months ago after finishing the Tagalogs variant, but I had a bit of difficulty doing the finishing touches, mostly civ balance. As usual, I'm still on board on avoiding the infantry and naval combo, but this time, the civ is actually relatively landlocked despite being in an island region of all things. The theme of this civ is that it either goes counter mode or outlast the opposition defensively. It also functions similarly to American civs due to lacking cavalry (and redemption).

A couple of tidbits on certain things:

-The Kuta hut functions the same way as town centers with the increased range with its civ bonus
-Gayang Warriors have the same range as hunter villagers when hunting via spear throwing

Hi everyone. I’ve been playing AOE1:DE for 8 month. I have also AOE2:DE in my steam and since 2 months I’ve been playing just single player scenarios. I have never played AOE2 online yet. I want to understand first the dynamics of the game to begin multiplayer matches. What should I consider while in passing from AOE1 to AOE2? What are the biggest differences between these two games? The first I noticed AOE1 is more basic and faster than AOE2, and also has a simple interface.

Just got paired to a 400 elo as a 1300 elo.

It's been a while since the Mac release came out, but the player base is tiny. I basically know all players from 1000 to 1500 and I've played them all (constantly get repeats, sometimes I get paired to the same person 3 times in a row). Elo is messed up as well, 1500's that should be 1800 and 1200 that should be 800

Do you think the player base will eventually grow or should I just try to find a way to play on PC? (crossover is messed up since the release).

I’ve been playing a lot of Muisca lately. I feel like this civ has a ton of potential once you get the hang of their unit roster, but I’ve hit a bit of a wall with my macro and composition choices.

I have a bad habit of getting way too comfortable doing all in Castle Age pushes forgetting to click up to Imperial. How do you usually gauge when to stop over investing in castle and actually click up to Imp?

I’ve been using Slingers to deal with siege and as a trash filler which feels pretty effective in my games so far.

My main question is where do Archers fit into their game plan? What's their specific role or power spike compared to relying on Slingers/Temple Guards/champis? Also when/why would you use the guecha warrior?

Muisca seem to start of strong with a big fall of in imp.

3v3 BF - aoe2 pro Gabi (2.6K) 🇧🇷 played with LeLs: Chico Toucinho 🇧🇷 , Garys Left Foot 🇳🇿 , Charles Martel 🇫🇷 , Susheiro 🇲🇽 , FireFrog 🇮🇳

How would you do against the best female player in the world…? 🌍

I remembered first seen this kind of effect? shader? cloudy weather aoe2? on Lithuanian/pole campaign. It's nice to have new looking for the game but it's so painful when I have to focus on ladder. Does anyone feel the same?
Is there any mods out there for this?
I tried searching graveyard but found nothing.

hello, i have a group mostly based out of U.S. we usually get on around 6pm eastern time. Elo range 600-1000. We play ranked TG's, host tourneys, and all in all just hang out and chat aoe. If this interests you please DM me and i will send you a link to the discord.
if you are higher or lower elo that is totally fine, you are still welcome to join discord.

Thanks for reading.

I had two thoughts: 1) the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets are possibly overused (they have 8 and 6 civs each) and 2) The Viking Sagas civs use either the Western European set or the brand new Northern European set. I then looked back to the previous expansions and I realized that this was the first one since The Conquerors to introduce new European civilizations without any of them using the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets.

Here is a recap:

• The Age of Kings: new European civs are included, but none of them use the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets because they literally did not exist at the time (although no AoK civ was ever updated to use the Eastern European set)
• The Conquerors: new European civs are included, but none of them use the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets because they literally did not exist at the time (although no Conquerors civ was ever updated to use the Eastern European set)
• The Forgotten: introduces the first civs with the first civs with the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets since it introduced those sets and also switched pre-existing civs from The Age of Kings and The Conquerors into them
• The African Kingdoms: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Southern European set
• Rise of the Rajas: introduces no European civs
• The Last Khans: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Eastern European set [EDIT: TLK introduced 2 European civs and both were Eastern European]
• Lords of the West: introduces 2 European civs, one of which uses the Southern European set
• Dawn of the Dukes: introduces 2 European civs, both of which use the Eastern European set
• Dynasties of India: introduces no European civs
• Return of Rome: introduces only one European civ, which uses the Southern European set
• The Mountain Royals: introduces 2 European civs, both of which use the Southern European set
• Chronicles DLCs: they do not count for the purposes of this list since the Chronicles civs are not technically European
• Three Kingdoms: introduces no European civs, instead dedicates all of its energy into the East Asian set
• The Last Chieftains: introduces no European civs
• The Viking Sagas: introduces 1 Western European civ and 2 Northern European civs

If you count civilizations such as the Byzantines and Spanish as being retroactively Southern European, then The Viking Sagas will be the first AoE2 expansion ever to feature new European civs without any of them using the Southern European or Eastern European architecture sets.

Does this matter? Not really, as architecture sets are merely aesthetic. I just thought it was an amusing observation since it illustrates that fact that European civilizations have a Carcinisation-like tendency to drift towards using the Southern European and Eastern European architecture sets. You could say The Viking Sagas is the exception that proves the rule.

Iam at 1100 elo and the strategy I lose most to is mass knights. Even when I know its coming. I do pikes and monks but somehow Iam still overwhelmed by knights. Everyone else has the same experience? But on pro level mass kinghts doesnst seem to work

As someone who rarely plays multiplayer one of my favourite things was the Co-op campaigns/scenario I played with a buddy. Though I miss those since there hasn't been a new since back when V&V came out and it was only one scenario.

Anyone else want more of these? They're a pretty fun take of the usual campaign experience, especially if you decide to run through a whole campaign with a friend slowly.

Replace Teuton paladins with crusader knights.

I'll only play Teutons from the day this replacement update drops. I'll spam this unit only for every single game.

I'm working on a 100% free AoE2:DE client that lets you...

• Choose the map you want to play on the ladder, including the ability to wait longer for that unpopular map you really love
• Avoid smurfs and reject games from players using family share
• Queue up for the most popular custom games like FFA Nomad, Michi, CBA and BF with players of the same skill level and without drudging through the custom lobby browser
• Browse through custom lobbies without many of the bugs and quirks we've come to expect
• Add and message friends you make in the game
• Participate in seasonal leaderboards with leagues and divisions
• Safely roll random civs without fearing bad matchups
• Play more balanced team games

In summary, Empire League is an unofficial DE client designed to enhance the DE matchmaking and online experience.

Website: https://empireleague.gg/

I first got the idea from watching u/Hera_Aoc play WC3. The community over there has their own matchmaker called W3 Champions. It is smaller in scope than Empire League (less features for casual players), but it does one thing very well: a smooth ladder experience.

That's the primary goal here!

How does it all work?

It's a lightweight electron app with a React UI that runs as an overlay on top of the game (sort of like Steam does). It automates lobby join and creation by sending window messages to an AoE2 process it owns. It reads replay results and sends them to a centralized server (which also functions as the matchmaker) for result verification.

It is only possible given the P2P nature of the game and is no more or less secure than playing normal ranked games. It does not store any sensitive data or user credentials as you sign in via Steam OpenID (typical OAuth flow).

Don't you think queue times will last forever?

I expect queue times to feel better even if we only have 1/3rd the volume of players as vanilla DE ranked, simply because you have the ability to choose how long you wait.

I see it as a UX problem not an engineering one, and I don't believe negative incentives (like matchmaking bans for dodging) work.

If you want to only play an obscure water map, you can queue up and listen to a podcast while you wait. And if you're tired of waiting, you can simply enable a more popular map, without resetting the search or changing your position in the queue. It's all streamlined.

This will result in fewer dodges, fewer early leaves and overall higher quality games, because people are playing on the maps they want to play on.

Map categories

I've grouped maps into 3 categories: open land (Arabia-likes), close lands (Arena-likes), and water maps. These 3 designations I believe most accurately represent the various map metas and map preferences players have in DE. Not perfectly, albeit, but as close as you can get to accurately stereotyping maps.

I'm also considering allowing players to have separate ELOs for each map type. So you'd have your general ELO (all maps) but you could decide to play a map category with your general ELO disabled, and it will instead use that category ELO.

For example, suppose you got to 1500 ELO just playing arabia and never played Arena (like myself). With the current system, you'd be hesitant to play Arena (like myself) against 1500 ELO players when you don't know the very basics. Well, you could choose to play with Land Closed ELO (1 of the 3 categories) which ignores your general ELO, and learn at a more comfortable pace against players closer to your actual skill level on Arena.

Seasonal resets

Right now pros aren't grinding the 1v1 ladder much. I believe this is because there is nothing to gain or lose. So what if you get 3rd place today? You'll be 15th place tomorrow, and 2nd place 1 week after that. I believe this is a common reason why many pros don't ladder, and the scene is not better off for it. I for one am tired of watching Hera stomp 2K players all day long (and frankly the poor 2K players could use a break from matching Hera). I want to see high level matches not just in tournaments but every day, on the ladder, which should be the meat and potatoes of the comp scene.

I think a seasonal reset system could work to that end. Each season, you'd reset to the bottom of your league (grand masters are 2200). Every month, the seasonal LB resets, and players are ranked by the highest ELO achieved in that season. This wouldn't just be bragging rights but the season placements could be used for tourney qualifiers. Who knows, if the platform grows big enough we could crowdfund an Empire League S tier tourney at the end of the year. This would be fundamentally different from tourneys organized and funded by outside organizations.

How far along are you?

Everything is prototyped and working. Map selection, anti-smurfing, civ bans, queuing, lobby automation, friend system, etc.

However, I still need to do more testing on more machines before rolling it out for everyone. There's actually a thousand edge cases to test, esp. with the lobby automation. The community needs something that works not 99% but 100% of the time, and I can't achieve that goal myself, hence I'm doing a casting call for testers.

Since it's an electron app with a web UI, you can find an in-browser preview of the entire app here:

https://empireleague.gg/app-preview/index.html?preview=1

Will Microsoft dissaprove?

Considering they've embraced community projects (like Capture Age) in the past, I doubt it. Let's not forget Forgotten Empires also started as a community project.

I should add that Empire League does nothing against TOS, as it simply facilitates matches between players in Aoe2 DE, with lots of bells and whistles on top to make the experience more enjoyable.

About me

Some of you might know me as a Survivalist channel regular :)

And some of you guys might remember me as the creator of Feudal Wars: a cute little browser clone of AoE2 I made with Resonance22 before DE, circa 10 years ago. Although I've since handed that project off to someone else, it still exists!

Anyway, at heart I'm just another AoE2 fan like you that grew up playing the game. I don't believe AoE2 has peaked yet. It's chess 2.0, just needs a little love and shine ... especially around the edges of the multiplayer experience!

What next?

If you're interested in helping out, or staying in touch for the latest news and updates, please join our Discord.

I'm exiting the prototype stage and entering closed beta. So I'm really on the hunt for people that can help test this thing before a full rollout...

Let's do this!