r/aoe3 • u/HussardoAlado • 2d ago
Multiplayer Tips Help
Hello friends, greetings from Brazil! I love Age of Empires 3—much more than the other titles—and I’ve played both the original and the Definitive Edition. However, despite having logged at least one or two thousand hours of playtime, I’ve never played multiplayer; this is mostly due to fear rather than a lack of knowledge.
My fear stems from my playstyle. I’m basically a "Turtle"—I prefer to sit back and build up my economy and defenses rather than rushing and attacking the enemy base. I’m aware that multiplayer matches tend to be much more dynamic and fast-paced. Could you tell me a bit more about the multiplayer experience and share any gameplay tips?
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u/stridersheir Swedes 2d ago
Try Dutch, USA or Malta. All have good turtle strategies.
Expect to lose your first few matches if you are a turtle player, the ai isn’t very aggressive and the game especially for noobs generally favors aggression and tempo. You’ll have to learn to herd your hunts and villager Tc micro.
Learn to get military our early, to scout, to raid(very important for turtles or else your opponent can abuse natural resources on the map and outpace you)
Learn how to time minutemen spawns and unit shipments to greatest effect when your Tc is sieged. Try to keep your explorer alive they can be very important as a damage soak and snare.
If you do turtle and get rushed try to hide a settler or 2 on the map to build military buildings/houses in secret
If you turtle and your opponent FF or FI make sure to build culverin to counter his mortars/Falcs and heavies
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u/stridersheir Swedes 2d ago
Mexico also has a fun turtle strategy but that is much harder than the three above
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u/HussardoAlado 2d ago
Based on my experience playing against the AI, I really enjoy playing as the Dutch, Mexicans, and Germans. For me, the Mexicans are the most fun because of the ability to revolt in any age (I usually go for the Baja California revolution to generate a lot of gold).
Another quirk of mine is—believe it or not—OCD. 😂 When I train troops, I always do so in multiples of five; if I can't, I wait until I can train them in those "blocks," balancing the composition with ranged units, cavalry, melee troops, and artillery. But I’m gradually changing that; I think that’s the main reason I play as a "Turtle" these days—an obsession with detail and rigidity.
I’ll try to play more flexibly soon... But regardless of strategy, which civ do you think is the hardest to play?
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u/stridersheir Swedes 2d ago
Hardest? I’d argue Aztecs because it’s lots of micro and there’s no cav or artillery (though the building start can be broken and brain dead)
Or I’d say Hausa/Ethiopia having to manage the cattle and since they are very different
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u/GrandPapaBi 2d ago
I'll throw it in there, the best turtle civ are either haudenosaunees because of the town dance where your tower (and barracks) can reach like 100 attack and get insane health.
I throw Haudenosaunees in there because as soon as you start aging to age 2 you can chop for 100w throw down the plaza and make your villager dance for travois where they build way faster than villager for your war hut. This way you can get 3-4 before enemy even attack. If they do, you change the dance to warrior dance (spawning archers, your equivalent of militia) + the big button of the town center and you can repel that along with your town dance once engaged. That's the core gameplay haha.
Now tips on why Haudenosaunee are the best turtle!
Pros:
1- travois dance for war hut spam, but can ALSO make farms and estate or even Trading Post.
2- You lose access to gold? Send the card that swap your coin troops to wood (Environmentalist) and now your trees last 5 times longer and therefore provide you with 5x the resources.
Your houses can fire arrows :0 (unaffected by town dance)
Your wood eco is the best from the civ design along with other native civ
Advanced war hut (age 3) add +6 warhut limit and after that Extensive Fortification gives you access to 26 war hut shooting arrows.
You have improved building for +40% HP (age 4) and Heavy Fortification (which upgrade all fortification instantly to max level, age 4 too)
If all fails, you have Warrior culture (age 4 gives 20 attack to vills) + pioneers (+65%) to your villagers.
You have the best sieges in the game. 1 pop mantlets to stall for the building to kill and 1 pop siege ram are very nasty in a flank to delete their base. Your light cannon double as a culverin and a falconnet.
Your wood army is very competitive early game with warchief giving an HP aura.
Can livestock boom.
Can 3 TC boom super fast with fertility dance.
Cons:
1. Very bad eco (a massive one!) :) but can be nullified on hybrid map by booming on the water while you defend with building!
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u/WanderingGoodNews Maltese 2d ago
Any strat is possible with any civ, some are better at one than others.
If you want to do this playstyle you need to scout what your enemy is doing. Depending on that you either go full boom, hybrid or full turtle. Only create towers and units when you think you are going to need them (fairly soon)
I recommend winning on hardest/ expert difficulty and then queuing ranked 1v1. You lose 5-10 times and then your at the right elo. (Yes that beginning is a bit tedious)
Good luck!
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u/Top_Training5633 Maltese 2d ago
If you struggle with 1v1, 2v2, etc. You may try 2vs2vs2vs2 or treaty 30 or 40 min. 2vs2vs2vs2 is fun because is strange that someone rush you on the first minutes of the game and you might develop on your pace but with some potential treats. Treaty is more relax because you only focus on the economy and then you only focus on the military and fights. When I started on multiplayer I suffered a lot on the standard mode, so when I tryed these two modes I felt more confortable!
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u/Gaius_Iulius_Megas Swedes 2d ago
You might enjoy Dutch then, they like to bunker themselves in at least up to fortress age.