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legal action will ensue.
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Tables of Contents
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1. Updates
2. Introduction
3. Multiplayer vs. Computer
4. General Start Off Strategies
5. The Units
6. The Unique Units
7. Commonly Played Death Match Maps
8. Trade Routes
9. Economy
10. Population
11. The Market Trick
12. Aztecs
13. Britons
14. Byzantines
15. Celts
16. Chinese
17. Franks
18. Goths
19. Huns
20. Japanese
21. Koreans
22. Mayans
23. Mongols
24. Persians
25. Saracens
26. Spanish
27. Teutons
28. Turks
29. Vikings
30. Advanced Strategies
31. Team Work
32. Thanks
33. Contact
***********
1. Updates
***********
Version 1.0 - 9/27/02 - The very first version of this FAQ, it's
looking very comprehensive but I'm going to wait for user feedback in
the form of questions and eventually add those in an updated version of
the FAQ.
***************
2. Introduction
***************
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is a game of strategy, speed, and
constant vigilance, especially in Death Match, where a massive army can
hit your base while your still making a castle. Death Match requires a
massive knowledge of the various units, how they should be used, what
should they be combined with, and at what point you should use them.
This FAQ will do that and teach you a whole lot more. While the best
way to learn about Age of Empires is through experience, this FAQ will
teach you a whole lot you didn't know. The best way to be a great
player is to pick one or two civilizations, become very good with them,
and branch off. One important note is that this FAQ is intended to
primarily be used for people playing Age of Empires online, since the
computer is incredibly easy when compared to online competition, but
don't worry, this FAQ will also be useful against the computer.
*******************************
3. Multiplayer vs. The Computer
*******************************
As I earlier stated, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is meant to be a
multiplayer game, as that's when it's most challenging and most
rewarding. The differences between the computer and a human opponent
are gigantic, the computer will often send weak attacks and not build
up an army until 15 minutes in the game. A human opponent will attack
you 3 minutes into the game, will raid your economy, steal your
resources, and generally scheme with his allies to attempt a massive
double team. The computer rarely does this, so if you are looking for
optimal challenge and fun, online play is inevitable.
*******************************
4. General Start off Strategies
*******************************
The most important time in a Death Match is within the first ten
minutes. A good player can have the game won over a slow player in 10
minutes, a great player can have the game won in four. Therefore, to
become a better player you must learn all of the tricks of the trade,
from hot keys, to clustering, to clumping, getting resources faster
(the latter 3 I discuss in advanced strategies). There is so much
riding on how fast your start off is, so practicing it against the
computer is a great way for getting better. There are a few things you
need to know:
- Send your scout to your enemies base early, ideally, it should be
the first thing you do. If this proves difficult, use the hotkeys
and consider changing a couple of them to make it even easier.
Change the idle militia key to "M", then at the very start type
"M" then "," (which changes the scouts stance to aggressive),
then use the mini map and click on where you think your ally will
be.
- Your enemies base 99/100 times will be near a berry bush. Berry
bushes can be hard to distinguish on a mini map at first, but
once you learn to see them fast, you will be deadly. Look for a
far away berry bush, and send your scout there. You will kill a
few of your enemies villagers and be on your way to a great
start.
- Your enemy will use his scout too! That is why you must quickly
build a defense, usually set one villager to a house, one to a
barracks, and one to a stable. Only if you feel you must get
something up very fast should you ever put more than one villager
on a building, because the 2 villagers do not build twice as
fast, they actually build a little slower.
- Know your enemy! If he is the Huns, he is going to rush, if he's
the Celts, he's going to build up siege. Unless he goes random,
make a mental note of what civ he is going to be.
- Queue your town center full of villagers, this should be the
second thing you do, after sending out your scout.
- Put all of your villagers to good use, this is important, if
anything, just put the ones you can't think of on a castle, or on
a town center for resources.
************
5. The Units
************
For the sake of saving time, I will only mention every fully upgraded
unit, as Post Imperial Death Match is the most common style of Death
Match played. I also left out the boats, as Death Match is rarely
played on water maps:
Halberdier - This guy is anti-cavalry and nothing else. Most online
players will try to get these in large numbers, so make sure that if
you have cavalry, that you make something to counter this (archers or
champs will do). This guy is also good if you just need extra men to
throw into battle. Otherwise, halbs are a waste of time.
Champion - Referred to as "champ", this unit will destroy halberdiers,
often much better than a pack of archers will. Aside from that, he's
usually a nice addition to have to your army if you feel that you've
got archers and cavalry covered.
Eagle Warriors - These are perfect for sneaking into an enemies base
and then attacking his trade carts or villagers with. They move fast,
don't get hurt much by arrows, and are quite small, so easy to move.
Hussar - Almost everything in the game counters these, only use them if
you have more food than you know what to do with. Otherwise, use it on
siege and small numbers of archers. Everything else will eat these
alive.
Paladin - The ultimate unit, fast, hard to kill, and dealing out lots
of damage. They are quite expensive though, so watch your budget when
making these. Never use these on halberdiers or camels, as these are
it's counters and will eat Paladins alive. On small numbers of siege,
these work well too, but be careful as moving a whole pack of these can
take lots of time (allowing the enemy to hit you a lot).
Skirmisher - These are very under-rated, they are great for archers
since they cost virtually nothing, but they can also be used to take
away an enemy's focus fire. See cavalry archers? Use these and watch as
your enemy wastes thousands of gold.
Arbalest - Not as good as unique archer units, but these still can be
useful and can throw most people by surprise. They destroy infantry and
cavalry archers and mamelukes, but nothing else. Steer clear of onagers
and skirms, or you will kiss these goodbye. Slightly expensive.
Cavalry Archer - Another infantry destroying unit, in large numbers,
these are very difficult to stop. Only onagers or large numbers of
skirms with paladins will do the job. Although they are expensive, they
are well worth the cost, as they are fast and can get a job done
quickly. Be weary of halberdiers though, as their attack bonus works on
cav archers.
Hand Cannonners - One of the worst archery range units, it is
expensive, takes a long time to get in large quantities, and sucks
against other archers and cavalry. Despite that, it is extremely good
against infantry. Going against the Japanese or Vikings? Use these
things. They do much damage already, but they have an attack bonus
against infantry, meaning they'll kill Huskarls and Teutonic Knights in
3-4 shots. Still, there are so many counters to infantry, why would you
need these?
Scorpions - Alone, these are horrible, in mass numbers, the only thing
that can stop them is onagers. They basically shoot out a bolt that
will damage anything that hits them, so 40 of these against 40 paladins
is basically a massacre, as the paladins will have more luck running
away then attacking. If you see lots of scorpions, never attack unless
you have onagers. Otherwise, you are wasting your army.
Onagers - These things have lost their touch since Age of Empires 1.
They can't take out defensive buildings like castles or bombard towers,
but they are much better against militia, shooting multiple boulders at
the enemy. A large army of scorpions can be defeated only by onagers,
but if you have onagers of your own to protect your scorpions, you will
probably win the game with that army alone.
Rams - Rams must be used up close on buildings, meaning they are bound
to be attacked by the enemy, even so, they can kill many buildings
really fast. If you have wiped out an enemy army or if he has lots of
bombard towers and castles that are undefended, make lots of rams and
you will watch as his base falls apart. The more the better. One time
my ally made 50 rams, he wiped out 6 castles in about 30 seconds!!
Better still, Rams are excellent against other siege. A ram can kill a
scorpion, treb, onager, or another ram in two hits!
Bombard Cannons - These are cannons that are pushed by little guys.
They pack a wallop and are good offensively or defensively. Use them on
buildings and move them out when the enemy tries to attack, or put them
in the back of your army and have them attack the forefront. Either
way, they will work. The downside is they are expensive and easy to
kill, so protect these with your life. Never build these without
building some sort of militia to protect them. They're just like trebs,
but without the delay of having to pack. Just remember, use these on
regular enemy units and watch them drop.
Petards - Petards basically are guys with bombs that run into buildings
and explode. In Death Match though, the only things worth using them on
are castles, but they will never make it in a million years, as the
enemy army and castle can easily kill them. Pretty much worthless since
they cost gold and won't accomplish much. Interestingly, if one Petard
attacks another, the one that attacked will be killed and the other
will have survived.
Trebuchets - Commonly referred to as "trebs." These are the best siege
in the game, as they have the furthest reach and do the most damage,
but they are slow as they launch only one rock at a time at the enemy.
They are expensive but well worth it, and in many situations the only
thing you can possible use. Use these if you want to bring the enemy
out of his defensive shell and force him to attack. A group of
trebuchets can be devastating.
***************
6. Unique Units
***************
Aztec Jaguar Warrior - There is much debate over whether or not this
unit punches the enemy or strikes it with a weapon. The Jaguar Warrior
is the ultimate warrior in wiping out units, doing close to 30 with
each strike. He's not even that bad against cavalry, but halberds are a
much better alternative. He will win against the likes of Japanese
Samurai and Teutonic Knights depending on if he gets the first strike
in.
Briton Longbow Man - This is one of the few units in the game that can
squash it's counter if in large enough numbers. Whenever playing the
Britons, at least 40 longbow men is a must. It's much better off to
overkill with 60-80 though. Their only counters are onagers and
skirmishers, with cavalry being somewhat of a counter too. Due to their
range, they can actually kill these things before they ever even fire
off a shot though, so concentrated fire is a must. Still, be weary. If
you are fighting these, get ready to make more skirms and onagers than
you could ever imagine.
Byzantine Cataphract - This beast is the ultimate in destroying
infantry. Anything will be kill in about 3 hits, sometimes less. Due to
his trample damage however, he rocks them even more. One cataphract can
take out 5 pikemen and 3 halberds, camels do not have an attack bonus
against them, and even paladins don't have a bonus against them due to
their trample attack. This means that Cataphracts have no weakness
besides siege. Cats should be a huge part of your offense and defense,
build your army around them and you won't regret it.
Celt Woad Raider - Due to the Celts tech tree the Woad Raider is
average infantry, comparable to a very fast champ, which is a good
thing. You will not need these things however, except for quickly
hitting an enemy base, still though, you're best off not even making
them and just going for siege when you are the celts.
Chinese Chu Ku No - A very strange unit compared to other archers, it
will fire multiple shots instead of just one. The Ch Ku No's only
problem is it's poor range, as it's arrows do much damage alone, but
when combined, you've got a difficult defense to break.
Frank Throwing Axemen - Perhaps the worst special ranged unit, the
Frankish throwing axemen aren't completely bad, as they do annihlate
Pikemen and most infantry, but everything else destroys them. If you
see Teutonic Knights, run.
Japanese Samurai - This unit is anti-unique, meaning it has an attack
bonus against all other unique units. That being said, most unique
units will crush this anyway, for various reasons. It is a little above
average when put against champs, but other than that, there are few
uses for this poor guy.
Korean War Wagon - The best ranged unit in the game and one of the
reasons the Koreans are banned from so many games, these things will
destroy any other ranged unit, as well as infantry. There large pierce
armor and huge amount of hit points make it difficult for even their
counters to beat them.
Mayan Plumed Archer - An extremely useful unit, although it will get
defeated against an equal number of Longbow men, Mangundai, and Chu Ku
Nos, it's cheap price and excellent mobility make them well worth it.
These things are perfect for raiding an enemies economy.
Mongols Mangundai - The best calvary archer in the game as well as
regular archer, these things have an amazingly fast rate of fire, not
to mention an attack bonus against halberders. An infantry army will
get crushed by these. Perhaps the best thing is that they have an
attack bonus against siege, meaning that mass rams or trebs will get
annihilated. Onagers aren't a problem either, except in large number.
Just watch out for skirmishers and paladins.
Persian War Elephant - The most difficult unit to kill with an
incredible 620 hit points. These elephants in large numbers will
destroy anything if used correctly, counter or no counter, and I'll
teach you how to do just that, just look in the Persian section.
Saracen Mameluke - These things are hands down the best unique unit in
the game. With the ability to shred calvary, all forms of infantry
(even Eagle Warriors), skirmishers, and buildings with their ranged
attack, they are well worth the expensive price. Just be weary of
archers, onagers, and scorpions and everything will be fine. This is
easy since the mames can move quickly. Facing a Persian? Just mass
these and watch the Dumbos drop.
Spanish Conquistador - Perhaps the only thing that does not make the
Spanish a top 3 civ is the Conquistador. It's expensive, slow to
attack, and does what every other ranged unit does for much cheaper.
It's not a bad unit, but there are much better, and the Spanish are
more of a well-rounded civ anyway. Beware of archers and calvary.
Teutonic Knight - These things are devastating. Don't make too many,
but they are very necessary, as they will shred all mounted units and
infantry, with the exception of Jaguar Warriors, which is a fairly even
match-up. Most players will build an offense around stopping these
however, so be careful. Teutonic Knights with siege will take you a
long way. Steer clear of archers when using these.
Turks Janissary - A ranged unit that really only excels against
infantry. It has a very damaging attack, but is slow to fire and has
very low hit points. In large numbers it can be hard to kill, but the
same is true for virtually all ranged units. Your best bet is to make
no more than 15 of these and use them to protect your bombard. Onagers
and archers can waste Janissaries, so be on the lookout.
Viking Beserk - This is arguable one of the worst unique units, along
with the Samurai and woad raider. Your best bet is to talk with your
ally and have him not build infantry so he can fill the holes of your
weak unit. It is useful for Goth rushes however.
***********************************
7. Commonly Played Death Match Maps
***********************************
Believe it or not, most Death Match players play only a few types of
maps. The five listed here are the main ones you'll find people
playing, it would benefit you to learn them well.
Arabia: A map filled with sand and very few tries. There are some
patches of water, but they are fairly small.
Black Forest: A map that's cover with trees, you will have to use the
non-forest paths primarily, but cutting through trees with siege
onagers is a perfect way to make a surprise attack.
Blue Arabia: Like Arabia, but on green land, with no water, and more
trees, but not too much more. This map allows for your enemy to hit you
from virtually any side, so be careful and watch out for sneak attacks.
Green Arabia: Like blue Arabia but more trees still. More opportunities
for sneak attacks too. Your best off building a castle in the back of
your base.
Oasis: A big lake surrounded by trees fills the middle of this map,
meaning that battle takes place on two fronts, one on one side of the
lake, the other on the opposite side of the lake. This map usually
leads to long games, as it is difficult to completely sweep the map.
Especially since the enemy can cut through the trees, take the middle,
and establish a defense of many boats.
***************
8. Trade Routes
***************
The most important resource for funding your army is without a doubt
gold (except for the Persians). Since gold is finite on the map, you
will at some point have to start using trade carts. Obviously the
earlier the better, but it's also important to build markets for the
carts to trade at far away from each other. The further the better,
when it comes to markets, just don't make them TOO easy for your
enemies to reach. It is also important to make sure no sneak attacks on
your trade happen, as many games can be determined by having trade (in
fact, this is how most games are won). Building a castle by the trade
route will do you good. In the raiding section, I will teach you how to
stop enemy trade. One last important note, you can't trade in 1v1
games.
***********
9. Economy
***********
Death Match economy is almost important as the army, as the player who
can constantly pump out troops fighting against one who has a large
army but poor resources, will be victorious, counter or no counter.
This means you must put a strong focus on your economy, obviously the
earlier the better. For this you will usually want:
20-30 peasants on food
20-30 peasants on wood
30-40 trade carts
10-30 peasants on gold/stone
These numbers differ at various point in the game. For example, if you
are just starting off, you will want more peasants on gold,
approximately 40. This is important, especially if you try to steal an
enemy gold mine. In this event, take peasants off of wood and food and
wait til you are below 5,000 to start on those (if the gold mines are
still around). You want approximately 100 peasants at all times, as
this will allow you to fund an expensive and formidable army at all
times.
I said you should start your economy early, but at what point did I
mean? Experts usually start theirs around the sixth minute mark, but
anywhere in the first ten minutes is alright. It is important to
establish your economy fast and at points when you will not have to
worry about your enemy, as focusing on your eco will give the enemy
time to do his own economy, or launch an attack. For this reason, it is
good to build an army as fast as possible and attack your enemy, so he
is unable to start his economy. Unless your attack fails miserably and
you spent a lot of gold, it will serve you well to delay your enemies
economy as often as possible.
************
10. Population
************
Unless you are playing as the Huns, your population should be the
primary focus within your first five minutes of the game, this means
building houses and making infantry to defend your base and to attack.
For this, you should place one of your starting three villagers on a
house. Never place two, as placing two does not build the house twice
as fast (this is true, contrary to popular belief). It's best off to
build a house almost exactly at where you peasant is standing. Never
build far from where your villager stands as that will gain the enemy
valuable time. I personally have destroyed people who tried to build
their houses nice and neatly next to each other simply because I made
an army in the time that they took on their house. I can't stress
enough that building close to where your villager stands is important.
Also, don't stop building houses. You will want to have a population of
200 at the 8 minute mark, 6 minute mark for experts. The best way to do
this is have every new villager that comes from your town center build
a house.
******************
11. The Market Trick
*****************
The market trick should be used only by fast players. It basically
involves making the market your very first building, then, once it's
up, sell a moderate amount of food and wood for gold so you will get an
overall average of about 3,000 more than your opponent for the mere
price of having to start wood and food a little bit earlier. In 1v1's,
this trick can sometimes determine who will win the game. The downside
is that your enemy has a few more buildings up before you do, so to
counteract this, immediately start making an expensive army, stuff like
Paladins, Camels, Calvary Archers, and Eagle warriors. Make many more
stables, archery ranges, and barracks, to get that large army quickly.
**************
12. The Aztecs
**************
The Aztecs are the best infantry civ in the game, with the best champs
and best anti-infantry unit. You will find that you can use champs on
cavalry instead of pikemen at times, meaning an army of champs,
onagers, trebs, and some jags will go quite a long way, as long as you
have enough onagers. The Aztec champs are cheap and have so many uses
since they deal so much damage that you should always add them to your
army. If your enemy is the Brits or Mayans or Huns, the use skirms as
well as onagers for the archers.
Their extra damaging Eagle Warriors are great for raiding an enemy's
siege, as well as interrupting their economy. Put a great focus on
using the Eagle Warriors on where the enemy wouldn't expect, as their
speed and attack are deadly. Don't add them to your primary army
though.
Since Jags are a useful but not vital part of your offense, you can
build your castles offensively with the Aztecs, so build them near
critical gold mines and near the battle front. Also, use trebs and rams
with the Aztecs often, as they don't have much else that can stand an
attack from a castle or bombard.
***************
13. The Britons
***************
The Britons are hands down the best ranged unit civ in the game. They
have, however, one of the worst start offs, as other civs build faster
and their scout is easily killed. Once a Brit is fully established
though, he is virtually impossible to stop. Your offense should revolve
around Longbow men, trebs, and maybe some onagers or cavaliers, but
primarily trebs and longbow men. You will want to make your enemy
regret building castles with about 10-15 trebs. That many will take
down a castle in less than 10 seconds. As for longbow men, a decent
swarm is 60, although I prefer 80. With this many, most units won't be
able to even touch the longbow men, as their range is superior to
anything else in the game besides trebs.
As for your start off, you're going to want to make halberders and
champs, but don't make them take up too much of your population limit,
so consider sending them off to die at your enemies base, but slowing
any attack he might send at you in the process.
If you're facing a Brit, an early champion rush can work wonders, as
few Briton players make cavaliers. Other than that, mass onagers and
skirmishers, but don't expect the counter to wipe them out, as longbow
men in large numbers can be difficult to kill with anything you use.
******************
14. The Byzantines
******************
The Byzantines are a fairly defensive civ, but have an all around good
offense. Their countering units, camels, skirmishers, and halberdiers
are all 25% cheaper, so an army of those and of Cataphracts will
dominate any non-siege and non-bombard using team. Goodnight Aztecs and
Mayans. Remember, don't get lazy, you've got good counters! That being
said, if you see siege, obviously make some of your own, and use
bombard to establish small bases close to your enemy. A good army would
be cataphracts, camels, skirmishers, onagers, and a few trebs. Nothing
will stop that, short of just a ton of siege. So bring a few villagers
along to build bombard in the event of mass siege.
Other than that, there is not much else I can say on the Byzantines,
just make sure you use a good amount of variety and don't neglect
resources.
*************
15. The Celts
*************
The Celts have the best siege in the whole game, making them the third
best civ when used correctly. Everything has more hit points and fires
20% faster, meaning in an onager battle, your onagers will fire first,
kill theirs, but if yours do get hit, they will survive thanks to the
hit points. All you need now is enough scorpions to make sure your
onagers won't be killed by any non-siege. 40 will usually do, but I
prefer an over kill amount, but 50-60 will also help. Now all you need
is a few trebs for buildings and you've got an unbeatable army (most
people won't allow the Turks to be played, nor the Koreans, but the
Celts are alright).
This being said, the Celts Woad Raider pretty much sucks compared to
most units. It's speed is the only thing that salvages any dignity, but
there are much better units that do the job. The Celts Paladin sucks
due to an insufficient tech tree, so do the Celts archers. This means
you will primarily be going for Halberdiers, after all, the only
possible thing the enemy can use to stop your siege is a massive amount
of cavalry, but the scorpions will eat that alive. With the halbs, it
won't even be a contest. As long as you have something delaying the
enemy from hitting the siege for a few seconds (while the siege hits
back), you've got nothing to worry about. Even villagers protecting the
siege will work, believe it or not.
As I've said, the Celts use siege and Halberdiers, so wood is your
worry, and it's a big one. You'll want about 40 villagers on wood,
don't worry about food, as the Halberdiers don't use much. Put 10
villagers on it if you'd like though. Other than that, trade some food
in for gold.
***************
16. The Chinese
***************
The Chinese start off with 6 villagers instead of 3 and their town
centers house 10 population, so the Chinese are the second best anti-
rushing civilization (keep this in mind against the Huns), but also
remember that this extra start off can give the Chinese a deadly rush
(camels, cav archers, and rams). Start off with 2 villagers on houses,
and the other 4 individually on whatever you want. The Chinese have a
somewhat diverse playing style, but it's hard to match certain types of
units together, so go on the offensive and this won't be much of a
problem.
The Chinese have the best scorpions in the game after the Celts, so add
these to your offense, with a few onagers for protection. After that,
you will want an army of champs, camels, and cho ku nos. Use castles
defensively and bombard defensively or offensively, since you won't
have many castles (you're using the stone for bombard), and you can
place the bombard in lots of places. Chu Ku Nos will destroy most
archers, so you won't have a problem there. The main difficulty will be
with onagers, so be careful.
When playing the Chinese, NEVER rush, as it will almost never work.
**************
17. The Franks
**************
The Franks have the best cavalry in the game, but with all the counters
to cavalry in the game, that doesn't mean much. Nonetheless, Frankish
Paladins combined with Champs to prevent possible counters is a pretty
formidable force. Add onagers and some trebs, and you've got an army
that could easily win you the game.
In addition to great paladins, the Franks have cheap castles, which
means you should be using at least some castles offensively. One trick
is to rush in with paladins while your villagers stand behind and
quickly work on castles close to the enemy base. Castles are the
ultimate in defense keep in mind, better than bombard because they can
produce units to defend themselves, so definitely put those cheap
castles to good use.
Other than that, you shouldn't need to worry about much if you
substitute champs for throwing axemen, since they are roughly the same
price, but champs do more damage and can take on camels (a paladin
predator). Just be weary of the Teutons who eat throwing axemen for
breakfast with their large army and the Saracens, whose camels
annihlate Paladins. Throwing axemen should do the job for mamelukes.
*************
18. The Goths
*************
The Goths are the second best rushing civ, next to the Huns. The Goths
Huskarls come out incredibly fast and can come from your barracks (very
useful), meaning that the real challenge is to build houses fast
enough. For this reason, always keep a keen focus on houses, as a
barracks queue full of Huskarls will pump them all out in about 90
seconds. Huskarls themselves are slightly weaker than champs, but are
nearly invulnerable to archers with their high hit points, meaning that
if you are going against a non-archer civ, you must attack early and
beat them with your large numbers, but if you face an archer civ, take
it slow if you'd like.
I can't stress enough that it's easy to outnumber an enemy with
Huskarls, so always make sure that you do, unless you are moving slow,
then you will want other things in your army like halberdiers (which
come out very fast too), and siege, and maybe a few archers. Just make
sure you get more food than usual, as pumping out those guys can prove
costly. Since arrows do very little to Huskarls, if you see a castle
undefended, by all means swarm it and take it out! It's easily done.
Don't skip siege though, the Goths are an in-your-face civ, attacking
hard and often, so trebs work, but rams are probably the better bet.
Keep in mind that Huskarls will work just fine as long as your enemy
doesn't use Paladins or cavaliers, or if he doesn't use a unique
infantry unit (but you should have some archers along to stop that
anyway). So you will waste civs like the Mayans, Brits, Saracens,
Chinese, and Mongols usually. If you're facing a Goth, make lots of
champs, but be careful, as Huskarls are very fast and aren't much
weaker than champs. Also make lots of cavalry.
************
19. The Huns
************
The Huns are a must-rush civ in death matches, making them unique from
other civ. They have the weakest siege of any civ, anything besides
rams and trebs is inexcusable, no matter what the circumstances. The
advantage the Huns have over other civs however is that they do not
need houses, making it incredibly easy to amass a huge army while your
opponent constantly needs to stop production due to population limits.
Take advantage of this at all times.
Start Off - The very first thing you should do is send out your scout
to the enemy base. Then build either a market, or make stables and
archery ranges. Go for a combination of Paladins and cavalry archers,
or trick them into thinking you will come with paladins and mass 60
cavalry archers and storm in. This works phenomenally well since the
cavalry archers are cheap, they move fast, and in such a large quantity
so early can't often be stopped, even if you have the counter.
If you try to rush and fail, you will lose as your enemy will more than
likely just build lots of siege and you won't be able to counter since
Huns siege is horrible. Never use Tarkans unless you know you're going
to win, as they cost as much but are worse than Paladins. Their attack
bonus against buildings is useful, but your enemy will kill your
Tarkans in the process.
Lastly, always save some gold so you can pump out a cavalry archer
brigade, as they can work wonders on an enemy that makes mistakes, like
leaving trade routes open or leaves infantry by themselves.
****************
20. The Japanese
****************
The Japanese are the second worst civ in the game, only the Vikings are
worse. Why? Because the Japanese have bad cavalry, siege, and archers.
Their fast attacking infantry is nothing special, especially when
compared to a Teutonic Knight. The only real purpose it would be for is
against Elephants (halberdiers), and maybe against a Goths player. The
Samurai are a horrible unit, much like the Vikings Beserk, many unique
units counter them. They are expensive for infantry as well.
In fact, the only really useful thing for the Japanese are the
trebuchets, which I must admit are incredibly powerful. They fire
extremely fast, as well as pack/unpack. For this reason, a Japanese
army should be fast, be able to stop onagers, and should hit with
surprise. When I do play them, I go for about 20 trebs, and watch a
whole town disappear in less than a minute.
Basically, a Japanese army should consist of Samurai, some Halbs, and
cavalry archers. You will need onagers to protect against siege too.
The rest of your army should be trebs, make plenty of them. Trebs,
actually, in large quantities can stop lots of onagers. Just space them
out into two groups and have them focus fire on large areas.
Other than that, good luck, you'll need it. Your eco should be well
diversified.
***************
21. The Koreans
***************
The Koreans are the best civ in the games hands down. Why? Three
reasons, they have the best bombard in the game (tied with the Turks).
They have the best onagers in the game. Lastly, they have the best
ranged unit in the game, the War Wagon. Combining these 3 is an
unbeatable strategy, the only thing one needs to win with when playing
the Koreans is an early rush defense.
Now then, the basic strategy with the Koreans is to build many bombard
towers quickly, approximately 20-25. The back these up with about 20
onagers, 40 halberds, 2 trebs, 2 bombard cannons and about 15 War
Wagons. Nothing in the game will stop this defense, as trebs are
destroyed by the Koreans long-range onagers, rams will get killed by
halberds and onagers, and anything that tries to break through the
defense will get squashed by a combination of bombard, war wagons, and
onagers. All you have to do is place your onagers so they aren't all
together, so a group of paladins won't do a suicide run on them and
slowly push on the enemy until you are at the his base. The game is all
but won.
Now that I've said that, you can actually use any 2 of the 3 Korean
"super units". Onagers with bombard towers, Onagers with War Wagons, or
War Wagons with bombard will all work just fine. The only difficult
part is getting the resources to replace your army, but this is a death
match, so that shouldn't be a problem, especially if you started on
resources early.
If you are facing a Korean, you're best bet is to double team his ally,
so you won't even have to face him for awhile, since he will be
building up that super defense I told you about. Other than that, rush
him as soon as possible, as the defense is impossible to take out once
it has started.
**************
22. The Mayans
**************
The Mayans are the least expensive civ in the game, there are instances
when I play them in which I never have to start food or wood. Given
that, it's best to sell wood and food early, put 20 villagers on each,
and never have to worry about those two resources again. Gold will be
your only problem, as you will not need to worry about stone since the
Mayans only need stone for castles.
The Mayans have an anti-archer oriented cast of units, the Eagle
Warrior and the Plumed Archer are at the top of the list, as both can
destroy archers (hint: want to beat a Britons easily? Go mayans!). The
plumed archers can also eliminate all infantry easily too, meaning the
only challenge, but a huge challenge indeed, for the mayans is cavalry.
If your enemy has weak cavalry, you will win. Even with the Eagle
Warriors attack bonus against mounted units (which is very weak),
you'll have a hard time. This means if you see the enemy has stables,
you must make halberdiers. The enemy can go crazy with cavalry and can
over run a huge army of Eagles and Plumed archers, so be careful.
Halberds can slow down a very fast mayan army however, so either attack
early when cavalry isn't winning due to the number game, or make
halberdiers and wait for the eventual army.
Eagle Warriors are definitely one of the top units in the game, aside
from their rich skills in raiding economies and wiping out archers,
these guys are much better than cavalry at taking out siege. With their
extra hit points, they can take much abuse, run in and close the gap
quickly with siege, and wipe it out due to their bonus hit points.
Always heavily guard your siege when playing a Mayans or Aztecs player.
Lastly, the Mayans actually have decent siege, so in times of
desperation, go for scorpions if you think the move is right. Their
onagers aren't bad either. The Mayans are a fast team though, so
establish your siege quickly if you think you will need it.
***************
23. The Mongols
***************
The Mongols are probably the best ranged attack team in the game after
the Koreans. The downside is that this ranged attack takes much time to
build up. The big counter to ranged attacks is calvary, so make sure to
build some camels, not too much though. A few champs will do you some
good too. As for siege, the Mongols have the fastest moving siege in
the game. Although it's considered by some a dirty tactic, siege can
easily win games. Some make sure you've got a couple of scorpions,
onagers, and definitely use the Mongols rams, as they are fast and
lethal. One tactic is to use rams on enemy siege units, as they can
kill any siege in two hits!
Your most important part of the offense besides siege is Mangundai,
abuse these babies as they are the best part of the Mongols offense,
wiping out almost anything. Just make sure you put a couple of camels
in front of them to defend them.
Since the Mongols are mainly a wood and gold civ, you should either
sell your extra food for gold, or make a few hussars brigades to
surprise opponents and take out their siege. The extra bonus hit points
for the Mongols hussars are a little helpful, but hussars still suck.
****************
24. The Persians
****************
The Persians are one of those teams that has a great unique unit that
you just want to exploit. Elephants in large numbers are hard to stop,
their only counters are halberds, mamelukes, and scorpions, so if
you're facing a non-saracen team that lacks in the counter, definitely
go with Elephants. More than likely however, the enemy will prepare for
your elephants with many halberds and scorpions together, this double
counter will thrash elephants, so you will sometimes want to use
calvary archers or hand cannonners, a bombard cannon or two, a few
onagers and maybe a few scorps, depending on what resources you have in
excess. Personally, I prefer elephants with onagers, cavalry archers,
and a few bombard cannons. It's important to make sure you bring trebs
or rams along to, as elephants are good siege, but those things do the
job much better.
One strategy I often use is called "The Elephant Factory", it starts
off with your first villager building 2 houses while your other two
make a castle. From there you make 5 more castles (6 in all) before
making anything else and just constantly pump out elephants. Within 10
minutes, you'll have about 80 elephants, an army that is hard to stop
unless you made a counter from the very beginning. Not even a large
army of pikemen will stop this, only siege and mamelukes. Once the
castles are up, make about 55 farms, put 25 on wood, and put 30 on gold
in some fashion or another. One last tip for the elephant factory is to
include rams, as once you wipe out the enemy defense, you can send in
the rams to destroy everything else and use the surviving elephants to
wipe out another enemy.
When playing as the Pers however, no matter what strategy you use, it's
important that you use elephants correctly. This means pulling them
back when halberds come but sending them in when you see Paladins,
other infantry, or archers. Elephants take so much abuse that castles
aren't much of a threat, but always make sure you have some siege to
take down those castles quickly. If you see bombard, make rams, and
many of them, 15 rams will destroy A LOT.
****************
25. The Saracens
****************
The Saracens have two of the best units in the game, the Mameluke, and
the Saracen camel. I've explained the Mameluke in the unique units
section, as for the camel, it has 170 hit points and is the perfect
rushing unit. One on one, it will kill any regular unit in the game -
anything! This means that you simply need to out produce your enemy to
win. If you kill his villagers while rushing, this is an easy task,
making the Saracens the third best rushing civ in the game. Not to
mention that they have a trade bonus in which they get more gold for
trading in wood and food, take advantage of that early and often.
The only thing that can present a problem with a Mameluk army is
onagers and archers, so counter this with onagers of our own. Mass
them, like 25, and with Mamelukes, you've got quite an army. A bombard
cannon here or there doesn't hurt either.
This type of army is expensive and hard to build early, so go for
camels early on, as I said earlier, a Saracen camel rush can work
wonders.
If your enemy is going Saracens, the best counter is either the Teutons
or the Mayans, with Teutonic Knight and Plumed Archers respectively.
Otherwise, calvary archers, halberds, and onagers will do.
***************
26. The Spanish
***************
With the extra quick building time and powerful villagers, the Spanish
are the best anti-rushing civ and fourth best rushing civ in the game.
There are so many advantages to the Spanish, it's no wonder they are so
commonly played. They've got an excellent tech tree, so diversity is
important, but make sure that you add a little bit of siege to your
army, primarily onagers and bombard cannons. Don't forget to build
bombard on new establishments though, as the Spanish do it the fastest.
You can pretty much go into a game and improvise when you see you need
something new to your strategy with the Spanish, but a quick attack and
then defending the newly gained area will work well. Due to their extra
fast gold mining, being aggressive is a much better thing, and it
allows you to keep your population focused on militia. Don't forget to
take advantage of their 33% more profitable trade though too. The
Spanish are powerful with defense or offense, or both!
***************
27. The Teutons
***************
The Teutons are a beginner team but not much more. The difficulty in
playing the Teutons is that their units are good, but fairly expensive
and thus difficult to combine. A great strategy is using Teutonic
Knights and siege, but it takes an extremely long time to ever even
start this, and your opponents will be able to attack if you go slow.
Many like to build halberders early on, but they can take up much of
your population if you want to effectively use them, but that means you
won't have enough for Paladins, siege, T. Knights, and bombard. Others
like to go for bombard and siege, but still, that will only work on
slow enemies, and it won't gain you any ground. For these reasons, the
Teutons should be avoided once you begin intermediate play.
Aside from effectively using the Teutons in a speedy and cheap manner,
they are a great civ. Teutonic Knights rip up infantry and calvary, try
to make a point of it to always have 10-15. One time I killed 50
Halberds with 7 Teutonic Knights. Their power is amazing.
On a final note, take advantage of their bombard and above average
siege.
*************
28. The Turks
*************
The Turks are the other team that is usually banned from the zone, as
they have some of the dirtiest strategies imaginable. Your start off
should consist of one bombard tower up fairly early to protect against
a possible rush and then quickly grab a large chunk of the map and
build bombard non-stop. If you can get up just one bombard tower, you
will usually have established the land you wanted, so try to steal a
gold mine and trap the enemy. You will want to buy stone as well, so
sell wood and food, and make sure you have plenty of gold. Don't stop
mining stone on the map either, the more the better.
Once you start building bombard towers, the only thing that will stop
it is if the enemy either runs around it, or uses trebs and rams. To
stop them from running around it, make sure you circle their base with
bombard. As for trebs and rams, make sure you make many bombard cannons
and champs, as the turkish bombard cannons have a very long range and
waste trebs, and mass champs will destroy rams. About 40 will do you
good. Keep building bombard, at least 30 towers, but if you have stone,
by all means make more! One you feel that you've squeezed the life out
of your opponents resources, move in for the kill, take out his castles
with bombard cannons and build towers close to your cannons to protect
them. Since you aren't making much else than bombard and champs, make
at least 15-20 bombard cannons. When things look bad, simply pull them
back and let your bombard protect them. An easy and commonly used
strategy that can even frustrate experts. Nothing else is needed for
the Turks.
***************
29. The Vikings
***************
The Vikings are the worst civ in the game, most people only play them
when they get them by random by accident. If you do get them, prepare
to take a beating. The Vikings have no one unit that will give them an
edge over another army. Decent cavalry, decent archers, and good
infantry, but what will infantry do since there are so many counters to
it?
Some are duped into believing that an army of Viking Beserks will
thrash another army, then heal itself, and then be as good as new. The
problem with Beserks is that almost every other unique unit counters
them, and for those who don't have a countering unique unit, they're
probably using something that would counter them anyway. All the
archers destroy berserks, mamelukes, cataphracts, samurai, Teutonic
Knights, and Jags all dominate Beserks. That leaves Woad Raiders and
Huskarls. Now, the Celts player isn't going to use Woad Raiders anyway
because they stink, and the Goths player, well he is the only one you
will have an advantage over.
The extra hit points for infantry is the only thing going for the
Vikings, but that won't help. All you can do is make siege, some
berserks, and try to get an economy that gets lots of food, and hope
you don't get beaten too badly.
This is the most important part of this whole FAQ. I will list the key
terms and strategies:
Clumping - Build 6 castles, a house, and barracks along with your town
center in a circular manner so nobody can get in. There is a good
article about how to do this on www.mrfixitonline.com
Clustering - A start off in which you build everything closely around
your town center, as it optimizes the ability to get buildings up
faster, get an army faster, but it also is a great defense against
rushes, as most people will try to pick off your villagers but will
have a hard time navigating through your base.
Rushing - One of the most common strategies on the zone. It is used
even by rookies, but is deadly with an expert. It entails attacking
your enemies base as soon as possible so you can kill his villagers so
they won't get many military buildings up, so you can easily overwhelm
his army. This is one of the most important strategies in the game as
it is always used in expert rooms, and is usually found in intermediate
and rookie rooms. To rush, you must send your scout out as soon as
possible to harass the enemy villagers, you must then build military
buildings and queue them to the enemy base so they get their ASAP. Here
are a few tips for rushing
1. Try to kill villagers that are building houses, this way you can
halt the enemies chances of creating militia.
2. Send your scout out as soon as possible.
3. Ask your allies to give you resources when you need them to
support the rush if you are doing well.
4. If your ally is willing, tell him to help out by sending stuff to
the enemy base, especially his scout.
5. Never rush with just one thing, unless you are the Goths. Come in
with two things, as they will probably not have your counter, but
you will definitely have theirs.
6. Use something fast and come in with large numbers!
7. Keep killing villagers, don't let them build new buildings!
8. Consider massing cavalry archers, because if their initial army
can't beat them, they will definitely lose.
9. Be careful, because your enemy may escape with one villager, this
could eventually lead to him building a new base.
Anti-rushing - there are a few ways to stop rushes, most people just
build lots of halberdiers, but this will get crushed by everything.
Three really good ways to stop are rush are:
1. Have one of your first villagers immediately work on a bombard
tower.
2. Send your scout to the enemy base to see what they are coming
with and build your counter accordingly.
3. Have a villager in a hard to reach spot start on a castle.
Tunnel - On maps with lots of trees, use a siege onager or a couple and
have them aim at the trees and clear a path. This is a rookie tactic,
but is pretty powerful when done quickly. Your best bet is to clear a
path to a part where there is minimal defense.
*************
31. Team Work
*************
Certain civs go well together, like the Celts and Persians, because the
Celts need wood but don't need food, and the Persians need food, but
don't need wood. As a result, these two teams can trade each other the
resources they don't need and can greatly help their ally. Other teams
like this are:
Mongols and Persians
Britons and Persians
Mayans, Persians, and Celts
You get the idea
Another tip is to do double team attacks, in 2v2, quickly double
rushing one enemy so you can eliminate him. This means that one person
on the double rush team will be open for an attack, but this is
nullified by the fact that you won't take as much abuse as the person
double rushed. Another way to nullify the attack is by clumping, this
way the enemy can only get into your base with siege.
**********
32. Thanks
**********
Thanks to Microsoft for making this game, CjayC for hosting this FAQ,
the NMK clan, DOA clan, the godlike clan, and ChrisandNick_0 for
providing so many laughs.
***********
33. Contact
***********
Have a question I didn't answer? Have useful advice? Find a mistake? E-
mail me at whose_your_daddy_1999@yahoo.com
