How to Win in Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II is the sequel to Age of Empires I, a bestselling PC game. Age of Empires II allows you to play 13 different civilizations, each with different unique units and architecture.

This guide is for beginner to moderate players. This guide is useless for advanced players who can easily beat a very hard computer.

Method 1

Method 1 of 5:

The Dark Age

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Villagers are key to a great economy. Villagers gather resources which can be used to build, create, and research stuff later on in the game. The trick is to have enough villagers to support what you are trying to accomplish at the time.
These sheep should then be moved under the town center so the villagers have an instant drop off point and don't need to run to drop the food off. Six villagers is the optimum to have on sheep at any one time. It will insure constant villager production. You should now use the next created villager to build a lumber camp and the next 2 villagers should go there too. The berries should be close to the town center, the next 2 villagers should be sent to berries as well for a total of 4. You then want to send some more villagers to wood and a few more to sheep, remember to create one or two far before you click to feudal.
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Here is an approx build list: Villager 1 - food, Villager 2 - food, Villager 3 - food, Villager 4 - food, Villager 5 - food, Villager 6 - food, Villager 7- lumber camp, Villager 8 - wood, Villager 9 - wood, Villager 10 -Lure boar, Villager 11 - Build a mill, Villager 12- berries, Villager 13 - berries, Villager 14 - lure boar, Villager 15 - berries, Villager 16 - wood, Villager 17 - wood, Villager 18 - food, Villager 19 - food, Villager 20 - food, Villager 21 - food. Here is it explained a little better in a condensed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtukDHXy9GU&list=PL891DE10D2EFEA2E6
Number him 1 by pressing Ctrl + 1. That way, you can quickly go to him by simply pressing the 1 key. Start by exploring the black areas around the explored area. Since you need to know the map, the scout is vital. Start by scouting around your base in a circle then when you have found everything you need, 6+ sheep, gold, stone and at least one decent lumber site start scouting for your opponent, a good starting point is directly across from you.
You shouldn't drop villager production unless you are going full aggressive, or have 120 villagers (In 200 pop)
A good player won't research loom until he is about to go feudal. However, if you don't have the food to create a villager it can be a good time to do loom. Also if your boar is far away, or the game is laggy it can be a good idea to get loom before you lure it.

Method 2

Method 2 of 5:

The Feudal Age

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The sheep should have run out by now,so you can start to explore the other places including the enemy and your allies. You should now have at least 4 people on wood by now.
Blacksmiths cost 150 wood each, and markets cost 175 wood each. The thing is that markets are slower to build, and blacksmiths has a lot of upgrades for the military later on that you can use.
They are good upgrades for the economy.
Build a farm after you build the market. Farms cost 60 wood and cost 60 wood to reseed. It is better once you hunt deer somewhere farther away from the town center. Each deer stocks up to 140 food, and there should be at least 4 of 'em there.
You don't need stone in the Feudal Age, so get gold. Have 2 villagers go on gold. You need 100 more gold to advance to the Castle Age. The Feudal Age should only take about 7 or 8 minutes. You need 800 food, 200 gold, and a blacksmith and a market to advance to the Castle Age. If you have extra wood, build a barracks farther to the enemy. On top of a cliff is best because infantry can't get up there by climbing.
HaveAt least 15 villagersA scoutAt least 650 foodMillLumber campMining campAt least 100 woodAt least 200 gold200 stoneBlacksmithMarketLoom, Horse Collar, and Double-bit Axe researched
Then you can advance to the Castle Age. Keep exploring with your scout. By now, you should have at least 50% of the map explored (unless you are playing with a normal, large, or giant map).

Method 3

Method 3 of 5:

The Castle Age

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If you do not have enough resources, then you will have to wait. Also, research other stuff that is good too, like Gold Mining and Stone Mining (Stone Mining should be researched later unless you want a castle as the "2" buildings).
Universities should be built first because they have fairly priced but powerful upgrades. Monasteries should be built later in the game unless you are planning a siege in the early Castle Age. Continue to create villagers, and research Wheelbarrow or Town Watch (Wheelbarrow may be too expensive, but do not use your food on Town Watch of you have less than 100 food). You must build another Town Center though. More villagers = more resources = better military = better chance that you will crush your opponents.
Build a Barracks, Archery Range, Stable, Siege Workshop, and other buildings. The order is listed below.BarracksStableSiege WorkshopArchery Range
You should have 4 military groups. Continue to build up your military slowly, but DO NOT FORGET ABOUT YOUR ECONOMY!!! If you forget about it, you will not have enough resources to build up your military, well...you will lose. Keep creating more villagers until you think the mark reaches 50 for villagers and 50 for military units (15 infantry, 15 archers, 15 cavalry, and 5 siege units).
This will make it easier, as the economy will boost, leaving you with many resources for the military. When you reach 1000 food, 800 gold, and a castle or 2 Castle Age buildings, you can choose to advance to the Imperial Age and continue to work on your military for an easier win. Or, you can lead your military of 50 troops (it is actually a lot in this game) and destroy everyone. You should advance to the Imperial Age if there are more than 2 enemies, and just attack if there are 2 or less enemies. If you are planning to do the military attack, go ahead and crush everyone. If not, here is what you do in the Imperial Age.

Method 4

Method 4 of 5:

Imperial Age

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Research all the important stuff like Crop Rotation, Two-Man Saw, Stone/Gold Shaft Mining, and other stuff that are important. Research your unique techs in the castle because no other civilization has the unique techs you have. If your enemy has many buildings, it is best to rap up 1 or 2 trebuchets until you attack.
You should at least have about 80 villagers. Create 20 more (don't worry; you do not have to do it all in one time) 5 at a time. Villagers are surprisingly strong and usually scare off siege weapons when you tell them to attack. When you reach 100 villagers, all you should be concentrating on is the military. Reseed farms as usual, and rap up your military. Create many units so that you have 50 infantry, 25 archers, 20 cavalry, and 5 siege units. If you are playing the Goths, you have a +10 population which means you can fill in 5 more villagers and some trebuchets. Now, with 100 (or 105) units, go crush your opponents as you've never done it before!!!

Method 5

Method 5 of 5:

Alternate Method

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Produce as many villagers as you can. Once you create your first villager, make him build a house then set him on food.
Once you have five villagers on food, get five on wood so that you have ten villagers altogether.
Once they are done, have each of those villagers build a farm and add five farms to the mill queue. Have your wood villagers build a lumber camp near a large forest and get wood. Get two more villagers for constructing buildings and have those two build a barracks and dock if needed.

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Question
How important are archers and other ranged units in the game? Are they essential or an optional extra?
Community Answer
They are very effective against infantry like swordsmen or pikemen.
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What is the Viking specialty?
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It has the wonderful Viking longboat, which you can find in the dock and has berserks(castle) that are marvelous fighters. They cannot be defeated easily.
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What do most calvary have as weaknesses?
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Pikemen/spearmen are their weakness, so guard them with swordsmen and more pikemen as well as archers.
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Tips

You can set the difficulty level. Easiest is really easy, standard is like normal in some other games, moderate is pretty hard for some people, hard is extremely hard, and very hard is practically impossible (because the enemy uses cheats! If you set the speed to slow, it makes it easier so you can do more things in a less amount of time. However, it is slower than the normal time, so if you have plenty of time, go for it.
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MAKE SURE YOU SET THE SPEED ON 'FAST', or else you will be moving in slow motion the whole time, and that stinks...Also make sure your map is zoomed out as far as it can go, found in the top right corner under 'Options' I think.
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There is a fun setting called Regicide where you start with a king, along with the usual stuff, it is easier this way because you only have to kill your enemies' kings and they only have to kill yours, but it's fun building things to protect him.
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Things You'll Need

Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors CD. You can buy one at the store for $9.99. Alternatively, you can download the game from a p2p network.
As of April 9th 2013, the game along with the Conqueror's expansion will be available on Steam. It will feature an updated HD graphical engine, steam workshop support and multiplayer.