This is a noob-friendly guide to get you to understand the basics of Age of Empires 2 skirmish and multiplayer.

#Please Add Romanians in AoE2, we have Dracula's campaign but not Dracula's civ.

1. In a match, press F11 to display the time elapsed in the game, as well as the difficulty level the game is set. This option saves so you won't have to press it again next match.

2. Top-right of the mini-map, click the button with 3 flags: red, blue and white one. It will display each player's score. This option saves so you won't have to press it again next game.

3. Options -> Game: Building Range Indicator always on, idle pointers check, small trees check, automatic farms/fish trap rebuilding on.

4. Options -> Interface -> Advanced Options -> Extended Unit Stats.

5. The Default Hotkeys are like this, from Top-left: Q, W, E, R. Middle row from left to right A, S, D, F, G. Bottom row from left to right: Z, X, C, V, B. They are very intuitive once you get them.

6. OPTIONAL: Mods. See the picture below. Only 10 for blood is for style, the rest are for making the game easier for the player.

- Open maps like: Arabia, Lombardia, Golden Pit/Rush, Ghost Lake, Highlands, Mongolia don't have pre-built defenses and it's easy to attack your opponent early game. You will usually start fights as early as Feudal Age with Scouts or Archers rush, sometimes Man-at-Arms rush. And defend with Spearmen for Scouts, Skirmishers for Archers, Archers for Man-at-Arms.

- Closed maps like: Arena, Oasis, Black Forest, Hideout, Amazon Tunnel, Michi, Fortress have walls and the fights will start in Castle age, usually when 1 player decides to drop a Castle next to another player's wall, players usually send a few Halberdiers outside so that they don't Castle dropped. If a Castle is placed then the player who built it garrisons all the villagers inside the Castle to destroy one of the enemy walls, then rush in with the army. Castles are best defeated with Rams from Siege or Trebuchets in Imperial Age.

- Hybrid maps like Baltic, Coastal Forest, Coastal, Continental, Isthmus, Bog Islands have with 50% connected land 50% water. Usually the battle starts later than on Open Maps but earlier than on Closed Maps, around Feudal or Castle age. Rushes are certainly possible. But you will also have to fight on the water. Water dominance does not win you the game, but makes it easier to get map control.

- Water maps like Islands, Pacific Islands, Migration, Archipelago, Team Islands is where you have to build docks and boats. This is almost all water, so water control is not a benefit here but a must have, you usually make a Dock in Dark Age or Feudal Age just like on Hybrid Maps, food taken from Fishing Ships is faster than food taken from Farms, and then fight on the water with the only purpose of land units being to be used in a transport ship for invasion.

- Nomad maps like Nomad, African Clearning, Steppe, Mountain Pass, Water Nomad is where you start with 3 villagers and can build your town center when and where you want. These maps are usually far more aggressive early game than even Open Maps, you can have fights in Dark Age with Milita or villagers or really powerful tower rushes in Feudal Age. Map control with Castles is very important in Castle Age.

This "Easy BO/Game Plan" was made with Arabia in mind, the Dust 2 of Age of Empires. But it works on all maps.

There are many hotkeys in the game, but here's a few that are very useful, in order of importance:

. -> select idle villager
SHIFT + . -> select all idle villagers
, -> select idle military unit
SHIFT + , -> select all idle military units

Q+Q -> build a house with a villager
Q+A -> build farm with a villager
SHIFT + right click -> keep the selected construction for construction building so you can build more. (very useful for when you want multiple farms, and when you hold the selected build farm over a TC or Mill it will automatically build it as close as possible to the TC/mill)
SHIFT + right click Farms on Town Center/Mill -> It will automatically place farms as close to the Town Center or Mill as possible. Saves you a lot of time.

Q+W -> build a mill.
Q+E -> build a mining camp.
Q+R -> build a lumberjack.

W+Q -> build a barrack (house for Q)
W+W -> build an archery range (milll for Q)
W+E -> build a stable (mine for Q)
W+R -> build a siege workshop (wood for Q)
W+C -> build a castle

Obviously knowing how to place the resource buildings and military buildings really fast is very useful, because you are going to build a lot of those.

H -> go to town center (you can press H multiple time to rotate between town centers)
You can then press Q to spam villagers. So H+Q to spam villagers.
SHIFT + CTRL + H -> select all town centers (this one is very useful, because it doesn't move your camera, allowing you to queue villagers from your Town Center while raiding)
SHIFT + CTRL + H then Q -> Spam villager production in all your Town Centers.
"It's all about the H and Q and Home"

Home/Middle Mouse Button -> go to last notification (very useful for when you are being attacked, when you get that alarm sound press Home or MMB immediately)

Control Groups -> Like in most games you can create Control Groups. Do that with your military units so that they are 1 button away. And then you can press H to go back home to Town Center, or press Home to go to last notification. And just like that you have complete map control.

ALT + making a square with the mouse -> selects only the villagers + sheeps within an area (very useful for when you want to select a handful of villagers but not the military units next to them. Such as when being raided, ALT + select everything and you select only the villagers to garrison to your Town Center/Castle)

Most of what you need for map control is: H, Q, Home, Control Groups. Just by knowing & using these 4 you can easily switch between your frontline and your base.

With a military unit selected:

Q + click -> with a military unit selected, puts said unit on Patrol, very useful for when attacking (otherwise they will all focus on 1 unit, which you only want for Archers must of the time but not all, but don't want at all for Infantry or Cavalry to all focus on only 1 unit)

S -> Defensive Mode. Meaning that they will not chase their enemy except for a few tiles then return back when they are. Avoids having your military units leave to chase an enemy and is very useful for when you want to avoid Town Center or Castle fire.

C -> Stagger Formation. This one is very useful when you fight against Catapults or Scorpions or any unit that deals Area of Effect damage, because the more far away your units are from each other the more they will avoid damage with an enemy hit lands.

There are tons, and I mean tons of hotkeys in Age of Empires 2. But these are the most essential.

ALL SELECT ALLS:

CTRL + SHIFT + B -> Barracks
CTRL + SHIFT + A -> Archery Range
CTRL + SHIFT + L -> Stables
CTRL + SHIFT + K -> Siege Workshops
CTRL + SHIFT + V -> Castles
CTRL + SHIFT + H -> Town Centers (I know I already mentioned it in the 4 map control tricks, but it's worth mentioning again)

S, M, U are for blacksmiths, markets, university but these are less important.

You can also double-click on an unit or building and will select all the identical units or buildings nearby.

- 1 Town Center
- 3 Villagers
- 1 Scout
- 4 sheeps nearby
- 2 boars further in the dark area
- 1 pack of 2 sheeps further in the dark area
- 1 other pack of 2 further sheeps further in the dark area (so 4 farway sheeps total)
- 200 Food
- 200 Wood
- 100 Gold
- 200 Stone
- 4/5 population (a TC provides 5 population and a house also 5)

Food math:
- Villagers gather around:
- 0.40 wood per second.
- 0.30 farm food per second.
- 0.40 gold per second.
- Also you get food from Boars slightly faster than from Sheeps.
- Farms cost 60 wood and provide 175 food (+75 collar; +125 Plow in Castle, +175 Crop in Imp).
- An unupgraded farm takes about 8 minutes to expire, or 12 minutes with collar.
- With no wood/food upgrades, 1 woodcutter can support 3 farms.
- With feudal wood/food upgrades, 1 woodcutter can support 5 farms.
- With castle wood/food upgrades, 1 woodcutter can support 8 farms.
- With imperial wood/food upgrades, 1 woodcutter can support 13 farms.
- No crop rotation in imperial, 1 woodcutter can support 9 farms.
- No two-man saw in imperial, 1 woodcutter can support 12 farms.
- Wheelbarrow after you hit Castle Age and Hand Cart right after. (improves every resource)
- A more specific Wheelbarrow math is at 16-18 farms or have 40-50 villagers for max efficiency.
- Late game, villager-warrior ratio in the population, you generally want around 90-140 villagers, in general 130 villagers. Depending on the situation and how quickly you want to invest in army.

1 Farm costs 60 wood. So to put this in perspective:
420 wood needed for 7 farms.
600 wood for 10 farms.
300 wood for 5 farms.

The First Battles are in Feudal Age:
- *usually*
- On closed map such as Arena it's usually in Castle Age with a Castle Drop attempt and a fight between Halberdiers at the wall to drop a castle.
- On even closer maps like Mitchi or Black Forest it's usually in Imperial Age.

In your army you're going to need 2 types of units based on gold:
- A unit that costs gold. (usually this is your main unit, the most powerful)
- A unit that doesn't cost gold. (usually this counters the unit that counters your gold unit, protects it)
- In Feudal age, most units can't break wood wall easily, and they build faster than stone walls, and it's only 3 wood per wall piece, so it's a good cheap protection.
- In Castle age, most units can break the wood wall easily so you want to go forward and build a stone wall in front of the wood wall, you're going to need some units that can break a stone wall like Rams from Siege Workshop or if you drop a Castle next to the enemy walls. Gold infantry and cavalry can break it too if you wait a reasonably long enough time, it also depends on their numbers.

At the same time, you're going to need 2 types of units based on range:
- One melee unit.
- One range unit.
It's not a rule, you can have 2 types of melee units or 2 types of ranged units, but usually 1 melee unit and 1 ranged unit, out of which 1 is a gold unit and another is a non-gold "aka Trash" unit whose purpose is to protect the gold unit that is your main damage dealer.

Examples of such formations:
- Champions + Skirmishers (Skirmishers counter Archers that counter Champions)
- Paladins + Skirimishers (Skirmishers counter Halberdiers that counter Paladins)
- Halberdiers+ Archers (Halberdiers provide a wall for your Archers so they can kill at a distance)
- Scouts + Cavalry Archers (Scouts provide a wall for the Cavalry Archers dealing damage)

Support unit - counters the unit that would beat your main unit, protects it. You will find the Skirmisher used a lot despite not having an imperial upgrade because it's a counter to both backline archers: Arbalest, Cavalry Archer, Hand Cannonneer and Halberdiers, so they end up being amazing support for both Infantry and Cavalry. They can prevent both the infantry and the cavalry from dying to their strongest counters.

And Siege Units, they are very powerful and slow, they usually do this:
Rams -> Do huge damage to buildings, have huge armor against range but very weak against melee. So you need to get close to destroy them.
Catapults -> Deal area of effect damage, very useful against other siege units and archers. Useful against infantry too if the infantry manages to get close. Deals good building damage.
Scorpions -> Deal pass-through damage, the more scorpions you have the damage is increased exponentially, beats infantry and archers, only beats cavalry in high enough numbers, is beaten by catapults or bombard cannons.
Bombard Cannon -> The siege sniper. Beats scorpions, catapults, rams and trebuchets easily from a distance. Good damage against buildings too. But very fragile, don't let anyone get closer.

- In Castle Age is less common but also possible, but in Imperial Age beside your gold unit and trash unit (the one that doesn’t cost gold) you should also add a siege unit to it.

You need either Rams, Bombard Cannons or Trebuchets if you want to easily destroy the enemy's walls and production buildings.

In Castle Age the Catapult/Onager is very good for breaking walls and buildings, but in Imperial no, it falls behind Rams, Bombard Cannons or Trebuchets and becomes more of an anti-archer & anti-Ram/Scorpions unit (being the only good range Ram counter, else Ram is countered by melee). They are also good on closed maps for cutting trees with manual shot to carve a path through the trees. Hussars are very good at sniping siege. Monks with the technology "Redemption" are also good against siege units.

The main unit and support need to be bulletproof between themselves: Meaning, they need to balance each other's weaknesses and counter each other's counters. This is why specific combinations like: Champions + Skirmishers, Scouts + Cavalry Archers, Knights + Skirimishers exist most of the time. The main unit that costs gold is the hero that goes forward, like the Frank Paladin for example, trying to melt anything with raw power, while the Skirimishers stand on the back of the charging and armies demolishing knights to protect them from ever being destroyed by their counters. And taking a shot for their counters so you can have a mega composition that could melt all, including what would melt your main unit. While the Champions one that would counter the Skirmishers would be melted by Knights. Backing each other up.

A similar case happens for all other combos mentioned. In your army you're going to need 2 types of units based on gold: A unit that costs gold (usually this is your main unit, the most powerful) and a unit that doesn't cost gold (usually this counters the unit that counters your gold unit, protects it). At the same time these units must be split into range and non-range, either the damage dealer is range or non-range.

It's not a hard rule, but a general rule. You can have 2 types of melee units or 2 types of ranged units or Siege, if it works it works, there are already a few exceptions from this link above, but usually 1 melee unit and 1 ranged unit for better synergy, not to get in each other's way when killing, out of which 1 is a gold unit and another is a non-gold "aka Trash" unit whose role is to protect by killing the counters of your gold unit that is your main damage dealer.

So you need the damage dealer and damage dealer defender killer of those who would beat your damage dealer to become imba. Aside from this link, always keep the counters in mind and make some yourself when needed.

In Feudal age, you generally have 5 units to play with:
- Archers for rush & defend against Men-at-Arms.
- Champions for rush.
- Scouts for rush & defend against Archers.
- Spearmen to counter cavalry who rushes you & good for rush too sometimes.
- Skirmishers to counter archers who rushes you & support a Man-at-Arms rush.
Generally, because a few civs have exceptions such as one extra feudal unit but that's about it.
Notice how the Champions can only be countered by another gold unit, the archer. Or themselves in fair fight.

The Archer Critical Mass:
With archers, one concept is important - critical mass. That means the amount of archers necessary to 1 shot an enemy unit. Because then you can move, shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot and so on, always killing 1 enemy unit, with minimal losses on yourself. This is why archers usually work better in numbers. Or if you don't want to overkill or micro you can always put them on patrol and each archer will attack their closest units.

Knights counter Archers unless you have a critical mass of Archers. It's very important to know the critical mass numbers so you can know when to, and when not to, take engagements with the knights. Provided you don't have meat shields in front of you.

Obviously both knights and archers upgrades play a role, and civ bonuses too, so this number isn't always the same. In Castle Age, when you have 1 Crossbowman and 1 Knight, it takes 40 arrows to one-shot 1 Knight. So it takes 40 Crossbowmen to kill 1 Knight instantly. 20 Crossbowmen to kill 1 Knight in 2 shots and 10 Crossbowmen to kill 10 Knight in 4 shots.

Similar rule applies to all other units. So mass for archers is important. In Feudal Age the critical mass for Archers vs Scouts is roughly 15 depending on upgrades. And in Imperial Age for Arbalesters vs Paladin is roughly 60.

Of course, in Feudal Age both you and your opponent will fight with a small number of units. It's only in Castle Age that you will see a lot of big numbers for everyone.

The Castle Age Stronghold named Castle:

In Castle Age the Castle is OP. More powerful than in Imperial Age. The only thing that can destory a Castle in Castle Age is a Ram or another Castle. And fighting under the enemy Castle almost guarantees loss. But if left alone you can attack the Castle with units in melee before Murder Holes from University is researched by the enemy, although this takes a really long time even with knights.

In Imperial Age however the Castle is still powerful but it gets a bit weaker than in Castle Age. This is because now you have more ways to counter it. A big group of Paladins or Champions can destroy it, and you have Trebuchets and Bombard Cannons that can reliably destroy them from afar.
The Trebuchets war is also a thing. You will try to take out enemy Castles from afar while the enemy tries the same. Now you both have a Trebuchets, and you end up in situations where Trebuchets fight Trebuchets because of this. You can also use Rams to take out Imperial Age Castles but this requires the area around the Castle to be clear of enemy melee units since they can easily break the Rams.

Most civs have pretty default & understandable units:
- Archers beat infantry & beat cavalry only in high enough numbers.
- Skirmishers beat Archers & beat Halberdiers only in high enough numbers.
- Cavalry Archers need to avoid damage like an uninsured rental car.
- Hand Cannonner beat infantry far better than Archers can.
- Champions are better than all trash units, Skirmishers, Pikemen, Scout.
- Hussars beat Skirmishers & beat Archers only in low numbers.
- Camels beat other horses but are weaker vs archers and infantry than Paladin.
- And the Unique unit from Castle is usually something like that with a minor tweak.
- Scorpions beat infantry and archers in numbers, even cavalry when in high mass.
- Catapults beat scorpions and archers, infantry too if they can hit them before they reach them.
- Bombard Cannons beat every siege unit including scorpion and catapults and buildings.

You usually make a unit to beat something else, here is what they beat:
Archers -> anti-infantry & Cavalry but only in high numbers (+40 in Castle and +60 Imperial).
Skirmishers -> anti-archers & anti-halberdiers but only in high numbers.
Cavalry Archers -> anti-infantry but can beat other stuff too if you manage to run away.
Hand Cannonner -> anti-infantry even better than Archers. Beaten by skirmishers and capapults.

Champions -> anti-trash, meaning all non-gold units Skirmishers, Pikemen, Scout.
Halberdier -> anti-cavalry & anti-skirmishers but only in low numbers.
Eagle Warrior -> anti-archers, the closest things American civs have to cavalry.

Hussars -> anti-skirmisher & beat Archers only in low numbers.
Paladin -> anti-champion, Hussar, Skirmisher & beat Archers in low and medium numbers.
Camels -> anti-cavalry but are weaker vs archers and infantry than Paladin.
Lancer -> half-Paladin half-Hussar with extra range, beaten by Camels or Archers.

Ram -> anti-building, very high armor vs ranged units, beaten by infantry and cavalry.
Catapults -> anti-archer & siege, infantry is 50/50, beaten by Cavalry, Eagles and bomb cans.
Scorpions -> anti-archers, infantry and cavalry. Hard counter bomb cans and normal by catapults.
Bombard Cannon -> anti-building, anti-siege. It can snipe catapults and scorpions from safety.

Counters are not the end all be all because you can beat in numbers a unit that counters you.
It's important to upgrade units and do the Blacksmith upgrades, counters can lose otherwise.
If you can reach a critical mass where archers can take out Cavalry in a few focused shots they easily counter them with some micromanagement. Where as in small numbers cavalry will consistently win out. Basically, one doesn't counter the other, it really depends what the numbers are on both sides.

Some civs have castle units that break the convention:
Aztec Jaguar Warrior -> anti-infantry infantry, beaten by archers, hand cannonners and knights.
British Longbowman -> huge range archers, beaten by Skirmisher, catapults. Cavalry is 50/50.
Byzantine Cataphract -> anti-Halberdier knight, beaten by paladins and archers in high numbers.
Chinese Chu Ko Nu -> anti-Skirmisher archer, beaten by catapults, 50/50 for cavalry and archers.
Frank Throwing Axemen -> archer with melee attack, treat them like Champions they are infantry.

Goth Huskarl -> anti-archers infantry, beaten by champions, paladins or hussars if massed.
Inca Kamayuk -> Champion and Halberdier in 1 anti-archer unit, Hand Cannoners and catapults.
Italian Genoese Crossbowman -> anti-cavalry archer, beaten by Skirmisher, catapults, Huskarls.
Khmer Balista Elephant -> Scorpions on Elephant, beaten by scorpions and catapults.
Korean War Wagon -> Cavalry Archer, beaten by Paladin, catapults, Halberdier in low numbers.
Mayan Plumed Archer -> faster better Archer, beaten by Skirmisher and Catapults, knights 50/50.

Mongol Mangudai -> Cavarly Archer good vs siege, beaten by Skirmisher, Camels, catapults.
Persian War Elephant -> Tankiest unit in game. Beaten by Halberdiers, Camel, Scorpions.
Portuguese Organ Gun -> anti-units Bomb Cannon. Beaten by knights, catapults, bomb cannon.
Spanish Conquistador -> mounted Hand Cannoner. Beaten by Skirmisher, Cavalry Archer, Huskarl.
Turk Janissary -> better Hand Cannoner. Beaten by Skirmisher, catapults, Archers.
Vietnamese Rattan Archer -> Skirmisher & Archer in 1 unit. Beat by Paladins, Eagles, Champion.

It’s always better to focus on one player with different types of units, so he has no counter.

If you want to focus on 1 or 2 units, you need to know which technologies will improve those units.

You don't want to waste resources upgrading all technologies available when you won't even use 80% of the units those technologies improve.

- You get 1 new wood, food, gold and stone upgrade when you reach Feudal, Castle and Imperial.
- Gold and stone have no Imperial Age upgrade.
- So in total you have 10 upgrades here: 3 for wood, 3 for food and 2 for gold and 2 for stone.
- Depending on the civ you may have less as not all civs have all 10 economic upgrades.
- You naturally upgrade them as soon as you reach that age.

- Upgrade them in this order: wood, food, gold, stone. Because in case you are low on resources, you need wood for the food upgrade, and wood & food for the gold and stone upgrades.

- With Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart from Town Center you have a total of 12 economic upgrades.
- You get Wheelbarrow in Feudal and Hand Cart in Castle Age.
- But this is interesting, don't get it as soon as you reach Feudal Age unlike other upgrades.
- Wheelbarrow is usually good to get when you have either 16-18 farms 40-50 villagers.
- Or as soon as you reach Castle Age if you want to keep things more simple.
- Hand Cart should be taken as soon as you can afford it.

- Guilds in the Market only get it super super late if the game takes a long time and all the important resources are on 14, this will make them on 17. But unless you sell a lot of wood and food that 3 gold difference is not going to change a lot.
- Caravan in the Market makes your Trade Cards move faster, if you play solo no reason to get it, if you play team get it as soon as possible, not only you make more gold much quicker but also allows them to not be raided by the enemy as easier because they move faster.

One notable exception is damage Archer upgrades does not affect Hand Cannonner, only the armor upgrade affects him. This makes sense because he uses bullets not arrows for attack.

And one confusion clearing is that Cavalry armor upgrades do not affect Cavalry Archers, they are an Archer first so they are affected by the Archer armor upgrade, but they are affected by Stable upgrades such as Bloodlines or Husbandry.

So the archer armor upgrade affects both Hand Cannonner and Cavalry Archers. But only Cavalry Archers benefit from the damage Archer upgrades.

Arbalester -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Thumb Ring, Balistics, Chemistry.
Skirmisher -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Thumb Ring (small), Balistics, Chemistry.
Cavalry Archer -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Thumb Ring, Balistics, Chemistry, Parthian Tactics, Bloodlines, Husbandry. (all normal archer + Parthian + stable upgrades)
Hand Cannoneer -> Kind of a lone wolf, only affected by archer armor upgrades.

Champion -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Supplies, Gambesons, Squires, Arson.
Halberdier -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Squires, Arson.
Eagle Warrior -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Squires, Arson.

Hussar -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Bloodlines, Husbandry.
Paladin -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Bloodlines, Husbandry.
Camel -> Blacksmith damage, blacksmith armor, Bloodlines, Husbandry.

Battering Ram -> Siege Engineers.
Siege Elephant -> Cavalry blacksmith damage, Bloodlines, Husbandry, Siege Engineers.
Onagers -> Siege Engineers, Chemistry.
Scorpions -> Siege Engineers, Chemistry.
Bombard Cannons -> Siege Engineers.
Trebuchet -> Siege Engineers, Chemistry.

Notable unique units exceptions:
British Longbowman -> Exactly like an Arbalester. (not exception just wanted to point it out)
French Throwing Axeman -> Even though it's a range unit, it is considered a melee unit so it has the same upgrades as a melee infantry unit like Halberdier or Eagle Warrior.
Khmer Balista Elephant -> It counts as an elephant but also a siege unit so: cavalry armor, Bloodlines, Husbandry, Siege Engineers, Chemistry.
Korean War Vagon -> Is exactly like the cavalry archer.
Persian War Elephant -> Exactly like cavalry.
Spanish Conquistador -> Is like a mounted Hand Cannoneer, so only: archer armor upgrades and Bloodlines, Husbandry.
Portuguese Organ Gun -> Exactly like Bombard Cannons, only Siege Engineers.
Turkish Jannisary -> Exactly like a Hand Cannoneer, so only archer armor upgrades.

Blacksmith upgrades. Those on the left give damage, those 3 on the right give armor. Top row is for infantry and cavalry, bottom row is for archers.

Beside Blacksmith, then there's upgrades from each individual building of that unit:

Castle Thumb Ring -> Raise the accuracy of all range units in hitting the location they are aiming at 100%. And causes everyone except Skirmishers to fire faster.
Imperial Parthian Tactics -> Affects only Cavalry Archers, gives them armor and bonus damage versus Halberdiers.

Feudal Supplies -> Makes Champions cost -15 less food.
Castle Gambesons -> Makes Champion have +1 range armor.
Castle Squires -> Makes all infantry move 10% faster.
Castle Arson -> Males all infantry deal more damage to buildings.

Feudal Bloodlines -> Makes all cavalry have +20 HP
Castle Husbandry -> Makes all cavalry move 10% faster.

University Castle Balistics -> Makes all range units aim a moving target where they should be. Making them way better at hitting moving targets.
University Imperial Chemistry -> Archers, Skirmishers, Cavalry Archers, Galleons, Onagers, Scorpions and Trebuchets get +1 damage.
University Imperial Siege Engineers -> Affects Siege Ram, Onagers, Scorpions, Bombard Cannon, Trebuchet. More range and bonus damage.

To clear a common confusion: Castle Age technology Thumb Ring from Archery Range makes Archers, Skirmishers and Cavalry Archers to always aim 100% where the enemy is, as they don't always hit right on target without that, basically gives them aimbot.

University Castle Balistics makes them aim at moving target where they should be, rather than where they are, making them good at hitting moving targets. So you can have Thumb Ring without Balistics where you have 100% aim but don't hit moving targets that well, or Balistics without Thumb Ring where you can hit moving targets very well but without 100% accuracy.

Balistics affects a ton of different units including Castles, Town Centers, Towers, ranged unique units, Galleys, Longbows, Turtleships, anything with an arrow is affected by Balistics. And a weird exception also Bombard Towers, usually gunpowder units aren't affected by Balistics. For example, with Balistics it's much easier to kill fleeing enemies.

Thumb Ring is much more limited in scope but much more important. It only applies to Archers, Skirmishers and Cavalry Archers, as well as some unique units that use arrows, but not buildings or ships or Bombard Towers. Skirmishers get the smallest bonus by far, only an increase of accuracy from 93% to 100% and no increased speed. Everything else gets about 15% extra fire rate and from 90% accuracy to 100% accuracy.

Thumb Ring gives you more damage per second, Balistics allows you to hit moving targets. Out of these 2 I would personally say Balistics is much more important but there's a whole discussion it's not conclusive. Most top tier archer civs have both Balistics and Thumb Ring. Britons don't have Thumb Ring but they already have huge range so that's a nerf.

One of the hardest things but essential to understand for a new player is the siege units. Siege Workshop is unlocked in Castle Age and you must have the Blacksmith already built.

Ram -> Anti-building, deals 125 damage against buildings, that is a huge amount, they are very resistent to range fire, it barely scratches them, but melee hits will kill them easily.
Catapult -> Do melee damage, but attacks from range, best vs enemy groups. Use with Halberdiers. This Halberdiers + Siege combo is usually only countered by Champions or Bombard Cannons.
Scorpion -> Damage non-siege units. Like Archers the more they are the better they are exponentially, there is a mass where they begin to beat Cavalry too. As usually they only beat Infantry and Archers. But are hard countered by Bombard Cannons and countered by Catapults.
Bombard Cannon -> Do melee damage, so they take out siege easily. Beats siege and buildings from afar, the perfect sniper in the game, only outraged by Trebuchets that cannot move easily.
Siege Tower -> May be useful for some sneaky wall climbs, but otherwise not that used of a unit.
Siege Elephant -> The regional variant of Ram for some civs, so pretty much just like Ram.
Trebuchet -> Destroys buildings as fast as Ram but from a very long distance.

Siege is slow and expensive and weak to melee units.

Here you have:
- 3 fighting rock-papers-scissors units: Fire Ship > Galleon > Demolition Ship > Fire Ship.
- 2 anti-building late imperial units: Cannon Galleon & Dromon.
- 3 utilities units: Fishing ship for food, Transport ship for transport and Trade Cog for trade.

All of them cost wood & gold, except Fishing ship & Transport ship that costs only wood. So invest heavily in wood if you are playing on water & hybrid maps.

Fishing ship, whether used for fish or Fish Trap, provide more food/minute than boars, sheeps and farms. So whenever you can use Fishing ship for food instead, use them. The downside is that you need more wood for that as 1 Fishing ship costs 75 wood as opposed to 1 villager 50 food.

Likewise, Trade Cog is faster than Trade Cart. So whenever you can use the Trade Cog instead of the Trade Cart use it.

Usually, at lower level plays the players know:
- A lot about the 6 "default" units: Archer, Skirmisher, Champion, Halberdier, Scout, Knight and the siege from Castle called Trebuchet.
- Plenty know about regional units especially if they play those civs: Elephant Archer, Eagle Warriors, Camels, Steppe Lancer, Battle Elephant, etc.
- Some may know about the other Siege from Siege Workshop: Rams/Siege Elephant, Catapults, Scorpions, Bombard Cannons. And non-regional but more obscure Cavalry Archer and Hand Cannoneer.
- A few know about Docks usually those who play water maps: Fire Ship beats Galley, Galley beats Demo, Demo beats Fire Ship. Then you have: Fishing Ship for Food, Transport Ship and Trade Cog who are Trade Carts on water. And in Imperial Cannon Galleon anti-buildings.
- But very few know about Monks and use them for anything else than Relics. Which is a shame because your favorite civ may have really good Monks and you may not even use them.

What do Monks do?
- Collects relics
- Convert enemy units (or buildings/siege with "Redemption" upgrade)
- Heals your own units.

Even if you convert 1 unit, not only the opponent loses 1 unit but you gain 1 unit, so if it was a gold unit at that point the Monk already paid for it self. Monks are best used as "archers" behind your melee units where they either convert or heal units.

Monks are hard to micro because they are very slow although not impossible, there is some insane Monk micro at high level. The biggest issue is that you must make different Monks convert different targets, the Imperial age "Theocracy" helps you if you mess this up. For a Monk to be able to convert again it takes 62 seconds. In the meantime, they will automatically heal nearby units, they are smart enough to automatically heal different units.

Monks convert a unit in a random time between 4 to 10 seconds, unless you're playing against Teutons where 1 extra second is added.

Monk Upgrades:
1. Stats increase: Sanctity +15 HP, fervor +15% speed, Block Print +3 conversion range, illumination +50% faster recharge.
2. Conversion Resistance: Heresy your units die instead if they are converted by an enemy Monk, Devotion/Faith all units get conversion resistance.
3. Extra Conversion: Redemption you can convert enemy siege and buildings, Atonement you can convert enemy monks.
4. Easier Micro: Theocracy when you convert a unit with multiple Monks only 1 has to rest.
5. Passive Heal: Herbal Medicine increase the passive healing of units in building by 500%, this is the only tech here that has nothing to do with Monks. This is still 2 times slower than having 1 Monk healing them.

Block Print is especially good vs siege if you also have Redemption. Block Print + Redemption gets the Monks from being useless to Siege units to hard countering them. However: only Rams, Trebuchets and Houses require the Monk to be directly next to them to convert them. But you can easily convert Catapults/Onagers, Bombard Cannons and Scorpions.

The other exception is that: Town Centers, Castles, Monasteries and Walls cannot be converted. Only Scouts and Eagle Warriors get natural conversion resistance. Ships do not require Redemption to be converted.

Theocracy will also help you get faster conversions because it's only 1 single Monk that has to rest, and once that happen you can use the other Monks to target other units. You can use Monks with Patrol or Attack Move micro to cause a chain of conversions which is by far the most efficient.

Monks are very good against Knights and Catapults/Onagers. They move really slow so they are best used for holding position such as when defending against an attack or siege-ing. Your Monks will still recharge while in buildings so you can put them there to protect them before the 62 seconds have passed or 33 seconds with illumination. Monks take a long time to train so you really want to have about 3-4 Monasteries if you want to play Monks. Monks have a base range of 9 which is a lot. Elite Longbowman with no Blacksmith upgrade have 8 range. And with all Blacksmith upgrades will have the same range as Monks with Printing Block. Scouts are Monk's biggest weakness.

Putting your army in Box formation will put the Monks in the center which helps protect them.

The Best Monks in Game:
1. Aztecs
2. Bohemians
3. Spanish
4. Armenians
5. Burmese, Portuguese, Byzantines

- Aztecs Monks get +5 HP for every Monk reserach made, up to a maximum of 105 HP, this means your Monks will have more HP than a Champion. Although they lack the armor it still makes them insanely tanky. A normal Monk has 50 HP. They also have all Monk technologies.
- Bohemians Imperial Age tech "Hussite Reforms" replaces the Monks' and Monks technologies costs from gold to food. This means that suddenly one of the most expensive units in the game becomes one of the cheapest in the game. They also have all Monk technologies.
- Spanish Castle Age tech "Inquisition" makes Monks convert enemy units faster. They also have the unique unit Missionary which is a Monk with lower range but faster speed, solving the Monks' speed issue. They also have all Monk technologies.
- Armenians can build Fortified Church and have the unique unit Warrior Monk. It's a Champion in combat, much faster than Monks, can pick up relics, and they cannot be converted without Atonement since they count as a Monk. Making for a very easy relic war. The only downside is that it cannot convert units it can only heal units. They also have all Monk technologies.
- Burmese see all relics from the start of the game & all their Monastery technologies are half price. They also have full monastery. Portuguese have all Monk technologies and Monks are 20% cheaper. Byzantines get only 1 bonus and that one is that their Monks heal x2 speed, from 150 HP/minute to 300 HP/minute, this is a team bonus.

If you want to be the very best like no one ever was, you should learn a very particular and as efficient as possible build order, that can be found in the Hard BO/Game Plans section section of this guide.

But, as a beginner, new player, rookie, noob, however you want to call it. It's better to learn a flexible build order that can do just about everything well and then branch out from there.

But first, what is a build order? think of a build order like a chess opening. It's exactly that, an Age of Empires 2 opening. Someone has gone in and done all the math so if you do exactly this in this exact order you will have the most ideal start you can have in the game. The first steps.

The beauty of a good build order like a good chess opening is that you don't have to know anything.

You can play the first steps like a pro if you memorize it, that's basically the gist of a build order. You don't even need to know why you just do it and you will have a great start with the most ideal steps. But since this is a guide here is the logic behind the build order: you always want to grow your economy, for that you need to minimize the idle time of your villagers or collecting the wrong resource not needed right now. Because you want to Age Up and get good units as fast as possible, so you can have a military and technological advantage over your opponent.

It doesn't matter how old and new the build order is, for start what's important is for you to have one of the most ideal starts you can have in the game. The first steps that everyone can follow easily to get perfect results early game similar to how a pro would start.

Learning any build order is better than learning no build order. Even if it's an outdated build order from 3 years ago it will likely be far more efficient than what you are trying to do yourself. The perfect first steps when the game starts are important.

Try to execute the build order correctly first and only then improve your speed. Speed with wrong result is pointless. You can calculate 3262853 + 583221 very fast but it won't do you any good if you answer very quickly 23522163 yes it was very fast but also very wrong. So learn it correctly first and then you can improve your speed on it.

I recommend to practice this build order with the Saracens since they have 0 Dark Age bonuses, not even a discount. Their big economic bonus is a huge Market buy & sell discount that you're not going to need if you use this build properly. So if you can do it with the Saracens you can only do it better with other civs since they have Dark Age or Feudal Age bonuses.

There are many "openings" in Age of Empires 2 but 4 of the most common ones are: Fast Castle/Boom, Man-at-Arms Rush, Archers Rush, Scouts Rush.
1. Fast Castle/Boom -> you play defensive with Spearmen & Skirmisher if needed and focus on getting to Castle Age before the enemy to get first the better units and eco upgrades.
2. Man-at-Arms Rush -> In Dark Age you prepare Milita and on the way to Feudal Age you rush with Milita + start Scout who are upgraded to Man-at-Arms right when you reach their base.
3. Archers/Scout Rush -> In Early Feudal you build Archery Range/Stables and then rush with Archers/Scouts, naturally this will slightly alter your economy management to support them.

There are a lot more openings in Age of Empires 2 but these are the most fundamental.

1. Before starting I want to say that even if you don't want to learn this one learning any build order is better than learning no build order. Even if it's an outdated build order from 3 years ago it will likely be far more efficient than what you are trying to do yourself. The perfect first steps when the game starts are important.

2. Try to execute the build order correctly first and only then improve your speed. Speed with wrong result is pointless. You can calculate 3262853 + 583221 very fast but it won't do you any good if you answer very quickly 23522163 yes it was very fast but also very wrong. So learn it correctly first and then you can improve your speed on it.

- You shouldn't be trying to play too fast if you don't even know your hotkeys.
- You shouldn't try to micromanage your military too much while you have trouble spending the resources at home.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get up to 9-10 gold. (balance it, you may want to send 2 to gold at 10 farms, depends on map)
- Build a Blacksmith and a Market
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 9-10 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Build 2 stables.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.
- Queue knights from all stables.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Make Archery Range (this is where the ramification starts)
- Send 4 villagers to gold instantly.
- Queue up 4 Archers.
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get up to 9-10 gold. (balance it, you may want to send 2 to gold at 10 farms, depends on map)
- When the 4th archer is done interrupt your farm production to build a Blacksmith
- Research "Flethcing" as soon as the Blacksmith is done.
- Attack with your Archers
- If attack is going well keep pushing with more Archers, if you're beaten go to Castle.
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 9-10 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Build 1-2 extra Archery Range.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Build a Stable. (this is the point of divergence)
- You can attack as soon as you have 1 extra scout + starting scout, or when you have about 6.
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get only 2 villagers on gold after the farms.
- Build a Blacksmith and a Market
- If you win keep pushing, if you lose by archers make Skirmishers or go Castle and Knights.
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 2 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.

1. Before starting I want to say that even if you don't want to learn this one learning any build order is better than learning no build order. Even if it's an outdated build order from 3 years ago it will likely be far more efficient than what you are trying to do yourself. The perfect first steps when the game starts are important.

2. Try to execute the build order correctly first and only then improve your speed. Speed with wrong result is pointless. You can calculate 3262853 + 583221 very fast but it won't do you any good if you answer very quickly 23522163 yes it was very fast but also very wrong. So learn it correctly first and then you can improve your speed on it.

- You shouldn't be trying to play too fast if you don't even know your hotkeys.
- You shouldn't try to micromanage your military too much while you have trouble spending the resources at home.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get up to 9-10 gold. (balance it, you may want to send 2 to gold at 10 farms, depends on map)
- Build a Blacksmith and a Market
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 9-10 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Build 2 stables.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.
- Queue knights from all stables.
- Get 1 villager to build 1 Forward Workshop next to the enemy base.
- Queue up: Catapult. (it can destroy walls and attack Town Center from a safe distance)
- Keeping your knights near Catapults is very important otherwise they will be easily picked off by enemy units.
- If you want to raid a bit, split off 4 knights maximum to raid, but keep most knights next to Catapults as this is a push to destroy TC not a raid.
- With 5-6 Catapults you should already destroy your opponent's TC and win the game.
- If the enemy is also going mass knights a good reponse is to mix your knights with Pikemen or Camels.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- 2 to gold (usually you put the extra villagers after 5 berries to TC food, here to gold; divergence)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.
- Create 3 Men-at-Arms (this is the second point of divergence)

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Research Milita Upgrade (this is the third point of divergence)
- (you can additionally add Scouts or Archers to your build here)
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get up to 9-10 gold. (balance it, you may want to send 2 to gold at 10 farms, depends on map)
- Build a Blacksmith and a Market
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 9-10 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.

1. Before starting I want to say that even if you don't want to learn this one learning any build order is better than learning no build order. Even if it's an outdated build order from 3 years ago it will likely be far more efficient than what you are trying to do yourself. The perfect first steps when the game starts are important.

2. Try to execute the build order correctly first and only then improve your speed. Speed with wrong result is pointless. You can calculate 3262853 + 583221 very fast but it won't do you any good if you answer very quickly 23522163 yes it was very fast but also very wrong. So learn it correctly first and then you can improve your speed on it.

- You shouldn't be trying to play too fast if you don't even know your hotkeys.
- You shouldn't try to micromanage your military too much while you have trouble spending the resources at home.

DARK AGE:
- H + QQQQ to queue up all 4 villagers in Town Center
- 2 houses (1 house with 2 villagers, 1 house with 1 villagers, then move them on sheep)
- select scout, to your sheeps, then put him to explore around your base
- select your sheeps move them in the middle of your Town Center so you can farm them faster
- you want to find with the scout the remaining 4 other sheeps and 2 boars.

- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 to wood (one of them should build 2 houses next to woodline, will be part of your wall later)
- 3 to boar/sheeps (search "how to lure the boar", you should have 9 on food at the end)
- 5 to berries (build a Mill next to berries then start collecting berries)
- Click Loom then Feudal on about 20-21 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO FEUDAL:
- Take 5 villagers from TC and create a 2nd lumber camp. (you need a lot of wood in Feudal)
- Take 2 villagers from wood and build barrack, 4 houses and wood wall to cover your base.

FEUDAL AGE:
- Get the economic upgrades: Double Bit Axe, Horse Collar. (from Lumber Camp and Mill)
- Make Spearmen vs scouts and Skirmishers vs everything else.
- Every 60 wood add a farm.
- Get to 15-17 Farms. (while keeping 9 on wood)
- Get up to 9-10 gold. (balance it, you may want to send 2 to gold at 10 farms, depends on map)
- Build a Blacksmith and a Market
- Click Castle on about 33-37 villagers.

ON THE WAY TO CASTLE AGE:
- Get the Gold Mine upgrade.
- Get the Blacksmith upgrades for the units you want to use.
- The economy should look like: 9-10 on gold, 15-17 farms, the rest on wood.
- Build 2 stables.
- Add additional houses.

CASTLE AGE:
- Get all economic upgrades from: wood, then food, then gold.
- Queue knights from all stables.
- Create 2 more Town Center (ideally, in extreme cases you can create 3-4 more)
- You can increase knight production by adding more to Food and Gold.
- Send villagers to Stone to prepare for Castle.
- Sending up to Food and Gold but for Imperial Age resources.
- Sending to Wood for more Town Center/Production Buildings.
- When you have around 30 Farms or 70 villagers it's about time to think about Imperial Age.
- Continue to produce villagers until around 130 but don't neglect vilargers timing.

Ok, you made the 1000 Food, 800 Gold upgrade and now you are imperial, what do you do?
- Instantly: economic upgrades (just like in Feudal & Castle Age)
- Military upgrades (just like in Castle age, sorry no more new resource for extra 2 villagers, and no more 2 extra TC like in Castle Age. You can still expand and build new TC all over the place and new military units all over the place like in Castle Age if you want, but it's no longer a requirement)
- So just economic upgrades and military upgrades. Imperial age is easy.

What is new in Imperial Age
- The Trebouchet, a siege unit from castle with the best range in the game, forcing the enemy to come to you.

In general it's good to have as an army:
- 90-140 villagers to units ratio.
- Can try go low 90 villagers or high 140 villagers, on average 130.

Usually, but this depends a lot on your army makeup, so "usually" is a loose term:
- 30% villagers on wood.
- 40% villagers on food.
- 20% villagers on gold.
- 10% villagers on stone. + some villagers on building things.

Troops cost:
Archers - wood + gold.
Skirmishers - wood + food.
Horse Archers - wood + gold.
Hand Cannoneers - food + gold (so all units in the Archery Range cost wood, except Skirmishers cost food instead of gold, and Hand Cannoneers are like Champions with food instead of wood)

Champions - food + gold.
Pikemen - food + wood.
Eagles - food + gold (so all units in the Barracks cost food, Champions gold and Pikemen wood)

Scouts - food.
Paladins - food + gold.
Camels - food + gold. (all cost food like the Barracks, Paladins and Camels also cost gold)
Everything that is Siege including Trebouchets: wood + gold (just like the Archers)

A few Imperial Age tips:
- Don't be afraid to go with your villagers to build forward Castles, forward bases, Outposts to scout on the map, etc. For as expensive and important villagers were in earlier ages, in Imperial Age they are very cheap, 50 food, you can make that in an instant now, it's a not a big loss if they die while trying to build an outpost or 6 military buildings in a corner of the map. Send them to further away resources, etc.
- The most important thing you need to do once you hit Imperial Age is hit 200 population. You should already have about 70-100 villagers from Castle Age, now you need to mass your army too.
- Remember what was said in the "Army Composition" section, a good rule of thumb for army composition is: a gold unit, a trash unit (one that doesn’t cost gold), a siege unit.
- Your gold unit is likely the strongest unit you can make. For Mongols that’s Mangudai, for Chinese that’s Chu Ko Nu, for Franks that’s Paladin, etc. If you have multiple strong options, choose based on the other person’s civ and what they’re building.
- Your trash unit should either complement your gold unit or counter the enemy’s gold unit. A complement to your gold unit is one that counters your gold unit’s counter.
- It's also important is the control of the extra golds/stones/forests in the middle of the map. Try to control the extra resource locations.
- Focus on building more military production buildings. In Feudal Age you had about 1-3 Stables at best, in Castle Age you had about 6-10 Stables and a few for your Trash units. This late in the game, wood shouldn't be an issue. Don't be afraid to take control of key areas on the map by building military buildings there maybe protected by a Castle in the middle of them.
- Have your gold units protected by trash unit.
- If you can protect them, Bombard Cannons protected by trash units (Skirmisher, Halberdier or Hussar depending on what you're up against) feel broken as f**k. So if your main composition fails you can try this one as well.
- Put down excessive amount of forward buildings.
- In Imperial Age brute force can be quite powerful.

Hera, the best player of Age of Empires 2 in the world, recommended for a new player and for any strategy game in general to just pick 1 civ you like and learn it well, very well, learn all of its ins and outs before you jump to other civs. This is how you get better at the game. First of all read about all civs either from the game's inside tech tree or civilization overviews online then pick and test the few you are interested in maybe in a game vs AI and pick the one you feel most comfortable with and like the best. Pick the civ based on whether you enjoy playing with it or not, feels natural for you. It doesn't matter if the civ has 54% or 46% winrate in the current meta, you are not going to be able to take full advantage of that at your level, the meta changes, and those 54% and 46% are due to specific match-ups you aren't going to get all the time. You are not top player for that 54-46% to make a difference to you. So just learn 1 civ and then you won't have to think about strategy as much as you would about executing. Also watch pro players videos to learn from the best and cut down on the trial and error process. When it comes to learing, you can try a bunch of things yourself and then learn from your mistakes, see what works well for you, learn from it, adapt it, try it again, try it different things, but this is very time consuming. And when you're not starting out from a base of knowledge of learning from someone else, you end up just guessing at the wrong things. And if you start off guessing at something that's already been figured out, you're essentially wasting a lot of your time that could be spending on just becoming a better player.

So by playing half the time and watching pros half the time you can learn from the pros in theory what should be done and what the game should look like. And then practice in your own games and try to make your gameplay match what you've been learning in theory.

This really speeds up the learning process and makes it a lot easier to actually learn how to play the game.

And not get stuck at that ends where you are just trying things that don't work and you don't even know why they don't work and you ask other people and they don't know why, you don't know why and it just ends with a confusion cycle. You check what the pros are doing. You copy most of it and you add your own spice to it, your own game. You add a little bit of what works for you, maybe tweak it a little bit. And then you just roll with that and then just focus on execution. Which is literally the factor that determines whether you climb the ladder or not. Ask questions, get additional information, is the recipy to not being hard stuck, maybe getting someone to look at your game so you can cut off the bad habbit, implement some better habbits and get a better trajectory to actually improving so that you don't get stuck making the same mistakes over and over again.

When you lose you can either think to yourself "why did I lose? what could I do better? what went wrong?" and try to fix that so that it doesn't happen again. Or you can blame something else: the lag, the team, the map, the sun, the parents, the president, and then just brainlessly starts the next game without even a second thought of what he could have done better. These 2 types of people are completely different. The stubborn guy who is making excuses gets hardstuck. The guy who is learning from his mistakes will quickly fix all those mistakes and start climbing elo. The best players happen to be in the "actively learning from your own mistakes" category even to the point where they can be frustrated with themselves when they make the same mistake twice, and try to push those mistakes out of their systems to prevent them from getting hardstuck and losing to the same thing over and over.

Here are some tips for & against most civ in the game:
- Make use of Aztecs' bonus by picking up relics in the mid game.
- Watch out for Aztecs' Castle Age eagles spam: Eagles, Catapults, Monks. Very powerful.

- Berbers' stable units are cheaper in Castle and Imperial Age so don't be afraid to spam Knights in Castle Age.
- Berbers have strong Castle Unit Camel Archers and strong Stables because they are cheap.

- Make use of your cavalry as Britons to take the opponent by surprise, they are only missing Bloodlines and Paladin but otherwise they are pretty decent even without the final upgrade.
- Against Britons make sure you use a lot of Skirmishers and use split formation to dodge their archers.

- As Bulgarians play heavy cavalry Castle Age so Knights or Konniks and when the enemy is transitioning to Halberdier do a quick switch-up and go for your Champion-line as the upgrades are free.
- Against Bulgarians make Cavalry Archers, their best response is Skirmisher or their own Cavalry Archers which is not very good.

- As Burgundians be very passive in Feudal Age to get good eco and as soon as you get Castle Age and make use of their Cavalier.
- Against Burgundians keep the pace not to give them time to do a Flemish Revolution on you.

- As Burmese don't be so predictible with your Men-at-Arms which is their most popular choice so far. Feel free to go Scouts or even Archers and transition later into the game to Infantry if you need them.
- Against Burmese they are super succeptible to archers, so double-down on your archers.

- As Byzantines try to make Skirmishers and Halberdiers whenever possible as they are very cheap.
- Against Byzantines they are weak to double gold composition of Archer and Knights.

- As Celts make use of their siege as much as possible through the game, whether it is in the early game with Men-at-Arms or later with Halberdier/Unique Unit + Siege.
- Against Celts don't let them get a forward siege workshop on you. So make sure you scout with your scouts or archers.

- As Chinese master their early game, they have a very powerful early game but it's very difficult to master.
- Try to attack them early in the Dark Age even if it's laming, dark age rush, as they are the weakest in early game.

- As Cumans don't be too predicitble and always go for the second Town Center boom on open maps like Arabia and sometimes try to mix it up by even going for a rush.
- Against Cumans scout them to see whether they are going for a 2nd Town Center or not because if they are they are weaker and more exposed to an attack.

- As Franks don't be too predictible and go straight for cavalry, you can go Men-at-Arms in the early game or even Crossbow in the Castle Age. Your opponent won't be able to just blindly go into Halberdier expecting you to go knights all the time.
- Against Franks don't open with Scouts and wall earlier than usual.

- As Goths like the Franks don't be too predictible and rush straight into the infantry, you can go Scouts or Archers early game and only late game transition into those strong Halberdiers, Huskarls or Champions.
- Against Goths remember that they are mainly a 1-trick-pony, they have a few other options but their main option is infantry, you can stop them with: unique units, hand cannoners or even Champions of your own if you have all the upgrades mixed with some archers.

- As Huns play as aggressive as possible because they are a very mobile civ with fast stables.
- Against Huns try to make use of the fact that they don't have houses to wall, this means that they are going to be more exposed to attacks in Feudal Age. Play aggressive against them.

- As Incas make use of their wide variety of counter-units Slinger for infantry, Eagles for Archers, Castle Unit Kamayuk for cavalry and infantry.
- Against Inca since Incas are a very all-rounded civilization just make sure you are not countered by their units, sounds very vague but that's about it when dealing with an all-rounded civ.

- As Italians you get fully upgraded Hussars from an archer civ, make use of their late game with Genoese Crossbowmen and Hussars and Bombard Cannon to make for a very nasty and easy to get to composition. And if you have enough gold to get even more insane replace the Hussars with the Condottiero.
- Against Italians avoid cavalry as Italians completely destroy cavalry if they get to Genoese Crossbowmen, go for Elite Skirmishers instead or your normal Archers.

- As Japanese your early game eco bonus saves you a lot of wood allowing you to make even Dark Ages rushes but also Men-at-Arms or archer rushes.
- Against Japanese make sure you get for some early walls around your wood because they have strong early game rushes. Don't do scouts against Japanese it's really risky. Do Men-at-Arms if you have to to trade or go straight to range units.

- As Khmer make sure of their jumping into houses bonus by building houses next to resource location where a lot of villagers are, this can save you a lot making it very difficult for the opponent to break you early game.
- Against Khmer just open Scouts as most Khmer players will skip Barracks to make use of their civ bonus and this forces them to actually spend resources on those. At least you'll force them to stay with the villagers in houses and cause them idle time.

- As Koreans try to use the War Wagon as much as possible, is a very powerful unit and hard to deal with.
- Against Koreans make sure they don't get to War Wagons + Siege that can destroy you in a narrow path so try to keep the game open.

- As Lithuanians try to open the game with Scouts and use your scouts to look for relics to get them as soon as possible when you get to Castle Age.
- Against Lithuanians deny their relics by all means necessary. Their Paladins and Castle Unit Letis get insanely strong the more relics they have, that early Castle age moment against Lithuanians can dictate the rest of the game with them.

- As Magyars you have 2 strong points: early game Scout rush with free Blacksmith Forging technology and cheaper Scouts, and late game with Magyar Hussar + Cavalry Archer composition. But don't be too predictible with this, you can also go Men-at-Arms rush since Men-at-Arms also benefit from the free Blacksmith Forging technology.
- Against the Magyars fight them between those 2 strong points and you will find that the civ struggles to get going.

- As Mayans don't be afraid to go double-gold composition in Imperial Age, Castle Unit Plumed Archer is very strong and Mayan Eagle Warrior is very strong, those 2 in combination can destory a lot of civs in the game. Combine that with the fact that they have longer lasting resources including gold piles and stone piles it enables you to do these kind of power plays.
- Against Mayans make sure that you pressure them in such a way that they don't have enough gold for that double gold composition and they have to pick between the Pumed Archer or the Eagle Warrior. Watch out for when the Mayan player goes for one and then transitions into the other.

- As Mongols make use of Mangudai. We all know how strong they are.
- Against Mongols watch out that they don't get the Mangudai in early Castle, if they have a Castle make sure you prepare a counter because it's a really oppressive unit once it gets going.

- As Persians your Town Centers work faster so when it comes to booming in Castle Age you can do with 1 less Town Center than other civs. And if you have 3-5 Town Centers make sure you don't spam villagers like any other civ since your villagers are created much faster and you may quickly run out of food.
- Against Persians try to play a solid game, their Town Center bonus is only good in 2 scenario: if they are purely booming or if they are 1 Town Center pushing you.

- As Portuguese play gold units as much as possible to take advantage of their bonus and don't be afraid to play both Crossbows and Knights in the Castle Age.
- Against Portuguese Castle Organ Guns are super deadly, if they get there it's sometimes really hard to beat the and if they get them get Catapults or Monks or Archers.

- As Saracens make use of their Market, it's their only eco bonus so make use of it as much as possible.
- Against Saracens always watch their Market because they could be selling stone and get to Castle Age quite quickly. If you don't see it coming you get rolled. Make sure you understand how much the Saracens can abuse the Market.

- As Sicilians don't get too cought up with their Serjeants and Donjons, they are not that strong in the early game so definetly make use of their Crossbows, Skirmishers or Knights. And then just transition to Sergeants and Donjons later on in the game.
- Against Sicilians if they attack you or you them, Tower Rush them. Donjons are very expensive early game, they can't afford to make too many of them.

- As Slavs you have a really good bonus that makes your farmers work faster, use this bonus to go for a rush rather than a boom. Most of your farms come from early game so at the end of Feudal Age you have like 18 to 20 farms. So after you got the farms that's actually a really great place for Slavs to attack since they will get that extra. So don't be afraid to 1 TC push instead of booming with Slavs and push in early Castle.
- Against Slavs be way of their Castle Age push, they have really strong knight and siege push because they have a really good economy with their farm bonus and cheaper siege. Their late game is strong but they lack strong range options, so make sure you deal with their melee units and be careful of the Boyar.

- As Spanish make use of their Conquistadors whenever possible because it's really a very powerful unit.
- Against Spanish similar to Mongols they have a very powerful Castle unit, the Conquistador, so go Skirmishers against Conquistator, or Archers and Cavalry Archers, don't rely on your siege they eat that.

- As Tatars you have a very good late game so don't be afraid to get to late game and win the game with Cavalry Archers and Hussar with the unique tech to give them extra armor.
- Against Tatars they have Thumb Ring for free in Castle Age, so prepare them for going Cavalry Archer or at least have a counter to them going Cavalry Archer because free Thumb Ring Cavalry Archers will destroy knights, make Skirmishers.

- As Teutons try to play in a way that is not going to require too much mobility. Teutons lack mobility but have a very strong army that can fight melee units, but also their siege is good at dealing with archers in 1 spot.
- Against Teutons similar to Bulgarians play Cavalry Archers against them, they absolutely destroy Teutons at all stages of the game. Even if your civ isn't the best with them, it will absolutely destroy Teutons, or if you don't have them at least Archers.

- As Turks keep your options open as beside Jannissary and Hussar you also have Cavalry Archers and Hand Canoner.
- Against Turks double-down on 1 unit because they don't have any good trash units so if you double down on Archers with some Halberdiers, or double down on Knights with some Skirmishers. If you end up without gold the Turk player is going to do very bad.

- As Vietnamese you can try to steal the enemy's sheeps.
- Against Vietnamese absolutely betware that they don't lame you in the early game.

- As Vikings make use of the fact that you have the best economy in the game as much as possible because your late game while it's not bad it's not the best and it can get beaten by other civs. You will have the economic advantage from Feudal to Early Imperial. You can really end the game with Archers + Infantry and some siege.
- Against Vikings they are incredibly strong in all parts of the game except that super late game where they have very limited tech and poor siege, only option that is really good is siege ram. Make sure you draw the time as much as possible and that you have a winning composition against them in Imperial Age, stall to late game.

You have 50-ish civilizations that are not different but semi-different. You have the generic units that most civilizations had in history: archers with a bow, infantry with sword and shield, etc. But then you have that civilization's particularity, in form of different bonuses and that civilization's signature move, their castle unit.


The Goths are very very simple. Spam infantry units: Huskarls, Champions, Halberdiers.

What you want to do is get to Castle Age, build a Castle and research from the Castle a tech called "Anarchy" (the silver crown), then it will allow you to spam Huskarls from the Barracks. Huskarls are very powerful because they are anti-archer, archers usually beat infantry but Huskarls are the exceptions. Then spam infantry. All your infantry units are cheaper so you can make a lot of them, and all 3 infantry units specialize against a type of unit: Vs archers get Huskarls, Vs Infantry get Champions, Vs Cavalry get Halberdiers.

Spam Paladin and support them with Skirmisher/Throwing Axemen/Hand Cannoneer.

They have the most powerful Paladin in the game. But Paladin are countered by Halberdiers, so all you need is a 2nd unit to counter the Halberdier, you have 3 options: Skirmishers (from Archery Range), Throwing Axemen (from Castle), Hand Cannoneer (from Archery range). The villagers picking Berries work 15% faster and the Mill technologies are free, allowing you to have an easier Dark Age.

Spam Longbowman/Arbalester and support them with Halberdiers as meat shield and Trebuchet.

Your archers outrange every other unit, making them very hard to get close to. You will need Halberdiers to use them as meat shield between your Longbowman/Arbalester and enemy army. But you do not have building breaking power which is why you need Trebuchet from Castle. Longbowman (from Castle) are better but the regular Arbalester (from Archery Range) is also better than most other archer units. They have an Imperial Age technology called "Warwolf" (the gold crown) that makes their Trebuchets 100% accurate, normally Trebuchets are 30% accurate only hitting Castles all the time because they are very large targets, but this technology will make them 100% accurate against all other targets. And "Yeomen" (the silver crown) in Castle Age is also very good for extra range. The villagers picking food from Sheeps work 25% faster and Town Centers costs -50% wood in Castle age, allowing you to have an easier Dark Age and boom.

Spam Cataphracts and support them with Skirmishers or Halberdiers.

Halberdiers normally counter Cavalry. Cataphracts (from Castle) are the anti-anti-cavalry unit. They counter units that would normally counter cavalry. So they actually beat Halberdiers. Your weaknesses are Paladins since Cataphracts are roughly 75% as strong as Paladins. And to deal with that you make Halberdiers that counter them. Or if you're dealing with archers make Skirmishers that counter them. Your buildings have more HP, including Town Centers, Castles and Walls, allowing you to be harder to break.

Rush for relics and spam Letis/Paladin supported by Winged Hussars, Skirmisher or Halberdier.

Your Letis and Paladin get +1 attack for each relic you get up to +4, so rush for those relics as soon as you hit Castle Age. Of the 2, the Letis is the better unit but it comes from Castle so if you don't have the time or the resources Paladins are good as well. And to defend your main units you have 3 very good options: Winged Hussars are some of the best non-gold cavalry in the game and Skirmisher or Halberdier for the same reason as the Byzantines. You start with +100 food, allowing you to have an easier Dark Age and each new Town Center gives you +100 food allowing you to boom better in Castle Age.

Spam Champions/Samurai/Halberdiers and support them with Skirmisher/Archer.

Goths have the cheapest infantry in the game, with quantity over quality. Japanese have the strongest infantry in the game, with +33% attack speed. You have amazing infantry all over the place. The downside of infantry is that they are weak against ranged units, so to protect against that make Skirmishers (doesn't cost gold) or Archers (costs gold) from Archery range. The Samurai is like a Champion but has bonus damage against unique units, meaning units from Castle.

Spam Battle Elephant and support them with Imperial Skirmisher/Rattan Archer.

Hera, best Age of Empires 2 player in the world, recommended the Vietnamese as the best beginner-friendly civ. You see the enemy base at the start of the game, making your game much easier. You have the Battle Elephant with a technology from Castle called "Chatras" (Silver Crown from Castle) that makes your Elephants stronger and since they are weak to Halberdiers you have the Imperial Skirmisher, an improved version of a cheap anti-archer unit that doesn't cost any gold so you can easily spam them to protect Elephants. Or if you have the gold the unit from your Castle Rattan Archer is Archer+Skirmisher in 1 unit, having the strengths of both, a clear improvement but costs gold.

Spam Battle Elephants and Champions/Halberdiers.

An ideal unit composition would be the Aramabi (Castle Unit) and Halberdier. But they have a lot of options. Including Battle Elephant in stables with extra armor and Champions/Halberdiers with +1 attack per age starting Feudal so +3 in Imperial. Given that these units are used a lot at lower levels, often seeing huge Halberdiers and Champion fights, the Burmese are a very good civ in that regard with powerful Elephants and Infantry. You can get Skirmisher or the Castle Unit for support if things get bad.

Rush to Imperial Age and spam Janissary and support them with Hussars.

Another top player, Survivalist, recommended the Turks as the best civ for a beginner, since they are very powerful once you reach Imperial Age and what you have to do with them is very simple. They don't have an economic bonus that allows you to get to Imperial Age faster, but have a very powerful Imperial Age unit that is worth getting there for, the Janissary, it's a top tier unit. Their Janissary outrange almost anything and do a lot of damage. And you only need the Blacksmith Archer Armor upgrade to fully upgrade them. The Hussars are there to protect them, yes even against Halberdiers. And if you want archers you have very good Cavalry Archers, you also have the Champion if something else is needed, and Bombard Cannons from Siege Workshop with extra range.

High Armor but slow. Spam Teutonic Knight or Paladin and support them with Skirmisher.

They have some of the best Champions, Halberdiers, Paladins and Unique Unit in the game due to getting extra melee armor in Castle Age and Imperial Age, with the Teutonic Knight having an insane amount. Champions and Halberdiers are not top tier like the Japanese but are way above average, so don't expect them to beat Jaguar Warriors but expect them to beat generic Champions and Halberdiers. The Paladin by contrast is one of the best in the game. Pick either Teutonic Knight or Paladin, both are very good, and support them with Skirmisher as archers are your civilization's main weakness since you only have extra melee armor. Their farms are 40% cheaper, and while your Dark Age is normal this allows you to have a very easy Feudal Age for a quick transition to Castle Age. You also give bonus conversion resistance to your allies making it very nice to play together with an Elephant civilization. They are slow not in the sense of development but their main units Paladins and Teutonic Knights are slower than average. They also benefit a lot from having a Vietnamese ally since they need Skirmishers and Vietnamese give better Skirmishers to all their allies.

These civs are not as straightforward as those top 10, but are still very easy when compared to other civs. So if you don't like anything in the top 10 as a new player I recommend this. Easy in the sense that it's very straightforward to play with them, they have a simple game plan.

Never build houses and spam Paladin/Tarkan with Skirmisher/Cavalry Archer.

I have mixed feelings about Huns but I had to mention them. While they are a very good noob civilization they lead to bad habits. You have Paladins and the Tarkan (Castle Unit) that while not as powerful as a Paladin can melt walls and buildings. And like Goths after the Castle Age technology "Marauders" (the silver crown) you can train them at Stables. Then you need then is to support against Halberdiers with Skirmishers or their very good Cavalry Archers.

Cavalry Archers get upgrades from Archers & Cavalry so by going Skirmisher + Knight then switching to Cavalry Archer already have the upgrades for Cavalry Archer from both sides, Cavalry Archer are affected by the Archer Armor upgrade not the Cavalry Armor upgrade for the record, in rest they get upgrades from all upgrades that are either for Cavalry or Archers.

While the Houses bonus sounds good on paper, it's a double-edged sword, a house costs 25 wood, in Dark Age you'll typically make 5 houses and since you start with -100 wood you only save about 25 wood, compare that with the Japanese whose Mill and Lumbercamps costs -50 wood thus saving 100 wood, you could say it saves you the time of the villager to build the houses which is not much. The bonus does add up in Feudal Age where for say 45 population you would have needed 9 houses thus 225 wood, saving you 125 wood. By 100 population you would have saved 20 houses thus 500 - 100 = 400 wood. So you don't save that much, it's just more convenient.

The downside is that you can't use houses as part of your wall when you all, and if an enemy tries to break a wood wall in feudal you can't place a house right in front of the broken wall to block him.

Of course, Huns are suited for aggressive playstyle rather than staying in home and booming. The Tarkan has lower attack and melee armor than a Paladin but higher pierce armor, they are significantly weaker in melee but they are more resistant to archers, although that doesn't translate to dealing more damage to archers. And they can take out Walls, Castles and Town Centers easily. 8 Tarkans are enough to bring down a Town Center where as normally you would need about 30 Knights in Castle Age. They are also good support when you have Cavalry teammates as the 20% faster working stables benefit every cavalry ally civilization.

Spam Balista Elephant with Hussar/Battle Elephants/Halberdier. in front of them.

They have Balista Elephant and best food bonus in the game. You can dominate the field if you manage to mass their unique unit, the Balista Elephant. Then protect them with either Battle Elephants or Hussars from Stable, or Halberdier. And you have the food economy to make it affordable.

Farmers don't require Mills/Town Centers to drop off food. May not sound like much, but it's easily the best food bonus in the game. But you are easily going to need it, as elephants in general are very expensive. And while you don't have the best elephant in the game, the Persians have it, War Elephant. You have 2 good options when it comes to elepahants: Battle Elephant and the star of the show Balista Elephant; and the economy to support it.

Hands down the best economic bonus in the game. Spam Berserkers with Skirmisher as support.

The reason I recommend the Vikings to a new player is because they have hands down the best economic bonus in the game. Free Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart. Look everywhere, they all say this is the best eco bonus, so big that most of the Vikings' tech tree had to be nerfed because of this.

While civs like the Aztects, Teutons, Poles, Khmers, Celts, Slavs, Hindustani, Italians have significant eco bonuses that will last through the whole game while Franks, Britons, Lithuanians, Japanese, Mongols, Inca have bonuses that lead to a significantly faster Dark Age, the Vikings are in a league of their own.

Usually, you want to get Wheelbarrow right after you hit Castle Age, with the Vikings you already have it for free as soon as you turn Feudal Age, and Hand Cart for free when you hit Castle Age. This means that for the whole of Feudal Age your villagers will carry 25% more and move 10% faster than that of other civs, And handcart carry 50% more and move 10% faster instantly as you hit Castle Age. While also saving you the resources required to get them: 175 food and 50 wood & 300 food & 200 wood respectively, and the Town Center time as you build villagers in the time other players research Wheelbarrow and Handcart. Now that I put their massive economic bonus into perspective, what do the Vikings have?

They are considered a Naval civ but don't let that scare you from playing them on land maps, where they are still above average in terms of win rate in the current patch, they were never weak on land.

You can do a Feudal Age rush with Man-at-Arms supported by your very strong economy and Skirmishers if you encounter archers. You virtually have only 4 units: Archers, Skirmishers, Champions and Berserkers.

You still have Pikemen in Castle Age, and the lack of Halberdier is compensated that Berserkers can kill knights having bonus damage against them and in Castle Age Champions can too with the "Chieftans" (the silver crown) unique technology from Castle. Combine that with their extra HP and you'll have infantry that beats both infantry and cavalry.

While for archers you have Skirmishers or Archers of your own. So you can always transition from Pikemen to Berserker or Champions with "Chieftans" and still have anti-cavalry all the time. Berserker is as powerful as a Champion, but they auto-regenerate 40 HP/minute so in practice have more HP in fight while also getting better between fights. And they are faster than Champions so they can chase Archers easily and raid. Due to their strong eco bonus you can even play them as a cavalry civ in Feudal and Castle with Scouts and Knights, but you won't have anything to do with those units in Imperial. And late game you can get Berserkers with Arbalesters or Scorpions instead of Skirmishers.

Spam Conquistadors and support them with Hussar/Paladin/Missionary.

You get a lot of gold and have Conquistadors. Blacksmith upgrades don't cost gold and you get +20 gold for every technology researched. Great Paladins + Conquistadors combo with cheaper alternatives as Halberdiers, Hussars, Skirmisher. And good Bombard Towers rush.

The Spanish make a lot of gold. Their blacksmith upgrades don't cost gold, receive +20 gold for each technology researched and in team games trade units generate +25% gold. Builders work 30% faster, that's only when creating buildings. Have good Hand Cannonners and Conquistadors as Gunpowder units fire 18% faster, essentially mounted Hand Cannonners. Also have access to Champion and Heavy Cavalry Archer if they need it.

They are one of the best civs on Nomad, because of that bonus where they build 30% faster, it's something you don't think about but helps in small ways a lot.

Conquistadors are very good to use in Castle Age and an ideal Imperial Age composition would be Paladins + Conquistadors, or cheaper alternatives Halberdier, Hussar, Elite Skirmishers. So you could go something like Paladins + Skirmishers or Halberdier/Hussar + Conquistadors if you don't have that much gold. But if you don't have gold with the Spanish, what are you doing? You also have very good Bombard Towers rush due to Supremacy imperial age tech for villagers.

Spam Mangudai from Castle with Hussars/Siege late game.

You have 3 great cavalry units: Hussar, Steppe Lancer, Camels. And 2 great cavalry range units: Cavalry Archer and Mangudai. Combine them.Eventually you want to get to the Mangudai because it's such a powerful unit. Their cavalry archers fire faster. And their cavalry melee have extra HP.

With Mongols for the frontline you have either the Hussar or gold variant Steppe Lancer. While for the back you have the Cavalry Archer and even more powerful Mangudai. Mangudai is such a strong unit it's there with Goth Huskarl in terms of how good it is.

Aside from that, you also have a very powerful siege, because the tech tree is very open and with a castle research in imperial age they move a lot faster. To support all of that, your hunters working 40% faster allows you to have one of the best Dark Ages in the game. Due to their Hussar HP bonus they can also rush very well.

Steepe Lancer has +1 extra range as a melee unit (so 2 range) meaning more of them can attack at one time. Steepe Lancer works best when massed. The best way to use them is remember that 2 melee range and use chokepoints, micro hit and run on enemy infantry or better raiding of enemy villagers.

Spam Rams/Catapults and support them with Halberdier/Woad Raiders.

If you want to play Siege, the Celts are the best learning civ. They have 3 bonuses on siege: siege weapons fire 25% faster, Furor Celtica (siege units +40% HP), siege buildings work 20% faster. They are in a league of their own when it comes to siege.

Their economic bonus Lumberjacks work 15% faster, may not sound like much, but it's one of the best economic bonuses in the game, like the Vikings' free Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart, except this keeps benefiting you late game. And is perfect for your siege as you need wood.

The 10% speed for infantry starting Feudal is unassuming but huge. Your infantry will be faster than every single non-cavalry unit, including archers. Only Eagle Warriors are faster than Celt Men-at-Arms and the Celt Spearman is the fastest infantry in the game. Celts don't have infantry, they have semi-cavalry.

While the other units: Champion, Halberdier, Hussar, Paladin, Skirmisher and the Castle Unit give them a lot of options to support their siege units. With Celts, it's not a question of whether they will make a forward Siege Workshop, it's a question of when.

Spam Imperial Camels and Hand Cannoneers supported by Skirmisher/Hussars.

I had to mention at least 1 Camel civ. Camels are anti-cavalry cavalry. They are weaker than a Paladin but beat cavalry due to anti-cavalry bonus, however, they are weaker versus infantry and archers when compared to Paladin. Imperial Camels are the best camels in the game. Almost as powerful versus archers and infantry while they melt knights. With the Hindustani, you have an unique Imperial Camel upgrade just like the Vietnamese have the Imperial Skirmisher upgrade.

You don't have Halberdiers (generally Camel civs don't have Halberdiers since Camels already beat Knights) which may throw off some players but have plenty of things to compensate for that. Namely Skirmishers, Hussars and a Hand Cannoneer with extra armor and +2 range in Imperial Age due to a technology called "Shatagni" (the gold crown from Castle). Versus archers and cavalry you have Camels, vs infantry you have Hand Cannoneers.

And if all else fails you also have Champions that will allow you to deal with enemy Halberdiers beside Skirmishers and Hand Cannoneers.

On top of that they have cheaper villagers at all ages, the higher in age you go the cheaper your villagers get, allowing you to have an easier Dark Age, Feudal Age, Castle Age and Imperial Age. If you get 25 villagers in Dark Age that saves you 100 food, that is not much, the equivalent of the Lithuanian bonus, but in Feudal if you make 20 more villagers that saves you 130 food and in Castle where you really boom with multiple Town Centers if you get 60 extra villagers that saves you 540 food, to say nothing of Imperial where the discount is -23% cost for villager.

Spam Kamayuks and support them with Skimishers/Slingers/Arbalest.

American civs are weird, but if you want to learn one start with Inca. Free food at the start of the game, housing bonus, cheaper units. Very open tech tree so you don't miss anything significant. Unlike Aztecs specialized on infantry and Mayans specialized on Archers. Kamayuks is anti-cavalry and anti-trash. Slinger is anti-infantry. Eagle Warrior is anti-archer.

You and all your allies start with a free lama and houses gives 10 population instead of 5, making for a very forgiving Dark Age. All your units except archer-line are cheaper. Monks and Siege give unusually good value, don't underestimate how quicky this bonus adds up. You have skirmishers but then you don't have cavalry so the Halberdiers aren't that much of a threat.

Kamayuks are a mix between Halberdier and Champion, the middle of the road in terms of damage, while the HP is closer to the Champion, they have attack bonus versus Cavalry like Halberdier but is not as extreme.

Fabric Shield makes the Eagle Warriors even more impressive. The Eagle Warrior is an anti-archer, and with Fabric Shield they get close to Goths Huskarls level of anti-archer. Of course, Goths still have the huge discounts and fast spawn rate as other advantages such as high damage versus buildings, so they won't dethrone the king but are there.

Spam Jaguar Warriors/Eagle Warriors with Skirmishers/Siege.

Insanely powerful infantry and monks, and powerful Skirmishers with extra attack and range to deal with the Archers that would normally counter the infantry.

You start with +50 gold that will help you with a Milita rush in Dark Age or to get a technology faster or to advance in Castle Age. That +3 extra carry capacity helps all resources but especially farms where you get about +10% more efficient farms. Creating all military units 15% is very useful in every situation, like the extra carry capacity it's one of those bonuses you don't have to do anything to be good.

Taking all the Monastery traits will give your monks double the usual HP of a monk, making them the tankiest Monks in the game. That you also have all the technologies for. Playing with Monks is a very viable strategy for Aztects.

Their unique unit, Jaguar Warrior, is an anti-infantry specialist, for a civ that already has a lot of infantry bonuses. This leads to a very interesting combo, where you make Eagles that are anti-archers, you opponent makes Champions in response, and you make Jaguar Warriors that beat the Champions.

With the Imperial Age technology Garland Wars your infantry becomes as good as the Japanese infantry. Eagles with +4 attack work great against both archers and cavalry, while the Jaguar Warriors can deal with Infantry. The Aztecs also have really powerful siege. With access to final level Rams and Catapults that are also created faster.

A high-risk high-reward booming civ. Spam Kipchak and support them with Hussars/Paladins.

Where as Goths are weak early game because they can eventually get very powerful army late game, Cumans are weak early game because they can eventually get very powerful economy late game, or they can be very aggressive breaking your walls in Feudal. You never know which is which.

Cumans get 2 bonuses that couldn't be more different: You get 1 extra TC in Feudal Age but no stone walls, so you are harder to defend but can boom like crazy if you are left alone. And you get access to Siege Workshop and Rams in Feudal Age, meaning you are one of the very few civs that can break stone walls in Feudal Age, meaning no one is safe from you.

Other than that, you have access to all the major units except Arbalester. While Light Cavalry, Steppe Lancers and Cavalry Archers train 100% faster. This is intended as a civ that you're meant to be fast with, either fast in development or fast in attack.

Spam Plumed Archer with Halberdier/Eagle Warrior as support.

Their team bonus is very good, walls including stone wall costs -50% less. This is more useful on open maps than closed maps but generally useful everywhere. The resources last 15% longer is most useful in Dark Age where sheeps and Boar last longer, giving you an extra 200 food from them. But also gives you extra resources from gold and stone mines.

And finally, their best bonus, Archery Range archers and Castle archers are discounted as you age up. Making it easier to hit that critical mass of archers.

The unique unit Plumed Archer, is more expensive but tankier than normal archers, with more HP and armor, and much faster movement, equal to eagle warriors. They are better vs infantry, vs catapults since they can take a direct hit but catapults still counter them they are just more resistant and easily beat generic archers of other civs. 8 of them can one shot a villager.

Their unique tech El Dorado gives Mayans the best Eagle Warrior in the game, a great anti-archer and anti-skirmisher while the Plumed Archer can deal with infantry as well as archers, and the Halberdier can deal with cavalry. So you have all 3 areas covered. Both Plumed Archer with Eagle Warriors both cost gold so it's harder to make than Halberdier. They also have final tech for Ram and Scorpions in case you need them.

Spam Hussite Wagon/Houfnice and support them with Halberdier/Champion.

Hussite Wagon are the best gunpowder unit in the game, beating Turk Janissary and Spanish Conquistador 1v1. While Houfnice are some of the best bombard cannons in the game. They have a lot of indirect advantages to Archers. Cheaper Blacksmith, cheaper University and Chemistry in Castle Age means that they can get very early and very quickly archers upgrade. They have the final Archer upgrade missing only Thumb Ring. It also helps on Siege as you need a Blacksmith to build a Siege Workshop.

Fast Imperial & Gunpowder are a classic Arena strategy. And Bohemians get a bonus to this with Hand Cannonner available in Castle Age. Bohemians, Byzantines and Turks have strong Hand Cannonners. Their Halberdier deals extra bonus damage, this translates as - they are even stronger against Cavalry. This makes for a great Halberdier + Siege combo. The Fervor applies to Villagers is actually an economic bonus, making the villagers move faster.

Their Unique Unit Hussite Wagon is a Gunpowder unit. It's a lot like the Portuguese Organ Gun. Is beaten by catapults and bombard cannons, but also anti-siege specialist units. They need to be protected with some melee. The Houfnice is a unique upgrade for Bombard Cannon. It gives them a little bit more HP and armor but an insane amount of extra damage and a small blast radius.

Spam War Elephant/Paladin and support them with Skirmishers/Wood Archers.

You have the elephants in the game - War Elephant.And then to defend those War Elephants you have Skirmishers or Archers that cost wood. In Castle Age you get Kamandaran reserach in Castle, that converts the gold cost for Archers to wood.

They are bad archers but it doesn't matter because after Kamandaran they are dirt cheap.
And until you get the War Elephants in late game you have very good stables in the middle game.
Hussar, Savar, Camel are all good options. That can be well defended with a Skirmisher.

Early in the game you are going to play like a typical knight civilization. With Hussar, Savar, Camel and Skirmisher. But late game you are going to switch from a typical knight civ to the War Elephant. The best elephant unit in the game who can make a very powerful push as long as he is not countered. And you have plenty of options to deal with those counters: wood Archers, Skirmishers. Even Cavalry Archer or Hand Cannoner.

You also have Halberdier if you need it for some reason, but you have the worst champions in the game, don't even bother. But, you have a nice +50 wood and +50 food at the start of the game, leading to a much easier Dark Age just like Lithuanians. It's a civ that requires you to change your mindset in the middle of the game, from cavalry civ to elephant push, but a very good civ.

Spam cheap but good Winged Hussars/Cavalier and support them with Skirmishers/Archers.

The Poles have 5 great options to pick from depending on what is needed. Their Winged Hussars are some of the best Winged Hussars in the game who even stand a decent chance against Halberdiers after the trample damage upgrade, and they don't cost gold. Your Cavalier while not as strong as Paladins after the Castle Age technology "Szlachta Privileges" (the silver crown) they become almost as cheap as a Champion despite being way stronger, so you can spam huge amount of these.

While Obuch is your deluxe unit, it removes armor from whoever it attacks, making them an easy target for the archers in the back. They are a more powerful champion who can remove armor.

In addition, the Poles have some of the best economic bonuses in the game, beside cheap Cavalier their farms generate a lot of food, second only to Khmer if they are placed right next to a Mill (so don't build farms in Town Center with Poles) and when they dig 2 stone they get 1 gold for free. Meaning you can dig stone right away in Feudal Age and will have enough to get to Castle Age and plant a Castle as soon as you are Castle Age.

Spam Organ Guns and support them with Halberdiers/Champions.

Portuguese and their allies research all techs 25% faster except for aging up. This is a top team bonus. All units costs -20% gold saves you a lot in the long-run, especially for gold-intensive units like Trebuchet, Bombard Cannons, Cannon Galleon but also Knights, Champions, Scorpions and Organ Guns. This also allows them like the Aztecs to have a very good Dark Age rush.

Their ships have +10% HP which is good overall on all water maps regardless of unit. For the Dark Ages, berries generate 1 wood for each 3 food collected, giving them some extra wood from sources you wouldn't normally expect.

And at the other corner of the game, you have the late game Feitoria building. It generates: 96 food, 60 gold, 42 wood, 18 stone per minute. So the numbers aren't equal. At the cost of 20 population. 20 villagers are more efficient, but Feitoria is more difficult to raid with 2.700 HP and the production is infinite which is very useful late game.

They have a very good unit. The Organ Gun, deals massive gunpowder damage to low armor high groups of enemies. Especially good against infantry and skirmishers. Is beaten by Cavalry and Catapults. But you don't have many other land units, use Halberdiers or Champions to protect them.

The other unique unit is for water Caravel. A Galleon that can hit multiple enemies like a Scorpion. They also have very good Bombard Towers, especially with the Arquebus upgrade that also applies to Organ Guns and Hand Cannonners. You're basically giving all your gunpowder units Balistics.

Spam Barrack Units until Castle then Stirrups and Konniks plus support Trash.

Bulgarians have a nice Dark to Castle Age game with automatic the Champion upgrade and blacksmith techs that are cheaper and faster. After Castle switch to Knights and/or better Konnik once you research Stirrups, which gives cavalry a faster attack.

Fully upgraded, the Bulgarian Two-handed-swordsman beat generic Champions late game. Are stronger in melee but weaker versus range. Bulgarian Hussars are the best in the game and their Cavaliers although weaker than Paladin are second best after the Malians, so before Paladin is researched you have the strongest cavalry in the game.

Late game Hussars will be the Bulgarians best trash option most of the time while their Skirmisher should be avoided, only go with Halberdiers if the enemy has Camels.

Spam Genoese Crossbowman and support them with Hussars/Condottiero.

Condottiero is a Champion with more HP, lower damage but bonus anti-gunpower units damage and faster speed. The advantage is that you don't need to upgrade the Condottiero, were as for the Milita-line it costs about 1300 Food and 600 Gold to go from Milita to Champion. They are most useful when an ally is playing as: Khmer, Mayans, Huns, Tattars and Persians as these civs have really bad Champion-line.

Genoese Crossbowman is an archer good vs both infantry and cavalry. They still lose to Skirmishers but it's not as one-sided as vs regular archers. Just 18 of them can 1 shot a fully armored Paladin, where as you need 60 Arbalesters to 1 shot a Paladin. Their advance to the next age faster is very good at all ages. And their Hussars/Condottiero are very good at dealing with the Skirmishers that would normally counter the Genoese Crossbowmen.

It's very good to make Hussar + Castle Unit with them and bombard towers for wall. And when you have the gold go for Condottiero instead to tank Skirmishers and Hand Cannoners. They can both go for Scouts or Archers early game, having even a decent knight rush.

Spam Camel Archer with Hussar as meat shield in front.

The Camel Archer is your best DPS unit. Remember the Skirmisher that I said it's a very important unit against archers and halberdiers? You have the Genitour, a mounted Skirmisher. The Berbers are great in team games because of this, you give your team a good non-gold unit. While you yourself have faster moving villagers so you gather everything faster. And discount to Camel Riders and Hussar. Aside from the normal Camel Archer and Hussar combo, get those Camel Riders and Genitour if you need some flexibility.

The Berbers' faster moving villagers doesn't sound like much but it actually one of the best passive economic bonuses in the game. Their cavalry units become 15% cheaper in Castle and 20% cheaper Imperial age. They have all the available upgrades but no extra bonuses like the Franks or Lithuanians. So they can get some powerful and cheap Camel Riders and Hussars.

Their Imperial Age reserach from Castle Maghrebi Camels makes Camel units regenerate, namely Camel from stable and Camel Archer from castle. The Camel Archer is essentially a much better Cavalry Archer.

Their other unique unit Genitour is a very good counter to archer civs, not only beats archers, but is faster than their archer. This unit is not only cheap but so good that you can use it even when you don't have to deal with archers. On top of that Genitour is available for all their allies, leading to a powerful archer response for everyone in your team.

Spam Coustilier/Paladins helped by Skirmisher/Hand Cannonner.

Burgundians have a very powerful but difficult to use economic bonus, all their economic upgrades are available one age earier and cost 33% less food. Stable technologies including upgrades are 50% cheaper and get Cavalier in Castle Age. This means that they can rush Cavalier better than anyone else and then attack you in Castle Age with an Imperial Age unit. They can also rush Paladin in Imperial since it's 50% cheaper.

As for the other options aside from knights, they have Skirmishers to fight Halberdiers. Hand Cannonner with bonus to damage for late game. And their Castle Unit Coustilier that is very good, better than a Paladin.

Spam Boyars helped by Skirmishers. And late game switch to Champions/Halberdiers helped by Siege.

They have some of the best farms in the game right there with Khmer, Teutons and Poles. Cavalry is their safest default plan, they only get good infantry in Imperial Age. They have fully upgradeable Rams, Catapults and Scorpions while being 15% cheaper. They end up with one of the best Halberdiers + Siege combo in Imperial Age.

They lack Paladin so Knight is only good early game, but they compensate from this with the Boyar at the Castle that is almost as armored as a Teutonic Knight, but Halberdiers and Camels still beat them. However, they beat all other knights 1vs1.

They have a Castle Age technology called "Detinets" (the silver crown) that replaces 40% of the stone cost from Castle to wood, making it easier to mass more Castles. But this can't be used to fast 2 Castle as the first Castle is at full fost and the technology costs 400 wood and 200 gold.

But their best bonus is by far in Imperial Age, the "Druzhina" (the gold crown) makes your infantry deal trample damage, leading to one of the best infantry units in the game. Despite having a good Castle Civ unit.

There you go. You have 10 civs to pick from, and if you don't like either of those, 20 honorable mentions. Let's make a summary.

1. Goths -> Infantry: Get anarchy and spam infantry units: Huskarls, Champions, Halberdiers.
2. Franks -> Knight: Spam Paladin, support with Skirmisher/Throwing Axemen/Hand Cannoneer.
3. Britons -> Archer: Spam Longbowman/Arbalester, support with Halberdiers and Trebuchet.
4. Byzantines -> Knight: Spam Cataphracts, defend them with Skirmishers or Halberdiers.
5. Lithuanians -> Knight: Get relics, spam Letis/Paladin and protect them Winged Hussars, Skirmisher or Halberdier.
6. Japanese -> Infantry: Spam Champions/Samurai/Halberdiers, help with Skirmisher/Archer.
7. Vienamese -> Elephant: Spam Battle Elephant, support with Imperial Skirmisher/Rattan Archer.
8. Burmese -> Elephant: Spam Battle Elephants and Champions/Halberdiers. Aramabi if money.
9. Turks -> Hand Cannonner: Rush to Imperial Age and spam Janissary protected by Hussars.
10. Teutons -> Armor: Spam Teutonic Knight or Paladin and support them with Skirmisher.

11. Huns -> Knight: No houses, spam Paladin/Tarkan protected by Skirmisher/Cavalry Archer.
12. Khmer -> Elephant: Spam Balista Elephant, protect with Hussar/Elephants/Halberdier.
13. Vikings -> Infantry: Best eco. Spam Berserkers with Skirmisher/Archers as support.
14. Spanish -> Gunpowder Archer: Spam Conquistadors helped by Hussar/Paladin/Missionary.
15. Mongols -> Cavalry Archer: Spam Mangudai from Castle with Hussars/Siege late game.
16. Celts -> Siege: Spam Rams/Catapults and support them with Halberdier/Woad Raiders.
17. Hindustani -> Camels: Spam Imperial Camels and Hand Cannoneers helped by Skirmisher/Hussars.
18. Inca -> Infantry: Spam Kamayuks and support them with Skimishers/Slingers/Arbalest.
19. Aztecs -> Infantry: Spam Jaguar Warriors/Eagle Warriors with Skirmishers/Siege.
20. Cumans -> Cavalry Archer: Best boom. Spam Kipchak helped by Hussars/Paladins.

21. Mayans -> Archer: Spam Plumed Archer with Halberdier/Eagle Warrior as support.
22. Bohemians -> Siege: Spam Hussite Wagon/Houfnice with Halberdier/Champion as support.
23. Persians -> Elephants: Spam War Elephant/Paladin, support with Skirmishers/Wood Archers.
24. Poles -> Knight: Spam Winged Hussars/Cavalier and support them with Skirmishers/Archers.
25. Portuguese -> Siege: Spam Organ Guns and support them with Halberdiers/Champions.
26. Bulgarians -> Combo: Spam Barrack until Castle then Stirrups and Konniks plus Trash.
27. Italians -> Archer: Spam Genoese Crossbowman and support them with Hussars/Condottiero
28. Berbers -> Cavalry Archer: Spam Camel Archer with Hussar as meat shield in front.
29. Burgundians -> Knight: Spam Coustilier/Paladins helped by Skirmisher/Hand Cannonner.
30. Slavs -> Knight to Infantry: Spam Boyars helped by Skirmishers. And late game switch to Champions/Halberdiers helped by Siege.

In conclusion, what units do you want to play with?

Main unit:

Champion: Goths, Japanese, Burmese, Slavs (late only).
Halberdier: Goths, Japanese, Burmese, Slavs (late only).
Eagles: Mayans (situational, if you want to, they are the best of all 3 Eagle Warriors)

Knight: Franks, Lithuanians, Teutons, Huns, Poles, Burgundians.
Hussars: Poles

Elephants: Vietnamese, Burmese.
Camels: Hindustani.
Monks: (they are usually not the main unit, see Aztecs or Spanish for good as support unit)
Siege: Celts, Bohemians,

Archers: Britons.
Skirmishers: Vietnamese, Vikings.
Hand Cannoneer: Hindustani.
Cavalry Archers: Huns.

Unique Castle Unit: Goths, Byzantines, Lithuanians, Japanese, Vietnamese, Turks, Teutons, Huns, Vikings, Khmer, Spanish, Mongols, Inca, Aztecs, Cumans, Mayans, Persians, Poles, Portuguese, Bulgarians, Italians, Burgundians, Slavs.

Support unit (defend main unit):

Champion: Bohemians, Portuguese, Italians (sort of, Condottiero), (situational, if your civ has them and get attacked with Halberdiers + Siege go for them)
Halberdier: Britons, Byzantines, Lithuanians, Khmer, Mayans, Bohemians, Portuguese, Bulgarians.
Eagles: Mayans,

Knight: Byzantines (situational, you have the better Cataphract as the main unit), Spanish, Cumans,
Hussars: Lithuanians, Turks, Khmer, Spanish, Mongols, Cumans, Italians.

Elephants: Khmer
Camels: Byzantines, Turks. (situational, if you can't deal with mass knights you have them. With the Byzantines you also have the cheaper Halberdiers that you should get most of the time, but if you need extra speed get them)
Monks: Aztecs, Spanish
Siege: Mongols, Aztecs,

Archers: Japanese, Vikings, Inca, Persians, Poles.
Skirmishers: Byzantines, Lithuanians, Japanese, Burmese, Teutons (real must have), Hindustani, Huns, Vikings, Inca, Aztecs, Persians, Poles, Bulgarians, Burgundians, Slavs.
Hand Cannoneer: Hindustani (yes, cause you can play them as both main unit and support), Burgundians.
Cavalry Archers: Huns (same, you can play them as both main unit and support)

This is not an objective list, there are many takes of which is best, it's just my opinion.

Archer:
1. Britons -> +2 range
2. Vietnamese -> +20% hp
3. Italians -> +1/1 armor
4. Ethiopians -> +18% attack speed
5. Saracens -> +2 attack vs buildings
Skirmisher:
1. Vietnamese -> +20% hp
2. Aztec -> +1 attack +1 range
3. Dravidians -> +25% attack speed
4. Britons -> +1 range
5. Lithuanians -> +10% faster
6. Saracens -> +2 attack vs buildings
Cavalry Archer:
1. Mongols -> +25% attack speed
2. Magyars -> +1 attack +1 range
3. Cumans -> +15% movement speed
4. Tatars -> Free technologies to get them
5. Huns -> Cheaper cost
6. Vietnamese & Turks -> +20% hp
Hand Cannonner:
1. Hindustani -> +2 range (imperial technology)
2. Spanish -> +18% attack speed
3. Italians -> Pass through damage
4. Burgundians -> extra attack
5. Portuguese -> extra projectile speed
6. Bohemians -> extra speed (castle technology) and with chemistry available in castle age

Champion:
1. Japanese -> +33% attack speed
2. Slavs -> Trample damage (imperial age tech)
3. Dravidians -> attacks ignore armor (imperial age tech)
4. Aztec -> +4 attack (imperial age tech)
5. Armenians -> +30 hp and available in Castle Age
6. Vikings -> extra +20% and cavalry damage
7. Burmese -> +3 attack
8. Malians -> +0/3 armor
9. Goths -> Cheaper cost
10. Teutons -> +2/0 armor
11. Celts -> extra movement speed
12. Malay -> Free armor only Two-Handed-Swords but doesn't cost gold (imperial age tech)
13. Bulgarians -> free upgrade only Two-Handed-Swords but +5/0 armor (imperial age tech)
Halberdier:
1. Japanese -> +33% attack speed
2. Slavs -> Trample damage (imperial age tech)
3. Dravidians -> attacks ignore armor (imperial age tech)
4. Burmese -> +3 attack
5. Malians -> +0/3 armor
6. Goths -> Cheaper cost
7. Teutons -> +2/0 armor
8. Celts -> extra movement speed
Eagle Warrior:
1. Maya -> +40 hp (imperial age tech)
2. Aztec -> +4 attack (imperial age tech)
3. Inca -> +1/2 armor (imperial age tech)

Hussar:
1. Magyars -> Magyar Hussar, non-gold castle unit, but worth mentioning.
2. Lithuanians -> Winged Hussar, no last attack
3. Poles -> Winged Hussar, no last armor
4. Bulgarians -> +33% attack speed (castle age tech)
5. Mongols -> +30% hp
6. Cumans -> +15% speed
7. Turks -> +0/1 pierce armor
Paladin:
1. Franks -> extra hp
2. Teutons -> +2/0 armor, lower speed
3. Cumans -> +15% speed
4. Lithuanians -> +1 attack/relic, only above average with +3 relics
5. Persians -> Savar instead of Paladin, not necessarily better but worth mentioning it exists.
Camel:
1. Hindustani -> Imperial Camel
2. Gurajas -> +40% damage vs mounted; cheaper cost, +4/0 armor (castle & imperial age tech)
3. Sarances -> +25% hp
4. Malians -> +5/0 attack (imperial age tech)
5. Berbers & Byzantines -> Cheaper cost
Elephants:
1. Persians -> War Elephant, castle unit, but worth mentioning.
2. Khmer -> extra speed, +3 attack (Castle tech)
3. Burmese -> +1/1 armor, +1/1 armor (with Castle tech), +4 attack vs archers (Castle tech)
4. Bengalis -> 25% less bonus damage, conversion resistance, +20% attack speed (Castle tech)
5. Vienamese -> +100 hp (Castle tech), no final attack upgrade -2 attack
6. Malay -> -40% discount, lack -2/3 armor and bloodlines but have heresy.

While most units and civs are pretty straightforward, there are some weird civilization gimmicks that you should keep in mind, because if you don't know these exceptions they can destroy you. So it's better to know them ahead of time than be surprised in battle.

Chinese -> Archer: starts with 0 food, -50 wood and 6 villagers.
Mayans -> Archer: starts with -50 food and 4 villagers.
Gurjaras -> Camels: start with 2 berries, can garrison sheeps.
Burgundians -> Knight: can get all economic upgrades one age earlier at a discount.
Armenians & Georgians -> Infantry & Cavalry: Have mule cart to collects resources instead.

This is how you start the Dark Age with these weird civs:

1. Chinese -> Send all 6 villagers straight to the Town Center to get sheeps, then continue as usual.
2. Mayans -> Pick loom as soon as you start the game. Then build 2 houses with 3 villagers and continue as usual.
3. Gurjaras -> Never kill sheeps. Build 2 houses as usual. Send all villagers on the berries under Town Center then rush with 1 villager to build Mill where you will garrison all your sheeps. Put your next few villagers on wood next to Town Center until you have 100 to make Lumber Camp.
4. Burgundians -> Even pros start with 7 villagers on sheep, get the wood upgrade as soon as possible, then get the food upgrade right before you start planting farms.
5. Armenians/Georgians -> Georgians also start with 1 mule cart out, it's just a free scout, then it becomes free lumber camp.

Burgundians -> (Cavalier in Castle Age, Coustillier with charge, Flemmish Milita spam late game)
Italians -> (Condottiero anti-gunpowder, Genoese Crossbowman anti-cavalry but weak to skirm)
Sicillians -> (Serjiant semi-Goths that can build Dojons, Dojons strong towers extra HP & attack)
Bulgarians -> (Konnik when it dies becomes infantry, Krepost Castle with half HP same damage)
Cumans -> (Can build one more Town-Center as well as Battering Rams in Feudal Age)
Lithuanians -> (Letis anti-armor unit who esentially ignores armor in enemy units)
Poles -> (Obuch removes 1 armor with each attack against the enemy helping archers)

Most civs have pretty default & understandable units:
- Archers beat infantry & beat cavalry only in high enough numbers.
- Skirmishers beat Archers & beat Halberdiers only in high enough numbers.
- Cavalry Archers need to avoid damage like an uninsured rental car.
- Hand Cannonner beat infantry far better than Archers can.
- Champions are better than all trash units, Skirmishers, Pikemen, Scout.
- Hussars beat Skirmishers & beat Archers only in low numbers.
- Camels beat other horses but are weaker vs archers and infantry than Paladin.
- Lancers can beat Halberdier with extra range but are weaker vs camels or archers than Paladin.
- And the Unique unit from Castle is usually something like that with a minor tweak.
- Scorpions beat infantry and archers in numbers, even cavalry when in high mass.
- Catapults beat scorpions and archers, infantry too if they can hit them before they reach them.
- Bombard Cannons beat every siege unit including scorpion and catapults and buildings.

Burgundians can make Cavalier in Castle Age. In spite of the shock value of seeing an Imperial-age unit in Castle, it's not that strong compared to a regular Castle Knight, with only +2 attack and Bloodlines. In a 1vs1 with Knight the Burgundian Cavalier usually wins with about 25% HP left.

Coustillier, cheaper but lower stats Paladin, has a "charge" mechanic. First attack deals +34 damage, then has a 40 seconds cooldown. Longer they stay in a fight worse than the Paladin they get. They are a shock cavalry unit meant to overwhelm smaller army of low hp units, or jump for a few quick attacks then retreat.

Flemmish Milita, Imperial Age unique tech turns all villagers into this. Stats-wise is almost as powerful as a Champion so can be treated as such. Have a small bonus against cavalry and camels. But no bonus damage against buildings like Champions.

Italians Condottiero is an anti-gunpowder infantry. A Champion but tankier and with lower damage and moves faster and protection from gunpowder.

Genoese Crossbowman, is archer great against cavalry, good against infantry and archers, but especially weak to mass skirmishers. Lower range than general archer but tankier and +1 more damage in castle.

Sicillians Serjiant is a Champion with lower attack but higher armor who can build Dojons. Dojons are a slightly stronger Tower with higher HP and a little bit higher attack.

Bulgarians Konnik has 2 lives, one as a cavalry the second as infantry. Weaker than the Knight and weaker than the Champion but the catch is that you basically have 2 units in 1.

Krepost, is a unique stone buildings like the Sicillians' Dojon but stronger, where as the Sicillians is a slightly better Tower, the Bulgarians have a slightly weaker Castle. Deals the same amount of damage as Castle but has half the HP of the Castle. Also costs almost half the amount of stone to build so they are a good investment.

Cumans Like Goths, are the only other civ without stone walls, while for goths this is because they are meant to be weak early game, for Cumans is because they are supposed to be exposed to attack due to how strong they can be early game. Will be good early game but have issues later game when you need stone.

Can build a 2nd Town Center in Feudal Age, huge for your economy allowing you to boost yourself like no other civ. One of those bonuses that can dictate the flow of the game in a profund way, you need to attack the Cumans else they will develop faster than you. A 2nd Town Center and the +50% wood walls defense they get makes them harder to raid.

Can build siege workshop and battering ram in Feudal Age, this is insane especially on but not limited to close maps. Generally, with a wood wall you are safe in Feudal, enemy units take a long time to raid it, and with a Stone wall you are safe until Castle age with siege workshop or much stronger upgraded units that can break it. Cumans have Battering Ram in Feudal age meaning they can destroy both your wood and stone walls.

Lithuanians Letis is anti-armor unit, you end up doing the full damage no matter the armor the enemy has. Beat Knights in 1v1 and Paladin 1vs1 but this is because they are armored, they melt Teutons "the armor civ" and against low armor units there is no difference. But they have lower HP and armor than paladins, meaning weaker to archers.

Poles Obuch removes 1 armor with each attack the enemy, a Champion with higher HP and armor but lower damage, if the Lithuanians ignore armor Poles break armor, this is very useful because also allied units like archers can hit the armor reduced enemy unit.

Each civilisation has a bonus that applies to all other members of the team, this does not make a civilisation broken in team games as the most important thing is civilisation synergy and the best team games civilisations change with each patch, but team bonuses rarely change.

It’s important to note that team bonuses do not stack, so if you have 2 Aztec players in your team you do not get double the effect.

Here are the best team bonuses:

Mongols -> Scouts get +2 line of sight. Usually line of sight bonuses suck but the Mongols are, as always, the exception. Because the starting scout gets extra line of slight too.
Portuguese -> All technologies excluding age up is 25% faster. Just think how many times you need to make a research: economic upgrades, units upgrades, blacksmith, university, etc.
Vietnamese -> Gives Imperial Skirmishers and enemy start location. Vietnamese team bonus is huge, it makes a non-gold unit even more powerful in imperial.
Spanish -> Trade Carts give +25% more gold. This is very useful late game as trade now gives you even more gold.
Inca -> Free lama. This bonus allows everyone in your team to have an easier Dark Age.
Italians - Free unit Conottiero in Imperial Age. Free Champion with no upgrade costs required.
Khmer -> Scorpions +1 range. Very good bonus, still countered by Catapults and Bombard Cannons but a lot harder now.
Mayans -> Walls are 50% cheaper. Useful in both feudal and castle age, saving you a lot of wood and stone.
Saracens -> Archers and Skrmishers have +2 attack vs buildings. This one is a game changer because normally ranged units suck vs buildings, this one makes them not elite but decent versus buildings, doable.
Teutons -> All units are more resistant to conversion. Shuts down a lot of Monk plays.
Slavs -> Every military building gives you +5 population. Essentially every barrack, archery range, stable and siege workshop acts like a house too, saving you some wood.
Bengalis -> Trade Carts give 10% food in addition to gold. It’s a good bonus for the late game where the market can now generate 2 resources.
Berbers -> Free unit Genitours. Genitours are mounted Skirmishers, good for when dealing with cavalry archers or archers.
Burgundians -> Relics generate food in addition to gold. Gives you an extra reason to pick up relics as it now gives you 2 resources.
Aztecs -> Relics generate 33% more gold. It isn’t going to be game changing but it’s a solid bonus to have for when you get relics.
Chinese -> 10% extra food on farms. This is actually a subtle bet good bonus, you actually save a little bit of wood in fact since it takes longer for farms to break.
Persians -> Knights have +2 attack versus archers. Very situational one but still one of the better bonuses so worth considering.
Poles -> Scouts have +1 attack versus archers. Very situational but worth mentioning.

Previously, I told you about the easy build order which is not the best build order ever, but it strikes a great balance between being efficient and easy to follow.

These build orders are for those who want to be the real try hards. I don't recommend learning these build orders until you already master the easy build order. Because that one is generic and works for everything, these ones are more specialized down to the minute.

And naturally, a lot harder to pull off. So you are going to suck with these unless you have your bases of the game from the easy build order.

These builds are made by current best player in the world, Hera, feel free to check him out on Youtube, he has a lot of great Age of Empires 2 content that will help you learn a lot.

For example, here are some videos from Hera:

I recommend you to copy these photos, print them, and play a game vs AI on maximum moderate difficulty where you try to copy a few of these builds that you choose, until you can make it close to perfection.

These are not the only build orders ever, there are many ways to play a civ, these are just the build orders from the top player in the world, so they probably mean something. It's just a game, and if you want to get good, you have to learn the openings, only much later when you become better you will understand what the openings mean. But for now on, take it as just a game where you have to learn the openings.

Hera doesn't rigidly follow his build orders either, he wrote them for lower elos. He has followed them to a tee at the top level to prove they work and has used them in tournaments however.

I don't think anyone over about 1200-1400 strictly follows a build order either, they're just to give you an idea of what you're meant to do if your plan is x or y. In a game of a 900 elo player following a build order versus one who has no idea about them, the former will steam roll.

But the build orders will clearly help you understand and get a better idea of the game. Think of them as openings in chess. You have to memorize a good opening first, before you become better and understand what it does, then you can be more flexible with it.

Table of Contents:
1) Generic Infantry Rush (18 vills) -> Rec: Malians, Lithuanians, Japanese, Britons. Vikings.
2) Generic Archers Rush (19 vills) -> Rec: Britons, Mayans, Ethiopians, Tatars, Vikings.
3) Generic Scouts Rush (18 vills) -> Rec: Franks, Huns, Lithuanians, Magyars, Malians.
4) Generic Fishing Ships (19 vills) -> Rec: Italians, Japanese, Vikings, Lithuanians, Malians.
5) Generic Fast Castle Boom (23 + 2 vills) -> Rec: Burgundians, Poles, Bohemians, Portuguese, Bengalis.
6) Generic Fast Castle Into Unique unit (25 + 2 vills) -> Rec: Spanish, Turks, Mayans, Burgundians, Mongols.
7) Generic Fast Castle Into Light Cavalry (25 + 2 vills)
8) Turks Fast Imperial (28 + 2 + 2 vills)

Civ Specific Builds:
9) Georgians - Healing Scouts Rush (16 vills)
10) Japanese - Men-at-Arms Rush (17 vills)
11) Ethiopians - 2 Range Archers for Team Games (18 vills)
12) Koreans - Spear Skirmisher Rush (18 vills)
13) Chinese - Fast Feudal (20 vills)
14) Armenians - Spear Rush into Fast Castle (26 + 2 vills)









Specific Builds:

I'd say skirmish is more useful than campaign since you start from the Dark Age like in a normal game, but a campaign is more fun.

The purpose of this is to "get the feel of the game". The good news is that, unlike in other games, the game won't give them higher difficulty AI unfair damage buffs, the AI never cheats.
Easy -> AI never does anything, good if you only want to learn your civ.
Standard -> AI exists but rarely, if ever, attacks or builds an army. Good for babies first RTS.
Moderate -> The AI will attack you, though a player with any amount of skill should have no issue repelling attacks.
Hard -> Skill required. This is where you need to know a fair amount of this guide to win 1vs1 vs this AI.

There is a huge gap between Moderate & Hard AI. Think of the Hard AI as the "multiplayer requirement level". Not that you can beat him, but the moment you can stand a chance against Hard AI is the moment you can confidently join multiplayer.

Therefore, do most of your practice on skirmish vs Moderate AI.

Out of all I said, I think the Hotkeys and Counters are the most important. Because everything else you can learn by playing, but for the Hotkeys and Counters if you don't know them you don't know them, in time you will learn them, but it's easier to already know them.

These are the counters of the common AoE2 units:
Archers -> anti-infantry & Cavalry but only in high numbers (at least +36, generally is 50/50).
Skirmishers -> anti-archers & anti-halberdiers but only in high numbers.
Cavalry Archers -> anti-infantry but can beat other stuff too if you manage to run away.
Hand Cannonner -> anti-infantry even better than Archers. Beaten by skirmishers and capapults.

Champions -> anti-trash, meaning all non-gold units Skirmishers, Pikemen, Scout.
Halberdier -> anti-cavalry & anti-skirmishers but only in low numbers.
Eagle Warrior -> anti-archers, the closest things American civs have to cavalry.

Hussars -> anti-skirmisher & beat Archers only in low numbers.
Paladin -> anti-champion, Hussar, Skirmisher & beat Archers in low and medium numbers.
Camels -> anti-cavalry but are weaker vs archers and infantry than Paladin.
Lancer -> half-Paladin half-Hussar with extra range, beaten by Camels or Archers.

Ram -> anti-building, very high armor vs ranged units, beaten by infantry and cavalry.
Catapults -> anti-archer & siege, infantry is 50/50, beaten by Cavalry, Eagles and bomb cans.
Scorpions -> anti-archers, infantry and cavalry. Hard counter bomb cans and normal by catapults.
Bombard Cannon -> anti-building, anti-siege. It can snipe catapults and scorpions from safety.

And for Hotkeys I mentioned a necessary minimum:
H -> go to town center.
SHIFT + CTRL + H -> select all town centers.
Home/Middle Mouse Button -> go to last notification.
ALT + making a square with the mouse -> selects only the villagers + sheeps within an area.

. -> select idle villager
SHIFT + . -> select all idle villagers
, -> select idle military unit
SHIFT + , -> select all idle military units

Q+Q -> build a house with a villager
Q+A -> build farm with a villager
SHIFT + right click -> continous construction building

This is advice from Hera, rather than going from civ to civ as a new player. Go from civ to civ until you find a civ that you like (I already made a list of recommened civs for new players), and then play exclusively that civ. So that you will become better with that civ and learn the ins and outs of that civ.

This one is very important. Think of it like a Chess opening. You don't know why the Chess opening is that way, you only know it's good. It's the same in AoE2. A build order will get you through the Dark Age, Feudal Age and in some cases of boom even Castle Age.

The purpose of the "Easy BO/Game Plan" the 7-6-5-4-3 (or 6-16) was to give you a general all-rounder, jack of all trades that is being competitive while also easy to follow so that you can learn the fundamentals well. But after that, if you want to get more specialized, just like there are multiple openings in chess, so are there multiple openings in AoE2:
- Dark Age Rush
- Tower Rush
- Archers Rush
- Scouts Rush
- Fast Castle Boom
- Fast Castle Into Unique Unit
- Fast Castle Into Scouts
etc.

There was a player who learned a 19 villagers Scouts into Knights rush perfectly. And he was able to get about 1200 elo in 1vs1. He hardly knew anything about the game, he was just perfect at executing the opening.