                        Age of Empires Strategy Guide


                     By David Perkins and OGR.COM readers

Age of Empires is not only a game of constant strategic decisions, but of
considerable complexity. With your help, we would like to offer a guide which
can offer new players a leg up on the competition, and veteran players a
place to learn what tricks other good generals have up their sleeves. So,
much like our strategy guide for Total Annihilation, we present this OGR.COM
Age of Empires Interactive Strategy Guide. If you have a specific strategy or
gameplay tip youd like to share, mail it to OGR.COM to be included in the
guide. All tips submitted by readers will be fully credited.

Opening Moves

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If you play Deathmatch, and start with thousands of resource units, this
section may not be very important, as you'll be able to create any building
and upgrade anything you want. But if you like starting with just a Town
Center and three Villagers, this section's for you.

Build a house or two with your three Villagers, and send them in all
directions looking for food. I usually hold out for berries, which don't run
away from you (in contrast to antelope) and don't eat you (in contrast to
lions). Crank out Villagers until you have a dozen or more generated, with
most of them working on food while the rest cut wood.

As you generate Villagers, send one or two out exploring, so you can locate
your opponents and, more importantly, gold and stone deposits. If you are
playing the standard game, your explorers may run across Artifacts, which you
can roll back to your base (or use for exploring, if you find several).

Fishing is a plentiful, easy way to harvest food. Your explorers will show
you where the largest bodies of water are, and the best places to build
Docks. If a Dock is feasible, it probably should be the first building you
construct; although if your nearest berry bushes are far away, building a
Granary next to them should be first. If you elect to hunt animals for food,
note that Villagers won't carry meat to a Granary, but only to a Storage Pit
(or the Town Center). Chasing antelope towards your choice of storage before
spearing them makes the trip shorter for your Villagers.

Once you have a dozen or so Villagers working, you might need to worry about
an attack by a really aggressive opponent (who may create a band of Clubmen
and attack to keep you off guard), especially on smaller maps. Defending
against such an attack usually means creating your own band of Clubmen, as
they are the only military unit available at the beginning of the game.

If you are playing against defensively minded foes, make a dozen more
Villagers. At the beginning of the game, whoever can stripmine the
environment fastest will be at an advantage throughout the rest of the game.
By now, you should have some idea where the stone and gold mines are on the
map. Storage is not an issue, so grab all you can. Start with mines close to
your enemies, and build a Tower or two, then a Storage Pit, next to the gold
or stone. They'll have a tough time dislodging Towers with the units
available near the beginning of the game, and even if they do force you back,
you'll have taken something from them. Send quite a few Villagers to your
faraway mines, with some soldiers to guard them.

Building a couple of Scout Ships and sending them to harass enemy fishing
boats not only forces them to chop more wood and make more boats, but they'll
have to make their own war ships first, forcing a big delay in their food
production. I usually retreat my Scout Ships after sinking fishing boats,
because I play against people who get really mad at this, and end up making
TEN war ships and wreaking vengeance on me and my children's children.

Villagers and Base Construction

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Some structures are often built several at a time, like Houses, Farms, Walls,
and Towers. Although you can't queue units, you can SHIFT-click multiple
structures around the terrain. Definitely a time saver when you want to lay
out a stretch of Houses or build a long Wall. Just hold down SHIFT, click
"Build", and select the structure you want to build, and place it on the
land. You can keep placing the same structure, or go back to the build menu
to select another and queue up several different structures (although it is a
tad awkward).

Villagers repair damaged structures fairly easily--just right-click on the
structure you'd like to repair. Repairing requires fewer resources than does
the original construction, so try and keep your existing structures
(especially Towers) alive.

I can't imagine a situation in which you wouldn't want to research The Wheel
as quickly as possible. It moves Villagers 30% faster, which speeds your
intake of dwindling and precious resources. Grouped Villagers will build
structures more quickly.

Don't haphazardly place your structures. Granaries should be near berry
bushes, and in the open where later Farms can surround them. Storage Pits
should be placed near the thickest forests--not near isolated trees--and gold
and stone mines.

It's wise to have a couple of Villagers mining stone and gold quite soon
after the game begins. A little extra stone may help you build an extra Tower
near outlying mines, giving you an advantage over your opponents. A trickle
of gold will make it that much easier for you to progress to the Iron Age,
when the time comes.

Build Docks out on points of land, where Fishing and Trade Boats can easily
access it. Fishing Boats can get stuck on the shoreline, which is annoying.
Maximize the straight paths from your Dock to the fish. Don't build a Dock in
a narrow waterway, unless you are using it simply to block traffic. (Docks do
a great job of this!)

Defense

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Unless you are going to ensure that you will have control of the seas (at
least the sea in your locale), build your base away from water. Catapult
ships take no time at all in destroying Farms and Houses, and not much longer
to take out other important buildings. Even if your Town Center is near the
water, no one's going to destroy it from the sea before you have the option
to build another somewhere else--so keep your base inland.

Walls in Age of Empires are nice and sturdy (except against Catapults), and
offer a nice feeling of security. It takes creative Wall design to fashion a
fortification that offers both protection from enemies and easy access in and
out for your own army. I prefer not to enclose my base with Walls at all, and
instead save Walls for when I see that I can easily cut off my opponent's
access to gold and stone mines in the middle of the map. Walls not only make
you feel secure, but in some psychological way, they can make your enemies
feel secure, since they know you probably won't be charging through at them.
Meanwhile, behind the wall, you're helping yourself to enemy gold and stone!

Catapults are strong, yet weak (sounds like Zen). Unless your opponent has
learned Ballistics, it's easy to attack and kill unguarded Catapults. Keep a
group of fast units (like Cavalry) available for flanking opposing attacks
and destroying their Catapults. Catapults don't do very well against a naval
attack, since their firing rate is usually much slower. Towers along the
shoreline, and Priests behind them converting, do pretty well. Best of all is
to control the seas yourself! On most maps, he who controls the sea wins the
game.

Catapults are stupid, and will fire no matter what, once they've acquired a
target. Use this to your advantage by getting a Catapult to fire at your unit
while it is among a bunch of the Catapult's own army. If Catapults are
bunched in a group, mingle your attackers into them, and they will often
destroy each other.

Placing a square wall around a Tower will force your opponent to attack it
with missile units; this will annoy players who prefer to build infantry.

If you happen to capture all the Artifacts, you will win the game in 2000
years (of game time!) as long as you can hold onto them. Walling them in
inside your home base makes it difficult for your opponent to simply sneak
fast units through your defenses and snag one, which resets the "clock". A
sneaky way of hiding Artifacts is to load them onto Transports and squirrel
them away in an untravelled corner! (If the Transports are sunk, the
Artifacts will appear randomly on the map some time later.)

Offense

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Upgrade your Clubmen to Axemen as soon as you can, and send five or six as a
group to your enemy's base. Target his Villagers first, to cripple his
economy; then turn your attention to his Houses if you can. Separating your
guerillas into two groups makes your opponent's task even more difficult.

Have you ever played Red Alert, and built a line of turrets that wandered
into the heart of your enemy's base? Towers can perform the same function in
Age of Empires, and they have the added bonus of being "smart"--they attack
moving units in preference to stationary structures, and try first to
eliminate units that can attack them. Be ready for your opponent to be
extremely annoyed, however!

Taking the "high ground" offers not only extended range for projectile units,
but a 50% hand-to-hand damage bonus to the higher units. Catapults and
Archers on hills, with War Elephants or Calvary just below them, are a
formidable formation.

Mixing ranged and infantry units is a wise idea. Keep an infantry vanguard in
reserve to protect your Catapults and Priests. Back up your attacking groups
with a few Villagers, who can hastily throw up a Tower or two if your units
need to fall back and regroup. Do this especially if you are trying to drive
an opponent away from a resource, like a gold or stone mine.

War Elephants possess a "group" attack--each hit causes damage to all the
units in front of it. Sending infantry to duke it out with an Elephant will
only slow it down. (In fact, an Elephant charging down a slope gets an
instant "trample" kill on any unit below it!) Priests are the best
anti-elephant weapon, besides a Catapult that has improved ballistics.
Converting an Elephant is easy and quick, and not only neutralizes the
threat, but gives you an excellent unit!

Priests convert units more quickly when grouped, although they all then have
to rest before being able to convert again. Priests can convert military
units from a distance, but have to walk right up to buildings if they want to
convert them. A single Priest trying to convert a Tower is futile, but a
group of three or four can do it quickly, with little ill effect if the Tower
is already being pounded on by an infantry unit.

Send a small group of Catapults to attack your opponent's base, with a mock
defense for them. Draw him out--he'll likely throw everything and the kitchen
sink at you. Attack his home base with an ambush party of Elephants,
Hoplites, Archers, anything that will do lots of damage quickly. Take out
what you can before he realizes his mistake!

If you are playing a Deathmatch game (where the resources are extremely high
to start with), be the first to build a Wonder. Make your opponents play the
game on your terms!

Upgrading

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Age of Empires offers so many upgrades that it will be rare for a player to
upgrade everything possible. Figure out how your victory will be won, and
upgrade appropriately. If ships are your key to victory, choose upgrades that
will maximize their accuracy, their ability to "lead" moving enemies, and
their damage. On the other hand, if you think Priests will play an important
role, focus on improving their hit points, speed, and conversion ability.
Don't bother to improve the defense of Archers if the vast majority of your
army will be Cavalry. These are specific examples; in general, the same
principle applies.

Upgrades which shouldn't ever be omitted are The Wheel, which improves the
speed of Villagers, and those which allow your ballistic weapons, especially
Catapults and war ships, to track their targets and lead them. What's more
useless than a ranged weapon which can't adjust to the movement of its
enemies? Other important upgrades are those which extend the reach of your
ranged weapons. What's more frustrating than having a Catapult pound your
Tower, while your Tower can't respond?

The Jihad upgrade can turn a pack of Villagers into a fearsome force, but
expect very little from them in terms of harvesting and mining. Their
capabilities in this regard are downgraded a lot. Jihad is an endgame kind of
upgrade, as a result.

End note

Again, please send in your Age of Empires strategies to be included in this
comprehensive guide. You will be credited for your entry. Send your
strategies to us at OGR.COM and look for further updates soon!
