How to Reach Economic Boom in Age of Empires 2

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-02 02:12

Have you ever wondered why your friends have already reached the Age of Castles while you are still in the High Middle Ages? And why has their economy become stronger than yours? There is a way to always have all the resources you need to play Age of Empires 2. This particular strategy works best on territory maps (because you don't have to build a dock and a fleet).

Typical civilization begins with 200 units of food, wood, gold, and stone, and that's what this article is based on.

Steps

Part 1 of 5: General Tips

Step 1. Always create inhabitants

They are the key to a great economy, as they gather resources and build buildings. In fact, if you don't create villagers in the city center, then you waste time, especially in the Early Middle Ages (your performance during the first two minutes of play at any civilization can determine whether the economy will be superior to that of other players).

Step 2. Don't ignore military might

You are successful if you have a strong and well-developed military power, but in order to achieve it you need an equally strong economy. Beware of the invaders of the Feudal Age, the early Age of Castles and the late Age of Castles. If you ignore military development (unless you are doing a Wonder Race), you will lose the game.

Part 2 of 5: Early Middle Ages

Step 1. When the game starts, you need to complete these steps in a very quick succession

• Immediately create 4 villagers in the city center, running out of 200 units of food.

  The two key buttons on the keyboard are the H to select the city center and the C to create the inhabitants (a task that you can only accomplish after selecting the city center). Consequently, the fastest way to do this is to press H and then shift-C. This pattern is perhaps the most important in the game.

• Have 2 villagers build 2 houses.

  Do not have a single house built by a single inhabitant: they must work in pairs in order to keep the flow of creation of the inhabitants stable. Once the two houses are completed, have the two villagers build a lumberyard near a forest (your explorer should have found one by now).

• Select your scout and explore what's currently visible to you.

  Finding the first 4 sheep is very important in the Early Middle Ages; the sooner they are spotted, the better. Occasionally, one of the sheep may be spotted in the fog. If that happens, send the explorer to find her. The 4 sheep will become yours and then you can continue exploring to find 4 more (in pairs) further away, also looking for berries, 2 wild boars, deer (not available on some maps), gold mines and stone quarries.

• Put the other villagers to chop wood in the city center.

  

  Step 2. When the 4 sheep arrive in the city center, place 2 in the area outside the center and 2 in the center

  Have the newly created dwellers consume the food made by one sheep at a time. In addition, he deposits the wood cut by the other inhabitants and sends a villager to collect the sheep.

  

  Step 3. Look for the Loom once you have created the 4 villagers

  The Chassis allows villagers to survive the attack of wolves (this is essential in higher levels, as wolves become very aggressive) and gain more hit points when hunting boar. Your goal is to develop it in 1:40 (1 minute 40 seconds) after clicking on the Frame (1:45 for multiplayer due to lag).

  • During this phase, villagers may run out of food made from a sheep. Make sure you keep exactly 2 sheep in the city center so the villagers don't have to move.
  • After searching for the Loom, continue creating new villagers. You may need to select all the shepherds and have them work to reach the required 50 units of food. Check the population: when you get 13 units, you will have to build another house.

  

  Step 4. Build a mill near the berries using a villager who is not chopping wood

  This will meet the requirement of the two High Middle Ages buildings to transition into the Feudal Age and will provide your civilization with a slower, but more stable, secondary food source. Later, by creating more villagers, you can assign more to harvest berries. Find the other 4 sheep (in pairs), repeat the procedure done with the first 4.

  

  Step 5. Go hunting for wild boars when the food provided by the sheep has almost run out

  Select a villager and attack a boar. Once the boar starts running towards the villager, have the villager return to the town center. When the boar is near the center, send the villagers who are still gathering sheep (if any are left, otherwise they will be inactive) to attack the boar.

  • Pay attention because the villager could die. There is also a risk that the boar will return to its starting point. Better be careful, otherwise you will waste time. There are 2 wild boars to hunt. When the food count for the first boar reaches 130-150, send another villager (NOT the one used for the first hunt) and repeat the process.
  • When the food of the 2 boars runs out, hunt 1 deer: 3 villagers should go there. Deer are easily killed, but cannot be lured.

  

  Step 6. Keep creating villagers until you are 30

  Keep building houses until you get to 35 villagers. Some of the new ones should take care of the timber, very important from the Feudal Age onwards. You should have at least 10-12 of them looking after the wood.

  • Build a mine near the gold located near the city center. While you don't need it to advance to the Feudal Age, you need to start accumulating it in anticipation of the Early Middle Ages (or, at least, before the era changes), since you won't stay long in the Feudal Age. Some civilizations start with -100 gold, and it is highly recommended to have a head start. You shouldn't allocate more than 3 villagers for gold.
  • Farms will become the primary food source, but they must be built in the early Middle Ages. You will need 60 units of lumber and you will have to craft a few because the deer and berries will run out. Farms are based on wood, so you may need to allocate villagers busy gathering food to cut lumber. Farms should theoretically be located around the city center, as they can form a garrison, but if you run out of space, you can locate them around the mill.

  

  Step 7. Reach the Feudal Age

  The population should be 30 villagers.

  Part 3 of 5: Feudal Age

  

  Step 1. Having reached the Feudal Age, there are things to do in very quick succession:

  • Select 3 villagers who deal with lumber and build a market.

  • Select 1 peasant who takes care of the lumber and build a shop to work the iron.

    This apparent asymmetry is due to the fact that the market is built much slower than the shop. Once you finish them, you have completed the Feudal Age requirement that two buildings must be built. Villagers can be sent back to cut lumber.

  • Create 1 or 2 villagers in the city center: they will take care of the timber.

  • Don't look for anything for now.

    Food and timber (indirectly) are very important to the requirements of the Age of Castles. Villagers who gather food and who are not on farms (except those who look after berries) should be placed on farms.

  • Your scout should always be out and about, especially in a 1 vs 1 match.

  

  Step 2. Obtain 800 units of food

  Since you collected so much before reaching the Feudal Age, the 800 units shouldn't be far. In fact, once the market is built, your civilization should have 800 food and 200 gold.

  

  Step 3. Reach the Age of Castles

  The Feudal Age is a transitional phase. Using this strategy, you won't have to stay there long.

  • While reaching the Age of Castles, he develops technologies in the mill and lumber yard.

    As you progress into the Age of Castles, your lumber stocks will likely be very low. As the advancement continues, your villagers will aim to reach 275 units. Build a deposit for the quarry near the stones. 2 villagers dealing with lumber should be moved to this business. Stones are important for urban centers and for your future castle. Your population should be 31-32 villagers as you advance.

  Part 4 of 5: Age of Castles

  

  Step 1. As in previous ages, here too you will have to do various things in a very quick succession

  Select 3 villagers to deal with the lumber and create an urban center in a strategic point, preferably near a forest, a gold mine or a stone quarry (it would be ideal if they were all close). If you don't have enough lumber, be sure to collect 275 and then build the city center. Building more urban centers is extremely important for your civilization, as you can create more villagers using all the centers. Urban centers, along with 275 units of timber, cost 100 stones. If you need them, trade resources at the market. In the Age of Castles, you will want to build 2 or 3 more urban centers for optimal growth.

  • Create more villagers in the city center.

    To continue with the smooth flow of dweller creation, you'll need to remember to frequently build houses using woodcutters. New villagers should be allocated evenly with respect to food, lumber and gold, but it is important to have around 8 to look after the stones.

  

  Step 2. Search for the heavy plow

  It costs 125 units of food and wood, so you'll have to wait a bit before you get it. Also, as you accumulate wood, you have to sow the farms again using the mill. There are also other technologies to be developed; if you create the Wheelbarrow, make sure that other towns in the city continue to produce more villagers.

  

  Step 3. Build a university and a castle

  Universities have useful technologies related to both economics and military strength. When you have 650 stone units, build a castle using 4 villagers occupied in the stone quarry. If 650 stone units is a lot, especially during a rush, you could build a monastery (or a military building from the Castle Age), fulfilling the two construction requirements of the Castle Age.

  

  Step 4. Continue to expand your civilization by building more farms with the newly created villagers

  Resowing is important, also because doing it manually is annoying and, when you manage soldiers during rushes or attacks, it becomes very frustrating. Urban centers should allow you to avoid building another mill.

  • More lumber yards should be built. This is especially important in the Age of Castles, as invaders will target the loggers normally found outside the city center (when you are garrisoned, the loggers will not travel to the city center). Lumberyards should also be built because the forests will be cut.
  • Villagers should be allocated to mine gold. And that is why other gold deposits have to be built. If you do not permanently allocate villagers to take care of the extraction, the 800 gold units needed will become an increasingly distant target. Settlement is especially important in the Age of Castles because it is the time when you should develop military strength. More military units will require more gold (for some civilizations, this is even more important, as their soldiers are expensive). The extraction of stone is a much lower priority, as stone is mainly used for towers, urban centers, castles and walls.

  

  Step 5. You could build a monastery to create monks

  Relics, which can only be taken by monks, provide a steady flow of gold into the economy and are an excellent source of gold when it is lacking (and when trading in the market becomes very inefficient).

  

  Step 6. The Cargo Cart is a great way to sell if you play with at least 1 ally

  The further its market is from yours, the more gold the wagon loads during each journey. As if that weren't enough, looking for the Caravan doubles the speed of the chariots. But beware: these tanks are highly vulnerable to attacks from cavalry units.

  The population will vary after reaching the Imperial Age. As the game progresses, you will use more and more resources for military units, upgrades and technologies, but less and less for the economy. Remember that your population should increase during Imperial advancement

  

  Step 7. Advance to the Imperial Age

  The time to get there is variable. Assuming you're not rushing and you're building an army (which you should be doing, except in the Wonder Race way), your goal is 25:00. In theory, you will want to use your very first urban center to reach it. While reaching the Imperial Age, you can search for the Hand Chariot in another urban center (having the Wheelbarrow is a prerequisite).

  Often, you will ignore the population. A villager should frequently build houses as the game progresses (not necessarily the villager himself, however)

  Part 5 of 5: Imperial Age

  

  Step 1. From now on, the military side will dominate the game

  As a result, you should continue to procure new military technologies, upgrade units, and create new units for a well-equipped army. Anyway, there are some things for civilization to do too:

  • As in ages past, keep creating villagers! The ideal civilization contains about 100 of them. Against the AI and the toughest human adversaries, do not cease the creation, as the villagers will die from the attacks and assaults. Allocate villagers based on your resources; for example, if you have 7,000 units of wood and only 400 of food, it might be a good idea to use some lumberjacks, set up more farms and sow. The forest on territorial maps generally becomes less and less important than food and gold during the Imperial Age.
  • Among the technologies to be researched, crop rotation and mining of gold are particularly important. The latter is optional and resources can be better used for the army. The Mill Crane is another useful technology available at the university.

  Advice

  • Stats for basic food:

    • Sheep: 100.
    • Wild boars: 340.
    • Deer: 140.
    • Farms: 250, 325 (Horse Collar), 400 (Heavy Plow), 475 (Crop Rotation).

  • The research requirements for ages are as follows (there are exceptions for some civilizations):

    • Feudal: 500 units of food, 2 buildings during the High Middle Ages.
    • Castles: 800 food, 200 gold, 2 buildings during the Feudal Age.
    • Imperial: 1,000 food, 800 gold, 2 buildings during the Age of Castles (or 1 castle).
  • Each civilization is different, so each has its pros and cons. For example, the Chinese start with +3 villagers but with -200 units of food. It is a good idea to experiment with each civilization to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  • As stated earlier, don't overlook military might! Military buildings must be built, units updated and technologies continuously researched as needed. Defensive strategies must also be implemented. For example, when you arrive at the Feudal Age, you will need to build a watchtower near the lumber yard to ward off invaders interested in slowing down your lumber production.
  • If at some point you are attacked, press the H button and then the B. The villagers will place a garrison at each nearby garrison building (town center, castle, tower).
  • You need to know that, if you are playing alone, when the screen is black (just before the game starts), you can press H CCCC (or H shift-C). You should hear the sound of the city center when you press H, even if you can't see anything yet. If you wait and do this combination after the black screen appears, your goal of 1:40 will be impossible to meet (you will arrive at 1: 45-1: 48).
  • The purposes outlined in this article can be achieved by everyone. Many of them are difficult for novice players, but it's important to always try and get close.
  • The key keys must be identified and used. In this way, it will be much easier for the player to develop his civilization by using the left hand to tap on the keyboard and the shift and the right hand for the mouse.

  Warnings

  • Watch out for invaders. There are three types: the invaders of the Feudal Age, those of the first Age of the Castles and those of the last Age of the Castles.

    • The typical Feudal Age invader finds and explores your city to find your lumber yard. Afterwards, send archers, spearmen and soldiers confronting the enemy in front of the main body of the army to defeat the loggers and lower their production (NOT to kill villagers). As this happens at the beginning of the game, slowing down production is very detrimental to economic development. A control tower can only partially resolve the attack of these invaders.
    • The typical early Castle Age invader is undoubtedly the most dangerous. It is a civilization that creates approximately 6-10 knights and a few battering rams. In this case, their aim is to kill the villagers near the lumber and gold deposits and on the outlying farms surrounding the mills and destroy the urban center using rams. Pike soldiers should mitigate this threat with some camels (if your civilization has them or is the Byzantine one). Infantry and knights can stop the threat of rams.
    • The Late Castle Age invader serves a similar purpose, but his army is much more developed. The units used are changeable and depend on civilization.
    • You should be able to recover so that you get back on track. If you fail, you will lag behind your opponents and allies (if your production is very low during the Feudal Age, the game will be pretty much over and your enemy will have won). If you can recover, then the assault will have cost you little, while it will have cost your opponent a lot. A counterattack can help you take advantage of his temporary weakness.
    • The Early Middle Ages Invader only exists in the high levels of play (and very rarely below) and is not commonly used due to the severe limitations of military strength of this period. Typically send 4 militias, scouting cavalry and some villagers to assault your villagers near the lumber and gold yards. As this invasion is not widespread, you won't have to worry about invaders until the Feudal Age.