Age of Empires Strategy

Here you will find many helpful strategies and tactics to better and further improve your game play in Age of Empires. Anyway, if there are any questions, comments or errors please e-mail me.
Fezan

Pick which type of strategy you wish to learn about.

General Strategies

Hints & Tips

General Strategies
Starting Out
When you need to pick a team, first ask yourself, what units are my favorite? If you like cavalry then you want to use Yamato. If its archers you like then most people go with Assyrian. Or If you like quick destruction from catapults, either Hittite or Sumerian. Either way experiment with teams and pick the one that works best (obviously). For any team that you are using you always want to get at least to the bronze age as fast as you can. 12 minutes is a good time. 18, keep working on it. For some teams you want to be gathering gold as you are doing this. But for some gold is not important until very late in the game. Here is how you want to start out for every team. First you want to have 2 of the 3 villagers scout out for wood and most important food. I usually try to find at least 2 patches of berry bushes. While doing this have the other guy start building houses. Some people build houses on the outside of the base for protection, this is a mistake because if the other gut destroys the houses how are you going to build more units? So I try to build my houses on the very edge of the map, because then they are out of the way and safe. Also start building units and don't stop until you get either 15-20 of them. Going back to the food, you want at the beggining to have about 3 out of every 4 villagers on food, and the rest on wood. By the time you get 15-20 villagers you will have enough food to upgrade to the next age. When you get to the Tool age you will want to build a stable to get a scout out to find the other player or players. You also want to build a market so you can get some villagers working on farms. At this point, you can do many different things depending on what team you are.

Yamato

When you need to pick a team, first ask yourself, what units are my favorite? If you like cavalry then you want to use Yamato. If its archers you like then most people go with Assyrian. Or If you like quick destruction from catapults, either Hittite or Sumerian. Either way experiment with teams and pick the one that works best (obviously). For any team that you are using you always want to get at least to the bronze age as fast as you can. 12 minutes is a good time. 18, keep working on it. For some teams you want to be gathering gold as you are doing this. But for some gold is not important until very late in the game. Here is how you want to start out for every team. First you want to have 2 of the 3 villagers scout out for wood and most important food. I usually try to find at least 2 patches of berry bushes. While doing this have the other guy start building houses. Some people build houses on the outside of the base for protection, this is a mistake because if the other gut destroys the houses how are you going to build more units? So I try to build my houses on the very edge of the map, because then they are out of the way and safe. Also start building units and don't stop until you get either 15-20 of them. Going back to the food, you want at the beggining to have about 3 out of every 4 villagers on food, and the rest on wood. By the time you get 15-20 villagers you will have enough food to upgrade to the next age. When you get to the Tool age you will want to build a stable to get a scout out to find the other player or players. You also want to build a market so you can get some villagers working on farms. At this point, you can do many different things depending on what team you are.

Assyrian

I do not use this team to often, but this is how others play. There are two main ways that people play. They either build archers at the tool age or they wait until the bronze age so they can build chariot archers. Either way I don't think you want a lot of guys on gold, because both kinds of archers use only food and wood. Aside form that, I don't know exactly how they do this, but try it out a few times and sooner or later you will have a strategy that works.

Choson

Not many people use this team because they are usually vulnerable during the beginning of the game. But when they get into the Iron age, they can be a very powerful team. They become powerful late in the game because of the +80 hit points of the Long Swordsman and Legions, which when put up against cavalry will win. Also don't just attack with infantry. Bring in some Ballistas. I played against someone that used Choson once when I was Yamato. The only reason why I won is that I gathered twice the amount of resources. Remember if you use Choson, you MUST back them up with Ballistas or they WILL lose.

Egyptian

Egyptian can be a good team in the beginning but usually sucks later in the game. With this team you do not have to concentrate on gold. Because you usually only use chariots. And that is that is all they have. They also have elephants, but they are very expensive. So you must win in the beginning of the game or you usually have no chance. Remember when you use chariots, don't make a lot of them, but make chatiot archers instead.

Walls

First pick a team that has good walls, like Baylonian or Shang. Next build up like you usually do. But before it gets very far in the game (less than 10 minutes) wall in your opponent so he can not get any resources, especially gold. And put walls around most of the resources. Then just go in and kill him.

Towers

This one I used a lot before I started using Yamato. Pick a team that has good towers or just any team works fine. Now at the start build a lot of villagers like usual but put a few on stone (like 5). And once you get to Tool age upgrade the towers and find your enemy, now take about 6 villagers down to their base and start building. This will either kill them or wreck havok long enough so that you can get some cavalry or something and clean up.

Hints & Tips

Get to the higher age as fast as you can. The player with the better and more powerful units wins the game.

Have your villager total at least at 15 before you advance into the tool age so you won't have to worry with them.

Build your blocks (in def. strats section) of houses early on so you won't be lacking houses when you don't have any resources.

If you are near stone build walls. They can keep all of the enemy units blocked out of your towncenter early in the game.

Towers are great to have surrounding your town and your resources. If in the iron age get ballista towers.

If your civ supports shared exploration (upgrade in gov. center) then buy it right away. Its very helpful to know the map.

If you like getting points or if the game is set on pts. then be the first to advance into the ages. This will boost you ahead.

Build granaries as close to your farms or berry bushes as possible. That way you collect more food in less time.

If your town is surrounded by trees don't go cutting them all down. Trees are a barrier that the enemy cannot pass (exect HCats).

Pay attention to what map terrain you are going to play on and pick a civ accordingly to their strength on land or water.

Use artifacts to explore the map. Though slow they can be very helpful in finding resources or the enemy or collect them to win.

Don't forget to build your defenses early. Many players wait until they get into the tool and sometimes this is too late.

Use up all of your berry bushes and animals before you farm because these methods are more efficient and faster.

Don't wall yourself in. If you build walls build them so you can expand later in the game. Your stuck with less options if you do.

Spread out your town. This way you can build units more quickly and efficiently as well as expand in the future.

Don't build your towncenter too close to the water. That way the enemies triemes or other war ships can't damage you.

If you are low on resources and your teammate is way ahead of the others don't be afraid to ask for a 100 or so resources.

Sometimes its wise to build up your villager and resource count before you advance into the advanced ages.

Play offensively, building up your forces early on so you can catch the enemy off-gaurd and defend yourself.

Don't waste any resources on units and upgrades you don't need or won't use. I usually don't get all of the storage pit upgrades.

Know where the enemy is. If you are playing on a team ask your teammates if they have spotted the enemy. This is vital.

If playing a deathmatch game figure out somewhat before the game starts what buildings and units you are going to build.

Pay attention to what civilizations the other players pick and try to pick a civ that would counter them easily.

If you have extra villagers handy put them on helping building. Two villagers are better and faster than one.

Have fun ! AoE is just a game and even if you are losing by a rather large margin try your hardest, you might just get lucky.