Tips and tricks, by Lee Sonogan

Emps or Age of empires II: HD edition is a real-time, birds eye strategy game that was originally made in 1999.The remake of the game was developed by Ensemble studios and published by Microsoft. The new HD version made the classic into an even better game. Including new civilizations, units, mods and much more. But this made the game that more harder and challenging. In this article i will share all the tips i need in emps that will help you in any war you are in.

Gameplay involves collecting resources to pay for units, buildings and upgrades. Then battles up to 500 units each will eventually ensue, as you fight for resources. Resources are Gold, Food, Stone, and Wood. Most things that you pay buy require a combo two of those resources. For example, attacking boats cost gold and wood while other boats just cost wood. Then the cheapest unit most civilizations have such as the spearman and skirmishers are worth some wood and food. The civilizations in the game are the following:

• Britons
• Byzantines
• Celts
• Chinese
• Franks
• Goths
• Japanese
• Mongols
• Persians
• Saracens
• Teutons
• Turks
• Vikings
• Aztecs
• Huns
• Koreans
• Mayans
• Spanish
• Incas
• Indians
• Italians
• Magyars
• Slavs
• Eithiopians
• and a few more in the African Kingdoms DLC

Resources are very important in the game. The more resources you have, the longer you can last. You gather resources with villagers, trade carts and trading ships. The most import resource by far is food. Food buys villages, most of your individual units and most of your upgrades. You can get food by four different ways. You can make your villigers hunt for animals on the map. There is certain animals you can collect and then you can control them with your mouse. At the very start of the game, they are the quickest way of getting food. Then if your on a water map, you can use a villager or a fishing boat to get food from water life. A few of them is fine, but farming for your food is the most efficient way of getting food. Build a mill and buy plenty of replenishment for the farms and then the farm workers will make food automatically. Make sure to refill your mill. Then the final way of getting food is buying it with gold through the market building.

When the resources on the field start to run out, a market is a must have. You can sell resources you have for gold and then buy other resources for gold. You can also use a market to get resources quickly to get up to the next age. Gold is the second most important resource. Gold is used for most of your best units and upgrades. So if you use the trading carts and trade ships with other allies, you will get a lot of gold quicker to buy the good stuff when you need it. Priests are the only unit that costs of gold. And most of its upgrades are payed in gold. But they do pay off with the relics. Use a priest to pick up a relic and then put it in the temple where you bought the prest from. This gives you an ability where you get more gold.

Wood is important in buying your building destroying and weak units, buildings and boats. They also are used in the mill for more automatic farms. When you cut out a part of the forest in the map, you can make a secret base in it. Then the last resource, stone if used for defenses. It can be used for walls, castles, towers, bombard towers, a town center and a wonder. If a wonder is created and stands for 200 years, the creator of it wins automatically. Most people tick this feature off while playing competitive battles.

In the battle, each unit has a weakness and advantage. Each civilization has upgrades for certain types of units. So each is different depending on the units in each individual battle. To slay horses, camels and elephants, uses your spearman. Then cover your spearman with archers or ranged units. Even a catapult of turn in the corner could help a group of unit in a fight. Then while the battle goes along, bring out your trebuchets and battering rams to destroy the enemy’s defensives and building. Think of real life war strategy and corner them or lead them closer to your castles and many archers. Teaming up with people in a Skype call is very tactical.

All civilizations are good in their own way. If you are the Huns, you do not have to make any houses at all. Koreans have turtle ships and war wagons. The Teutons have Teuton knights that can destroy everything expect castles. The Japanese have samurai. The Turks can get gold faster than all the others and has cheap hand cannoneers. Byzantines have a lot of units and special defensive upgrades. Spanish have an ability to give it self and its ally extra gold if they trade. Mayans have good and efficient archers. And the Britons have longbowmen.

With all this information, you should now have an understanding of what you need to do to improve your resources very quickly. And have the knowledge of what to bring and do in the battle. So the only thing i have left to say is to take risks in the battle. Use your catapults to destroy heaps of enemy’s with a distraction. Or even attempt to build a second base in the middle of the field. You need to be aggressively defensive to be successful in this game.

http://ageofempires.wikia.com/wiki/Civilizations_(Age_of_Empires_II)