I love watching T90 and SOTL, but this series has been way more helpful at actually helping me improve than anything else on UA-cam. Thanks man, maybe now I’ll stop getting absolutely bodied when I play team games with my friends!
Haha yeah, SoTL is a pretty low level player so he only really understands the math rather than the practice of it. It's good to learn from someone who is high rated I think
Yeah SOTL is definitely more theory than practice which does translate to skills but I don't think he goes too deep into the strategies and macro to be a high level. although I doubt he really cares haha. As for T90 I've learnt an incredible amount from his commentating but his tips usually only apply to the very very top level
Same for me, I like SotLs more mathematical/scientific approach though most of his stuff is more theoretical. So I find it pretty helpful to watch his civ overviews followed up by the same civ's vids from hera to get a theoretical aspect and to see how this plays out in the highest ranks in practical ways (army comp, making use of the unique techs/civ bonuses etc.). However, what I really like about Survivalist, is that his videos are pretty straightforward, especially this series. You can find all the tips here in Hera's/SOTL's/T90's vids as well but not in one single video.
I am not sure about spending the resources as soon as they come in. It is a great source of mental comfort knowing that you had 2k food and gold in the bank when you resigned and you could have made knights to win if you really wanted 11
Wow, this is really different style. Also, explained in detail, yet managed to stay on the topic and summarised in one sentence. Claps for the approach.
dude that Heroku link is a GAME Changer, no pun intended. It makes so much sense why I struggle to balance my eco because I literally had no idea how many villagers were needed to do XYZ. I would just make vils and put them on the resource I needed at the time...
Been playing for 18 years, I would have loved to have this video series when I first started playing. This is probably the best advice I’ve seen from any aoe vid.
Nice, I played Terran for about 4 years before coming to AoE2. Never could quite reach Grandmaster, but I was able to beat them sometimes on the ladder. This was about 4 years ago.
@Bao Thuy I'll be trying aoe4 just like probably everyone else. We'll see how it goes after that. I don't plan on playing any other RTS though. AoE2 still has much more to explore!
@Bao Thuy I played SC2 for like 4 years when it came out. Got bored with it after all that time as the games tended to be really repetitive. The random maps make aoe2 really fun. Since all of the civs are similar, the game is very balanced as well.
Just discovered this channel (and "started" to play AoE 2 "again" ) and these videos are just perfect. Super clear and I really appreciate it not only tells what to do (like most BO) but also why you need to do it. Thanks a lot
Love the content man, it was my favourite game as a child, and I’ve just come back to it. I’m finding it hilarious how much I didn’t know x) WHAT A GAME!
Totally agree. Tbh these macro and strategy videos feel like a revelation. I think that might be what I needed to step up my game. Let's see how it plays out 11
Thank you so much for putting this together. You're a fantastic teacher. There is so much to learn, and you're explaining everything incredibly well. The efficiency rates and comparisons are so helpful and well done.
I must note for people using different versions. AOE2 HD does not have the same hotkey mapping as definite. So select all would not be possible in HD. I must note however. Making control groups for your production buildings is a much better way. You're gonna want to control how much comes out of your additional buildings
very interesting the analysis of the idle time. Even though I believe we all have the notion of not getting idle vills, it is much more impactful knowing how much it costs to garrison then in the TC for so long. Thank you for the great video!
So, I may be wrong here, but I think if you hold shift while placing a line of walls, it adds each section to the command queue. I believe you can then command queue a resource after that and he'll go to it.
Yes, that is the way to do it since the November patch. Before, it would only put the first wall tile in the command queue, so you had to shift + right click every other wall tile to add them to the queue.
The formula for building times is easier as: add two, divide by 3 = the fraction it takes. 7 vils? -> +2 = 9 -> 9/3 = 1/3 building time 16 vils`? -> 18/3 = 1/6th of the original time I find that version a little bit easier. Maybe it helps some people
Hi Survivlaist! I found the formula at 2:18 very helpful and it’s something that I never knew before! I would point out however there’s a minor problem where i think you meant the denominator to be 1+((nOB -1) *0.3333) as opposed to 1 times
I personally always add +1 vil than what is required which is enough over time for military buildings to build a queue of 2 units up and do it id less intensive to keep them working
I always struggle a bit with where to put my TC gather points. And generally goals with distribution of villagers. Basically I need to have a model in my mind of a system to keep the economy balanced. Mostly to date I've been making everyone go to wood (or gold if I really want to boost the numbers) and then taking a batch of them and building a camp somewhere else in the distribution I want. I'm curious if you'd go into detail on how you handle this aspect?
Usually keeping tc rally points on wood (I'm thinking castle age and beyond) is normal. Then, you just balance your economy based on what production building you add. So, if you add a stable for knights, you need at add 6 farms and send 7 to gold. If you add an archery range for crossbow, send 4 to gold (you need 2 on wood, but you already have that). I'm actually just finishing another scripted video which I'll release tomorrow or the next day that goes a bit more in-depth into this way of thinking.
So, you're a piano player too? That kind of training probably has helped your Aoe2 playing in everything from physical dexterity to managing multiple things at once!
10:15 brother i mever though of it this in-depth but now i understand why i always easily wim with my malians short sword rush by targeting town centers instead of chasing villagers. A malian castle age short sword takes 1 damage per arrow from a + 1 tc and 2 dmg per arrow with +2, with 60hp. A +1 tc will need 6 shots "12 seconds"to kill 1 short sword and a +2 will need 3 shots "6 seconds" . 1 short sword is 65 rss so roughly speaking 46.5 when tc is +1 and 93 when it is +2 Factor in the fact that 10 malians short sword can take down a filled +2 tc much faster than the time the tc needs to kill them "only 2-3 will die iut of the 10 short swords" and if archers were sent to respond they also do 1-2 damage so 10 crosbows will need 3 shorts to kill 1 swordman the swordmen. if crosbows are matched with swords 1:1 remember that at about 13 swordmen the TC will always go down and a few short swords will still be alive after. So not only did it cost idle time, but also it cost rss and vil aueue time from the TC that is gone + any random vil kill gained when hey get kicked our of the tc. I never did the match i just knew it " works like this" but did not know how big of a deal it actually is.
I manually entered them in for the herokuapp. The app is on github though, so you can find the data there: github.com/PeterWhiteJavascript/aoe2-de-tools
It's more that you don't want units queued as this means you have resources that aren't being spent. Resources in queues is the same as resources in your stockpile. It's better to use the wood for more farms, and the gold maybe for upgrades (or you could just not collect as much gold by having more villagers on wood).
It's because if you right click the boar, it will make the tc shoot it instead of set the rally point on it. This also applies to castles and towers. The default right click when selecting one of these buildings is to shoot the target. Sometimes you just want to set a rally though.
I think any competitive game is sweaty af once you get really into it. If you don't enjoy the competitive aspect of it, it's fine to play casually (as most people do).
A lot of great information….but just too fast especially for beginners who presumably this is mainly aimed at. I really keep stopping and rewinding. Every 5 seconds.
Hi Survivalist, addition to that section: It's the same as 3*Time/(n+2), where n = number of villagers. Learned it that way and it seems easier to calculate. Maybe it helps someone.
0:00 - Constantly Building Villagers 0:58 - Not Getting Housed 3:18 - Spending Wood as it Comes In 4:57 - Keeping Production Running 7:37 - Minimizing Idle Time 11:47 - Adding Additional Town Centers 13:43 - Adding Production Facilities to Match your Economy
I find that when I group military buildings together and I select them and cue up production, it always just comes out of one building. So I feel like I'm missing something. Cos obviously, ideally if I had 3 stables, say, I want to cue up one knight out of each stable so they all come out together and I can do more at a time. I group them with "ctrl + 1" and then select them with just "1". I'm using an older version of the game though, that I bought about 10 years ago. So maybe that has something to do with it - I don't do steam or anything (not even really sure what it is tbh).
That's the behavior in the older version of the game. It's called SQ (Single Queue). Newer versions use MQ (Multi Queue). It's just a product of being a 20 year old game. Definitive Edition is really the best version of AoE2.
@@SurvivalistAoE Ah, I see. I'll have to look into upgrading at some point. Also for the graphics I see on these videos, they do look amazing too. Hey thanks for getting back to me, and thanks for making the videos. You're awesome, I really appreciate it.
Extremely well done video! As much as I like Aoe2, the macrogame, game length and sieging problems (takes time to finish the game if the enemy focuses all your rams and trebs down) keep me from enjoying it... I hope Aoe4 makes the macrogame more bearable so you don't need like 16 production buildings but more like 2-4 :/
Thanks man! I downloaded aoe2 after a looooong hiatus from when I was in my late teens/early twenties. After getting hammered in a few ranked games I kept noticing 1 or 2k of unused wood floating. I definitely need a plan and a balance to my macro. Cheers for this breakdown!
![How to Improve at Age of Empires 2 - Part 3: Strategy [ES/简体/繁體 SUBS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mLGfEPHlKw8/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Improve at Age of Empires 2 - Part 3: Strategy [ES/简体/繁體 SUBS]](/img/tr.png)
![How to Improve at Age of Empires 2 - Part 4: Micro [ES/简体/繁體 SUBS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aOzudiQ5Jcs/mqdefault.jpg)
![10 Tips for Controlling Villagers and the Economy [Age of Empires 2] [ES SUBS]](/img/n.gif)
I love watching T90 and SOTL, but this series has been way more helpful at actually helping me improve than anything else on UA-cam. Thanks man, maybe now I’ll stop getting absolutely bodied when I play team games with my friends!
Haha yeah, SoTL is a pretty low level player so he only really understands the math rather than the practice of it. It's good to learn from someone who is high rated I think
Yeah SOTL is definitely more theory than practice which does translate to skills but I don't think he goes too deep into the strategies and macro to be a high level. although I doubt he really cares haha. As for T90 I've learnt an incredible amount from his commentating but his tips usually only apply to the very very top level
Same for me, I like SotLs more mathematical/scientific approach though most of his stuff is more theoretical. So I find it pretty helpful to watch his civ overviews followed up by the same civ's vids from hera to get a theoretical aspect and to see how this plays out in the highest ranks in practical ways (army comp, making use of the unique techs/civ bonuses etc.). However, what I really like about Survivalist, is that his videos are pretty straightforward, especially this series. You can find all the tips here in Hera's/SOTL's/T90's vids as well but not in one single video.
Some of the most informative content for aoe on youtube!
I agree with that
I am not sure about spending the resources as soon as they come in. It is a great source of mental comfort knowing that you had 2k food and gold in the bank when you resigned and you could have made knights to win if you really wanted 11
Yeah, personally I prefer having excess resources, especially in case of emergency, or if a plan doesn't work out
Wow, this is really different style. Also, explained in detail, yet managed to stay on the topic and summarised in one sentence. Claps for the approach.
Oh my god I've been playing for 3 days and I think I just learned more from watching this than everything else I knew so far combined.
dude that Heroku link is a GAME Changer, no pun intended. It makes so much sense why I struggle to balance my eco because I literally had no idea how many villagers were needed to do XYZ. I would just make vils and put them on the resource I needed at the time...
I had the exact same thought once and then I decided to do something about it. Glad you're finding it useful :)
Been playing for 18 years, I would have loved to have this video series when I first started playing. This is probably the best advice I’ve seen from any aoe vid.
I play with my wood when I relax from gaming
So, Macro is not only about getting resources, but also about spending them! That makes a lot of sense! Thanks Survivalist!
Gotta spend money to make money!
@@SurvivalistAoE Now I know why I lose with 90 wood 10 food 310 stone and 980 gold 11
I searched for "aoe2 low elo" and found these... I was confused until I saw you were playing against T90Official
He won?
@@tH4ttUs I think Surv did win that particular game
This series are amazing! I came here through Reddit with last video and now youtube recommended this one.
Best of luck!
The piano clip of you was maximum flex 💪
Had to sneak it in there 😆
I'm learning AoE2 coming from Starcraft 2, and this is exactly the content I've been looking for. Really good tutorials, thanks a lot.
Nice, I played Terran for about 4 years before coming to AoE2. Never could quite reach Grandmaster, but I was able to beat them sometimes on the ladder. This was about 4 years ago.
@Bao Thuy I'll be trying aoe4 just like probably everyone else. We'll see how it goes after that. I don't plan on playing any other RTS though. AoE2 still has much more to explore!
@Bao Thuy I played SC2 for like 4 years when it came out. Got bored with it after all that time as the games tended to be really repetitive. The random maps make aoe2 really fun. Since all of the civs are similar, the game is very balanced as well.
Just discovered this channel (and "started" to play AoE 2 "again" ) and these videos are just perfect.
Super clear and I really appreciate it not only tells what to do (like most BO) but also why you need to do it.
Thanks a lot
Love the content man, it was my favourite game as a child, and I’ve just come back to it. I’m finding it hilarious how much I didn’t know x) WHAT A GAME!
Thanks for this. Stuck on the couch currently and AOE is a classic helping me get by. Unreal how much work you put into this.
This is great, been looking for videos that go beyond strict build orders and get into game flow and decision making
Totally agree. Tbh these macro and strategy videos feel like a revelation. I think that might be what I needed to step up my game. Let's see how it plays out 11
So academic! Very informative and I have never thought about AOE this way!
More helpful than anything I saw till yet. THX for the great content!
Thank you so much for putting this together. You're a fantastic teacher. There is so much to learn, and you're explaining everything incredibly well. The efficiency rates and comparisons are so helpful and well done.
Been binging your vids tonight and am shocked it took the UA-cam algorithm this long to show me your content! Just subbed! Thank you for making these!
I must note for people using different versions. AOE2 HD does not have the same hotkey mapping as definite.
So select all would not be possible in HD. I must note however. Making control groups for your production buildings is a much better way. You're gonna want to control how much comes out of your additional buildings
very interesting the analysis of the idle time. Even though I believe we all have the notion of not getting idle vills, it is much more impactful knowing how much it costs to garrison then in the TC for so long. Thank you for the great video!
OMG, I'm loving this Tutorial! thanks, Survivalist!
This is so helpful! Thank you for the awesome content!
6:31 - definitely gonna do that more often! Thanks!
Incredibly high quality content.
So, I may be wrong here, but I think if you hold shift while placing a line of walls, it adds each section to the command queue. I believe you can then command queue a resource after that and he'll go to it.
Yes, that is the way to do it since the November patch. Before, it would only put the first wall tile in the command queue, so you had to shift + right click every other wall tile to add them to the queue.
Great content about fundamentals and mechanics. Im from Argentina.
Best
channel on AOE here, even better than Spirit of the Law imo. Keep up with the great content buddy!
Great videos you make, very clear and concise , good balance between pace and information. Thanks a lot, definitely helpful.
The formula for building times is easier as: add two, divide by 3 = the fraction it takes.
7 vils? -> +2 = 9 -> 9/3 = 1/3 building time
16 vils`? -> 18/3 = 1/6th of the original time
I find that version a little bit easier. Maybe it helps some people
Great Content. Little mistake with the formula for build time.
The first sign under the break line is supposed to be a + instead of a *.
Yep, I wish I could edit that. Not worth reuploading the entire video over.
Love the content! Hope you will grow quickly, you’d deserve it, you’re more informative than a lot of others while still being entertaining
Hi Survivlaist! I found the formula at 2:18 very helpful and it’s something that I never knew before! I would point out however there’s a minor problem where i think you meant the denominator to be 1+((nOB -1) *0.3333) as opposed to 1 times
Oh, I typed it wrong. Ooops :D
Thanks! I was so confused...
I personally always add +1 vil than what is required which is enough over time for military buildings to build a queue of 2 units up and do it id less intensive to keep them working
This is REALLY good material. Thnak you man!! Low elo legend here.
This video and whole series is absolutely amazing, so informative and easy to understand, please keep it up!!!
Wicked channel bro, thanks for the help!
best aoe videos ever i love you dude
you can shift que a whole dragged wall by holding shift when dragging the wall
I always struggle a bit with where to put my TC gather points. And generally goals with distribution of villagers. Basically I need to have a model in my mind of a system to keep the economy balanced. Mostly to date I've been making everyone go to wood (or gold if I really want to boost the numbers) and then taking a batch of them and building a camp somewhere else in the distribution I want. I'm curious if you'd go into detail on how you handle this aspect?
Usually keeping tc rally points on wood (I'm thinking castle age and beyond) is normal. Then, you just balance your economy based on what production building you add.
So, if you add a stable for knights, you need at add 6 farms and send 7 to gold. If you add an archery range for crossbow, send 4 to gold (you need 2 on wood, but you already have that).
I'm actually just finishing another scripted video which I'll release tomorrow or the next day that goes a bit more in-depth into this way of thinking.
Damn, what a great series this is
such informative much wow
Amazing and educational video!
So, you're a piano player too? That kind of training probably has helped your Aoe2 playing in everything from physical dexterity to managing multiple things at once!
Definitely!
Hopefully dare to do my 1v1 placement games soon!
Good luck!
Excellent video! Great instructions!
This video makes me want to go learn the piano.
10:15 brother i mever though of it this in-depth but now i understand why i always easily wim with my malians short sword rush by targeting town centers instead of chasing villagers.
A malian castle age short sword takes 1 damage per arrow from a + 1 tc and 2 dmg per arrow with +2, with 60hp.
A +1 tc will need 6 shots "12 seconds"to kill 1 short sword and a +2 will need 3 shots "6 seconds" . 1 short sword is 65 rss so roughly speaking 46.5 when tc is +1 and 93 when it is +2
Factor in the fact that 10 malians short sword can take down a filled +2 tc much faster than the time the tc needs to kill them "only 2-3 will die iut of the 10 short swords" and if archers were sent to respond they also do 1-2 damage so 10 crosbows will need 3 shorts to kill 1 swordman the swordmen. if crosbows are matched with swords 1:1 remember that at about 13 swordmen the TC will always go down and a few short swords will still be alive after. So not only did it cost idle time, but also it cost rss and vil aueue time from the TC that is gone + any random vil kill gained when hey get kicked our of the tc.
I never did the match i just knew it " works like this" but did not know how big of a deal it actually is.
If you can do it slowly, you can do it quickly. TwoSetViolin
imagine fully learning economics from AoE
Great advice, thanks a bunch! :)
Awesome video!! Thank you
awesome and informative video! (Btw Did you post the game you had with T90? Would love to see it!)
I'll post it tomorrow :) Is definitely worth a watch.
Fantastic
Love the videos!
Hey man, is there any api’s exposed by aoe about vils collection rates and unit production time? Or was it like u hardcoded them in ur heroku app
I manually entered them in for the herokuapp. The app is on github though, so you can find the data there: github.com/PeterWhiteJavascript/aoe2-de-tools
Is there anywhere I can check the hotkeys you use?
Nice Beethoven!
At Hardest AI I get steamrolled in black forest by two AI teams and I loose, what's the way to survive that? Runaway and build again?
Siege onagers with halberdiers can kill everything.
Man wish i could achieve all of this lol
What does the 15 above handcart mean?
Omg I just realized I don't know how to play this game.
👍
Why is it bad to have 6 cross Bowman in each range? Don't you want a lot of them?
It's more that you don't want units queued as this means you have resources that aren't being spent.
Resources in queues is the same as resources in your stockpile. It's better to use the wood for more farms, and the gold maybe for upgrades (or you could just not collect as much gold by having more villagers on wood).
Idle villagers are unemployed pop!
Great video. Can you tell me song you play on the piano?
It's Piano Sonata #1 in F Minor - Movement 4 by Beethoven.
@@SurvivalistAoE thank you very much!
Can you tell me why you set Q as hotkey for a gather point if you can just rightklick to set one instead? Do I miss something here?
It's because if you right click the boar, it will make the tc shoot it instead of set the rally point on it. This also applies to castles and towers. The default right click when selecting one of these buildings is to shoot the target.
Sometimes you just want to set a rally though.
@@SurvivalistAoE Aah, got it! Thank you
excelente,
if u can macro slowly, u can macro quickly
11
so i need to be a piano player is what mean lol sweaty af game. played as kid happy to have secure base on casual lol
I think any competitive game is sweaty af once you get really into it. If you don't enjoy the competitive aspect of it, it's fine to play casually (as most people do).
I assume you won that game against t90, right? :)
That specific game I won, but he beats me most of the time (though I don't play vs him often)
@@SurvivalistAoE really?? Well he plays better than his farm placement implies then.
@@roebbiej Pretty sure he's like 2.1k
11
A lot of great information….but just too fast especially for beginners who presumably this is mainly aimed at. I really keep stopping and rewinding. Every 5 seconds.
Looks like I typed out the formula wrong at 2:18. As The Entomophage pointed out, it's actually oBT / 1+((nOB -1) *0.3333)
Hi Survivalist, addition to that section:
It's the same as 3*Time/(n+2), where n = number of villagers. Learned it that way and it seems easier to calculate. Maybe it helps someone.
@@LightGreenCorona Ah yeah. The result is the same. I like the simplified version you posted.
oriBuildTime / ( 1 + (numOfBuilders-1)/3 ) your first * maybe +
You are correct, I wrote the wrong operator there.
Should I be professional at maths to play this game lol
0:00 - Constantly Building Villagers
0:58 - Not Getting Housed
3:18 - Spending Wood as it Comes In
4:57 - Keeping Production Running
7:37 - Minimizing Idle Time
11:47 - Adding Additional Town Centers
13:43 - Adding Production Facilities to Match your Economy
Pausing and rewinding every 10s. Super noob here.
this man needs more damn views! You truly have a knack for transferring knowledge to others
This is awesome, thanks man!
"You should not touch the mouse at all."
Me, who has 2 hotkeys on mouse: :-(
06:43 "You should also not touch the mouse"
*UA-cam Add shows up with a SKIPP Button*
DAMIT
If you can do it slowly, u can do it quickly, Ling ling fan confirmed
I was looking for this comment lmao
Nice work, I sat with a pen and paper was literally making noted.
I find that when I group military buildings together and I select them and cue up production, it always just comes out of one building. So I feel like I'm missing something.
Cos obviously, ideally if I had 3 stables, say, I want to cue up one knight out of each stable so they all come out together and I can do more at a time. I group them with "ctrl + 1" and then select them with just "1".
I'm using an older version of the game though, that I bought about 10 years ago. So maybe that has something to do with it - I don't do steam or anything (not even really sure what it is tbh).
That's the behavior in the older version of the game. It's called SQ (Single Queue). Newer versions use MQ (Multi Queue). It's just a product of being a 20 year old game. Definitive Edition is really the best version of AoE2.
@@SurvivalistAoE Ah, I see. I'll have to look into upgrading at some point. Also for the graphics I see on these videos, they do look amazing too.
Hey thanks for getting back to me, and thanks for making the videos. You're awesome, I really appreciate it.
New spirit of the law with piano skills? ;)
i just started taking rts games more seriously and wanted to get better but this is too much xd guess i have to learn more
RTS is very complex, which is why it's so fun to learn. There's always some way to improve.
Channel is way underrated. High quality content, you deserve more!
The main take-away is that learning the correct fingering technique is paramount.
So I'll assume no one is going to talk about the fingering techniques and tips XD
Great instructions! Have been looking for this for so long, thank you so much man!
Best way to play AoE is to be a casual and never play online.
I usually manage my resources but i never manage my reZources
Great video, I can see where im messing up lol
thank you. subscribed
Extremely well done video! As much as I like Aoe2, the macrogame, game length and sieging problems (takes time to finish the game if the enemy focuses all your rams and trebs down) keep me from enjoying it...
I hope Aoe4 makes the macrogame more bearable so you don't need like 16 production buildings but more like 2-4 :/
Thanks for the great video
Thanks man! I downloaded aoe2 after a looooong hiatus from when I was in my late teens/early twenties.
After getting hammered in a few ranked games I kept noticing 1 or 2k of unused wood floating. I definitely need a plan and a balance to my macro. Cheers for this breakdown!
bro you are amazing!