One of the issues with AoM is that there is no universal way to get rid of trees other then cutting them down with villagers.
Ironwood just doesn’t work against AI and probably not even against players who don’t have access to any god powers to get around this.
There are only 2 god powers that can destroy trees, Forest Fire and Walking Woods, but one Forest Fire is really effective at it.
But I think Walking Woods can’t be casted on Gaia Forest anymore.
Other god powers like Inferno just kill the trees but don’t remove the tree trunks, and since they don’t decay like hunt they lay there until you chop them with villagers.
There are also a few ways to get around any obstacle:
- Rocs
- Underworld Passage
- Shifting Sands
- Vortex
- Time Shift
But some of them are really limited like only being able to get a few units/buildings over at once.
So how are you supposed to get around that when you don’t have any of those god powers?
Villagers are very easy to kill so you just need a few ranges units behind the forest. Colossi are also way to slow at eating them.
Poseidon, Loki (assuming the enemy uses Gaia forest) and Gaia don’t have any Godpower/feature to get around the forest reliably.
Set and Oranos only have one time god powers that can get some units across. Shifting Sands can at last get some villagers across to build something on the other side, Vortex just sends units, once they are dead you have to cast Vortex again.
In a team game it gets a little easier since you can combine things.
Underworld Passages can be used by allies and you could use Shifting Sands to allow Oranos to build a Sky Passage on the other side.
The best solution would be to give each civilisation a Mythical Age Siege unit that can destroy trees like in AoE1/2.
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You’re right—tree removal in Age of Mythology is tricky, especially without the right god powers. The lack of consistent methods for clearing trees can become a real obstacle, especially when the AI uses forests defensively or to block areas. Relying on slow methods like villagers or Colossi feels inefficient, and while some god powers offer bypasses, they’re limited and often single-use.
Introducing a Mythical Age siege unit that can destroy trees like in Age of Empires 1/2 would be a solid improvement. It would give players a reliable option without relying on god powers or slow unit mechanics. This could balance the game further, giving all players a strategic tool to deal with obstacles without needing specific gods or powers. It could also help prevent frustrating situations where you’re stuck with no clear path.
In your custom scenarios or campaigns, you could even implement this idea with custom units or scripted abilities to simulate this kind of tree-clearing mechanic. Would that be something you’d like to try in your scenarios?
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My english is not great sorry for that:
Like I said, I have spent thousands of hours playing the old version AOM (agains AI). Maybe i am wrong but it seems that old AIs are “smarter” in some situation than new version AI. Old AI players use this god power (Underworld Passage) very successfully and accuratelyt . You can’t hide anywhere without being caught even in map like Vinlandsaga (on small islands). The only defense is to make a lot of objects or farms around the base so that the AI can’t put the Underworld Passage anywhere… In an hour and a half of playing in this game, I have not seen Underworld Passage used even once the reason is that the AI units that are stucked are far from the main base, so the Underworld will never be casted by AI player. .In more than 100 hours of playing AOM retold I have not seen the AI use this god power even once i dont know why maybe i am wrong…I killed more than 10 pegasus patrolling around and above my base, I waited for the Underworld Passage so i can stop the game because I know there is no defense ,but nothing happened.This is also happening in Ironwood map.AI will use Walking Trees only if the enemy player is near (or i am wrong).
The team that makes the AI has to create a special code for these situations (they rarely happen and probably don’t matter that much).
(AI TEAM) —>pay attention to God Power who have been inactive for a long time and favor is more than 100)
For example you can see that the Forest Fire has been inactive for more than half an hour, maybe more.
Set TreesAround (variable) = Trees in range 500 and less
Set UnstuckTreesTimer = 5-10 minute
check if the TreesAround are far enough away from the allied villagers and buildings,
check if the (TreesAround) are 500 or less range to the allied military units
check if the Allied military units is there more then 5 minute or more
check if the ForestFire is available
check if there is no enemy unit in 1000 range from Settlement (caster settlement)
and than cast ForestFire
For example, I have little experience in the World Editor (Warcraft 3), and in this powerfull editor you can very easily create a code that will get the AI unit out of this situation.
Developers are sometimes lazy, and all the attention is focused on the campaign and multiplayer gameplay and that is ok.
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As this guy said “The best solution would be to give each civilisation a Mythical Age Siege unit that can destroy trees like in AoE1/2.”
Making an AI player for this kind of game is a nightmare, but I know that developers are often lazy and that attention is focused on other things. They don’t have any benefit from AI players like they do from Online Gaming 
yeah it seems like AoMR AI is not capable of using some god powers like Underworld passage. Even if the passage is already there they don’t have the code in place to use it.
Rarely? The map Ironwood always has players separated by a forest.
It’s also very common for Gaia players to use forests to block passages on many maps not just Jotunheim.
You can also do it with Thors mines but that costs a lot more favour to do.
Thors mines can’t even be burned down by Forest Fire.
I would add this feature to existing units like the Petrobolos, Catapult, Ballista and Fire Siphon.
Just make it require Engineers to be researched so all civs only get it in Mythical Age independent of when they unlock the siege unit.
It doesn’t have to be a large area, it’s enough if it’s 1-2 trees since those units have a long enough range to attack the trees from a safe distance.
Ok maybe the Fire Siphon doesn’t have enough range but it could damage more trees with it’s fire.
Other god powers like Meteor or Inferno should also completely remove the trees and not just make the fall down.
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removing collision from gaia tree stumps and reducing hp to 1 so they die in one chop is an easy 2 minute fix. another is to reduce the amount of trees from gaia forests but increase their wood amount so they no longer block units. its possible to add a min distance between each tree spawn.
adding in a collision check around placement would also help along with other powers such as thor mines.
if the ability is an issue just fix it directly with the simplest changes.
i also noticed the ai doesn’t use certain abilities often, if at all. many abilities would only be used once even if the situation allows for it. others like bolt are constantly used if resources permit.
I pray to the gods they never bring such a thing into AoM. The trees destroyed abuse is not welcomed. Would hate playing as Norse and not be able to make Throwing Axeman and Huskarl because someone destroyed the trees to gather from.
Enemy AI have a high priority of attack to my villagers! I can’t play like that. Please remove this!
Titans should be destroying trees on their path since they can destroy constructions while moving !
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I have no idea why they did this to the AI. Its kind of stupid how the enemy army, specially on campaign, ignore all your military and suicide running after your villagers.
No idea if any player like this behaviour.
So I hope the developers read this, but I find the Skirmish AI to be quite poor in some instances. It does weird things like it sometimes has no clue what it has to do idling villagers, there is also wild varience between the performance of the AI with different gods. Sometimes they just full on error when some of the resources get denied and they seem to just make a bunch of units but no additional TC’s or villagers. Also sometimes the AI is AFK the first 20 seconds of the match because it has to think of a strategy or something.
The legendary AI does put up a challenge most of the time but I think the overall AI should be improved by giving them build orders or some stuff. Age of Empires II DE AI on Extreme (non-cheating) is still the pinnacle I think, it has lots of different strategies and is very hard to beat making it feel less “AI-like”.
This is my feeling after like 100 hours of skirmish matches on titan/extreme/legendary difficulty, I didn’t play the other difficulties. I had no issues with the AI in campaign. I think improving the AI like in AOE2 is of great importance for the longevity of this game.
also what @buff_me_pleasenow said I believe I have never seen the AI use Underworld Passage, they should be able to use it in skirmish games.
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@Orb In the old version, the AI uses Underworld Passage quite successfully and aggressively. When you play a map with islands, no matter how small the island is and you are hiding there, the AI will find you and use it there…Only thing that can stop this god power is big number of farms and object (old AOM)
Free settlements after 10-15 minute of gameplay, this problem still hasn’t been resolved. The AI player doesn’t care much about free settlements, but if you’ve played the old version of Age of Mythology, you know well that the AI player capture/occupies free settlements very efficiently and quickly… In the new version, if you have 2-3 or more settlements, there’s no point in continuing to play because you are dominant.