AoE1 game mode NEEDS to have a starting scout

I’m watching Hera play the AoE1 game mode, and my goodness, is it painful to watch! How on Earth did anyone ever put up with this game???

Probably the worst offender is the complete lack of a starting scout. That is something that definitely should not have been carried over. The starts are so painful and slow because you have no way of actually knowing where anything is unless you send a villager, which is subpar. If the devs seriously want the AoE1 game mode to be competitive with AoE2, they need to update it to make it more palatable to AoE2 players.

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I agree, but no mounted scout. I would suggest either a new unit or a Clubman with increased LoS for example.

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Why not mounted? Is cavalry really broken in AoE1 or something? Isn’t there already a Scout unit available in Tool Age?

Mounted, just make them slow like in AoE2

I think it would be because horses hadn’t been domesticated ever at that point in the game.

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Yes exactly. (word limit)

Oh, good point. I guess a foot unit will suffice then.

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I like the lack of a scout unit, it gives the impression of cavemen that are just wandering and struggle to survive, with every member of the tribe that has the same role.

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Maybe that’s true, but the gameplay is clunky at the beginning as a result. And besides, I think even cavemen societies would have at least one person dedicated to looking out for things.

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The aoe1 gameplay is different, even just the fact that a lof of the resources works differently. I believe that we need to take confidence with it before looking at what else importing from aoe2. I personally don’t know if a scout really is what they need.

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I personally like that exploring the map is more of a challenge in AoE1.
It makes it feel like it’s harder to progress (even though it isn’t).
Also you can also get vision on your allies in Bronze Age.
Adding some more mystery to the world. I like it.

It’s even historically wrong to have cavalry in Tool Age. Horses were not domesticated until Bronze Age. And early horses were usually to weak to actually #### ## ##### That’s why chariots were so popular.
The heavy medieval knights would have been impossible in the Antiquity because horse breeding was not advanced enough yet. That’s why Cataphracts only appear in the late antiquity.

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AoE2 is a powerful drug, if it deviates a little from your usual high, withdrawal symptoms appear. (Thats a joke btw).

It’s fine without a scout, closer to the original, and as others mentioned horses were not domesticated yet.

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The 5th Legacy mod for classic AoE 1 introduces a scout unit btw that looks like a villager. That unit can’t build anything tho but is good for scouting because of its speed

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I was going to mention 5thLegacy.

To provide more detail, the Explorer is a unit trainable at the TC for a small amount of food & wood and has a large sight radius (but are slightly slower than generic Villagers) and can be given a pseudo-auto scout functionality by clicking on a House when the Explorer is selected.
It’s got more uses than just exploration, for example it can sabotage enemy food resources and even trade between Markets like a land Trade Boat, so after the necessary portions of the map are revealed, you can use them for other services that keep them viable in non-combat roles.

I mean it’s not THAT bad imo, and it makes sense considering we start at the literal stone age, exploring with a villager contributes to the unknowns of the stone age mood (for a lack of a better word…).

Still, if a scout unit was added I wouldn’t mind at all, maybe a toggable option in the match settings?

Let’s play like currently it is, and when the meta settles and we get bored of scouting with villagers, we then add a foot scout.

I don’t like the idea of a starting scout. Leave the game as similar to aoe1 as possible.
If you can’t stand the thought of exploring with a villager, play the mode where we started in Tool and have half a village built. Was it called Imperial Wars?

Disagree, just scout with a villager.

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Sure, remember that in the stone age you had cavemen coming out of caves and primitive villages with little wooden houses looking for resources; the stone age of AoE 1 starts in 12000 BCE, after the end of the ice age and it lasts until 8000 BCE when the Neolithic revolution (domestication of the horse and agriculture) occurs and the first tools (tool age) are created…

It can also be…

Yes, Imperial Wars already comes with all modes from AoE 2 to AoE 1 (you would start in tool age with a more or less developed village with farms and economic buildings)…

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Nope. Not really.

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