I personally haven’t had any trouble with the AI on easy. As long as you have like 5 archers and 3 or 4 nights by age 2-- you should be fine
I think the issue is that whether on easy or hardest the AI is basically the same. Its better on the macro front on Hardest - but that won’t usually matter that much.
Left to its own devices it sends penny packet forces at multiple angles at you. If you are not a great player this can be difficult/frustrating to deal with. You send forces to fight theirs at your hunters say - then you look up and find the AI has crushed all your gold miners, or wood collectors. Your macro starts to fall apart and you get run over.
The AI at any level is however trivial if you are constantly making villagers and constantly spending your resources, more or less on anything (the AI seems to adopt the counter system - but its not good enough to really execute it). Make a reasonably early push on the AI and it seems to fall to pieces for the rest of the game, leaving you free to do whatever you like.
But again - the issue is that the gap between “Easy” and “Hardest” isn’t there. If you know what you are doing its trivially easy - if you don’t, its kind of hard/frustrating, and there’s no obvious progression to move through.
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I have the same issue on intermediate, i thought it was like medium settings (it was really easy pace of play in aoe 3 so I played mostly on hard), but it constantly builds tons of units and had like 6 keeps, rushed through ages like God himself guided it and gave it resources, even though I successfully counter almost every attack, but because of constantly upgrading something and massing resources to age up and could not get enough gold (which is really in low quantity on the map) i did not manage to counter attack it and immediately go all attack on AI, and while i massed units for attack it built all units that i killed, i mean come on, that’s s * it design, impossible to build all units immediately they cost a lot, i mean a lot. Though I like the game but that is c * ap.
Yeah I think they need to add a story mode AI that builds an army but doesn’t attack as often.
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You have to remember that 4 is different to 2 in important ways, and even if you’re experienced at 2, it will take a bit of time to become good at 4. I think it’s reasonable to expect that at this stage it might take someone quite a few hours of practice to get their assignment of villagers to resources right, get the right upgrades at the right times etc.
It sounds to me like it would be a great learning experience for your little boy to work out how to beat the easy AI. Don’t tell him how to do it, help him to work out for himself how to do it. Giving up easily on things he finds challenging won’t serve him well in years to come.
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The AI is very weak at the moment, even on maximum difficulty. The AI is broken let’s hope that the AI will be fixed in the near future. Destroying a very strong AI at the moment is not too difficult…
In my opinion for some players the AI might be really unsatisfying to play. It don’t let you chill the first 10 minutes and often rushes you with spearmen. For sure with a non-decent build order you can easily beat them, but some migth just want to chill, boom and figth in age 4 and thats something players can’t do.
On the other hand if you fight just do your build order and try to figth the AI at their base, they don’t defend well, it’s just an unsatisfying win, cause they don’t put a mid or endgame-fight on you.
And as Oligarchical said the difficulty hardly makes a difference if it’s an hard or easy AI you don’t really feel a sort of progression imo.
So in my opinion maybe you should be able to choose a personality for the AI like, boomish/turteling/agressive etc.
Just to be clear I don’t think the AI is per se to hard but unenjoyable to agressive for a lot of players. Some might not want to get better, do the Art of war etc. and just want to enjoy.
Yeah if you are an advanced player. Even an intermediate player will struggle against hard AI. Of course, if you are able to easily crush the AI, like all advanced players, then what are you playing AI for anyway?
The AI seems difficult in the beginning only because it attacks quicker than you expect it to, but rush out some initial troops and build a couple outposts around your base, starting with where your villagers are working, then 5 villagers can jump into an outpost when attacked to fire out of them and then get back to work when the coast is clear. That will protect against the early harass and subsequent small raids that the easier AI’s like to do. Upgrade the outposts with auto defenses when you can and build more as your base grows and your villagers move to other resources.
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I was in the same boat, it helped to mix in military quite early. Against easy, a bit should be enough to defend and you can chill until you can get stone walls up.
I think the main difference in AI to other games is that they involve harassment and fending of harassment to win in even low difficulties. They had a “Playstyle” selection for their AI in DoW3 and since this is the same engine, it’s likely this will be added again. Until then, just try it this way. I’m now able to beat regularly hardest AI even though I’m still testing civs and messing up so many things.
I personally like playing with the AI
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Not really, I used to struggle when playing against intermediate AI. But once I started to build units in feudal age, the AI becomes very easy even at higher difficulty. All you need is around 7 archers + 7 spear men staying at home in feudal age, and constantly produce villagers. Upon reaching castle age, add 2-4 siege including spingald (used to snipe enemy siege) or mangonel (used to attack enermy clustered units). Then the AI will hesitate to attack even when it clearly has an upper hand. Even if it attacks, it will immediately withdraw after losing a few units, leaving the rest of the army vulnerable to attack during retreat.
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I have defeated the easy AI, with rams, longbowmen and spearmen. It was the early times of castle age.
If you miss that opportunity and both of you advance to imp age, the game takes much longer because AI booms both economic and military wise.
Medium AI constantly sends troops to my base, and i couldn’t produce enough resources and hence troops. I think it is not medium at all.
@Adireis multiple people said it, but i chose this guy to reference- u “need to throw in a few military” in to expect the early rushing. Remember coop sc2 when the first wave still comes every round at the that first 3ish min mark. U were used to it and usually knew what to do. Thats the key. You have to make yourself a build order. You can start with someone elses but u will have to learn your own and what u feel comfortable with, according to your micro managing skills. Your kid can do it too, but u cant just jump in and do whatever u want each round… first 4-5 min of each game just like sc2 u have to build a certain way to be ready for the waves. Keep it up and just keep watching utube and posts for more tips 
You don’t need castle age. This still has quite a bit of room for improvement, but 10:32 is my quickest time so far to beat the easy AI:
Age of Empires IV - Easy AI Victory 10:32 - English Mirror - YouTube
that’s what I meant with “also too predictable” - one is forced into a certain playstyle. I sometimes really enjoy a playstyle where I build up my army and enjoy a giant “endtime battle”.
My son like that playstyle especially and he is not yet up to counter constant harrasment.
Easy is supposed to be beginner friendly. If I have to guess, I believe almost any new players is overwhelmed by it.
I don’t find it too difficult on easy mode however between intermediate and hard Co-op vs AI it is too night and day for my taste.
I understand your struggle and on one side I agree with you: easiest AI in AoE2 never rushes and hardly even attacks, and that would be the expected behavior, IMHO.
Right now, AoE4 AI seems to follow always the same script no matter the difficulty, setting it up in harder only improves the performance, but it’s always the same in personality.
I don’t they fox it the in short therm. My best advice: build one defensive structure near the AI base, and garrison some archers: the AI will hammer his head against it until imperial.
I’ll start out by saying, “I am no expert on this game.” I’ve played a lot more CIV over the years than AoE. But i really enjoyed them as a kid.
I don’t remember the AI being so aggressive even on easy mode.
I don’t mind the AI being difficult, but they come for the jugular just in time for me to get my barracks built and a small army raised. I feel like its a little bit unbalanced.
Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a challenge.
I’m just curious where my option is for the slow build up?
Maybe a slower paced marathon length game like CIV IV?
I really enjoy this game, its gorgeous, well designed, feels good.
I just wish that there were more casual options and slower paced epic long build ups before I’m throw into the next age.
I feel like the matches progress too quickly for my liking.
I want the slow burn and rise to glory, ya know?
Maybe im just a noob or don’t understand the game, but i feel like it wouldn’t be too hard to add in options for this playstyle
Update:
So far ive learned to better my chances with enemy AI I should:
- Get feudal asap
- Get stone to block off attack direction and square myself in
- The AI will attack around 9-15 mins ish
Sounds pretty sweaty but im gonna give it a shot
Update:
My China VS Russia easy AI match went a lot better after using these tactics.
Entering feudal asap and boxing myself into the bottom corner of the map with stone walls helped big time.
Also upgrading my spearman to hardened and then veteran did as well.
Its still not very casual though or balanced.
Once i had a army of twenty or so, I went and destroyed like six of their outposts before my small army got squished.
At that point it was feeling too easy and I was able to be quite careless with my troop organization.
So its looking like easy is very imbalanced in my opinion.
By that I mean, the frequency of the attacks early on, while small in numbers and easy to handle, are way too frequent.
While when on a rush, its way too easy to knock out smaller outposts of the enemy, which seemed to spread way too fast.
This is just my personal experience with the game, looking for feedback on others thoughts.
Is China vs Russia a good matchup?
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