This month we have gotten -finally- an update that is going to improve the matchmaking system in the game and have a map pool for everyone to enjoy.
But after looking at many discussions here, AOE Zone, AOK Heaven, Reddit, etc, in general the discussion has turned into people who like or dislike certain maps because you can wall or not in them, so the game can have Feudal aggression or go Fast Castle.
So far in the last year, playing defensive has become the meta even at higher levels because the economic damage of losing a villager outweights the damage you can make with a scout or archer rush, also boosted that villagers are more efficient and produce more resources thanks to the action-queue mechanic implemented. But because of this, maps where making walls is more easy have become a target of criticism because you cant punish in any way to people who just boom in their bases.
So the fight that is currently happening is: should we have X map in the map pool if you are just going to wall and FC? When the real discussion should be: are walls balanced?
For people who joined in DE, palisades were nerfed from HD/Voobly making them slower to build. But nowadays i find them still being too strong for what they should be. Also the tower nerf that also happened from HD/Voobly to DE managed to impact in the walling meta, since now towers cant punish anymore wallers because they are too weak now that is not worth sending villagers foward + going to stone. I would say that trush has disappeared entirely from the AOE2 meta.
Sotl also made a video on “how much walls costs” where he -based in certain assumptions- says that walling with palisades and using buildings also in the defense will cost you 200-300 resources, which may sound a disadvantage for the waller, but in reality is much better than for example doing a scout rush which means an early stable 175w + 3 scouts 240F which also delays in 3-4 mins your Castle time. You can check a video from Hera, where he says that nowadays for example scout rush is dead.
So now even in Arabia, which used to be gold standar for feudal wars, the map has turned into a wall-fest where the only viable way to make an early attack is with militia.
tl;dr I think is time to nerf palisades by making them weaker with a higher cost, or which i prefer, much less armor. I understand that many people, specially lower levels, dont like early aggression because the games are shorter, but the truth is because all the other changes the games has gone in the last year (civ balances, mechanic upgrades, better resource distribution), palisades are just too strong and allows that every map, even open ones, into defensive playstyle. You can even trap units in with walls if you are skilled enough.
I wish the devs consider this, and have this in mind for future patches. Because the game should be oriented into beating the opponent, and not “not dying” by them.
Based on the vid of Hera i decided to make my own thread here about this subject.
Also others make there threads about this subject. For example:
Yes, i do believe walling is currently too stong. Less lag means also more easy quick walls. This is killing for melee units. Together with the bad pathing is that the reason why we also have seen that the meta moves to archers. It is all about the archers. That unit is more easy to micro at DE because the less lag and it able to hit behind walls.