I absolutely loved Age of Empires 2/3, 2 significantly more than 3. However, I never had the chance to play the original. What are some major differences as it has been a really long time since I have played the second. What should I expect?
AoE1 is very similar to AoE2, but it is set in the ancient times and is lacking certain features like castles, unique units and market trading.
All of the above mentioned.
The ancient time setting means it lets you play with units from that time like chariot or slinger unit.
Also expect a little bit more micro management as you control smaller groups of units.
The best thing you can do is try out the game. If you can’t do that then just watch some videos on youtube.
Besides the above mentioned some smaller differences:
- no trade carts but you have trade boats and you actually trade wood/food/stone for gold
- units cannot walk on farms but you can send multiple villagers to the same farm
- no demo ships
- no gates
- no garrisoning units
- no relics
Wow, thank for all of this! Definitely enjoy the idea of no relics, however no gates and garrisoning sounds like a bummer. I always loved being able to beef up those guard towers with villagers, it was an awesome defensive maneuver
AoE1 is a much more aggressive game than what you are used to with the rest of the series. Gameplay wise it shares a lot in common with blizzard rts’s, particularly Warcraft 2. That said it is still fun to play in chill mode if you so choose, something blizzards line-up never really was. But expect harder rushes and more intense single unit micro than what you see in aoe2.
So by no gates, you can still build walls? I’ve been a fan but haven’t played in a long time due to the lack of “glimmer” for graphics and such and moved onto other RTS games like Steel Division and such. I still love the idea of making a fortress. Seems like the AoE2 that I’ve been re-watching is very different from AoE1 that this will be a remake of.
@PracticalPuppet said:
So by no gates, you can still build walls? I’ve been a fan but haven’t played in a long time due to the lack of “glimmer” for graphics and such and moved onto other RTS games like Steel Division and such. I still love the idea of making a fortress. Seems like the AoE2 that I’ve been re-watching is very different from AoE1 that this will be a remake of.
Yes you have walls, towers, etc. Idk if the will add more units tho
The biggest thing I remember is you could not queue farms. I hope that gets changed.
Villagers are dumb that AOE2 ones, because their pathfinding was terrible, you have to micromanage every villager action or you will be finding them stuck in some stuff like a tree, stone mine, etc.
By the way, I can’t remember if catapults could do friendly damage as AOE2 ones do.
@KingDarBoja said:
Villagers are dumb that AOE2 ones, because their pathfinding was terrible, you have to micromanage every villager action or you will be finding them stuck in some stuff like a tree, stone mine, etc.By the way, I can’t remember if catapults could do friendly damage as AOE2 ones do.
Catapults damage friendly units and it is very painful when you dont look constantly after them. If an enemy scout runs through your base then your catapult can destroy houses or kill units…
@Izanami said:
The biggest thing I remember is you could not queue farms. I hope that gets changed.
But you had the chance to send multiple villagers to the same farm. There is no faster way to get food then placing 4 farms one tile away from a granary and send 5-6 villigers in each of those 1 tile wide lines. They are not wasting time with walking.
@Zsombro said:
There is no faster way to get food then placing 4 farms one tile away from a granary and send 5-6 villigers in each of those 1 tile wide lines. They are not wasting time with walking.
Wait, really? I swear I remember that putting 1 villager on each farm was optimal, since food wouldn’t be gathered quicker by 2 or 3 guys instead of 1/farm. Am I wrong about this?
I am sure 1 villager per farm was optimal, the rest of villagers doesn’t bring extra food income, even if they show a harvest animation, it is purely aesthetic.
If you are a fan of scenarios, a few scenarios are some of the most interesting in the series(march of the 10000 is close to AoE2 Manzikert for me), however they are(were?) not voice acted. They give only history and not a story of history like 2 or a completely fictional 3. As another cool feature, when you lose the scenario it gives a text explaining history if someone lost
Some essential things such as path finding will greatly be improved in the new version so that will be good.
@RWNorthPole @KingDarBoja
OMG i’ve just tested it. I was wrong for so many years… I happily sent multiple villagers to the same farm when i didn’t have enough wood or space for another farm near the TC or granary. For 20 years!!! I have to change my playstyle really quick! 
@KingDarBoja said:
I am sure 1 villager per farm was optimal, the rest of villagers doesn’t bring extra food income, even if they show a harvest animation, it is purely aesthetic.
Yes, that is what i remember, too. I think they took the food from the farm but they never carried the food and so couldn’t bring it to the granary - wasted food.
So when you build one farm with more than one vil you always need to look which vil actually is getting food and send the other guy away.
Btw ever villager was a guy not girl in AoE1.
Edit Maybe it was patched to the good/bad way?
@EnoughSiren1671 said:
@KingDarBoja said:
I am sure 1 villager per farm was optimal, the rest of villagers doesn’t bring extra food income, even if they show a harvest animation, it is purely aesthetic.Yes, that is what i remember, too. I think they took the food from the farm but they never carried the food and so couldn’t bring it to the granary - wasted food.
I reinstalled the game and I checked that yesterday. In fact, the other guy CAN harvest food as long as the other one is carrying food to the granary, but as soon he came back to the farm, he becomes the one not farming. Also there isn’t a resource loss if there are more villager at farms.
@KingDarBoja said:
@EnoughSiren1671 said:
@KingDarBoja said:
I am sure 1 villager per farm was optimal, the rest of villagers doesn’t bring extra food income, even if they show a harvest animation, it is purely aesthetic.Yes, that is what i remember, too. I think they took the food from the farm but they never carried the food and so couldn’t bring it to the granary - wasted food.
I reinstalled the game and I checked that yesterday. In fact, the other guy CAN harvest food as long as the other one is carrying food to the granary, but as soon he came back to the farm, he becomes the one not farming. Also there isn’t a resource loss if there are more villager at farms.
But if you build your farms properly the drop off time will be zero and the extra villagers are useless. And the resource loss for having several villagers on one farm comes from the resources the villagers could have gathered instead of idling at the farm.
Yeah, I know. I was just clarifying the process with the farms. So the lesson is: 1 villager per farm and you should be ok. Greetings.