Last night I was matched in a 2v2. Two narrow rivers formed a T-junction across the map, splitting it into three parts. I had a quarter, my opponent (red) had another quarter, and my ally and other opponent (blue) both shared the remaining landmass which covered half the map.
My ally was taken out quickly, and red dropped already, leaving it a 1v1 between myself and blue. By this point I’d already taken complete control of the rivers uncontested, so had all the fish to myself and controlled access to the crossing with triremes. This meant I controlled half of the land-mass plus whatever was in range of the triremes, while blue turtled into a small area with rows of walls and towers.
I had the economic advantage as I controlled half the land mass and all it’s resources, with the added bonus of having all the fish to myself, and the fact I was able to sneak small groups of villagers to his side of the map and steal his resources away from his towers.
For a long time there was just stalemate. He basically had a torrent of units running out of his base into where mine were camped, and although I held off each wave, never had the strength to bust into his base with what remained. Looking back, I’m sure I could have done this better, but in my mind I had the economic advantage so was happy to wait for him to dry out rather than throw my units at his towers.
In hindsight, this was never going to work, because once the gold ran out on both sides, and with no way of exchanging gold as with AoE2+, with all the food and wood in the world, I’m limited to bowmen, axemen, slingers (until stone’s out) and triremes. (Now I recall I had similar problems doing the third campaign mission on hardest…) Chariots, which my opponent was able to make, are far superior to all of these units except triremes.
So the game turned into an endless supply of chariots crashing into an endless supply of triremes, and although I was able to crush each wave, there was no way of counter-pushing. This went on for a couple of hours until eventually I had all my triremes engaged at a crossing, he was able to stealthily build a dock and transport ship, and sneaked units across and into my villagers.
So what did I learn as Carths?
- Try alternative victories such as artefacts (means making scouts and finding them early) or wonder.
- … if that’s not an option, then you need to aim for an early military advantage and push before the late-game
- If you have an ally, get them to build lots of docks, and defend them with all you have.
- Research logistics, even if it’s the only 100g you have remaining. When you’re floating more food than you can spend, pop cap is your enemy.
- Prioritise more than you would normally on taking gold from beyond your own area
Thoughts…?