OP strats vs. Immersion

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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I’ve consistently played AOEIII since about 2007 but have only very recently obtained a steady internet connection (I know, primitive). What keeps me coming back to it is the immersion. Medieval games are plenty, but the colonial European era really has a special place in my heart, especially as an RTS, which must be more niche given the popularity of AoM and AOEII by comparison. So after playing the AI for almost two decades, you can imagine I was pretty excited to hop on the multiplayer.

Familiarizing myself with the meta has been jarring to say the least. I love playing the German civ, and you can tell by my ELO that I’m not an expert player, but the vulnerabilities for the civ are just laughable. Xbows against a Brit musk rush or a Janissary rush or a Spanish falc push or a Mexico outlaw rush are like throwing toothpicks at a Panzer tank. No decent player leaves their vils vulnerable to Uhlan raids. Experienced players do not allow upgrades in units to go unpunished. You could reply “get good” and I probably deserve that, but I’ve read all the available strats, watched 100 hours of the Youtube content, and sometimes lower level players will make a mistake that I can exploit, but at over 1050 I would just get creamed the majority of the time.

The problem is not that I’m a sore loser - it’s that this shatters illusion. With exceptions, I felt like these players were not just better at the game than I am - I felt like they were manipulating a mathematical algorithm in order to maximize their advantage over me. Sure, in a way that is what all video games are. And who am I to say how a game should be played? One day I got steamrolled by an American civ, so I dropped Germany and copied their strat and guess what? Wins. Easy wins - which are not as satisfying. It feels like now, I too am not putting on the role of German Field Marshall or Lakota War Chief, but I am a bot. Punching the right button combos. Soullessly boosting my ELO.

I’m sure many of you have felt the same way, and I’m not necessarily asking for solutions (“Just play AI on sandbox mode, n00b!”). I am asking how other players have reckoned with this seemingly innate contradiction within the game. Thanks for taking the time to read.

  • BlackHoleTree, butcher of villagers.
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I haven’t played a ton lately, but there are definitely balance issues that weren’t dealt with when the devs canceled the planned DLC and seemingly any chance of future updates.

As I recall though, Germany is up there with the better 1v1 civs atm, but yeah, I think USA and definitely Otto are stronger.

Unfortunately, “get good” or “play op civs” is the best advice I can give you.

Something of note, sometimes you can just naked ff with Germany while raiding with some shipment Uhlans. 8 skirms or 3 War Wagons (plus a trained batch) can be pretty nice for dealing with Musketeer pushes if you micro well enough. Also I know not everyone does a good job protecting vills. I was like 1400-1600 elo for a long time and have gotten messed up pretty badly by raids before. If you assume your raid will yield nothing, and I predict you won’t raid, then I won’t make units (ie make more eco or age instead), which then gives your raid a better chance of success.

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