I try to use control groups, but I usually just patrol the halbs in, and try to micro the onagers.
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it is a macro, your program isnt wrong. just like you get different types of vehicles. you get different types of macrosâŠ
hard no⊠it isnt cheating
definition of macro:
a single instruction that expands automatically into a set of instructions to perform a particular task.
ie click the mouse to activate another series of instructions (attack ground) is still a macro by definition
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Thanks for the clarification. 
From your initial comment, it clearly looked to me like you wrote that you mapped one button to perform 2 operations for you, one after another. This is how I imagined it:
You mapped mouse button 3 to press Attack Ground and then to immediately target it at the ground based on current mouse location ( 2 operations)
Am I correct or no?
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Exactly from this definition it seems to be like it definitely will be considered cheating - 1 button press is able to do 2-3 or more different things for you, in a given sequence, one after the other. (but probably MS doesnât or wonât devote enough resources to detect this)
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Havent read the full thread, so maybe it is already said.
- Halbs are for a reason a meatshield: It doesnt really matter that much as you loose them as long as you also killing the units of the enemy (if possible there gold units).
- I like to set Halbs for this reason on defensive. This way they will fight the enemy if they come close, but dont go that far of there starting location. So they stay more close to the onagers and thus are less likely to hit.
- Have you ever used control groups? Set your onagers to one group (or use multiple groups, so you can let them hit at multiple places) and your halbs to another. This way you can move both groups independent. This gives you much more control about the units.
- You can also use the Attack ground option of siege onagers. This way you determine where they try to hit, even if there is no unit at all. Make sure to not click at your own units, but somewhere in front of your own units.
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A macro where you associate one instruction to execute several is 100% considered cheating in this community. Like in Blizzard games, itâs considered that 1 click should equal 1 action.
It can be extremely broken otherwise. Deselect macro for monks is one of the most common macros in AoE2 and it makes monks extremely OP by trivializing unit control.
Voobly took several steps to ban macros, and anyone caught using them at the highest competitive level would be considered a cheater and would be banned from entering any event (and it has happened).
You may disagree and believe macros are fine, and if DE doesnât ban them then do as you wish. But know that for the competitive scene, itâs 100% cheating.
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Lol, someone was argueing that macros are fine and no cheating at all?! 
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Well, I guess it could look that way⊠when I made it some months ago, all I saw I was doing is to avoid clicking the hotkey for attack ground, making a dedicated button on the mouse for it. Initially I just intended to put the mouse 3 as the attack ground hotkey, but that wasnât possible.
I was aware of the macro monks, though never used it, but mine seem far from cheating, since itâs not 2 game actions but 2 motion action (I donât know if I explained myself).
However in the name of compromise, Iâll create a new mouse setting for AoE without macro, so I can use the settings with micro for single player / multi-player with people who donât mind, and the settings without it for online with players who do mind.
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Seriously you guys are being weird AF
Im sure thereâs tons of players that have macros set for tons of things similar to attack ground command. Ffs i have a macro to select all town centres? I donât want to press ctrl or shift h or whatever the sequence of keys is to select all town centres.
By your own amazing logic that is cheating⊠
As i said earlier there are different types of macros imo some are cheating some arenâtâŠ
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No man ignore them. The level of macro you are using is super prevalent throughout MP. Next theyâll demand you reduce your resolution or use a smaller screen otherwise youâll have an unfair advantage
That macro literally has less impact than using a higher end machine to zoom out and see more of the battle field
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Thanks for the tips, I also like using halbs on defensive stance. The problem I run into is I kill the enemyâs main army with my halbs but for some reason he has another group of 5 cavalier or paladin and snipes all my siege onagers.
For some time when right-click was not working properly for combat, I was forced to instead use attack-move. I got tired of always having to press attack-move key followed by left-click when performing attack-move. So I used AutoHotkey to make it so, that double-right-click executes attack-move keypress followed by left-click. Much more comfortable.
I only play single player, but I view this macro as a QOL change, not cheating. Thankfully right-click was fixed later, so I could return to my preferred way of doing combat by normal right-clicking and didnât had to bother with attack-move anymore.
You can already do this unintended way of managing monks (deselection) without macro, which could be considered cheating, because makes monks easier to use, than they are supposed to be. Attack-ground macro is not a big deal at all compared to this.
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Yeah, I mean, I still have to aim an timing with the attack ground, shifting the hotkey from the keyboard to the mouse doesnât seem like an unfair advantage to me.
Also most of the time I still use the may hotkey, since I can better time and more carefully aim, so the macro is needed only on fast panicked shots.
However, Iâm a bit new to the macro discussion, since before this february I couldnât afford a gaming mouse (just joking, I couldnât even now, if it wasnât for my girlfriend that spare some money to buy me one on my birthday I would still be without oneâŠ) so since I never consider the problem before, I donât know at what level itâs considering âcheatingâ (itâs more than an advantage that not everyone can have than properly cheating in my opinion).
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I also did that with mouse 4 (fire button), again similarly to the attack ground it doesnât seem like cheating to me.
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Thereâs literally a hotkey for that you know ?
But as I said, do whatever you want, Iâm not here to tell you what to do. But know that in the competitive community this is unambiguously frowned upon.