I am a huge RTS fan. And the Age of Empires series remains one of my favourites. Though I didn’t like Age of Mythology and most of what I saw of AoE3. Anyway, after 9 years of play, I finally managed to get AoE2:TC multiplayer running properly. And then followed an entire day of AoE2 for me and friends.
We started off as 4 players on the Britain map. I picked Briton, my friends, let’s call them Friend1, Friend2 and Friend3, picked Celts, Franks and Spanish respectively. It was a deathmatch and we agreed to not attack each other for the first twenty minutes. I, luckily, started off in what is roughly Scotland. A good defensible position on the map. Friend 1 and I entered into an uneasy alliance which involved me garrisoning troops in two of his castles and him sending me resources. Because you see, he is great at economy building but lacks in military skill and I am vice versa. His base was in Ireland by the way.
So, we spent the first twenty minutes beefing up our defenses and building an army. My standard Briton tactic is to build lots of fully upgraded Elite Longbowmen, 5 trebuchet, half a dozen priests, ten halberdiers, 5 hussars/light cavalry and twenty or so Cavaliers. That’s one army for me. I marched on my Frankish Friend2 who had a well defended base down south in England. He had lots of castles and walls and towers but few units. I kept destorying his buildings with my trebuchet, killing units with my longbowmen and using my cavaliers to kill off any enemy units who get too close. But before I could finish him off, Friend3, who turned out to be allied to Friend2 landed a force in my territory, forcing me to withdraw my army and focus on defending my ass. It was then that I realised that save a few fishing boats and 2 galleys and fireships patrolling the see between my base and Ireland, I had no navy. I did have a decent garrison though, so his invading force of elite conquistadors, crossbowmen and trebuchet was easily destroyed by my longbowmen, halberdiers and cavaliers. But it gave Friend2 enough time to salvage what units he had left and flee to France. I became the Lord of all Britain.
Quiet little Friend1, meanwhile, was plotting against me. He suddenly defected to Friend3’s side and my garrison in Ireland was butchered. Not before I managed to destroy one castle though. But alas, my source of supplies was gone and all three of my ‘friends’ were plotting against me. They also had me surrounded. I was looking at battles on 3 fronts!
I shifted focus on building a navy and gathering resources, though I did keep on raiding Friend2’s Franks. With one archer left and totally disgusted with the game, he resigned. France was mine! The Celts of Friend1 tried to land a force, only to have all their transport ships reduced to ash by my blockade of Fast Fire Ships. With it went most of the Celtic army. Almost immediately a Spanish landing attempt followed. Three of their six ships managed to reach the coast, unloading a force of forty conquistadors, 5 trebuchet and fifteen paladins. They landed at a spot I was yet to explore and their attack on my southernmost castle took me by surprise. The measly force there, of twent longbowmen and ten cavaliers was butchered and the castle destroyed. Th enemy had a foothold in Britain once again. I despatched a force of thrity cavaliers, twenty longbowmen and twenty halberdiers to re-take the castle. A quick battle followed. I lost all twenty halberdiers and ten cavaliers. But they were driven off and that was what mattered the most.
Next, I launched a naval attack on the Celts, typing up the navy while my demolition boats quickly destroyed their docks. Then I landed a force of thirty longbowmen, ten monks, five trebuchet and twenty cavaliers on their lands. I breached their defenses and took almost one third of Friend1’s lands before my army was routed in an intense battle in which I was attacked from the rear by Spanish troops.
And then the power went off thereby putting an unceremonious end to a most interesting match. I wept and cursed for hours.
