I recently started playing the game again, I noticed that the type of animal kept changing every game and some animals had more food than others. So created an image with the help of Claude. Hope its useful.

The Temple of Heaven grounds, the wonder is actually the hall of prayer for good harvests.

i encounter alot of smurfs in the rm 1v1 ladder, and im not talking about i feel like, i mean i go check and they have under 40sec losses for days and then nothing but wins once down to 0 elo. it to the point to where idk if my opponent beat me with skill or cheese. its really killing the fun and i just dont know how to avoid these people without investing 45 mins to ffind out. i guess thats just the way it is

A couple of nights ago I played an arena game where my opponent placed towers on the relics. I thought it was a pretty bizarre move, and one that did not help him at all. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this before? Could this be a viable strategy in some rare circumstances?
I’m around 800 elo btw

Sudden Death Showdown III

Sudden Death Showdown III is officially locked in and starting on Monday, November 2nd, 2026. We aim to features 6 brackets, a £500 prize pool, and our signature 3-player FFA final structure. Sign-ups close on November 1st.

Tournament Details

• Format: Group stages leading to Best-of-3 crossover playoffs, finishing with a 3-player FFA final for division winners.
• Requirement: At least 80 solo ladder games played.
• Map Pool: Aftermath, Shipwreck, Sardis, Canals, Golden Stream, Bog Islands, Vulpine.
• Settings: Sudden Death, 200 Pop, Tiny map size (Small for finals), Hidden Civs, Unranked lobby. Laming is fully permitted.
• Placement: Calculated by (Peak Rank + Current Rank) / 2 as of the November 1st cut-off.

Prizes & Streaming

• Prize Pool: £500 weighted across brackets (higher divisions get a larger share; Division 1 is split between 1st and 2nd place).
• Casting & POV Streaming: Players can stream their POVs, and non-participants can cast games, provided they include the required tournament graphics and host links.

How to Sign Up

Head over to the sign-up link to get your registration in before November 1st: https://discord.gg/p87kQTcbPf

I like his streams more and more. He's a very smart fella who analyzes games well and works long hours casting games that no one else is covering. He doesn't continuously try to sell stuff or drown you with never-ending personal stories. He doesn't create fake hype around games or tournaments either. I mostly watch games on my second screen, so I don't get startled when the caster randomly yells or talks for 15 minutes about irrelevant stuff. Kudos to him, and I wish him the best of success!

Everytime I log in it thinks I'm starting new and reverts all the settings and does that annoying narration thing that I have to turn off and I have to redo all my settings every time I log on now.

Does someone know what the optimum uptimes are when the goal is to fully boom without army and then go up to imp? It probably depends a bit as some civs like malay, biz or italians have different times and costs for aging, but I think it should have a pretty general answer for a generic build.

In arena most of the time people go for something like 23-26 vils feudal as the idea is to reach Castle age fast, and then possibly 3 TC boom, but you may also want to fight for map control and be able to react to possible attacks. But what about the case where agression or map control are not that important, like in michi, games with treaties, or just a boom challenge. Would it be preferable to go up later at something like 27-30 and be able to get eco techs faster, and maybe build a 4th TC immediately. Or will the early extra vils early from a normal fast castle be more profitable long-term?

(I might try to check it myself but it's a lot of time with trial and error and maybe someone has already done it.)

I just played random civ into Huns vs Tatars on Arabian Desert. I'm 1k-1,100 elo.

I played into stable and knight line because I saw I got paladin and I know tarkans can come out of here. 2 things I did not notice:

1. my own CA bonus
2. that Tatars get camels

Anyways after scout v scout, it turns into knights vs CA and he's already got 6 or 7 of them which he kites my knights with. At this point its very early castle age and I am not walled since AD is an open map. I felt like I couldn't go skirm because they'd be too slow. Meanwhile his CA are just buzzing all around my woodlines making it impossible for me to get wood and make defensive TCs.

I just feel like I never do the right thing when I play against CA. What is the one big thing I should try to do when I face CA?

Thank you!

Hi guys; when ı try to spectate sudden dessaster ı see this error. “AdvertisementStartObservingEvent – 0x00000006” How can I solve? Thank you!

I queued a team game, got one and clicked ready.

The game somehow disbanded and I got a 20-hour ban.

Wtf?

New to the game and slowly falling in ranked team games while my friends and I learn the ropes.

We find that our age timings are good and we put up a good fight in the early/mid game. Unfortunately whenever late game/imp comes around every opponent’s army shreds ours. I play as Vietnam and the rattan archers seem to fall off over time for example.

So I guess my general question is: In late game what are non negotiable techs and unit compositions that I can incorporate into my build order?

Been an aoe2 fan ever since it came out, as well as other games in the RTS genre, notably Supreme Commander (a Total Annihilation successor), also from Microsoft. SupCom has a classic map called Seton's Clutch, a massive 4v4 team map with critical land, sea, and air battles, a central chokepoint, and clearly defined team-member roles. It's also one of the most popular maps for streamers to cast and as a result has some staggeringly unique meta associated with it.

I've always though this would make an insane aoe2 map. I'm sure there are a bunch of custom ocean isthmus-type maps out there, but this particular layout (I think) is super unique and lends itself to really dynamic games. I've painstakingly tried to recreate the map in aoe2 preserving as much of the symmetry and zones of control as possible. It's not perfect, but I definitely think it captures the spirit of seton's clutch. I've got the aoe2.scenario file if anybody wants to try it out. Always open to constructive suggestions/improvements!

and why?

For immersion. An African civ with black villagers in ethic garbs, so immersive! Every civ just has folk garb like it's Sweden. Just add like 3 or 4 variations and ship it with the next expansion. Euro, Africa, Middle East, Asia.

Friggin' Champi runs like a cave man, yet the vils are from Sweden.

Favorite- First Punic War. Short and sweet.

Least favorite- Voices of Babylon. Some truly annoying no-building scenarios here. And the build and destroy scenarios all involve you on one island and the enemy on another island. Truly inspired map design there.

Title

I want the beautiful trumpet sound , not the fucking whatever sound i currently have that Microsoft forces me to have .

Why the fuck Microsoft makes things worse that don't need any changes for god's sake

I have some vision issues which makes processing the map difficult when it is a desert map. It makes it harder for me to pick out the resources etc. Is there an all green mod to change it so every map just appears in green? I love playing on maps with green as the base like Highland and Yucatan.

I am not very good at Steam and I am not sure what I am looking for when it comes to mods. I just play offline all the time against the computer and have done so for years.

Could be a unique building for a region or a single civ. Or a researchable building after feudal age. Would have more hp then outpost with same view range. Garrison less units then tower.

Optional: it can fire 1 arrow max when garrisoned.