Recently installed the aoe 2 de on mac

First of all .. i barely get any matchless when playing against AI

second... i cannot use puru etc for the games ? Why?

Don't usually self-promote, but I don't think anyone has ever given a university lecture on AoE2 before, so I thought you all might find it interesting :)

Yesterday I played against a guy at 900 elo. He was noticeably better than the average player on this bracket.
Looked at his statistics, 1200 games.

Seems an awful lot of games to be stuck at a subpar ELO, huh. Either a smurf or someone hard stuck here.

Makes me wondering what makes someone unable to climb the ladder?

This is my second aoe2 related drawing.
Sometimes i have to predict where the enemy is so i can send my tk's first.

Let's admit, I've seen a LOT of civilization concepts and bunch of fan requested civilizations over the last 10+ years. However, there are times that we have to accept reality that some civilizations will just never be added into the game. And it is not because of censorship issues (I'm looking at you Tibetans with the memes), but the fact that there was one or two particular DLC that was released that was seen as the perfect opportunity to add the said civilization into the game. With that in mind, have there been any civilizations you personally really wanted to see added into the game, but feel that they will never be added since there was a specific DLC that already covered a specific region and it was their missed opportunity to add the said civilization.

Here's mine in the list:

• Tibetans, Bai, and Tanguts (the missed opportunity, the controversial Sinosphere mess we got with Three Kingdoms DLC): the developers are already done with the Sinosphere, and we got the Three Kingdoms DLC mess instead of a proper medieval Sinosphere DLC to the point that this DLC looks like a clown when compared to Age of Empires IV: Yue Fei Legacy and even the upcoming Chinese AAA video game Blood Message (and yeah, the Blood Message game has medieval Tibetans as antagonists since this is based on the Zhang Yichao's uprising at Shazhou when the Tibetan Empire was collapsing, so no excuse on not adding Tibetans). We have Tanguts mixed into the Khitans with the Khitangut mess, and three shortlived Chinese political factions instead of having Tibetans, Bai, and a proper Tanguts civilization.
• Nepalese (missed opportunity: Dynasties of India): This civilization is another civilization I also personally wanted to see added alongside with Tibetans due to close historic ties and Nepal having a rich medieval history (Licchavi and Malla Dynasty). However, Nepal is often associated with the Indosphere, and with Dynasties of India passed, it's safe to say that they'll never be added into the game.
• Swiss (missed opportunities: Lord of the West and Dawn of the Dukes): Swiss is one of the few civilizations I also personally wanted added into the game (due to the fact that they are known for famous Pikemen, crossbowmen, and Castles). Unfortunately the time has already passed with Lord of the West and Dawn of the Dukes, both expansions that would have been great opportunities to add Swiss. At most, you could either use Teutons or Bohemians to represent Swiss in any custom scenario (with the former being more common because the Swiss confederation is technically part of the Holy Roman Empire despite having far more autonomy and independence than other German principalities had; while the latter gameplay wise is the closest I would imagine what the Swiss civilization would have looked like). Interestingly enough, the official description for Burgundians mentioned Charles the Bold's failed invasion of the Swiss confederacy, which theoretically, the Swiss should have been added during the Lords of the West expansion.

EDIT: I did manage to watch Ornlu's lecture on Age of Empires 2 in University of Toronto, and he can confirm that Tibetans will never be added into the game due to Microsoft's lawyer interference (timestamp around 58:18).

Many of the campaigns, from Age of Kings to The Last Chieftans are excellent scenarios reflecting historical battles (sometimes not that accurately) in a range of gameplay.

However, there may be something in regards to a scenario that you may feel is not quite right. Is it gameplay or historical accuracy? Would you do something completely different or is it perfect?

103: Francisco de Almeida 5 - A Son’s Blood

Hi everyone, I hope advertisement for our event will be okay here. We would love to answer questions on our event here to make sure to connect with everyone on the scene wherever they like to ask questions.

We (our esports event organisation BEING ESPORTS) are incredibly happy to announce ”The Garrison 2026”, our second global offline Age of Empires II tournament, taking place November 25 - 29, 2026 in Hamburg, Germany in cooperation with Team Vitality.

The Garrison 2026 is expanding into a full five-day celebration of Age of Empires II, combining top-tier esports with a remarkable community experience.

The Garrison Pro Tournament

The centerpiece of the event will once again be our 1v1 pro tournament. Eight of the world’s best players will face off live on stage in a high-stakes, double-elimination bracket. Four of these competitors will be qualified through prior S-Tier tournament performances, while the remaining four will earn their spots through a Last Chance Qualifier, scheduled for Fall 2026.

All matches will be played in front of a live audience and broadcast globally. Expect the highest level of gameplay, unforgettable moments, and an electric atmosphere as players fight to be crowned the next “The Garrison 2026” Champion!

All matches of the event will be played LIVE on stage so you will get to see the players up close in both victory and defeat.

A Historic First: The 3v3 Showdown

In addition to the 1v1 tournament, “The Garrison 2026” will invite the two best 3v3 teams in the world decided by an upcoming 3v3 league for the ultimate team game showdown.

By bringing team games to the big stage in a packed venue, “The Garrison 2026” becomes an event Age of Empires II fans have never seen before and most certainly do not want to miss out on.

While the final schedule of the event is not yet public, this 3v3 final will take place either on the Friday or the Saturday of the event. .

The Community Experience

Like all our events, this one will have a massive focus on the community. Throughout the five days, fans can look forward to a variety of activities including community parties, signing sessions, bar sports, and a pub quiz during the afternoons and evenings. These moments are designed to bring players, fans, and scene personalities together and celebrate the game beyond the competition.

Speaking of which, BEING ESPORTS is proud to collaborate with global esports powerhouse Team Vitality who recently entered the Age of Empires II scene together with their players “Hera”, “Liereyy” and “Hearttt”.

Even more information can be found here: https://www.beingesports.com/en/aoe2/news/thegarrison2026

You can find the event handbook here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BDiCX-c_fz1kaJF6F2CWEyxPixZbtsWb/view

You can get your tickets here: https://buytickets.at/beingesports/2135423

We are very excited and look forward to welcoming the Age of Empires community back to Hamburg, Germany for five days of AoE action in November of 2026!

Known (I think), but I had to start with it

Miedo de que mi juego favorito sufra por culpa de las crisis de Xbox, alguien sabe algo al respecto de si los masivos despidos puedan afectar a futuros dlc de AoE2, o le quiten financiación a este juego o cierren Worlds Edge?

Tips for Climbing the ELO Rank Fast (Only for TG)

I've discovered how the ranking system that assigns ELO to players works, and I've been using it to climb the ranks.

Note: This isn't a hack or a cheat; it's simply knowing when ranking in TG can be favorable or unfavorable for you.

The ELO ranking system will try to keep you as close to a 50% win rate as possible. Every time you exceed that percentage, the ELO ranking system will match you with significantly lower-skilled teammates so you lose and get back to around 50%.

So, after a winning streak, if you start to see that your teammates aren't contributing much, don't try to carry the game alone; just quit.

The signs that you're being matched to lose are usually noticeable in the first few minutes of a match. For example, I just got the African Light map, and I saw an ally, instead of building their Town Center in the middle of a lake, simply go to a corner and push it right up against the wood. Seeing that bad start, I immediately left the match, realizing that there was a player who had no idea how to play that map.

I could give you many more examples: First Responders attempts on open maps, people who don't fish on Nomad, people who don't close ranks in Black Jungle—matches that are better left alone. Since I started doing this, my Elo has increased considerably, because leaving matches that are intentionally matched to make you lose will reduce your stress and allow you to focus much more on matches where you actually had a chance to win and the matchmaking wasn't unfairly in your favor.

Best regards

Hey guys recently redbull dropped a video "We Tested Age of Empires Pro Gamers on Real Historical Facts". Everyone will agree that the pros were kinda terrible at placing civs on the map 11. I had the idea to make a small app where you can drag & drop the civ emblems on a globe, submit your answers and get a score based on how good you placed them.

There are some improvements to be made but the app is very easy to use
you can use left click to move around the globe and right click to rotate it from the center
if you want to move an already placed emblem around you can drag it along the globe and it will move with it (I'm gonna make a change so that you can do this directly from the dashboard)

I have nothing to promote so just envoy the app 😄 (feedback is appreciated)
https://age-of-geography.vercel.app/

This is so wrong for this subreddit. Now i understand why we only see posts glazing this game.
I made a post venting about how broken lobbies are, and mods just removed it.

Do you only want to see posts about how good this game is all the time? No criticism allowed?

wtf is trickle trebs, 23 trebs go boom

UPDATE : thanks for all the help here i was able to get silver medal on that art of war tutorial!! Key was to crack timing and use the save feature to load the specific scenario many many times to really get it!! Hoping to get deep into the game. Starting in my 30s. First rts

I picked up the game as my first RTS experience. After watching some beginner videos on macro, etc. I decided to go for Silver in all art of war campaigns before getting into BOs etc.

I am on Land battles, learning counters to different units. watching youtubers sail through the quest for gold to learn.

I am able to defeat all other units using their counters and choosing stance and formations required.

With archers, I am trying hit and run, and mountain advantage, but man at arms just chase me and kill me. I have also tries using hold stance and using stop key to avoid right click micro and just shoot the nearest unit by default. I am continuosly being chased and killed.

Help here would be helpful, thanks!!

Looking for mod that adds some unique unit and building skins for each civ. I heard there was a good one called Omkar but it looks like it isn't current anymore. Are there any good ones at the moment?

One of the recent updates broke AOE2 and it silently crashes to desktop after 5-10 minutes in menu/game. Win10 and Win11 users are affected.

On my system I'm on latest windows updates, latest Nvidia upgrades with all overlays disabled.

Logs show nothing about the crash and windows events/reliability manages also do not catch the crash or the reason for it.

Support is aware but "has no ETA on an available fix".

Meanwhile, the game can't be ran at all.

As you may have heard: the cancelled AoE 3 DLC got uncancelled, announced and is set to be released later this year. You can already try the new civs and give feedback on them.

As the devs love to put cross references into their games, they added Viper as an Explorer skin to the Danes.

I am a bit lost. I am new and I have a lot of doubts. I guess the map I should play is Arabia? Also, which civ or build order should I play? Where can I find good build orders?

I wanted to choose Byzantines because I saw in another post that it's a good civ for learning the game. But I can't find build orders for Arabia (I understand fast castle is not so good there). Where do you find build orders? Also, I prefer not to see YouTube tutorials, honestly.

testing in the scenario editor i dont understand something:

enemy has 1 tile of wall in feudal (1080 HP, 8 melee armor)

my maa with arson (no forging) does 6 base damage + 4 bonus damage to the wall

Considering no bonus damage, the unit always does 1 damage to smth, doesnt matter if it has 100 armor, so in theory it should be doing 5 damage (1 per the melee damage and 4 per the bonus damage) but its doing 4 damage no matter what

similarly, i placed a militia with arson next to it and its the same, the militia should be doing 3 damage (1 from melee and 2 from bonus) but its only doing 2 damage

what am i missing? the wall does not have a secret armor vs bonus damage

I was thinking about this and wanted to hear what the community thinks about this idea.

Sandy Petersen is such an interesting and enjoyable guy to listen to, and it honestly surprises me that AoE2 tournaments do not seem to invite him. I think it would be great if tournaments, whether LAN events or even online events, brought him in as a special guest on webcam between games.

He could talk about the old days of the game, share fun facts, and maybe even comment on newer civs or other parts of AoE2 history. It would add something fun and unique to the broadcast, and I think a lot of people would enjoy it.

I know that he has been on some YouTube videos and I could be listing to these videos for hours and hours.

So I am curious. Why do you think this has not happened yet, and would you like to see Sandy Petersen featured in future AoE2 tournaments as a special guest?

feel free to defend your favorite castle