Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Death Match FAQ System: PC Author: Da Ass Man Disclaimer: This FAQ may only be used at gamefaqs.com unless the permission is asked for and granted. If permission is not granted, legal action will ensue. ****************** Tables of Contents ****************** 1. Updates 2. Introduction 3. Multiplayer vs. Computer 4. General Start Off Strategies 5. The Units 6. The Unique Units 7. Commonly Played Death Match Maps 8. Trade Routes 9. Economy 10. Population 11. The Market Trick 12. Aztecs 13. Britons 14. Byzantines 15. Celts 16. Chinese 17. Franks 18. Goths 19. Huns 20. Japanese 21. Koreans 22. Mayans 23. Mongols 24. Persians 25. Saracens 26. Spanish 27. Teutons 28. Turks 29. Vikings 30. Advanced Strategies 31. Team Work 32. Thanks 33. Contact *********** 1. Updates *********** Version 1.0 - 9/27/02 - The very first version of this FAQ, it's looking very comprehensive but I'm going to wait for user feedback in the form of questions and eventually add those in an updated version of the FAQ. *************** 2. Introduction *************** Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is a game of strategy, speed, and constant vigilance, especially in Death Match, where a massive army can hit your base while your still making a castle. Death Match requires a massive knowledge of the various units, how they should be used, what should they be combined with, and at what point you should use them. This FAQ will do that and teach you a whole lot more. While the best way to learn about Age of Empires is through experience, this FAQ will teach you a whole lot you didn't know. The best way to be a great player is to pick one or two civilizations, become very good with them, and branch off. One important note is that this FAQ is intended to primarily be used for people playing Age of Empires online, since the computer is incredibly easy when compared to online competition, but don't worry, this FAQ will also be useful against the computer. ******************************* 3. Multiplayer vs. The Computer ******************************* As I earlier stated, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is meant to be a multiplayer game, as that's when it's most challenging and most rewarding. The differences between the computer and a human opponent are gigantic, the computer will often send weak attacks and not build up an army until 15 minutes in the game. A human opponent will attack you 3 minutes into the game, will raid your economy, steal your resources, and generally scheme with his allies to attempt a massive double team. The computer rarely does this, so if you are looking for optimal challenge and fun, online play is inevitable. ******************************* 4. General Start off Strategies ******************************* The most important time in a Death Match is within the first ten minutes. A good player can have the game won over a slow player in 10 minutes, a great player can have the game won in four. Therefore, to become a better player you must learn all of the tricks of the trade, from hot keys, to clustering, to clumping, getting resources faster (the latter 3 I discuss in advanced strategies). There is so much riding on how fast your start off is, so practicing it against the computer is a great way for getting better. There are a few things you need to know: - Send your scout to your enemies base early, ideally, it should be the first thing you do. If this proves difficult, use the hotkeys and consider changing a couple of them to make it even easier. Change the idle militia key to "M", then at the very start type "M" then "," (which changes the scouts stance to aggressive), then use the mini map and click on where you think your ally will be. - Your enemies base 99/100 times will be near a berry bush. Berry bushes can be hard to distinguish on a mini map at first, but once you learn to see them fast, you will be deadly. Look for a far away berry bush, and send your scout there. You will kill a few of your enemies villagers and be on your way to a great start. - Your enemy will use his scout too! That is why you must quickly build a defense, usually set one villager to a house, one to a barracks, and one to a stable. Only if you feel you must get something up very fast should you ever put more than one villager on a building, because the 2 villagers do not build twice as fast, they actually build a little slower. - Know your enemy! If he is the Huns, he is going to rush, if he's the Celts, he's going to build up siege. Unless he goes random, make a mental note of what civ he is going to be. - Queue your town center full of villagers, this should be the second thing you do, after sending out your scout. - Put all of your villagers to good use, this is important, if anything, just put the ones you can't think of on a castle, or on a town center for resources. ************ 5. The Units ************ For the sake of saving time, I will only mention every fully upgraded unit, as Post Imperial Death Match is the most common style of Death Match played. I also left out the boats, as Death Match is rarely played on water maps: Halberdier - This guy is anti-cavalry and nothing else. Most online players will try to get these in large numbers, so make sure that if you have cavalry, that you make something to counter this (archers or champs will do). This guy is also good if you just need extra men to throw into battle. Otherwise, halbs are a waste of time. Champion - Referred to as "champ", this unit will destroy halberdiers, often much better than a pack of archers will. Aside from that, he's usually a nice addition to have to your army if you feel that you've got archers and cavalry covered. Eagle Warriors - These are perfect for sneaking into an enemies base and then attacking his trade carts or villagers with. They move fast, don't get hurt much by arrows, and are quite small, so easy to move. Hussar - Almost everything in the game counters these, only use them if you have more food than you know what to do with. Otherwise, use it on siege and small numbers of archers. Everything else will eat these alive. Paladin - The ultimate unit, fast, hard to kill, and dealing out lots of damage. They are quite expensive though, so watch your budget when making these. Never use these on halberdiers or camels, as these are it's counters and will eat Paladins alive. On small numbers of siege, these work well too, but be careful as moving a whole pack of these can take lots of time (allowing the enemy to hit you a lot). Skirmisher - These are very under-rated, they are great for archers since they cost virtually nothing, but they can also be used to take away an enemy's focus fire. See cavalry archers? Use these and watch as your enemy wastes thousands of gold. Arbalest - Not as good as unique archer units, but these still can be useful and can throw most people by surprise. They destroy infantry and cavalry archers and mamelukes, but nothing else. Steer clear of onagers and skirms, or you will kiss these goodbye. Slightly expensive. Cavalry Archer - Another infantry destroying unit, in large numbers, these are very difficult to stop. Only onagers or large numbers of skirms with paladins will do the job. Although they are expensive, they are well worth the cost, as they are fast and can get a job done quickly. Be weary of halberdiers though, as their attack bonus works on cav archers. Hand Cannonners - One of the worst archery range units, it is expensive, takes a long time to get in large quantities, and sucks against other archers and cavalry. Despite that, it is extremely good against infantry. Going against the Japanese or Vikings? Use these things. They do much damage already, but they have an attack bonus against infantry, meaning they'll kill Huskarls and Teutonic Knights in 3-4 shots. Still, there are so many counters to infantry, why would you need these? Scorpions - Alone, these are horrible, in mass numbers, the only thing that can stop them is onagers. They basically shoot out a bolt that will damage anything that hits them, so 40 of these against 40 paladins is basically a massacre, as the paladins will have more luck running away then attacking. If you see lots of scorpions, never attack unless you have onagers. Otherwise, you are wasting your army. Onagers - These things have lost their touch since Age of Empires 1. They can't take out defensive buildings like castles or bombard towers, but they are much better against militia, shooting multiple boulders at the enemy. A large army of scorpions can be defeated only by onagers, but if you have onagers of your own to protect your scorpions, you will probably win the game with that army alone. Rams - Rams must be used up close on buildings, meaning they are bound to be attacked by the enemy, even so, they can kill many buildings really fast. If you have wiped out an enemy army or if he has lots of bombard towers and castles that are undefended, make lots of rams and you will watch as his base falls apart. The more the better. One time my ally made 50 rams, he wiped out 6 castles in about 30 seconds!! Better still, Rams are excellent against other siege. A ram can kill a scorpion, treb, onager, or another ram in two hits! Bombard Cannons - These are cannons that are pushed by little guys. They pack a wallop and are good offensively or defensively. Use them on buildings and move them out when the enemy tries to attack, or put them in the back of your army and have them attack the forefront. Either way, they will work. The downside is they are expensive and easy to kill, so protect these with your life. Never build these without building some sort of militia to protect them. They're just like trebs, but without the delay of having to pack. Just remember, use these on regular enemy units and watch them drop. Petards - Petards basically are guys with bombs that run into buildings and explode. In Death Match though, the only things worth using them on are castles, but they will never make it in a million years, as the enemy army and castle can easily kill them. Pretty much worthless since they cost gold and won't accomplish much. Interestingly, if one Petard attacks another, the one that attacked will be killed and the other will have survived. Trebuchets - Commonly referred to as "trebs." These are the best siege in the game, as they have the furthest reach and do the most damage, but they are slow as they launch only one rock at a time at the enemy. They are expensive but well worth it, and in many situations the only thing you can possible use. Use these if you want to bring the enemy out of his defensive shell and force him to attack. A group of trebuchets can be devastating. *************** 6. Unique Units *************** Aztec Jaguar Warrior - There is much debate over whether or not this unit punches the enemy or strikes it with a weapon. The Jaguar Warrior is the ultimate warrior in wiping out units, doing close to 30 with each strike. He's not even that bad against cavalry, but halberds are a much better alternative. He will win against the likes of Japanese Samurai and Teutonic Knights depending on if he gets the first strike in. Briton Longbow Man - This is one of the few units in the game that can squash it's counter if in large enough numbers. Whenever playing the Britons, at least 40 longbow men is a must. It's much better off to overkill with 60-80 though. Their only counters are onagers and skirmishers, with cavalry being somewhat of a counter too. Due to their range, they can actually kill these things before they ever even fire off a shot though, so concentrated fire is a must. Still, be weary. If you are fighting these, get ready to make more skirms and onagers than you could ever imagine. Byzantine Cataphract - This beast is the ultimate in destroying infantry. Anything will be kill in about 3 hits, sometimes less. Due to his trample damage however, he rocks them even more. One cataphract can take out 5 pikemen and 3 halberds, camels do not have an attack bonus against them, and even paladins don't have a bonus against them due to their trample attack. This means that Cataphracts have no weakness besides siege. Cats should be a huge part of your offense and defense, build your army around them and you won't regret it. Celt Woad Raider - Due to the Celts tech tree the Woad Raider is average infantry, comparable to a very fast champ, which is a good thing. You will not need these things however, except for quickly hitting an enemy base, still though, you're best off not even making them and just going for siege when you are the celts. Chinese Chu Ku No - A very strange unit compared to other archers, it will fire multiple shots instead of just one. The Ch Ku No's only problem is it's poor range, as it's arrows do much damage alone, but when combined, you've got a difficult defense to break. Frank Throwing Axemen - Perhaps the worst special ranged unit, the Frankish throwing axemen aren't completely bad, as they do annihlate Pikemen and most infantry, but everything else destroys them. If you see Teutonic Knights, run. Japanese Samurai - This unit is anti-unique, meaning it has an attack bonus against all other unique units. That being said, most unique units will crush this anyway, for various reasons. It is a little above average when put against champs, but other than that, there are few uses for this poor guy. Korean War Wagon - The best ranged unit in the game and one of the reasons the Koreans are banned from so many games, these things will destroy any other ranged unit, as well as infantry. There large pierce armor and huge amount of hit points make it difficult for even their counters to beat them. Mayan Plumed Archer - An extremely useful unit, although it will get defeated against an equal number of Longbow men, Mangundai, and Chu Ku Nos, it's cheap price and excellent mobility make them well worth it. These things are perfect for raiding an enemies economy. Mongols Mangundai - The best calvary archer in the game as well as regular archer, these things have an amazingly fast rate of fire, not to mention an attack bonus against halberders. An infantry army will get crushed by these. Perhaps the best thing is that they have an attack bonus against siege, meaning that mass rams or trebs will get annihilated. Onagers aren't a problem either, except in large number. Just watch out for skirmishers and paladins. Persian War Elephant - The most difficult unit to kill with an incredible 620 hit points. These elephants in large numbers will destroy anything if used correctly, counter or no counter, and I'll teach you how to do just that, just look in the Persian section. Saracen Mameluke - These things are hands down the best unique unit in the game. With the ability to shred calvary, all forms of infantry (even Eagle Warriors), skirmishers, and buildings with their ranged attack, they are well worth the expensive price. Just be weary of archers, onagers, and scorpions and everything will be fine. This is easy since the mames can move quickly. Facing a Persian? Just mass these and watch the Dumbos drop. Spanish Conquistador - Perhaps the only thing that does not make the Spanish a top 3 civ is the Conquistador. It's expensive, slow to attack, and does what every other ranged unit does for much cheaper. It's not a bad unit, but there are much better, and the Spanish are more of a well-rounded civ anyway. Beware of archers and calvary. Teutonic Knight - These things are devastating. Don't make too many, but they are very necessary, as they will shred all mounted units and infantry, with the exception of Jaguar Warriors, which is a fairly even match-up. Most players will build an offense around stopping these however, so be careful. Teutonic Knights with siege will take you a long way. Steer clear of archers when using these. Turks Janissary - A ranged unit that really only excels against infantry. It has a very damaging attack, but is slow to fire and has very low hit points. In large numbers it can be hard to kill, but the same is true for virtually all ranged units. Your best bet is to make no more than 15 of these and use them to protect your bombard. Onagers and archers can waste Janissaries, so be on the lookout. Viking Beserk - This is arguable one of the worst unique units, along with the Samurai and woad raider. Your best bet is to talk with your ally and have him not build infantry so he can fill the holes of your weak unit. It is useful for Goth rushes however. *********************************** 7. Commonly Played Death Match Maps *********************************** Believe it or not, most Death Match players play only a few types of maps. The five listed here are the main ones you'll find people playing, it would benefit you to learn them well. Arabia: A map filled with sand and very few tries. There are some patches of water, but they are fairly small. Black Forest: A map that's cover with trees, you will have to use the non-forest paths primarily, but cutting through trees with siege onagers is a perfect way to make a surprise attack. Blue Arabia: Like Arabia, but on green land, with no water, and more trees, but not too much more. This map allows for your enemy to hit you from virtually any side, so be careful and watch out for sneak attacks. Green Arabia: Like blue Arabia but more trees still. More opportunities for sneak attacks too. Your best off building a castle in the back of your base. Oasis: A big lake surrounded by trees fills the middle of this map, meaning that battle takes place on two fronts, one on one side of the lake, the other on the opposite side of the lake. This map usually leads to long games, as it is difficult to completely sweep the map. Especially since the enemy can cut through the trees, take the middle, and establish a defense of many boats. *************** 8. Trade Routes *************** The most important resource for funding your army is without a doubt gold (except for the Persians). Since gold is finite on the map, you will at some point have to start using trade carts. Obviously the earlier the better, but it's also important to build markets for the carts to trade at far away from each other. The further the better, when it comes to markets, just don't make them TOO easy for your enemies to reach. It is also important to make sure no sneak attacks on your trade happen, as many games can be determined by having trade (in fact, this is how most games are won). Building a castle by the trade route will do you good. In the raiding section, I will teach you how to stop enemy trade. One last important note, you can't trade in 1v1 games. *********** 9. Economy *********** Death Match economy is almost important as the army, as the player who can constantly pump out troops fighting against one who has a large army but poor resources, will be victorious, counter or no counter. This means you must put a strong focus on your economy, obviously the earlier the better. For this you will usually want: 20-30 peasants on food 20-30 peasants on wood 30-40 trade carts 10-30 peasants on gold/stone These numbers differ at various point in the game. For example, if you are just starting off, you will want more peasants on gold, approximately 40. This is important, especially if you try to steal an enemy gold mine. In this event, take peasants off of wood and food and wait til you are below 5,000 to start on those (if the gold mines are still around). You want approximately 100 peasants at all times, as this will allow you to fund an expensive and formidable army at all times. I said you should start your economy early, but at what point did I mean? Experts usually start theirs around the sixth minute mark, but anywhere in the first ten minutes is alright. It is important to establish your economy fast and at points when you will not have to worry about your enemy, as focusing on your eco will give the enemy time to do his own economy, or launch an attack. For this reason, it is good to build an army as fast as possible and attack your enemy, so he is unable to start his economy. Unless your attack fails miserably and you spent a lot of gold, it will serve you well to delay your enemies economy as often as possible. ************ 10. Population ************ Unless you are playing as the Huns, your population should be the primary focus within your first five minutes of the game, this means building houses and making infantry to defend your base and to attack. For this, you should place one of your starting three villagers on a house. Never place two, as placing two does not build the house twice as fast (this is true, contrary to popular belief). It's best off to build a house almost exactly at where you peasant is standing. Never build far from where your villager stands as that will gain the enemy valuable time. I personally have destroyed people who tried to build their houses nice and neatly next to each other simply because I made an army in the time that they took on their house. I can't stress enough that building close to where your villager stands is important. Also, don't stop building houses. You will want to have a population of 200 at the 8 minute mark, 6 minute mark for experts. The best way to do this is have every new villager that comes from your town center build a house. ****************** 11. The Market Trick ***************** The market trick should be used only by fast players. It basically involves making the market your very first building, then, once it's up, sell a moderate amount of food and wood for gold so you will get an overall average of about 3,000 more than your opponent for the mere price of having to start wood and food a little bit earlier. In 1v1's, this trick can sometimes determine who will win the game. The downside is that your enemy has a few more buildings up before you do, so to counteract this, immediately start making an expensive army, stuff like Paladins, Camels, Calvary Archers, and Eagle warriors. Make many more stables, archery ranges, and barracks, to get that large army quickly. ************** 12. The Aztecs ************** The Aztecs are the best infantry civ in the game, with the best champs and best anti-infantry unit. You will find that you can use champs on cavalry instead of pikemen at times, meaning an army of champs, onagers, trebs, and some jags will go quite a long way, as long as you have enough onagers. The Aztec champs are cheap and have so many uses since they deal so much damage that you should always add them to your army. If your enemy is the Brits or Mayans or Huns, the use skirms as well as onagers for the archers. Their extra damaging Eagle Warriors are great for raiding an enemy's siege, as well as interrupting their economy. Put a great focus on using the Eagle Warriors on where the enemy wouldn't expect, as their speed and attack are deadly. Don't add them to your primary army though. Since Jags are a useful but not vital part of your offense, you can build your castles offensively with the Aztecs, so build them near critical gold mines and near the battle front. Also, use trebs and rams with the Aztecs often, as they don't have much else that can stand an attack from a castle or bombard. *************** 13. The Britons *************** The Britons are hands down the best ranged unit civ in the game. They have, however, one of the worst start offs, as other civs build faster and their scout is easily killed. Once a Brit is fully established though, he is virtually impossible to stop. Your offense should revolve around Longbow men, trebs, and maybe some onagers or cavaliers, but primarily trebs and longbow men. You will want to make your enemy regret building castles with about 10-15 trebs. That many will take down a castle in less than 10 seconds. As for longbow men, a decent swarm is 60, although I prefer 80. With this many, most units won't be able to even touch the longbow men, as their range is superior to anything else in the game besides trebs. As for your start off, you're going to want to make halberders and champs, but don't make them take up too much of your population limit, so consider sending them off to die at your enemies base, but slowing any attack he might send at you in the process. If you're facing a Brit, an early champion rush can work wonders, as few Briton players make cavaliers. Other than that, mass onagers and skirmishers, but don't expect the counter to wipe them out, as longbow men in large numbers can be difficult to kill with anything you use. ****************** 14. The Byzantines ****************** The Byzantines are a fairly defensive civ, but have an all around good offense. Their countering units, camels, skirmishers, and halberdiers are all 25% cheaper, so an army of those and of Cataphracts will dominate any non-siege and non-bombard using team. Goodnight Aztecs and Mayans. Remember, don't get lazy, you've got good counters! That being said, if you see siege, obviously make some of your own, and use bombard to establish small bases close to your enemy. A good army would be cataphracts, camels, skirmishers, onagers, and a few trebs. Nothing will stop that, short of just a ton of siege. So bring a few villagers along to build bombard in the event of mass siege. Other than that, there is not much else I can say on the Byzantines, just make sure you use a good amount of variety and don't neglect resources. ************* 15. The Celts ************* The Celts have the best siege in the whole game, making them the third best civ when used correctly. Everything has more hit points and fires 20% faster, meaning in an onager battle, your onagers will fire first, kill theirs, but if yours do get hit, they will survive thanks to the hit points. All you need now is enough scorpions to make sure your onagers won't be killed by any non-siege. 40 will usually do, but I prefer an over kill amount, but 50-60 will also help. Now all you need is a few trebs for buildings and you've got an unbeatable army (most people won't allow the Turks to be played, nor the Koreans, but the Celts are alright). This being said, the Celts Woad Raider pretty much sucks compared to most units. It's speed is the only thing that salvages any dignity, but there are much better units that do the job. The Celts Paladin sucks due to an insufficient tech tree, so do the Celts archers. This means you will primarily be going for Halberdiers, after all, the only possible thing the enemy can use to stop your siege is a massive amount of cavalry, but the scorpions will eat that alive. With the halbs, it won't even be a contest. As long as you have something delaying the enemy from hitting the siege for a few seconds (while the siege hits back), you've got nothing to worry about. Even villagers protecting the siege will work, believe it or not. As I've said, the Celts use siege and Halberdiers, so wood is your worry, and it's a big one. You'll want about 40 villagers on wood, don't worry about food, as the Halberdiers don't use much. Put 10 villagers on it if you'd like though. Other than that, trade some food in for gold. *************** 16. The Chinese *************** The Chinese start off with 6 villagers instead of 3 and their town centers house 10 population, so the Chinese are the second best anti- rushing civilization (keep this in mind against the Huns), but also remember that this extra start off can give the Chinese a deadly rush (camels, cav archers, and rams). Start off with 2 villagers on houses, and the other 4 individually on whatever you want. The Chinese have a somewhat diverse playing style, but it's hard to match certain types of units together, so go on the offensive and this won't be much of a problem. The Chinese have the best scorpions in the game after the Celts, so add these to your offense, with a few onagers for protection. After that, you will want an army of champs, camels, and cho ku nos. Use castles defensively and bombard defensively or offensively, since you won't have many castles (you're using the stone for bombard), and you can place the bombard in lots of places. Chu Ku Nos will destroy most archers, so you won't have a problem there. The main difficulty will be with onagers, so be careful. When playing the Chinese, NEVER rush, as it will almost never work. ************** 17. The Franks ************** The Franks have the best cavalry in the game, but with all the counters to cavalry in the game, that doesn't mean much. Nonetheless, Frankish Paladins combined with Champs to prevent possible counters is a pretty formidable force. Add onagers and some trebs, and you've got an army that could easily win you the game. In addition to great paladins, the Franks have cheap castles, which means you should be using at least some castles offensively. One trick is to rush in with paladins while your villagers stand behind and quickly work on castles close to the enemy base. Castles are the ultimate in defense keep in mind, better than bombard because they can produce units to defend themselves, so definitely put those cheap castles to good use. Other than that, you shouldn't need to worry about much if you substitute champs for throwing axemen, since they are roughly the same price, but champs do more damage and can take on camels (a paladin predator). Just be weary of the Teutons who eat throwing axemen for breakfast with their large army and the Saracens, whose camels annihlate Paladins. Throwing axemen should do the job for mamelukes. ************* 18. The Goths ************* The Goths are the second best rushing civ, next to the Huns. The Goths Huskarls come out incredibly fast and can come from your barracks (very useful), meaning that the real challenge is to build houses fast enough. For this reason, always keep a keen focus on houses, as a barracks queue full of Huskarls will pump them all out in about 90 seconds. Huskarls themselves are slightly weaker than champs, but are nearly invulnerable to archers with their high hit points, meaning that if you are going against a non-archer civ, you must attack early and beat them with your large numbers, but if you face an archer civ, take it slow if you'd like. I can't stress enough that it's easy to outnumber an enemy with Huskarls, so always make sure that you do, unless you are moving slow, then you will want other things in your army like halberdiers (which come out very fast too), and siege, and maybe a few archers. Just make sure you get more food than usual, as pumping out those guys can prove costly. Since arrows do very little to Huskarls, if you see a castle undefended, by all means swarm it and take it out! It's easily done. Don't skip siege though, the Goths are an in-your-face civ, attacking hard and often, so trebs work, but rams are probably the better bet. Keep in mind that Huskarls will work just fine as long as your enemy doesn't use Paladins or cavaliers, or if he doesn't use a unique infantry unit (but you should have some archers along to stop that anyway). So you will waste civs like the Mayans, Brits, Saracens, Chinese, and Mongols usually. If you're facing a Goth, make lots of champs, but be careful, as Huskarls are very fast and aren't much weaker than champs. Also make lots of cavalry. ************ 19. The Huns ************ The Huns are a must-rush civ in death matches, making them unique from other civ. They have the weakest siege of any civ, anything besides rams and trebs is inexcusable, no matter what the circumstances. The advantage the Huns have over other civs however is that they do not need houses, making it incredibly easy to amass a huge army while your opponent constantly needs to stop production due to population limits. Take advantage of this at all times. Start Off - The very first thing you should do is send out your scout to the enemy base. Then build either a market, or make stables and archery ranges. Go for a combination of Paladins and cavalry archers, or trick them into thinking you will come with paladins and mass 60 cavalry archers and storm in. This works phenomenally well since the cavalry archers are cheap, they move fast, and in such a large quantity so early can't often be stopped, even if you have the counter. If you try to rush and fail, you will lose as your enemy will more than likely just build lots of siege and you won't be able to counter since Huns siege is horrible. Never use Tarkans unless you know you're going to win, as they cost as much but are worse than Paladins. Their attack bonus against buildings is useful, but your enemy will kill your Tarkans in the process. Lastly, always save some gold so you can pump out a cavalry archer brigade, as they can work wonders on an enemy that makes mistakes, like leaving trade routes open or leaves infantry by themselves. **************** 20. The Japanese **************** The Japanese are the second worst civ in the game, only the Vikings are worse. Why? Because the Japanese have bad cavalry, siege, and archers. Their fast attacking infantry is nothing special, especially when compared to a Teutonic Knight. The only real purpose it would be for is against Elephants (halberdiers), and maybe against a Goths player. The Samurai are a horrible unit, much like the Vikings Beserk, many unique units counter them. They are expensive for infantry as well. In fact, the only really useful thing for the Japanese are the trebuchets, which I must admit are incredibly powerful. They fire extremely fast, as well as pack/unpack. For this reason, a Japanese army should be fast, be able to stop onagers, and should hit with surprise. When I do play them, I go for about 20 trebs, and watch a whole town disappear in less than a minute. Basically, a Japanese army should consist of Samurai, some Halbs, and cavalry archers. You will need onagers to protect against siege too. The rest of your army should be trebs, make plenty of them. Trebs, actually, in large quantities can stop lots of onagers. Just space them out into two groups and have them focus fire on large areas. Other than that, good luck, you'll need it. Your eco should be well diversified. *************** 21. The Koreans *************** The Koreans are the best civ in the games hands down. Why? Three reasons, they have the best bombard in the game (tied with the Turks). They have the best onagers in the game. Lastly, they have the best ranged unit in the game, the War Wagon. Combining these 3 is an unbeatable strategy, the only thing one needs to win with when playing the Koreans is an early rush defense. Now then, the basic strategy with the Koreans is to build many bombard towers quickly, approximately 20-25. The back these up with about 20 onagers, 40 halberds, 2 trebs, 2 bombard cannons and about 15 War Wagons. Nothing in the game will stop this defense, as trebs are destroyed by the Koreans long-range onagers, rams will get killed by halberds and onagers, and anything that tries to break through the defense will get squashed by a combination of bombard, war wagons, and onagers. All you have to do is place your onagers so they aren't all together, so a group of paladins won't do a suicide run on them and slowly push on the enemy until you are at the his base. The game is all but won. Now that I've said that, you can actually use any 2 of the 3 Korean "super units". Onagers with bombard towers, Onagers with War Wagons, or War Wagons with bombard will all work just fine. The only difficult part is getting the resources to replace your army, but this is a death match, so that shouldn't be a problem, especially if you started on resources early. If you are facing a Korean, you're best bet is to double team his ally, so you won't even have to face him for awhile, since he will be building up that super defense I told you about. Other than that, rush him as soon as possible, as the defense is impossible to take out once it has started. ************** 22. The Mayans ************** The Mayans are the least expensive civ in the game, there are instances when I play them in which I never have to start food or wood. Given that, it's best to sell wood and food early, put 20 villagers on each, and never have to worry about those two resources again. Gold will be your only problem, as you will not need to worry about stone since the Mayans only need stone for castles. The Mayans have an anti-archer oriented cast of units, the Eagle Warrior and the Plumed Archer are at the top of the list, as both can destroy archers (hint: want to beat a Britons easily? Go mayans!). The plumed archers can also eliminate all infantry easily too, meaning the only challenge, but a huge challenge indeed, for the mayans is cavalry. If your enemy has weak cavalry, you will win. Even with the Eagle Warriors attack bonus against mounted units (which is very weak), you'll have a hard time. This means if you see the enemy has stables, you must make halberdiers. The enemy can go crazy with cavalry and can over run a huge army of Eagles and Plumed archers, so be careful. Halberds can slow down a very fast mayan army however, so either attack early when cavalry isn't winning due to the number game, or make halberdiers and wait for the eventual army. Eagle Warriors are definitely one of the top units in the game, aside from their rich skills in raiding economies and wiping out archers, these guys are much better than cavalry at taking out siege. With their extra hit points, they can take much abuse, run in and close the gap quickly with siege, and wipe it out due to their bonus hit points. Always heavily guard your siege when playing a Mayans or Aztecs player. Lastly, the Mayans actually have decent siege, so in times of desperation, go for scorpions if you think the move is right. Their onagers aren't bad either. The Mayans are a fast team though, so establish your siege quickly if you think you will need it. *************** 23. The Mongols *************** The Mongols are probably the best ranged attack team in the game after the Koreans. The downside is that this ranged attack takes much time to build up. The big counter to ranged attacks is calvary, so make sure to build some camels, not too much though. A few champs will do you some good too. As for siege, the Mongols have the fastest moving siege in the game. Although it's considered by some a dirty tactic, siege can easily win games. Some make sure you've got a couple of scorpions, onagers, and definitely use the Mongols rams, as they are fast and lethal. One tactic is to use rams on enemy siege units, as they can kill any siege in two hits! Your most important part of the offense besides siege is Mangundai, abuse these babies as they are the best part of the Mongols offense, wiping out almost anything. Just make sure you put a couple of camels in front of them to defend them. Since the Mongols are mainly a wood and gold civ, you should either sell your extra food for gold, or make a few hussars brigades to surprise opponents and take out their siege. The extra bonus hit points for the Mongols hussars are a little helpful, but hussars still suck. **************** 24. The Persians **************** The Persians are one of those teams that has a great unique unit that you just want to exploit. Elephants in large numbers are hard to stop, their only counters are halberds, mamelukes, and scorpions, so if you're facing a non-saracen team that lacks in the counter, definitely go with Elephants. More than likely however, the enemy will prepare for your elephants with many halberds and scorpions together, this double counter will thrash elephants, so you will sometimes want to use calvary archers or hand cannonners, a bombard cannon or two, a few onagers and maybe a few scorps, depending on what resources you have in excess. Personally, I prefer elephants with onagers, cavalry archers, and a few bombard cannons. It's important to make sure you bring trebs or rams along to, as elephants are good siege, but those things do the job much better. One strategy I often use is called "The Elephant Factory", it starts off with your first villager building 2 houses while your other two make a castle. From there you make 5 more castles (6 in all) before making anything else and just constantly pump out elephants. Within 10 minutes, you'll have about 80 elephants, an army that is hard to stop unless you made a counter from the very beginning. Not even a large army of pikemen will stop this, only siege and mamelukes. Once the castles are up, make about 55 farms, put 25 on wood, and put 30 on gold in some fashion or another. One last tip for the elephant factory is to include rams, as once you wipe out the enemy defense, you can send in the rams to destroy everything else and use the surviving elephants to wipe out another enemy. When playing as the Pers however, no matter what strategy you use, it's important that you use elephants correctly. This means pulling them back when halberds come but sending them in when you see Paladins, other infantry, or archers. Elephants take so much abuse that castles aren't much of a threat, but always make sure you have some siege to take down those castles quickly. If you see bombard, make rams, and many of them, 15 rams will destroy A LOT. **************** 25. The Saracens **************** The Saracens have two of the best units in the game, the Mameluke, and the Saracen camel. I've explained the Mameluke in the unique units section, as for the camel, it has 170 hit points and is the perfect rushing unit. One on one, it will kill any regular unit in the game - anything! This means that you simply need to out produce your enemy to win. If you kill his villagers while rushing, this is an easy task, making the Saracens the third best rushing civ in the game. Not to mention that they have a trade bonus in which they get more gold for trading in wood and food, take advantage of that early and often. The only thing that can present a problem with a Mameluk army is onagers and archers, so counter this with onagers of our own. Mass them, like 25, and with Mamelukes, you've got quite an army. A bombard cannon here or there doesn't hurt either. This type of army is expensive and hard to build early, so go for camels early on, as I said earlier, a Saracen camel rush can work wonders. If your enemy is going Saracens, the best counter is either the Teutons or the Mayans, with Teutonic Knight and Plumed Archers respectively. Otherwise, calvary archers, halberds, and onagers will do. *************** 26. The Spanish *************** With the extra quick building time and powerful villagers, the Spanish are the best anti-rushing civ and fourth best rushing civ in the game. There are so many advantages to the Spanish, it's no wonder they are so commonly played. They've got an excellent tech tree, so diversity is important, but make sure that you add a little bit of siege to your army, primarily onagers and bombard cannons. Don't forget to build bombard on new establishments though, as the Spanish do it the fastest. You can pretty much go into a game and improvise when you see you need something new to your strategy with the Spanish, but a quick attack and then defending the newly gained area will work well. Due to their extra fast gold mining, being aggressive is a much better thing, and it allows you to keep your population focused on militia. Don't forget to take advantage of their 33% more profitable trade though too. The Spanish are powerful with defense or offense, or both! *************** 27. The Teutons *************** The Teutons are a beginner team but not much more. The difficulty in playing the Teutons is that their units are good, but fairly expensive and thus difficult to combine. A great strategy is using Teutonic Knights and siege, but it takes an extremely long time to ever even start this, and your opponents will be able to attack if you go slow. Many like to build halberders early on, but they can take up much of your population if you want to effectively use them, but that means you won't have enough for Paladins, siege, T. Knights, and bombard. Others like to go for bombard and siege, but still, that will only work on slow enemies, and it won't gain you any ground. For these reasons, the Teutons should be avoided once you begin intermediate play. Aside from effectively using the Teutons in a speedy and cheap manner, they are a great civ. Teutonic Knights rip up infantry and calvary, try to make a point of it to always have 10-15. One time I killed 50 Halberds with 7 Teutonic Knights. Their power is amazing. On a final note, take advantage of their bombard and above average siege. ************* 28. The Turks ************* The Turks are the other team that is usually banned from the zone, as they have some of the dirtiest strategies imaginable. Your start off should consist of one bombard tower up fairly early to protect against a possible rush and then quickly grab a large chunk of the map and build bombard non-stop. If you can get up just one bombard tower, you will usually have established the land you wanted, so try to steal a gold mine and trap the enemy. You will want to buy stone as well, so sell wood and food, and make sure you have plenty of gold. Don't stop mining stone on the map either, the more the better. Once you start building bombard towers, the only thing that will stop it is if the enemy either runs around it, or uses trebs and rams. To stop them from running around it, make sure you circle their base with bombard. As for trebs and rams, make sure you make many bombard cannons and champs, as the turkish bombard cannons have a very long range and waste trebs, and mass champs will destroy rams. About 40 will do you good. Keep building bombard, at least 30 towers, but if you have stone, by all means make more! One you feel that you've squeezed the life out of your opponents resources, move in for the kill, take out his castles with bombard cannons and build towers close to your cannons to protect them. Since you aren't making much else than bombard and champs, make at least 15-20 bombard cannons. When things look bad, simply pull them back and let your bombard protect them. An easy and commonly used strategy that can even frustrate experts. Nothing else is needed for the Turks. *************** 29. The Vikings *************** The Vikings are the worst civ in the game, most people only play them when they get them by random by accident. If you do get them, prepare to take a beating. The Vikings have no one unit that will give them an edge over another army. Decent cavalry, decent archers, and good infantry, but what will infantry do since there are so many counters to it? Some are duped into believing that an army of Viking Beserks will thrash another army, then heal itself, and then be as good as new. The problem with Beserks is that almost every other unique unit counters them, and for those who don't have a countering unique unit, they're probably using something that would counter them anyway. All the archers destroy berserks, mamelukes, cataphracts, samurai, Teutonic Knights, and Jags all dominate Beserks. That leaves Woad Raiders and Huskarls. Now, the Celts player isn't going to use Woad Raiders anyway because they stink, and the Goths player, well he is the only one you will have an advantage over. The extra hit points for infantry is the only thing going for the Vikings, but that won't help. All you can do is make siege, some berserks, and try to get an economy that gets lots of food, and hope you don't get beaten too badly. *********************** 30. Advanced Strategies *********************** This is the most important part of this whole FAQ. I will list the key terms and strategies: Clumping - Build 6 castles, a house, and barracks along with your town center in a circular manner so nobody can get in. There is a good article about how to do this on www.mrfixitonline.com Clustering - A start off in which you build everything closely around your town center, as it optimizes the ability to get buildings up faster, get an army faster, but it also is a great defense against rushes, as most people will try to pick off your villagers but will have a hard time navigating through your base. Rushing - One of the most common strategies on the zone. It is used even by rookies, but is deadly with an expert. It entails attacking your enemies base as soon as possible so you can kill his villagers so they won't get many military buildings up, so you can easily overwhelm his army. This is one of the most important strategies in the game as it is always used in expert rooms, and is usually found in intermediate and rookie rooms. To rush, you must send your scout out as soon as possible to harass the enemy villagers, you must then build military buildings and queue them to the enemy base so they get their ASAP. Here are a few tips for rushing 1. Try to kill villagers that are building houses, this way you can halt the enemies chances of creating militia. 2. Send your scout out as soon as possible. 3. Ask your allies to give you resources when you need them to support the rush if you are doing well.
4.	If your ally is willing, tell him to help out by sending stuff to 
the enemy base, especially his scout.
5.	Never rush with just one thing, unless you are the Goths. Come in 
with two things, as they will probably not have your counter, but 
you will definitely have theirs. 
6.	Use something fast and come in with large numbers!
7.	Keep killing villagers, don't let them build new buildings!
8.	Consider massing cavalry archers, because if their initial army 
can't beat them, they will definitely lose.
9.	Be careful, because your enemy may escape with one villager, this 
could eventually lead to him building a new base.

Anti-rushing - there are a few ways to stop rushes, most people just 
build lots of halberdiers, but this will get crushed by everything. 
Three really good ways to stop are rush are:
1.	Have one of your first villagers immediately work on a bombard 
tower.
2.	Send your scout to the enemy base to see what they are coming 
with and build your counter accordingly.
3.	Have a villager in a hard to reach spot start on a castle.

Tunnel - On maps with lots of trees, use a siege onager or a couple and 
have them aim at the trees and clear a path. This is a rookie tactic, 
but is pretty powerful when done quickly. Your best bet is to clear a 
path to a part where there is minimal defense.

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31. Team Work
*************

Certain civs go well together, like the Celts and Persians, because the 
Celts need wood but don't need food, and the Persians need food, but 
don't need wood. As a result, these two teams can trade each other the 
resources they don't need and can greatly help their ally. Other teams 
like this are:
Mongols and Persians
Britons and Persians
Mayans, Persians, and Celts
You get the idea

Another tip is to do double team attacks, in 2v2, quickly double 
rushing one enemy so you can eliminate him. This means that one person 
on the double rush team will be open for an attack, but this is 
nullified by the fact that you won't take as much abuse as the person 
double rushed. Another way to nullify the attack is by clumping, this 
way the enemy can only get into your base with siege.

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32. Thanks
**********

Thanks to Microsoft for making this game, CjayC for hosting this FAQ, 
the NMK clan, DOA clan, the godlike clan, and ChrisandNick_0 for 
providing so many laughs.

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33. Contact
***********

Have a question I didn't answer? Have useful advice? Find a mistake? E-
mail me at whose_your_daddy_1999@yahoo.com