Fans have been both clamoring for a new entry and worrying that a new entry won’t do the series justice.Īge of Empires IV feels like an attempt to capitalize on AoE II’s momentum while welcoming new fans to the series-and to a real-time strategy (RTS) genre that’s suffered a dearth of major releases-while sloughing off 22 years of accumulated nuances and oddities that have made AoE II both beloved by fans and intimidating to newcomers. Released in 1999, AoE II is now seeing tournaments with 75,000 viewers and $87,000 prize pools, thanks to a vibrant Twitch and YouTube scene, and the release of 2019’s Definitive Edition. That it even exists is partially because Age of Empires II has enjoyed a massive resurgence. Also have 2-3 of each military unit building (Barracks, Archery Ranges, Stables), so you can make reinforcements quicker.Age of Empires IV is the first mainline Age of Empires game in 16 years, and a wait of that magnitude creates expectations. Make sure you always have more queued, if you run out of gold it’s okay to build cheap units, they are still good at throwing torches at enemy siege weapons. You can press Shift + Left Click on a military unit in the Barracks etc. This way you maintain a steady flow of new units while the enemy attacks. When a unit dies, it will automatically start creating a new unit. You can keep putting them in the queue after reaching the population limit.
Feel free to allocate most of your workforce to it. Wonders take a relatively long time to build, but if you have 30 workers it takes less than a minute.You can also use the environment to your advantage, enemies can’t pass through trees. So when the game starts, set aside a large chunk of land in a strategic location that’s easy to fence in behind walls & keeps. If you also build Keeps around it, it will take up a ton of space. About as much as a farm with one line of fields around it on each side. Remember that Landmarks take up a lot of space.Playing a defensive civilization such as England can also help, they have Landmarks that buff your other defensive buildings and nearby military units. Because stone is the primary resource you need to build Keeps. If you know that you want a victory by Wonder, you should focus many of your workers on gathering stone from the beginning.Also remember to buy all upgrades for your Keeps and Outposts. Basically, you want to make it impossible for the enemy to break your defences. Having already built up a few Keeps in the early game around your village can also help to slow down the enemy. The enemy Infantry & Cavalry should get shredded by your Outposts and Keeps. The siege weapons are the most dangerous to your Wonder and Outposts / Keeps. Focus them on siege enemy weapons first, your melee units will throw torches which is the fastest way to destroy siege weapons. Also build high-quality military units, the 2nd type of Cavalry and 2nd type of Infantry that cost gold are strongest, especially when fully upgraded. It’s expensive but makes it very hard for the enemy to penetrate to the Wonder, because the Keeps and Outposts will kill any infantry that goes near them.
You can fence in the Wonder behind several Keeps and put rows of Stone Walls and Outposts in front of the Keeps. Then you can use the excess gold to buy stone or wood. If you have an excess of food, sell it to get gold. Use the Market (Age II building) to buy & sell resources to get 3000 of each.Then the Wonder icon can be selected and you can start to build it.īeware that once the Wonder is built, the enemies will be alerted and its location will be revealed to all opponents. You need 3000 of each resource to build it. Chances are that this icon will be grayed out, which is why it’s easy to overlook.Click on any villager (worker) and it will be the bottom icon under Age IV buildings. At Age IV, the Wonder becomes available for building.Each landmark advances to the next age (I > II > III > IV), so keep doing this until you reach Age IV, which is the final age. You do this by clicking on a villager (worker), then select the 5th icon in the 1st row on the bottom left window. First you must reach Age IV by building Landmarks that advance the age.