Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors

[Psychoti]

Ah, had a good multiplayer game of this today.  I was the Britons and was playing cooperatively with a friend (Koreans) up against 3 computer opponents.  Two of the computer opponents were teamed and the last was a lone wolf.

It started slowly for me, but he was caught between two of them and was having a difficult time at it.  I lucked out, and this is how the map was:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Lone Wolf _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Me_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Friend_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Enemy 1_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Enemy 2 _ _ __ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

So I was relatively safe, and as soon as I got my first wooden palisade up I started building my forces.  I stick mainly to bowmen and cavalry, with siege engines (onagers for the most part) in groups to break down enemy fortifications  quickly while the archers and cavalry beat back any enemy resistance.  Well, that was the plan.

Almost right off the get-go, my pal was in deep doo-doo.  Repeated forays by the Lone Wolf (I think they were Japanese, but that might have been Enemy 2) and the Franks.  Despite fierce opposition he was able to get a VERY small stone wall up, blocking the primary attack route by the Lone Wolf, and making a sort of killing zone with his own forces ready to fight off the LW.  Meanwhile, the other Enemy was sending his forces up and together the teamed Enemies were cutting through his other front.  I had to send the majority of my cavalry over alone, following behind with 10 crossbowmen and a couple builders.  The enemy had alot of siege weapons, which my cavalry debigulated, reducing my own forces over there to 4 in the process.  In the meantime I built a guard tower in the center of his line, and piled some of the crossbowmen in to provide some good support.  Finally he was able to get some men-at-arms or swordsmen or whatever down there to block the enemies push.  It was really very cool, made all the cooler by the real-time voice chat we were using at the time.  It was pretty hard, but after the Lone Wolf used most of his forces in a foolish attempt to attack both of us at once I pushed back from the West and the South with my archer/onager combo and decimated his forces, eliminating him from the game.  By that time the Enemy Team got their act together and completely stonewalled their area, making it difficult to get in.  So I built up about 30 onagers, split them into 5 groups of 6, and attacked from 6 areas at once while backed up with my pal's Archer-carts and archers. I set half of the onagers in each group to attack ground targets where the enemies took to repairing their damaged walls, killing the builders as soon as they got in position.  After pushing in several areas and weakening their ability to repair, my pal sent in the lion's share of his ground forces through one of the breaches with the intent to destroy as many farms as they could in a hurry.  The onagers nearby piled through that breach, destroying all the buildings they could before they were swarmed and destroyed.  However, Enemy 1 gave up soon after because he was out of food and we'd destroyed alot of Houses and Farms.  Enemy 2 was slightly harder as he had the whole game to prepare.  Thankfully, we'd recovered our losses and then some and it was just a matter of time.  The same tactics prevailed here as they did against the last enemy, and he fell to pieces.

Damn, that was fun.

[Derek R.]

Nothing like a good old game of Empires- Wouldn't be interested in some Dawn of War, would you Psy?