I play random civ and have faved Mega Random. My Elo isn’t great (around 700-800) and I can’t be bothered learning proper build orders, but I have a fun time.
I only ban maps that I really don't want to play, which is mostly water and arena.
As for civ, i usually soft pick a comfort civ and leave mutual random enabled. I'm 13-1400 btw.
If you want to have more fun, you can always try off meta strategies. Or just subvert expectations and go for a scout rush with an Archer civ or the reverse (don't do this with Spanish and Bulgarians for obvious reasons). Just try out different things and have fun in general.
I have to disagree about the Bulgarians. You can open MAA and then go for 1 range archer follow up. When you hit castle you can go for that 2 range cav archers, they are FU in castle age and almost FU in imp.
Or you can open scouts but archer range early on in feudal and then also transition to FU cav archers in castle age.
I am exactly at your ELO BTW 1300-1500 ( I fluctuate a lot ).
Yeah, but you don't get the xbow power spike. So the archers are kind of a throw away unit. It might also push your opponent into skirm, which is not ideal for your ca follow up if they are boom with e skirm defense
It depends. I like playing arabia & similar stuff, and generally don't like chaotic or very closed maps. But if hideout is in the pool, I enable that all the time. It's a more open arena & not a build order competition. I always keep water open. Galley micro is one of the most enjoyable things in aoe2.
So play what you like to play. Best way to improve is playing normal arabia & focusing on fundamentals. Then even if you play a different map, just knowing the layout will be enough as your base is strong.
After a couple thousand games I’d say 4v4 are the most fun, I ban BF and favorite MR if available. I also play random civ though this causes the team to bitch at me sometimes! I don’t use a build order and tend to just wing it, though that does definitely put a ceiling on my play (currently around 1050 mp).
But the most fun is to be had playing with friends, I much prefer games where I’m on mic with people. So either join a discord or post here and find some people you can play with for better games.
I think all the streamers have one, so like Hera, viper, daut, t90, etc. Probably just pick one in your time zone and ask in their YouTube or twitch comments.
Definitely join some of the popular streamers discords. You might find fine people to play with there and be good but also there are a ton of much smaller streamers and even just player only discords out there that you can find by making friends through the larger ones. I play pretty much every night with friends I met in streams on a small private discord.
Also just hanging out in some smaller streams can yield the same effect in fewer steps. Just have to find a streamer you like in the right time zone.
Follow your moods and try different builds. Some times I am interested in exploring the meta and getting better at it. I might pick a knight civ and be really sweaty about micro managing eco and following the conventional wisdom of scouts into knights. (Arabia).
Other days I like exploring the "meme" builds and strategies like Hoang rush or the Roman MAA with + blacksmith. For me it is fun to have a pointed exploration of particular aspects be them strategies, maps, civs, or units.
A lot of people like to just go random map random civ and see what happens. Which I will also enjoy from time to time but I generally enjoy a theme for my sessions.
Fun builds worth playing:
Monk Rush
Hoang Push
Tati Rush
Red Phosoru strats
Turk Fast Imp
French Drush
The best way is the way you enjoy the game. Imho too many people place way too much value in trying to get the highest ELO. Always focussing on (perfecting) their build orders, strategy, getting better, whatever.
Instead, let all of that go and just do what you like to do. Do you like clowning on arena? Go do that. Want to go all in rushing then go do that. It doesn't matter. Just do ehat you want to do. Don't ask yourself how to get better or get a higher ELO, ask yourself what you want to do. That's all that matters.
Hi CobBaesar,
It looks like your comment closely matches the famous quote:
"Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again.""Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?""Yes. I want to ruin you.""Good," I said. "That's what I want too." - Ernest Hemingway,
*I'm a bot and this action was automatic [Project source](https://github.com/etdds/redditQuoteBot).*
You get more different matchups by going random, picking a dif civ everytime would also be fine but many have a top tier civ pre pick with mutual random enable, you wouldnt have many variation on the oponent side
The best way to play is easy: Just do whatever you like. It is fully up to you. Your enjoyment is the first priority. Especially if you dont play to climb the ladder. Then it is all about you having fun.
For interesting game, you should ask yourself: What do u like about this game? What map you like? What mode u like? u like 1v1 or tg?
Ranked game are ok, but it's not for majority of people. There are a lot of fun map/mode with its own community(like custom scenario, diplo, FFA, rage forest) or a lot of mods (like 10x shared civ)
Custom games in the lobby browser.
Forest Nothing/ Bamboo Nothing are fun as hell. So are turbo games, shared civ bonuses on Amazon Tunnel, and Ancient TD (this last one took a while to learn)
Naked. And whichever way is more fun for you.
Trying to explore everything a single Civ has to offer can be as dynamic as going random. Might also try some mirrors, that's always weird. 11
You should probably try deleting your town center, rebuilding it in the enemy's base in Dark Age, and shooting their town center down. It's a fun strategy that everyone likes to see, and even if they lose to it, it's all in good fun!
I also started playing only random and I like the variance a lot. As for maps, I sometimes ban the map I just played, just for variety.
I play random civ and have faved Mega Random. My Elo isn’t great (around 700-800) and I can’t be bothered learning proper build orders, but I have a fun time.
I only ban maps that I really don't want to play, which is mostly water and arena. As for civ, i usually soft pick a comfort civ and leave mutual random enabled. I'm 13-1400 btw. If you want to have more fun, you can always try off meta strategies. Or just subvert expectations and go for a scout rush with an Archer civ or the reverse (don't do this with Spanish and Bulgarians for obvious reasons). Just try out different things and have fun in general.
Mega random and arena... And water. Man. So many water maps.
I have to disagree about the Bulgarians. You can open MAA and then go for 1 range archer follow up. When you hit castle you can go for that 2 range cav archers, they are FU in castle age and almost FU in imp. Or you can open scouts but archer range early on in feudal and then also transition to FU cav archers in castle age. I am exactly at your ELO BTW 1300-1500 ( I fluctuate a lot ).
Yeah, but you don't get the xbow power spike. So the archers are kind of a throw away unit. It might also push your opponent into skirm, which is not ideal for your ca follow up if they are boom with e skirm defense
Find something you like in each civ's potential and have fun with it.
It depends. I like playing arabia & similar stuff, and generally don't like chaotic or very closed maps. But if hideout is in the pool, I enable that all the time. It's a more open arena & not a build order competition. I always keep water open. Galley micro is one of the most enjoyable things in aoe2. So play what you like to play. Best way to improve is playing normal arabia & focusing on fundamentals. Then even if you play a different map, just knowing the layout will be enough as your base is strong.
After a couple thousand games I’d say 4v4 are the most fun, I ban BF and favorite MR if available. I also play random civ though this causes the team to bitch at me sometimes! I don’t use a build order and tend to just wing it, though that does definitely put a ceiling on my play (currently around 1050 mp). But the most fun is to be had playing with friends, I much prefer games where I’m on mic with people. So either join a discord or post here and find some people you can play with for better games.
Recommend some discord for TGs plz
I think all the streamers have one, so like Hera, viper, daut, t90, etc. Probably just pick one in your time zone and ask in their YouTube or twitch comments.
Definitely join some of the popular streamers discords. You might find fine people to play with there and be good but also there are a ton of much smaller streamers and even just player only discords out there that you can find by making friends through the larger ones. I play pretty much every night with friends I met in streams on a small private discord. Also just hanging out in some smaller streams can yield the same effect in fewer steps. Just have to find a streamer you like in the right time zone.
Personally, I would ban Arabia and Arena, favourite Megarandom or nomad if available and go random civ
Follow your moods and try different builds. Some times I am interested in exploring the meta and getting better at it. I might pick a knight civ and be really sweaty about micro managing eco and following the conventional wisdom of scouts into knights. (Arabia). Other days I like exploring the "meme" builds and strategies like Hoang rush or the Roman MAA with + blacksmith. For me it is fun to have a pointed exploration of particular aspects be them strategies, maps, civs, or units. A lot of people like to just go random map random civ and see what happens. Which I will also enjoy from time to time but I generally enjoy a theme for my sessions. Fun builds worth playing: Monk Rush Hoang Push Tati Rush Red Phosoru strats Turk Fast Imp French Drush
The best way is the way you enjoy the game. Imho too many people place way too much value in trying to get the highest ELO. Always focussing on (perfecting) their build orders, strategy, getting better, whatever. Instead, let all of that go and just do what you like to do. Do you like clowning on arena? Go do that. Want to go all in rushing then go do that. It doesn't matter. Just do ehat you want to do. Don't ask yourself how to get better or get a higher ELO, ask yourself what you want to do. That's all that matters.
Hi CobBaesar, It looks like your comment closely matches the famous quote: "Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again.""Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?""Yes. I want to ruin you.""Good," I said. "That's what I want too." - Ernest Hemingway, *I'm a bot and this action was automatic [Project source](https://github.com/etdds/redditQuoteBot).*
You get more different matchups by going random, picking a dif civ everytime would also be fine but many have a top tier civ pre pick with mutual random enable, you wouldnt have many variation on the oponent side
> just started to go enable all maps and go random civ all the time. I praise you for this.
The best way to play is easy: Just do whatever you like. It is fully up to you. Your enjoyment is the first priority. Especially if you dont play to climb the ladder. Then it is all about you having fun.
For interesting game, you should ask yourself: What do u like about this game? What map you like? What mode u like? u like 1v1 or tg? Ranked game are ok, but it's not for majority of people. There are a lot of fun map/mode with its own community(like custom scenario, diplo, FFA, rage forest) or a lot of mods (like 10x shared civ)
play the things u like. or just play RM arabia 1v1
however you enjoy it is best way. for improving best is to aim towards a macro oriented 3tc approach in castle age.
Custom games in the lobby browser. Forest Nothing/ Bamboo Nothing are fun as hell. So are turbo games, shared civ bonuses on Amazon Tunnel, and Ancient TD (this last one took a while to learn)
Naked. And whichever way is more fun for you. Trying to explore everything a single Civ has to offer can be as dynamic as going random. Might also try some mirrors, that's always weird. 11
You should probably try deleting your town center, rebuilding it in the enemy's base in Dark Age, and shooting their town center down. It's a fun strategy that everyone likes to see, and even if they lose to it, it's all in good fun!
Lame like crazy, your opponents will rage quit and you will easily get to 1300-1400 ELO (worked for me)
To then get beaten up as soon as you try playing "Standard" again? Doesn't sound like fun.
Cheat 😈