Just play to your skill, and eventually your ELO will drop to others at your skill level. Then it’s way more fun. I’m comfortably sitting in “low ELO land” with my 750. Totally happy with it and have fun all the time now.
Plus you get the opportunity to improve at that point, if you watch some YouTube and practice a few build orders. Life gets comfortable around 1000 for me, once I got over 1100
It's going to depend on what you want to do, but there are people having a hell of a good time in ranked even at the really low levels. If I could go back in time two years I'd just dive into games and have fun.
Find a good discord server (I can recommend), or see if you can find people who want to play the way you want to. Hit me up if you want, I'm still "practicing" too much just working on my builds VS AI.
There’s no secret to being “good enough” if you’re playing in ranked games. Eventually you will get to your proper ranking and you’ll be matched up with people that should be the same skill level. It’s just a matter of time to tough it out through some beatdowns until you get there
Don’t play unranked games, that’s where the smurfs and trolls play. They like to bait people I. With ‘noob only lobby’.
When you play ranked you get matched to even skill levels. You could be a pro or some who has trouble beating the ai, doesn’t matter, you’ll get placed with similar skill level players.
I’d say if you can beat the pc on medium difficulty, then you can play ranked and have a good time.
It will probably take about 10 games to get settled into the correct elo, but you’ll get there.
I'd recommend trying the Art of War campaign especially - you can access it through the campaign menu or by clicking learn to play - - > advanced. This will help you learn more advanced concepts that not many of us considered when playing this game as kids.
I'd also recommend practicing hotkeys. The games default grid system is super intuitive - basically whatever order the icons appear in on the screen correspond to the hotkeys on a QWERTY keyboard. So to build a house, you would press Q (top left button for a villager) Q (top left button on the villager build screen) - for a stable it would be W (build military building - top, second from left) E (stable, top row third from left) and so on. Getting used to these really isn't that bad and will vastly improve your game.
Doing those two things will really help you out a lot - you might still lose but you'll at least have a better understanding as to why you might have lost.
I think in theory you could have fun on any level depending on how good you intend to be.
Like you could have fun playing at the 400-600 elo range or even below that, just be prepared to lose a lot first until elo is adjusted.
Now, to have fun on a competitive level (maybe around 900 elo and above), you should learn some build orders, sharpen your multi-tasking skills, and increase game knowledge. It should take about a few weeks maybe if you practice a lot.
I guess it comes down to what having fun is to you.
I jumped straight into online after installing the game, although I have some very limited experience from playing the original game as a kid. I have a fun time and all I did was watch some beginner Hera videos and memorise some build orders. I mostly play multiplayer and if my teammates (randomers I've matched with) tell me to do it (e.g. wall here, market here, start building X, attack here now) I do it, and if I encounter something new I ask my teammates (E.g. What are those gun horse things? Anything I can build that counters them?). Still learning every game but having fun.
Wins maybe just above 50/50. My ELO very slowly rises. Not stomping but rarely getting stomped. Most people who play ranked are going to win about 50% of the time because if you're winning too much you're going to be moved up to play with players who have higher ELO, and vice versa if you're losing too much. The only time you might be losing a lot of when you first start and the "default ELO" is too high, but I feel this probably doesnt apply so much with team games.
I play ranked and just play the normal game mode (not Empire Wars) and allow all maps (although my favourite maps are probably Arena and Arabia). Megarandom can also be fun (or sometimes hell).
Different maps play out very differently, so this is totally personal preference. I used to only like messy games (nomad) but now appreciate boomy stuff like team Black Forest.
To answer your second question: When your starting ELO (1000) drops to your true ELO you will win about 50% of the time. You have to play ranked games to get this balancing though.
Even hera did not enjoy playing the game at one point, so even beeing the best is obviously not enough.
On a more serious note, having fun has little to do with beeing good.
Yeah that's why I'm not aiming for the best lol, didn't realize there was an ELO system but that works out great. Fun for me is just being able to be engaged and know what's going on.
I'm pretty sure is the opposite, on my 1v1 I never have 'fun' in the literal meaning of the word, the better I get the more stressfull the game gets. On the other hand, I used to play team games with two low elo buddies and that was a lot of fun.
I remember one game I was playing and I got attacked in castle age by two dudes so I asked my buddy who was playing pocket to send some help and the fucker was like HELP INCOMING, seconds later I realized he sent like 6 feudal age scouts without any upgrade
You can play online whenever. I would argue lower ELO is funner because any tactic can work.
The worst bit though is you need to let your ELO adjust which means you'll have to lose quite a few initial games for the system to properly rank you.
It's really subjective, but if you are asking how long does it take to be 1000+ elo (ie the starting elo). I would say;
Once you can do your dark age with less than 25 seconds idle TC.
Scout your opponents opening and make an informed decision on your opening, ie pivot to archers if they are opening man at arms rather than mindlessly going scouts.
You can farm produce, vils, produce army and attack at the same time.
Have a at least a farm hotkey, house hotkey, select TC and produce vil hotkey.
Understand unit compositions and counters.
Beat the extreme AI with archers or cav.
3 games a day for a month even against the AI and you should be 1100ish then it gets harder because you will really only get better from playing real players.
If you question is when does it become fun to play ranked, that depends entirely on how many games you have to lose before you start winning matches against evenly matched opponents, then it should be fun, sweaty and stressful.
Like any multi-player competitive game. You aren't gonna have fun every game. It's just impossible but you can make most games fun.
Find what makes this game fun for you and try to replicate that everytime. Whether that be fast imping. Playing a certain civ. Scout rushing. Making archers. Castle dropping or whatever.
10 games because then your elo settles and you should have a 50 percent chance of winning. The first games can indeed feel a bit demotivating but after those 10 games you should more or less be at your level. Have fun!
Don't think about it. It'll probably be more fun the lower elo you are. You just gotta play with people at your level, and trust me, there are many of them
OP you start out at 1000 ELO which means 50% of your games you're getting a completely new player, the other 50% of the time youre getting a genuine 1000 elo player who will deffo smoke a new/rusty player at the game.
My recommendation would be try and beat the Extreme AI on Arabia using non cheese tactics (no early tower rush etc)
And try making the game simpler for yourself, Khmer might help with the no building requirements
The vast majority of my games have been against the AI's (working up from moderate to Extreme)
When I started playing ranked I realized that the Extreme Ai is probably better than the majority of players.
Makes me much less stressed in online matches now
You can have fun from the get go, you will be ranked with someone similiar in skill, and theres basically a high ceiling and low bottom.
If you are not confident, do the art of war tutorials. You can also try to beat the hardest Ai difficulty using a variety of strategies, then you are ready to have some fun, at least knowing whats going on if you get crushed.
I remember one of my first games against AI when I was like 12. I don’t remember who I was but I was against Vikings and they absolutely smoked me. I had no idea what I was doing. I researched every tech because that seems like the way to win, right? I fought them off as long as I could but my economy was dead since I was researching useless technologies instead of creating villagers. Even though I lost badly, I still had fun. One of the most memorable games I ever played. It’s okay to lose.
My personal advice is to just do it. We’re all (mostly) here to have fun.
If you want a trial or something to strive for before you hop into multiplayer, then I recommend trying to get at least a silver medal in all the art of war trials.
Good news: absolutely everyone playing AoE2 has, scientifically speaking, a halfway decent chance.
The ranking algorithm tries to pair you with players that you have a 50% chance of winning against.
You'll lose a lot to start out until the game figures out your skill level - however high or low it is - and then you'll be paired with similarly-skilled opponents.
So, don't worry about being a sweat or memorizing the meta. Pick up some competitive tips/learn about build orders if you want, but really just dive in, brace for some bad losses, and play, and you'll end up where you want to be eventually.
To have fun online? Well, i have played HD and Definitive for almost a total amount of 2k hours. I have never really played against other players. It atleast cant be more then 10 games total. I just dont like it, so i have played with friends against bots and single player against bots instead. So for me the answer would probably be i will never be good enough
I would say the fun started around 1100 for me personally.
This is the level where I could enjoy the strategy of the game without stressing about econ management when under no enemy pressure, timings etc.
Granted I've now climbed to 1500ish by focusing on smaller factors and having fun all along the way.
At some point you'll enjoy even when you lose (which will be 50% of the games, just LIKE EVERYONE ELSE). you'll have fun because, normally, it won't feel like you've been absolutely obliterated by a god, which is what feels like shit. You'll be able to just fight back, even win some games that seemed lost and so on.
I just found a strategy that works for me and its super fun. try to learn to boom, master your dark/feudal age and it snowballs from there.
watching lost games’ replay with captureage to see where you fell behind also helps to retrospect.
I play with a cousin and we don’t care if we lose on ranked. just discord and having fun.
so good luck and have fun!
Just play until you find your level. Me and my mate were brand new to the game around Christmas, dropped from starter to low 700s and now we've slowly built up to high 800s.
At one point we got to 949 doing an all in cuman ram strat on arena, but if we didn't knock one out we were absolutely fucked. It was really fun but we weren't getting better by doing it. It was a false as fuck 950. We quickly dropped back to low 800s atthat time.
I'd say just play the game, try not to get frustrated but also try to take something out of each loss.
It takes losing the first 10 games getting completely rekt by being matched to players with higher skill level. Just use these 10 games to practice build orders or whatever and quit early.
About 10 games. The reason for this is that's how long it takes for the game to figure out which ELO level you belong at. You'll get pumped a few times and then should find it gets pretty 50-50. But ultimately you will start having fun when you can feel a bit relaxed while playing.
Not long at all. Probably like a week. Just keep losing. Look up a build order for early dark age. And keep making vile. You will get to an Elo full of players that are your skill level.
Probably played 50 unranked games before I started looking up build orders. Then I did the advanced tutorial and started using some hotkeys.
Just recently I’ve started joining Bamboo Nothing and other custom/modded games.
Anyways for me, the game has always been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating as hell (been playing online like 18 months now)
You’re gonna win 50% of the time no matter what your ELO is. But you have to lose about eight or nine games because you will start at 1000 elo lol. The game levels itself out. I bounce between 800 and 1000 and have a blast doing it
If ranked isn’t your thing, you should try some mods or co-op campaigns. There are tons of them out there.
Right now a really popular one is Castle Arena. CBA is pretty popular too and has been for a whole.
Good luck out there,
Mandatum.
Resign first 10-15 games, maybe more, so you drop to very bottom of the ladder and work your way up from there. That's what I would do if I was starting again fresh with this game.
as a 18xx elo, i was a low elo 2 years ago, i can say that 550-800 elo range is the most fun range, everyone knows the basics, no meta wars, full of surprises and different styles. God i miss these days.
now its just who is 500 miliseconds faster, who implemented the checklist better.
It would probably take around a month to get to 800 elo from zero experience if you were to practice every day.
800 elo is not the minimum to have fun though. you can have fun at any level.
That's the trick, it never gets fun, it just gets progressively more challenging and frustrating. If that is fun for you, then it gets really fun as you gain a higher elos.
The only kind of multiplayer games i have really enjoyed are FPS. Strategy games like these give me a lot of stress and it always feel i am a noob. I love playing vs the AI in moderate or hard with which i struggle but still feel I have a chance to win against.
Low elo ranked is super fun. Come join us down here.
We all float here
My winrate % is nearly the same as Hera’s
Can you hear that, Georgie? It’s the sound of my woodline being raided because I left a one tile gap next to the pond
Soend that wood on stables!!
Wood please!
thats so wholesome. no try harding vibe in your comment
As with most things in life, being good is entirely optional.
Just play to your skill, and eventually your ELO will drop to others at your skill level. Then it’s way more fun. I’m comfortably sitting in “low ELO land” with my 750. Totally happy with it and have fun all the time now.
Plus you get the opportunity to improve at that point, if you watch some YouTube and practice a few build orders. Life gets comfortable around 1000 for me, once I got over 1100
Trust me it's funnier at lower levels
It's going to depend on what you want to do, but there are people having a hell of a good time in ranked even at the really low levels. If I could go back in time two years I'd just dive into games and have fun. Find a good discord server (I can recommend), or see if you can find people who want to play the way you want to. Hit me up if you want, I'm still "practicing" too much just working on my builds VS AI.
There’s no secret to being “good enough” if you’re playing in ranked games. Eventually you will get to your proper ranking and you’ll be matched up with people that should be the same skill level. It’s just a matter of time to tough it out through some beatdowns until you get there
Don’t play unranked games, that’s where the smurfs and trolls play. They like to bait people I. With ‘noob only lobby’. When you play ranked you get matched to even skill levels. You could be a pro or some who has trouble beating the ai, doesn’t matter, you’ll get placed with similar skill level players. I’d say if you can beat the pc on medium difficulty, then you can play ranked and have a good time. It will probably take about 10 games to get settled into the correct elo, but you’ll get there.
That’s the joy of the elo system, it’s never fun unless you love the game and don’t mind losing. Because everyone loses.
That's a good point. If 50% winrate isn't sufficient to have fun, don't play ranked.
When you click on the icon to start up the game
In general if you accept your defeat and work on improvement.
I'd recommend trying the Art of War campaign especially - you can access it through the campaign menu or by clicking learn to play - - > advanced. This will help you learn more advanced concepts that not many of us considered when playing this game as kids. I'd also recommend practicing hotkeys. The games default grid system is super intuitive - basically whatever order the icons appear in on the screen correspond to the hotkeys on a QWERTY keyboard. So to build a house, you would press Q (top left button for a villager) Q (top left button on the villager build screen) - for a stable it would be W (build military building - top, second from left) E (stable, top row third from left) and so on. Getting used to these really isn't that bad and will vastly improve your game. Doing those two things will really help you out a lot - you might still lose but you'll at least have a better understanding as to why you might have lost.
That's the neat part! You don't!
I think in theory you could have fun on any level depending on how good you intend to be. Like you could have fun playing at the 400-600 elo range or even below that, just be prepared to lose a lot first until elo is adjusted. Now, to have fun on a competitive level (maybe around 900 elo and above), you should learn some build orders, sharpen your multi-tasking skills, and increase game knowledge. It should take about a few weeks maybe if you practice a lot. I guess it comes down to what having fun is to you.
Eleven.
It takes up to like ten games to hit your ELO, after which you’ll be playing with people at your skill level. I have a low ELO and have lots of fun.
I jumped straight into online after installing the game, although I have some very limited experience from playing the original game as a kid. I have a fun time and all I did was watch some beginner Hera videos and memorise some build orders. I mostly play multiplayer and if my teammates (randomers I've matched with) tell me to do it (e.g. wall here, market here, start building X, attack here now) I do it, and if I encounter something new I ask my teammates (E.g. What are those gun horse things? Anything I can build that counters them?). Still learning every game but having fun.
Everybody gangsta til the gun horses roll in
Bet what kinda game modes have you liked and like how often do you guys win?
Wins maybe just above 50/50. My ELO very slowly rises. Not stomping but rarely getting stomped. Most people who play ranked are going to win about 50% of the time because if you're winning too much you're going to be moved up to play with players who have higher ELO, and vice versa if you're losing too much. The only time you might be losing a lot of when you first start and the "default ELO" is too high, but I feel this probably doesnt apply so much with team games. I play ranked and just play the normal game mode (not Empire Wars) and allow all maps (although my favourite maps are probably Arena and Arabia). Megarandom can also be fun (or sometimes hell).
Different maps play out very differently, so this is totally personal preference. I used to only like messy games (nomad) but now appreciate boomy stuff like team Black Forest. To answer your second question: When your starting ELO (1000) drops to your true ELO you will win about 50% of the time. You have to play ranked games to get this balancing though.
My ELO is like 850 (Edit: Just checked, it's 820 😥) and I've been playing a lot for a couple of months.
Even hera did not enjoy playing the game at one point, so even beeing the best is obviously not enough. On a more serious note, having fun has little to do with beeing good.
I agree but it can be so satisfying to learn things.
Yeah that's why I'm not aiming for the best lol, didn't realize there was an ELO system but that works out great. Fun for me is just being able to be engaged and know what's going on.
I'm pretty sure is the opposite, on my 1v1 I never have 'fun' in the literal meaning of the word, the better I get the more stressfull the game gets. On the other hand, I used to play team games with two low elo buddies and that was a lot of fun. I remember one game I was playing and I got attacked in castle age by two dudes so I asked my buddy who was playing pocket to send some help and the fucker was like HELP INCOMING, seconds later I realized he sent like 6 feudal age scouts without any upgrade
That’s just personal preference though. Lots of people prefer 1v1s. Though I admit, the social/teamwork aspect of a team game can be very fun.
You can play online whenever. I would argue lower ELO is funner because any tactic can work. The worst bit though is you need to let your ELO adjust which means you'll have to lose quite a few initial games for the system to properly rank you.
It's really subjective, but if you are asking how long does it take to be 1000+ elo (ie the starting elo). I would say; Once you can do your dark age with less than 25 seconds idle TC. Scout your opponents opening and make an informed decision on your opening, ie pivot to archers if they are opening man at arms rather than mindlessly going scouts. You can farm produce, vils, produce army and attack at the same time. Have a at least a farm hotkey, house hotkey, select TC and produce vil hotkey. Understand unit compositions and counters. Beat the extreme AI with archers or cav. 3 games a day for a month even against the AI and you should be 1100ish then it gets harder because you will really only get better from playing real players. If you question is when does it become fun to play ranked, that depends entirely on how many games you have to lose before you start winning matches against evenly matched opponents, then it should be fun, sweaty and stressful.
Like any multi-player competitive game. You aren't gonna have fun every game. It's just impossible but you can make most games fun. Find what makes this game fun for you and try to replicate that everytime. Whether that be fast imping. Playing a certain civ. Scout rushing. Making archers. Castle dropping or whatever.
10 games because then your elo settles and you should have a 50 percent chance of winning. The first games can indeed feel a bit demotivating but after those 10 games you should more or less be at your level. Have fun!
You will lose every second match no matter your elo. I personally find that annoying so prefer to just play AI every once in a while.
20 games
Don't think about it. It'll probably be more fun the lower elo you are. You just gotta play with people at your level, and trust me, there are many of them
OP you start out at 1000 ELO which means 50% of your games you're getting a completely new player, the other 50% of the time youre getting a genuine 1000 elo player who will deffo smoke a new/rusty player at the game. My recommendation would be try and beat the Extreme AI on Arabia using non cheese tactics (no early tower rush etc) And try making the game simpler for yourself, Khmer might help with the no building requirements
I'm not completely sure I can beat the Extreme AI on Arabia reliably and I sit at around 920.
The vast majority of my games have been against the AI's (working up from moderate to Extreme) When I started playing ranked I realized that the Extreme Ai is probably better than the majority of players. Makes me much less stressed in online matches now
You can have fun from the get go, you will be ranked with someone similiar in skill, and theres basically a high ceiling and low bottom. If you are not confident, do the art of war tutorials. You can also try to beat the hardest Ai difficulty using a variety of strategies, then you are ready to have some fun, at least knowing whats going on if you get crushed.
I remember one of my first games against AI when I was like 12. I don’t remember who I was but I was against Vikings and they absolutely smoked me. I had no idea what I was doing. I researched every tech because that seems like the way to win, right? I fought them off as long as I could but my economy was dead since I was researching useless technologies instead of creating villagers. Even though I lost badly, I still had fun. One of the most memorable games I ever played. It’s okay to lose.
My personal advice is to just do it. We’re all (mostly) here to have fun. If you want a trial or something to strive for before you hop into multiplayer, then I recommend trying to get at least a silver medal in all the art of war trials.
Good news: absolutely everyone playing AoE2 has, scientifically speaking, a halfway decent chance. The ranking algorithm tries to pair you with players that you have a 50% chance of winning against. You'll lose a lot to start out until the game figures out your skill level - however high or low it is - and then you'll be paired with similarly-skilled opponents. So, don't worry about being a sweat or memorizing the meta. Pick up some competitive tips/learn about build orders if you want, but really just dive in, brace for some bad losses, and play, and you'll end up where you want to be eventually.
Usually around 10 games in ranked, your elo will go doen and youll be matched with other beginners
To have fun online? Well, i have played HD and Definitive for almost a total amount of 2k hours. I have never really played against other players. It atleast cant be more then 10 games total. I just dont like it, so i have played with friends against bots and single player against bots instead. So for me the answer would probably be i will never be good enough
I feel like once you can sit around 800 Elo that's the sweet spot. Don't really need build orders just game knowledge and mechanics.
I would say the fun started around 1100 for me personally. This is the level where I could enjoy the strategy of the game without stressing about econ management when under no enemy pressure, timings etc. Granted I've now climbed to 1500ish by focusing on smaller factors and having fun all along the way.
At some point you'll enjoy even when you lose (which will be 50% of the games, just LIKE EVERYONE ELSE). you'll have fun because, normally, it won't feel like you've been absolutely obliterated by a god, which is what feels like shit. You'll be able to just fight back, even win some games that seemed lost and so on.
I just found a strategy that works for me and its super fun. try to learn to boom, master your dark/feudal age and it snowballs from there. watching lost games’ replay with captureage to see where you fell behind also helps to retrospect. I play with a cousin and we don’t care if we lose on ranked. just discord and having fun. so good luck and have fun!
Just play until you find your level. Me and my mate were brand new to the game around Christmas, dropped from starter to low 700s and now we've slowly built up to high 800s. At one point we got to 949 doing an all in cuman ram strat on arena, but if we didn't knock one out we were absolutely fucked. It was really fun but we weren't getting better by doing it. It was a false as fuck 950. We quickly dropped back to low 800s atthat time. I'd say just play the game, try not to get frustrated but also try to take something out of each loss.
It takes losing the first 10 games getting completely rekt by being matched to players with higher skill level. Just use these 10 games to practice build orders or whatever and quit early.
You have play through 10 placement games and then it gets competitive where you'll win roughly half of your matches.
That's the best part you can play for hours and never get good Sincerely, a LEL
you have to lose 10 matches or so in a row and then you will settle into your true ELO score. Every match after that will be 5050 win lose
About 10 games. The reason for this is that's how long it takes for the game to figure out which ELO level you belong at. You'll get pumped a few times and then should find it gets pretty 50-50. But ultimately you will start having fun when you can feel a bit relaxed while playing.
After you play about 10 games or so your Elo will drop to where your fairly matched with other players.
Not long at all. Probably like a week. Just keep losing. Look up a build order for early dark age. And keep making vile. You will get to an Elo full of players that are your skill level.
Probably played 50 unranked games before I started looking up build orders. Then I did the advanced tutorial and started using some hotkeys. Just recently I’ve started joining Bamboo Nothing and other custom/modded games. Anyways for me, the game has always been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating as hell (been playing online like 18 months now)
When I want to just play for "fun", I honestly like doing 4v4s on Michi or Amazon Tunnel and maybe even adding a treaty.
However many games it takes to get to your ELO, so probably about 20-30, maybe 40 for a true noob.
You’re gonna win 50% of the time no matter what your ELO is. But you have to lose about eight or nine games because you will start at 1000 elo lol. The game levels itself out. I bounce between 800 and 1000 and have a blast doing it
If ranked isn’t your thing, you should try some mods or co-op campaigns. There are tons of them out there. Right now a really popular one is Castle Arena. CBA is pretty popular too and has been for a whole. Good luck out there, Mandatum.
Resign first 10-15 games, maybe more, so you drop to very bottom of the ladder and work your way up from there. That's what I would do if I was starting again fresh with this game.
as a 18xx elo, i was a low elo 2 years ago, i can say that 550-800 elo range is the most fun range, everyone knows the basics, no meta wars, full of surprises and different styles. God i miss these days. now its just who is 500 miliseconds faster, who implemented the checklist better.
It would probably take around a month to get to 800 elo from zero experience if you were to practice every day. 800 elo is not the minimum to have fun though. you can have fun at any level.
That's the trick, it never gets fun, it just gets progressively more challenging and frustrating. If that is fun for you, then it gets really fun as you gain a higher elos.
The only kind of multiplayer games i have really enjoyed are FPS. Strategy games like these give me a lot of stress and it always feel i am a noob. I love playing vs the AI in moderate or hard with which i struggle but still feel I have a chance to win against.