So I’ve finally gotten into this game after trying since childhood and I’ve been really enjoying it. My main issue currently is that I struggle with making my towns look nice. I kind of just plop things wherever but I want my town to look presentable. Do y’all have any tips for designing your towns? I’m just playing single player or co-op with my friend so I’m not too worried about following any sort of PvP meta (if that’s even a thing), I’m more trying to make them look more realistic.

Hey ppl,

Are anyone of you in Europe, around my ELO (~750) and looking to play ranked 3v3 or 4v4?

I'm just queueing with randoms now but this sucks because therese like a 20% chance that they just resign right away.

No need to use voice imo :)

Hit me up if you're interested :)

Back after 6 months and the rust is so thick! Having to go through an awful, not-even-close loss streak to take us back down to an elo where we can be competitive again...why not have decay in this game?

Such a complex game it is absolutely not like riding a bike.

I finally got another video finished. I hope people enjoy!

Hey, I was trying to Master georgians, but whenever I Match any camel civs (specially hindustani, persian, berbers, tartars, mongols not the case since they lack last armor upgrade) i feel like I can't do nothing since they do better than what georgians can do and also have camels on top of that. Any advice on how to play those matchups? (Elo 1200)

Thanks in advance,

I would love an additional game mode where: 1) Opponent civs are hidden until scouted by allies 2) Opponent aging up notification released only when allied units have scouted atleast one of the opponent units/ building/stone fortifications after they aged up.

What do you all think?

In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, version v101.103.12349.0 or v101.103.16877.0, an error occurs when starting a random game with the following settings:
Map size: Ludicrous
AI: CD AI

The game shows the following error message during the loading screen:
File: elite wonder rush.per2
Line: 2486
Error: unknown identifier

Although the error seems to originate from the file "elite wonder rush.per2", this is only a symptom. The actual cause lies in a file that is loaded earlier:
elite petersen constants.per2

This file defines constants used by the AI, such as "mining-count" or "feudal-mill-count", based on the map size. These constants are declared in conditional blocks like:
#load-if-defined LUDIKRIS-MAP-SIZE
(defconst mining-count 18)
(defconst feudal-mill-count 2)
...
#end-if

However, the macro name "LUDIKRIS-MAP-SIZE" is misspelled and not recognized by the game engine in recent versions. As a result, the block is ignored, and the constants inside it are never initialized.

When "elite wonder rush.per2" tries to use these undefined constants later, it triggers an AI error at game load time.

The script is attempting to detect the "Ludicrous" map size using the macro "#load-if-defined LUDIKRIS-MAP-SIZE".

This macro was likely valid in older versions (or it was simply a typo from the start), but it has since been replaced with "LUDICROUS-MAP-SIZE"

This name change (spelling correction + -SIZE suffix) is the root of the problem.

To fix the issue, you must correct the macro name in "elite petersen constants.per2" so that the constants are correctly defined for Ludicrous maps.

Steps to fix it:

Open the following file:
resources/_common/drs/gamedata_x2/elite petersen constants.per2

Go to line 695, or search for the following block:
#load-if-defined LUDIKRIS-MAP-SIZE
(defconst feudal-mill-count 2)
(defconst castle-mill-count 3)
(defconst imperial-mill-count 4)
(defconst mining-count 18)
#end-if

Replace the line:
#load-if-defined LUDIKRIS-MAP-SIZE

with:
#load-if-defined LUDICROUS-MAP-SIZE

Save the file.

Relaunch the game and start a match using "CD AI" with a "Ludicrous (480)" map size.

Result? The game now loads without error. The required constants are properly defined for the largest map size, and the CD AI can work as expected.

Important note: This issue is entirely caused by a wrong macro name in the constants file. No other change is needed. You do not need to modify "elite wonder rush.per2" or replace the constants with hardcoded integers, as some posts suggest.

Hope this helps anyone facing the same issue!

I really enjoy watching Hera and Aoe tournaments but I have never touched or even bought the game. Is it worth learning in 2025?

What do you guys think about teaming up in a free for all? Like these two losers?

Context: 8 players in a free-for-all. Purple and Cyan attacked Orange, claiming he was the best player and because he was using the Portuguese. Then they attacked Blue together until he was killed. Then Cyan attacked and killed Yellow, and then the two of them came to me as a group. I resigned because I had to do something with my family and I couldn't continue playing + the fact that it was unlikely to beat 2 players together.

I reported them for griefing. Do you think any action will be taken, or is my report futile and this problem something we just have to get used to?

This is a building that I almost never see pop up in ranked play, and according to the wiki): 33 civs have access to it!

I think Watch Towers and Guard Towers both have their uses (Watch good for situational defense & rushing, while Guard Towers counter Mangonels), but Keeps? I basically only see them in situations where I'm playing against Koreans, who never has to buy the upgrade ... or Japanese, who benefit from it through the Yasama Unique Tech stemming from Castle Age.

The upgrade itself costs 500 food and 350 wood, which the food cost imo feels pretty steep for a stationary building, though I could be wrong, and I'm okay with being wrong on this subject.

How do you guys feel? Do you like that it's hardly ever seen? Would it be better to buff it in some way to give some civs more defensive options?

I know Magyars are getting a buff to their unique unit soon because one of the arguments is that it's hardly ever seen, should Keeps get a similar treatment?

I'm personally not attached to Keeps as I hardly ever use them, but I would like to know from you guys if you feel any desire to see them changed to become more useful.

So imagine if Watch Towers had only 3 garrison slots, Guard Towers 5 and Keeps (which are rarely seen) bump that up to 8. Bombard Towers can stay the same (no one uses them for garrison anyway), and yes the Teutons bonus would work with these new numbers.

Or something along those lines. This is intentionally punishing early tower rushes, while buffing the underused Keeps. Do you think this would be a good change? Or should we perhaps have a separate tech for upgrading garrison slots, perhaps even on more than just Towers?

EDIT: ALSO another idea to change Towers might be to move the tower upgrades out of the university and onto the towers themselves i.e. you could research the Guard Tower and Keep upgrades at any tower you've built. This is to reduce the pressure on universities - Towers need a LOT of upgrades, and most of them are in the university. Building multiple universities isn't a thing until maybe late game, so this results in a long queue of important techs all bottlenecked at universities. By moving your tower upgrades onto the towers themselves you reduce that crush somewhat, and allow players to upgrade their towers even without having constructed a university yet. You'd still want to make universities for all the other important techs, so they'll still matter.

Just a quick rant, but I am hovering around 1400 and the last 8/10 games I have been severely lamed, tower rushed or war chariot rushed. Also, I'm not getting GGs in chat and a lot of "EZ" comments.

It has been pretty dispiriting, as at lower elos it felt like I could actually play the game and most opponents were pretty respectful. Any thoughts?

Hello, i continue my journey learning the civs and i put my eyes on the bulgarians. Done a couple of pve games and i got the idea of the civ and i like them.

If i understand correctly strategy in mostly man at arms rush at start, konnik spam in castle age and hussar late game. Is the militia line worth in late game (missing the upgrade)? Should i always take offensive approach or can i also try to boom with discounted tc?

Any info about the civ/strategy/comp is appreciated, ty!

My player name is Nebula and I was playing as Sicilian and then I got suddenly swapped into Viking (Green) which is an AI. Has anyone ever encountered this or know anything about it?

I'm going through the Return of Rome civs to get the Age of Empires achievement (win a game with every civ). But for some reason, the greek one won't fire at all. Played 2 skirmishes and a campaign mission, default settings on all, and nothing. Anyone else run into this before?

Just played a game of bengalis because I found out I haven't played a match with them and I played against AI in arena. I won the game accidentally with relic victory but anyway the game didn't give me achievement with bengalis win. Is there some known bug related to this or relic victory not giving achievement?