Ludicrous difficulty

[XtReMz98]

Howdy,

Is Ludicrous the best difficulty to enjoy AoM? I'm new to this franchise, but love AoE2 (in which I played every single campaign mission on Hard, aka the max level). It seems like my AoE2 don't transfer too well at the moment, since I've hit a wall on Ludicrous on mission 4 (a fine plan), but I feel it is because I'm still on the learning curve with counters and build order priorities.

But since this is mission 4, I can only assume I'm in for a ride in the later missions seeing the massive armies/navies I have to face with almost no gold in that specific mission.

Cheers!

[viktorhallo]

i had no problems with ludicrous in this game outside of a few missions that took 1-2 tries. in age of empire 2 at hard mode and 1.7 speed i was barely able to beat the hardest missions and save scummed alot. compared to not saving at all in this game.

if you can beat AOE2 at hard you can definantly beat ludicrous here without to much issues once you learn the basics.

[The Owlogram]

Ludicrous is the same as Titan except the AI gets a 20% boost (the same one the skirmish AI gets if you set it to ludicrous) so it's more intended for people who found the campaign too easy on Titan. You might feel this way about the smaller campaigns or the standalone Freyr scenario, but the Fall of the Trident is harder and has scenarios that had to be nerfed before they even introduced ludicrous difficulty.

[Rubyeyed]

It depends on how much sh*t do you want thrown at you. Campaign in AoM isn't about playing against an actual player. It's grinding down waves of enemies that spawn from enemy buildings (always the same units too). If you destroy any enemy structures they won't rebuild. It's actually like wave defense with objectives.

That being said, most missions should be ok but there is a handful missions that are bs. I played the campaign on titan and it was enough for me since I would again have to do the same old tricks I did on titan to get through ludicrous.

[XtReMz98]

Originally posted by Rubyeyed:

It depends on how much sh*t do you want thrown at you. Campaign in AoM isn't about playing against an actual player. It's grinding down waves of enemies that spawn from enemy buildings (always the same units too). If you destroy any enemy structures they won't rebuild. It's actually like wave defense with objectives.

That being said, most missions should be ok but there is a handful missions that are bs. I played the campaign on titan and it was enough for me since I would again have to do the same old tricks I did on titan to get through ludicrous.

Thanks for all the inputs. So far I got past the missions that leads to the horse of Troy on Ludicrous. Some felt pretty cheap as far as difficulty goes, by which I mean being hit very hard, very early and very frequently with waves of units while you are still below 20 villagers. Probably not the best environment to learn the game and its counter, but hey, I did learn nonetheless.

It seems like the AI maphack (hitting where my troops are not), is oddly obsessed with villagers in his attack priority and have some hidden boost since I lose in equal number fights (could be upgrades, but I feel they have boosted stats). It boils down to getting to Age 3, get a critical mass of hydras supported by whatever counters the build of the AI's infantry.

Any other tips to make this process go a bit smoother (aside from "git gud")?

[VorpalAura]

Originally posted by XtReMz98:

Originally posted by Rubyeyed:

It depends on how much sh*t do you want thrown at you. Campaign in AoM isn't about playing against an actual player. It's grinding down waves of enemies that spawn from enemy buildings (always the same units too). If you destroy any enemy structures they won't rebuild. It's actually like wave defense with objectives.

That being said, most missions should be ok but there is a handful missions that are bs. I played the campaign on titan and it was enough for me since I would again have to do the same old tricks I did on titan to get through ludicrous.

Thanks for all the inputs. So far I got past the missions that leads to the horse of Troy on Ludicrous. Some felt pretty cheap as far as difficulty goes, by which I mean being hit very hard, very early and very frequently with waves of units while you are still below 20 villagers. Probably not the best environment to learn the game and its counter, but hey, I did learn nonetheless.

It seems like the AI maphack (hitting where my troops are not), is oddly obsessed with villagers in his attack priority and have some hidden boost since I lose in equal number fights (could be upgrades, but I feel they have boosted stats). It boils down to getting to Age 3, get a critical mass of hydras supported by whatever counters the build of the AI's infantry.

Any other tips to make this process go a bit smoother (aside from "git gud")?

Well, I wouldn't recommend the Ludicrous mode to anyone that play it for the first time unless you like to redo several times. Anyways, understanding the map and what is coming at you is the key to completing the missions.

In your example mission, just train counter cavalry and have them available at the north and east positions, it helps extremely if you also have a 2nd group nearby both spots to flank them before they can run away. You can always see the east ones coming (unless you built an extremely large base), but if you expanded north it would be hard to see them before they run to your villagers. The last time I did that mission I only had them run away once on me with full population, but I already have an army ready to take out theirs. The enemy gets to be at 4th age while you're stuck at 3rd age.