Can anyone beat difficulty higher than "Standard?"

[i_fart_inyour_general_direction!]

I used to play original AoE in my youth and since buying AoE II I usually still play on the easiest mode. I recently played a game on Standard difficulty and I made nearly 10 attempts with large groups of soldiers to kill one enemy to no avail. I swear there was a glitch or something that gave them unlimited population! They just kept coming and coming (it was mainly axe throwers and the cavalry horses, can't remember the name). Anyway, I finally got so frustrated I made three Ford Shelbys using cheats and it took me another 15 Ford Shelbys to beat them!

The point being, does anyone win using "Hard" difficulty?? And how?

[TYRGET]

Yes, it can be done! I am playing the campaign on easy though, sometimes it's a little too easy! Check out
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLZJo-SxuPHz-oYKAIC_g/search?query=Hard
Spirit Of The Law has a lot of great content. Also TheViperAOC channel does a play-through of the campaign on Hard difficulty. These guys play online though, you can tell because they are so quick with all the hotkeys!

[Jonny]

Use the Goths civ. Very cheap infantry. Allows you to build a small army to defend yourself in the castle age and that will give you more time to build a better economy and therefore give you a better chance of fighting the AI.

I don't use other civs because it feels you have to follow the cookie cutter building orders you get on videos and on the internet which I refuse to do because I rather play the game in my own way and not in a set pattern every game which i find boring.

Goths essentially give you more freedom to do building orders in your own way more than other civs, I currently find.

I've not tried all the civs yet. But I am willing to succeed with others since being tied to just Goths is also lame.

[Dinomar]

hi :D there are many videos where people do it. If you watch these videos, you will learn a loooot

Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ5NOGLd3PE&list=PLOZFzqxtvtxf2He2njHa8MvjbPGxqymS8

Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kZ6Ckh1YBw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7OC8lT1JRk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-jWL5f9MJg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwLWzvpYPk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFZ6qjBpOTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tEnjsB1y34

[Tembies]

Easily. Either get some archers in their base, tower their early resources, or just rush them down in general. If you don't want to cheese the AI and your mid game is a little weak, walls are your friend, two layers of stone walls are fine. The AI is strongest as it transfers from the feudal age to the castle age and is able to assign villagers and multiple town centers, get relics, etc.

[The Icecream Snowman]

I'm not really very good but I can beat a moderate AI by just outlasting them. I like to use the Britons and make thoroughly impenetrable defences. A few layers of wall with a row of towers 10 tiles back, which can hit anyone attacking the wall but can't be attacked themselves, a set of trebuchets sit behind the towers to defend against siege weapons. Then a hoard of longbows demolish anything which comes in range. Some monks to keep these guys happy and a small band of light cavalry and cavalry archers go around harassing villagers and luring expensive units to their death.

Then I just sit and wait for the enemy's resources to run dry. When they run out of gold they can't field any heavy units. Halberds will rip through light cavalry and the longbows will deal with anything from a safe distance. If the halberds falls apart, pull the longbows back to the tower line. I tend to build 10 barracks and spam halberds as fast as I can to swamp their units. On some maps with less wood you can even get to the point that they can't build anything at all but this takes a long time.

In this style, it's your economy which actually wins for you. You just need to throw more halberds than the enemy can absorb, to keep your longbows and trebuchets safe while they take the enemy town apart. Obviously it won't work against teamed enemies, as they can generate gold. Try to grab relics early too.

[Fnord]

The game is not a cakewalk, that's for sure. They've improved the AI a fair bit from the original game, and if I'm not mistaken, it actually cheats less (but still manages to be harder). The campaigns still use the old AI, but skirmish uses the "new" and improved AI. And you need to have a pretty firm grasp on the games mechanics to do well against tougher AIs, and be good at getting your economy up and running quickly.

I'm not good enough to beat hard AIs on my own.

[lben314]

Hello

The level of difficulty is not the same thing to consider. It depends of the others parameters of the game. For example, despite I considered myself not as a very good player, I bate the computer at 1 vs 7 (7 enemy players in the same team) in hardest level : not so difficult, I took Vikings and I played with a little island map with a limit of 25 population, beating every player one by one (after it is long to play).
I tried to make the same thing with Goths (1 vs 7) in a Arabic map but I failed (I succeeded with the second most difficult level). The interest to take Goth in this case is to have 35 of population in Imperial age against 25 for the enemies.

Good bye

[i_fart_inyour_general_direction!]

Thanks guys. I have beaten Hard AI once now on 1 v 2. I will keep practicing!