Skirmish strategy questions from a noob

[rathalos]

Hey ya'll, I suck at this game and I have a few questions. A thing to keep in mind is that I usually don't run attacks at the very least until the Castle Age since I am very slow at doing things until that Era, and then I tend to outrun everyone on Imperial Age.

1) In the mid-to-lategame, once the mines close to my settlements have been exhausted, I tend to have my citizens focus on Wood and Food, making the Market my main source of income for Gold and Stone (which works, since I make tons of food/wood per minute). The reason why I do this is because it scales well with some unit building for the most part - IT WILL SUCK if I am low on Stone and need it urgently, though, which probably won't happen; I only start mass producing castles really late into the game, and I usually have lots of Stone stockpiled.

However, my question about this scenario is whether it's worth exploiting the AI's mines once I have conquered them, since it seems like I am more effective at farming resources in the lategame with the tactic I've mentioned earlier. Any ideas?

2) What is the correct unit positioning when on the offensive? I tend to form this line (from back to front): rangedsiege-support-archers-infantry-cavalry, and what happens is that my Cavalry and Infantry ALL DIE, while everyone behind them survives without a scratch.

Just now, I made an attack against a city with next-gen Mangonels (whatever they're called), 2 monks for heals, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of Elite chinese bowmen with full upgrades, and a lot of champions; the only group that had casualties were the melee infantry - they all died. Meanwhile, everyone else lived and killed every enemy in sight.

What gives? Shouldn't my melee fighters survive if my army practically kills everything? I am aware that siege equipment does friendly fire (...it does, right?), but I didn't even have those firing where my champions were! Should I go for a Total War tactic and just let my archers do all of the initial damage and then the infantry/cavalry finishing everyone off?

Thanks in advance...

[Rhys_Eng]

I cant answer much of what you have asked really but i would reccommend spending time watching ZeroEmpires' AOE2 turorials, they help A LOT!

[Ashur_Arbaces]

1) Exploiting the enemy resources is ALWAYS a good idea.

2) In large battles melee units usually end up soaking up all the damage so it's no suprise that they die while your archers and siege live. If u want melee units that survive longer: use paladins (but be careful of enemy spears and camels).

Swordsman aren't that strong and aren't used that much (unless your playing a civ with a good bonus for swordsmen aufc.). swordsmen are mostly used to kill non gold/trash units (spears/skirmishers and light cavalry) because none of those are able to counter swordsmen.

Another option is to just invest all your gold in siege/archers and spam spears/light cavalry to protect them because they don't cost any gold and are cheap and fast to produce.

Lastly: I also suggest you search for some good guides, they help a lot indeed...

[The O.G. Manbeast]

Using the Market in that way (selling food/wood to get gold) is inefficent - although sometimes it's the only choice you have left. However, whilst there is Gold on the map you should always attempt to secure it and mine it.

(The previosu reply to the second half of your question covered things pretty well so I won't add anything)

[Promiskuitiv]

And in case you have an ally with a market make sure to train some carts and let them trade with it. You only really need to do that in the lategame since you have gold mines before that, but i wouldn't wait until your last gold mine is exhausted to start training carts. You want to have a smoother transition than that in order not to get a gold-shortage in between.

What the other guys said is also true, i just wanted to add some information that wasn't mentioned yet. Have fun playing!