How does the balance of this game work?

[Ash//Fox]

So with Age of Empires 2 there's a pretty decent and easy to understand tactical rock paper scissors thing going on; but in this game I don't really get what I'm supposed to do. I see my opponent is building tons of mechs so... I build my own mechs because they're just better than infantry?

I don't really understand how things counter each other and it just seems like a race to spam out mechs.

[Dusty]

just look carefully at the discription of each unit. For example grenadiers and mounted troopers counter all mechs, heavy units as well. btw want to play match?

[Thorbalt]

they key to winning the game is simple

that's no moon

[Dusty]

Originally posted by Thorbalt:

they key to winning the game is simple

that's no moon

lmao. or simonsays

[Kohchu]

Generally speaking, the units are designed with certain aspects in mind. And each faction has units they excel at, but are weak in others.

Gungans for example have insane Navy units, but their air units leave a lot to be desired.
The Galactic Empire has insane Air and Sith potential, but their Infantry and Navy are trash.

This kind of stuff means the faction you pick can make a pretty big deal late game. But if there is one thing I will say; it's their aircraft is brutally powerful. Air Cruisers and Bombers are ridiculously annoying to deal with, because they are fast, and wreck buildings/Mechs easily. Always keep a lot of anti-air at the ready to handle bombers.

Generally speaking, when it comes to the units themselves:

Infantry can garrison some buildings and some Mech units, giving them extra firepower. As far as damage goes; they are pretty weak but offer a large easy to mass group. Mounted troops are great for throwing off Pummels and Artillery, but not so great against other infantry.

Jedi/Sith are good against basically everything, except air units and Bounty Hunters. Always try to have a lot of them around if you can.

Bounty Hunters can easily slay Jedi and other infantry, but are useless against Mechs and Buildings. They are also great for killing Commanders if playing the mission where you must slay the enemy commander.

Mechs are generally good, but have a harder time coping with range then the others. Artillery and Pummels being the worst for this; they are built for Building Demolition, and nothing else. They need to be defended, or they will be rendered useless. Mech Strikes and the other variations basically exist to protect the big mechs. ALWAYS bring Anti-Air Mechs.

Air Units are pretty all around good. They are only weak to Anti-Air (Sams, Anti-Air Troops, Ships, and Mechs and other fighters) making them highly good to spam out in large groups. Bombers can destroy buildings, Mechs and Ships easily, Fighters can defend the Bombers and attack grounded units to boot. And Air Cruisers basically trash everything, but are slow as f*ck, and take a long time to reload.

Ships are pretty much the same as Mechs, just on water. Never build the Navy version of the Pummel; they are useless unless fighting the Gungans (Since they can build underwater shelters), but the other Navy tend to be pretty great all around.

The design of the game encourages you keep building lots of units for various purposes. Encouraged more with the factions special units. If playing as the Gungans, ALWAYS build the Shield Fambas for free shielding on your units. Dark Troopers as the Galactic Empire are better then regular Troopers. And the Trade Federation's Destroyer Droid is fantastic.

[Dusty]

Originally posted by Kohchu:

Generally speaking, the units are designed with certain aspects in mind. And each faction has units they excel at, but are weak in others.

Gungans for example have insane Navy units, but their air units leave a lot to be desired.
The Galactic Empire has insane Air and Sith potential, but their Infantry and Navy are trash.

This kind of stuff means the faction you pick can make a pretty big deal late game. But if there is one thing I will say; it's their aircraft is brutally powerful. Air Cruisers and Bombers are ridiculously annoying to deal with, because they are fast, and wreck buildings/Mechs easily. Always keep a lot of anti-air at the ready to handle bombers.

Generally speaking, when it comes to the units themselves:

Infantry can garrison some buildings and some Mech units, giving them extra firepower. As far as damage goes; they are pretty weak but offer a large easy to mass group. Mounted troops are great for throwing off Pummels and Artillery, but not so great against other infantry.

Jedi/Sith are good against basically everything, except air units and Bounty Hunters. Always try to have a lot of them around if you can.

Bounty Hunters can easily slay Jedi and other infantry, but are useless against Mechs and Buildings. They are also great for killing Commanders if playing the mission where you must slay the enemy commander.

Mechs are generally good, but have a harder time coping with range then the others. Artillery and Pummels being the worst for this; they are built for Building Demolition, and nothing else. They need to be defended, or they will be rendered useless. Mech Strikes and the other variations basically exist to protect the big mechs. ALWAYS bring Anti-Air Mechs.

Air Units are pretty all around good. They are only weak to Anti-Air (Sams, Anti-Air Troops, Ships, and Mechs and other fighters) making them highly good to spam out in large groups. Bombers can destroy buildings, Mechs and Ships easily, Fighters can defend the Bombers and attack grounded units to boot. And Air Cruisers basically trash everything, but are slow as f*ck, and take a long time to reload.

Ships are pretty much the same as Mechs, just on water. Never build the Navy version of the Pummel; they are useless unless fighting the Gungans (Since they can build underwater shelters), but the other Navy tend to be pretty great all around.

The design of the game encourages you keep building lots of units for various purposes. Encouraged more with the factions special units. If playing as the Gungans, ALWAYS build the Shield Fambas for free shielding on your units. Dark Troopers as the Galactic Empire are better then regular Troopers. And the Trade Federation's Destroyer Droid is fantastic.

nice guide

[Rosario]

An easy thing I always found to remember what was good against what, at least as far as the shooty units was this, red lasers are usually best against units, blue lasers are best against mechs, yellow vs Jedi/Sith, Green wrecks all, but also has splash damage that hits allies so be careful where you position units and what you shoot, chunky arced blobs are great on buildings, units to a degree, but easy to miss, color means little there. Think that was everything. Of course I don't recall if there's exceptions, it's been a while since I could actually run the game, like I don't remember if the TIE-Fighters have red lasers like most fighters or if they have green like they do in most other games, but if they do have green, they don't wreck.

Another tip, the Undeployed Cannons you can make at Fortresses have amazing range that outclasses everything else, making them a massive asset against things like fortresses. One shielded Fortress with a full garrison will decimate a large number of troops before going down itself in the event of an attack where it can fight back, but with the canons, it's useless and the enemy will have to come out and engage directly. It's also pretty smart to bring some workers along when setting up a siege to make a cheeky shield generator to give a little extra protection to your cannons and any other units it reaches, maybe even a forward fortress as well to secure a foothold.

... Man I wish this game ran well for me with the patch. CD works fine on my desktop, but desktop is usually occupied.