defensive play unviable?

[Mr.America]

No matter what I try, I can't get defensive playstyles to work. If I rush out knights I win (1.1k elo) in random matches, in ranked games etc... Is it me, or does this game just totally favor aggressive play?

And it's not even a slight difference, get to castle age first, plop down a castle at your enemy's town and bam, it's gg.

I really wish there was sth like a separate dataset for certain values (ranges, damage, defenses) that would favor defense (at least sometimes).

[TheDiaper]

And it's not even a slight difference, get to castle age first, plop down a castle at your enemy's town and bam, it's gg.

So...... is this aggressive or defensive?

[Kaheela]

You could play a game-mode called "wonder defense" (or something like that) with friends or in unranked.

[theworld]

Mr.America původně napsal:

Is it me, or does this game just totally favor aggressive play?

It is you.

Watch this series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSRigXwrEME

"Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense."

-- von Clausewitz "On War"

[Doom Sayer]

No it is the game. It requires too much micromanagment to reset every vill if you get attacked. Just rush and if you lose the rush quit. AOE2 is a straight forward game but has so much useless ♥♥♥♥ in it you can be tricked into destroyed yourself due to how many buildings and units are completely useless.

[Jackbrick]

Play non standard games for that sort of things. Like mods and scenarios with tight choke points.

[DMg Halt]

If you're turks you can basically fortify yourself with bombard towers, jannisaries and bb cannons and basically you just defend until the enemy runs out of resources, at which point you go in for the kill or they resign out of boredom lol

[Nemo_Fulani]

Aggression is probably better, but defense is also viable it depends on when, map, civs etc. I am too bad to know when and get also crushed. Aout the Elo range... I noticed that all in our range of elo make mistakes1100- 1300. I got slapped from 13ish down to 11... even by some guys who did not reach 1300 so far. But maybe it's also the Arabia meta who I am bad at.

[John]

A defensive play style could work, as long as you are aggressive enough to hold key resources on the map such as gold. The problem emerges if you turtle in your base the whole game and let the opposing player simply have 3x the resources than you.

[DMg Halt]

Yes, the key to a defensive strategy is to force your enemy to spend more resources into fighting you than it takes for you to defend against them. You can also measure this in a 1v1 by the K/D ratio.