Campaign Difficulties

[PhotriusPyrelus]

So I picked this game up on the last sale, I used to play it all the time in high school, but I dunno if the game has just gotten a lot harder or what, but I'm getting *STOMPED* in the campaign on middle-difficulty. Does anyone have a list of the campaigns in order of difficulty?

I thought Jean d'Arc would be relatively easy, but the second or third mission (bring supplies to the city) is just... I don't even know what I'm supposed to do after I get to the city. I have finite resources with seemingly little wait to start up my own economy, and I get attacked what feels like constantly.

Is the game just harder now because of improved AI and unit rebalancing, or am I just god-awful at the game? @_@

If someone could give me a rough estimate of the difficulty of each campaign, I would appreciate it greatly.

[Freeman1302]

Joan of Arc is a good choice to start with as it's one of the simpler campaigns in design. Perhaps you could start on easy difficulty and once you feel the scenarios are getting too easy switch to a higher difficulty?
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/mynupk/havent_played_since_i_was_a_kid_i_wanna_play/

[Asterius]

Generally speaking, the campaign difficulty is marked by the number of swords beside the campaign icon. One sword is the easiest and three is the most difficult.

[Johnny 5]

I have to say I don't find the campaigns particularly friendly to people who don't fully understand the mechanics. The difficulty spikes appear to be out of this world, and they generally require advance knowledge of the scenario/map.

This kinda requires you to either use the marco polo cheat to reload, or to go onto an online guide and look at strategies, unfortunately spoiling future surprises in the level.

The number of missions you can complete on first attempt without spending hours or being a master of the game is quite limited. This is also an issue given the pathfinding & micro management issues involved in the game

[Jouni]

Some of the original scenarios are harder than they used to be long ago but most are not. The second scenario of Joan of Arc campaign(where you take control of Orleans) doesn't seem any more difficult. It never was challenging.

[Jouni]

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

The number of missions you can complete on first attempt without spending hours or being a master of the game is quite limited.

What's the problem with spending hours on a mission?

[PhotriusPyrelus]

Originally posted by dynamic_dynamite:

Generally speaking, the campaign difficulty is marked by the number of swords beside the campaign icon. One sword is the easiest and three is the most difficult.

Holy cow, I can't believe I didn't figure that out. x_x Still... Even the one-swords are kicking my ass on the middle difficulty. XD Guess I'm just too scrub for AoE 2. Game Journo mode it is.

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

I have to say I don't find the campaigns particularly friendly to people who don't fully understand the mechanics. The difficulty spikes appear to be out of this world, and they generally require advance knowledge of the scenario/map.

This kinda requires you to either use the marco polo cheat to reload, or to go onto an online guide and look at strategies, unfortunately spoiling future surprises in the level.

The number of missions you can complete on first attempt without spending hours or being a master of the game is quite limited. This is also an issue given the pathfinding & micro management issues involved in the game

Yeah, my experience is that I get trashed at various parts of each battle to the point where I abandon it and then restart. I continue this until I have worked out the correct strat for each phase of the battle to the end.

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by PhotriusPyrelus:

Originally posted by dynamic_dynamite:

Generally speaking, the campaign difficulty is marked by the number of swords beside the campaign icon. One sword is the easiest and three is the most difficult.

Holy cow, I can't believe I didn't figure that out. x_x Still... Even the one-swords are kicking my ass on the middle difficulty. XD Guess I'm just too scrub for AoE 2. Game Journo mode it is.

likewise. My issue is I can;t see ♥♥♥♥ and scouting on those maps is harder than a MP or skirmish game because of all the walls.

[Johnny 5]

Originally posted by Jouni:

Originally posted by Johnny 5:

The number of missions you can complete on first attempt without spending hours or being a master of the game is quite limited.

What's the problem with spending hours on a mission?

My point is many you will spend the first attempt on and it will be ok, then an event fires which basically leads to you having to restart because you didn't expect the trigger and what happens, so you have to save a lot....