1st time aoe (rts newbie)

[Spirit]

I appreciate everyone who would take a minute or two and drop some basic knowledge with regards to aoe and rts in general. Thank you very much !
Peace

[Whakahoatanga]

Play multiplayer if you're a competitive nature, singleplayer if you prefer that. Essential part is to have fun and not be discouraged. There's the Art of War challenges and the William Wallace tutorial campaign within the game which teaches you the basics (William Wallace is for players who never played an RTS game in their life, Art of War teaches you the specialities of Age of Empires 2).

RTS are pretty hard to get into but are really rewarding :)

The only thing I would tell you other is to have fun. There's a lot of online ressources for every level.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=137161998

[Quintem]

Hey, and welcome.

Where do I even begin? Since I don't know what you're doing I'll try to cover the basics. I hopefully don't miss too much information. (I'm so going forget things). I don't know if you're going to play campaign and/or AI(bot) games and/or mulitplayer.

Generic RTS terms and AoE 2 terms.

Micro and Macro.

Micro refers to unit control tell a group of ranged units to focus fire on a single enemy for example to more advanced things like dodging incoming shots from siege or archers. To aiming your siege where enemy units are moving to. Micro as a lot of room for flair. Micro is less important than macro up to a point. You need a certain degree of unit control.

Macro in RTS games refers to the economic side of things and in games like Age of Empires 2 have a good focus on it, some games have a lighter or more simple economy management. So this basically includes things like keeping up villager production, making sure your villages are working and gathering the correct resources, when you're upgrading to the next technology age. If its to do with your resources or your base it probably falls under macro. As a new player its important to get this down. As somebody with strong macro can overwhelm their opponents with raw numbers. No amount of micro can save you when you're flooded with enemy units.

AoE - Area of Effect used in games outside RTS mostly RPG and MMOs. Somewhat self explanatory as any damage dealt in an area.

Unit-Line - This refers to a unit type and all its upgrades. For example Militia-line is refers to the Militia and all units it upgrades into, Man-at-Arms, Long Swordsman, Two-Handed Swordsman and the Champion.

Boom - Refers to an economic boom. Somebody is focusing on economy before military.

Fast Castle - Refers to a player going to the Castle Age quickly.

Rush - In RTS games refers to a player attacking (usually) early with an army or strategy.

I recommend you play through both tutorials since you're brand new to RTS. William Wallace campaign will teach you the very basics of the game. The Art of War tutorials are a little more advanced but will teach you the skills to have a better time vs both AI and players online.

Honestly you've got a steep learning curve ahead of you but it really pays off. RTS games can be challenging but if you're coming at it for a casual viewpoint it can be pretty chill and relaxing for some building up your empire before crushing your enemies or intense battle of skill if you're playing online.

I recommend looking at T90Official on Youtube/Twitch for professional games as well as low ELO and fun matches being cast. Spirit of the Law on Youtube for maths and breakdowns of "nerdy" stuff as well as some fun videos from him. You have top players like Hera and TheViper on both Youtube/Twitch who release videos of themselves playing at the highest levels. There are dozens more content creators than I can name who do things.

Honestly you could just chill out with the campaigns and 50% of this information will be useless. If I remember anything else I'll add it or myself or another helpful person here can answer any further questions.

GL HF

(GL HF = Good Luck have fun and GG = good game usually sad by the loser of a match, usually followed by GG by the winner. The virtual handshake of online gaming if you did not already know this)


EDIT: That guide linked by Szaladon contains a lot of used terms and game specific stuff. Damn I should of linked that myself and saved my fingers from typing :D

Beware the hotkeys however are out of date as this was a guide made for Age of Empires 2 HD I believe. The default in DE is grid I believe, which is a lot less weird.