Campaign AI?

[SNESJW (Sophie)]

Hi all! I have been playing Age of Empires 1 DE and have come to find that the new AI implemented into that game fundamentally breaks some of the campaign missions, making them significantly harder (The Holy Man being an example, which is actually easiest when played on Hardest difficulty.)

I was wondering if this game suffers from a similar problem? Dealing with that was enough to convince me to play the original version of AoE1 and so I'd go the same route if that was the case for this game as well.

[Marco]

If you refer to the sole AOE1 campaigns ported in Return of Rome DLC, maybe James3157 can give you a more accurate description of how The Holy Man plays on AOE2DE.

While AOE2DE campaigns are divided by difficulty, represented by swords: from one sword to three (hardest campaigns).

You then play them in three different skill levels: Standard for bronze medal, Moderate for silver and Hard for gold.

[Vemonia]

I played the 4 ported campaigns only on hard difficulty, and all missions felt quite easy (way easier than the new ReoR campaigns). I didnt try on easy difficulty, maybe they are harder.

In particular holy man in ReoR felt much easier than in aoe1de.

[SNESJW (Sophie)]

Originally posted by Marco - slow ass infantry:

If you refer to the sole AOE1 campaigns ported in Return of Rome DLC, maybe James3157 can give you a more accurate description of how The Holy Man plays on AOE2DE.

Ah! Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was referring to the base game campaign of AoE2 specifically, but perhaps the legacy expansions as well. Still, the existing answers *are* pretty helpful. I just wanted to know if AoE2's missions were ported more successfully in AoE2:DE than AoE1's missions were in AoE:DE.

[Marco]

Originally posted by SNESJW:

Ah! Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was referring to the base game campaign of AoE2 specifically, but perhaps the legacy expansions as well. Still, the existing answers *are* pretty helpful. I just wanted to know if AoE2's missions were ported more successfully in AoE2:DE than AoE1's missions were in AoE:DE.

Classic missions play almost the same, except some major changes like the Romans replacing Byzantines in Attila's campaign and a more aggressive AI, but it depends on you, for example if you rush early some AIs you have some advantage. On Attila 6 vs Hard AI, for example, I defeated Mediolanum with my initial army and in the meantime I built my base to replenish troops and make rams. Then I destroyed Verona's wonder before attacking Patavium because they are tougher. AI army waves in classic campaigns ported to DE, however, are basically identical to Age of Kings/The Conquerors but units act smarter (like Verona microing paladins depending on the siege weapons or soldiers you are using). In mission 2, cities kept their behavior: they will resign if you destroy their lumber camps, TCs, mines or mills.

However, I didn't replay classic campaigns entirely. Somebody last year complained that Saladin's campaign became harder, like in mission 5 where Tripoli Guards attack right at the start of the game instead of attacking at minute 15, even if I think he was playing at Hard and not Standard. I think some classic missions are tough by nature, like Barbarossa 4 or Joan of Arc 4 and 5.