AoE1 Beginner Guide and Tips (Return of Rome DLC)

Beginner guide to Age of Empires 1, aimed at Age of Empires 2 players who bought the Return of Rome expansion. We'll cover everything from the foundations of a good economy to a survey of the military units in the game, including their roles and hidden bonus damage.
0:35 Economic basics (food sources and the first 10 villagers)
2:45 Granary vs Storage Pit
4:15 The Market
5:15 Government Center
7:25 Barracks units
9:15 Archer units
11:05 Siege units
11:30 Cavalry units
13:40 Academy
14:15 Temple
14:55 Civilization suggestions
___________________________________________________________
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[@SpiritOfTheLaw]

A note for anyone who played Age of Empires 1 back in the day, the new DLC also removed the tech requirements for units. Legionaries don't require the fanaticism tech, Centurions don't require aristocracy, etc.

[@se6369]

Hopefully they'll add an option to put that back in

[@volodymyrboitchouk]

​@@se6369why?

[@se6369]

@@volodymyrboitchouk Why not? Then people can choose. And it makes it a bit harder for Choson players to create those legions

[@tqhung166]

@@volodymyrboitchouk Well, it's because some of these techs require techs from a completely different, unrelated building that many people don't know how unlock some of the super units like that. It's understandable that some people with that knowledge want to keep this advantage over less-informed people

[@se6369]

@@tqhung166That's a pretty stupid reason honestly. It should be clearly stated in the tech trees and unit tool tip in the buildings so you can see how to unlock it (including in what building you find that technology)

[@a.nonimus6705]

"You can tell this is a video game and not real life because a lot actually happens at the government center" 🤣🤣 sotl is the most educational channel on KZbin

[@micheljordan123]

lol there's always one of those

[@vulongwindydragon4367]

I subcribed after this sentence

[@kevinthorne9892]

Exactly ‼️😆😅😂🤣

[@Davtwan]

Another note about pushing gazelles: they _don’t_ return to their original spot like AoE2’s deer. Keep this in mind when trying to push them to a location.

[@cappantwan2978]

Adding to this, elephants are super easy to lure with one villager, so bring it to hunters finishing up on a gazelle, like you would with sheep to boar.

[@Paintplayer1]

​@Capp Antwan one game my elephant wouldn't chase me at all. I could just hit it down with one villager. It was weird

[@kesiazezebajki1982]

@@Paintplayer1 Did you play as Macedonians? Their villagers have bigger LOS so they can hit elephants from further away while elephants cannot see who is shooting at them, making them just stay idle.

[@SirQuantization]

Wish Aoe2 was like this tbh.

[@kwantator]

Also lions will hunt them down

[@spinyslasher6586]

The reason why granary upgrades towers and walls is because historically, towers and walls were first built to protect the granaries, as it would be the most important part of any settlement. Storage pit upgrades army because back then, it made sense for stuff to be made near their gathering point to reduce logistical challenges. So the blacksmith would probably be located nearby where all the ores were deposited at.

[@99Teutons]

This is the type of educational information i read sotl comments for

[@randomdude2026]

Also you only need walls and turrets if your are sedentary. The nomads of the Stone Age didn't built fortifications because, well, there was no city or village to protect. Building a granary and making farms in Tool Age symbolizes the progress of becoming sedentary. And thus because one is sedentary the need of building fortifications arises.

[@charliefirpol152]

AoE 1 has so many weird quirks. That shows it´s age but also makes it so interesting.

[@martijn9568]

The best part is that many quirks make sense if you think about them.

[@MythrilZenith]

Something I'm surprised you didn't touch on - Catapults get extra AoE radius when upgraded from Stone Throwers, and go from anti-building to anti-EVERYTHING. Such is the pain of having a single well-placed stone destroy your entire army. If the AI has these they will absolutely destroy you, whereas if you try to use them vs the AI they will just dodge every stone that you don't target ground with.

[@EvilDoresh]

So stay away from AI Sumerians (+45% fire rate for the catapult line)

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

That's more because of another quirk of AoE 1 - siege units are affected by Ballistics as well. Real pain to deal with, so I get why they changed that in AoE 2.

[@satyakisil9711]

​@@ArawnOfAnnwn the 3x3 damage radius of heacy catapult is real bane. Thankfully de fixed it.

[@ImMaxi]

Also your catapults are dangerous if you don't micro them. They will happily fire at enemies that are near your stuff so can harm you more than your enemy. For example if you have a defensive line with a wall and towers and those catapults behind them they WILL fire at enemies near the wall, accelerating its destruction. Or if enemies are near a group of them they will easily kill each other while trying to hit the enemies

[@slayersam1]

​@@ImMaxi no need to micro anymore, just set them to no attack stance

[@martinmarzano1523]

You forgot to mention that for Academy units, Greeks are the best, cheaper, but way more importantly, faster moving Hoplites is a game changer.

[@AlphaRebel]

*laughs in Assyrian horse archer*

[@DantesonofSparda85]

do you know if their increased base walk speed stacks with Aristocracy which is needed for the Centurion upgrade?

[@JoSan3]

​@@DantesonofSparda85 Aristocracy no longer a req

[@tentons10]

@@AlphaRebel bro you’re comment has me rolling XD XD

[@martijn9568]

​@@AlphaRebel Good luck with that. Chances are that you will run out of room before those Hoplites walk into your base, at which point it becomes GG if the Greek player is walled up.

[@TheGoldeneye9]

The logic behind how academy and Seige Workshop are unlocked is simple: you build an Archery range to basically unlock and understand missile based attacks, and for the Academy, you have a Stable to understand counter-cavalry tactics > hence Hoplites, Phalangite and Centurions. Which when you put some thought into it, it makes at least some form of sense.

[@JuanxDlol]

3:52 Mostly because walls and towers were developed to protect grains and storages would also function like a blacksmith in the bronze to iron age, altought this wasnt the same for all old civs IRL, it was translated for all because of the symmetric style that AOE 1 was focusing.

[@Locoantropologo]

AoE 1 had a big Civilization influence. That is translated on a focus over anthropological and cultural designs ideas like that

[@theeliteelite1873]

Good quick intro video. This DLC is exactly what I wanted the OG AOE DE to be when they first announced it. Now that I can finally play the ancient era with AOE2’s huge improvements over the original game I am satisfied. I hope we get more ancient era campaigns in the future (beyond the OG campaigns they’re going bring over) with this expansion. I love the medieval era but that’s been expanded on so much now with all the expansions from Conquerors to Dynasties of India. Let’s get a little more love for the BC history please. (Although I certainly won’t complain if they do add more campaigns to AOE2, more is always good)

[@eliteeaglewarrior4981]

Agree 👍

[@superdupersubby]

I saw on the official website they are taking votes for new DLC's, so they are gonna develop more new ones!

[@eliteeaglewarrior4981]

@@superdupersubby u mean new campaign?

[@theeliteelite1873]

@@superdupersubby really? I only saw votes for which of the OG campaigns get ported.

[@EvilDoresh]

Same. This is like my dream version of AoE1

[@rumblered1850]

I prefer antiquity as a setting over the middle ages, but I don't think I'll ever get used to AoE1's weird tech tree, lack of unique units, etc. Of course it's best to not tamper with AoE1 itself too much in a release like this, but it makes me wish AoE4 went back to antiquity and tried to do it better justice instead of treading the same ground as AoE2.

[@deutscher1a]

i wished from aoe4 to follow what they promised 20+years ago I remember being a kid and reading the booklets you got with a game while installing (still love to do that with physical games) I cant recall if it was for aoe1 or age of kings - but i know exactly what the aoe roadmap looked like: 1: Ancient times 2: Knights 3: First rifleman(just what we got and i liked the game for its unique hometown system, that everyone hated) 4: Soldiers like ww2 maybe - this didnt happen... 5: Mechs like a future scifi war - cann still happen, prolly wont... After the complains about 3, it seemed like they just wanted to go back to the "whats selling since 20 years" game Thats why 4 feels like a modernized 2(imo) I would have liked to build up empires like pre ww1 and go through the ages to a final ww2 (or slightly above without nukes) clash to find the winner I guess hometown mechanics would have worked way better in that setting too - but would have accepted a slightly changed aoe2 in that setting Kav and close range early on, upgrading to motorised and long ranged endgame 5 in future setting maybe like super effective ranged armor but weak close range - so that future specialised units could melee? I dont know how that would have looked like.. But i dreamed of the industrialized aoe4 for long...

[@MrMarinus18]

I quite like that the age 2 units are not upgradeable. It adds a real dilemma of making units to defend yourself and not throwing away resources on units that will be obsolete before they see battle.

[@JustLooking1996]

the fact that chariots don't cost gold is so bizarre to me. Like one of the biggest traits of chariots is how expensive they were.

[@noraslob5461]

Yeah, that really struck me as weird too

[@kwiiin_]

But they're trash units, isn't this their main benefit?

[@JustLooking1996]

@@kwiiin_ that's true in a game design sense. But it's a weird disconnect with how Chariots actually worked. They would be perfect gold costing units.

[@firedoom666]

As someone who ended up getting destroyed by the Standard level AI when I first got the DLC, I am in dire need of this video!

[@krizcold]

Something to note: Different from AoE2, workshop units are "Repaired" by the Priest. I can't get used to how that looks

[@TheHurinThalion]

maybe it's a tech priest?

[@MrMarinus18]

I think that should be introduced in AoE2. While it makes little sense I think it is better for the game.

[@Flint_Inferno]

​@@MrMarinus18That would be an interesting unique feature for a new civilization actually.

[@Randleray]

What I always liked much more about AOE1 is the much complexer intertwining of units and upgrades. For example, in AO2, about 90% of all unit upgrades are very streight forward. In fact the only exception in AOE2 I can think of just now is chemistry, where you need to take that tech to be able to get gunpoweder - which makes sense obviously. In AOE1, you need a lot of different techs to upgrade different unist, while the tech initself is not just to directly upgrade or enable a unit. Some examples I can think of spontaiously: Fanatism, Wheel, Stone Mining. Also a little bit special, you have to go for some upgrades first to be able to upgrade certain units. For example: The last archer armor to enable heavy horse archers (which are seriously op in AOE1), second shield upgrade to enable Phalanx or the last wood upgrade to enable Helepolis. Aside from that, AOE1 is generally unballanced, because the rock-paper-scissors system is just barely there. You have some very basics situations of it, but generally speaking, if your civ doenst have either Ballista/Helepolis, Heavy Cataphracts or somehow good horsearchers (either through civ bonus or just the whole upgraded unit), you will get wrecked by other civs which have those. Of course there are some excemptions. But because especially horse archers are just unballanced in almost every situation, you can beat about every other unit combo with them. Same goes basically for Cataphracts, only difference is, they can be countered by Academy in a lot of cases. Ballistas/Helepolis is just as unballanced as horse archers, because of the ungodly range and the rof (especially so with the Helepolis) and the bonus damage against buildings. I hope they did something to the ballance of the game or otherwhise it wont keep a big playerbase, even if it is incorporated into AOE2 now... at the same time, I hope they really dont change it to much, because otherwhise a big chunk of the "charme" will be lost. Edit: The Ballista doesnt actually have bonus dmg against buildings. It feels like it has, because of the generally high dmg, the rof and the fact that buildings go down much faster in age1 than age2.

[@Steve-mx9rr]

I really hope that RoR will be supported as well as AoE2DE. the ancient era finally deserves proper support with patches and DLCs.

[@fabriziocossio3336]

I really hope they port the old campaigns over eventually or modders will But idk if they will add more dlc to this dlc That woukd be some paradox interactive/ creative assembly shit

[@Steve-mx9rr]

@@fabriziocossio3336 AoE is a franchise where I don't care that there are DLCs. the more the better.

[@EvilDoresh]

I'd really love a DLC for "barbarian" civs like Gauls, Celts and Germani. Would certainly fill a large hole in the Romans' "rogues gallery"

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

They've said they're gonna take a break for a while to fix up some background code shit (after the initial hotfixes to fix up bugs with the initial release). Don't expect another DLC for a while.

[@dhruvsharma6826]

@@EvilDoresh Would totally adore playing the Celts - they should add a cheat to spawn Asterix & Obelix. And of course, the biggest missing gaps at the moment - Mauryans to fight off the Macedonians.

[@drschwandi3687]

I had my legionaries wrecked by heavy cav and had no idea why. Learnt the hard way that there is some bonus damage at play

[@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts]

Bonus damage being hidden just makes the game so much more opaque.

[@devangnivatkar2649]

I'd argue that the bonus only helps to keep parity between the Swordsmen and Cavalry lines. Once you get Logistics for Swordsmen i.e. half pop cost, and factor in resource costs of both units, the bonus is the only thing that keeps the Swordsmen from completely overwhelming Cavalry The patches have steadily nerfed the Swordsman-line's late game snowball potential, while increasing the HP and bonus of Cavalry-line units. Legions have their HP reduced from 160 to 140. Conversely, the Cataphract has consistently gained 20 HP two or three times. Likewise the bonus used to be +5 for all Cavalry-line, but was increased to +6 for Heavy Cav, and +7 for Catas

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

I always liked how in aoe 1 infantry actually had purpose, with sword line being faster and cheaper whilst the spear line was heavy and anti-cav.

[@freyafanboy]

Return of Rome single handedly reignited my love of this game, I love AOE 2 don't get me wrong but AOE 1 has such a special place in my heart because I played it so much as a kid and being able to play AOE 1, with all the improvements AOE 2 made just made my day, first DLC I bought as soon as it was announced and I haven't regretted it. I do hope that maybe just maybe all the old scenarios from 1 will be remade in AOE 2, and that they don't just ignore the Return of Rome part of AOE 2 now. I do have to say that AOE 1 has some of weirdest quirks and oddest building choices for upgrades but it just feels right to me and it put such a grin on my face with it.

[@HekateMGO]

As a kid I thought the Scythe Chariot would do damage when it drove by enemy units, I was very frustrated driving them back and forth through groups of enemies and watching them die while doing nothing. D:

[@boyar3033]

This made my day 😂

[@EvilDoresh]

One thing to remember about the unit lines starting and _ending_ in the Tool Age is that these units are the trash units of the game. Their "replacements" from Bronze Age actually cost _gold_

[@StickmanSam89]

"You can tell that this is a videogame and not real life because a lot happens at the Government center". This quote had me dying laughing😂

[@GoofballAndi]

the absolute rush of nostalgia from seeing the upgrade icons, god im getting old

[@michaelandreipalon359]

If there's one thing we might all say, the expansion will inevitably get expansions of its own.

[@Kawabongahlive]

I'm all for it.

[@NaCk210]

Man, I'm itching for some celto-germanic faction pack, with maybe iberians being thrown in as well.

[@VPLewr]

Hope to God that's true.

[@MaryamMaqdisi]

I want Hebrews

[@larsy567M]

8:30 The +15 HP only applies to Shortswordmen. The upgraded versions get even more, I think the legionary even gets a massive +80 for a total of 240HP. I think it also gives +5 or something to axemen

[@Koroar]

That Government Center joke was amazing, wasn't expecting it

[@blackdragoncyrus]

Very unique DLC.

[@daigonnasema]

about the heavy infantry line, they are, in fact, extremely low cost, to the point they can trade reasonably with heavy calvary, not to mention they have the highest dps/resource, followed up by the helepolis. If they can be massed up to 150 units (they take only half of the pop space per unit) with a couple of helepolis and chariot, not even heavy horse archer and heavy catapult can save you from losing the game.

[@cawgsugr1440]

I thought it was only the Barracks units that benefitted from the half pop space upgrade..?

[@daigonnasema]

@@cawgsugr1440 oh, my bad, I usually call swordmen line heavy inf, light inf for axeman and op inf for centurion

[@taylorgletscher]

3:31 "The meat is now lettuce" had me.

[@inductivegrunt94]

Aoe1. Yeah, I need this as I went into the Trajen campaign blind and I kept getting confused with everything that was different. Also Ballistas and Catapults are my favorite units, they helped me a lot in the Trajen campaign's 4th and 5th scenarios. So imma need this to not bumble around in Aoe1. Thanks Spirit, this will be very helpful for me. And that Government Center joke was pretty funny, got a smirk out of me.

[@scarletcroc3821]

The most annoying thing about AoE is the unit upgrade path, it can be very annoying to get used to as after a while some of the units become worthless and you never touch them again

[@Kaptiv239]

most annoying thing is the 50 population limit within all campaigns

[@pbsoccer2]

In case aoe2 dev read this: For the next DLC should add meso civs. I feel like the meso civs have room for expansion. Some civ bonus ideas are eagles with relic attack bonus like Lithuanians or maybe extra armor like Teutons. Could also add a mesociv that has a light cav type of unit (tomahawk rider or something).

[@USEC_OFFICER]

Something worth mentioning is that buildings in AoE1 have an innate 80% damage reduction, so they effectively have 5 times the HP of what is listed. However they completely lack armour and so are still noticeably weaker than their AoE2 counterparts.

[@MorrisNicebrain]

+Chariots have 2x the normal conversion resistance.

[@devangnivatkar2649]

I'd like to add that Ballistics in AoE1 applies to ALL ranged units, including Stone Throwers & Ballistas!

[@EvilDoresh]

Things should become easier for newcomers as time goes on, as AoE1's original tutorial campaign will be in one of the first "new" content updates for the DLC

[@micahbush5397]

You know, I don't think I've ever made slingers playing AOE1 after my initial games. They're just too weak, even against their intended targets, and they fire slower than archers, which makes absolutely no sense. Plus, the stone cost (which also makes no sense, since slingers fire pebbles and cobbles, not quarried stone) is a barrier to making a lot of them, since you generally have to go out of your way to mine stone early in the game.

[@lustsadist368]

Great little guide mate. I personally main Assyrians. Great for a tool age bowman rush with the faster firing rate and for late game chariot archers and mass heliopolis 😅😅 love it

[@aeth4190]

Hey SoTL! The more civ came out, the more we saw ones that helped more or less directly with late gold generation (gold from stone, from farms, more gold from relics etc...) Would it be interesting to compare these bonuses, and how they translate into the late game in 1v1 when no trade is possible?

[@-MarcelDavis-]

Now that they've brought aoe 1 into the aoe 2 engine I want them to do the same with aoe 3 and make the game I've always wanted. I doubt they'll do it but one can dream.

[@kremepye3613]

Amen

[@lekhakaananta5864]

You want AoE3 in the AoE2 engine?

[@melonmaster2892]

love the government building joke. great delivery.

[@lolmao500]

I got half my army murdered by catapults twice in the first mission lol after that I learned

[@RoulicisThe]

This video is really helpful, especially the part about unit types. AoE 1 had a very, VERY different balancing than AoE 2 and bonus damage was practically absent from the game's matchups. It was bound to have some changes when brought into AoE 2 with the DLC and it's very helpful to see exactly what they are.

[@jonathanschloemer6846]

If it still holds true, chariots have a high conversion resistance too, making the a priest counter

[@xthomas7621]

Thank you for making this video i didnt know they changed the tool age units so much

[@Shhimhiding]

I’m not sure why I watch your videos, I don’t even play AoE2 much less AoE1. You could be giving out entirely wrong info and I’d still watch your stuff. It’s soothing 😂

[@joshuagabrielcatindig7607]

Holy crap the shade at 5:29. Burn!🔥🔥🔥

[@InternetMameluq]

3:20: Easiest way to remember is that granaries are for... grain. Which is not meat. Also storage pits are for meat, because grain doesn't spoil like meat does, and hence you don't need it.

[@cool-aquarian]

Thanks for video. After watching it, I feel glad that I held off on buying this DLC.

[@synka5922]

4:30 you can actually get to bronze before farming if you get your berries, gazelles and both elephants. add farms while getting to the tool age and build a government center asap

[@yashvardhannegi5909]

When I needed it the most

[@steven_r7773]

That government center troll with deadpan delivery had me dead 111111111

[@m-gmustata]

Great video. Another thing I didnt know about AoE 1 is controlling ruins.

[@chrisl9112]

*Sad dock noises*

[@jantoniotorre]

Just in time!!! Thanks a lot

[@adammiller4122]

5:21 😂 SOTL with the savage burn 🔥🔥🔥

[@RANKSUCLIN]

Spirit Of The Law, will you compare the Return of Rome DLC to the Romae ad Bellum mod? I watched your commentary on both of them, and they both look really good. Then I tried both of them myself. Return of Rome is the most comfortable way to play AOE1 skirmish mode. Romae ad Bellum has a lot of new elements, like building on water. Greeks are not just one civilization, but Athens and Sparta. and more. Personally, I prefer "Return of Rome" a little more because I like AOE1 so much, but I'm curious to know which one you think is better.

[@nickmarciano1629]

Awesome, was just watching your Sicilians video and saw this.

[@MrEvolutionable]

5:20 SotL just casually dropping a zinger like that is what I really love about these videos. :D

[@CallaghanAU28]

Me: Been watching your video's the past week too learn about the game. Watching you beginners guides and videos about my favourite civs, hoping to see some content on the new DLC. Literally next day after work lul

[@AvelierPlays]

Imagine a complete revamp of AoE1 with buildings being bigger than units, civ specific units, languages and unique techs. Would have been awesome, a missed opportunity.

[@F1fan4eva]

5:17 that subtle shade at government. This is some 200iq roast so easy to miss

[@dustyacer]

man the absolute burn at 5:20

[@The_Room_2_Doggys_Revenge]

that government rant was perfect!

[@MrSiLenTb88]

Best. Channel ever!

[@epicseadragon1692]

Nice! a note I'd like to add here: for beginners, I would recommend to play the Phoenicians. They have a solid wood gathering eco bonus that helps throughout the game, but doesn't lead to "bad habits", and a wide open tech tree that can do almost anything, including on water! True, their land siege is on the weak side, but still serviceable to take down towers (plus they have their cheaper armored elephants that can be used as rams to soak up damage). And on water they have some of the best catapult triremes/juggernaughts thanks to faster firing rates!

[@gerriejordaan8385]

Thanks for the heads up on this. I was wondering why I could not use some of the Calvary options beyond the scout in the campaigns since I needed the Wheel. So much has changed since playing the original game.

[@anamolysmith123]

Well...the swipe against the government centre(about them working for a change) is the highlight for me..:P

[@tom.walder]

For future civs/patches in AoE 2, a civ getting a storage pit unique building would be an interesting eco bonus.

[@Ruimney]

I bought age 1 a few months ago KEKW just completed its campaigns, I feel bad now. I felt like my boy SOTL just forgot to mention the helepolis, that can wipe like a 100 units very fast if you don't counter them, and that siege is healed by monks, but overall a very good and instructive video

[@jasv49]

Would love to see AoE1 civ reviews!

[@ambrascetnarwhal2695]

Thank you for these comprehensive details! Which I would really like to know is that how damage vs buildings works at all. The most notable was the stone thrower you showed deals more than a hundred damage, but it always seems like about 20-30. I would be interested in this topic in general. No units seems to deal nowhere near the damage to buildings as is visible on their "command card".

[@USEC_OFFICER]

Buildings in AoE1 have an innate and unlisted 80% damage reduction, so they effectively have five times the HP.

[@Cysubtor_8vb]

It's been awhile since I've played AoE1, so it was a bit more of a transition than I was expecting despite all the quality of life improvements. Went into my first game as Carthaginians, who I later learned lack chariots, and had my initial force wrecked by a group of priest 😯

[@Allskil88]

I don't know if it would be redundant, but I would love a quick run-down video of bonuses with a couple tips (Similar to the "what civ is best" segment in this video) of all the AOE1 bonuses/civs.

[@NC7491]

I am old enough to remember reading about a tournament final of AOE1 in which both finalists chose Shang, because Shang had the cheapest villagers and that's what made them the best civ in the game.

[@cappantwan2978]

Thank you very much, I haven’t played AOE1 since the definitive edition, so I forgot all the weird idiosyncrasies like Stable > Academy and Granaries having tower/wall upgrades.

[@shadowedmyth]

Cheers John

[@stormystrifevodchannel9689]

You also forgot to mention in addition to the cavalry pierce armor increasing with unit tier upgrades, the Slinger starts with 3 base pierce armor. Funfact: They counter watch and sentry towers because they only take 1 damage. Even if they don't deal a ton of damage, that's still 35 shots they can tank before dying, so a group of 5 slingers can easily wipe out single towers. Also: Coinage gives you a 25% productivity bonus on Gold and a vaguely interesting thing is that Siegecraft also in addition to buffing stone mining (no prod bonus just carry bonus iirc), it also buffs villager damage vs buildings, which actually can have a pretty useful synergy with Fanaticism late game when the map's been mined out.

[@HiyokoSupiritto]

I recently beat the Extreme AI (1v1 and 2v2) and I'm finally confident for the online

[@OytheGreat]

I'm happy you did this, I never liked aoe1 that much but I'm starting to love it a lot now! (despite being very unbalanced compared to aoe2) I hope you elaborate on siege later on too. Ballistae are incredibly OP units if you have several of them and can protect them. And the stone thrower line can be insane too, as it is sort of an onager/trebuchet hybrid. Very dangerous to your own units though 😅😅

[@micahbush5397]

The buildings of AOE1 are a bit confusing if you're used to AOE2, but they did have the benefit of helping me start using more hotkeys. It was more challenging to come up with hotkeys I could remember with the greater number of buildings and overlapping first letters in AOE2 (Mill, Monastery, Market, Mining Camp) so the different names (Granary, TeMple, maRket, storage Pit) and smaller number of buildings helped.

[@user-jq3ye5gx3u]

I Subscribed twice.

[@anonnymousperson]

Hi Spirit, thanks for a great video! QUESTION: what is the furthest range you can make a projectile travel? Not just what unit has the longest range (I think that's God's Own Sling), but can you make a projectile travel further by tracking with balistics? Maybe a portuguese cannon galleon can hit a target that is moving away from it really fast at range 23,24,25?

[@rubz1390]

Archery range unlocks siege workshop because mankind first had fo learn how to shoot before being able to shoot big things. Academy is probably unlocked by stable, because stables represent nobility who were probably the more learned of ancient populations.

[@thomasmuller546]

ty spirit

[@dieblauebedrohung]

While watching this I noticed how much of this Stuff (aside from hidden Things like Bonus Damage) I still remember very well from Nostalgia in my Childhood. Not being able to upgrade Units and instead just making "better" Units was something I loved back then, as you could still just flood the Opponent with weak Units from older Ages. Which might not be very competitive, but that wasn't the Goal back then, eh? P: At least it forces a very different Approach. And then there are Things like the Scythe Chariot, which is just part of the Group now but was so awesome and exciting back when it came with the Expansion, and it looked so cool! I remember making the Switch to AoE II and was really amazed by how tanky Buildings suddenly were though, and how much realistic it was that those didn't crumble to a few Sword Strikes as easily^^ It makes me really happy to see AoE I come back like this! Will there be Civ Overviews for the AoE I Civs as well? :D

[@bvillafuerte765]

Good video.

[@arandomguy9479]

You did not cover the dock at all :(

[@ChrissieBear]

5:25 Wow, sick burn. xD

[@welzerknightwesker8038]

The granary having tower and walls research actually make sense because historically it was thanks to agriculture that attacks in settlements became true thats why was necessary to create defenses like walls and towers in the first place in order to protect crops and cattle

[@stormystrifevodchannel9689]

Ngl I like that Town Watch was moved to the town center and replaced in that slot with Urbanization. I alos like Urbanization, it kinda rewards rushing to Bronze with plenty of wood. I do like that Wheel is still a requirement for Chariots/ChArchers

[@theshi3152]

First! wow that's a first.. love the content SOTL keep up the good work!

[@thatiowan3581]

Your mom was my first!

[@Soviless99]

i never realized the different civs had bonuses when i was a kid lol. teaches you to read

[@MythrilZenith]

Makes me a bit sad that they're only porting a limited number of campaigns over (at least for now), I wanted to see if the AoE2 engine makes Lord of the Euphrates (from Voices of Babylon) still one of the hardest RTS campaign missions ever made. That said whatever gets more people playing and enjoying the classics!

[@lloydlejack-official]

The Great Hunt was insane as a child

[@udechile2497]

@@lloydlejack-official Yeah, trying to do that one without saving can be insanely micro demanding, especially in that part with plenty of enemy siege units, after the towers.

[@lloydlejack-official]

@@udechile2497 Indeed. Also, aguante la u vieja

[@llSuperSnivyll]

Regardless of its difficulty, I always liked the way "The Holy Man" begins, with just a Priest.

[@lloydlejack-official]

@@llSuperSnivyll It's not that difficult but rather fun to play

[@GraveUypo]

back then, i mained assyrians. my friend mained hittites. but i really liked greeks and choson for their strong infantry. greeks had a huge buff to the hoplite line's move speed (and i mean huge, it was like 50% faster), and choson had +50% hp to the infantry line, ending up with 240hp legionaries.

[@Jup1t0r]

You need to make a video on Beyond All Reason. I don't know if you've played it yet, but is free and quite amazing.

[@tentons10]

The silliest part about this vid is 6+ hours ago I was looking for guides. But this vid was made 5 hours ago XD.

[@tentons10]

also government center buuuurnn!!! XD

[@GLDragon93]

I used to play with Choson in the gold edition, since they had great legionaries and amazing towers, not to mention had access to helepolis, which were broken back then. In the Definitive I found myself using Yamato more. I see they removed entirely Sacrifice (Martyrdom), It was a blast using it against those AI that spammed priests, you could simply annihilate it by chaining it until the enemy run out of priests. Egyptian priests were OP this way, as they only needed a single priest to convert from afar an enemy heavy catapult (instantly before it fought back and 100% guaranteed) or armored elephant and doing massive damage to the enemy army.

[@galliman123]

They removed that tech? 😢😢😢

[@GLDragon93]

@@galliman123 Yee :(

[@icarian553]

Historically the best civ by far in AOE 1 has been Shang. Vills costing only 40 food is so good when defending against early rushes is hard. Whoever gets first to tool age and gets some units out often wins. Don't know yet how the ability to garrison vills and new balance changes changes this.

[@kesiazezebajki1982]

It would be great if you could mention how great Helepolis is versus AI since they can shred through entire armies and cities.