AoE2 AI Battle! Definitive Edition vs HD vs AoC

Free for all battle between the three AIs available in AoE2: Definitive Edition. Besides just seeing which one wins, I also wanted to see all the new tricks and strategies the Definitive AI knows. All three AI were playing as the Cumans - one of the new civilizations!
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com
Game: Age of Empires 2 - Definitive Edition. Released Nov 14, 2019 on Steam and Microsoft Store.

[@SilverEyesGrimReaper]

HD Bot: Time to boom. DE Bot: Time to rush the HD Bot because that's how Spirit Of The Law says I can beat it. AoE Bot: Time to play farming simulator.

[@ShinFahima]

AoCbot is my spirit animal.

[@jamesspargo9399]

DE: absolutely smacking HD HD: builds mills frantically AoC: still "growing strong"

[@Lucas_Jeffrey]

hahaha love the Game of Thrones scenario reference

[@Michal235]

@Mark Patino "aoe2 game of thrones" - spirit of the law's video on yt

[@METALFREAK03]

thing is, AOC AI was good for the time, as the meta of gameplay back then WAS to put all on berries, then 3 on wood. That is old pro level AOL online build order. It has since changed from then and why I am not as good as I used to be way back in 1999-2005 because I haven't re-learnt the new game styles.

[@moistjohn]

DE knew it was against HD so it attacked pre 16 minutes while completely unworried about AoC

[@Leom-tg6qs]

@@moistjohn you can't be serious, right?

[@nostalgicdouchebag1912]

Fat Dragon: *forward towers Rubenstock: *forward TCs DE AI: *forward Lumber Camp and Mining Camp The strats

[@kylethomas9130]

It'd be fun to customize ai to fight against. Kinda want a Fatslob AI.

[@nostalgicdouchebag1912]

@@kylethomas9130 absolutely 11

[@maulob1523]

Still waiting for *Forward Market* Probably not gonna happen though, too OP.

[@preddyboi3467]

i was playing on an arena map yesterday, and a bot built a lumber camp right next to my base.. with 1 villager chipping away at my wood

[@stooge_mobile]

@Jan Sitkowski MbL levels of disrepecc

[@T90Official]

With all these robots taking over I think we've got to be worried!

[@DarthTellor]

That's rude! Don't call Spirit a robot. You both can do casting now, you don't have to fight.

[@CosmosProvider]

Soon commentors will be replaced, as player will. Soon robots will be commenting games played by other robots, mark my words.

[@StriKe_jk]

Inb4 the next Killer Robot is the T90 instead of the T9000 ;)

[@haramaschabrasir8662]

As long as you say gg every time everything should be fine.

[@justskip4595]

I would really like to see Barbarian AI put against these.

[@ShermTank7272]

It’s nice how the DE ai is basically debugging itself by printing out what it’s thinking. Gives us a peek inside the script.

[@JonatasAdoM]

Should we be worried it is talking to itself?

[@Snowfireblues]

I would assume they had this all along, since it is super useful for debugging, but they removed this from the finished product (since it's often a debug feature)

[@jarkkovahamaa7272]

"The old AI does love berries so it's probably perfectly happy right now." A relief to hear that :D

[@TheMygoran]

It's so nice imagining the old AI, sitting on top of a berry pile, happy as could be... Till the new one arrives with Rams

[@NatEff3ct]

TheMygoran lawl

[@21Arrozito]

Back in 99 my friends and I always started on berries too.

[@-Raylight]

*"Forward lumber camp"* That is certainly what I didn't expect from new AI *AI proceed to build forward mining camp* Wow great AI xD

[@planescaped]

The new AI does seem to be having a few issues. I imagine they'll sort a lot of it out before release. That's what beta's are for.

[@Reflexion555]

It's trying to mimick human behaviors, next update will have the AI hide a villager in the corner of the map and never resign while taunting you in chat.

[@poutykeiki2574]

@@Reflexion555 i want that fucking feature XDD

[@krankarvolund7771]

That's called economic war :D

[@RhombonianKnight]

It's an absolute Chad move.

[@hyunwoojun4002]

Future of gaming. Games are played by the AI, we watch them play.

[@mauer1]

why future? A german Stronghold Crusader KZbinr already has 2 Series (in sum 186 videos) of different AIs on different Patches (we have somewhat like a userpatch for stronghold crusader) fighting it out. Currently he is on hold with that to play some user created maps.

[@MattiaSetteSeven]

drew durnil xD

[@ShinyLP]

2 words. Drew. Durnil. (Aka. Switzerland)

[@B0tAcH1]

just adding in. there are tournaments for AI in Starcraft and Warcraft also

[@mightythistle]

AI Age always exciting to watch.

[@Joker-yw9hl]

That forward lumber camp was a real flex Edit: mining camp tho

[@swordandbored6137]

When the Conq AI does better than I do and Spirit just laughs at it

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

The Number 1 Aoe2 Player Timeline 2001-2005 Halen/Grunt 2005-2012 Chris/Daut 2012-2019 Viper 2020 --> DE AI

[@Jacks_Suffocating_Nihilism]

I'm surprised Forgotten Empires didn't collaborate with Max. At a glance, Barbarian looks quite a bit better than what they've come up with here.

[@METALFREAK03]

thing is, AOC AI was good for the time, as the meta of gameplay back then WAS to put all on berries, then 3 on wood. That is old pro level AOL online build order. It has since changed from then and why I am not as good as I used to be way back in 1999-2005 because I haven't re-learnt the new game styles.

[@MT-bp7ub]

Viper won vs 4 extreme ai in a team by archer civ, so Viper is still much better

[@thescribe509]

"magical wood that can stay on fire forever" don't forget about the supports of the building are made out of flint so when struck by the totally-age-appropriate steel tipped arrows they light on fire.

[@yannick4895]

5:40 AI deer pushing lol

[@m136dalie]

That impressed me, really wasn't expecting that from AI

[@radon3292]

wow

[@edfilms9312]

yeh I mean some players can barely even do it lol

[@CJGunner92]

That’s been in UP for years haha

[@SapFeaRon]

AI luring deer O_O oh my god, give those programmers a reward!

[@Jartran72]

That is actually not hard to code since every unit is on a x and y cordinate and you have to position the scout always on a route 1 diagonal field away from the deer towards your town center. That is really easy to program. Just needs like 1 extra function to path around obstacles.

[@yolanh]

@@Jartran72 I wonder if they programmed the DE AI in the same static manner as the other ones, or if they added a new way of defining AIs

[@brehbreh01]

@@Jartran72 i wonder if luring enemy's boar is hard to code?

[@manuelpico1213]

@@brehbreh01 Barbarian AI steals boars consitently

[@Jartran72]

@@brehbreh01 a scout that has enough HP to survive two hits of a boar just needs to hit it twice and run back to your own tc. You can add somethint like keep x units away from enemy scouts but just the luring to your own tc is even easier than the deer stuff

[@iAmCbasBoy]

HD AI: "who are you?' DE AI: "I'm you, but stronger"

[@JonatasAdoM]

"I'm future you"

[@Rain-bo6uc]

HD AI "who are you DE AI " Your doom"

[@Sprinterification]

"Another town center, strategically placed so that when... that's gonna be a really easy boar lure..." I'm dying

[@user-ti6hq2tc9o]

Haha yeah this was hilarious. He definitely earned a subscribe with that comment

[@thisismattness3215]

Hey Spirit, just wanted to thank you for existing Ok cool, thanks bye

[@bencevarga3508]

The extreme AI was made to fight against TheViper specially.

[@raynmanshorts9275]

HD vs DE: Viciously fighting AoC: Eating paste

[@Gismo359]

I think 4 DE vs 4 HD AI would be an interesting experiment - to see how they perform when they have the chance to boom properly

[@Avalaxy]

Or treaty.

[@SpaceMissile]

i love this idea

[@chungus816]

You forgot the mill that was Burning for 15 minutes and you missed when it collapsed

[@unnamedshadow1866]

The HD AI did quite a decent job surviving the New AI. Inexperienced players can easily quit and lose from early pressure like that.

[@lhumanoideerrantdesinterne8598]

Yeah... AI not succombing to stress and pressure isn't exactly a surprise... ^^'

[@SpaceMissile]

@@lhumanoideerrantdesinterne8598 HD AI, _frantically building mills_ "oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit"

[@lilstonerdiva5235]

Spirit casting and T90 doing civ overviews!? wtf is going on

[@kylethomas9130]

Glad it wasn't just me.

[@horshue7873]

Theres no way they didn’t coordinate this and do it on purpose

[@Eon2641]

A bold new dawn for the AoE community

[@lovebattleforge]

Made me laugh hard, nice.

[@JonatasAdoM]

Definitely reminded me of T90 casting

[@ShermTank7272]

5:34 did the DE ai just use their scout to lure a deer?

[@kR-qj7rw]

Jesus christ It's a learning machine

[@oyazamij]

1

[@MidwestBoom]

Yeah the Barbarian ai has been doing that for along time other tricks to such as building a palisade to stop a boar from killing you

[@KozenaDrzka]

This new AI will be blasting through the forest with onagers and will make surprise attack from back on the Black forest map.

[@jacobbrowning1000]

I would love to see that!

[@megaslayercho]

Wait for real,would it actually do that?

[@pronoob2439]

@@megaslayercho 1, with new command 'Use an Onager to cut down trees at the flared location'

[@raidarthegunwizard4520]

How about: Forest Nothing?

[@ovrsurge4689]

@@raidarthegunwizard4520 The default AI tends to just give up on forest nothing and even on settings where you give them a little space to walk they don't actually start making progress for a huge amount of time because they won't build their buildings too close to eachother while a human or smarter ai would. To be fair forest nothing is such a niche example to program for. Space being that constricted just doesn't happen in normal gameplay. I actually discovered ways of manipulating the AI as a kid playing aoe2 (maybe not even the conquerors expansion) on the old family laptop. I would fill a small map with trees in the level editor and make a river down the middle of the map, i'd draw a small line for the ai to reach the river any time it wanted because I noticed it would always resign if it couldn't send SOMEONE to look around. I also needed that river because a full small map of trees lagged that laptop noticeably. I wouldn't call what I played forest nothing exactly but it was pretty close. It's been really interesting seeing the forest nothing phenomenon pop up given that's how I played as a kid.

[@Leo3ABPgamingTV]

The first apparent fail with that test is using a new civ with old AIs. Depending on how AI is coded, it might end up at a disadvantage of not having civ-specific algorithms to play with new civ at full efficiency.

[@CanadianHoneybadger]

that's what I thought but the HD AI responded more to the unique civ traits than the new one!

[@buttnuttz6119]

Mining camp drop can’t hurt you, it’s not real Mining camp drop:

[@shawnbybee85]

The way those buildings crumble is so visually satisfying, it's beautiful.

[@Anolaana]

Defininitive: Superiority level 9001 HD: 222, 222, 222 (edit: _Help! I'm_ _getting the crap beaten out of me_ !!!) AoC: _has left the chat_

[@aphyxia]

That was some entertaining commentary. Just sat down and thought I'd watch a bit but ended up watching it all! Seems I'll have to play on a lower difficulty in DE than in HD, haha.

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

Just got comfortable with medium AI, guess I'll be going back to easy. :D

[@hrogarfyrninga3238]

@@Hanfgurkenhasser Yea, I currently beat Hardest HD AI about 3/4 of the time, but DE will probably take me apart.

[@mookateer]

12:23 lmao defending that tree

[@Angmir]

Saving the boar for imperial age

[@itsQuilow]

Extra castle for boar protection

[@frankseward7017]

This was interesting. Can't wait for the DEFINITIVE edition of AOE2 civ overviews

[@carlleenders1081]

I would love to see this again with 2 AI players on each team. Especially if the game goes late, it would give an interesting insight to how the teams interact internally and how much collaboration and teamwork there actually is. Thanks Spirit

[@HECKproductions]

blue: "team-superiority-level:0" thats harsh dude haha

[@tibor29]

Basically "this guy is a noob" in AI talk.

[@benperegrin745]

Yesssssskeep the commentaries coming you’re getting me back into this game

[@sherifhesham3733]

Papa SoTL blessing us with the daily uploads 🙏🙏

[@thetrustysidekick3013]

It's only a matter of days now. So excited for this!

[@99Teutons]

Anyone noticed at 10:42 the DE ai notices that the HD ai has moved from second position to the third position on the scoreboard and it just leaves it the moment the transition happens and focuses on the AOC ai

[@LukesGamePage]

Lovely stuff! So glad the AI has been changed / improved

[@Kevin-wx7wu]

12:24 that tree was purple's game

[@morrischen5777]

*When you realized you get in the game at AoC and have imitated all its AI's play style.*

[@MADGuy248]

Was just watching your matches with the Hardest AoE AI on HD edition lol what a coincidence

[@mcihay246]

Your dry humour is great. Especially the placement of the AoC Town Center.

[@Leon_Schuit]

I'm certainly looking forward to playing this next week, this new AI looks like a fun challenge to overcome

[@-Raylight]

I wonder how it will turn out if new AI attack AoC AI first Maybe HD AI can fight more better if they're given more time to boom, as usual

[@anhdunghisinh]

it world help the HD AI a lot. The battle will be longer. And it's looks like in the late game the HD and the new AI doesn't different so much

[@millanferende6723]

This is very relaxing to watch while I work

[@arshiaaghaei]

Video suggestion: 1 new AI vs 7 OG AI on extreme (if you know what I mean...) But damn, this week is gonna take forever, isn't it?

[@arshiaaghaei]

@That Scribe I tested the same in a 1 v 6 for HD (8th being me the spectator), despite holding up for 3 hours, it finally died. So, yeah, you are right.

[@ObviusRetard]

I'm so hyped for 4 new civ overviews

[@Gibblets411]

18:00 Is the AI version of aggressively T-posing at you. Except the AI is aggressively chopping *your* woodlines while they attack your base.

[@archie2038]

1. AI started scouting with sheep. 2... 3... 4... 5. Machines destroys humans.

[@lordcherrymoore5252]

I love the absolute dry delivery on your sarcasm. If I didn't watch all of your videos to know better, I couldn't even tell lol.

[@Nadie-mb4vw]

The extreme AI looks like its just the Hardest Barbarian AI from the Userpatch from Voobly. That AI tends to go full feudal fight with archers, and do perfect laming, luring boar, sheep exploring, pushing deer, etc

[@Kandall05161]

I love how the tone of the video is the DE AI and the HD AI duking it out, while the Conquerer AI is just the five year old in the corner."oop, and the conquerer AI has got all his villagers on berries. It loves those berries though so I bet he's perfectly happy right now" and "Let's go see the conquerer AI...oh look, he built a tower...that's nice...".

[@Qwertasdfg89]

5:35 OMG that deer pushing was epic o.O

[@Katharsis939]

0:47 In my head, a subcontious humming of the intro music starts...

[@hepsbok171]

I was about to do chores but then Spirit uploaded something

[@hepsbok171]

I just finished mine! 😄

[@BoroMirraCz]

I'd love to see what Deepmind is able to do in this game... In SC2 it already plays like a pro.

[@_SOL_INVICTVS__________0]

The old AI is like you got a towel man? is kinda hot out here man. The new AI is like, why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?

[@Xynbar]

I've never played this series before and I found this quite entertaining.

[@afegargergegerg]

"lets check it out.." *no intro is played* :'''(

[@personaslates]

Yes more Spirit of the Law! I've been wanting to watch more AoE DE content, but i can't stand the other streamers.

[@MeanJelly]

Would love to see more AI battles. On a bigger scale? :3

[@mysticmoose7514]

"Maybe that monks coming down to convert the mill" - Your dry delivery kills me man, I love vids of you analyzing AI fights with, I am guess you dont read comments on 4 yo vids but I love it lol

[@Official_Proxy]

What we see: Mine camp drop What the enemy AI sees: Mein Kampf drop

[@vitaobatera]

26:44 - Using Steppe lancers to attack a tower is pretty stupid... it's just letting the tower attack back due to the extra cavalry range...

[@Clerkius]

Excellent Choice!

[@snowframe2995]

0:59 "We can see a big difference, it's scouting with sheep." I have NEVER played this game before and I LOST IT when i heard this line 😂😂😂

[@hacsakalllar4038]

I think having the ais play with an age of kings civ would be better. The old civs arent primed as well to play the new civs with their unorthodox abilities and that may not gauge their abilities accordingly.

[@mauer1]

well HD was able to capitalize on that extra TC (though I think it just checks if he can build one, so he doesnt get stuck if his tc got destroyed pre castle age)

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

On the other hand, I understand why he chose Cumans. He was testing their ability to work with their unorthodox economic advantages.

[@unnamedshadow1866]

@@HolyKhaaaaan personally Cumans are not the best Civ for AI testing, they have terrible University Tech and can't build walls. Lithuanians fall more under conventional Civ, i feel this Civ would've been the best to make AI testing.

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

@@unnamedshadow1866 there is definitely a good argument for seeing whether the AIs will all build stone walls, or if just the original AOC AI does that. But ultimately, they all have Town centers. They all have military buildings. They all have Siege weapons and military units. Seeing what they do with those is the meat and bones of the game. And they are typically engineered for land maps, of which this was one. Any variations beyond that are minor and not usually worth looking at.

[@XxKidnoffxX]

Can't wait next week to get the game and watch AI Vs AI by myself

[@TomValedro]

cant wait for new civ overviews

[@magicalgirl1296]

That's really cool that all the AI is there

[@ggggg1520]

hey Spirit, thanks for the great content, i really like what you do! Could you do a video highlighting the gameplay differences and new stuff between AOEHD and AOEDE please. thanks!

[@METALmurdererOG]

Another vid so soon? Keep it up Spirit! Love the content

[@gonzalocornejo2532]

Did anyone else notice the DE2's scout cavalry luring deer? Amazing!

[@raulbezerra1929]

Its so fun to watch this kind of game!

[@netslum12]

Man you picked a good topic! Im two years late. I realized the ai was different but you already did it! And 100s of ks views on an RTS game damn. At first I was pissed, the new ai is tougher not like the original experience, but then im like it is playing more like a player so

[@TheBikeOnTheMoon]

when they said the new AI could beat the HD AI, I thought they were just PR-ing the game.....guess they weren't kidding after all

[@ekim613]

Maybe in the next episode of AI WARS, try team AOC and HD vs DE with the other new civs on an interesting new map and even get some naval action on display too. See if the old robots can take down the new whilst demonstrating some other new features!

[@Jel.Awesh.M]

Hey @Spirit Of The Law, another good video! Question for you, why you are not using the intro anymore?

[@asirpagabriella5327]

Hi SOTL, I'd like to help you add some closed captions but I heard youtube has added some changes that it requires the creator to manually check for it. Do you mind doing it? It'll be helpful for non English speakers.

[@kevanb111]

damn this was a funny match to watch, cant wait to play tommorow!

[@redgc899]

How do you start a game with 3 ai's? I add each ai and click ready but the start game button is still greyed out, i have everyone with a player number/team and yet It won't start..

[@cpthobbit4490]

What the AoC ai did after the berries is exactly what I used to do.

[@unsounded9905]

I kind of want to see AI battles from ages of empires 3 as that is the one i played as a grew up.

[@brianhudson4013]

How do you get total control over all of the AI in a standard game? Been trying to figure out how to do it.

[@ejga]

I still hoping for the intro music. I guess we will need to wait some time for more gameplay to come around the world in order to get some epic scenes. BTW, is there a cobra car in DE? because we need the supremacy villager gag.

[@cornflakeshumunculus8373]

It’ll be so entertaining to watch an 8 player DE Ai fight it out while I have my popcorn 🍿

[@eddy66t6]

I haven't looked at it in a while but from memory I think if you use the chats when programming the ai it can be used to adapt strategies in game

[@rasbaltic]

The DE AI did lure a deer at 5:36, that's really impressive!

[@edfilms9312]

spirit you can see the villager count at the bottom middle (slightly left of bottom middle). Also the score if you toggle that on when you click off everything anyway.

[@yaxinhuang1958]

Great Video! But how are you able to do standard games? All I have is multiplayer and a pretty much always empty lobby

[@Aussie.Owlcoholic]

Are you able to do more of these? Perhaps an islands map, or nomad? Also doing DE vs DE ai would be nice to see how they deal with one another :)

[@quasibrodo923]

It’d be cool to revisit this topic. It’s been four years. Would be interesting to see how much the DE AI has improved

[@jonw3152]

Really cool insight into the AI changes; although it would be interesting to see how the aoc AI would compare with a 75 pop limit 🤔 - it doesn't seem to boom beyond that regardless of the real population cap (I assume becuase it was built primarily for the campaigns)

[@alejandroladreyt522]

Just me gessing: running only 1 archer under tc every now and then, is efficient? I mean, does AI takes metrics of idle villagers garrison vs archer cost?

[@Kr0noZ]

You didn't really check the expansions DE built to the sides of its main base; I'm rather positive the left side woodline expansion is where the second TC went because I noticed a lot of activity there starting in Feudal (the map shows a blue blob there all the time AND there's a bunch of notification pings coming from there as well).

[@mkirefu]

Sprit how does the new DE does How do you turn this on look like?

[@horshue7873]

Cumans look really fun. Probs gonna be my new fav civ next to byz and franks

[@T2266]

I noticed that the kipchak's animation doesn't line up with it's arrow fireing.

[@Yanninho78]

Nice video. One of the developers said the new IA could win in a 1vs7 against the old IA, could be interesting to see if that's the case