How To Play Black Forest | AoE2

[@lonewolforigin]

Shout out to fatslob, the legend that motivated an entire senior generation return to AoE after a decade.

[@charleyruwart8983]

Fatslob's spot in valhalla is secure. Commanding a viking army behind 5 layers of stone walls and 50 treb × SO

[@lonewolforigin]

@@charleyruwart8983 don't forget the scorpions. Those scorpions have shredded thousands of units and siege throughout the ages.

[@gebhard128]

4:20 what a noob fish boom, Hera needs to join the rage forrest scene and improve on it 11

[@jamdrizzle5670]

Black forest IS the most fun map and I will not be swayed. haters gonna hate

[@booradley6832]

Note to newer/not as good players from one to another: If you're worried about not being "good enough" with ships dont fool yourself, you dont need to make your ships photogenically perfect. if you space them out and even spread a few tiles from the dock they have such a good gather rate and travel speed when upgraded that the food collection rate still ends up better than farms typically., while saving a lot of land, being more defensible from raids (if you wish to surround your lake with a stone wall and a castle or two) and resource efficient.

[@ageofwalls3736]

another part of them being so good that u can make them in dark age+docks act like a second tc in dark age-feudal, so its not only about gather rate but having more ''vills'' faster

[@nilayvyas668]

Very good suggestions!

[@nilayvyas668]

@@ageofwalls3736 Another good point!

[@joshrossman3796]

If you have a good farming bones, don't fish boom. fish traps are 8% faster then farm but a lot slower to set up and can sets you back early game.

[@booradley6832]

English teacher time: You fell prey to a common grammatical slip-up I hear. Its either "what the map looks like" or "how the map looks." Just so you know for next time, since presentation via speaking is literally a very large portion of your job.

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

it's *incumbent* upon an English teacher to make this correction

[@verus2007]

My two cents: - at 11:55 it would have been nice to emphasize to build all wall tiles a little bit first, so the enemy can't just walk through and overpower your units and make you have to run. If a wall is far out (like in the middle of the map), I like to double palisade wall, so if they attack/rush I have more time to react. Or leave a vill nearby, but this is a heavy early investment for an extra lumber camp for example. You can also house wall. - someone mentioned this before, but another advantage of a fish boom is that it takes a lot less space than the equivalent number of farms. It is a very efficient way to produce food. If it is in the back of your base, it is also quite defensible and with a wall can't get raided that quickly. - I always go for relics, so if they castle drop and attack with unique units, I have monks to deal with that if they are in low numbers. If it is a castle drop civ (mongols, Spanish, portuguese) and the choke is not too big, I double stone wall. It demotivates them to do it. Or put an outpost to see if they do it and than send 3-4 bills to quickly wall. I like BF:)

[@An1llusion]

I would advise against housewalling, as houses are very fragile in Dark Age. It should've been a mention in the Pro tips section, to be fair. I do agree with double palisade walls, when the choke in narrow. However, if the 'choke' is pretty wide, you should at worst do one layer and go aggressive - but in this case, you shouldn't wall at all and just go aggressive feudal play, and stone wall afterwards.

[@satyakisil9711]

Double palisade is not worth it that early, you make it after reaching feudal or if the enemy wants to knock it down with vils. You should be having your lumber camp near your walls anyway so saving for that 100 wood is important.

[@baverskalle]

As I stated before, these map videos are the best thing happening to the age community right now. People not knowing different map metas is both annoying to teammates, and stale if people only want to play the one map they’re good at. Kudos. Maybe introduce us to a cool team map that hasn’t been in the map pool, would be nice.

[@DissarayJay]

Listening to hera go " the flank should do a rush not a boom" when less than a day ago i saw him die in 4vs4 BF, he did a bad fish rush into 5 tcs got castle droped and elephant attacaked and lost instatly xD. He didnt even bother to wall the choke. Hahaha

[@HeraAgeofEmpires2]

i shuda listened to my own video🤣

[@DissarayJay]

@@HeraAgeofEmpires2 so good man. Love ya

[@RageForestOfficial]

Hera next Rage Forest Edition confirmed?

[@DrRobGilles]

The mistake that a lot of new bf players make is they overcommit to Walling... this is where I disagree a bit. We talk about trading Hp on Arabia with scouts and feudal units. Well in bf the main trade early game is idle time. Many players lose the game trying to wall because they send 2-3 bills forward where they are not collecting resources or worse they get into vill fights. And has Hera said, bf is a team game not a 1 v 1 meaning if you’re a good player but you’re spending time vill fighting with a weaker player over a wall your hurting your team more than your helping because now your putting the burden on your pocket to invest into military to save you vs boom. It’s not like 1 v 1 where you’re trading idle time for idle time. You also have to consider how vulnerable you are to the opposing pocket by engaging in vill fights. It’s usually much better to just let your opposing flank invest 2-3 villagers into walling plus loom. In the meantime just use your scout and pocket scout to check for sneaks. If you do that you’re collecting resources for 2 mins x 2-3 villagers plus being up a vill with no loom. Plus you’re not losing vills to the fighting bs. If they get too aggressive with the wall then just get up to feudal or castle faster and punish them. Even if they stone wall you deep in your base that’s still a win because they’ve invested a ton of stone and idle time Map positioning doesn’t matter if your opponent just washes you out because they are so far ahead of you and have the initiative with military. Now it’s a 3 v 4 and your opponent takes over your entire base and your resources because you over invested into walling Hera is correct that the pocket positions are in the carry position. But as the flank you put them at a severe disadvantage to do so if you sacrifice yourself Walling. Then the pocket either has a choice to let you die or stop booming to save you. Neither scenario is ideal. You’re in a much better position if you as the flank respond by taking the initiative with military later which then causes their pocket to respond with military. Now your pocket has a free boom with a pond etc to wash out everyone. Most bf games come down to what team has the 2 strongest untouched booms by min 27. Your job as the flank is to help your pockets achieve that without taking yourself out of the game. That’s done by threatening the opposing flank and somewhat deterring the opposing pocket. Sometimes the high IQ play is to pressure the flank. Get in. Then run straight to the pocket. That’s when yiu can cause the most havoc. Because if yiu got in then you’re proving that you overwhelmed your flank. So they are already behind you. The enemy pocket usually has no military and is paycheck to paycheck pumping out villagers. If you start harassing the pocket that is the best thing you can do for your own pocket and your team overall because their team is down a boom and your boom is completely untouched and can even super boom more for the close. You can wall until your blue in the face put if you get to min 27 and the opposing pocket is fully boomed then you’re not gonna stop him because he can just cut and raid you everywhere. Then you’re in the lobby by min 30. GG. If the strongest pocket isn’t able to win the game by min 30 then it comes down to what team has the healthier trade or has a significant civ advantage

[@booradley6832]

I am a big proponent of writing long comments but I think you may have taken things a bit overboard.

[@DrRobGilles]

@@booradley6832 thanks for your input. I don’t care If it takes too much effort to read something for 2 mins and learn from someone whose played thousands of bf games then that sounds like a you problem... That’s the definition of stupidity. Keep playing something for hrs on end being bad at it vs just spend 2 mins reading something that will make you instantly better.

[@Ducktard69]

I enjoyed it. Nice to get a clear explanation.

[@jamdrizzle5670]

what are you even talking about. 2 vills+scout+loom kicking in when you get to the wall area is the meta If you fight in the choke, well you have to roll the dice and try to out play them in the fighting + potentially send more vills to get that wall finished. any villagers you fight with are also villagers idle or lost on their side too. If you get the forward wall, you can stone wall + tower soon after fuedal which prevents rushing. This is the ideal scenario If the enemy is not trying to wall at all, then make a gate and get archers through in fuedal (and/or towers forward and base forward), the enemy will likely have no immediate response and the dmg/idling you cause will offset the small 1-2 minutes of 2 villager gathering resources at the start.

[@DrRobGilles]

@@jamdrizzle5670 bro you obviously didn’t read anything I said.... Establish your wall. I’ll break it and kill you in castle. Or if you over invest I’ll be so far ahead of you that you’ll get washed by Imp. Go ahead bro. Build your 5-6 houses in the pitch point. Make your tower. Use all those resources. Now because you did that you can’t make extra TCs in castle age without using market. Hence wasted resources. Also use all that wood up frantically making house walls and double walls. That’s idle time and excessive resources that I’m using to making a stronger push or just our boom you. You sent 2-3 vills with Loom to get off that wall you wanted so bad. Then all I have to do is send one vill later on without loom to wall behind. I won trade already by a large Margin. If you build a ton of houses in the pitch. Guess what. I’ll consider making a siege work shop mid castle after I establish TC. Make one mango. Harass your houses. That’s 30 wood x 4 that you just lost for no payoff. Now you have to rebuild them. Plus your probably frantically walk more or make your own workshop with resources you don’t have in order to trade mangos because you think I’m trying to storm in with military. But I may just make that one mango. But you have no clue what I’m doing so yiu have to expect the worse. You see how this game snowballs in my favor because of how much advantage you gave me early And if you study the math the more resources you lose early on the more it compounds as the game goes on. Spirit of the law has a ton of videos on delaying loom and cost of lost villagers and idle time. It’s fine man. You haven’t played Black Forest that much to know any better. Not your fault. Just lower your tone

[@gostagos6143]

Can't wait to see you joining the rage forest community :)

[@CBATOTHINKOFANAME1]

Great video as always man, hello to the cat as well ❤!

[@NapKingCole84]

As someone who can get confused by 8 player colors, I like the setting (?) you have on to separate colors by teammates and enemies. I legit couldn't follow the nations cup bc I kept forgetting who was who lol.

[@gherlwinfireson8582]

Usually there’s a team with hot colors (red, yellow, purple and orange) and a team with cold colors (blue, green, cyan and gray).

[@Janlssary]

if remember correct friends & foes color option is alt+g

[@EliasHasle]

I never delete villagers, because it feels so cruel... But I gladly send them to Uriah posts, building castles at the front etc.. :D PS: Apparently, "Uriah post" is not an expression in English. Let me explain with the Word, so to speak (with a danger of being treated as a Bible spammer): 2 Samuel 11:14-15 MSG In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is the fiercest. Then pull back and leave him exposed so that he’s sure to be killed.”

[@lowell4995]

I really like this kind of videos, but I would love to see coming back the "ultimate guide to...".

[@reynerrodriguez9740]

This is my favorite map I play 3vs3 4vs4 all time

[@ns-islandsroblox]

Can you please do fortress next week

[@Debrijja]

love this series, this was so helpful for an open map main like myself

[@VenomAoE2DE]

Hey, how about Khmer ballistic elephant as pocket?

[@pranavagarwal3697]

Another good day to end with a Hera video, loving it!

[@tannerclark8925]

The videos lately have been awesome!

[@Gui101do]

👍🏻

[@satyakisil9711]

Can there be a single map pool without Bf, michi and tunnel?

[@endlessgalaxyz]

No

[@symphonyotn8025]

Yeah I wish there was, why do we gotta be forced to play amazon tunnel and black forest in ranked, when sometimes I don't wanna play a 2 hour game.

[@symphonyotn8025]

@@endlessgalaxyz there's a reason people queue dodge those maps hoss

[@karanus12]

How do I prevent getting my cows and sheep getting stolen :(

[@imperator8125]

Michi Next? I need maximum psychological torture of opponents by drawing out the game!

[@booradley6832]

Michi is the greatest team map ever. Back in 2004-5 doing 40 minute treaty(or just "no rush" back in those games) 2v2 and 3v3 games was amazing.

[@imperator8125]

@@booradley6832 those are the best!

[@lucrainville7095]

Thanks for continuing that series.

[@pythonfoundations]

This Hera guy could one day be good at this game with his knowledge

[@hansoskar1911]

Fishboom isnt that hard. how much do you put on food? as few as necessary, you hope to only take hunt and the have enough fish. How much on Wood? Yes.

[@teddyhaines6613]

Maybe you could do Scandinavia next? Feel like it's less common in tournaments than 4 lakes, so I don't have a good feel for it.

[@MichaelJFroelich]

4:30 viper uses a combination of shift and alt click to first create the trap, position the ship over the trap (use alt click) and then the fish and trap are both only taking up one tile in your valuable BF pond.

[@gherlwinfireson8582]

And also a mod that changes the dock graphics to a shorter one so it becomes easier to click behind it

[@jonathaneide5142]

Pro tip- go kill the enemies sheep. The reactions are the best. Usually get lots of ######s

[@SwierszczuuYT]

Świetne filmy nagrywasz 🔥

[@somebody787]

Few years before, everyone laugh at FatSlop Now: Everyone is Fatslop

[@meninbike1602]

Hello Hera will you play in the next Rage Forest tourney ? Great vid as usual

[@nilayvyas668]

Thank you very much Hera! These how to play videos are great!

[@discoepfeand]

look at those video transitions in the ponds section at 4 minutes in - nice!

[@brotendochill7053]

abajo el trabajo, ahora quiero volver a casa y jugar BF toda la tarde jajaja

[@Ginasta02]

Awesome content. Can you do Nomad next?

[@Davtwan]

Commander’s first deathmatch map.

[@kevinlecavalier9720]

great videos!!! everybody wanted that

[@alexyoize]

I would like to see how to play in atacama.

[@maynk7096]

Do Amazon tunnel next pls

[@criscordova1461]

I would love to see wolf hill

[@Ω3103ζ]

black forest is just amazon tunnel with more rng change my mind

[@nicktubby9710]

Amazon Tunnel is just Black Forest with no RNG.

[@endlessgalaxyz]

They are both the same map basically

[@ageofwalls3736]

seen your bf game and fish boom in 4v4 tg, leave bf to bf players! :P joking thanks for the content!

[@fallen2624]

If he was that good at bf too, it'd be illegal. The true Arabia 🐐

[@holyn8]

but i dont want to play black forest

[@baverskalle]

Can relate man

[@endlessgalaxyz]

Shitters play bf online

[@LiterallyMe1973]

How to play Black Forest >pick Britons >spams archers and trebs >??? >profit 🤏🏻😎

[@skipper472]

If you are facing britons, it is hopeless to confront them directly on the choke point wall. Instead, it is much more effective to cut through the forest and raid their trade with paladins or cavalry archers.