Age of Kings; yet another gaming thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ok. Starcraft, Diablo II. Good games, most definately.

Age of Kings is the sequel to the immensely popular Age of Empires. Real time strategy at it’s very best.

This thread is dedicated to AoK, very possibly the best game this computer has ever had the honor of running.

Any other ‘Agers’ out there interested in discussing strats, favorite civs or possibly setting up a game or two? If this thread doesn’t follow the example of my last few (sink like a chunk of lead thrown into a still pond) and there’s enough interest, I will volonteer to organize and host an SDMBAok tourney.

2

I’m in. Despite its being made by Microsoft, AOE was groundbreaking in the real-time strategy gaming category. Hundreds of games imitated it. AOK is even cooler, but I recommend that you go out and get the brand spankin’ new Conquerors upgrade. You get terrific new civs and new features.

The Conquerors adds the Mayans, Aztecs and a few other civs. It also adds the “farm queue” option so you can have your villagers automatically re-seed farms when they run out. Also, intelligent villagers will start looking for resources nearby right after they finish building mills, mining camps, lumber camps, etc. Very cool.

Count me in for any online multiplayer games.

3

Try this: Mine as much stone as possible. Then, start building castles all over the friggin’ landscape. Castles are really tough to destroy, and any time your enemies pass a castle, they are greeted with a hail of arrows.

Another good strat: Once you get the castles built, start building trebuchets. They have extra long range and are devastating to buildings. Build up a force of monks, some cavalry and a bunch of skirmishers to accompany the trebuchets into battle. Monks convert anyone that tries to approach. Those making it past the monks can do battle with the cavalry and skirmishers. By the time anyone makes it to the trebuchet, it’s already killed most of the buildings in the area.

4

if you arrange a game, i will definitely play.

my strategy? hmmm… cheese steak jimmy’s. :slight_smile:

5

I’d also be up for an AoK game. I loved the first AoE edition, and could beat it pretty soundly. It would be nice to play against a real person, instead of the computer. Sometimes the damn 'puter cheats…because it can keep track of everything, it doesn’t have to worry about forgetting a couple of villagers that finished thier farming duties.
I usually try and explore the map to find natual areas to server as defensive emplacments. Then build walls and towers every little way or so. If I can get that up fast enough, and have it encompas a large enough area with pleanty of resources, I can wait out the attacks from the computer. Once it has wasted it’s resources, I’ll be able to move through them and take over more and more territory.

6

What does a guy need besides $25.00 at ebay?
How does internet play work, can you save games?

7

THespos: Ya, not bad for Microsoft, eh… :wink: I’ve tried the trial version of the upgrade. I loved the farm queue. What a damn good idea. It is definately on my xmas list.

Your strat has it’s advantages, especially if you play as the Franks, with their discounted castles. As far as it’s effectiveness, it’s great if you can get to the castle age before anyone else does. Once there’s an abundance of trebs and rams, though… :eek:

Kilgore Trout: (and others) the Microsoft Gaming Zone is a great and simple place to arrange a game.

http://www.zone.com/

You need to sign up. You’ll get some software installed and choose a username for the zone. When signed on, you get a ‘friends’ list that makes it easy to see when your buds are online.

Mine is Father_John_

If you already have an id there, please post it so that I may add you to my friends list.
Atrael: That is a great strat vrs the computer, but you’ll get smushed if you try that in the multiplayer arena. Hit em fast and hard seems to be the favorite strat online.

carnivorousplant:

Not much. Just go to http://www.zone.com/ and sign up. Internet play is very simple. Log on, got to the AoK game rooms, choose a room and game, then wait for host to launch the game.

As for strats, I used to be big on the early rush. Aok makes that much more difficult. Now I’ll pump out at least 30 villagers before even thinking about advancing an age. Then I’ve got such a strong economy that it’s child’s play putting together a serious raiding party. This group, composed mainly of knights and/or archers will go about buggering up my opponents economy and distracting him/her while I prepare the coup de grace.

A good online game will see my villager high at around 100 (for a 200 pop max)

My fav civ is the Byzantines, as they have the largest tech tree, allowing me to surpise my opponents with almost any strat I can come up with. The discount on skirmishers, pikemen and camels makes for cheap hordes of great defensive units too.

You can save games, so that in the event of a lost connection or crash you can resume your game. I’ve only done it a couple of times as I find it to be a bit of a pain in the butt. I also figure that if the game crashed once, it’ll probably do it again.

8

AoK is all that I have been playing for the last 3 months. It is a fantastic game. I downloaded the demo of the new expansion pack, and it froze up my computer. I am looking forward to being able to play the Maya.

9

When I first got the game, it was months before I came up for air. Oh yeah, wicked game. I’ve toned it down, prefering to remain married to my wonderful, patient, beautiful wife. :smiley:

I tried the expansion demo too. It worked fine, but I uninstalled it. I don’t want to get spoiled before I can afford the upgrade.

Let’s play tonight(Saturday). We can get up to 8 players in one game. Who’s up for it?