Helpful Hints - Guide for Age of Empires II: The Conquerors

Hi! This FAQ will give you some hints on playing Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors
Expansion.  I hope this will be useful!



Lets see, Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors Expansion is fun, yet still hard to 
learn.  Lets go over the basics of controls:

Use the mouse as the main "controller".

To select one unit, put the mouse pointer over one of your coice and press left 
mouse button.  To select a bunch of the same unit, double-click one unit, or to 
select a whole mixture, click and hold the left mouse button while dragging it over 
the units you want to select.  To attack, press on your units, and right click the 
buildings, or thye units you wish to attack.  To gather a bunch of the units and 
keep them set that way, select all the units you want, and press and hold Ctrl. 
Button on keyboard while pressing a number from 1 - 9.  After you select a number, 
press that same number to select everyone that you put into the group.

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Gameplay Hints And Tips
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   Well... everyone thinks that they can be a world master on their own, right?  
Wrong, you need to try different strategies.  Some computer players change from the 
last time you played them, so you may need backup plans, and trust me on this...I 
know how bad it is...

    Now, everyone thinks: "Go, go, go, go, go, attack now!", but think again.  
Before you do anything, you will want to build houses.  Once you build about 4, 
create about 20 villagers (be sure you have enough resources, if not, create only 
about 5 - 10).  After that, go and find all the resources you thing you will need 
during this Age, but don't go to far, as you might then end up in enemy territory.  
If you happen to end up in enemy territory, just run back to your Town Center, 
because if you stay near the enemies too long, the will come to your city and 
attack you.  Best to stay unnoticed while you build up forces.  Now, build the 
proper buildings next to your resource areas and start collecting.  When you have 
about 600 - 1000 resources each, stop (this may sound hard, but believe me, it 
works... also, if you think you will be attacked, then when you hit 200 or so 
resources, build up a small army, BUT ONLY FOR DEFENDING MINOR ATTACKS AGAINST YOUR 
CITY, and if you lose people, try to replace them immediately, this way you're 
always on end, ready in case of the worst).

    Now that we have some resources, create some buildings such as Towers, and 
Walls to help defend more of your city.  After this, if you have enough resources, 
start building your major army.  Make it a mixture, from calvary to archers to 
swordsmen, that way you'll have a good mixture to defend against anything.  By now 
you must be thinking: "This kid is crazy, only defenses, we have to attack before 
the enemy is stronger".  Well.....think again.  If you attack from the start, you 
leave your small, "starting out" city unattended to, and then its vulnerable to an 
attack.  If you aren't there to defend it, you will lose, no matter how many 
soldiers you try to create while they are attacking.  If they destroy your 
buildings to make units, you're dead.  Then, only your villagers are left, but 
unless a miracle happens, you can't save them either.  If you build up defenses, 
you can save your city in time, and you can still have resources to make an army, 
or navy, to go out and defeat your enemies.  For example, if you had Walls and 
Towers, they will defend your city, so you don't have to worry about wasting 
resources on new forces, and/or you wouldn't waste as much on them.  Just remember, 
after being attacked on a Wall or Tower, you might want to rebuild or repair it, so 
that it can hold strong for the next time that and enemy attacks.  

    After gathering up some soldiers, lets talk about attacking the enemy and weak 
points of the enemy.  NOTE: THESE WEAK POINTS ARE TO THE COMPUTER PLAYERS, NOT 
OTHER REAL PLAYERS.  Now, create a few Scouts from the Stable building.  One by 
one, send them out to explore.  At the most, send out 5.  After one has been 
injured or killed, or if you think it is safe, let others go out.  Try to find all 
enemies.  Pick out what you think is the weakest one, and send a Scout or two to 
look at where the borders, or walls and towers are, to the village or enemy.  Next, 
look for the safest way in, this may be after taking down trees or digging up gold 
mines, or something to that effect.  Then, after finding a pretty safe way in, send 
troops in, but don't waste all your resources on that army.  Remember, your safe 
behind your walls just in case someone trys to attack.  After getting more 
resources, go full out to reach the objective corresponding to that particular town 
or city.  If you would like just some practice in that particular city, go for it.  
Remeber again, youyou're safe from attacks, and probably can win easily now.  When 
you do hit the city, don't go for the most defended part of that city, the Town 
Center area.  Take out all the towers first, in other words, draw out the defenses 
to this army of yours (actually, try to make this big, because if big enough, you 
can hold defenses off long enough to get another army in to sneak attack the Town 
Center).  This may not always work, so practice at it awhile.  You got enough time 
to do your fair share of damage.  
  
   Well, lets talk about researching.  When you have successfully defeated the 
easiest city(ies), which helps you get practice too, research will become important 
if you are to win against the real competetition.  The harder enemies tend to 
research alot, and have alot of forces, or even just about no forces.  Whatever the 
case, you will need to research sometime in each game (other than the "Next Age" 
researches).  Research may take time, but you still are defended, and you still may 
have some excess soldiers from the last few battles.  Anyway, build a Blacksmith.  
Start off by researching the Attack helpers.  These add to the raw attack powers of 
your soldiers, all types of your soldiers.  After this, do the researches 
pertaining to defenses, once again, for all your types of soldiers.  Then, starting 
with your Stable, then to your Barracks, then to your Archery Range, research one 
by one the researches in these buildings.  While it is true if you build more 
buildings, you can do one research per each, this lowers your resources from time 
to time.  Best to stick with the one building research, unless you really need to 
research something, and fast.  NOTE: EACH AGE THERE ARE NEW RESEARCHES, SO BE SURE 
TO CHECK BACK IN THE BUILDING THAT JUST FINISHED RESEARCHING, SO THAT YOU CAN BE 
SURE THERE AREN'T ANY RESEARCHES YOU ARE MISSING.  Now, people may hate me for 
saying this but, research as much as you can until not alot is left.  Practicing 
these techniques will let you perform each with more accuracy, and of course, less 
time, which by luck might even save you.  But anyway, back to the researching 
parts.  When you have researched as much as you should need, (from the four 
buildings: Blacksmith, Stable, Barracks, and Archery Range in that order!!!) you 
should go and attack your harder enemies, using the same stealth-sort of view as 
before.  Then, after completing your objectives, YOU WIN, hopefully anyway.  

If something is wrong, please e-mail me at [email protected], and I will give you 
credit as well as add your piece to this FAQ.  When e-mailing me, please put the 
subject of the e-mail as Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors Information.  Thank you.

  
NOBODY IS TO COPY MY WORK IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM WITHOUT MY CONSENT, AND I MUST
HAVE MY CREDIT TO IT ALSO.  I WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION IF I MUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                        
                        THANK YOU,
                          -METSROCK

P.S. My e-mail is [email protected] and my AOL screen name is DarKnightKilla13.  Add
me to your Buddy List :).  Also, check out my other FAQ's, which include: Super 
Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube), this one (PC), and coming out by January 4, 2004: 
James Bond 007: NightFire (GameCube), and The World Is Not Enough (Nintendo 64).  
Thank you, and bye!

-METSROCK


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