Age Of Empire 4 is out now and if you have played the previous games then you will find the new one very familiar. If you are new to the game then there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind. In this Age Of Empire 4 guide, we are going to give you some tips and tricks that will help you get started.
Age Of Empire 4 Tips And Tricks
The following are some tips and tricks that you should keep in mind when playing Age Of Empire 4:
Know Your Civilization
There are plenty of civilizations that you can play as in AoE4 and each one has its perks and bonuses. You should pick the civilization that best suits your play style. If you are a defensive player then you can pick the English civilization. The English civilization is the best for new players. You should go through the perks of each civilization and try them out in order to see which one suits you the best.
Progressing Early On
When you start a new game, you will have a few villagers and a scout at your disposal. At this stage of the game gathering resources is going to be the most important thing that you need to do as there is nothing for you to build in the Dark Age. We recommend having all your villagers get food from sheep and other animals while you have your scout look for more sheep.
While your villagers are gathering food from sheep, you should create more villagers at the town center. Once you have more villagers produce, you should make a house in order to increase your population limit and then have 2-3 villagers mine gold. Food and Gold are the only resources that you need in order to progress through the ages. Having 8 villagers on food and 3 on gold is going to be ideal to progress quickly to the next age.
Scouts Herd Sheep Much Faster
Note that scouts are not only useful for finding sheep but bringing them back to town as well. Sheep move much faster with scouts and very slowly on their own. It is going to be much faster to have your scout look for sheep and then have him bring back the sheep to the town center.
While scouts are not effective against enemies, you can upgrade them to kill animals and then bring back their carcasses to town. This can come in handy depending on the civilization that you are playing.
Contsruct Resource Buildings Near Resources
Resource buildings such as the Lumberjack give you upgrades that improve your resource gathering rates. Furthermore, you villagers can drop off resources at these buildings decreasing their walking distance and increasing gathering rates. Build farms around mills and build a Lumberjack near forests in order to gather resources as fast as possible. This is going to be very useful especially if you are playing the English civilization that can build farms at a cheaper price and has a food gathering buff.
How Do Relics Work?
Relics are golden objects that are scattered around the map. There can be numerous relics depending on the size of the map. Getting these earns you gold every minute, so having a few of these can be very beneficial. Relics can only be picked up by religious units such as a Monk. You then need to deposit the relic in the religious building such as a monestary.
Religious units move very slowly and cannot attack, so you might need a few military units to protect it. If a religious unit dies while carrying a relic then the relic will be dropped in the position where the unit died. You will need to get another religious unit to pick it up again. As you progress through the ages, you can get upgrades that allow relics to earn you resources other than gold as well.
Religous units can convert enemy units and while it is holding a relic, it can convert units in mass. Note that this does not happen instantly and does take some time. Enemy religious units can do this too and it is denoted in a big circle that is not in your color. If you see it, you should move out of the circle or focus on the religious unit in order to take it out before it can convert your forces.
How Do Sacred Sites Work?
You can find sacred sites scattered across the map. Smaller maps will have 2 but larger ones can have more. In order to capture a sacred site, you need a religious unit. Have your religious unit walk to the sacred site and convert it. You must control all the sacred sites in order to win the game. This is one of the 3 victory conditions. Once you have control over all the sacred sites, you must maintain control over them and prevent the enemy from taking over. Once you have taken over all the sites you must protect all of them for a limited amount of time in order to win.
Only Siege Units Can Attack Stone Walls
While your units can burn down wooden walls, the same is not the case for stone walls. Only siege units can break and damage stone walls. You can build a siege workshop in order to create siege units. Furthermore, you can have your archers stand on these walls in order to attack invaders.
Unit Weaknesses And Strengths
Different units in the game have their strengths and weaknesses. Spearmen for example are great against cavalry. Cavalry is a great counter for archers and archers work best against slow melee units. Remember this simple triangle to make the most of your units and avoid losing them. Later on in the game, you will be able to train heavy units. The same triangle is going to work for both heavy and light units.
Other Victory Conditions
Other than capturing and defending the sacred sites, there are two more ways in which you can win a game. You can either destroy all the enemy landmarks, or build a wonder. The option to build a wonder pops up later on in the game once you have advanced to age 4. You will need 3000 of each resource in order to build the wonder. Building the wonder is going to take time and the enemy can raid you in order to destroy it while it is being constructed.
Once the wonder is built, a timer will pop up and when it hits 0 you will win the game. During this time, enemies are going to aggressively attack you in order to destroy your wonder and keep you from winning the game.
These are some tips and tricks that you should keep in mind when playing Age Of Empires 4.