Age of Empires Gameplay Guide: Tips for Beginners

The legendary game Age of Empires (AOE), over 20 years old, remains a strategy game that any strategy enthusiast cannot ignore. If you've never played Age of Empires, it's a missed opportunity. Follow the article below for basic instructions on how to play Age of Empires.

* Update the Age of Empires game download link: Download Age of Empires

Expert Guide: Mastering Age of Empires Quickly

Installing Age of Empires Game

Here are the steps to install the Age of Empires game on your computer:

Step 1: Once you've downloaded the Age of Empires game from the link above, proceed to extract the file using WinRAR software (Download WinRAR)

Right-click and select 'Extract Here'

Step 2: After extraction, locate the Setupreg.exe file -> Right-click and choose Run as Administrator

The game will be automatically installed into your system

Step 3: Now you have successfully installed Age of Empires on your computer. You should move the Age of Empires game icon to your desktop for easier access in the future by:

Select the game icon -> Right-click and choose Send to -> select Desktop

Now you simply need to click on the Age of Empires icon on the desktop to start the game

Before reading this article, you need to remember that 'Haste makes waste' means that if you rush and want to become good at Age of Empires quickly, it's unlikely to succeed. You need to be patient, especially in the beginning stages.

Age of Empires doesn't require very high computer specifications, but if you want to play Age of Empires online, it's better to use a slightly better-configured computer. Usually, people say that you should play Age of Empires on a desktop computer, but I've seen many 'pros' playing on laptops. I also advise you to use a desktop computer if you're practicing Age of Empires. However, if you don't have a desktop, you can use a laptop temporarily to play, just remember the keyboard shortcuts.

One limitation when playing the Age of Empires is that the game doesn't support Vietnamese typing. Instead, players often use numerical symbols like 1, 2... to communicate with their teammates. In contrast, games like League of Legends allow players to type Vietnamese during matches. If you're a fan of that game, you can check out how to type Vietnamese in LOL.

Recognizing the different types of buildings in Age of Empires is also crucial. To avoid building the wrong structures or upgrading technologies improperly for your people and army, first, we need to understand the significance of each type of building in Age of Empires.

Tip: How to upgrade cavalry in Age of Empires

* Details: How to upgrade cavalry in Age of Empires

Cavalry is a close combat unit in AOE, useful for herding villagers and engaging with the opponent's archers and infantry.

Understanding the significance of different buildings in Age of Empires

* BA house in Age of Empires
* BG house in Age of Empires
* BS house in Age of Empires
* BM house in Age of Empires
* BC house in Age of Empires
* BP house in Age of Empires
* BN house in Age of Empires
* BL house in Age of Empires
* BE civilian house in Age of Empires
* BY house in Age of Empires
* BK house in Age of Empires

I remember not too long ago, when I recorded videos of matches online, the audience even created some very interesting clips titled 'Gamer's hand movements when playing Age of Empires.' If you're a newbie, watching these videos will truly be eye-opening.

To excel in Age of Empires, the first thing is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each type of unit so that you know what tactics to use to win battles.

Explore the advantages and disadvantages of various units in Age of Empires

* Shang troops in Age of Empires
* Assyrian troops in Age of Empires
* Babylonian troops in Age of Empires
* Cathaginian troops in Age of Empires
* Choson troops in Age of Empires
* Egyptian troops in Age of Empires
* Greek troops in Age of Empires
* Hittite troops in Age of Empires
* Macedonian troops in Age of Empires
* Minoan troops in Age of Empires
* Palmyran troops in Age of Empires
* Persian troops in Age of Empires
* Phoenician troops in Age of Empires
* Roman troops in Age of Empires
* Sumerian troops in Age of Empires
* Yamato troops in Age of Empires

There are many strategies to learn how to play AOE. Some players often watch videos of pros, take notes, and then apply them to their own gameplay. However, learning must go hand in hand with practice because Age of Empires requires you to have a long-term training process. Choosing units and setting up the map in Age of Empires is also noteworthy. Currently, strategies for playing Age of Empires have been extensively synthesized from articles on the Internet. Mytour introduces a way to play Age of Empires that will help you become a Pro player in the shortest time possible.

* Basic strategy for playing Age of Empires

(Applicable to Hill Country map)

Age 1

After starting the game:
At this point, you will have 3 villagers and 200 food.
- The first thing to do is to gather villagers at the Town Center.
- Typically, Age of Empires players use the H + C hotkey to gather villagers instead of using the mouse, which takes more time. However, for new players, using hotkeys or the mouse is okay (Mytour recommends using hotkeys for easier operations later on). Keep gathering villagers until you run out of food.
- Initially, the maximum number of villagers you can gather at the Town Center is 5 (Shang villagers are cheap, costing only 35 food). Send 2 villagers to build 2 Houses (BE), and 1 villager to scout for berry bushes (Normally, experienced Age of Empires players hunt deer or elephants for food first, but for new players, it's advisable to scout for berry bushes).
- After finding the berry bushes, assign 4 Shang villagers to gather berries, send 1 villager to scout for additional food sources, and the rest to gather wood. By the 10th villager, send 1 villager to build a House (BE). If you have enough wood (125) after building the House, build a Storage Pit (BS) as well.
- By villagers 13 and 14, assign villagers to gather food (if you find any). Keep an eye on your villager count and your House count to avoid villager idle time (and don't forget to continuously use H + C). Typically, when the ratio X/Y (where X is the current number of villagers and Y is the maximum number of villagers) is 2, send 1 villager to build a House to prevent villager idle time.
- Normally, about 6 to 7 Shang villagers gathering wood is enough to build the necessary infrastructure; the remaining villagers can gather food. If you can build 2 to 3 Storage Pits for wood gathering, even better.
- Shang players usually aim for around 25 villagers depending on whether they're focusing on archers or infantry.
- When you have enough food (500), advance to Age 2.
- During the transition to Age 2, assign additional villagers to gather wood or food. The number of villagers will increase rapidly, with about 7 or 8 villagers gathering wood. You need to build a Government Center (BB) (Stone Pit) to be able to build military buildings after advancing to Age 2.
- The minimum wood required after building the Government Center is 300 wood to build 2 buildings after advancing to Age 2: Barracks (BA) and Archery Range (BL) (or you can just build 2 military buildings, BA and BL, to advance to Age 3).

Age 2:

- Upon reaching Age 2, quickly build Barracks (BL) and Market (BM). Once you have enough resources (800), advance to Age 3.
- During the transition to Age 3, you can increase wood chopping in the Market (BM), build additional farms, and assign more villagers to gather wood.
- If you're focusing on infantry, send 5-6 villagers to mine gold.

Age 3:

- Upon reaching Age 3, prioritize upgrading wheelbarrow technology in the Market (BM) and researching horse collar technology in the Town Center.
- If you're focusing on infantry, upgrade attack and armor in the Storage Pit (BS) for infantry or camels.
- If you're focusing on archers, upgrade wood chopping and arrows in the Storage Pit (BS).
- Against Shang opponents, experienced players usually focus on archers (Barracks).
- In Age 3, increase your villager count, allocate some to farm in the Market (BM), and mine gold (Tip for Shang players: For every 2 villagers gathering wood, assign 1 villager to farm).
- Additionally, build prerequisite buildings such as Government Center (BC), and consider constructing military buildings (Siege Workshop) or defensive structures (Watch Tower).
The requirements to advance to Age 4 are: You need 1000 food + 800 gold and you must not be missing any of the previously built buildings.

Age 4:

- In Age 4, as Shang, you can train Song swordsman at the Barracks (BL) (Requirement: 1200 wood + 800 gold and upgraded head blood in the Government Center).
- You can engage in skirmishes with the powerful Horse Archers (Cavalry Archers) at the Archery Range (BA).

Conditions for Advancing Ages in Age of Empires

Currently, the timing of advancing ages is no longer crucial for many players. However, to understand the strategy for advancing ages quickly, it's important to first grasp the necessary conditions and requirements for advancing ages.

* Requirements for advancing ages in Age of Empires from Age 1 to Age 2

- Have a Blacksmith (BS) + Granary (BG)
- Have at least 500 food

Once you meet the requirements, click on the icon below the villager icon to advance to the next age.

Strategy for playing Age of Empires - Conditions to advance from Age 1 to Age 2

* Conditions for advancing ages in Age of Empires from Age 2 to Age 3

- Have a Barracks (BB) (Axeman or Slinger), and a military building (Barracks or Stable) and Market (or you can advance to Age 2 with 2 Barracks or Stables without necessarily building a Market)
- Have at least 800 food

Once you meet the requirements, click on the icon below the villager icon to advance to the next age.

Strategy for playing Age of Empires AOE - Conditions to advance from Age 2 to Age 3

* Conditions for advancing ages in Age of Empires from Age 3 to Age 4

- Include conditions from advancing from Age 1 to Age 3
- Have a Government Center (BC)
- Have a Siege Workshop (BK) or Temple (BP) (depending on your troop type)
- Have at least 1000 food
- Have at least 800 gold
=> With the above conditions fulfilled, you can advance to Age 4 in Age of Empires.

Setting up alliances with opponents, breaking alliances with allies in Age of Empires (also known as shaking hands and breaking hands in Age of Empires)

In the game interface, click on Diplomacy (You are color 1)

- In the Ally column: The x mark indicates your allies (In the example below, color 2 is your ally). Meanwhile, colors 3 and 4 without the x mark will be your opponents.

- In the Neutral column: If you check the Neutral column, during the match, when your military units reach the opponent's base, your units will only fight the opponent's military units without attacking their villagers, buildings, troops, etc.

- In the Enemy column: This column marks your opponents. Here, colors 3 and 4 are your opponents.

After setting up, click OK (or press Enter). If you want to reset to default settings, choose Clear Tributes. To exit completely, select Cancel.

Playing Age of Empires - Alliances, breaking alliances with allies and foes

Transferring (or pumping) resources (food, wood, gold, stone) to allies in Age of Empires

In the game interface, click on Diplomacy (You are color 1)

- Look at the Pay Tribute (cost 25%) column: This is the percentage of resource decay during resource transfer. If you transfer 1000 food to your ally, you will lose 25% of that 1000 food. Thus, your ally will only receive 75% of the food you transfer

- Next, you'll see 4 columns corresponding to 4 resources: wood, food, gold, and stone

- The resources are arranged similarly and correspond to each color representing your allies and foes. If you want to transfer resources to your ally, you must click precisely on the row of your ally and click on the resource icon indicating the quantity you want to transfer. Avoid situations where many players mistakenly transfer resources to their opponents :D

- After determining the quantity of each resource you want to transfer to your ally (or opponent :D), press OK or Enter. If you want to redo the operation, click Clear Tributes. To exit, select Cancel

Playing Age of Empires - Guide to transferring resources (food, wood, gold, stone) to allies or opponents

Some shortcuts when playing Age of Empires (See more in Compilation of shortcuts in Age of Empires game)

- Key H: Return to the main base, when you move the mouse to any position on the map in the game, press H and you will return to your main base. At the main base, you can request villagers (create villagers) by pressing the C key.
- Key C: Request villagers, also known as creating villagers, at the main base H, press C to request more villagers. However, the number of villagers created depends on the types of units in Age of Empires, the amount of resources, and the number of houses to store villagers (housing).
- Key B: This key is often used with other keys to quickly build buildings:

Example:
B + E = BE: Build a house
B+ C = BC: Build a main base
B+ A  = BA: Build military buildings.
 

Basic commands in Age of Empires game

Usually when playing against the computer or with friends, for entertainment purposes, using pre-programmed commands in the game will help you have relaxing moments. Instead of starting from scratch, you can request resources, wood, and many other things just by typing basic commands like

PEPPERONI PIZZA : Request 1000 food (request meat in Age of Empires)
COINAGE : Get 1000 gold
POW : Kids on tricycles with short guns
PHOTON MAN : Atomic soldiers shooting lasers
POW BIG MAMA : Extremely powerful kids

... and many other cool commands. You can see the detailed Age of Empires cheat codes

Tip: Deploy flags for villagers, SH scooters go scouting

Many viewers watching gamers compete, especially professionals, often see them use the tactic of deploying flags for scouting vehicles (jokingly called SH scooters) or villagers to scout around their base as well as to find resources. So how can you deploy flags like that?

Age of Empires Gameplay - Flag Placement in AoE

It's quite simple, while playing:

Step 1: If you want to send a villager (or a group of villagers) or your scout to scout around your base, all you need to do is select that villager or scout.

Step 2: Then hold down Shift + Right Mouse Button, and wherever you want to scout, just click on that spot.

Step 3: Once you've marked the positions, release the Shift key and click (Remember, only click once) on the spot where you want the villager or scout to go after completing the path you've outlined. Then, select another villager or unit to continue with other actions.

 Note

If you right-click twice on the map after releasing the Shift key, your flag placement will be considered unsuccessful. Therefore, after releasing the Shift key, you're only allowed to click once on the final destination where you want the villager or scout to go.

On the internet, you can easily find articles with tips on playing Age of Empires, promising quick mastery and becoming a pro... In reality, it depends on your training process, operational skills, etc. I've created this Age of Empires guide with contributions and sharing from forum members, hoping you can quickly learn and enjoy playing AoE and other games in moderation to maintain your health.

Tip: Request units using the Tab key.

When watching gamers compete, sometimes you'll notice that they don't individually request units from each military building, yet units keep coming out consistently. You might wonder how they request units like that. Is it some sort of hack?

Mytour answers: Those gamers use a small trick to quickly and evenly request units without needing to Ctrl + ...

So, how do they do it?

Step 1: Remember that your military buildings are assigned to a number from 1 to 9.

Step 2: Requesting units

- For example: Mytour assigns military building BA to the number 1

First, press the number 1 key -> Then hold down the Tab key.

The next important step is: If you have 5 BA buildings, then hold down the Tab key + click 5 times on the R horse icon that appears on the bottom bar. Each time you press Tab + click on the R horse icon.

Playing Age of Empires - Requesting units using Tab key

 Note

For requesting R horses, or (Scroll), you can use Tab + 'R' key for faster operation

With requesting units using the Tab key, you don't need to use Ctrl + A, L ... which would take a lot of time. Moreover, during combat, you would have to return to BA, BL to request units, which would make it impossible to monitor your military units and you would be more vulnerable to the opponent's attacks.

TipCheck the corner house direction in Age of Empires

When competing in team games, players often ask or answer questions like: 'Which corner is their base?, top at 12 o'clock, bottom at 5 o'clock' ... So what do the numbers 12 o'clock and 5 o'clock mean and which direction is the actual 12 o'clock and 5 o'clock?

Here is the explanation from Mytour

Have you noticed that the mini-map in Age of Empires is designed as a small diamond shape in the top right corner of the screen? When you overlay your watch on it, you will see that: Time zones like 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and 3 o'clock all correspond to the four corners of that small mini-map. This is why players have introduced the concept of corners and time zones in Age of Empires gameplay.

Age of Empires Gameplay - Determining the opponent's base corner on the map

So, if you've mastered the map in Age of Empires gameplay, determining the opponent's base corner is completely straightforward.

TipPreventing farms from burning down or losing them

Many players still wonder how to prevent farms (BF houses) from catching fire when built. It's just a small trick in Age of Empires AOE. The method is simple as follows:

Step 1: After constructing the farm, remember to line them up along a path (paths here are numbered from 0 - 9), here I'm setting it as path 4.

Step 2: Next, you use the mouse to follow a villager, ensuring it always follows the same path as the farm path you've set (As shown in the image). In case there's a stone well near the area where you're building farms (I can't show you the image as there's no background), make sure to align the farm path with that well so you don't have to remember for the villager anymore.

Step 3: To prevent farms from burning down, you need to repair them (this depends on the actual working time of each type of villager, but generally, you should remember and pay attention to repair the farms as soon as possible).

To repair the farms, you press one of the numbers 0 - 9, the number that you saved as the farm path initially. Then -> press the S key (the first S key to return to your farm path) -> Press the S key again (this S key is to repair the farm, the food in each farm will be restored to the initial amount, over 200 or 300 food something).

* If it's a saved farm path with a villager -> You have to set that villager to work on the farm (Otherwise, it will just stand idle, wasting resources).

* If you've saved the lumber camp path along with the stone well -> then it only takes 2 presses of the S key to finish :D

Games like Age of Empires or Chinese Chess are legendary titles. Here's how to play Age of Empires, compiled from top AOE players in Vietnam. If you want to learn the secrets of Chinese Chess, check out the article how to play Chinese Chess to always secure victory.

How to set up chat, messaging with teammates or opponents

Step 1: In the game interface, select Chat

We will see 4 modes including:

- Allies: Allied players
- Enemies: Opponents
- Everyone: Everyone
- Select Player: Choose individual players

Like this

- If you want to chat privately with teammates on the same team, select Allies (this is also the default mode initially)
- If you want to chat with everyone in the game, choose Everyone (when you chat, both teammates and opponents can see the information)
- If you want to chat privately with opponents, select Enemies
- If you want to choose each person to chat with individually: select Select Player

Choose Everyone to chat with all players in the room.

Basic unit types

- Units with R bows: Shang, Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hittite, Palmyran, Sumerian, Phoenician
- Units with camels: Shang, Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hittite, Palmyran, Sumerian, Phoenician, Cathaginian, Minoan, Persian
- Units with horse slashing, no camels: Choson, Macedonian, Yamato, Roman
- Units without R bows: Cathaginian, Greek, Macedonian, Minoan, Persian, Roman, Yamato
- Units without wheels: Macedonian, Persian

What is AoE Ranking?

AoE Ranking is an upcoming feature in the Age of Empires version released exclusively by GameTV, aimed at helping gamers evaluate their rankings through matches on the GameTV Plus platform. With AoE Ranking, gamers can find opponents who are suitable and compatible, avoiding encounters with opponents who are too strong or top-ranked on the network.