Re: Quick AOE 2 Question:

Mark Earnest wrote:
> "kim" <ntscuser@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:u4GdnR5YALg8DWHVnZ2dnUVZ8sLinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Mark Earnest wrote:
>>> "kim" <ntscuser@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>> news:grCdncXwFIQnmWfVnZ2dnUVZ8rednZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> Mark Earnest wrote:
>>>>> I might finally be able to beat this game if I can figure out just
>>>>> one thing:
>>>>>
>>>>> How in the world do you keep opponents from squeezing between
>>>>> holes in the wall barricades?
>>>>
>>>> You can never stop them entirely but upgrading to stronger walls
>>>> helps. Rather than rely on walls for defence I suggest you bunch
>>>> castles and town centres together for mutual protection. An enemy
>>>> foolish enough to stray within range will be met by an awesome
>>>> volley of arrows. You will also need fast moving infantry or
>>>> cavalry to deal with siege weapons. My favourite is Japanese Samurai
as 
>>>> they can be
>>>> made in the same castle they are defending.
>>>>
>>>> (kim)
>>>
>>> Hi, Kim, been doing that with Castles, but Town Centers sounds like
>>> a great idea.  I have been waiting to see how the enemies approach,
>>> and then building a castle in each route.  Sometimes the AI even
>>> gets wise to that and takes yet another route, but it still helps
>>> somehow.
>>
>> The first Castle you build should always be exactly one farm space
>> away from your Town Centre on the side from which you are expecting
>> an attack. The AI opponent will always take the line of least
>> resistance and eventually you will need to surround your Town Centre
>> with Castles. They should always be exactly one farm space away so
>> you can continue producing food even while under attack. Likewise it
>> is best to build your Market exactly one farm space away from your
>> Town Centre on the opposite side from which you expect an attack.
>>
>> A slightly riskier but very cost-effective strategy is to build
>> Castles where they block an opponent's access to your part of the
>> map. That leaves your villagers free to gather resources from
>> anywhere in your part of the map.
>>
>> Building walls between natural geographic obstacles in your
>> opponents' part of map will greatly hinder his economic development
>> and slow down his attacks. It is best to leave gates in these walls
>> so that you and your allies can still pass through them later in the
>> game.
>
> If you can build that many castles you must be playing with maximum
> materials at the game's beginning.  I haven't tried that yet, except
> briefly.

Not really. It's a question of "booming" your economy as quickly as
possible 
then using gold to buy as much stone as you need. Even on "hard" setting
it 
will be at least 20 mins before your AI opponents launch any serious
attack. 
There are often areas of the map where a single strategically placed
Castle 
can block access to a huge amount of territory. AI opponents often leave 
piles of stone and gold untouched for you to help yourself to later in the

game.

(kim)