I'm down for some games and I have patch C and Widescreen patch installed. Do I need those other 2 things to play with y'all? I like keeping it vanilla.
I guess I wouldn't mind installing the other stuff too though.
As far as I know, you would need the 1.0e patch and the 1,000 pop mod to play with us, as they both modify core game files that would be checked against ours. But we can play without the 1,000 pop mod if you like; I keep two copies of the .dat file around, one with it applied and one without, just in case. It's worth mentioning though, the game is so much more fun with the mod when playing on a gigantic map with only three or four players.
I suck though.
So do me and Josh
Don't worry about it, I'm guessing we'd all three be pretty evenly matched. We play for fun - not to be good at the game.
I was playing VS hard AI, came into their base with a huge army, killed all of their units, but then got decimated by towers and castle/town center. Then he brought a few units to my based and raped me.
I think my mistake was not using trebuchets and only using battle rams. Without trebuchets its basically impossible to finish off a town or even dent it. Also I find it annoying how their villagers go build another town center in some random place while I'm trying to finish off their main base. -.-
Yeah, that tends to happen. The key is balancing the amount of units in your invasion force and the amount of units back at home base playing defense. Also, both defensive and offensive fortifications are integral; I usually don't attempt to go on the offensive until my base(s) are surrounded by fortified walls, watch towers and bombard towers. Put a castle or two on the path into your base and surround them with towers; castles can do a LOT of damage to an attacking army before they finally collapse.
Have any suggestions? Just build trebuchets and sit back and defend them instead of sending my army into the middle of their buildings and getting shot to death by towers and buildings? With that I have a feeling they will just be able to sit back and keep rebuilding or repairing if I do that. Gonna go try it right now anyways.
When still in the early game, build a Scout Cavalry at your Stable (or use the one that is generally given to you at the start of each round) and use shift+click to order waypoint destinations to them. Shift+click all over the map, then ctrl+click and the Scout Cav will follow all the waypoints one-by-one, exploring the entire map in the process. Once you know the layout of the map and where extra resources can be found, plan your expansion strategy and start building additional outposts as soon as resources and solid defenses allow.
Now, once you've got a few outposts properly defended and collecting resources, it's time to go on the offensive! Mixed unit tactics are the key here. Siege equipment is kind of a double-edged sword; when you're using ranged splash-damage siege equipment like Trebuchets and Rock Throwers, it essentially requires all of your melee units (including Rams and Infantry/Cavalry alike) to stand on the sidelines (or fight other battles) while the siege is in progress. The reason being, your ranged splash-damage siege weapons will likely do more damage to your own forces than to the enemy's fortifications and structures. I think the Ballista is immune to this caveat as it fires a single pinpoint missile, but I'm not sure. Additionally, siege equipment is much less effective against Infantry, Cavalry, Archers, other Siege equipment, etc. than standard units are.
As such, when building your invasion force, be very careful to ctrl-group your forces properly so that you can easily keep your footsoldiers and other melee units fighting the enemy's army where they ought to be and out of your siege battalion's own line of fire. If the enemy's towers keep killing off all of your units, try building an invasion force with lots of weaker more-expendable units. Your enemy's towers can only target one unit at a time (bombard towers being an exception, more on them in a bit) so a force comprised of overwhelming numbers of weak units can overcome them. When facing bombard towers, break out all of your best melee foot units. The faster the unit can close distance to the tower and begin attacking it, the better, so battering rams are a bad idea since they tend to move slower than molasses. Ranged siege units are useful if that's all you've got, but as previously stated, they'll take down your melee units in the process.
Another good idea is to ALWAYS have two bases if the map is large enough to allow it; this way you can more effectively run ambushes, flank maneuvers, and provide reinforcements faster. This also has the added side-effect of doubling resource gathering, and thus, unit and fortification production. This is especially true when using the 1,000 population mod, because your original base will run out of gold and stone resources to harvest long before the game even hits the midpoint. If the map is too small to setup another full base, just find some isolated spot out in the middle of nowhere and build a town center with some reserve villages, just in case things go south.