How to improve your game – thoughts by Roamer_Riza

[Roamer_Riza]

[Edit sorry for the bad layout, aoezone killed it after i copy pasted the text]

I play this game now for a long long time and never reached a top level – but the last couple of month i tried to improve again and had a little bit of success. Since this community consists of many great and very helpful people, with this article I want to pay back my depth for all the guidance I received


Special thanks to to my beloved daddy Levi_B, to Daniel, Cloud, Hallis, Andi, Georg, Heiko, the whole Germany_D team (Bleys, Alko, Yelur, Haiyti, Papaya, Nordwind) and all the Taiwanese players who helped my game when I just stared out many years ago, but keep changing their freaking nicks, so I wont find them anymore11

1. What is the first thing you think about, when you start your game

If u have to actively focus to find your sheep and boars, and think a lot where they might hide, chances are, that you are a newer player.

Try to make this basic routine a habit and start to think ahead in terms of strategy. This affords time and effort, but try to actively focus on it. Conscious efforts will yield result more quickly.

You will never have that much time to to lean back and think about how to approach the next 30 minutes of the game then in the first 5 minutes.

What do I think about at the start of a game: (First 5 minutes)

What are possible late game unit compositions? What army can I work towards that will have the best chances vs his?

Do I know m opponent? What type of player is he?

What are my civ weaknesses he wants to take advantage of? How can I prevent this?

Is my map an important factor? (Spoiler: most likely it is!) How does it affect my long term strategy?

Where should I add Tcs later?

There are much more questions you can and should ask yourself. Asking yourself questions throughout the game will make you an active, self-aware player that isnt easy to surprise and catch off guard!

1. How to handle aggression

I have taught a lot of newer and intermediate (18++) players over the years. All of them had enormous problems to react vs. aggressive plays and titaniced a lot, but after the games they all say that theoretically, they know what to do, but just couldnt keep up during the game.


Before you continue reading, try to define the term “aggressive play(style)” for yourself.


I think “aggressive plays”, as opposed to “defensive plays” are efforts in the game to weaken the economy – or more generally: position – of your enemy, whereas defensive plays are efforts in the game to strengthen your economy – or more generally: position – in the game.


So, if you make army to attack and hurt your opponent, this is an aggressive effort in the game: an aggressive play.

If you make army to protect yourself and your eco, this is a defensive play.

Often, army is used for both efforts simultaneous, but you should keep this theoretical distinction in mind in every game. It will make you aware of the purpose of your ingame efforts and how they align to your overall game-plan.

Back to topic: How to defend vs aggressive or very aggressive attacks:

By their nature, aggressive efforts of your enemy want to hurt your eco. So the best way to defend them, is to know where your eco can be weakened beforehand.

For this you must know:

-What army is my opponent doing (scouting!)

-Where is my opponentss army (scouting!)

-What is my opponents game plan (scoutung!)


-What army do I have?

-Where is my army and why?

-Where is my eco? Where is it safe, where vulnerable


You must have a plan how to defend the weak spots before you actually get attacked. Have Tcs/towers prepared if necessary. Have your army at home and dont let it idle at unimportant places. Only move away from your weak spots, when you know you can defend without your army or you know the enemy is at home as well and you can do damage nonetheless.

Make these thinking-patterns a habit by actively engaging in them during your games. After time, these thoughts come by themselves and you dont have to focus yourself too hard on them. This takes a lot of time and practice.


Example: How to defend a towerrush?

Say you lost your scout and doesnt know that its coming. Still, you know beforehand, where your weaknesses are and you already have a plan prepared.

• Dont panic, dont rush his towers at first sight if you are not 80% certain to win decisively.
  
• Make archers/skirms to slow down his tower progression
  
• move to extra or neutral gold spots
  
• wall and make counter towers on important spots! Dont waste your initial counter tower my panicking.
  
• If u can go on stone
  
• Think if its better to play full feudal or castle age faster with a better eco
  
• Often, its good to dont make too much army – focus to keep your eco smooth and look towards castle age.
  
• Already prepare a plan for the later stages of the game
  
• Counterattack him to force towers on his base and idle his eco, if you can

Its hard to give general tips. A lot depends on civs and maps. But if you start to think about your games and compare them to expert games, you will improve slowly.

1. Is defensive play on an gametheoretical level better then aggressive plays?

I listen to Nilis stream once hand he said that he thinks that maa towers should theoretically be a non optimal strategy, because the aggressor will have 4-5 vils idle. Nicov agreed with him. This seems very logical. But also I have the feeling, that resources are limited and can be attacked from multiple angles, and that is benefiting the aggressor, and this multiplies if the defender isnt as prepared as the aggressor because of a lack of scouting. So maybe the questions is, if it is possible to scout aggression early enough to adapt and in this case, defensive play might indeed always be better then aggressive ones.


What do you think? How does map control play into this equation?

1. Mapcontrol

I cant say too much interesting about mapcontrol because I didnt understand it on a very deep level.

Maybe some basics thoughts will still help beginners:

• Resources are limited. Plan longterm. Always think about the late game.
  
• Many noobs lose mapcontrol by walling themselves in and turtling. If you wall early, be ready to expand again in castle age.
  
• Limit the resources your enemy can safely access, maximize the resources you can access. Dont play overly aggressive, take the game step by step.
  
• If you can wall, camp hills and boom, you can trigger your opponent in an over aggressive play. Just pick good fights, win lategame.
  
• Your map will be an important factor in your game-plan, but be ready to face unexpected plays by your opponent. Profit from his aggression, when you are already well defended with a good map, and punish his weak defensive play, by playing aggressive vs his bad map.
  
• Never focus on killing your opponent. Take important spots on the map before him. Camp hills. Take better fights. Take it step for step, punish overplays.

Ok, thats it for now.

I wrote this relatively quickly while in hospital and heavily drugged, so excuse if my thoughts arent too well elaborated and my bad spelling.

I would be very happy if someone wants to add something or criticize what I wrote here, I still have a lot to learn.



I wish you all good games and a lot of fun ingame!

 

[Faultier321]

even on my 16-17xx pleb level i have come to the realisation that scouting the opponent, having a game plan from the start on and think a step ahead is incedibly important and can easily make up a lack of mechanical skills, speed or even having a bit of a messy build order. Those things are important too, but having a good plan that includes your opponents possible playstyles is way, way more important!

thank you, i had fun reading this and feel motivated to go for 1v1s on voobly again! =)

...unfortunately i have to finish my bachelor thesis first...

 

[IamJeo]

I have very little doubts that @Rayne will check this out and potentially comment if he isn't too busy with hof, so here are some of his earlier posts on the git-gud matters for any interested reader that is new to the forums: (worth a read, he is a good writer)

AOE-II - How to improve my level? (1750 Voobly)

Hello guys, after a lot of training i can reach the 1750 ELO rate on voobly, now, I want to climb to 1800/1850+ and I need some advices on what things or aspects I need to work to get better and reach my new goal. I'm looking for a real good way to improve. Thanks in advance. Link to my...

www.aoezone.net

The best way to improve 1v1 skill?

Well, there is many guides about what to do to be a 2k player, its clear. But, can anybody tell what to do to improve 1v1 skill to the higher level than 2k? Playing all of the maps or just focus on arabia ? There is many players who did reach 2.2k level in a fast time. Im sure they exactly know...

www.aoezone.net

how to better at all?

So, im reading this forum and readed almost all topics. Im still looking for informations how to be better player. Found one interesting topic where one person said that the way is play arabia till you get 1900 points. What do u think about that? U cant learn the game by play the other maps ?

www.aoezone.net

 

[Rayne]

I have very little doubts that @Rayne will check this out and potentially comment if he isn't too busy with hof, so here are some of his earlier posts on the git-gud matters for any interested reader that is new to the forums: (worth a read, he is a good writer)

AOE-II - How to improve my level? (1750 Voobly)

Hello guys, after a lot of training i can reach the 1750 ELO rate on voobly, now, I want to climb to 1800/1850+ and I need some advices on what things or aspects I need to work to get better and reach my new goal. I'm looking for a real good way to improve. Thanks in advance. Link to my...

www.aoezone.net

The best way to improve 1v1 skill?

Well, there is many guides about what to do to be a 2k player, its clear. But, can anybody tell what to do to improve 1v1 skill to the higher level than 2k? Playing all of the maps or just focus on arabia ? There is many players who did reach 2.2k level in a fast time. Im sure they exactly know...

www.aoezone.net

how to better at all?

So, im reading this forum and readed almost all topics. Im still looking for informations how to be better player. Found one interesting topic where one person said that the way is play arabia till you get 1900 points. What do u think about that? U cant learn the game by play the other maps ?

www.aoezone.net

It's nice of you to list some of the older stuff I've written but it probably shouldn't be here out of respect to Steppenwolf. We (guess me) aren't trying to steal his thunder. Unless he doesn't mind it being here, I'd ask to edit your post for respect.

 

[Roamer_Riza]

It's nice of you to list some of the older stuff I've written but it probably shouldn't be here out of respect to Steppenwolf. We (guess me) aren't trying to steal his thunder. Unless he doesn't mind it being here, I'd ask to edit your post for respect.

I remember learning from your recs many years ago when i was 17++, knowing your expertise, I am super fine with your knowledge being linked here, can only be nice for newer players to have even more information to learn from

 

[IvIaximus]

There is a lot in your post so I will focus on this one since I have little spare time now.

1. What is the first thing you think about, when you start your game

I will propose a little different point of view.
I do not think that much in beginning of a game. I would focus on finding sheeps in time rather than to think about other stuff. What you are saying is to think and I agree. But it is also important to think about things that matter.
There is no much point in thinking about civ advantages/disadvantages or late game compositions or even TC placement early in the game because none of that matters if you can not scout properly, your oponent finds your sheep and steal your boar. What I am trying to say, focus on what is important now. If you die in feudal age to maa, what use is thinking about late age compositions?
There is also one more problem with too much thinking. Paralysis by analysis. You could just sit for half an hour and think about all possibilities of outcomes, yet it would serve no purpose to you because it is just wild guess and game could go anywhere.
For example you do not have to think about weak points of your eco or map if you decide to be aggressive and you succesfully pull it off. (that is why many experts goes frwrd if they map is too open/lack wood) If you do not find sheeps early, your opponent might have, he gets upperhand in military mass. Does not matter his map is **** if he has 8 skirm/bows and you have 4skirm/bows because you were minute later in up due to lack of sheeps. He does not need to bother with any of other variables, simply because he got upper hand early and he will either kill you in feudal or keep advantage for rest of game. He decides when and where to fight. (of course you may win if you, lets say, outmicro him; many other variables comes to play but late game is not among them)
What I am trying to say is that (I personally/subjectivelly) prefer perfecting basics, such as scouting, unit counters, eco management, etc.

 

[Rayne]

I remember learning from your recs many years ago when i was 17++, knowing your expertise, I am super fine with your knowledge being linked here, can only be nice for newer players to have even more information to learn from

Wow, I had no idea. A bit flattered. @Jeowaypoint Guess you can leave it.

Can't give this a complete read now, but from skimming it I will say that:

Never focus on killing your opponent. Take important spots on the map before him. Camp hills. Take better fights. Take it step for step, punish overplays.

This is definitely one of the wisest things I have heard (tied with watching a lot of games for hof). Focusing on killing (translation: trying to force resignation asap) usually results in mistakes or flawed decisions. It doesn't always go that way, but usually does and there is a small scientific explanation I believe.

I think it is very easy to misevaluate how good a big attack is unless there are serious problems with how the opponent is playing. Things like low army count, they lost vills earlier, you advanced to next age quicker (this can be complicated and it isn't mentioning all the connections, but I think you have a good idea of it), or they aren't in control of hills/no castle defenses against an all-out offensive. Those 5 or so things are usually the exceptions to letting your bloodlust take over from what I have seen/personal experience. But only as long as you're in control of the feeling if that makes sense (you're still thinking of everything in the situation).

Good to see Heiko's name mentioned too. I miss him.

 

[IamJeo]

It's nice of you to list some of the older stuff I've written but it probably shouldn't be here out of respect to Steppenwolf. We (guess me) aren't trying to steal his thunder. Unless he doesn't mind it being here, I'd ask to edit your post for respect.

Ah, that's a fair intention. I was thinking that it's a free discussion playground since Steppenwolf asked opinions to his points, to which I could have paraphrased more or less the same that you had written before, but since I'm a lazy guy (more librarian than a writer), ended up just pasting those. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[Rayne]

Ah, that's a fair intention. I was thinking that it's a free discussion playground since Steppenwolf asked opinions to his points, to which I could have paraphrased more or less the same that you had written before, but since I'm a lazy guy (more librarian than a writer), ended up just pasting those. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Oh did he? I didn't see it. I just happened to see your alert after I was playing chess and saw your post and topic, then just wrote my post.

 

[MaSmOrRa]

There is a lot in your post so I will focus on this one since I have little spare time now.

I will propose a little different point of view.
I do not think that much in beginning of a game. I would focus on finding sheeps in time rather than to think about other stuff. What you are saying is to think and I agree. But it is also important to think about things that matter.
There is no much point in thinking about civ advantages/disadvantages or late game compositions or even TC placement early in the game because none of that matters if you can not scout properly, your oponent finds your sheep and steal your boar. What I am trying to say, focus on what is important now. If you die in feudal age to maa, what use is thinking about late age compositions?
There is also one more problem with too much thinking. Paralysis by analysis. You could just sit for half an hour and think about all possibilities of outcomes, yet it would serve no purpose to you because it is just wild guess and game could go anywhere.
For example you do not have to think about weak points of your eco or map if you decide to be aggressive and you succesfully pull it off. (that is why many experts goes frwrd if they map is too open/lack wood) If you do not find sheeps early, your opponent might have, he gets upperhand in military mass. Does not matter his map is **** if he has 8 skirm/bows and you have 4skirm/bows because you were minute later in up due to lack of sheeps. He does not need to bother with any of other variables, simply because he got upper hand early and he will either kill you in feudal or keep advantage for rest of game. He decides when and where to fight. (of course you may win if you, lets say, outmicro him; many other variables comes to play but late game is not among them)
What I am trying to say is that (I personally/subjectivelly) prefer perfecting basics, such as scouting, unit counters, eco management, etc.

Yeah I agree 100% with this.

I find these “how I became better” posts very often tend to over-intellectualize the game...

You become better by playing the game over and over and over again and by doing so you become better and faster at microing/macroing; fighting in several spots at the same time; titanic less and less; etc.

Sure, at the very high level you need more than just that.

But if you want to improve...just a play a ton of games.

 

[Roamer_Riza]

But if you want to improve...just a play a ton of games.

I dont agree at all! I was 18++ from 2014-2018 because i didnt care to get better and just played with friends mostly. But I still played 2000+ games in these 4 years.

From early 2019 - late 2019 i jumped from 18++ to 2k1 with much fewer games, because i wanted to get better and started to think about my game.
Surely, there are talents who dont have to think a lot but instead develop a certain feeling for the game without effort - for me that was not ture.

Having a game plan and solid scouting, starting to concentrate and evaluate the scouting information, thinking about the next step early made me from an average to a solid player with much more confidence in his game.

But again: I speak only for myself. Others may learn way faster and easier without much focus on actually improving.

 

[Rayne]

Had some time so I just finished reading your post. About some things:

Do I know m opponent? What type of player is he?

This is actually a funny question to think about during the beginning of the game especially if you don't know your opponent. Reminds me of some things. Anyone can skip this if they don't like stories.

Many years ago an old friend of mine was nervous against players he had no experience against or ever saw, that he'd check the person's profile before joining the game and go to their matches. He would look at the feudal times and etc, to know if they are likely to drush fc or if it is 21/22 pop and then they may do scouts or a forward.

Personally, I have done this stuff too at some point but got out of it real fast. It is mostly because from my view this isn't the ideal way to deal with nerves and you can't accurately go by it. I'm sure my friend saw lets say 4 drush fc matches and probably expected that vs him, but the guy did scouts instead for some reason (and who knows how he felt then). If you're sensitive to nerves then maybe it affects you then and there, especially if the person is higher rated than you.

I remember the very first player I was scared of (so much I was actually shaking in the game) was L_Clan_Chris who had the smurf Symbiosis. Was in Malevolent at the time (God I love Malevolent) and it was a special match Drixnak managed to organize (don't ask me how 11). There was one huge reason to why I was scared: I was very competitive barely being 2k then and I wanted to try to win a lot. Making matters worse, it was the first time I faced anyone who was 2500+ so you can imagine the nerves. A long story short, 1 knight at the start of Castle Age killed probably around 5 lumberjack vills that I didn't see, I didn't know how to play against someone who was controlling the game (lacked defense), Chris did some mind games in Feudal Age (slam type actually), and he just felt invincible (didn't have a loss on that nick and was over 2k too). Then I resigned extremely embarrassed at my play.

After noticing how badly nerves affected me and how I felt from that, I wanted a way to never let that happen again. But no unreliable tricks. Another long story short, basically what worked was just seeing, lets say someone who was higher rated more as a test than someone I wanted to beat (which was the feeling vs Chris). Like alright I'm 1950 and I've managed to stay above 19+, lets see how my play works vs this 2100. And honestly it worked like a dream, by removing myself from trying to win and focusing on testing what I learned to the maximum. Then it was just drawing from games I won doing that against higher rated players. I can't recall when the last time was that I felt nervous and allowed it to affect my play after that. It has worked very well in chess for me as well.

So I used to think about that question in the beginning of the game but haven't for probably around 8 years. If I don't know someone I have more of an "alright, lets see how you play attitude" than anything else whether it is the same rating or if they're higher. It is quite nice. What I will say is it can still feel painful if you lose a ton of games in a row. I don't think there's any avoiding that (none that I've found being competitive). Have to welcome it and stay strong despite the feelings honestly.

1. Is defensive play on an game theoretical level better then aggressive plays?

I listen to Nilis stream once hand he said that he thinks that maa towers should theoretically be a non optimal strategy, because the aggressor will have 4-5 vils idle. Nicov agreed with him. This seems very logical. But also I have the feeling, that resources are limited and can be attacked from multiple angles, and that is benefiting the aggressor, and this multiplies if the defender isnt as prepared as the aggressor because of a lack of scouting. So maybe the questions is, if it is possible to scout aggression early enough to adapt and in this case, defensive play might indeed always be better then aggressive ones.

A complicated question I'd say. From my experience, I'd say defensive play is better (being defensive myself) than being aggressive. It is also easier and carries less risks. A simple thing I mentioned somewhere else on aoezone is that it is generally (a big key word) far easier to control your own hills and resources than it is of your opponent. And depending on the armies, you may need more units than him but defenders have what has been called the 'defender's advantage.' That means they should always have more units than you. It still isn't that simple and related:

What do you think? How does map control play into this equation?

1. Mapcontrol

I cant say too much interesting about mapcontrol because I didnt understand it on a very deep level.

I'd like to say understanding map was one of the things I was strongest at aside from my melee micro and build orders. It matters a ton and is infact the prime reason why so many attacks can succeed aside from the opponent making mistakes (which is the other thing that can allow "sudden aggression"). At the very least, this is the only thing I ever think of at the beginning of the game: the short and long term effects of where my resources and my hills are. Civs differences can come after.

Like if you take a look at how all the early aggressive plans work in Feudal Age (speaking optimally), it is always stemming from the same thing. Oldschool 21-22 pop forwards on Arabia were usually based off main gold and hills (probably 1 wood you can tower too), basically if they were facing the front of their map and it's open. That was enough to at least consider forwarding because you get something from forwarding. You have to know how to make aggression work from what I see. It still can't be that simple and this is more of a beginner's forward. You have to look at where every single one of your 3 golds are placed, both your stones, and your woods (everything, literally everything). That is your main objective at the start of the game if in the first few minutes of the game if your map screamed forward. If you have at least 1 safe gold, stone, and wood, you should be able to survive a forward as long as you aren't in a crater. Then your other skills come into play, and that's going to matter a lot.

That isn't all for playing vs forwards, the element of space/constriction comes into account too. If you have places you can easily close off by resources like berries or wood, it increases your chances to survive even more. Constricted areas can be easy to defend if you read them well or if not, your opponent can suffocate you from lack of space at some point (has happened to me and seen it from experts). At this point though, forwarding is risky unless you are a really good forwarder (which never was my strength, defending them was though). The map needs to be structured in such a way where there's multiple factors that favor forwarding so it doesn't ever blow back in your face (or it is super hard). Because after a certain level you don't expect your opponent to make basic mistakes, which may happen at others.

Even today with modern maa play, it is still based off the same thing: resource placement and hills. Unlike the past though, doing maa yourself has been very helpful to better control bad maps. Before that, the only thing available was drush or something like you constantly scout for a forward, drop 1 or 2 ranges, send some vills in and you have a big messy battle (miss these days a lot).

Castle Age aggression relies on same thing too for best success. Mangonel pushes/offensive castle drops are all directed towards this stuff. Some players with a forwarding style play on this stuff throughout the game, their style is like a process which never was mine (least not the way I view my style).


Tl; dr from this quote

It is important to understand elements of the map and see how they come together with your plans of action. Know how many factors favor defensive play with your map, or how many that favor offense from opponent's map and then you may go for aggression depending; a theme of optimity. Then it is about your skills, speed, and mistakes (which these can favor defense or offense depending who made a mistake and it gets exploited). Also about using your civ which I nearly forgot.

There's probably another thing or two that can be said on the subject of offense or even defense, but I think this good enough. Hope it is still helpful even though I've mentioned it more than once before, can't be overstated honestly.

 

[rangerontour]

<3

Danke für die viele Mühe die dir mit uns gibst und die schier unendliche Geduld die du hast. Du bist unglaublich!

<3