tl;dr: When you get ahead, start looking at where the extra golds and stones are on the map. It's stupid, but now that I get it, I notice a lot of players not doing it at lower levels. You can't fix it if you're not even thinking about it.
I think this will be good for 15xx-16xx Voobly players since it's something I've struggled with forever. I feel like I'm finally able to analyze recs correctly. Map reading and unit comp is something that were foreign to me. I was always focused on having more vills and eco, but that should be considered after keeping your base safe and controlling the resources on the map. I was doing it backwards, and when I'm playing tired I notice I fall back into that. I used to think map reading was something the top players were magically doing. Careful calculations based on complicated things. The good thing is that it's extremely easy. I'll go through the way I think about it now. I'll give some examples of where it worked so you can see what I'm talking about. I'll give an example of a low 18xx game where a player ignores it and ends up losing a game they were way ahead in.
There's an algorithmic approach that works for analyzing games. It's just what tends to happen, so don't take it as gospel truth. I copied it from chess. Everyone talks about king safety as the first thing you analyze, then looking for potential checks. Then you can start looking at things like positional advantage and material advantage. I was doing it backwards in chess and AoE. I was looking at material advantage first and hoping I'd magically win the game later. I didn't know what to do with the material advantage when I got it, and I was doing the exact same thing in AoE. I always find it annoying when people point out the vill differences in games. I knew it couldn't be that important since I've lost tons of games were I have way more vills, but I didn't know what I should actually be looking at.
I'll start by going through the checklist:
1) Keep your base safe. This includes your extra golds and stones as the game progresses. It helps if I notice where my extra golds are since this will dictate how the game will play out.
2) Look for threats to your enemy's base. Again, for me, the map starts making sense when I look for their extra golds.
3) Army strength. In something like Hun wars, it's dangerous to get behind in CA count.
4) Vill count / Potential vill count and eco efficieny.
Whenever I'm watching any level game I find myself doing this in a pattern over and over even though I'm not thinking about it. AoE is hard because you have to think of the most cost efficient way to do all of these. An extreme example of something that is cost inefficient is stone walling your base on an open map. It is more cost efficient to attack your opponents base, maybe with m@a towers. But if m@a trush is good on an open map, why not do it on a closed map? Drush/FC or a more standard open are probably more cost efficient on a closed map. On an open map with m@a trush, the game might still favor the other player, but m@a trush is likely better than trying to play a 'standard' game. You're making your base safe in a roundabout way, and that's why you can't always follow these steps so rigidly.
Another example is arena players having a hard time on Arabia. Some maps are too open to wall early. You're giving up too much in eco. You have to let the game progress to start making your base safer and safer. This is why it's so hard to play from behind versus a good player. They know how to snowball their advantage.
On to the examples. There are a lot!
Having the vill advantage and even the army advantage doesn't matter if you're base isn't safe or you lost control of your extra golds. A great example of this is a Yo vs Vivi game (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/yo-vs-vivi-aztec-vs-malay.149897). Vivi does a great job keeping his base safe cost efficiently. His counter attack in Yo's base isn't cost efficient, but he still gets ahead in vills on paper. Yo goes imp first with less vills and trebs Vivi's castle down on his extra golds. Vivi can't keep his golds safe and loses. I would have been confused before since Vivi is ahead by a lot of vills and not that far behind to imp, but what is more important is that Yo can treb Vivi's castle protecting his extra golds, and Yo's castle is on a hill and Vivi's is not. I also would have been too focused on Yo switching to arbs, but it's really all he can do cost efficiently with such an early imp click given how the game has gone. Again, the more important thing to look at is that he's focused on putting a castle on a key part of the map, the hill next to Vivi's golds, and then trebbing it down. If he wins that he has a huge advantage. You don't have to do incredible map calculations to find out what to do. A lot of the time looking at the extra golds is all you need to look at. Even the top top players don't notice some stuff until later in the game. I think it's good to do this while watching recs to make it automatic when you play.
I'm surprised how everything plays exactly like a Death Match game. You make army to gain control of the extra resources (or towers in Nomad). Having the hills is important, but that will come to you naturally after you look for the important resources first.
Here's a game where Vivi wins vs Lyx (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/vivi-vs-lyx-malian-vs-spanish.149909). Vivi goes m@a forward tower, but he uses his forward vills to take Lyx's stone. This doesn't hurt his eco as much since he goes on stone later, it keeps his forward vills from being idle, and it hurts Lyx since he's getting some of his stone taken. The second thing to look at is that Vivi is dropping a ton of farms. He's pretty eco oriented here. You can see in late Feudal he starts walling to keep his base safe. He is only worried about getting to Castle Age safely, so that naturally leads you to do the right things like seeing what Lyx is doing, what his unit comp is, and where his army is.
The third example of a game is an 18xx Arena game. It's funny because Akeno sent me this game as I was making this thread. Akeno's opponent gets ahead, but he is so focused on pushing the middle of Akeno's base. He's killing things that don't matter, and he's not even idling many farms. The important thing to focus on is the extra golds to the left. Akeno is able to get them and win the game because he still has a strong eco. I don't know Arena well, but a safer way for Professor4k to play is to keep his position, but push AKeno to the left on his extra golds. Just starve him out of gold. You don't have to look to kill every random building if it's not hurting their eco. He already has control of Akeno's main gold. Professor4k is safe at home (lol Arena). He has army advantage. It is much easier to look at controlling Akeno's extra golds next instead of trying to totally kill him. The one thing I'll throw in here is that on super open Arabia maps, sometimes it is easier to raid them like crazy instead of trying to control the extra golds and stones on the map. Most likely it's some combination of the two, though.
Whenever I get an advantage in game I'm asking myself where their extra golds are, and can I safely drop a tower/castle on them. This helps win some tough matchups like Turks vs Mayans. Conversely, if you have a good civ and get ahead, it is probably much safer to drop a castle on your own extra golds and let the game progress. You're keeping your base safe, and you'll have an even bigger advantage later if you don't take damage. It's up to your opponent to try to kill you now that you already did damage to them and have a better civ.
The fourth example is SongSong trushing BacT (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/songsong-trush-vs-bact-and-f1re.149912). BacT does a good job holding, but his hands are going to be tied in a 2vs2. Around the 28m mark, SongSong builds a castle that hits BacT's main gold, two extra golds, and extra stone.
The fifth example is a game where SongSong trushes F1Re (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/songsong-trush-vs-bact-and-f1re.149912). Songsong walls his base keeping it safe, then towers F1Re by his two stones. This gets SongSong way ahead.
The last example is a 1vs2 Viper uploaded to YouTube today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoBci3hiSok). He does a good job talking through his decision making. The parts where he talks about the most cost effective way to keep his base safe are great. Daniel does this on his stream as well. It shows the subtle details on how to do things based on the map. Later on Viper notices that Vegeta has two forward golds. It's nice that you don't have to super plan everything out. Just take the game as it goes.
This makes the game much more enjoyable for me to watch, and I'm learning way more now than before. I hate map reading, but this is a way to get to doing the right things once you get an advantage. It's also keeping me from throwing games I would have thrown before because I would have tried too hard to force damage when I all needed to do was secure the extra golds on the map and let the game progress. It is much easier to raid while having control of the extra golds than it is to try and super kill someone.
I think this will be good for 15xx-16xx Voobly players since it's something I've struggled with forever. I feel like I'm finally able to analyze recs correctly. Map reading and unit comp is something that were foreign to me. I was always focused on having more vills and eco, but that should be considered after keeping your base safe and controlling the resources on the map. I was doing it backwards, and when I'm playing tired I notice I fall back into that. I used to think map reading was something the top players were magically doing. Careful calculations based on complicated things. The good thing is that it's extremely easy. I'll go through the way I think about it now. I'll give some examples of where it worked so you can see what I'm talking about. I'll give an example of a low 18xx game where a player ignores it and ends up losing a game they were way ahead in.
There's an algorithmic approach that works for analyzing games. It's just what tends to happen, so don't take it as gospel truth. I copied it from chess. Everyone talks about king safety as the first thing you analyze, then looking for potential checks. Then you can start looking at things like positional advantage and material advantage. I was doing it backwards in chess and AoE. I was looking at material advantage first and hoping I'd magically win the game later. I didn't know what to do with the material advantage when I got it, and I was doing the exact same thing in AoE. I always find it annoying when people point out the vill differences in games. I knew it couldn't be that important since I've lost tons of games were I have way more vills, but I didn't know what I should actually be looking at.
I'll start by going through the checklist:
1) Keep your base safe. This includes your extra golds and stones as the game progresses. It helps if I notice where my extra golds are since this will dictate how the game will play out.
2) Look for threats to your enemy's base. Again, for me, the map starts making sense when I look for their extra golds.
3) Army strength. In something like Hun wars, it's dangerous to get behind in CA count.
4) Vill count / Potential vill count and eco efficieny.
Whenever I'm watching any level game I find myself doing this in a pattern over and over even though I'm not thinking about it. AoE is hard because you have to think of the most cost efficient way to do all of these. An extreme example of something that is cost inefficient is stone walling your base on an open map. It is more cost efficient to attack your opponents base, maybe with m@a towers. But if m@a trush is good on an open map, why not do it on a closed map? Drush/FC or a more standard open are probably more cost efficient on a closed map. On an open map with m@a trush, the game might still favor the other player, but m@a trush is likely better than trying to play a 'standard' game. You're making your base safe in a roundabout way, and that's why you can't always follow these steps so rigidly.
Another example is arena players having a hard time on Arabia. Some maps are too open to wall early. You're giving up too much in eco. You have to let the game progress to start making your base safer and safer. This is why it's so hard to play from behind versus a good player. They know how to snowball their advantage.
On to the examples. There are a lot!
Having the vill advantage and even the army advantage doesn't matter if you're base isn't safe or you lost control of your extra golds. A great example of this is a Yo vs Vivi game (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/yo-vs-vivi-aztec-vs-malay.149897). Vivi does a great job keeping his base safe cost efficiently. His counter attack in Yo's base isn't cost efficient, but he still gets ahead in vills on paper. Yo goes imp first with less vills and trebs Vivi's castle down on his extra golds. Vivi can't keep his golds safe and loses. I would have been confused before since Vivi is ahead by a lot of vills and not that far behind to imp, but what is more important is that Yo can treb Vivi's castle protecting his extra golds, and Yo's castle is on a hill and Vivi's is not. I also would have been too focused on Yo switching to arbs, but it's really all he can do cost efficiently with such an early imp click given how the game has gone. Again, the more important thing to look at is that he's focused on putting a castle on a key part of the map, the hill next to Vivi's golds, and then trebbing it down. If he wins that he has a huge advantage. You don't have to do incredible map calculations to find out what to do. A lot of the time looking at the extra golds is all you need to look at. Even the top top players don't notice some stuff until later in the game. I think it's good to do this while watching recs to make it automatic when you play.
I'm surprised how everything plays exactly like a Death Match game. You make army to gain control of the extra resources (or towers in Nomad). Having the hills is important, but that will come to you naturally after you look for the important resources first.
Here's a game where Vivi wins vs Lyx (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/vivi-vs-lyx-malian-vs-spanish.149909). Vivi goes m@a forward tower, but he uses his forward vills to take Lyx's stone. This doesn't hurt his eco as much since he goes on stone later, it keeps his forward vills from being idle, and it hurts Lyx since he's getting some of his stone taken. The second thing to look at is that Vivi is dropping a ton of farms. He's pretty eco oriented here. You can see in late Feudal he starts walling to keep his base safe. He is only worried about getting to Castle Age safely, so that naturally leads you to do the right things like seeing what Lyx is doing, what his unit comp is, and where his army is.
The third example of a game is an 18xx Arena game. It's funny because Akeno sent me this game as I was making this thread. Akeno's opponent gets ahead, but he is so focused on pushing the middle of Akeno's base. He's killing things that don't matter, and he's not even idling many farms. The important thing to focus on is the extra golds to the left. Akeno is able to get them and win the game because he still has a strong eco. I don't know Arena well, but a safer way for Professor4k to play is to keep his position, but push AKeno to the left on his extra golds. Just starve him out of gold. You don't have to look to kill every random building if it's not hurting their eco. He already has control of Akeno's main gold. Professor4k is safe at home (lol Arena). He has army advantage. It is much easier to look at controlling Akeno's extra golds next instead of trying to totally kill him. The one thing I'll throw in here is that on super open Arabia maps, sometimes it is easier to raid them like crazy instead of trying to control the extra golds and stones on the map. Most likely it's some combination of the two, though.
Whenever I get an advantage in game I'm asking myself where their extra golds are, and can I safely drop a tower/castle on them. This helps win some tough matchups like Turks vs Mayans. Conversely, if you have a good civ and get ahead, it is probably much safer to drop a castle on your own extra golds and let the game progress. You're keeping your base safe, and you'll have an even bigger advantage later if you don't take damage. It's up to your opponent to try to kill you now that you already did damage to them and have a better civ.
The fourth example is SongSong trushing BacT (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/songsong-trush-vs-bact-and-f1re.149912). BacT does a good job holding, but his hands are going to be tied in a 2vs2. Around the 28m mark, SongSong builds a castle that hits BacT's main gold, two extra golds, and extra stone.
The fifth example is a game where SongSong trushes F1Re (https://www.aoezone.net/threads/songsong-trush-vs-bact-and-f1re.149912). Songsong walls his base keeping it safe, then towers F1Re by his two stones. This gets SongSong way ahead.
The last example is a 1vs2 Viper uploaded to YouTube today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoBci3hiSok). He does a good job talking through his decision making. The parts where he talks about the most cost effective way to keep his base safe are great. Daniel does this on his stream as well. It shows the subtle details on how to do things based on the map. Later on Viper notices that Vegeta has two forward golds. It's nice that you don't have to super plan everything out. Just take the game as it goes.
This makes the game much more enjoyable for me to watch, and I'm learning way more now than before. I hate map reading, but this is a way to get to doing the right things once you get an advantage. It's also keeping me from throwing games I would have thrown before because I would have tried too hard to force damage when I all needed to do was secure the extra golds on the map and let the game progress. It is much easier to raid while having control of the extra golds than it is to try and super kill someone.