Age of Empires 3

[Frizz.Meister]

I bought this a while back thanks to a heads up from this site about it costing 10ms points. I loved it for a short while but quickly got bored, unlike the earlier game in the series. I recently went back to it and realised i got bored because you can win every game with any race by simply rushing to artillery and attacking.

Am i missing something? There are so many technologies and units but at the end of the day when im in a base which can only have 6 defensive towers my artillery will always win, leading to stale repetetive gameplay.

Advice?

[Hatta]

No, that's pretty much the game. I don't think it's really intended for hard core RTS fans. Stick with AoE2 or play Empire Earth or Rise of Nations for your historically based RTS fix.

[brunoafh]

Pretty much exactly what Hatta said.

AoE3 is pretty bad in all honesty... it's a downgrade from the phenomenal AoE2 is more or less every way. Rise of Nations is also a great RTS.

[Frizz.Meister]

Thats a real shame because it looks incredible. O well ill look into the games you two suggested but will most likely end up on AOE2.

[avrame]

Dunno about you, but from being on the ladder with my bro, artillery is easily beat with a few (4-5) well macro'd dragoons or hussars. Pikemen are cheaper, faster and offer better defense against artillery, not to mention mounted units are great for hit and runs on the settlers.

I loved AOE3's multiplayer, but if all you do is play against bots and campaign, I can see why you'd get bored so quickly. Then again, with SC2 finally here, I haven't giving AOE3 a second glance until I got into the AOE4/AOEO beta.

[Frizz.Meister]

Arn't the dragoons a form of artillery? Yes i tried cavalry for hit and runs, but it always seems more cost effective to stick with artillery. I've played about 30 online games, and everyone did the same thing, rushed tech untill they had their first artillery and attack. Maybe in bigger games it would be a less effective stratagy.

[avrame]

Hmm, I've played well over 200 games, and at my level, first thing I do is Age to level 2 ASAP and spend my first shipment card to get 3 hussars.

Using that wisely, you can easily take down 4-5 sets if the opponent is rushing for artillery. If that is their end game, it's sort of over then :S

[Erik_Twice]

Yeah, unfortunately it seems that spamming massives is too viable and reduces the depth of the game.

When AoE was released everyone felt it was a downgrade. The "trend" back then was making RTS simple and accesible something that killed many established series such as Empire Earth. Things like reducing the number of factions, making resources and base builind a second thought. Unforunatedly that trend is still around altough it is not as strong as it used to be.