[Anonymous Player]

I have always enjoyed playing Age of Empires 1/2/3 and have been playing since the original was released.

However, I haven’t played them properly in around 5-10 years.

Recently, I picked up Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition and found out that my wife used to play it too, along with one of her friends.

We started playing together as a team against AI and later against each other.

The problem I face is that my wife and her friend insist on a 20-minute truce period, during which they turtle up and build tons of cannon towers and castles along their walls.

It leaves us struggling to break through their fortifications, and they typically win by building a Wonder before we can beat them.

My teammate and I are forced to boom and then attempt to attack, which is slightly annoying.

My teammate only plays with the Chinese civilization, but I am more flexible and willing to experiment with other civs.

I know we can try to turtle ourselves and cut them off from resources, but we find it challenging to break through their defenses.

Therefore, I am seeking advice on how to deal with this booming, heavily fortified turtle strategy.

Any tips or help would be appreciated.

[Tikenium]

Build your own wonder, but faster.

Watch them panic!

[TheConqueror753]

Bohemians would definitely be one of my picks.

You have time to get up to Houfnice and Halbs, which should be great.

Maybe Turks as well, for Artillery Bombard Cannons.

Both of those should be decent against them.

Mongols might be another top pick, for the fast rams (rams are amazing against bombard towers, as the latter does melee damage, which rams negate almost entirely).

Celts would be another possibility.

[Korvu]

For the sake of both sides, I would pick something with very good eco or very good discounts on stuff.

Try goths.

Or like burgundians since they get gold from farming.

Or maybe aztecs and you guys get map control/relics while they turtle or live in the treaty time.

Maybe set up spanish trade?

My thinking is: You have fun by winning.

They have fun by feeling like they put up a solid defense.

So overwhelm them with numbers.

Let them kill hundreds, and feel good about it.

Swarms.

Let them play tower defense.

Wash over them like a wave smashing on rocks until you beat them into sand.

Rams.

Cheap units.

Both sides get to have fun!

You don’t want to just start crushing them again it sounds like.

But you also don’t want insane game times or stalemates.

So that is my advice.

Keep throwing shit at them until they just can’t hold the line anymore.

Building up treb numbers can help with a final offense.

Or try poking on one side right before a massive push on the other to get them out of position or their attentions fixed on bad locations.

Also try some fun custom maps.

I have one I made for my family based on helms deep.

My dad and noob brother get to defend the castle while my other brother and I try to break the defense.

I can share the file with you if you are interested.

[sumforbull]

Just to clarify, civs aren’t races.

Just a wording thing in your post that might rub some folks the wrong way.

But to answer your post, siege.

The reason very high level players tend to not do stone walls is that they don’t stop much.

A few mangonels can destroy Both the wall and the archers behind it.

A single siege ram can tank hundreds of archer shots and make it through the wall.

It’s just siege is available in castle age.

If they are doing a twenty minute treaty and turtling, then get to the castle age before twenty minutes and get siege on them.

Drop a castle on their faces and send in petards.

Untill you can get in.

Review some fast castle builds.

Teams that excell at this, in my opinion, are Ethiopians and bohemians.

Ethiopian is probably the easiest since you don’t need to mine any gold to get to castle age.

It’s very possible to be castle age with Ethiopians by eighteen minutes even as not a super experienced player.

Only four or five on wood the whole time and take all the food resources you can so that you don’t need to transition to farms untill after hitting the castle age upgrade.

If fast castle is not working, try cumans.

Feudal age seige rams and a two tc feudal boom will set you very far ahead in terms of pressuring them right away.

[newrez88]

These are all great suggestions.

I completely overlooked bombard cannons

[yoothattack]

I would attempt bombard cannons upgraded with siege engineers for that scenario

[jfish006]

You could go for siege onager and cut the trees avoiding their shell

[xThomas]

It sounds like your wife and friend have picked the optimal strategy to block your attack, haha!

[blackertamashi]

a lot of treb with counter unit against what they sent

[Exa_Cognition]

**Burgundians** could be great for this sort of game.

Powerful eco, extra damage on their Bombard Cannons and if you really need a powerful push, you can always hit Flemish Revolution.

I don’t love it in a competitive game, but it’s pretty fun in a friend battle and is is strong against Paladins.

Just make sure to build a load of TC’s first before you click it, so that you can reboom.

Try to grab as many relics as you can for that extra food bonus, get Burgundian Vineyards early and put down a bunch of farms, and you should do well in the long game.

Finally, for a game that starts slow and goes long, get some Castles down and go for Elite Coustillier over Paladin.

Burgundian Paladin is a great powerspike in aggressive games, but in a long game, your lack of bloodlines against Frank Paladins will be tough.

The Elite Coustiller is actually a great power unit, and way more res efficient.

Combined with the Burg eco and vinyard gold, you should be able to pump those things out for quite late into the game, giving you plenty of time to setup trading.

—

*Other fun combinations*:

**Mongols** – Mangudai + Drill Siege Ram

**Gurjaras** – Camels (destroys Paladins) + Siege Elephant

**Bulgarians** – Spam Kreposts and Konniks to contain enemy tower control.

Cheap Siege ram research.

Consider Bagains 2HS late game if enemy crossbow numbers have fallen.

**Britons** – Longbows + Warwolf Treb

**Tatars** – Keshik + Silk armor Hussar (good long term efficiency if you are struggling to get trading efficiently).

Get Timurid Siegecraft for + 2 range trebs, and most imporantly unlocks flaming cammel, which aside from being fun, is great against Paladin (don’t waste them on buildings though).

**Goths** – Just spam infantry relentlessly

**Bohemians** – Houfnice and whatever other units you need to support it.

**Teutons** – Ironclad Rams/Siege Towers/ Bomboar Cannons.

Better Melee Paladin than Franks.

For the ultimate fun factor, Garrison Elite Teutonic knight in your rams, or pop them over walls with the siege tower.

There is no better way to win a game in style.

**Khmer** – Ballista Elephants and Siege Ram – Bonus points if you can create a tusk sword battle elephant meat shield, though the economy requirements for such a composition are insane.

**Slavs** – Spam Detinetz Castles and Boyar – Use cheap Siege Ram – Consider switching to Druzhina champ if enemy crossbow numbers fall.

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