• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 10:59
CET 16:59
KST 00:59
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT28Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Feb 16-22): MaxPax doubles0Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0247LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)46Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2
StarCraft 2
General
Terran AddOns placement How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) SEL Doubles (SC Evo Bimonthly) WardiTV Team League Season 10 RSL Season 4 announced for March-April The Dave Testa Open #11
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 514 Ulnar New Year The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare Mutation # 512 Overclocked
Brood War
General
Soma Explains: JD's Unrelenting Aggro vs FlaSh BW General Discussion TvZ is the most complete match up CasterMuse Youtube ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/02
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 1 [LIVE] [S:21] ASL Season Open Day 1
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular?
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Path of Exile Beyond All Reason New broswer game : STG-World
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
UK Politics Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread Mexico's Drug War Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
YOUTUBE VIDEO
XenOsky
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Inside the Communication of …
TrAiDoS
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1252 users

Age of Empires III: Help

Blogs > MayorITC
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
MayorITC
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Korea (South)798 Posts
April 20 2013 09:23 GMT
#1
Hi TL community,

I'm here to ask you for your help. My friend and I got into an argument over the greatest RTS ever made and I named the Starcraft franchise of course. He claims that AoE III requires a lot more skill therefore I decided to challenge him to a game of AoE III to prove him wrong.

I have never played AoE III or any of its predecessors before. I have two weeks to learn the game. However, I don't have the luxury of mass gaming and figuring out the strategies on my own. Therefore I am asking anyone extremely knowledgeable about the game to assist me or point me to some sites/tutorials/videos that can teach me the basics and advanced tactics.

I figure once I get the strategy down, I can win purely on mechanics since the game is real-time. Thanks!

blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
April 20 2013 09:32 GMT
#2
hehe you'll be surprised at why aoe3 is more complex. Economy and everything is a lot more complex then starcraft.

aoe3 has 3 resources + water if you choose and it's slower paced as well. Your best bets would be rts-sanctuary.com for strategies.
When I think of something else, something will go here
Grovbolle
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Denmark3813 Posts
April 20 2013 09:34 GMT
#3
Ask him to show you the biggest AoE III tournament ever played, when he shows you something small, show him pictures from Proleague, OSL, IPL, MLG etc.

Lies, damned lies and statistics: http://aligulac.com
Kaal
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Djibouti2539 Posts
April 20 2013 09:38 GMT
#4
AoE III sucks.

AoC/AoE2 was the best RTS ever made.
Desertfaux
Profile Joined June 2012
Netherlands276 Posts
April 20 2013 09:38 GMT
#5
Make it a best of three, you play him at AeO3, he plays you at Brood War. Decider is a game of ZooZoo.
Rogue Deck
Talin
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Montenegro10532 Posts
April 20 2013 09:47 GMT
#6
Haha, I have done the exact same thing a few years ago, only it was a BO5 in AOE2 (I was Diamond in SC2 back then, when Diamond was the top league). I did play AoE2 a bit in the past, so it wasn't as if I was plunging into a completely new game either. It was even the first game I played online skirmishes in.

Then I got 3-0d.
MayorITC
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Korea (South)798 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-20 10:38:48
April 20 2013 10:38 GMT
#7
I forgot to add that my friend plays as the British civilization. Any recommendations on who I should play as? And thank you for the rts-sanctuary link. I've been reading up on the various guides there.
[N3O]r3d33m3r
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Germany673 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-20 10:44:06
April 20 2013 10:42 GMT
#8
The British civ is very pasive and can boom (eco) hard. I'd go for either Iroquois or India if you guys are playing TAD, else i'd go for Otto if you play vanilla (aoe3 without xpacks).
Like blade55555 said, rts-sanctuary.com is your best resource, download some replays and watch them.
With Iroquois do a Big Button Rush with shipped Kanya then Aenna. With India the standard 10/10 agra fort rush. Look these strats up!
you can also take a look at drew's vods
http://www.youtube.com/n3oclan
Luepert
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States1933 Posts
April 20 2013 11:58 GMT
#9
IDK what the best RTS made is, but AOEIII will always be my favorite, simply because of all the memories I have in it with my friends. I think you have misjudged, much like starcraft, you it's not a game you can just master in a sort period of time. Some skills carry over but not actually much to AOEIII. The fact that he has played longer than you means he has a more powerful deck of shipment cards which can only be made even by you playing a ton of games. But what I consider to be most important is the unit counters. For the most part, here's how the counters go.
inf=infantry, cav=cavalry, art=artilary.
Light ranged inf>heavy ranged inf
all ranged inf>melee inf (because of micro)
melee inf>melee cav
melee cav>light ranged inf
heavy ranged inf>melee cav
ranged cav>melee cav
ranged cav trade somewhat evenly with ranged inf both light and heavy
Art>all inf
all cav>all art
esports
LaNague
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Germany9118 Posts
April 20 2013 12:31 GMT
#10
train for some kind of rush, you wont be outmacroing him.
Capped
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom7236 Posts
April 20 2013 12:59 GMT
#11
Wish i could help, i tried to play aoe3 again a while ago and realised that without port forwarding on my crappy internet dongle, its impossible to play online without "failed to join" If anyone has a fix, i'd appreciate it xD.

On the bright side, i can sell the account cheap now if someone wants it :3
Useless wet fish.
wherebugsgo
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Japan10647 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-20 13:25:44
April 20 2013 13:23 GMT
#12
I feel like I've seen this exact same blog before.

go Russians and strelet rush his ass, then go age 3 and just smother his economy with oprichnicks.

Think of oprichnicks as reapers. Think of strelets as zerglings.

e: also don't be mistaken, AoE3 is pretty mechanically complex.

Having played all the games in both series apart from HotS, I can definitely say the most mechanically demanding is BW, but SC2 is pretty similar in the mechanical requirements. It's just faster paced than the AoE games.

You need really good macroeconomic management skills to excel in AoE.
supervizor
Profile Joined November 2011
Netherlands42 Posts
April 20 2013 14:17 GMT
#13
So two choices:

1) Macro: couldn't advice that, seeing as you won't have as much cards (which are important) and no real experience with the game.

2) Rush: You need to know the civilisation he plays if you are gonna rush him. If you post his civilisation (plus what expansion you are playing) you could get better advice.

Aterons_toss
Profile Joined February 2011
Romania1275 Posts
April 20 2013 14:48 GMT
#14
I didn't play that game for long, but I do believe i actually might more complex than starcraft...
There are more resources to manage and more way to manage and produce them + a much wider tech tree.

But as far as the game goes I believe you could probably just use micro and beat him if he isn't that experienced with RTS.
A good strategy means leaving your opponent room to make mistakes
ruiyang
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
252 Posts
April 20 2013 14:58 GMT
#15
I was 100-3 in aoe3 back when game came out. quit cus never reach over 25000 players anf hard to find 2v2s. Anyway, if y play vanilla, go for ottomans or germans. ottoman rush in 1v1 is powerfull. age3 merc rush is strong for germabs. ulll neeed to unlock the necessary cards but look for build online.(i beat wcg chp before i quit)
Emzeeshady
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Canada4203 Posts
April 20 2013 15:11 GMT
#16
--- Nuked ---
obesechicken13
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States10467 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-04-20 17:01:24
April 20 2013 17:00 GMT
#17
I think you're screwed. Regardless of which game is better you won't beat someone with experience at one game if you have none.

There are many strategies to the game. I only got to the 1st lieutenant rank on Vanilla so like platish? in SC2. The only time I beat someone significantly better was when I did a proxy Russian strelet rush. It was a big map with two locations.

You get some low level rush cards ( since you're such a low level city I don't even know if you'll have these without playing 2-5 games online).

You send a villager early. You advance at 11 or 14 settlers. You build a blockhouse as soon as possible, and as close as possible to his base(AoE2 had some tower rushes that were really annoying so build restrictions were added in AoE 3). Rally all military units to come from it. Send the musketeers. Build more strelets and musketeers (you'll need food and either wood or gold depending on which you want). He'll likely have an advantage if he's good and doesn't lose settlers and continues to macro and just defend with his TC and unit cards but you might scare him into surrendering.


Next time don't run your mouth
I think in our modern age technology has evolved to become more addictive. The things that don't give us pleasure aren't used as much. Work was never meant to be fun, but doing it makes us happier in the long run.
Salivanth
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Australia1071 Posts
April 20 2013 18:03 GMT
#18
Thing is, let's add some realism here.

Is your goal to win at all costs? Then these rush tactics are good. But are you really going to change this dude's mind on SC2 by rushing him? Wouldn't you have to conclusively beat him in a macro game in order to prove your point?

I think people are missing the idea of this thread here. They're focusing on "How do I win?" and completely forgetting "Why did I challenge this guy, again?"
<@Wikt> so you are one of those nega-fans <@Wikt> that hates the company that makes a game and everything they stand for <@Wikt> but still plays the game <@Wikt> (like roughly 30% of blizzard's player base, maybe much more...)
wherebugsgo
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Japan10647 Posts
April 20 2013 19:18 GMT
#19
On April 21 2013 03:03 Salivanth wrote:
Thing is, let's add some realism here.

Is your goal to win at all costs? Then these rush tactics are good. But are you really going to change this dude's mind on SC2 by rushing him? Wouldn't you have to conclusively beat him in a macro game in order to prove your point?

I think people are missing the idea of this thread here. They're focusing on "How do I win?" and completely forgetting "Why did I challenge this guy, again?"


sounds like you've never played AoE.

You don't *just* macro in AoE. Rushing is different, almost essential in most games.

blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
April 20 2013 19:27 GMT
#20
On April 21 2013 04:18 wherebugsgo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 21 2013 03:03 Salivanth wrote:
Thing is, let's add some realism here.

Is your goal to win at all costs? Then these rush tactics are good. But are you really going to change this dude's mind on SC2 by rushing him? Wouldn't you have to conclusively beat him in a macro game in order to prove your point?

I think people are missing the idea of this thread here. They're focusing on "How do I win?" and completely forgetting "Why did I challenge this guy, again?"


sounds like you've never played AoE.

You don't *just* macro in AoE. Rushing is different, almost essential in most games.



Yeah in aoe when you rush (will most rushes) they aren't like sc2 or bw where if it fails you are behind. Doesn't work that way at all, forward rax is 100% standard as well especially in team games when everyone puts military buildings together.

There are some rushes that are "all in" as would be classified by sc2/bw, but most aren't and are standard ways to play and if it fails doesn't put you in a bad position.
When I think of something else, something will go here
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PiG Sty Festival
09:00
PiGFest 7 Playoffs Day 1
PiGStarcraft1235
IndyStarCraft 124
Rex119
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft1235
Lowko405
ProTech124
IndyStarCraft 124
Rex 119
MindelVK 1
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 33993
Sea 4175
Jaedong 2413
Rain 2125
BeSt 675
Soma 653
Stork 485
ZerO 333
hero 219
Rush 151
[ Show more ]
Light 139
Dewaltoss 112
EffOrt 91
Barracks 90
Hm[arnc] 61
Movie 58
ggaemo 55
sorry 52
Mind 52
[sc1f]eonzerg 51
JulyZerg 46
Snow 46
Backho 44
ToSsGirL 31
JYJ 21
IntoTheRainbow 17
Shine 10
Terrorterran 9
Dota 2
Gorgc5510
qojqva2022
Fuzer 196
Other Games
singsing2983
B2W.Neo950
Hui .196
mouzStarbuck185
Liquid`VortiX125
djWHEAT91
KnowMe90
Sick72
ArmadaUGS65
QueenE60
Mew2King51
Trikslyr41
ToD23
ZerO(Twitch)13
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL349
Other Games
BasetradeTV48
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• poizon28 14
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1505
• TFBlade1000
Other Games
• WagamamaTV253
Upcoming Events
Big Brain Bouts
1h 1m
Shino vs DnS
SpeCial vs Mixu
TriGGeR vs Cure
Korean StarCraft League
11h 1m
PiG Sty Festival
17h 1m
Reynor vs Clem
ShowTime vs SHIN
CranKy Ducklings
18h 1m
OSC
19h 1m
SC Evo Complete
21h 31m
DaveTesta Events
1d 2h
AI Arena Tournament
1d 4h
Replay Cast
1d 8h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 17h
Maru vs TBD
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 18h
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 23h
Replay Cast
2 days
Wardi Open
2 days
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
KCM Race Survival
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-02-26
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Acropolis #4 - TS5
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
WardiTV Winter 2026
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025

Upcoming

[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round
[S:21] ASL SEASON OPEN 2nd Round Qualifier
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.