Overview
Herein lies some cheeky micro techniques that will make you a better player.
Introduction
Being an older game, Age of Empire’s unit AI is rather shabby. Soldiers march in weird blobs, artillery has a tendancy to switch modes inefficiently, and civilians don’t know how to run away. In this guide I aim to discuss ways to counteract this poor unit AI, making use of the many fine tuned control structures built into the game. Note that this is not a published work, and can always be improved. If you have constructive criticism or an interesting suggestion, feel free to post and I’ll try it out.
Pathfinding for Dummies (aka The Blob)
Units in AoEIII are actually quite good at finding their way to where you click. I’ve rarely seen units walk into buildings or obstacles, especially when by themselves or in small groups. However large groups of units tend to have quite a hard time finding their way, focusing more on assembling the group than getting from A to B efficiently. To counteract this you should never give orders to large groups of units at once. Groups of 5-10 the game can handle quite well (probably a factor developed into when unit production was switched to batches), so always drag small. The speed of the group also matters as AoEIII’s group AI will try to assemble all selected units before heading to the objective. This means a mixed speed group will only move as fast as its slowest member and will also group up and actually get moving slower. Larger units also have a harder time, as they turn and assemble into formation slower than infantry. Thus it is inadvisable to give orders to units of mixed class (ie cavalry and infantry in the same click), even if their speeds are comparable.
A major advantage of ordering units this way, beyond the primary objective of higher speed and reactivity, is increased resistance to area of effect (aoe) attacks such as cannon fire. Although your small groups of units will be individually less resistant to cannonballs, as they will regroup faster than the cannon can reload, the overall composition of your battleline benefits. Basic tactics is also much more possible when making faster, smaller clicks, as your units can be ordered to surround the enemy before actually engaging. Attacking buildings basically demands ordering your units in small groups as the group AI breaks down when throwing torches. Ever noticed how units will form a ring around what they’re attacking? This is extremely bad as it only enables your frontline to actually attack, forcing your supporting units to spend most of their time marching. Cannonballs, which can cut right through ranks of infantry, will make quick work of units organized as such, being tough enough to withstand the smattering of fire from the frontline.
The Humble Herdable
Have you ever noticed how jumpy wild animals are? Whole herds of bison go stampeding as soon as a single shot is fired. While in real life this is a serious danger, in the game this behaviour works to our advantage. By attacking wild animal herds from a given side, you “push” them the opposite direction. Thus when hunting it is to your advantage to attack wild animals on the opposite side of the herd from your base, facing towards your base, allowing you to “herd” wild animals closer to your territory. Note that this requires quite a bit of micromanagement, as wild animals tend to wander randomly, but a couple of hunters on a single group can easily push a dozen animals or so back to your town centre. While settlers are preferable, as they can harvest any animals they accidentaly kill, war dogs or your explorer can use this technique to guarantee safe animal resources well through Age II.
SHIFT -Click!
Like any good modern RTS worth its salt, AoEIII allows you to shift-click to give multiple orders to a given selected unit or building. Move a large group of units, then split them up by shift-clicking micro orders to each small group to perform complex manouvres. Send a group of settlers to a forest, then split them up so groups of 2 or 3 are on each tree. Move a hunter to opposite side of a herd before having him attack an animal, giving you time to quickly scan the map or give another order before micro the rest of the herd. Shift-clicking is an essential time management skill to master if you want to be successful at an RTS like AoEIII.
CTRL Groups
Groups of units can be assigned to a number hotkey by pressing ctrl-[#]. This a very useful tool for quickly jumping around the map or selecting specific groups of units in a hectic battle. I personally like to set my Town Centre to 1 and my Explorer group to 2 right at the start of the game, using numbers 1-4 for subsequent Town Centres and Scouting groups. Numbers 5-7 I reserve for the bulk of my army, typically organized into a vanguard of faster units (such as cavalry or light infantry), a rearguard of mixed infantry, and an artillery position containing my main artillery and some defensive infantry. 8-9 I seldom use except in extremely complicated terrain (such as lots of lakes and narrow walkways), or late in the game for highly specialized troops such as Howitzers or Bombards. Using ctrl groups effectively is an extremely important part of becoming a better player.