Overview
This guide will help you learn how to better your skills and abilities in AOE3 through some helpful techniques!
Micro
Micro is the short hasty decisions you make that effects your overall gameplay in a miniscuel way. Micro is very important though. For micro in aoe3 it mostly ties into military combat. When you micro your units right youll for sure kill more men effectively. A good idea for a stable micro usuage is ctrl groups. If you dont know what control groups are then ill explain, they are the tabs on the top left of your screen. When you select a group of men or building and press cntrl any number than youll have a control group labeled in the top left of the screen. If you press that number than it will automatically select the group for you, and if you double tap the number it will take you to the location of your men or group. Its very effective for microing your men in combat to make sure your countering and firing on the right men. Another great micro technique is learning your hot keys! It may be a pain in the ass to learn a specific set up but it will help you SO MUCH. I stick with the default hotkeys but thats just my preference, many people tend to mod their hotkeys, or change them so it fits their style. Another fundemental that you need to pay attention to is your mini map. Your mini map is your best friend in this game. Make sure your always looking at it so you know when your enemy is attacking and where your hunts are. Exploring and stalking is also a really good idea. Make sure you know what men your opponent is making so you can counter it. Also its a good idea to look at the hunts close to your enemies tc, becasuse if there dead and its in the fow than it mean vills are gathering and you should raid that hunt. Market micro is also decent but not that great. When you need an extra 100 wood or something just trade some gold for it at your market. TC micro is probably the one key to a successful rush defense. If you micro your vills into your tc right youll be able to kill off a good chunck of his men. Speaking of vills when you have hunts you want to make sure your herding them. This means going behind them and shooting one animal towards your tc so that they run closer to your vills at your tc. Once you shoot a herdable it takes 5 more seconds before you can herd them again. And make sure when you kill an animal you have vills gathering from it because it will decay and waste perfectly good food. Thats a rap up of some good micro skills now check out the macro part!
Macro
Macro is the long term decisions you make in a game that effects the outcome of your game. Macro is a key feautre of your eco and cards. Macro takes thought out actions and practice depending on the situation. A good idea for macro would be to pick a strategy that will have the most effective play on your opponent at the beginning of the game but also adapt to whatever he throws at you. When i say adapt i mean when he rushes you dont stand there and ff i mean make some men and turn tides and maybe semi. But if your already aging into fortress send a unit card so you can distract him while you age. Or else hes gonna over throw you. Another macro idea is to select the right card for the situation and the one that will benefit you the most in the over all game. The better players in age tend to have a higher thinking level in the macro aspect. In order to macro you need to know what your opponent is doing. If he wants to boom the best card for macro choice would be to choose a resource card (not crates but increase gathering rate). Macro also takes time to learn because there are thousands of outcomes and posibilities of a game and you need to know what your going to do in the game. Economy is the backbone of macro because the only way your going to make it past an age or a fight is resources (well no ♥♥♥♥) but if your being raided and your not microing then how are you supposed to get those resources. Micro decisions create your macro. Just make sure your always planning ahead but also making timely haste choices. Sums up Micro and Macro for you. If you have any questions or info hmu im always here to help :)!