In another recent thread the subject of Iron High Res RM was touched upon. While this is hardly a popular game mode among competitive players, and I agree it would probably get boring playing too many games (the scope of strategies is quite limited and Yamato can dominate pretty much any game), I'd say I look back on the few games with these settings I played back in the day with a certain fondness.
I think we're all - whether we are active MP players or not - pretty familiar with what are considered to be the "normal" ways to play the game online. RM games start in the Stone Age with default resources, though they may differ a bit in the type of map selected and use of Reveal Map or Fog. DM games always start in Iron and are almost universally played on Hill Country maps.
What I'd like to discuss in this thread are games with settings or otherwise established rules which break what is considered normal AoE meta. As such they mostly won't be suitable for competitive play, but nevertheless they may be a fun and interesting experience for a casual game.
Off the top of my head I can think of a number of odd rulesets for DM games I have played. Tool Age DM (i.e. setting Tool as the Maximum Age) is pretty hilarious, as players are forced to develop new tactics for dealing with masses of axemen and slingers.
However, IMO Foot war (Iron DM but players agree to only build Academy, Barracks and Foot Archers) plays quite similar, while offering a lot more variance as civ bonuses come into play. Of course it is also slightly imbalanced if you do random civs and players get stuck with Shang or Egypt against Choson, but in team games I have observed that even the worst of civs do have something to contribute in these games. Actually, I think a lot of the fun I've had playing these games come from the way they force players to cooperate since the individual player rarely has all the useful units in their tech tree. If you get Cho/Rome with their legions or Greece with their Cents (which have now become the fastest unit in the game), you'll still want a player with Composite Bowmen which can back up your mighty melee army.
The most broken thing I have ever attempted is probably Priest Wars. DM with nothing but priests straight up doesn't work. Even when picking Babylonia you just never convert fast enough to actually bring the game to an end, instead both players just kept massing priests and the game ended in a stalemate when we couldn't be bothered anymore.
So, do you have any stories of games with these types of strange settings or rules? Are there any rules which you have found fun enough to play with them again and again? Or do you have any stories of games so broken that you would never play them again?
Please reply.
//The warrior of Isola
"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."
Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris
I think we're all - whether we are active MP players or not - pretty familiar with what are considered to be the "normal" ways to play the game online. RM games start in the Stone Age with default resources, though they may differ a bit in the type of map selected and use of Reveal Map or Fog. DM games always start in Iron and are almost universally played on Hill Country maps.
What I'd like to discuss in this thread are games with settings or otherwise established rules which break what is considered normal AoE meta. As such they mostly won't be suitable for competitive play, but nevertheless they may be a fun and interesting experience for a casual game.
Off the top of my head I can think of a number of odd rulesets for DM games I have played. Tool Age DM (i.e. setting Tool as the Maximum Age) is pretty hilarious, as players are forced to develop new tactics for dealing with masses of axemen and slingers.
However, IMO Foot war (Iron DM but players agree to only build Academy, Barracks and Foot Archers) plays quite similar, while offering a lot more variance as civ bonuses come into play. Of course it is also slightly imbalanced if you do random civs and players get stuck with Shang or Egypt against Choson, but in team games I have observed that even the worst of civs do have something to contribute in these games. Actually, I think a lot of the fun I've had playing these games come from the way they force players to cooperate since the individual player rarely has all the useful units in their tech tree. If you get Cho/Rome with their legions or Greece with their Cents (which have now become the fastest unit in the game), you'll still want a player with Composite Bowmen which can back up your mighty melee army.
The most broken thing I have ever attempted is probably Priest Wars. DM with nothing but priests straight up doesn't work. Even when picking Babylonia you just never convert fast enough to actually bring the game to an end, instead both players just kept massing priests and the game ended in a stalemate when we couldn't be bothered anymore.
So, do you have any stories of games with these types of strange settings or rules? Are there any rules which you have found fun enough to play with them again and again? Or do you have any stories of games so broken that you would never play them again?
Please reply.
"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."
Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris