The Age of Empires series is hailed by many as one of the best classic RTS games of its time. The games feature an accessible glimpse into this genre that has served as a gateway for several gamers to experience the magic of RTS gameplay for the first time. Out of all the games in the series, most people consider Age of Empires 2 to be the very best, and this success is precisely what Age of Empires 4 strives to emulate.
The end result is a great modern title that has added its fair share of new mechanics and quality-of-life changes to establish itself as a worthy contender to the throne that Age of Empires 2 has occupied for the longest time. Given the additions to this title, there are several things players can accomplish in this game that they had no idea about.
7 Using The Attack Move Command To Avoid Frustrating Battles
Normally, right-clicking on an enemy unit will cause all your units to swarm around it as they desperately try to hack and slash this unsuspecting soldier. This is fine when the enemy force is small… but can be quite frustrating if the foe’s army is pretty massive.
In this scenario, it’s better for players to use the attack command instead. It allows for a more structured attack as soldiers end up advancing as a unit and attack anything in the way.
6 Repairing Warships With Fishing Boats
Naval warfare has taken a turn for the better in Age of Empires 4. All of a sudden, players now have the ability to use their fishing boats to fix their warships on the go, which has led to some amazing tactics that people have employed in naval warfare.
This makes it important to accompany your naval army with a slew of fishing boats with the sole purpose of repairing warships. It’s a great way to mount a consistent offense without having to pull back when units start to dwindle.
5 Surrounding The Town Center With Buildings
People absolutely love exploiting the AI in Age of Empires 4. There are several ways to dupe the AI and make their task harder, including the manner in which they raze a player’s town if they’re unlucky enough to have faced such a dilemma.
Thankfully, the inevitable can be delayed long enough for players to restructure their offense and try to salvage something from this battle. Players simply need to surround the town center with a heap of buildings, preferably houses. This creates a web that dissuades charging forces from attacking the main hub since the AI generally tends to destroy the closest building to them.
4 Ignoring Buildings Once They’ve Caught Fire
Sieging the enemy’s defenses is easily one of the most entertaining aspects of Age of Empires 4. Watching an army take torches and sling them at buildings is surprisingly fun and makes for a fresh change of pace from the times when units used to simply slice and dice buildings before they were razed to the ground.
Age of Empires 4 also adds a new mechanic where buildings catch fire after they’ve been besieged for too long. To save time, players can move on to the next building right after setting fire to the previous one, since it’ll burn to a crisp anyway.
3 Moving Units By Right-Clicking On The Mini-Map
Exploration of the map is one of the key aspects of Age of Empires 4 to ensure that players have a lay of the land as soon as possible. The normal course of action that most people would take is clicking all around the map one at a time.
However, there’s an easier solution to explore the map without having to micromanage your scouting units all the time. This can be accomplished with the mini-map, where players can click at any point to send their units there without having to check up on them all the time.
2 Shift-Clicking Produces Five Units At A Time
After progressing far enough in a campaign, players would want to build up a sizeable army as soon as possible. This might led to a ton of mouse clicks as players try and make a ton of units in the shortest span of time.
However, there’s an easier way to queue up units without getting carpal tunnel syndrome in the process. The simple act of shift-clicking leads to five units being queued up in one go, which can make the act of maintaining a sizeable army even easier.
1 Making Multiple Buildings To Speed Up Unit Production And Research
This is a trick that most veterans of Age of Empires are already familiar with. Basically, players can avoid the hassle of production queues altogether by creating multiple copies of the same buildings.
By doing this, players can hasten unit production and also research new upgrades without having to wait for long. Until the upgrade to hasten research and unit generation comes into the picture, this tactic will be the best way to circumvent the wait.
Age of Empires 4 was released on October 28, 2021, and is available on PC.
