Age of Empires 4 Factions Image: Microsoft / World’s Edge I think AoE4 will be giving us interesting metas and counter-metas for years to come, long after Relic cannibalises its own playerbase with the equally-sure-to-be-excellent Company of Heroes 3. When a serious gamer of any genre is contemplating whether to get good at a particular game, they want to know it’s a system worth the time investment. These starting eight civilisations are like eight different games, and build orders will emerge for each as be tested against the other meta strategies of the day.
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The Chinese fast-castle doesn’t port over to the Abbasid Dynasty. There were different build orders for Flushing, Crushing, Smushing, and water maps, but for most of the last 16 years, AoE2 players would follow ol’ faithful. You knew exactly when to lure the boar, when to put villagers on gold, etc. Within a year or two of AoE2‘s release, the community had settled on a “main” build order which was largely universal. I believe in addition to just being fun, this will have a healthy effect on AoE4‘s metagame. Whereas the Norse in AoM experimented with moving drop-off points, now the Mongols in AoE4 can pack up and move every building. It combines the best of all ages – you’ve got the time period and gameplay foundations of AoE2, with the divergent factions of AoM and AoE3. The Rus expanding throughout the map to monopolise on hunting is a very different opponent to the Delhi Sultanate booming for an elephant army. In AoE4, the thought process is more like the different matchups in Starcraft 2 – you’d play PvZ differently to how you’d play PvT. In AoE2, you’d have minor factional facts in your head like “the Vikings don’t get siege onagers, so they can’t cut through the trees on Black Forest”. The biggest talking point here is how gawrsh-darn different every faction is.
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Age of Empires 4 Is Asymmetrical Image: World’s Edge / Relic We’re just days away from release and after the beta, stress test, and preview code, I’ve had more than enough time to come up with impressions for how all these changes will play out. Almost everyone who took part in the beta or technical stress test has been feeling the same pain for the last few weeks, absolutely jonesing for another game, and relying on Youtubers like Aussie_Drongo to get their fix and stay sane.