Just added the mission for Tours, time 3:05
i like these, to bad this one is not done procecing at youtube yet 
SDA Forum
That's the first mission for the Hun campaign and also the first one that really requires you to get rid of everything, which is why it took a lil' while. The time is 10:25, but Youtube only allows video less than 10 minutes, so I cut off the useless beginning part where you ride along with Bleda (it's almost 30 seconds long!)
Anyway, I'll keep making my way through the campaigns - dunno how long it'll take me though.
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Before I forget,
On Barbarrosa-1 you have to pick four relics, you can do this with your starting resources (plus some food you'll get while playing). Put all workers to food, send one to pick some gold, just need 20, zero if you don't need a third monk.
There are six enemies, each with a relic, I find these the fastest: yellow, fuchsia, light blue, orange. Blue could replace orange. Green is walled so it's a no.
Now all except yellow have a Monk, so yellow is the only one you don't have to destroy their Monastery. Yellow builds a couple archers and has two towers protecting the way to their base and light blue's. Light Blue doesn't build anything early. Fuchsia builds a couple skirmishers early. Orange starts with a lot of scouts, and builds a lot of skirmishers. Blue builds a lot of militia, but also has a Castle protecting the monastery.
Now to pick the four relics do these as your skill allows.
Your monastery, build monk, fervor, monk.
Your initial scout, kill fuchsia's monk then orange's (or blue's), after that save it so it can help guard the monk.
Your mangonel, destroy light blue monastery with it, attack from the north so the Town Center doesn't bother you, destroy light blue's economy after that so they don't get horses. While it is crossing the two towers slip through one worker.
Three militia, destroy fuchsia's monastery with them, you may send a petard to speed this up.
Four petards, to drop orange's relic.
First monk, goes to yellow base, needs protection from the knights. Once to cross the river, then to kill the archers at yellow, do this away from the town center. Send the monk to the second monastery and then pick light blue's relic.
Second monk, gets fuchsia's relic then orange's.
Third/fourth monk? speed orange or light blue's relic retrieval.
Your workers, get food, +20 gold if you want three monks. One of the workers has to build a monastery as close as possible to light blue's base (their villagers attack yours).
An strategy I didn't check is: If you build a Market right at the start you lose time but can shift sell your stone and buy 200 wood back to end with 225 wood (+25), 200 food, and 678 gold (+178 ), you can buy food back for 130, or use the gold to build four monks and six petards (1 fuchsia, 1 light blue and 4 orange).
If you keep the gold you have to get at least 120 food for the 4 petards. If you buy food and only 100 wood, then to complete the same thing I posted up there you should only need 20 food, 50 wood, no extra gold, for 4 monks with fervor plus 4 petards. Which means you can send the workers minus one/two to help with light blue/fuchsia (two stay to get food and wood).
On Barbarrosa-1 you have to pick four relics, you can do this with your starting resources (plus some food you'll get while playing). Put all workers to food, send one to pick some gold, just need 20, zero if you don't need a third monk.
There are six enemies, each with a relic, I find these the fastest: yellow, fuchsia, light blue, orange. Blue could replace orange. Green is walled so it's a no.
Now all except yellow have a Monk, so yellow is the only one you don't have to destroy their Monastery. Yellow builds a couple archers and has two towers protecting the way to their base and light blue's. Light Blue doesn't build anything early. Fuchsia builds a couple skirmishers early. Orange starts with a lot of scouts, and builds a lot of skirmishers. Blue builds a lot of militia, but also has a Castle protecting the monastery.
Now to pick the four relics do these as your skill allows.
Your monastery, build monk, fervor, monk.
Your initial scout, kill fuchsia's monk then orange's (or blue's), after that save it so it can help guard the monk.
Your mangonel, destroy light blue monastery with it, attack from the north so the Town Center doesn't bother you, destroy light blue's economy after that so they don't get horses. While it is crossing the two towers slip through one worker.
Three militia, destroy fuchsia's monastery with them, you may send a petard to speed this up.
Four petards, to drop orange's relic.
First monk, goes to yellow base, needs protection from the knights. Once to cross the river, then to kill the archers at yellow, do this away from the town center. Send the monk to the second monastery and then pick light blue's relic.
Second monk, gets fuchsia's relic then orange's.
Third/fourth monk? speed orange or light blue's relic retrieval.
Your workers, get food, +20 gold if you want three monks. One of the workers has to build a monastery as close as possible to light blue's base (their villagers attack yours).
An strategy I didn't check is: If you build a Market right at the start you lose time but can shift sell your stone and buy 200 wood back to end with 225 wood (+25), 200 food, and 678 gold (+178 ), you can buy food back for 130, or use the gold to build four monks and six petards (1 fuchsia, 1 light blue and 4 orange).
If you keep the gold you have to get at least 120 food for the 4 petards. If you buy food and only 100 wood, then to complete the same thing I posted up there you should only need 20 food, 50 wood, no extra gold, for 4 monks with fervor plus 4 petards. Which means you can send the workers minus one/two to help with light blue/fuchsia (two stay to get food and wood).
I've followed SDA for quite a while now, but never done a run. This game is so awesome that I might just have to give it a shot... don't know if I have good enough skill though, or time for that matter 
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
we have lift off
Quote from deckard_cain:
I've followed SDA for quite a while now, but never done a run. This game is so awesome that I might just have to give it a shot... don't know if I have good enough skill though, or time for that matter
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
Would love to see a run of this! If you do commit to this though, please finish it! You can take as long as you want but its disappointing seeing runs abandoned. I will try and answer the questions you asked:
I'm pretty sure doing it with and without the expansion would be different categories, so whatever suits you I think, you might wana check that though.
You can use any patch version you want that will enable you to be as fast as you can (again check but I'm pretty sure).
The answer to this question is determined by the answer to the first.
Whatever difficulty you want, but hard would be more impressive : D.
In-game timer is used unless there is something wrong or inconsistent about it.
If the in-game timer is OK to use then its whatever is fastest.
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Awesome, I got a small bounty on this game if you want to try it as well. If you check there are runners that tackled some of the levels already. I suggest you try the missing levels first then if you find you don't have time no more give me the raw videos and I'll keep them safe 
Were you "pro" back in the day? If you weren't, as advice from my playing of the star wars clone of this game, first memorize the shortcuts (helps, although sometimes not necessary since fraps will slow down you game on top of your game speed setting) then find the times it takes to do stuff or calculate on your own then run simulations on paper to find what builds give you the resources you want earlier (this can improve things by a minute or more).
Were you "pro" back in the day? If you weren't, as advice from my playing of the star wars clone of this game, first memorize the shortcuts (helps, although sometimes not necessary since fraps will slow down you game on top of your game speed setting) then find the times it takes to do stuff or calculate on your own then run simulations on paper to find what builds give you the resources you want earlier (this can improve things by a minute or more).
Quote from deckard_cain:
I've followed SDA for quite a while now, but never done a run. This game is so awesome that I might just have to give it a shot... don't know if I have good enough skill though, or time for that matter
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
You can run the original campaigns without expansion. With expansion you can run the expansion campaigns. Also, you can run the original campaigns with the expansion, but this run is just an extra, so you don't have to. Given how the game works I suggest you try an individual level table, that means run each level separately.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
Latest patch is official and has a reserved spot (another patch can't obselete this even if faster), besides that you can use ANY other patch level but only if it is faster than every other run on other patches (ie. if you run on version 1 and your run is slower than another patch then it won't be accepted even if it's world record for that patch).
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Yes, you got three separate runs possible.
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
Whatever settings you want, if you want to try my bounty I require Normal or Hard. I suggest Normal, but Hard would be cool.
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
The game timer can be displayed ingame by pressing F11, it is a correct timer I believe since the engine runs it's own internal clock based on game logic units.
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
Technically you can since it improves your ingame timer by giving you more real time to give orders, ask mike for confirmation just in case. IIRC I require fastest game speed on my bounty, although I guess I can overlook that.
Some questions:
For the original campaigns, should the expansion be installed? It changes the game so much, making some missions easier and others harder.
You can run the original campaigns without expansion. With expansion you can run the expansion campaigns. Also, you can run the original campaigns with the expansion, but this run is just an extra, so you don't have to. Given how the game works I suggest you try an individual level table, that means run each level separately.
What patch levels are currently official anyways?
Latest patch is official and has a reserved spot (another patch can't obselete this even if faster), besides that you can use ANY other patch level but only if it is faster than every other run on other patches (ie. if you run on version 1 and your run is slower than another patch then it won't be accepted even if it's world record for that patch).
I know the rules say that all levels must be submitted at the same time, but could this game be split between the original and expansion? There are too many missions!!!
Yes, you got three separate runs possible.
Is hard difficulty required? Or just whichever is fastest?
Whatever settings you want, if you want to try my bounty I require Normal or Hard. I suggest Normal, but Hard would be cool.
I saw a post about timing, saying that the in game timer changes depending on game speed. So for official timing, is the in game timer used, or is real time used?
The game timer can be displayed ingame by pressing F11, it is a correct timer I believe since the engine runs it's own internal clock based on game logic units.
If the in game timer is used, can we use slow game speed (and yes I realize this is somewhat comical asking for slow speed on a speed run ;D)?
Technically you can since it improves your ingame timer by giving you more real time to give orders, ask mike for confirmation just in case. IIRC I require fastest game speed on my bounty, although I guess I can overlook that.
Thanks for the info guys.
Right now, I'm not promising anything, but I think it would be fun to try to run this game. I still need to practice more and get on top of my game before any runs will start appearing. (and make sure I can get Fraps working)
Gia, thanks for the tips. I don't think I would call myself "pro", but I sure did play a lot (many years ago, and occasionally for fun since then). I agree, shortcuts are simply necessary. It takes way too long to move the mouse so many times. Balance in resource gathering and build order optimization is a really tricky part of this game, and I think there would be a lot of changes depending on the level. I will have to work on this a fair bit. I probably wont go for the bounty, as the game is significantly easier in Standard mode. Maybe later.
My overall strategy right now is basically to produce a set of runs that is "good enough" to get accepted by SDA. Then everyone else can submit the super-optimized runs for each level. I just really want to see what can be done with this game, so I am trying to get it out there. So if there are improvements of a couple minutes to be made, I will certainly need to do those, but for just a few seconds, I will probably skip it. Also, I'm leaning towards doing the expansion missions first.
Right now, I'm not promising anything, but I think it would be fun to try to run this game. I still need to practice more and get on top of my game before any runs will start appearing. (and make sure I can get Fraps working)
Gia, thanks for the tips. I don't think I would call myself "pro", but I sure did play a lot (many years ago, and occasionally for fun since then). I agree, shortcuts are simply necessary. It takes way too long to move the mouse so many times. Balance in resource gathering and build order optimization is a really tricky part of this game, and I think there would be a lot of changes depending on the level. I will have to work on this a fair bit. I probably wont go for the bounty, as the game is significantly easier in Standard mode. Maybe later.
My overall strategy right now is basically to produce a set of runs that is "good enough" to get accepted by SDA. Then everyone else can submit the super-optimized runs for each level. I just really want to see what can be done with this game, so I am trying to get it out there. So if there are improvements of a couple minutes to be made, I will certainly need to do those, but for just a few seconds, I will probably skip it. Also, I'm leaning towards doing the expansion missions first.
Some Fraps questions regarding this game:
I noticed that my videos (done with suga's method below) look really crappy in Windows Media Player but ok in DivX player. Does WMP just suck that bad, or could my videos be borderline bad? (I checked fragmentation, and only one video was fragmented, so I don't think it can be blamed on that) I checked the in-game frame rate with Fraps, and it was in the hundreds. I set Fraps to 30 fps, full size. I also did a Warcraft 2 video, which WMP handled just fine.
Also, the sound was significantly quieter (on both players, with max volume) than it sounded while playing. A lot quieter. Any ideas? (quick forum search revealed nothing)
My system info:
Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop, XP Pro SP3
P4 3.0GHz w/ HT
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, 128 MB
1 GB RAM
60 GB HD at 7200rpm
A new (much much better ;D) system is in the mail right now, so once I get that, I will test this again.
I noticed that my videos (done with suga's method below) look really crappy in Windows Media Player but ok in DivX player. Does WMP just suck that bad, or could my videos be borderline bad? (I checked fragmentation, and only one video was fragmented, so I don't think it can be blamed on that) I checked the in-game frame rate with Fraps, and it was in the hundreds. I set Fraps to 30 fps, full size. I also did a Warcraft 2 video, which WMP handled just fine.
Also, the sound was significantly quieter (on both players, with max volume) than it sounded while playing. A lot quieter. Any ideas? (quick forum search revealed nothing)
My system info:
Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop, XP Pro SP3
P4 3.0GHz w/ HT
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, 128 MB
1 GB RAM
60 GB HD at 7200rpm
A new (much much better ;D) system is in the mail right now, so once I get that, I will test this again.
Quote from suga:
i managed to find a way to record 256 color games using fraps without getting any lags.
1. start up fraps.
2. start up the game and record just for a few seconds (you must do this or you'll get a corrupt video later), then go back to the desktop.
3. right clik the desktop, choose properties. under the setting tab, click the Advanced button. in that window, select Troubleshoot tab, then slide the bar to the fourth from the right (where it says it disables DirectDraw and Direct3D).
4. finally, start up the game and record your run. fraps now should be able to record the game without any lags.
5. don't forget to set back the hardware acceleration after you finished recording the runs.
it seems like you can't record main menu and briefing etcs using the above method though.
1. start up fraps.
2. start up the game and record just for a few seconds (you must do this or you'll get a corrupt video later), then go back to the desktop.
3. right clik the desktop, choose properties. under the setting tab, click the Advanced button. in that window, select Troubleshoot tab, then slide the bar to the fourth from the right (where it says it disables DirectDraw and Direct3D).
4. finally, start up the game and record your run. fraps now should be able to record the game without any lags.
5. don't forget to set back the hardware acceleration after you finished recording the runs.
it seems like you can't record main menu and briefing etcs using the above method though.
I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
To get your video checked post it at Tech Support.
To record with fraps your computer sounds ok, to speed it up get a SECOND hard disk, add a second 7200rpm disk in sata ii mode (if possible, or whatever best mode your mobo allows) and record to that one. If using sata ii mode remember to remove the disk jumper, or it will run at half speed. Maybe you can even record at 60fps.
Personally, I didn't have to change settings to record another game that uses that engine (don't recall aoe2 though), I have an HD4850 video card.
Get VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod, it is not a video player, but you can watch movies there (you use the play button that has an "I" marking, and you have to enable "show video input" and disable "show video output"), its more accurate than my other players.
To record with fraps your computer sounds ok, to speed it up get a SECOND hard disk, add a second 7200rpm disk in sata ii mode (if possible, or whatever best mode your mobo allows) and record to that one. If using sata ii mode remember to remove the disk jumper, or it will run at half speed. Maybe you can even record at 60fps.
Personally, I didn't have to change settings to record another game that uses that engine (don't recall aoe2 though), I have an HD4850 video card.
Get VirtualDub or VirtualDubMod, it is not a video player, but you can watch movies there (you use the play button that has an "I" marking, and you have to enable "show video input" and disable "show video output"), its more accurate than my other players.
Sad to see nothing became of this run...
I am an AOE2 addict and have been running Starcraft, but I feel hindered by the fact that there's already runs of all the levels for that, many using strategies I never would have thought of myself. AOE2 would give me a fresh start on things, as there are only a few levels with runs.
I am currently on Starcraft, but when I'm done with it I might switch to AOE2. This topic hasn't seen any action for a long time. Would anyone at all be interested in my spending some time on it? My first priority would be to just get a 'pretty good' time out for each level, not necessarily optimized, and then cut down times from there. That way I would at least have something for each level and wouldn't be so tempted to give up early on like others seemingly have here.
I am an AOE2 addict and have been running Starcraft, but I feel hindered by the fact that there's already runs of all the levels for that, many using strategies I never would have thought of myself. AOE2 would give me a fresh start on things, as there are only a few levels with runs.
I am currently on Starcraft, but when I'm done with it I might switch to AOE2. This topic hasn't seen any action for a long time. Would anyone at all be interested in my spending some time on it? My first priority would be to just get a 'pretty good' time out for each level, not necessarily optimized, and then cut down times from there. That way I would at least have something for each level and wouldn't be so tempted to give up early on like others seemingly have here.
I'd certainly be interested to see this. What difficulty are you planning on running on? I was playing around with this game's single player again a few months back and got bored around halfway through all the campaigns on Very Hard because I got annoyed with the way that the first 10 minutes to half and hour of every level seemed to consist of repeatedly Town Belling my villagers over and over and over, so perhaps sticking to Moderate is a good idea, or perhaps I just suck at RTSes. At any rate I can see the levels that require you to competely wipe out enemy bases being the biggest problem since there's usually no cheap tricks possible to pull those off quickly.
Anyway, I'll give what advice I can, although RTS runs are certainly not my strength:
* Check GameFAQs. There's lots of crap, but there's some useful stuff in there too.
* You almost certainly already know this, but on levels where someone starts off as an ally and then becomes hostile, you can set your diplomacy with them to 'neutral' and kill them without them fighting back.
* According to GameFAQs, on the second Joan Of Arc mission, you can take out the castle north of your starting position with your starting troops, skipping doing any troop building or base defending at all. For a speedrun, the best tactic would probably be to send Joan to get the trade carts and take them to Orleans to complete the 'rescue Orleans' objectives while everyone else goes and beats up that castle.
* On the fourth Joan Of Arc mission, you can take out the two non-walled towns easily with small raiding parties of rams. I don't know what the best way to handle the big city is though. IIRC it's defended almost exclusively by longbows and mangonels; depending upon how intelligent their targetting is, perhaps you could use some cavalry to draw their fire and keep dodging while again a small party of rams slip through the gate and take out the town centre.
* Again according to GameFAQs, apparently you can win the final Joan mission using nothing but your starting troops.
* On the second Barbarossa level, I was able to win the level early by making the enemies resign before Henry's betrayal even happened.
Yes, nothing carries over.
There's Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard and Very Hard. Very Hard really is batshit insane hard and for me reduced most levels to an initial desperate struggle to survive followed by a long and painful war of attrition involving slowly taking down enemy bases while incurring massive losses. I dunno about the other difficulties because I haven't tried them in many years.
Anyway, I'll give what advice I can, although RTS runs are certainly not my strength:
* Check GameFAQs. There's lots of crap, but there's some useful stuff in there too.
* You almost certainly already know this, but on levels where someone starts off as an ally and then becomes hostile, you can set your diplomacy with them to 'neutral' and kill them without them fighting back.
* According to GameFAQs, on the second Joan Of Arc mission, you can take out the castle north of your starting position with your starting troops, skipping doing any troop building or base defending at all. For a speedrun, the best tactic would probably be to send Joan to get the trade carts and take them to Orleans to complete the 'rescue Orleans' objectives while everyone else goes and beats up that castle.
* On the fourth Joan Of Arc mission, you can take out the two non-walled towns easily with small raiding parties of rams. I don't know what the best way to handle the big city is though. IIRC it's defended almost exclusively by longbows and mangonels; depending upon how intelligent their targetting is, perhaps you could use some cavalry to draw their fire and keep dodging while again a small party of rams slip through the gate and take out the town centre.
* Again according to GameFAQs, apparently you can win the final Joan mission using nothing but your starting troops.
* On the second Barbarossa level, I was able to win the level early by making the enemies resign before Henry's betrayal even happened.
Quote from Liderharen:
Im not really that familiar with the campaign in AoE 2... Can each level be run individually?
Yes, nothing carries over.
Quote from ridd3r.:
I'd definitely be interested in seeing a run of this on hard (can't exactly remember the difficulty settings).
There's Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard and Very Hard. Very Hard really is batshit insane hard and for me reduced most levels to an initial desperate struggle to survive followed by a long and painful war of attrition involving slowly taking down enemy bases while incurring massive losses. I dunno about the other difficulties because I haven't tried them in many years.
Glad to see such positive response. I would be running the levels probably on Fast speed and Hard difficulty (not Very Hard). The Very Hard AI setting in the game cheats by getting 500 free of each resource at the start of each age (including dark age) and if the computer starts in a higher age, he gets all free resources from previous ages as well. This makes for a severe disadvantage especially at the start of the game, when the computer might have 1200 of each resource to your 200.
I've been playing ever since its release in 98 and actually have had a hand at making my own AIs for the game as well (I have what I believe is one of the best AIs in the world). So I am very familiar with how the AI works, and in particular, its shortcomings (which pissed me off to no end in my testing). On High resources on a random map I can handle 3 on 1 against hard computers with ease using random civs, or 5 on 1 if I choose one of my favorites.
Probably I won't start running these for another 2 weeks or so, until I'm done with Starcraft.
I've also been getting a weird problem with the game freezing in the campaign menu. I don't know if it has to do with Windows 7 or not. It happens about 50% of the time, I'd say. So this would be a major hurdle to running the game.
I've been playing ever since its release in 98 and actually have had a hand at making my own AIs for the game as well (I have what I believe is one of the best AIs in the world). So I am very familiar with how the AI works, and in particular, its shortcomings (which pissed me off to no end in my testing). On High resources on a random map I can handle 3 on 1 against hard computers with ease using random civs, or 5 on 1 if I choose one of my favorites.
Probably I won't start running these for another 2 weeks or so, until I'm done with Starcraft.
I've also been getting a weird problem with the game freezing in the campaign menu. I don't know if it has to do with Windows 7 or not. It happens about 50% of the time, I'd say. So this would be a major hurdle to running the game.