Age Of Empires 2 Speed Run

Edit history:

SiFly: 2015-05-21 11:23:45 am

2015-05-21 11:19:34 am

I'm not running a whole game (atleast not for a long time), just individual levels. Guess that prevents any uploaded run for this for now.

Unless I can submit segmented runs for both AoK and AoE2 HD version it might be an option, although I would have to run all the levels twice and get some new strats for some levels. Don't think I have any level I can do faster on AoC compared to those other 2 versions. Can't agree on only AoK/HD, when I know I got much faster strategy on the other version.

SiFly

2015-05-22 04:13:29 am

To keep updating my run so far:

Did a few attempts on Saladin 6 without wonder, don't think I can make it, some attempts with fast rushes failed so far. Only grey is an easy kill with ships killing his villagers from the waterline. If I would just boom and get a large army to win, it would require a lot of multitasking skill and I don't think I can make it work in under 35 min ingame time, though I think stronger players can.

Barbarossa 4: 12:04 Not completely smooth, kinda want to go back for <12:00
Possible to rescue the 2 villagers from the mangonel shot, making this level faster than before, besides bad execution earlier.

Barbarossa 1: ~5:40. Perfect execution is sub 5 minutes, I'll keep throwing in some runs on this seeing how close I can get to that.

Freezard

2015-05-22 04:26:30 am

Different versions for different ILs have always been allowed. I have some runs on the site with different versions. But I don't know if you could actually count AoE2 vanilla and the HD version as the same game and use whatever is faster. I guess if the only thing separating the versions are different bugs it could be ok?

Onin

2015-05-22 04:32:35 am

The content between AoE2 and HD is identical. The differences are mostly based on updated AI of the opponents, which can rather drastically change strategies.

SiFly

2015-05-22 09:02:55 am

Quote from Onin:

The content between AoE2 and HD is identical. The differences are mostly based on updated AI of the opponents, which can rather drastically change strategies.

And some differences between Age of Kings and Age of the Conquerors with thing like Fervor being bugged on Conquerors and new technologies like Heresy (units suicides when getting converted) that can make a difference.

cortez

2015-06-18 03:14:06 pm

Stalker!

Are you still going to run the game?

Strat for Barbarossa2 HD:
First attack orange. Kill his Army, then destroy the castle and the barracks. At this point orange should resign.
blue resigns after the 3 castles and 2 seige workshops are destroyed (i dont think the 2 harbours are needed).

SiFly

2015-06-23 04:17:17 am

Yes, but got bit less time at the moment.

SiFly

Edit history:

SiFly: 2015-07-08 08:17:50 am

SiFly: 2015-07-08 07:26:58 am

SiFly: 2015-07-08 07:01:44 am

SiFly: 2015-07-06 06:19:20 am

SiFly: 2015-07-06 04:19:28 am

SiFly: 2015-07-05 01:16:50 pm

SiFly: 2015-07-03 03:38:32 pm

2015-07-03 03:35:22 pm

Hit quote button instead of edit, guess i'll update now in this post;

Done GK1 and Barb1 with decent times.

JoA5, GK3-4-5-6 left.

Basically got the strat for JoA5, but execution is really hard and more or less just trying to bash villagers through, not really motivated to record this. Probably will work first on making this strat reliable instead of just bashing through, will get time between 9-10 igt minutes.

Working on GK3, really tough level.

-Trying to find a solid strategy to kill yellow easily. Trying to douche (drop tc on his tc) which will snipe most of his villagers, I can walk my villagers in when he opens gate. Only need ram to kill his TC, might switch to mangonel haven't tried.
-Green is easy kill with 3 towers close to each other, he will suicide villagers in, only need to get bombard cannon or ram or mangonel to kill TC.
-Light blue is easy kill with 2 bombard towers + scout that discovers them. Only need some army to clean them up.

Haven't really bothered with red, but I can send the vills from building towers on green to red and build towers on side, will kill his archers etc. Problem clean him up with other 4 bbc and my army. Hardest job will be getting this all done at the same time and hunting the villagers down.

They won't resign before 20 min, can kill yellow in 22:37 with attempt with mangonel/2vill/2cav archer. Probably slightly slower in actual run, but might be able to put more resources on this to do it faster. Should be solid strategy as long as 2 vills get through gate and get TC up. Can only go wrong when I don't hit wall enough with 2 ca to draw enough aggro. Requires me making houses early and using lot of food on villagers to gain fire power with tc, but I think I can rely on towers and initial army to win on mainland.

Now I have to see how much resources it takes to kill red in 20ish minutes, hopefully can get tower locations to aggro villagers, they are pain to finish off later probably, same with teal, but can probably just use tower location gombill had

Fastest resign times:
Yellow:21:00 (probably can resign on 20:04 if you kill all villagers/ships, but last vills on gold are protected by towers, and I won't invest in navy atm)
Green: 20:04 if you have all villagers dead, much slower when few alive but they will still suicide, will slowly destroy all towers in wall first.
Light blue/Red: 20:04: Just requires most vills and army dead, no delay from destroyed towers.

Hit quote button instead of edit, guess i'll update now in this post;

Done GK1 and Barb1 with decent times.

JoA5, GK3-4-5-6 left.

Basically got the strat for JoA5, but execution is really hard and more or less just trying to bash villagers through, not really motivated to record this. Probably will work first on making this strat reliable instead of just bashing through, will get time between 9-10 igt minutes.

Working on GK3, really tough level.

-Trying to find a solid strategy to kill yellow easily. Trying to douche (drop tc on his tc) which will snipe most of his villagers, I can walk my villagers in when he opens gate. Only need ram to kill his TC, might switch to mangonel haven't tried. 
-Green is easy kill with 3 towers close to each other, he will suicide villagers in, only need to get bombard cannon or ram or mangonel to kill TC.
-Light blue is easy kill with 2 bombard towers + scout that discovers them. Only need some army to clean them up.

Haven't really bothered with red, but I can send the vills from building towers on green to red and build towers on side, will kill his archers etc. Problem clean him up with other 4 bbc and my army. Hardest job will be getting this all done at the same time and hunting the villagers down.

They won't resign before 20 min, can kill yellow in 22:37 with attempt with mangonel/2vill/2cav archer. Probably slightly slower in actual run, but might be able to put more resources on this to do it faster. Should be solid strategy as long as 2 vills get through gate and get TC up. Can only go wrong when I don't hit wall enough with 2 ca to draw enough aggro. Requires me making houses early and using lot of food on villagers to gain fire power with tc, but I think I can rely on towers and initial army to win on mainland.

Now I have to see how much resources it takes to kill red in 20ish minutes, hopefully can get tower locations to aggro villagers, they are pain to finish off later probably, same with teal, but can probably just use tower location gombill had

Fastest resign times:
Yellow:21:00 (probably can resign on 20:04 if you kill all villagers/ships, but last vills on gold are protected by towers, and I won't invest in navy atm)
Green: 20:04 if you have all villagers dead, much slower when few alive but they will still suicide, will slowly destroy all towers in wall first.
Light blue/Red: 20:04: Just requires most vills and army dead, no delay from destroyed towers.

SiFly

Edit history:

SiFly: 2015-07-08 12:06:05 pm

SiFly: 2015-07-08 12:05:35 pm

SiFly: 2015-07-07 07:05:57 am

SiFly: 2015-07-07 07:05:03 am

SiFly: 2015-07-07 07:00:21 am

2015-07-07 06:59:29 am

Since I got some runs on the conquerors expansion, I'll make a short table for them. Will still focus on completing the non expansion levels

RUN LEVEL TABLE

Mission	Time
AtH1	--:--
AtH2	07:54
AtH3	--:--
AtH4	--:--
AtH5	--:--
AtH6	--:--

ElC1	--:--
ElC2	--:--
ElC3	--:--
ElC4	--:--
ElC5	--:--
ElC6	--:--

Mon1	--:--
Mon2	--:--
Mon3	--:--
Mon4	03:26
Mon5	--:--
Mon6	--:--

Vinl	--:--
Tours	05:25
Hast	--:--
Manz	08:23
Agin	03:11
Lepa	--:--
Kyoto	--:--
Nory	--:--

Known glitches/bugs:
- Relic glitch (teleport relic to monks location when between walls) Used in many runs so far, mechanism not perfectly known so it can be pulled off 100% reliable. Should put time in it, would say works now 1 out of 3 with bashing it
- Tradecart glitch (steal money from market, just like relic glitch works) //not in a run yet, might be interesting for JoA
- Glitching through gates when you are slightly after closing //not sure on mechanism, don't see use for it
- Glitching through non linear walls with villager when blocked under attack (villagers move away when hit, saw them twice walk through wall) //no use yet, not reliable and requires enemy shooting at you. Haven't tried to reproduce
- Instant build (aegis) glitch. Villager instantly build stuff after hit by bullet/mangonel shot and tasked back to work (Never got this to work once, it has been seen twice in tournament games)
- ???????

And a lot of dumb AI behaviour to abuse.

Since I got some runs on the conquerors expansion, I'll make a short table for them. Will still focus on completing the non expansion levels

RUN LEVEL TABLE 
[table border=BASIC]
	[tr]
	[th]Mission[/th][th]Time[/th]
	[/tr]
	[tr]
	[td]AtH1[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]AtH2[/td][td][url=http://www.twitch.tv/w0pw0p/c/6933608]07:54[/url][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]AtH3[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]AtH4[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]AtH5[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]AtH6[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td][/td][td][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC1[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC2[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC3[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC4[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC5[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]ElC6[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td][/td][td][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon1[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon2[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon3[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon4[/td][td][url=http://www.twitch.tv/w0pw0p/c/6737935]03:26[/url][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon5[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Mon6[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td][/td][td][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Vinl[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Tours[/td][td][url=http://www.twitch.tv/w0pw0p/c/6601628]05:25[/url][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Hast[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Manz[/td][td][url=http://www.twitch.tv/w0pw0p/c/6870083]08:23[/url][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Agin[/td][td][url=http://www.twitch.tv/w0pw0p/c/6608864]03:11[/url][/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Lepa[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Kyoto[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[tr]
	[td]Nory[/td][td]--:--[/td]
	[/tr]
[/table]

Known glitches/bugs:
- Relic glitch (teleport relic to monks location when between walls) Used in many runs so far, mechanism not perfectly known so it can be pulled off 100% reliable. Should put time in it, would say works now 1 out of 3 with bashing it
- Tradecart glitch (steal money from market, just like relic glitch works)  //not in a run yet, might be interesting for JoA
- Glitching through gates when you are slightly after closing //not sure on mechanism, don't see use for it
- Glitching through non linear walls with villager when blocked under attack (villagers move away when hit, saw them twice walk through wall)  //no use yet, not reliable and requires enemy shooting at you. Haven't tried to reproduce
- Instant build (aegis) glitch. Villager instantly build stuff after hit by bullet/mangonel shot and tasked back to work (Never got this to work once, it has been seen twice in tournament games)
- ???????

And a lot of dumb AI behaviour to abuse.

SiFly

2016-05-05 10:16:24 am

Small update here, although ILs are submitted on speedrun.com

A lot of improvements going on by either me or other runners, I recently started going back to revisit ILs by creating consistent routes/strategies and managed to improve times (partially because I simply got faster in the game)

First full campaign run of William Wallace in 14:48 is done

I'm working on the next campaign Joan of Arc and will try to get decent campaign run in.