Age of Empires II: Difference between revisions

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* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Genghis Khan, Henry V, William The Conquerer, Harold Hardraade, El Cid Campeador, Atilla, Erik the Red, and numerous others. Averted with the King in Regicide mode, who has absolutely no attack whatsoever.

* [[Automatic Crossbows]]: Chu-Ko-Nu.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]:

** The Trebuchets, when used against units. While immensely powerful, they are tragically inaccurate, fire slowly, and have to be manually unpacked and repacked to fire and move, respectively. They are extremely effective against buildings, though, to the extent of being [[Awesome Yet Practical]] when it comes to destroying an enemy's defenses. The Japanese in ''The Conquerors'' have a technology which makes them even more impressive, by firing and (un)packing incredibly fast.

** Petards in ''The Conquerors'', at least most of the time. Available in the Castle Age, and capable of dealing out huge anti-building damage quickly and easily. However, if you're using them around towers or castles, you're gonna lose two or three before they get there, and it's easy to run out of gold before you breach fortifications.

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* [[Construct Additional Pylons]]: Houses, except for the Huns.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: There's a taunt with a pun on the phrase "beat them back to the stone age". It's a reference to the first game:

{{quote|''"I'll beat you back to ''[[Age of Empires I (~~Video~~ ~~Game~~)|Age of Empires I]]''."''}}

{{quote|''"I'll beat you back to ''[[Age of Empires (video game)||Age of Empires I]]''."''}}

* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: Every unit has only one attack.

* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Every unit. Defensive buildings lose their ability to hold troops shortly before being destroyed, but otherwise fit into this trope as well.

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* [[Enemy Exchange Program]]: The priests can convert your enemies' units. And their priests can convert yours too!

* [[Escort Mission]]: Quite a few. The escortees are typically under the player's control and possess adequate combat skills, though.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Historical accuracy demands it in a few occasions.

** The penultimate scenario in El Cid campaign features the Cid defending a small friendly town of Denia from Count Berenguer's massive army. The player is intended to forfeit the town and retreat further towards Valencia.

** The 5th scenario of the Joan of Arc campaign is even worse. You're invading Paris, but it's clear you're pretty much outnumbered from the start and will never survive on your own. So you have to wait for the King's reinforcements which...[[Dirty Coward|number only two men.]] The rest of the mission is pretty much an [[Escape Sequence]], oh, and [[Cutscene Incompetence|Joan is captured in the ending cutscene and]] [[Foregone Conclusion|burned at the stake.]]

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** Also, units don't have separate sizes. This was lampshaded by an image of the Age of Empires king with the text "10 Elephants Fit in a Boat. 11 Archers Don't."

* [[Violation of Common Sense]]: Sheep are very useful in multi-player for scouting.

* [[We Have Reserves]]: Tends to be a fairly common mindset for the CPU and occasionally the player with less expensive units. Overlaps with [[Zerg Rush]], as seen below.

** Gothic tactics heartily endorse this mindset since their infantry are both inexpensive and created with blazing speed once in the Imperial Age. Losing an army of Gothic infantry will still be costly but there will be another group ready to take their place in no time flat.

** Also occurs when your onagers or bombard cannons blast enemy units even when your own melee units are attacking them. Though most of the time this is due to [[Artificial Stupidity]].

* [[Wham! Episode]]: Nearly every campaign has one, but one of the most noticeable is [[Meaningful Name|La Noche Triste]] in the Aztec campaign. The Spanish have completely taken over Tenochtitlan, and are building a freaking Wonder, ([[Timed Mission|which will cause you to lose if completed]]) while you're reduced to a scattered bunch of ragtag warriors. And even when you retake the city, Montezuma dies. Pretty much sets the town for the [[Downer Ending]] that follows, though the next mission is a [[Hope Spot]].

* [[With Us or Against Us]]: The "Neutral" diplomacy setting is basically the same as "Enemy" with a few adjustments to automatic targeting of civilian units.

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** The Huns in ''The Conquerors'' can research ''atheism''. Everyone else needs to research ''faith''.

* [[You Require More Vespene Gas]]: Gold, Stone, Wood and Food.

* [[Zerg Rush]]:

** One of the most common tactics is to attack during the feudal age with large numbers of spearmen and skirmishers to prevent your opponent from being able to develop his economy. Most rounds are effectively decided within twenty minutes this way.

** If you progress to the Imperial Age and are running out of gold, you can try spamming a large number of units that cost no gold, i.e. hussars, halbardiers and elite skirmishers (or whatever your civilization is capable of producing).

** A frequent online tactic is to play as the Huns, remain in the Dark Ages, and take advantage of the Hums' unique ability, to endlessly spam hordes of Militia before your opponent can get their defenses up.