A stalemate in the frontline

[Claws]

First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of pictures that would doubtlessly help you understanding the situation better; I don't have any external capturing software and Age of Empires II just wouldn't cooperate with me nor would it behave, but I will try to explain the overall battle as much as possible and, hopefully, it would be just as good as a series of pictures :P

So... my friend and I made this gigantic map for Age of Empires II: The Conquerors which basically consist on large city inhabited by a neutral player and that it's currently being fought over by a Red Army (1555 units) and a Gray Army (1750 units). The starting positions for this particular map have the Gray Army occupying about half of the city and surrounding it with the rest of its troops, while the Red Army is in control of about 75% of the city and the area behind it (which is a shipyard connecting to a lake that surrounds the entire map).

With some practice I managed to drive the Gray Army away from the city and I even found a way to make a diagonal corridor in which I could hoard my soldiers and artillery pieces to deliver a point-blank blow to the enemy forces that were surrounding the borders of the aforementioned city, but the computer took notice of it and completely decimated my army there, right to the point of making me withdraw whatever I had left back to the fortress.

Now, my problem is that I'm down to 864 men (including cannons and other such pieces) and the computer no longer tries to break thru my positions, but it instead has decided to concentrate its troops nearby in overwhelming numbers. Questions is: What should I do to lure it into attacking me where I'm strong? There's no way I'm going to survive a head-on assault against an army that it's both numerically superior to mine and that still has many of its most powerful weapons still intact.

The player that is an allied to us both has build many strongholds and the like all over the map, so I think that if I somehow manage to turn it against the Gray Army, it would be enough to weaken it enough for me to attack, but I have no idea how to do that.

Anyway, that's the situation guys. Any ideas on how to solve it? :P Thanks!

[Claws]

Update: I was able to destroy the Gray Army on an all-out assault, but I lost 90% of my own troops in the process. There's gotta be a better way to do this.

[Strifer]

I wish I could help you here. I've never played that game myself. I would just say be smart about troop placement. Stronger troops for stronger adversaries and vice versa. Keeping your strongest behind and reserving them until absolutely necessary could also be of use.

[Claws]

Thanks, mate. I actually found the action to be too chaotic to plan and execute an organized attack, so the computer and I kept assaulting each other.

Playing as the Red Army, I managed to conquer the entire map with 156 survivors out of 1550 starting troops.

With the Gray Army, however, the results were far more horrifying... out of 1750 starting soldiers, only 68 (sixty-eight!) got to see the end of it.

[Strifer]

Thanks, mate. I actually found the action to be too chaotic to plan and execute an organized attack, so the computer and I kept assaulting each other.

Playing as the Red Army, I managed to conquer the entire map with 156 survivors out of 1550 starting troops.

With the Gray Army, however, the results were far more horrifying... out of 1750 starting soldiers, only 68 (sixty-eight!) got to see the end of it.

Jeez! That's a lot of deaths!

[Claws]

Indeed. It was horrible (surprisingly, the computer didn't even freeze once trying to register the movements of 3k of troops).

Hey, if any of you happen to have Age of Empires 2: The Conqueros, I can upload the map so you can play it.

[Chibiscuit]

That map sounds chaotic. I'm surprised the game would run it with ease! I have Age of Empires II (both versions) but ever since we had to update to windows 8 it doesn't work on our PC anymore... I LOVE the game though, used to play it a LOT and made quite a few maps myself^^

[Claws]

That map sounds chaotic. I'm surprised the game would run it with ease! I have Age of Empires II (both versions) but ever since we had to update to windows 8 it doesn't work on our PC anymore... I LOVE the game though, used to play it a LOT and made quite a few maps myself^^

Aww man, are you for real? Come on, Microsoft! I don't expect you to be compatible with Daikatana, but freaking Age of Empires? *Sighs*.

[Chibiscuit]

That map sounds chaotic. I'm surprised the game would run it with ease! I have Age of Empires II (both versions) but ever since we had to update to windows 8 it doesn't work on our PC anymore... I LOVE the game though, used to play it a LOT and made quite a few maps myself^^

Aww man, are you for real? Come on, Microsoft! I don't expect you to be compatible with Daikatana, but freaking Age of Empires? *Sighs*.

It was kinda weird actually. At first it would start the game but it just ran really slow because windows 8 doesn't recognize our graphics card. But then for no apparent reason it just stopped working all-together. It won't run either version and I have no idea why.
It runs some other games fine though like Civilization III and Master of Olympus but it seems to have developed a sudden deep hatred for AoE.

[Claws]

Well,  I'm not surprised. AoE is a game that will never get old, while Windows 8/10 will be rendered obsolete soon enough. The hatred is not weird in the slightest.

And I really don't know what happened: the computer was kicking our tails incredibly hard, right to the point of having my army back into the city and trapped with only a fraction of its initial strength (and I had to do all sorts of maneuvers to repel the constant attacks on my flanks). It was a desperate situation... so desperate that I led all the remaining soldiers (minus a 10% which were scattered amongst the rubble and were not a strong combat force anyway) in a fierce charge against the enemy HQ, on the other half of the map.

I was expecting to get a "game over" screen at any moment, but... my troops reached (and destroyed) their destination and suddenly, I realized... there was no-one fighting us. Somehow my remaining 350 guys broke thru and won.

[Claws]

I finally managed to take some screenshots! (they were actually all stored on a folder within the game's directory... I was just an idiot who didn't realize it). So, here's the mysterious map!

Super-fancy overhead view of the upcoming massacre:



Gray Army's HQ:



Gray Army's Spearhead (Center):



Armed Civilians outside some buildings in the outskirts of the city:



The city's central square being captured by the Gray Army (all the villagers are just about to get shot):



Red Army's first defensive line in the center of the city:



Red Army defending the city's resources in the front line:



Red Army taking positions around the rubble:



Fighting in the rubble:



Red Army's HQ:

[Chibiscuit]

Wow that's even more chaotic than I had imagined. So many troops... I can hear my PC crashing just from the thought of it...

Hah, yeah, you can find all that stuff in the game directory. Apparently you can also change the music that plays by changing the files in the folders but I've never tried that.
How did you get that super-fancy overhead view though?

Man, I miss playing this game...

[Claws]

Woah, I didn't know about the music... I ought to try that!

The overhead view? Just press Control + F12 and it will create it for you. Just one of many things I learned the other day :P

[Chibiscuit]

Huh, that simple. I never knew.

Oh let me know if the music thing really works^^ If I ever get a chance to play the game again (so dramatic, haha) I can try it as well then.

[Claws]

I'm about to try the music thing, I'll let you know how it goes

But right now I'm still playing the map, because it is so much fun. My new strategy is called "General Arsehole": you know, declaring war on the neutral player and seeing it beg me to stop while I demolish everything he owns at point-blank range... by the time he fights back, there isn't many buildings standing nor troops alive. It is great xD

And, sometimes, I would grab some cannons or catapults (because they are totally not needed in the hell that's about to ensue) and I would drive them to the city's stone and gold mines; then I would set them in "automatic ground attack" and I would target not the mines themselves, but the paths the villagers take to go to AND from those places to their mining camps. It's also very funny to see just how dedicated those IA guys are to their freaking jobs, not slowing down their progress nor leaving altogether at the sight of their comrades getting blown up. Oh, the IA is so much fun...