A Beginner's Guide to AOE 2 Speedrunning

So you want to start speedrunning AOE 2 and you're wondering where to begin? Well you've come to the right place. First of all the main way to get better is to play, and play frequently. Watching other players, learning strategies, and trying out those strategies are great ways to improve your game. If you're wanting to do a certain level, watch the current record run for it and play the level on your own. See if you can find a new strategy to save time. Here are some tips and tricks for getting started.

[section=Hotkeys]
I'd recommend learning as many of the hot keys as you can, but these are some of the most useful.
**Select units**
Idle military unit (,)
Idle villager (.)
Go to selected object (space)
**Create groups**
(Ctrl + 1) (Ctrl + 2)...
**Select groups**
(1) (2)...
**Select buildings**
Barracks - (Ctrl + (b)
Castle - (Ctrl + v)
Town Center - (h)

[section=Dodging Towers and Castles]
You can dodge tower and castle arrows with some quick clicking. It's especially easy to do if you're on the outer edge of their range. Just click to switch directions with your units right after they fire their shots. A good example of this is in Monte 4.

[section=Unit Speed Info]
Light cavalry are the fastest cavalry units with camels being second and knights being the slowest. Also keep in mind that different units will travel together at the speed of the slowest unit so remember to split groups up for quicker movements. This is shown in BoC Manizert.

[section=Aggro]
A lot of levels require understanding how the AI will aggro on you. The best way to learn what they'll do on each level is to just experiment. Save right before you decide to aggro them and then try different approaches until you get the one you want.

[section=Relic Glitch]
The relic glitch is necessary for several different levels and it can be used on AOK or AOC, but not the HD version. There's another guide posted if you want to learn how to do it.

[section=Terms]
William Wallace = WW
Joan of Arc = JoA
Saladin = Sal
Genghis Khan = GK
Barbarossa = BB
El Cid = El Cid
Attila the Hun = Att
Montezuma = Mon
Battle of the Conquerors = BoC

[section=Good Starter Levels]
All of WW
BB 3
GK 2
BoC Agincourt
Mon 4


[section=Good Luck]
I hope this helps you get started speedrunning! Just send me a message if you have any questions!

Barbarossa 2

Glitch found by Sifly

You must playing on AoK version only

Change the diplo to green neutral or enemy, you must defeat him before 6:41 IGT

For TASing the diplo (only possible save time) i recommend you to change hotkey "diplomatic" to "DELETE" and press "ENTER" for confirming the action.

Advanced strategy : Before the load time press ENTER for ignoring the objective and in same time changing diplo, you save a milli second to be sure reach 3:20 RTA (max time possible)

Barbarossa Speedrun Guide

Currently, the strategies for most of these levels are somewhat optimized. Notably, BB2, cannot be any faster because it relies on an ally glitch to end the level at a specific time. For the other levels, there's currently a good chunk of time to be saved and even more to be saved in a full campaign run. So this guide will explain the current strategies being used for the world records and how additional time could possibly be saved. Also, while guide won’t include every detail of each level, it will include the main strategies, tricks, and things to remember to get started speedrunning these levels. More in-depth information will be included in a video guide I’ll release at a later date. (All times with a username next to them are the current world record holders. Also most images were taken from Chazzyb17's runs).

[section=Holy Roman Emperor]
**1. Holy Roman Emperor**
Current WR:------------------------2m 18s Chazzyb17
Current Full Run Best Time:----2m 50s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:--------------------------32s	
Best Possible Time Save:-------~5s	

**Current Strategy:** This is the level heaviest on micro in this campaign. It involves collecting 4 of the 6 relics. I'll list them by color and then the order and micro is up to you.

Green: send your mangonel to go right outside the wall next to the tree line where it can hit the monastery. You'll also 
need a light calvary to distract the towers. Use a patrol in a triangle formation to dodge the arrows.

Orange: send your knights to kill the monk and then destroy the monastery.

Yellow: send a villager to spot the relic

Purple: build a market and use it to get resources for petards. Send the rest of your troops around purple's tower and make petards to destroy the monastery.

Using the relic glitch, pick up the relics and finish the level.
(AOK or AOC for relic glitch. On AOK, orange's town center can hit melee unites attacking the
monastery)

The relic glitch guide by Chazzyb17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qn4tTS_RJo

The mangonel position
https://imgur.com/SkJzrIz

**Possible Time Saves:** There's likely a fast strategy out there, especially for the AOK version. With the current strategy some more effecient micro should save around 5 seconds.

[section=Henry the Lion]
**2. Henry the Lion**
Current WR: -----------------------3m 20s SiFly
Current Full Run Best Time: ---3m 21s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:--------------------------1s		
Best Possible Time Save:-------0s	

**Current Strategy:** Turn both green and yellow to neutral. Then destroy green's town center and all of its villagers to make it resign. At 6.40 in-game-time, blue will resign because green cannot tribute the resources. Setting just green to neutral will get a 6.41 in-game-time and setting green to enemy will get a 6.42 in-game-time. (AOK version only glitch)

**Possible Time Saves:**  None

[section=Pope and Antipope]
**3. Pope and Antipope**
Current WR: -----------------------2m 05s SiFly, Chazzyb17
Current Full Run Best Time:---2m 17s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:-------------------------12s
Best Possible Time Save:------~2s

**Current Strategy:** Load the monks into the transport ship along with a knight. While the ship travels to the left most gate of blue, turn all your resources into gold at the market and research Fervor and then Redemption. Let your monks out as close to the gate as you can and immediately send them towards it. Have your knight attack the wall and then run away which should aggro all of  blue's units. Once the man-at-arms open the gate send your monks around to the left of blue's base and make their way toward the Wonder. Then have them convert the Wonder and remember to keep your knight alive and running. (AOK version makes Fervor effective while it does nothing on AOC)

Transport drop off at top circle and knight attacking in other circle 
https://imgur.com/iYA6bJk

**Possible Time Saves:**  Use the patrol command for the monks to walk right behind the Wonder without bunching up and then tell them to convert it. Also, good RNG on the conversion.

[section=The Lombard League]
**4. The Lombard League**
Current WR: -----------------------5m 17s Chazzyb17
Current Full Run Best Time:---6m 28s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:-------------------------1m 11s
Best Possible Time Save:------~2-3s	

**Current Strategy:** Save the two villagers from the mangonel shot (requires high resolution to be fast enough). Then construct a market with a villager and make four more villagers at the town center. Have the other villagers get a transport and go east toward the fleet. Send that ship and the new ship with villagers to pink's gate (not too close to the bombard tower though). Delete all of the ships except for the villager transport and the onager transport. Start constructing the Wonder with them as soon as possible, getting the necessary resources from the market. Offload the unclaimed villagers ship when there's one villager still being created at the town center. Once the market and other villagers were finished being created send them in ships to the Wonder. Use the empty transports to aggro the castle when you start building. Use one onager to aggro pink away from their base and the other four to protect the wonder.

Villagers you have to save
https://imgur.com/XksLXtM

Placement of the Wonder
https://imgur.com/ghV37Oy

**Possible Time Saves:**  Use your knights and teutonic knights at the very beginning to run toward orange leading away the attacking troops. If done correctly, this saves your town center and houses allowing you to make more villagers to send to build the Wonder. Also, by using the knights in the transport ship to aggro pink, you can destroy the rest of your units and have the population capacity for more villagers and not have to worry about your Wonder getting destroyed. 
**Within hours of uploading this, Chazzyb17 used this strategy and brought the record down by 25 seconds.**

[section=Barbarossa's March]
**5. Barbarossa's March**
Current WR: -----------------------2m 56s Chazzyb17
Current Full Run Best Time:---3m 5s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:-------------------------9s
Best Possible Time Save:------~5s	

**Current Strategy:** Immediately send your mangonels toward the tree line where they can clear a path. Send your cavalry units and monks through the cleared path. (Recommended to safety save here in a  full campaign run) Switch blue to neutral and use the monks to convert a transport ship. Have that transport ship pick up your calvary and make landfall on the other side of the map. Then start the trek toward the castle. Send your scouts ahead right before the wall to trigger the earthquake 
sooner. Then it's just sending the paladins to the finish.

**Possible Time Saves:**  Good RNG on the transport conversion and quick micro on getting in the ship.

The best tree line to go through
https://imgur.com/tKVvVGe

Where the monks should stand to convert
https://imgur.com/bae7M8S

The drop off point, also circled on the minimap
https://imgur.com/QYgO0yp

[section=The Emperor Sleeping]
**6. The Emperor Sleeping**
Current WR:------------------------2m 47s JoeyCapollo
Current Full Run Best Time:---3m 10s JoeyCapollo
Time Save:-------------------------23s
Best Possible Time Save:------~2s	

**Current Strategy:** Immediately send the trade cart and villagers to the bottom part of yellow's wall underneath their town center. Keep 6 villagers back to build a castle. Have the paladins group next to the villagers and send the pikemen to the outside of the top of yellow's wall. Once the castle is built, research Sappers. Once the villagers are almost in position to attack the wall, switch yellow to neutral and have the pikemen attack the top wall to aggro yellow's units. Then have the
villagers attack the wall, there should be 5 of them hitting it at once. After the wall is destroyed, send the villagers to blue's gate where they should immediately start attacking it. Have the paladins and trade cart wait right outside. Make sure there are always villagers attacking every part of the gate. After, the gate is destroyed send the cart to the end and the villagers and paladins are used to tank the towers. Use paladins for the further away towers so they'll get there in time.

The wall to target
https://imgur.com/5p1Xj0w

**Possible Time Saves:**  Better micro with the villagers, especially on the gate.


Campaign
Current WR:------------------------22m 52s JoeyCapollo
Current Sum of WR:--------------19m 41s
Current Best Possible WR:-----19m 25s

Well I hope this helps you get started! Just send me a message if you have any questions.

El cid 3 skip ally

https://prnt.sc/hmoerk

1 : when you go on this place, the text appears and select fast the diplomacy to change from ally

2 : when you active the text, you want be enemy with the blue but not him, blue want be enemy with you if you are his enemy
you have 1 second to change the diplomacy

How to do the Relic glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qn4tTS_RJo

Thanks to ChazzyB17 for making a guide for this glitch!

OBS AoC Edition

A version of OBS for streaming AoC with scene switcher and everything you need to get started.

http://aoczone.net/viewtopic.php?f=499&t=120923

Settings for speedruning (60 fps)

Age of Kings - Age of Conquerors :

https://prnt.sc/mh1a8i

HD Edition :

https://prnt.sc/mh1hny

reduce your screen resolution to increase performance (not entirely, but to get optimal performance)

Tactics for recording :
-if you are on Windows 10 : use Windows recorder Alt + G (best option in my opinion) but only for individual runs if you are on AoK and AoC because it stops abruptly when the window changes screen resolution (default 800x600 fastest resolution for speedruning)

-you can use OBS for streaming if you want but be carefull, if you play on HD Edition and if your pc is bad, this can ruin your runs and the time is not in game (x2) but RTA (reduce the bitrate of your stream or non-stream if the lag appears in the level)

-don't use Windows recorder if you switch version (HD to AoC...)

If you play individual campaign - full campaign / or a level requiered with dark age glitch, use SSD hard drive for reducing load time

Version for levels

William Wallace 1 : Any
William Wallace 2 : Any
William Wallace 3 : Any
William Wallace 4 : Any
William Wallace 5 : Any
William Wallace 6 : Any or HD Edition patch older than 5.1 - Relic glitch
William Wallace 7 : Any
Joan of Arc 1 : Any
Joan of Arc 2 : Any
Joan of Arc 3 : Any
Joan of Arc 4 : Any
Joan of Arc 5 : Any
Joan of Arc 6 : Any
Saladin 1 : Any
Saladin 2 : AoK or AoC
Saladin 3 : Any or HD Edition patch older than 5.1 - Relic glitch
Saladin 4 : Any
Saladin 5 : AoK or AoC
Saladin 6 : AoK or AoC
Genghis Khan 1 : Any or HD Edition patch older than 5.1 - Relic glitch
Genghis Khan 2 : Any
Genghis Khan 3 : Any
Genghis Khan 4 : Any
Genghis Khan 5 : Any
Genghis Khan 6 : Any
Barbarossa 1 : Any or HD Edition patch older than 5.1 - Relic glitch
Barbarossa 2 : AoK
Barbarossa 3 : AoK
Barbarossa 4 : Any
Barbarossa 5 : AoK
Barbarossa 6 : Any
Attila 1 : AoC
Attila 2 : Any
Attila 3 : Any
Attila 4 : AoC
Attila 5 : Any
Attila 6 : AoC - Dark age glitch
El Cid 1 : Any
El Cid 2 : Any or HD Edition patch older than 5.1 - Relic glitch
El Cid 3 : Any
El Cid 4 : Any
El Cid 5 : Any
El Cid 6 : AoC - Dark age glitch
Montezuma 1 : Any
Montezuma 2 : Any
Montezuma 3 : Any
Montezuma 4 : Any
Montezuma 5 : Any
Montezuma 6 : AoC - Dark age glitch
Battles of the Conquerors Tours : Any
Battles of the Conquerors Vindlandsaga : Any
Battles of the Conquerors Hastings : HD Edition
Battles of the Conquerors Manzikert : HD Edition
Battles of the Conquerors Agincourt : Any
Battles of the Conquerors Lepanto : Any
Battles of the Conquerors Kyoto : AoC
Battles of the Conquerors Noryang point : AoC - Dark age glitch

Wonder Race

Map : Baltic (best opinion by Zuo)
Size : Tiny
Reveal map : All visible

Specific tactics of civilizations :

Aztecs : Loom free for boars / +50 gold if you played with DLC
Berbers : Villagers faster
Britons : Sheeps food faster + Town center cheaper
Burmese : Up wood free
Byzantines : Imperial age cheaper
Celts : Wood faster
Chinese : Technology cheaper / +45 food on farms / Start +3 villagers
Ethiopians : Tribute of 100 wood/food/gold each age
Franks : Up farms free
Goths : More dammage on the boars
Huns : No houses
Incas : Houses pop x2 / Building farms faster / Start with one lama free
Indians : Villagers cheaper
Italians : Up age cheaper
Japanese : Nothing
Khmer : No need building requiered for up age
Koreans : Stone faster
Magyars : Nothing
Malay : Up age faster
Malians : Wood cheaper (except farms)
Mayans : Start +1 villager
Mongols : Hunters faster
Persian : Start with more resources
Portuguese : Nothing
Saracens : Market less tax
Slavs : Food farm faster
Spanish : Building faster
Teutons : Farms cheaper
Turks : Gold faster
Vietnamiese : Nothing
Vikings : Up villagers free + docks cheaper

Name	Author
A Beginner's Guide to AOE 2 Speedrunning	JoeyCapollo 7 years ago
Barbarossa 2	BellumZeldaDS 6 years ago
Barbarossa Speedrun Guide	JoeyCapollo 7 years ago
El cid 3 skip ally	BellumZeldaDS 6 years ago
How to do the Relic glitch	SiFly 9 years ago
OBS AoC Edition	SiFly 9 years ago
Settings for speedruning (60 fps)	BellumZeldaDS 6 years ago
Version for levels	BellumZeldaDS 5 years ago
Wonder Race	BellumZeldaDS 6 years ago