Start the game already!

If you're looking for a challenge in Age of Empires II, the Khmer are just the civilization for you. At first glance, the Khmer seem like an easy civilization to play because they have the best food economy in the game alongside the Khitan, you are usually one step ahead of your opponent, and thanks to their broad tech tree, they can play almost anything they want. They even have powerful elephants and scorpions! However, they have a few bonuses that can quickly become a trap if you don't master the game perfectly. The particular difficulty arises from the fact that you have to build on your initial advantage with the Khmer so that you don't go down in the late game. On the one hand, their strong economy makes the Khmer a beginner-friendly civilization, but on the other hand, their playstyle makes them a difficult civilization to master. I hope you enjoy this podcast, which, for once, will be all about elephants!

Chris

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Timecodes:

00:00 Introduction

08:15 Eco bonus

13:18 House bonus

16:58 No prerequisites for age-up & buildings

21:23 Battle Elephants & Tusk Swords

29:19 Ballista Elephants, Scorpions & Double Crossbow

45:39 Strategies & army compositions

01:08:22 Campaign

Music: Khmer Intro Music and "Operation Monkey" of the official AoE II Soundtrack

Welcome to another episode of the monthly magazine, covering all important topics about age of empires. Today is a very special episode, because this podcast will be cohosted by the up and coming talent of our scene: welcome Daniela!

We’ve had a lot of tournaments recently, so there are lots of topics to cover. In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the Ling Yuan Cup, Amigo Wars 3, Masters of Hyperrandom 3, the announcement RB Wololo: Londinium, TTL 5 Bronze League, the Naval Rework, the onimaru bootcamp, the Chronicles DLC featuring Alexander the Great and the betting scandal of aoe 2. There’s a little bit of Franchise News after that and then we’ll pick out a few of the emails that have been sent in to discuss them. As always, we’ll close the show with the tournament outlook for november 2025.

Please check out Daniela over at Twitch:

https://www.twitch.tv/daniela_aoe

Support the Podcast on:

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Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

03:11 News

02:35:44 Franchise News

02:40:20 Podcast News & Emails

02:51:05 Tournament Outlook October 2025

Links:

⁠Master of HyperRandom 3⁠

LingYuan CupTTL5 Bronze League

SotL Interview

Naval Rework

T90 about Biry

Willkommen zur 27. Tafelrunde! In der heutigen Tafelrunde diskutieren wir das aktuell etwas leidige Thema von Wettanbietern in Age of Empires II. Wir haben diesbezüglich eine klare ablehnende Haltung und führen hier einen eher lockeren Austausch und erzählen euch von unseren eigenen Gefühlen zur Diskussion, statt ein Fachgespräch über die negativen Auswirkungen von Glücksspiel im eSport zu führen, da dieser Zusammenhang längst erwiesen ist. Doch damit die Stimmung etwas aufgebessert ist, empfiehlt Felix eine Gameshow der besonderen Art von einem ihm sehr lieb gewonnenen Streamer. Außerdem hat Felix Death Stranding begonnen und outet sich als großer Freund von Kojimas filmischer Videospielregie.

Viel Spaß beim Hören!

Felix & Christian

Unterstütze unser Projekt hier und höre deutsche Versionen der englischen Podcasts:⁠

Steady

Discord

Musik: Joey Jojo vom offiziellen AoE II: DE OST.

This episode offers a very different kind of content for you. I analyzed Hera's past 39 defeats on Arabia during his world record attempt and collected some data, which I analyze here in the podcast. My goal: to find out if there's a pattern that tells us how to defeat Hera. In doing so, some truly interesting insights have come to light. It's impossible not to acknowledge that Hera is an exceptional player, almost unmatched in versatility and mechanical skill. Therefore, finding systematic weaknesses in such a complete player as Hera is an ambitious undertaking. Well, decide for yourself whether I've succeeded.Chris

The Excel sheet

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Music: "Carne y Helado" of the official AoE II Soundtrack.

In this episode of Masterpieces, I'll tell you the story of what I consider to be the best final that we've seen in competitive Age of Empires II to this day: The finals of RB Wololo 3 between Daut and Liereyy. This matchup brings together two generations and two different playstyles. I hope you enjoy reliving one of the best games of Age of Empires II!

Chris

The Game

Discord⁠

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Music: "Carne y Helado" of the official AoE II Soundtrack.

I’m Chris, your host of this wonderful podcast, and please forgive my cracky voice because I was super sick recording this episode! In the news, I’ll be talking about Sudden Dessaster 2, the Quintessential Cookout, the cancellation of the December LAN, and the announcement of a new DLC. In the franchise news, I’ll briefly touch on the fact that we’ve received more info on the new roguelite RTS game mode in AoE IV and that the second — and possibly final — DLC for Age of Mythology has been released. As for game news, I’ll skip that this time to save my voice, so we’ll head straight into podcast news and then take a look at the tournament outlook for October 2025.  I hope you enjoy the show!

Chris

Discord

Support the Podcast on:

Patreon

Steady (german)

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

01:17 News

19:36 Franchise News

23:14 Podcast News

26:30 Tournament Outlook October 2025

Links:

Master of HyperRandom 3

Sudden Dessaster 2

Midweek Madness

AoE2Germany

The Romans are kind of an odd civilization amongst the medieval civilizations of Age of Empires II, but they fit right in with how they play out. Their strong economy favors melee units and they have one of the best scorpions in the game. In this podcast we'll do a deep dive into how the Romans play out and what their best unite compositions are. As usual, we'll try to understand how the devs were inspired by history when they created this civilization. Since there is a lack of a dedicated campaign for the romans, I have devided to include two wonderful custom campaigns made by the community. I hope you'll enjoy this episode!

Chris

Support the Podcast on:

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Steady (german)⁠

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Timecodes:00:00 Overview08:35 Eco Bonus13:15 Double Infantry Armor & Legionary17:47 Scorpions & Ballistas24:02 Centurions & Comitatenses32:50 Strategies and army compositions47:14 Campaigns & ScenariosMusic: Romans Intro Music and "Operation Monkey" of the official AoE II Soundtrack

The decisive battle in Tenochtitlan marks the culmination of the Aztec campaign. Surrounded by the Spanish and Tlaxcalans, we must attack from our city and repel the enemy: on land and at sea. But woe betide the Spanish if they manage to destroy our wonder!This episode is the final episode of the entire Aztec season, so at the end there's a brief final assessment and, of course, a rectification of the events we experience in this mission. I really hope you enjoyed the campaign!Chris

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Homepage

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Music: Aztecs Intro Music of the official AoE II Soundtrack

In the 5th mission of the Aztec Campaign, we are pursuing the Spanish and their allies after we've defeated them in La Noche Triste. The Spanish are trying to escape along the lake Texcoco to the safety of the Tlaxcaltecs, but we caught up to them and try to defeat them once for all, in what is known today as the battle of Otumba on July 7th, 1520. More than 20.000 Aztecs faced off against a couple of thousand Spanish and Tlaxcaltec soldiers, but they have set a deadly trap for their Aztec pursuers.I hope you'll enjoy listening to this podcast!

Chris

Support the Podcast on:Patreon⁠

⁠Steady (german)⁠

⁠Homepage⁠

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Music: Aztecs Intro Music of the official AoE II Soundtrack

Welcome to the September edition of the Age of Empires Magazine, where once again we’ll be covering the most important topics surrounding Age of Empires. Let’s take a look at today’s magazine program: as promised, we’ll be talking in more detail about the big update. In terms of eSports, we’ll briefly cover the LingYuan Cup and Sudden Dessaster 2, as well as the first month of Midweek Madness. Jens from Age Lan will invite you all to the Age Lan in October. In the Franchise News, I’ll tell you about the new DLCs in AoE IV and AoM. In Game News, I’ve got a whole bunch of interesting titles to introduce. In Podcast News, there’s a short update on what’s coming up in the podcast. And finally, of course, the tournament outlook for September 2025! I hope you enjoy the show!

Chris

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.deDiscord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsKSupport the Podcast on:Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealreadySteady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro

02:07 News

26:21 Franchise News

31:54 Game News

37:43 Podcast News

42:55 Tournament outlook September 2025

Links:

Trailer AoM DLC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYeR54lRm00

Master of HyperRandom 3: https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Master_of_HyperRandom/3

Quintessiential Cookout: https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Quintessential_Cookout

Sudden Dessaster 2: https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Sudden_Dessaster/2

Midweek Madness: https://liquipedia.net/ageofempires/Midweek_Madness

Dynamic Battle: https://www.universe.com/events/dynamic-battle-lan-tickets-KGM9LC?ref=share-widget-buffer?ref=share-widget-buffer

Empire Village 2025: https://www.aoe2insights.com/announcements/empires-village-2025-3rd-edition-loano-italy

BOOM: https://aoe2germany.com/brandneueoriginalundoffiziellemaps

AoE Leagues: https://www.aoe2insights.com/announcements/aoe-leagues-season-14 

Arabia Lovers 2: https://discord.gg/uUfVU7QJfu