All the Hidden Advantages of Aging Up (AoE2)

Advancing to the next age unlocks new buildings, units, and technologies, but there's also a surprising amount of other hidden stat changes experienced by specific units and buildings. The scout cavalry's +2 attack in Feudal Age is probably the best known, but this video compiles a list of all of them (that I know of, at least!).

0:44 Scout Cavalry
2:00 Camel Scout
3:05 Eagle Scout
4:30 Infantry
5:00 Serjeant
5:40 Buildings
7:45 Civilization-linked

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Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[hallamhal]

The second SOTL reminded me of tracking, I felt like I aged up several times

[squatlebherz]

Obviously the biggest bonus is buildings looking cooler - although in some cases I find I can prefer the aesthetics of the feudal buildings e.g. slavs

[DancingTherapist]

The only advantage I got aging up was the privilege of paying taxes

[cappantwan]

I always stayed in the Dark Age in all my games, but now you’ve convinced me to age up. Thanks!

[nissantzvitovey]

One additional bonus which seems to have been missed:
In dark age, if you attack a vilager with your scout (not sure about militia), the villager will fight back. Once you hit feudal, the vilagers will simply run away, meaning that yoi have a much better ability to harass enemy vilagers, as your opponent needs to micro them to counter you, and can't just rely on auto retaliate

[Coach_GG]

"Hey guys, Spirit of the Law here." will always be so comfy to listen to at the start of these videos.

[EcclesiastesLiker-pyts]

I feel like one of the biggest weaknesses of this game is how many things are hidden in bonus damage and unexplained effects. You're like Maimonades, but everyone should be able to learn these things in game, maybe in an extra page of info for every unit, even every thing, with all bonuses, hidden stats and the like.

[hansoskar]

House HP used to be static in AoC but that was too good on defense so it got dropped in successive updates. same for melee armor recently. building HP matters less in AoE4 since they dont serve as walls.

[eristaviserbia]

I just age up by watching a Spirit of the Law video the moment it comes out.

[massaosaito]

The little smooth touches of the text being covered by the revealed map are really NOICE! XD

[GBlockbreaker]

ever since i noticed the heroes in AoM getting way better with every age i've been paying attention to this kinda stuff, it's quite interesting what the devs decided was a good bonus

[petertimowreef]

1:30 Didn't villagers used to have daggers? I don't know what kind of sword that villager is using but it definitely doesn't look like something a feudal peasant would carry.

[inductivegrunt]

So scout units gain over all stats alongside LOS, good to know. This alongside the other bonuses to units and buildings are good to know.

I can always count on Spirit for teaching me the hidden secrets and mechanics of AoE2.

[derpyno-scope]

You should make a video about the best militia civilizations, I think it would be interesting to see which bonuses would influence such an early unit enough to make one stand out over the other

[TheAtherion]

Donjons also get much stronger when hitting castle age

[Dorfjunge]

Thank you so much! This is such a concealed and under-explained issue! Thanks for clarifying these things to the non-pros!

[anonnymousperson]

Spirit, have you any idea what controls whether you see a battle icon in the timeline in the post battle results screen? It seems rather random if you get a battle icon or not, and whether it's you or the opponent who gets a battle icon. Why don't you both get a battle icon? Is it controlled by number/percentage of units lost or killed or something else?

[CallofDutyBlackOps]

I really like the Sicilian's, having your Unique unit even as far back as Feudal is really interesting for me, and how going into castle; they teir up to fit their Castle unique unit status before having to elite them in imperial.

[elliotkamper]

You certainty recall the days of Voobly AoC where the game was centered around Arabia and Hun wars. This was, in no small part, influenced by how campy defensive structures made the game. The staggering of building HP is a new addition in reaction to this.

It perhaps was not a design necessity, but making some assumptions here, AoE 1 had very low HP on buildings. AoK might have over compensated, and this is something that was in effect until AoE2 HD. By then, adjusting the balance of building HP with further technologies may have seemed excessive or clunky, so the staggering of HP might have felt the most natural way to address thus. I would agree.

[Kubinda]

Forget TCs or trebs. The most obvious advantage is the star in the statistics at the end of the game 😀