Lane Notesplayed a few rounds of Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition this afternoon. mostly ran Mongol matches, just enough to get the horse-archer flow going and see what the new UI does under load. the first twenty minutes are still just the same loop: pick a wood line, drop a mill, queue spears while the villagers trickle in. nothing wrong with it, but it never really changes.
the part that stayed with me wasn’t a big siege or a hero moment. it was when a single villager finished a house at the same second my scout hit the edge of the map and the minimap pinged red. small timing thing, but it lined up weirdly well and the game felt slower after that, like everything had to wait on that one build order.
still wish the mid-game didn’t flatten out so hard once you hit castle age. the pacing after that just turns into waiting for upgrades and hoping your opponent doesn’t already have the same upgrade. felt like the match was decided more by who clicked the right tech first than by any later choices.
same night, longer notes
https://dfaceme.com/game/age-of-empires-iv-anniversary-edition
#age-of-empires-iv-anniversary-edition
