Empire Icons

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Empire Screen and Icons

• Crown Count: number of crowns earned in both Attacking and Defensive Battles.
• Battle Shield: indicates whether the player has battled yet this league season as well as which league level the player is placed in.  If the player has yet to battle the shield is grey with a question mark.  If the player has battled, the shield will indicate the league level that the player is placed in.  A graphic of the various shields can be found by selecting the information button on the Leagues tab of the Leaderboards. 
• Xbox icon: This green icon is displayed when a player uses Xbox to access the game.  If the player has the Xbox icon and you use Xbox as well, you can private message each other through Xbox.  (Player security settings may prevent messaging)
• Gamertag: unique name used to refer to the player. 
• Purchase icon: Clicking the Purchase icon will open up the Purchasing screen.  Here you will be able to either buy additional Gold with real money, or purchase resources with the Gold earned in game.
• Settings: You may personalize the settings of the game; Options, Notifications, Languages, etc..
• Market: Clicking the Market button will open up the Market and allow you to purchase various building with the resources earned in game..
• Social Button: Clicking the Social button will allow you to access, the Alliances, Achievements, Leaderboards and News screens.
• Troop Training Button: Clicking the troop training button allows you to train troops and select available heros.
• Battle Button: Selecting Battle allows you to train troops or select heroes for battle; Find Battle, go into the Match Maker (MM) and choose an Empire to battle against; Training Scenarios, earn gold and review various techniques with simulated teaching battles; Historical Challenges, earn resources by fighting campaigns that range in various levels of difficulty.
• Battle Logs: review your defensive battles as well as your attacks.  In the defensive battle log, if the battle is the first round of attack, you have the option to revenge attack.  If you have been revenged by a play you had previously attacked, you will not be allowed to re-attack.  Both Defensive and Attack battles can be posted to your alliance's chat tab as a replay.
• Battle Chests: opens the Battle Chests screen which displays chests representing additional bonuses for doing well in battle. 

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FAQs

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FAQs

Attack

• Where do I find out who has attacked my empire?
• Both Defensive and Attack battle logs are available.  On the Empire screen there is an icon that looks like a note pad above the Battle button.  Click this icon and the logs will open set to the Defense Log.  Click the Tab at the top of the page  to select the Attack log.
• How do I revenge someone who has attacked me?
• Go to your Battle Logs and look at your defense logs.  On the defense logs, you will see a fist icon.  If the fist is gold and the icon is not greyed out,  then you may revenge this player.  When you are ready, i.e. you've reviewed the player's empire layout as well as have your troops and Heroes selected, click the fist icon to initiate the revenge attack.  If the player is online or under a Peace Treaty, you will not be allowed to revenge at that time.  Come back later.  You are only allowed to revenge the last 5 players who have attacked you.  If the fist is gold, but the icon is greyed out,then this player is no longer available to revenge.  If the Fist is red,,this attack was a revenge attack and you are not allowed to revenge a player who has revenged you. 
• The empire I was attacking was worth 3 crowns and I won.  Why did I only get 1 crown?
• The Crowns offered are the total crowns you can win if you destroy the entire empire 100%.  If you do not destroy the entire empire, you get a percentage based on the Stars you win.  1 Star is 33% of the offered crowns, 2 Stars is 66%, and 3 Stars is 100%.
• How do I earn stars?
• Destroying the opponents Keep or 50% of their empire will earn a 1 star win; Destroying 50% of their empire, including the Keep is a 2 star win; Destroying 100% of their empire is a three star win.
• How do I earn keys?
• You can earn a maximum of 2 keys per battle.  The first key is earned by destroying 20% of the empire and the 2nd key is earned at 60% destruction.  Earning a key is not considered a win.
• I destroyed 80% of my opponents empire, however I only earned one key.
• If you only have one chest remaining to open, you will only earn one key in battle no matter how much of their empire you destroy. 

Battle Chests

• I earned an exclusive honor item from my Battle Chest, however I cannot find it in my Empire anywhere.  How do I collect it?
• Select the Market Button, then Honor.  Scroll to the left until you get to Battle Chest Items.  Select Battle Chest Items and look there for an Owned item.  If you do not see any owned items, scroll through the regular Honor items and see if you have any there that are owned.  If so, select it and it will be build on your empire map.  Also, you are only allowed to own so many of each item.  If you have already met your limit you will not get the item.
• I have earned keys in battle, should I open the chests now, or wait until later.
• Depends on how much time is left on the Battle Chest timer and how full your resources are.  If you resource storage is full, or you think you will be attacked soon and you have plenty of time left on the Battle Chest Timer, then holding the keys until you have resources storage room is not a bad idea.  However, remember the keys as well as the Chests will reset when the timer counts down.  If you do not use the keys with the time period allotted, they will disappear.
• I only had Bronze level Chests remaining yesterday, so I kept my keys and did not open any chests, since I might get higher level chests today.  Now I cannot find my keys.  Where are they?
• The keys reset at the same time the chests reset.  Once the timer counts down, you lose any unused keys as well as any unopened chests.

Relief Troop Forces

• How do I get Relief Troop Forces?
• To get Relief Troop Forces, you need to build a Watch Signal.  The Watch Signal is in the Market, under Fortifications and costs 6,000 Wood and takes 15 hours to build.
• How do I know if I have relief forces available to me?
• Select your watch signal and click the Relief Force button.  It will display the relief forces you have.  You can also go to the Member List and select the information icon for your gamer tag and it will display the Relief Forces you have.  While there you can see who else needs relief forces.
• I have a Watch Signal and it is filled with Relief Troop Forces, but they never come to my aid.  I see where they were filled, but I have been attacked several times.
• Is your Watch signal well protected?  Once the Watch Signal calls for troops, if it is destroyed before they come, they will not arrive.  Protect it well, so like your Guard houses, when your relief troops are destroyed,  it can continue to call more troops as long as it is not destroyed and you have more reserves ready to come.
• Someone told me that if you have Relief Troop Forces my Watch Signal has a flame.
• This is not currently true.  I have seen my watch signal burning even when I do not have any Relief Forces to come to my aid.  Also do not depend on this when selecting an empire to attack.  I have attacked empire's with extinguished watch signals and had relief troops arrive.
• Why should I send Relief Troop Forces, isn't that the job of the Emperor and Lords?
• Sending Relief Troop Forces is the responsibility of all alliance members.  Neither the Emperor nor the Lords get any additional resources or bonuses for sponsoring an alliance.  They only have additional responsibilities.
• My Emperor wants me to send mounted troops as Relief Troop Forces but they are more expensive than sending foot troops.
• Actually per slot, Mounted Troops are cheaper than Foot Troops.  They are also faster, so they can get to the battle sooner to inflict the most damage and they are stronger and survive longer. 
• How do I know who has sent me relief forces?
• Select the Communication Center and then the Notifications tab.  This will list the recent players who have sent troops and who they have sent troops to as well as what kind of troops were sent.  It is always a good idea to send troops to the players your age who have sent troops to you.  However, make sure they are not at a higher age or cavalry level.  If their troops are stronger than yours, and there are plenty of players at their age level, send to a lower age player and let a similarly developed player replenish their relief troops. 
• Why would anyone send Raiders of Muscovy as Relief Troop Forces?  They are for raiding resources.
• Raiders of Muscovy target Trebuchets and burn them fairly quickly.  They are not very helpful to lower age players who are not faced with Trebuchets, but in the higher ages, they are very useful.

Earning Additional Gold

• Catching Spies
• There are Spies patrolling your empire.  Look for a single troop patrolling your empire, not the usual pair of troops walking together.  Click on it and it will disappear awarding you gold coins.  The amount of gold received per spy is determined by the age of your empire.  It is common to find more than one spy in your empire at one time.  However finding three spies is extremely rare. 
• Connecting Roads for Daily Gold
• You earn three pieces of gold daily for each road you have connected.  To ensure that your roads are connected, make sure that they look like bricks, not a solid line.  Connect to the castle at a road placement as well as the edge of the map at one of the four lighted entry points and that any walls that cross the road are converted to a Gate.  To convert a wall piece to a Gate, select the wall and choose convert to gate.  This is only available when a wall piece connects two pieces of road.

General

• What does the shield in the upper left corner represent?
• This is the Battle Shield.  It indicates whether the player has battled yet this league season as well as which league the player is placed in.  If the player has yet to battle the shield is grey with a question mark.  If the player has battled than the shield will indicate the league that the player is placed in.  A graphic of the various shields can be found by selecting the information button on the Leagues tab of the Leaderboards. 
• I came across an empire layout where all the resources and other buildings were protected by walls and towers, but the Keep was just in the middle of the field, no protection.  Why would anyone do that?
• This is called a Tribute Layout.  The intention is that attackers will  "respect the tribute", destroy the keep only with a few units and leave the resources untouched.  Players use this when they need to collect resources for a big upgrade.  They get attacked often and lose crowns, but they can make up the resources lose with production and the occasional battle.
• When should I age my Keep up to the next level? 
• You should complete all Economic and Military upgrades and a significant portion of your Fortification upgrades before aging up.  This ensures that you will be strong enough and have enough resources to compete with the players that will be attacking you. 
• I am attacked by players who have 2 heroes.  I only have 1 open hero slot.  How do I open the other hero slot?
• Hero Slots increase can be researched with a level 4 University and costs 60,000 Stone, no pennants.

Alliance

• Can I trade food, wood, stone and pennants, with members of my alliance? 
•  No, you cannot send resources to members of your alliance.  You only trade Relief Troop Forces with members of your alliance.
• What is the point of an alliance if you cannot trade within the alliance?
• An alliance has several benefits; Trading Relief Troop Forces, Building Wonders, Alliance Leagues as well as a place to share information and ideas.
• When I look at the alliance member list sorted by Crowns, some of the crowns are a dark grey and others are white.  Why are there two different colors?
• The crown numbers of players in the alliance when the season started are white.  Any player who joined after the alliance had been locked for the league season, the numbers are grey and are not included in the crowns used for the leagues.  If the alliance wins one of the top three slots in the alliance league, the players with grey crown numbers will not get gold.
• I accidentally left my alliance and I do not know how to find it to rejoin.  What do I do?
• Go to the Alliance List topic on this blog.  Search for your original alliance.  If you cannot find it.  Join any of the listed alliances by searching by emperor name.  Post a chat to the emperor asking for help to find your original alliance. 
• I want to be an Emperor of my own alliance, is this possible?
• Yes, we encourage players  to become emperors.  We recommend that you post a chat to your current emperor and ask to become an emperor.  You will be directed to an alliance where the emperor will help you understand the responsibilities of being an emperor as well as understand some of the issues you will face as an emperor.

Pennants

• What use are pennants and how do I acquire them?
• Pennants are generated in your research buildings, religious and educational.  They are stored in the Keep as well as the research buildings.  They are used to acquire Heroes at the Hall of Heroes and Special Civilization Units at the Special Units building as well as to do research at the research buildings.  You can only generate Pennants of your civilization.  When attacking, you will acquire the pennants of the civilization being attacked by damaging the research buildings and the Keep.  You may also acquire pennants from Battle Chests. 

Wonders

• Why are my battles not counting towards my alliance's Wonder?  I destroyed 6 Archer towers in battle and my Emperor says the task count did not change.
• Do you have an embassy?  Only players with an Embassy can contribute to wonders either passively or actively.
• I have an Embassy, but I cannot activate Poison the well even though my alliance has fully researched it and I have the monument.
• You must have a level 2 Embassy to access level 2 wonders.  You do not need a level 2 Embassy to contribute to level 2 wonders.  The Emperor needs a level 2 Embassy to upgrade a level 1 Wonder or to research a level 2 boost.

Xbox

• How do I change my GamerTag/Player Name?
• To change it, either go to Xbox.com>profile>change gamertag, or in-game go to Social>Alliances>Friends> There is a green arrow at top of page to go to XboxLive>login with the same MS email as your game acct>profile>change gamertag. The first gamertag change is free of charge, so make sure the new tag is exactly what you want before hitting 'accept'. This information is from Scythian Fury in the AOE Forums.  See the whole post here.

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Attack Tips

Attack Tips

Where should I drop my troops to receive less damage?

• Deploy your troops as close to the defensive building as possible.  The attackers below are being shot as they approach the tower.  Had they been dropped at the red X, they would have received less damage.

Why can't I drop my troops close to the keep?

• Building have a line of sight.  The line of sight is indicated by the white or yellow outline around the buildings.  Troops can only be dropped outside of the outline.

Building Value Hierarchy

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Building Value Hierarchy, % win

Buildings will have different percentage values, based on the number of building that have been built in a particular empire.  However, some buildings are worth more than others and taking out higher value buildings gets you closer to a 50% win.  The buildings below are listed from most valuable to least valuable. 

• Keep - 1 star win if destroyed completely

• Storage buildings (Storehouses, Silos and Lumberyards)

• Production buildings (Quarries, Farms and Mills)

• Research buildings (Universities, Cathedrals and Embassy)

• Military Buildings (Archery, Barracks, Stable, Siege Workshop, Hall of Heroes, and special troops building)

• Guardhouse

• Fortifications (Towers, Trebuchets, Catapults)

• Watch Signal

*Army Camps are not attackable.  They have no value and should be kept outside the walls and as close to the edge as possible, because they do leave a footprint.  Alerting the attacking force of a safe zone to spawn.

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Visiting Other Players

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Visiting Other Players

Players can visit other player's empires whether the player is in your alliance or not.

Visiting players within your alliance:

• use the Alliance Member List. 
• From the Alliance Member List, you can either right click on a player and select visit or use the information icon and then select the castle icon on the information page.

Visiting players who are not in your alliance: You must know the exact player name.  You cannot do wild card searches or search partial names. 

• Use the Alliance Member List. 
• At the top of the page select the Search Tab.
• The search function will default to "Find Alliance" use the left or right scroll arrows to scroll to "Player Name".
• Input the Player Name you wish to visit in the input box and then select the Search icon.
• If the Player Name is spelled exactly right the player will display.
• Right click on the player name and select visit. 

Visiting players in the top 200 list:

• Use the Social (iii) button
• Click the Leaderboards button
• Choose the Top Player tab in the top right of the screen
• The Top 200 Players will be displayed
• Right click on a player and choose visit.

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Moving Between Alliances

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Moving Between Alliances

To move players between alliances we use a Kick\Invite method.  The emperor from your current alliance will kick you out of the alliance and the emperor from your new alliance will send you an invite.

We cannot invite you to your new alliance until you have been kicked out of your current alliance.  Once kicked out, you will know your new emperor has sent the invite when the Chat Tab in the middle left of the main screen starts glowing yellow.  Select the chat tab and the invite will appear.  Select the JOIN button. 

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Alliance Member List

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Accessing the Alliance Member List

From the Social Button

• Click on the social button located in the lower right corner of the screen.
• Then click the alliances button
• Once clicked, the Alliance Member List will activate.
  

From the Communication Console

• Open the Communication Console by clicking the Arrow shaped icon located in the middle of the far left side of the Empire main screen.
• Click the Shield icon in the upper right corner of the Communication Console
• Once clicked the Alliance Member List will activate.

Alliance Member List

Alliance elements

Alliance Shield: Upper Left Corner
League Membership Shield: beside the Alliance Shield indicates League placement
Alliance Name
Location: Main Country of Origin\Language for alliance members
Members: Number of members
Crown Ranking: Only includes Crowns for the current League Season, new players are not included
Crowns: number of crowns needed to join the alliance without an invite.  If you are invited, crowns do not matter.
Type: There are three types of alliances; Anyone can join: entry is only restricted by Crowns; Request to join: Players send a request and the emperor or a lord will grant or deny entry.  crowns will restrict who can request; and Invite Only: Only players who have an active invitation may join the alliance.
Leave button: Selecting the Leave button will remove you from your current alliance.  You will lose any relief forces that were sent to you by your alliance mates.  Any active Wonders will remain active for the remaining duration.  If you rejoin this or any alliance you will need to wait 3 days before you can boost any available wonders. Your crowns will also be removed from the alliance's crown total for the current league season.  Your crowns will not count toward your next alliance's league total.
Alliance Information: Basic greeting, alliance rules and information
Information Button: Toggles the Alliance Information area between alliance greeting and alliance statistics.
Alliance member list sort criteria: Crowns, Time in Alliance, Last Log in, Troop Donations, Total Battles, Win Ratio, and Total Stars; use the yellow arrows to the left and right to scroll through selections.

Alliance Member elements

Sort Criteria: Criteria selected above in descending order
Player Civilization
Player Age
Player League Shield
Player Gamertag and Rank
information icon
helmet icon

information icon: Activates the Player Information Screen and displays all available information about a player on a single page as well as allows scrolling between players.

• Player Gamertag w/ left and right Scroll arrows to scroll between players
• castle icon allows you to visit the player's empire
• Empire League Shield
• Player Civilization
• Player Age
• Time in Alliance
• Last Log in: (If available)
• Crowns
• Troop Donations
• Total Battles
• Win Ratio
• Total Stars
• Relief Forces Pictured*
• Relief Forces Capacity
• helmet icon**: Clicking the helmet icon opens the Relief Force Troop Donation dialogue box.

* Note: As you scroll through the players, the Relief Force pictures from the first player are always displayed, for the number of slots filled for each player.  You may see 4 slots for the second player displaying 4 Cavalry, when you scroll.  However if you selected the 4 slot player, you would see Foot Troops.

** If you sort by any other criteria than Crowns, and use the Helmet icon on the information page, once you are done contributing troops, when you come back to the player list, it has defaulted back to being sorted by crowns.

helmet icon: Clicking the helmet icon opens the Relief Force Troop Donation dialogue box.

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