How can we assign handicaps in our Age of Empires 2 HD games?

Unlike later games in the "Age of" series, Age of Empires 2 HD Edition has no handicap system. This means that if a group of my friends want to play against each other, the game just turns into a bunch of skilled players stomping over the less skilled players, which isn't fun for anyone.

Whilst we can team up vs the AI, we'd like the option to do a versus game from time to time. What handicaps might we be able to hand out to keep the game interesting?

It'd be nice if there was a clear way to adjust a given handicap's intensity - forcing skilled players to play a particularly difficult strategy is good, but it's hard for us to apply that handicap partially if the skill difference is small. Bonus points if there's a clear way to compute that intensity.

To my knowledge the only 'handicap' you could set up for the better players is to create your own custom map and assign player location carefully. Less skilled players could have more resources nearby for example, or are surrounded by forest (but with the resources within of course). Of course, all the players would need to agree to your set up and respect the location you choose for them. This could be more entertaining for the stronger players as well, because the challenge is bigger now.

Some things to consider for the stronger players:

• More dangerous wild animals (wolfs, jaguars, etc...) and closer to the town center. This makes it risky for villagers to go too far from the town center and explore.
• Scarce resources (or even shared resources in between camps, to have them fight over it)
• no/less relics (you can even make them hard to find, like inside forests)
• disable specific buildings/research/units in the custom map (I'm not sure this still works with AOE II HD for custom maps which are then used for multiplayer)

Some things to consider for the weaker players:

• Longer peace treaty
• Enclosed area where the the stronger players can't reach them
• More starting villagers
• Starts with a small army
• No dangerous wild animals, instead supply more deer or turkeys.
• More resources and closer by
• Relics (be careful! Too many relics can seriously break the economy of your map, 2 per weak player should be enough.)
• Start with a castle next to the town center
• Start out with resource buildings next to resources (mining camp/mill)
• Lock teams when setting up the game

If you create a custom map and use it for a multiplayer game, make sure you do NOT toggle the 'All techs'. This will reset player specific settings, like disabled units.

Note that settings starting resources in the custom map won't work for multiplayer games because this will be overwritten when selecting the resources (low, medium, high).

At LAN parties I would prepare a custom map in advance and use this setup for new people. Other times I would create a custom map where we would challenge ourselves with a very powerful AI, where the AI would start with an army of 2000 (buffed) units. Teaming up against such a strong enemy could be fun with people from different skill levels, as you need to assign roles to make a strategy work properly. Usually if a skilled player thought he could go solo against the AI, he would lose, requiring a team.

Another more advanced options is to make use of triggers. In a custom map, triggers allow you to do various actions on the map or to players based on an event. For example, if a player1 comes into a certain area, you can grant player2 1000 gold. You can even place units or increase their attack and HP. In a custom map the world is yours :). Some ideas I put the practice in the past:

• A strong player crosses a certain border (think of the only bridge to cross deep water). This would grant the weaker players 2500 of each resource.
• A strong player comes into view of the town center, boost the town centers health to 20000.
• A strong player comes into view of a 'sacred monastery', kill all units in a certain area.
• A strong player comes into territory of another strong player and they become enemies (make sure to lock teams, triggers can still override this in-game)

To give it more flavour, you can have the 'world' (gaia) send out messages to all players from time to time, to warn them for certain dangers. Now the stronger players are warned and would have to think twice if their strategy would actually still work.

One idea for handicaps could be as simple as having one or more honor system rules such as:

• Expert cannot touch their game for the first 5, 10, or 15 minutes
  • During this time noobs cannot rush the expert nor are they allowed to amass an army which could walk across the map as soon as the time is up and wipe out the expert unfairly
• Expert not allowed to advance past a certain age such as Feudal
• Expert can only make use of army units x, y, and z
• Expert cannot use siege units
• Expert not allowed to build defensive walls or towers
• Expert not allowed to attack noob towers which are x number of grids apart from the next closest tower
• Expert not allowed to attack from a higher ground position

The list can go on and on so just think of random things which would make it both easier for the noob and will keep things interesting for the expert.

What I’ve done a few times is teaming the weak player with one or more AIs.

Combining the number of AIs and the difficulty, you have ways of balancing just how much of a handicap you intend to give.

In a diplo game, there tends to be a natural balancing, as players will gang up on stronger players. If you're creating a custom game, there's a wide variety of handicaps you can give, such as resources, terrain, and events. In a team game, you can try to balance the teams. In a one-on-one game, you can add AI players. For a small skill difference, the weaker player can get a weak AI teammates. For larger differences, a stronger one or several weak ones. Small skill differences can also be handicapped by choice of civilization. You can give the stronger player a civilization that's weaker in general, or one weak against the one the weaker player has, or one that is a poor fit for the map (for instance, a civilization with a weak navy on a water map). You can also look at asymmetrical game types. For instance, it's probably easier to play as the defensive player on Defend the Wonder. You can also have handicaps not handled within the game, such as the stronger player idling for the first x minutes, agreeing not to use certain units or get certain upgrades, having a time limit and resigning if they don't win within it, etc.

Keep in mind, though, that the larger the handicap, the harder it is to keep the game balanced and fun. For instance, the original AI on the hardest level started with a bunch of resources, which eliminated early rushes as a valid strategy. The more of a handicap there is, the more the stronger player is going to be pushed into "How do I play around the handicap" and "How do I exploit the other player's weakness" rather than "How do I play an optimal AoE game". Going back to the Hardest AI example, one of the ways to play against it was to get a choke point and draw them into throwing a bunch of units away until their initial stockpile was used up, and then come in and kill them. This made the game very different from "normal" AoE, and if, you don't like that play style, less fun.