Welcome to the first episode in the Masterpieces series! In this series, I‘ll be telling you the stories of those games, that became part of the AoE II history. There‘s hundreds of famous and less famous storys to be told, but I'd like to start with a game that was recently played in Warlords 4, on the first day of the group stage in the match between Barles and Hera. Barles showcased a brand new strategy with an almost brand new civilization and I was deeply impressed by his performance throughout the whole tournament. I'd also like to thank Barles for providing me with a few insights by answering a couple of my questions.
Please enjoy this episode about a one of a kind tower creep with fire lancers!

The game (with timecode): 
https://www.youtube.com/live/AqWnP86duE8?si=pYXPhLM06UadVWOl&t=563

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

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


[ENG] Masterpieces #01: Fight Fire with Fire

Dear listener, 
in this episode I present to you: The Noboru Rush! This strategy, named after the japanese player Noboru and popularized by T90, has long died out, but is defenitely worthy to remember. That's why I decided to create a podcast highlighting the startegy and trying to identify just why this strategy appealed to so many players. Special thanks to Reto for sharing his experiences!
Please enjoy this episode,
Chris

Daut vs. Liereyy (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBmXDWDo0Ew
Yo vs. Viper (2020): https://youtu.be/zR_WDnr-FaA?si=ioXQbv5qmvWW0JDp

Build Order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=antAHrlZ2f4
Noboru Rush Build Order:
Pop 1: Scout
Pop 2-7: Sheep
Pop 8-9: Wood
Pop 10: Lure Boar
Pop 11-12: Boar
Pop 13-16: Berries
(Lure 2nd boar with vill under TC)
Pop 17-19/20: Food

Click Feudal

Send 8-10 Vills Forward
Send 2 Injured Vills to stone
Send 2 Food villagers to stragglers

Hit Feudal

Build Blacksmith
Research Wheelbarrow
Research Scale Mail Armor
Research Forging

New vills to Food

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Please consider supporting this podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
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[ENG] Noboru Rush

Felix hat kurz seinen Richterhammer (nennt man das so?) weggelegt und das Mikrofon angeschmissen und ein bisschen von seinen ersten Arbeitswochen erzählt. Es stellt sich heraus: Richter haben kein Onboarding. Da wir aber stets am Puls der Zeit leben, sprechen wir auch kurz über den Khitan Nerf. Felix ist allerdings seit er arbeitstätig ist zum Singleplayer Spieler mutiert und hat sich sogar, wenig erfolgreich, an einer Playstation versucht. Das nahmen wir zum Anlass dazu, über unsere Spielgewohnheiten zu sprechen. Leider ist beim Schnitt erst aufgefallen, dass wir uns wie alte Männer anhören. Naja...
 
Viel Spaß beim Hören
Felix & Christian

Unterstütze unser Projekt hier und höre deutsche Versionen aller englischen Podcasts:
steady.page/de/startthegamealready/

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Timecodes:
00:00 Getränke
06:13 Berufseinstieg
18:10 Khitan
24:30 Spielegewohnheiten
42:00 Elo-High
50:00 Sniper Elite
57:30 Fast vergebene Liebesmühe

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

[GER] Tafelrunde #24: Die Angst vor Khitan

Welcome to the next Age of Empires Magazine. This month, I have plenty of topics to discuss with you! We'll start with Age of Empires news with Cartographers II, talk about the eSports calendar and the extensive tournament program for the coming year, then I'll summarize the current balance changes to the Three Kingdoms civilizations, and we'll talk about a custom scenario that the devs created in cooperation with the Louvre. In Franchise News, I'll tell you briefly about a few updates from AoE IV and AoM, as well as the tournament calendar entries for these games. In Game News, I'll tell you about a few strategy and building releases, and two games have particularly caught my eye this month. Then there's the Podcast News with a brief evaluation of the first month with the new program, and I answer questions from emails that were sent to me. Finally, as always, there's the tournament preview for July 2025. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
01:37 News
25:08 Franchise News
30:10 Game News
36:44 Podcast News
44:33 Tournament Outlook July 2025

Links:
Louvre Coop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfytw5SJsiQ
AoM Event: https://www.ageofempires.com/news/age-of-mythology-retold-update-18-21333/
AoC Classic 2025: https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/1kpjgy2/announcing_500_aoc_classic_2025_tournament/
T90 Cup: https://aoe2tournaments.com/event?event=T90%20Community%20Cup
DM League: https://aoe2tournaments.com/event?event=Tarnished%20Death%20Match%3A%20Season%205
Road to Age Lan: https://discord.gg/5hC5faeu4Y
Yodesla: https://www.twitch.tv/yodesla/about
EGCTV: https://www.twitch.tv/egctv?lang=de

[ENG] Magazine Ep. #02 July 2025

T-West joined me for a very interesting talk about his approach to being a content creator, caster and more recently, tournament host. Cartographers 2 was a great success, which is why we'll discuss how slinging impacted the games and some suprising tournament runs, like T90 and Dark in the Silver Bracket. T-West also answers some questions, that have been sent in and offers unique views on Monks, Skirmishers and many more topics, like his Tetris Mod. T-West was a lovely guest and I hope you enjoy this interview!
Chris

Links to T-West:
twitch.tv/TWestAoe
youtube.com/@T-West
IG: @twestaoe
Patreon: www.patreon.com/twest

Podcast:
Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Timecodes:
00:00 Content Creation
15:00 Cartographers 2
22:15 Slinging
29:20 Tournament Highlights
42:20 Fan Questions

Music: www.purple-planet.com

[ENG] Interview: T-West

In this episode of Masterpieces, I'll be telling you the story of how the infamous Flemish Revolution has not only decided the Winner of NAC 4, but then shortly after has been nerfed out of existence. The Flemish Revolution allows the Burgundian player to transform all of his Villagers into powerful military units and change the pace of the game in an instant. I hope you enjoy this Masterpiece by Liereyy!

The game (with timecode):
https://youtu.be/MPSJzH1MLZo?si=TbO8Q20NDE0AdlQ_&t=3522

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

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

[ENG] Masterpieces #02: The Final Revolution

From all of the many civilizations in Age of Empires II, Huns are probably the ones having the greates impact on the game. They have been played for many years in the Hun Wars and coined the term "Huns are Huns". In this podcast, we'll do a deep dive into what actually makes huns the huns we know and, spoiler, have always known. There is a lot of nostalgia involved for some players and others may find the huns a little lackluster for good reason. Also: why don't they have stepplancers? There's a lot to uncover when talking about the Huns and I hope you'll enjoy this episode!

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Timecodes:
00:00 Overview
06:15 House Bonus
17:50 Team Bonus and Cav Archers
25:41 Trebuchets
31:10 Tarkan, Marauders & Atheism
40:52 Strategies and army compositions
56:13 Huns are Huns
01:11:21 Campaign: Attila the Hun

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

[ENG] Civilizations #02: Huns

This is the kickoff episode of the Montezuma Campaign in Age of Empires II. I played all six missions of the campaign and delved deep into historical research, and I would like to share the results with you in this short campaign series. The Aztec campaign was released with the release of The Conqueror add-on in 2000 and tells the story of the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan and the fall of the Aztec Empire during the reign of Montezuma II in the beginning of the 16th century. This first mission has no real historical background but offers insights in how the Addon had been promoted before it was released. There's a lot to uncover and I hope you'll enjoy this series!
Chris

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Music: Aztecs Intro Music of the official AoE II Soundtrack

[ENG] Campaign: Montezuma #1 Reign of Blood

In Episode 4 of the Montezuma Campaign, it is our duty to retake Tenochtitlan from the Spanish forces under Hernan Cortez, who hast taken emperor Montezuma II as a hostage and uses him as a puppet to control the city of Tenochtitlan. This beautiful city was built on an artificial island on the west side of lake Texcoco and showcases this early campaign in all it's beauty. We'll first have to gather our forces, we get to kill an enemy priest with jaguars and there's also an easter egg involiving Ornlu the Wolf to discover, but first and foremost we need to drive out the Spanish from our beloved home. I hope you're enjoying this series!
Chris

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steady.page/startthegamealready

Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Music: Aztecs Intro Music of the official AoE II Soundtrack

[ENG] Campaign: Montezuma #4 La Noche Triste

The Hun Wars were played between 2000 and approximately 2016 and are by far the most frequently played matchup in Age of Empires II history – to this day. In this documentary, I attempt to recount how the Hun Wars came about, how they changed over the decades, and what led to the end of the Hun Wars just under 10 years ago. To do this, I brought two veterans of the game, Andre (Slap) and Chris (IamChris), in front of the microphone, who told me in detail about the good old days of the Hun Wars. It quickly became clear that my image of these mirror matches was far too one-dimensional. I hope you enjoy this nostalgic trip into the past of Age of Empires II eSports.

Support the Podcast on:
Patreon: patreon.com/startthegamealready
Steady (german): steadyhq.com/startthegamealready/

Podcast:
Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de
Discord: discord.com/invite/SYp9dCXYsK

Koven-Interview: https://members.tripod.com/legionx_black/cerpioclan/id42.html

External audio sources used in this episode:
SMB about Hera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKSN41zJ40
T90 about Hoang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhZ5hwHhgc
Nili (Outro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mKCyF7eIgQ&t=12s



[ENG] Hun Wars

Weekly Podcast about all things Age of Empires II: eSport, History, Campaigns, Strategy Talk, Civilizations and much more! This feed contains mainly English epidoses with the occasional german episode inbetween. For a clear english feed, please visit my Patreon or listen to the show on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jjwFU76puJ8tCCvdV99N5?si=ed392146557c4982

German versions of all english episodes are available for Patreons and supportes on Steady. 
Homepage: www.startthegamealready.de

New tracks tagged #aoe2