How to Win in Wonder Race in Age of Empires 2

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Last Updated: October 12, 2016

In Age of Empires II, Wonder Race is a mode where the first person to complete a wonder wins the game. In this mode, everyone is your ally (and you cannot change that), so you can neglect your military completely. To win in this mode, your economy is key. And to have a good economy, you need to create villagers.

A wonder costs 1000 wood, gold, and stone (but not 1000 food). Also, a wonder can only be built in the Imperial Age. This article assumes no civilization bonuses, advantages, or disadvantages with regards to their economies.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

General Advice

Not only should you be doing this during a conquest match, it is especially important that you do it in this mode, because the villagers are going to make up your entire population (with the exception of the scout cavalry). If at any moment that your town center(s) aren't creating villagers, you are not playing the game right.
2
Learn how to develop your economy in a normal match. This is crucial in order to win. Conquest (normal) is generally the easiest and the most common mode to play. The ability to beat a hard computer 1 vs 1 will greatly improve your chances of winning in Wonder Race.
- You should follow the steps in that article for the Dark Age and the Feudal Age. Thus, this article will pick up with the Castle Age.
- During the Feudal Age, you should build a blacksmith and a market. However, since a blacksmith only has military upgrades, you shouldn't bother with it after you have built it.
- Additionally, you should use your market to trade resources. Do recognize limits, as trading too much is not wise.
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It is this time that you should be searching for your various food sources, most importantly sheep and boars. However, since scouting is primarily used to know where and what your enemy has, you may disregard your scout during the Castle Age. You should still assign a hotkey to it, e.g. Ctrl-1, for later use (see step 2 of the below section).

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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Castle Age

1
Build a Town Center next to at least two different resources. Wood and gold are ideal - if you are lucky, you can build a Town Center next to both a gold and a stone mine, as well as a forest. All of these will be vital for the wonder.
- Watch for the terrain. A Town Center is one of those buildings that require flat land for the plot of land it takes up, and many land maps just simply don't have flat terrain all the time. In fact, you will find that the terrain pops up in otherwise ideal places to put your Town Center.
- Additionally, don't waste too much time searching for a place to put your Town Center. If you can only put it near a forest, or a gold mine, that's okay, as long as it is near at least one resource. The main point of the Town Center is to create more villagers at a faster pace. Placing it near resources just makes it more efficient for the villagers that deposit their resources at the Town Center.
- Once your second Town Center has been built, build more Town Centers during the Castle Age - at least one more. Remember: you should always, always be creating more villagers! But also realize that it is not always wise to deplete all your food into villager creation. As long as a few villagers are in the queue, you are fine.
Houses are needed to support your villager population. If at any time you have reached your temporary population limit, you can kill your scout cavalry to make room for one more villager. This also allows more time for your villagers (preferably lumberjacks, never farmers) to build a few more houses. This is a one-time use.
3
Research Heavy Plow, Bow Saw, Gold Mining, and Stone Mining, in that order. The technologies are found at the Mill, Lumber Camp, and Mining Camp, respectively. Heavy Plow makes your farms last longer. Bow Saw increases the lumberjacks' efficiency in cutting wood, and eases the reseeding queue a bit.
- If you have the resources and at least two mining camps, you can research Gold and Stone Mining at the same time. Gold and Stone Shaft Mining will be available to you in the Castle Age. Don't research them yet; allocate your resources elsewhere. When you have a lot of resources, you should research Gold Shaft Mining, and then Stone Shaft Mining.
- Also research Wheelbarrow in your first Town Center, if you have the resources. This is optional for now, but you should have it researched by the time you research Imperial Age. Handcart will be available after researching - do not research it yet.
4
Continue to develop your civilization.
- Again, military should be left out of the game. Any military buildings (except the blacksmith) or units created are resources wasted that could have been better used to improve your economy.
- Build more farms around your other Town Centers. Also build farms around your mill (unlike other modes, this is recommended as the villagers are safe). Have your villagers chop wood near your new Town Centers. Allocate villagers to mine gold and stone (gold especially, as you need 800 gold for the Imperial Age).
- Building more and more farms is extremely important, but it is for your benefit to reseed in the mill to avoid having to manually reseed farms.
5
Build the required buildings for the Imperial Age.
- In conquest mode, wood becomes less and less important as the game goes on, due to the increasingly important gold, as well as food. This is not the case in wonder race.
- Since there is no military in this mode, do not build a castle! The stone should be saved and used for the wonder. Instead, build a university and monastery, the cheapest (375 wood total) way to satisfy the building requirements. None of the buildings have to be placed anywhere strategic, as long as it doesn't hinder your resource harnessing.
- None of the upgrades in the university is helpful, so don't research anything there.
- Do not create monks either. Monks cost gold, which is crucial for the 800 gold for the Imperial Age and the 1000 gold for the wonder. Monks can pick up relics, but relics are a slow-steady way of collecting gold. The cost of the monks (100 gold each), coupled with their slow walking speed, makes it not worth the investment.
6
Around 22-25 minutes (your goal), you should have 1000 food, 800 gold, and the two Castle Age buildings. Research the Imperial Age using your first Town Center (as the land will have already been developed).
- Brute forcing is discouraged. This is due to the idea of (at least nearly) having the required resources to build the wonder once you reach the Imperial Age. If you trade resources just to get the required resources for the Imperial Age research, then you will fall behind. The idea is similar to the Feudal Age. Just as you want a quick Feudal Age, you will want as short time as possible between hitting Imperial Age and starting to build your wonder.
- During Imperial Age research, research Handcart. Allocate some villagers (that are still being created in your town centers) to gold, as well as stone.
- Important: Around 30 seconds after reaching the Imperial Age, you should have 1000 of wood, gold and stone to build the wonder. It's okay if you have to wait longer, it takes practice.
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Imperial Age

Your villager population should be exceeding 80, ideally reaching 100. Roughly 30 should be on gold, 25 on wood, 20 on stone, and 25 on food. As food isn't one of the requirements for the wonder, you can create as many villagers as you would like to (not that many of them are going to be particularly useful).
2
Don't upgrade. Since the objective one you get into the Imperial Age is to get 1000 of wood, gold, and stone, upgrading of any kind is discouraged.
- The point of upgrading is to provide a long-term advantage for your villagers. The villagers work more efficiently, but it does not easily provide a short-term solution to any resource shortage. Because the wonder needs to be built as soon as possible, as the game goes on, upgrading becomes less and less effective.
3
Build the wonder! Have as many of your villagers build the wonder. There is enough space so that about 40-50 villagers are able to build it simultaneously. If a bunch of villagers are just standing there, unable to find space where there is some, select them and click next to the place where there still is space. Your other villagers can do whatever they would like to. Double click any villager in the middle of your city to select the most villagers at once.
- There is nothing else to do other than wait for your villagers to complete the wonder and to hope that you build it first (in a close race)!
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Tips

If you want an easier win, play as the Byzantines. Their Imperial Age requirement is cut by 1/3rd (667 food and 533 gold are the resource requirements for them to advance to the Imperial Age). However, the buildings requirement still exists.

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If you lack a particular resource (you will find that you will be short of wood very, very frequently in the Feudal and Castle ages), allocate more villagers to that particular resource. However, don't overdo it. It takes practice and, most importantly, experience, to balance this allocation.

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Do not ever delete your scout in non wonder race games. It can provide information on the other team's composition and areas that should be raided.

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