Sybex AoE3 Strategy Guide - Quick Review - Age of Empires III Heaven Forum

Topic Subject: Sybex AoE3 Strategy Guide - Quick Review

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Felix Hermansson
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 04:55 AM EDT (US)

Four words: DO NOT BUY IT

I did, mainly out of curiosity. I wanted to know just how bad it was, and I must say, it really lived up (or down) to my expectations.

In my mind, the only useful part of the book is the campaign walkthrough which takes up about 30 % of the pages. (Though judging from the rest of the book I wouldn't be surprised if it contained a lot of errors too.)

They have unit stats tables in there, but these lack important data like train time, rate of fire or actual broadside damage. Besides, a lot of this information will become completely worthless as soon as the first balance patch is out.

Reading through the guide there are a number of things that are just plain wrong ("food is gathered faster from fish than from whales") or a least highly dubious ("you should never use your factory to produce anything but heavy artillery", or "the best cards are the explorer upgrades"), though of course everything is stated as if it were some kind of eternal truth.

It gets downright ridiculous when you flip through the strategy sections. "Rushing is no feasible option for the Ottomans" is my personal favorite. The specific tips for fighting against the different civilizations run a close second: "The best way to defeat the British is to beat them before they reach the colonial age." "The best way to defeat the French is to beat them before they reach the colonial age." "The best way to defeat the Spanish is to beat them before they reach the colonial age." While it's hard to argue with that, tips like these are completely useless.

If the author states that in a free for all game your goal should be to "wipe two opponents from the map within the first twenty minutes, preferably before they reach colonial", or if he warns you to "expect at least one attack within the first 30 minutes" I can't help wondering if he has ever played this game on anything else but the sandbox level.

The expert strategies in the back may be interesting for newcomers, but you can find much better and more specific information on the web.

As I said: DO NOT BUY IT

Author

Replies:

Major Helper
AoKH Survivor, Mr. White Teeth

posted 01-04-06 05:11 AM EDT (US) 1 / 30

ROFLMAO

is that true ?

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SilentScreams
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 06:41 AM EDT (US) 2 / 30

Quote:

Rushing is no feasible option for the Ottomans

LOL. Nice article, care to list more tips of equal stupidity (as if it were possible...)?

All Hail Giant Squid World Domination

Swiffle
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 08:01 AM EDT (US) 3 / 30

It makes me wonder what kind of people write those crappy strategy guides. Borderline criminal imo. Tell people how to suck at a game, and make them pay to do it. Community articles >>>> corporate garbage

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Retired: Age of Empires 3, Warcraft 3, Guild Wars, Dark Age of Camelot, Age of Empires 2.

Mokon
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 08:27 AM EDT (US) 4 / 30

the guy who wrote it also wrote a guide on flight simulator... enof said

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Ceres629
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 08:28 AM EDT (US) 5 / 30

holy crap that thing seems so hilarious it may be worth it just for a laugh. I wonder who writes these things.

They are even worse than a 5% noob on ESO.

This thread made me laugh.

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arnitald
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 08:42 AM EDT (US) 6 / 30

As a matter of fact, most of the so-called Strategy Guides suck. They're best for bad presents, but NEVER buy one yourself. It is obvious that all the data will become obsolote within 2 months after the release.

That being sad, it's still funny how bad the AOE3 guide has become. I am wondering if ES has ever seen it? Or have their written it 5 years before the release? I don't know but the tips you mentioned are hilarious. Such crap really... It is a theft from people who are new to the game. I mean, playing one game online teaches you more than this whole guide.

SapphirianDragon
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 08:46 AM EDT (US) 7 / 30

That guide might qualify for the "so bad it's actually good" award.

This thread is absolutely hilarious.

Actually, it has been a while since I've actually seen any good "printed" strategy guides. The worst are probably those Bradygames ones, never buy those. GameFAQs is usually enough if I want walkthroughs, and if it's for games like this I just look on the web. Seriously.

"If you use French you are gay, if you use french + native rush and cuir spam you are flaming out of control" --TGE, pre 1.05 patch

SilentScreams
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 09:29 AM EDT (US) 8 / 30

I bought the Collectors edition and it contains a (short) guide with the feasibility of each of these strats: Booming, Rushing and Turtling for each civ, how to do it, with which units etc etc. It also contains a huge amount of historical info btw. Really pretty good info IMO.

All Hail Giant Squid World Domination

achilleas
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 09:41 AM EDT (US) 9 / 30

ROFLMAO.

what a jerk.

TheGoodEvil
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 10:32 AM EDT (US) 10 / 30

The guide also lists Skirmishers as costing wood (which IMO would probably balance them out) which was changed a long time ago lol.

Basically the sybex guide was outdated before the game ever came out...

I think Mokon is working on some kind of bible or something about RTS that may be worth a peek but he can't sell it without being sued harder than bridgestone.

TGE

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arnitald
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 10:38 AM EDT (US) 11 / 30

Then convince him to tell it.

Armagin
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 10:42 AM EDT (US) 12 / 30

I must say that the only guide for games worth buying is sim city for a few reasons:

They don't patch sim city
The stats are all hidden (not in the proto)
There arent other players with brains

Sim city is a good game and all but really who would buy a strategy guide for it?

Almost none of the things above apply to RTS games.

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rippy
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 12:27 PM EDT (US) 13 / 30

Yeah, the only guides I usually trust are the Prima ones.

It's just like guitar tablature books. Sometimes they tell you to hold a chord that includes the 1st and the 16th frets. It's like, wtf, they're more than a foot away from each other, fingers don't bend that way.

"Build a man a fire, and you warm him for a day. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life." -Chinese proverb

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Diceclock
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 12:34 PM EDT (US) 14 / 30

Haha I read that guide too. I stood in a very crowded Best Buy and took an like 20 minutes to give it a good run through.

I was amazed at how ridiculous it was. I'd say it was more like 50% campaign walk-through, I'm sure was wrong but who cares since nobody plays it seriously.

But yeah the strategy section was like "Make some Vils, gather some resources, make some troops, attack your enemy. They seemed to think a 10-15 minute Colonial was crazy fast, and anyone with more than 20 troops in their army was some kind of zerging freak.

I think they put more time into their monikor's than the game. Every strategy civ section was written by a different idiot clan member with names like Chuck "the Iceman" Lebowski.

arnitald
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 01:40 PM EDT (US) 15 / 30

You've probably just missed the stores. It was Worst Buy, not Best Buy

lemuri
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 01:47 PM EDT (US) 16 / 30

Wow that's ridiculous ~ bordering on fraud. Maybe Sybex is selling AOE3ISSP certifications too?

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left" -- B Russell

Swiss Pikeman
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 02:01 PM EDT (US) 17 / 30

I thought the Sybex guide for AOM was actually ok, besides the fact that the unit stat tables were obsolete after the first patch. The author of that book was a veteran RTS player, not a flight-sim junkie.

But yes, NEVER buy Bradygames guides. I once bought one for Zelda: Majora's Mask. Link was called Zelda and Chat about twice each, and half the masks were given the wrong names!

Shizzle
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 02:38 PM EDT (US) 18 / 30

buying guides for online rts games is stupid anyway since all the unitstats are outdated after first patch and you can find everything on the internet. So why spend money on it?

CK the Fat
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 03:49 PM EDT (US) 19 / 30

Forums are probably the best to learn strategy, experts will post their strats and make comments on others'.

Who needs a walkthrough for a campaign?

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raaman
Guest

posted 01-04-06 03:54 PM EDT (US) 20 / 30

Mokon said the guy that wrote that guide also wrote a flight simulator.

;zlskehrt;oaweifalkdjfa;io3

[This message has been edited by raaman (edited 01-04-2006 @ 03:55 PM).]

Philbo1
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 07:23 PM EDT (US) 21 / 30

I am sooo sigging the Ottoman thing.

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Mosasuarus
Skirmisher

posted 01-04-06 11:16 PM EDT (US) 22 / 30

you're telling people to not buy it, on these forums?

`•.¸¸.•´´¯`••._.•ESO2:The_Conq`•.¸¸.•´´¯`••._.•

I need a better sig.

Felix Hermansson
Skirmisher

posted 01-05-06 07:13 AM EDT (US) 23 / 30

Quote:

you're telling people to not buy it, on these forums?

Newcomers might be gratefull for the warning, and for others it might be at least good for a laugh.

EmpofKilling
Skirmisher

posted 01-27-06 03:01 PM EDT (US) 24 / 30

Ottoman ... not .. rush?

._.

ROFL

This is .. Completly stupid

[This message has been edited by EmpofKilling (edited 01-27-2006 @ 03:03 PM).]

Ender_Ward
Skirmisher

posted 01-27-06 04:05 PM EDT (US) 25 / 30

Gotta kill 'em before they reach Colonial!

Everyone ... VILLAGER RUSH!

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