Age of Mythology vs AoE2: 20 Major Differences (for beginners) 

God please let this be the beginning of Spirit of the Law posting Age of Mythology videos

You forgot to mention how hard the music slaps

The thing I like most about Age of Mythology is how different each Civ plays. It would have been nice to add at the end how different the civs are, but I get why you didn't. Economically, each civ plays differently. Greeks are your typical RTS, not favoring one resource over the others, and economically pretty balanced. They gain favor at the temple. Egyptians are heavily gold focused, with some buildings costing gold instead of wood. Farms are an example of this. They gain favor by building monuments that generate favor passively (up to 4) Norse have 3 economic units, regular villager that isn't as good at mining, dwarves that are fantastic at mining but bad at everything else, and their drop off points are mobile. They gain favor through battle, making them a more aggressive pantheon. If you actually go into depth with Age of Mythology, you could breathe some more life into this game. It's one of my favorites along with AoE 2 and Rise of Nations.

What can we say exept Prostagma

Age of mythology has the best campaign ever in an rts. The missions feel so creative, and not a single one is a straight up “defeat all your enemies”. The closest you get is “fight your way to the X” or destroy all military buildings but you never need to destroy all enemies to win. And there’s plenty of humour as well and a good epic story that references the myths

Unless Retold ditches it, it is worth noting there's an elaborate in-game help function available if you click on a unit's icon. Beyond flavor text and any historical/mythological basis, it shows most of their stats, tells you what bonus damage they might inflict, and keeps track of what upgrades that player currently has for them - sometimes even showing the exact numeric increases. There's also a few cheeky ones if you go through the campaign.

Still one of the coolest features in age of mythology is that your troops appearance changes based on all the upgrades from the armory and recruitment building.

7:20 I'm actually a fan of the settlement system. The limit on housing forces you to go for more settlements. The settlements being limited themselves provides a clear focus for map control. The settlements become natural locations for battles and fortifications, with whoever playing the settlement game better having a clear advantage. Other areas of the map are still valuable though, particularly gold mines and trade caravans. So flanking and raids are still very important. I do think the housing limit could be raised. Maybe to 150 or so. I think the previous limit was because of the hardware at the time, similar to how AoE was originally intended to have low pop counts.

Some differences in gameplay I would like to add: 1. AoE villagers die way too quickly to raids compared to AoM vills (e.g. 2 knights in a wood line can kill a LOT of villagers, 2 raiding cavalry can easily be dealt with) 2. Blocking with buildings is much harder in AoM compared to AoE in which you can basically quickwall with houses. 3. You start with 4 towers in AoM that you need to upgrade (unless eggy), making defending rushes relatively easier than AoE 4. AoM is not meant to be balanced like AoE, some civs are really good early game (e.g. atlantean), some civs have power spikes (e.g. norse, eggy) and the greeks straight up rule the lategame. 5. In AoM you have a maximum amount of villagers, which usually is enough and you only need to get rid of them for more pop when you researched everything. 6. Each civ in AoM has different villager gather rates and building costs, which also changes how good eco upgrades are for each civ. 7. Fish in AoM is also an infinite resource, just like farms. Fully upgraded fishing ships close to a dock are the most efficient food source in the game. 8. Sheep, pigs and cows in AoM fatten over time, so its better to eat them after hunt/berries but before the expensive transition to farms. 9. In AoM, many destructive god powers have a damage cap, so for example earthquake can be mitigated if you upgrades building HP or build more buildings around a town center. You have to sort of predict enemy god powers in these cases. 10. Trade has a 50% bonus if its with an ally instead of with yourself, you should always trade with your team in team games. Edit: bonus corrected from 100 to 50%

mix of additional differences and some infos to add to what people have already pointed out - To age up you need specific building built (not any 2 building from the age you're in) Temple for Classical Age, Armory for Heroic Age and Market for Mythic Age - When you age up it is announced in the game all chat which minor god was chosen so you got to be quick to take advantage of any surprise effect you were counting on (like a myth unit timing attack for example) - Norses generate favor when their units are in combat, it means that the norse generate a ressource by fighting which means norse players always get a little bit more out of a fight. So if you pick your fights based on cost-efficiency you need to be mindfull of that. - Egyptians have very cheap buildings, some straight up free and their fishing ships can build obelisks for vision on coasts (think aoe 2 observation post) but their villagers, while being cheaper also work and collect slower than other civs - Atlantean villagers are their own deposit points and they cost (in ressources and pop) 3 times what other civs do but they also build and collect 3x faster - AoM doesn't work on a grid for buildings so it's very easy to have gaps between buildings, but the segment walls can be build quicker than aoe2 - There is a single way to convert a unit and it's with an atlantean god power (that heroes and titans are immune to) - Egyptians town centers can quickly build costly mercenary units which have a timer after which they die but make attacking egyptian TCs a whole ordeal if they have the gold - All the civs have a different approach to heroes, Atlanteans pay to convert regular units into heroes giving them a slight stat boost, greeks have 4 unique heroes (decided by the major god) that are some of the strongest units in-game but they can only be 1 of each so you can stretch a greek player thin, Egyptian and Norse have generic heroes they can mass but are weaker (the egyptian also have the pharaoh which is stronger than a priest their generic hero unit) - There is usually no fighting in the first age due to the lack of barracks and the only units available are heroes (gotta be carefull about the greek heroes they can push you around but they have only 1 but they also gave up around a 100 food) - The siege tower is here for egyptian and greeks have a similar unit but they work like rams, garrisoning units allows the egyptian siege tower to fire arrows and the greek helepolis to increase its short-range attack - Hammer ships are usually individually better against water myth units than siege or arrows - Titans generate an area of vision through the fog of war visible to EVERYONE, being the only unit in age serie that I can think of doing that, don't move your titan around your base if you have something to hide to your opponent (like where your trade line is) All 4 civs follow a different style for unit production buildings - Greeks have 1 building per unit type (barracks, range and stable) which build their generalist soft-counters in classical age then a hard counter in heroic age (hoplite generalist/cavalry soft-counter then hypapist counter-infantry in barracks) then the fortress (castle equivalent) builds both their heroes (available in TC too), their major god unique unit and their siege - Egyptians build only 1 military production in the classical age that builds 3 hard counters (2 infantry that counter cavarly and infantry respectively and an anti-archer archer) cheaper but more situational, in heroic age their migdoll (castle equivalent) produces 3 more generalist units (2 cavalries and an archer that doesn't count as cavalry for countering but is ona chariot so still mobile) and they have the siege workshop for their siege (elephants at the migdoll are also good against buildings), they produce heroes at the TC and Temple - Atlanteans build 1 generalist infantry at the barracks and 3 hard counter at the counter-barracks (anti-cavalry infantry, anti-archer cavalry and anti-infantry siege), in the heroic age they then get a genalist archer and generalist cavalry at the barracks, their palace (castle equivalent) builds anti-building units (one infantry and a siege) plus an anti-human infantry they have no dedicated heroes - Norses have some units AoE2 players will recognise they have a generalist infantry, the throwing-axemen as anti-infantry, a fast counter-archer cavalry and a hero at their barracks (and Temple), then at the Hillfort (castle equivalent) they build the huscarls as anti-archers and a generalist cavalry who is also strong against myth units and siege - If the units added to the 4civs in Tales of the Dragon are removed each civs have pretty glaring weakness which I think were better left open, the egyptians got a quick raiding infantry with a bonus against villagers since they didn't have non-myth units raiding options, norses got an archer good against flying myth units that they had no answer apart from mass of axe throwers and ballistas, greeks got easy access to a healing units when they had very limited access to healing for their quality above quantity units and atlanteans got ranged siege which they lacked but had different approach to siege with a massed infantry

I would add: There is no campagin per civilisation, but one bigger campaign with chapters featuring all 3 main civs. Atlantean got an own campaign since it is an add on civilisation.

I am so excited for the new wave of math from Spirit of the Law that's going to come with Age of Mythology Retold. Spirit of the Ra?

The neutral TC sites also have the effect that map control becomes critical far sooner than it does in AoE2. As someone who plays 4x more often than RTS, I found this intrinsically appealing. Add in Atlantean Favor generation, and now you've got a game.

Very good video ! I think you could've talk about the fishing ship tho : - There is no shore fish - fish are infinite (like farm) - you cannot put more than ONE fishing ship per fish

7:49 I get why one might dislike this mechanic, but I find it interesting that it rewards map control and gives a benefit for having a bigger area to protect.

As a kid, learning that Age of Mythology didn’t have stone blew my mind

7:22 coming back to AoM after switching to Aoe2 I think I liked this feature the most. Forces you to play quality over quantity

8:45 Also on Gates, in AOE2, if one of your units hold the gate open, your opponent can rush through into your base. In AOM, gates are only passable by your own units, and not by opponents, which means your melee units can attack enemies through an open gate without letting them in, although they still take damage if the enemies hit back.

Perfect comparation. As a player of both games I think AOM matches are more unpredictable, you can expect more turn arounds and different moves and strategies, while on AOE2 an small advantage tends easily to snowball the game.

Great! Now I can finally start playing AoE 2! Prostagma

the pre-set TC locations are an amazing aspect of the game creating strategically important areas on the map to fight over.

As a player that prefers AoM over any other Age of series - I'm very happy to see AoM related content and the channel ^^

I still don't know why I watch these videos, I'm a Company of Heroes 2 player, but they're just so good, I love stats and such behind the scenes in RTS, and you're amazing at communicating those things.

I always like the idea of unit visual upgrades to be implemented for AOE 2

Thanks @Spirit of the Law! Honestly, I have been playing AoM for 20 years, and never knew that attack values were per second, how armor percentages work, or even weapon upgrades are visible on the unit model. What else can I say but PROSTAGMA and VULOME!

I'm a massive fan of basic units that are shared across all playable civs having different skins depending on the civ you're playing. My biggest pet peeve in AoE2 will always be that I have to use Crossbowmen when playing as any american civ for example. The counter argument always being "it's better for clarity" which is super easily refuted by just making these visuals optional by making them togglable for each player.

Age of Mythology is a lot of fun, and I recommend it for anyone who is interested. I also recommend starting with the Greeks first, as they play just like a AoE civ but with the AoM unique mechanics added in. The other civs shake things up even more, and are a lot of fun, but might be overwhelming to someone jumping in from AoE.

Interesting comparison, thanks. I played a lot of AoE 2 and 3 growing up but never had AoM, and I find myself interested in this version of it (hopefully AoM's Definitive Edition moment?). Watching this it's interesting to see where a lot of AoE 3's ideas came from (which come much more out of the blue if you go straight from AoE 2 to 3): choosable bonuses at age up, infinite farms, units costing more than 1 pop space, the walls/gates, etc., etc.. So at least I'll have that familiarity to fall back on.

Much like how AoE 2 sparked my childhood love of history; AoM sparked my love of mythology. I’m elated that it’s still getting so much love today.

I would love for you to cover more Age of Mythology ❤

From all the footage that I saw here's what I understood about how the rechargeable God powers will work: The favor you gain in the original game has a cap of 100 (unless you're playing Zeus which goes to 200), with it you can purchase myth units and buy special upgrades. In the retold it will likely function similarly except it will not have a maximum cap and you will use God powers using favor (for example 50 favor for a heroic era God power), each time you use a God power the next use will be a bit more expensive in favor. In one of the gameplay sections they showed, the meteor God power had a number next to it like 250 and then when it was used it went up to 300 and there was a new symbol for the favor currency which went freely up, this is why I believe all of the above will function like so.

Ah, there we go. Spirit is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to. Let's go AoM hype! 🤩

I haven't played Age of Mythology, but I have played the other Age of Empires games and this video really helps put into perspective how AoM is in a lot of ways a hybrid between AOE2 and AoE3 with a lot of similar mechanics and design philosophies that would be revisited in AOE3 again, such as minor gods becoming different "governors" to go with for age-up bonuses, etc.

Neutral Town Center locations you need to "Capture" are great for adding complexity and challenge... to the campaign scenarios, where they can deliberately create focal points for conflict and areas where resources or trade routes can be secured that you as a player must manage. In multiplayer matches played on random maps they're, well, random, meaning some settlements provide absolutely no defensive value/become weak points of your base you need to defend and other opponents may get more convenient settlement locations than you. It also becomes really easy to guess where settlements have spawned on some maps and lets you capitalize on it. I really hope they can make random maps better with the settlement system somehow, probably by overhauling how random maps are designed/generated.

You can really see how certain mechanics were later incorporated by Ensemble into AoE3 and even Halo Wars (ie the fixed base locations).

AOM was my favorite RTS as a kid. I replayed it as an adult and it holds up, so I highly recommend trying it if you enjoy RTS's. It's got one of those most fun campaigns and worth clearing the whole thijng

The only sad part about AoM:R is Gaia is no longer mommy material.

I've been an Age of Empires fan since 1997, playing each game on release, and I've got to say that Age of Mythology DESERVES this remaster and attention from the wider community that it never seemed to get. It was incredible at the time, and to this day contains the best campaign of any Age of Empires game. The fact that AOE1, AOM and AOE3 have been undermined by AOE2 players who were never even there for AOE2's release has always grinded my gears. The hype for Age of Kings was real, and Conquerors was good, but AOM became THE GAME for me in those days. Please give it a try this fall

Age of Mythology was my favorite as a kid. I don't know why. It had such a sick campaign, too. Really made you feel like Arkantos. I won't spoil it, but one cutscene in particular broke my heart as a child. When I saw an ad for Age of Mythology (I think it was an xbox ad?) on TV today I was so stoked it's finally getting a remake. It's been neglected way too long. I still play it from time to time.

It's really surprising for me to see how many things from AoM were later used in AoE3 and AoE Online. 😮

Good comparison. I'd forgotten some of the smaller differences. Can't wait for AOM:R!

Some people are in fact joking (though they might be correct) that population is the most valuable resource of Age of Mythology. I do hope Retold at least doubles the limit for houses and Manors, racing for Town Centers is not my favourite part of gameplay. Of course, as "filthy casual" and die-hard "empire-builder" over "meta-chaser", I'm a bit startled from all those mentions of e-sport focus, "Age of..." francise was for me first and foremost sandbox, so I hope Retold will be so as well, may Set and Hades have mercy!

Can't wait for AoM: Retold. Expecting it to be THE BEST rts ever ;D

AoM remains my most played computer game to this date. And I hope to play even more in Retold. I hope you make civ/pantheon overviews of this game as well!

One you missed: In AOM Arkantos says 'It's Prostagming Time' and then all Atlantians start Prostagming around!

Great video as always! Pop limit seems to have been increased (by Xbox gameplay) with more houses and reduction on units pop cost. This is gonna change the meta from Extender Edition and The Titans. TC and limited settlements are a great feature in AoM. Once people from other franchise games get to know better the game and civs, they will get it. Free placing would be too unbalanced for some civs and their bonuses and meta. This also gives a huge importance to early scout and decision making.

I think the biggest shock for someone coming from AoE2 or pretty much any other standard RTS will be the sheer power level of some of the god powers. A number of them can effectively "I win buttons" for fights, or strong enough to force pushes into heavily defended positions.

Man age of mythology was a favorite of mine growing up. Can't wait for this release.

I personally always viewed the titans as a more interesting interpretation of what a wonder could be gameplaywise. A titan doesn't just automatically win the after some time, but it's such a strong unit that it should optimally guarantee you a win by fighting... unless you're playing on a water map, because titans can neither swim, nor sit in boats.Hopefully that part about them changes in retold. I would find it soo cool if they could just walk through water. They are supposed to be gigantic after all

I had no idea that the age-up mechanic of picking between sub-heroes and the unique skin upgrades on units came from AoM, not AoEIII! Then again, I never played AoM as a kid. I'm excited to try it now as a big kid that pays bills!

I always felt that AoM was the better game between the two tbh, and the way that stats like armor and bonus damage works is SO much more intuitive and understandable.

I have played Age of Mythology since it came out. One other big difference from Age of Empires 2 is that infantry, cavalry, and archers are all much closer balanced.

Much more similar to 3 than 2. Eager to re-experience this!

Hey Spirit ! I use not to love the pop system until I played my first multiplayer game 1vs1vs1vs1. Making an offensive against a player meant not being able to defend against another one. So diplomacy was very much increased. Plus you want to take that 10 pop advantage by taking the risk to take this town center in the middle of the map so there are a lot of skirmishes, sometimes huge fights but it makes the game more dynamic in my opinion (even if I'd like a few more pops stills ^^)

Are you going to cover any of AoM Retold? I jammed the OG tons back in the day, that campaign goes hard. A change that they are making in Retold regarding the Titans is that they can now swim, you couldn't put them on a transport before so if you played islands they were a bit crap, now you can build one on your island and then they can swim to the opponents island

infinite farms we're such a blessing, always hated reseeding.

Thank you SOTL for always keeping us updated in the word of aoe! I'd be such a Pleb without you, well, more of a pleb.

I played age of Myth for the campaign. Very good campaigns, cool units and triggers. I really like the time period more than AOE2. I don't know much about it competitively because it bad optimized for LAN and Internet at the time. I hope will see some low-key competitive play come out of this remake.

Cant wait I always loved Mythology more than the main like age of empires games. Unpopular opinion I know but I just loved this game and i can't wait until this is new version is out

It's strange that so few rts games use autoqueue. I didn't know that Age of Mythology uses it. I first saw it in Dawn of War and have never seen it anywhere else.

This approach to mechanics design is so nostalgic and reminds me of old games like Ragnarok Online and their damage calculations

I never played AoM, but, especially now that I've been obsessed with Hades and the current Hades 2 early access, I'm definitely checking it out.

Wow, even SOTL making videos about it. Truly a beloved game

10:30 I think the best comparison for Titans & AOE2 mechanics is to think of them as "Offensive Wonders".

About the god powers, people should really take a look at the game populous the beginning. You had a constant flow of mana and had to chose which powers that mana flows into, so you can either reload all powers or just a few powers but faster. There was a shaman type unit that each player had one of, who had to get in range to cast the powers, so you can't just snipe the enemy town center with a scout, the shaman had a bit of combat ability but if it's killed, the killing player receives a lot of extra mana and he needs a bit of time to respawn. I always enjoyed that magic system.

9:39 I remember spending hours upon hours going to the map editor just to see how units would change with each upgrade. Oh, the early 2000s. What a great time to be alive.

Me who I was playing AoE1 + 2 but got crazy with AoM when I was teen, I found now in my thirties SOTL, talking about AOE2 with soooo much detail for everything and loved it, but I hadn't this for AoM.. 😢

I'm really looking forward to AoM Retold. Loved playing the original back in the day. :D

You forgot that fish like farms also never run out in AOM.

I want to correct you on Poseidon, he doesn't focus on Cav nor the Navi. He focuses on infinite resources! 😉 Can't wait for the game to come out!

One thing I noticed years ago (which may no longer be the case) is that when you are playing a skirmish game against the computer (as opposed to campaigns), the computer was a lot harder for me to defeat in AOM. I used to be able to easily defeat the AI in AOE2 with relative ease but the AI in AOM always seemed to beat me no matter what I did even on easy settings.

Greeks are definitely the faction most similar to earlier AoEs. They basically work how you'd expect an AoE faction with monster units to work. The different major gods even come with their own unique unit, which the other factions don't really repeat. I actually like the multiplication-based damage formula. As I'm sure you know adjusting damage or armor in AoE2 by even 1-2 points can have a _major_ impact on how many hits you need to take out a unit, especially if the original net damage was just above or below the minimum damage threshold. With AoM's (and by extension AoE3's) damage system you have more freedom of adjusting the damage and armor values without having to worry about these edge cases.

I hope the game does well and we get a continuous stream of high-quality new civs for the AoM. The options I am most excited for are a Mesoamerican option, Celtic or Babylonian. But, any new civ would be cool. Given how distinct they are I think I am more excited for new additions to AoM than AoE2.

to add some clarify to Myth units. They always cost two types of resources. Favour and one of the major resource - Food, Gold and Wood. Early myth units cost highter but also you can avoid gold cost if you pick these early type of myth units. Also depending with Civ you play - Greek has the best anti-myth units cause of hight damage against them but you can only have limited number of Heroes. Rest of civ can produce many of anti-myth units but they effectivness are little better than average human units.

In terms of new Civs I think the coolest and most different options to what's in current AoM would be either the Indian pantheon which opens up so many god options to choose from and the Japanese pantheon (which also has a long list of mythical creatures which can be used as units). Honourable mentions going out to the Meso-American civilisations, Mesopotamians and maybe even potential for a Polynesian civ. Two I'd pretty much rule out at least from early DLC are Roman and Germanic pantheons due to their similarities to both Greek and Norse Pantheon's respectively.

Bit out of topic, but Egyptian goddess Bast or Basted is probably the first depiction of cat girl in human history

It is good to hear that they are indeed reworking all the civilisations and campaigns.

No matter what happens with the game i will be buying and playing the game as much as I can. Have to support my childhood game 💪🏽

The best thing about AoM compared to AoE2? If you're pop-capped the buildings still train your units to 99% and wait until they can spit them out. And, if you have tech queued up behind them, it just starts researching it while it waits for space. Amazing design decision.

Age of mythology was my absolute favourite game as a kid im so excited for the remake and im so excited to replay the campaign in all it's newfound graphical glory. Seriously, Retold looks gorgeous.

You forgot to mention an extremely important difference about walls and gates in AoM: you no longer can or need to lock or unlock gates. They open automatically when allied units pass and don't allow enemy units through even if the gate is wide open

I never heard spirit of the law so excited! Great aom videos coming up

For #15, the titans, current AoM has an option to disable them, and I imagine Retold will as well. They are a neat "5th age" mechanic, but I found them too gimmicky after awhile.

I play both games. For me the biggest difference is not the civ design or the addition of myth units. It is the different approach regarding town centers.

Spirit of the law for AOM ! Nice. I love both AOE2 and AOM :)

Never played myth but looking forward to retold. I like the minor god feature when aging up reminds me of aoe4 landmarks giving you 2 choices.

I'm *glad* you are talking about AoM!

We need you at AoM SoTL 😎🔥 Many players will migrate to it if its launched correctly

I really hope they use a pop system more like AoE3, with basic foot soldiers being 1 pop, cav being 2, then other units being more. Having Ulfsarks and hoplites cost 2 pop just made your armies so small, but with modern internet speeds more pop should be easier to handle.

I think the housing situation is actually better in that game cuz of encourages people to fight for map control and not just turtle up and then make a massive ball at the 30 or 40 minute mark

India or mesoamerican dlc would be AWESOME. Both are distinct mythologies with huge player bases

Very interesting to see how many AoM changes went on to AoE3, like armor mechanics, age-up selections, farms, walls and stone replaced with favour/XP 🤔

AoM was my childhood, so AoMR is now the first game in my life I've ever pre-ordered.

9:42 highly suggest the addons called 'Myth Unit Upgrade Pack' and 'Human Units Visible Upgrades' for this on the workshop

I like playing the Norse: "You just start raiding and you don't stop raiding!" Play as Loki, hit mythic age with Hel, bring infinite Fire Giants to the party! Oh, and Níðhöggr, can't forget Níðhöggr!

6:14 Return of Rome ship roster should be revamped according to this.

I think theyre increasing the pop limit in AoM:Retold so at least there's that. We'll be seeing more huge armies!

So about one third of the Mechanics shown work like AoE3. A shame AoE3 never got popular enough.

A Mesopotamian or the Celtic civ would be my choice, because they have lots of interesting mythologies to draw on and would bridge the massive geographical distance between the historical: Greek, Egyptian, Chinese and Viking civilizations.

I have never played Age of Mythology but hope to someday. Thank you for the context!