This would grant the weaker players 2500 of each resource.

A strong player crosses a certain border (think of the only bridge to cross deep water).

Some ideas I put the practice in the past: You can even place units or increase their attack and HP. For example, if a player1 comes into a certain area, you can grant player2 1000 gold.

In a custom map, triggers allow you to do various actions on the map or to players based on an event. Usually if a skilled player thought he could go solo against the AI, he would lose, requiring a team.Īnother more advanced options is to make use of triggers. 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. 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. 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).Īt LAN parties I would prepare a custom map in advance and use this setup for new people. This will reset player specific settings, like disabled units. If you create a custom map and use it for a multiplayer game, make sure you do NOT toggle the 'All techs'.

Start out with resource buildings next to resources (mining camp/mill).

Start with a castle next to the town center.

Relics (be careful! Too many relics can seriously break the economy of your map, 2 per weak player should be enough.).

No dangerous wild animals, instead supply more deer or turkeys.

Enclosed area where the the stronger players can't reach them.

Some things to consider for the weaker players:

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).

no/less relics (you can even make them hard to find, like inside forests).

Scarce resources (or even shared resources in between camps, to have them fight over it).

This makes it risky for villagers to go too far from the town center and explore.

More dangerous wild animals (wolfs, jaguars, etc.) and closer to the town center.

Some things to consider for the stronger players: This could be more entertaining for the stronger players as well, because the challenge is bigger now. Of course, all the players would need to agree to your set up and respect the location you choose for them.

Less skilled players could have more resources nearby for example, or are surrounded by forest (but with the resources within of course). 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.

Age of empires 2 relics