What are the differences between the difficulty levels in the Campaign and Skirmish modes?

What are the differences between the Standard, Moderate and Hard difficulty levels in the Campaign mode?

What about between Easiest, Standard, Moderate, Hard, and Hardest in the Standard/Multiplayer Game (Skirmish) mode?

If the AI changes its behavior or strategy depending on the difficulty level, please include that info.

Also, does the AI "cheat" (by giving itself additional resources, etc.)? If yes, what cheats does it do and at what difficulty level(s) does it cheat?

EDIT: In this answer to my question below, most of the questions have already been answered. That leaves the question, "What are the differences between the Standard, Moderate and Hard difficulty levels in the Campaign mode?" to be answered or expounded upon.

5 Answers

AI Behavior	EASIEST	EASY	MODERATE	HARD	HARDEST
Advances through the ages	After any human player has advanced to that age	Slowly as a novice player, or as Easiest does	As an experienced player	As fast as possible	As fast as possible; computer players cooperate to slingshot through the ages
Attacks First	Never	Never	Occasionally	Yes	Yes
Breaks alliances	No	Rarely	Rarely	Yes	Yes
Builds a Castle	Rarely	Seldom	Yes	Yes	Yes
Builds a Wonder	Never	Seldom	If possible	If possible	Seldom
Expansion and resource gathering	Slowly selects nearby resources; abandons contested resources	Slowly	Fast	Aggressively defends resources	Aggressively defends resources, destroys enemy resources
Monks used to convert buildings	Never	Rarely	Seldom	Yes	Yes
Monks used to convert units	Rarely and with very few Monks	Seldom or slowly	Yes	Yes	Yes
Starting diplomatic stance	Neutral	Neutral	Mix of Neutral and Enemy	Enemy	Enemy
Town siege	Never	Seldom	Yes	Yes	Yes
Walls and towers	Never	Sometimes defensive towers	Yes	Yes	Yes; may build offensive towers
Will ally with human players	Yes (unless game would end)	Yes (unless game would end)	With one human only (unless game would end)	Never	No
Will ally with humans	Depends on personality	Depends on personality	Sometimes	Never	Never
Will ally with other computer Als	No	Yes	Yes	Preferred	Preferred
Will trade	Yes	Yes	Sometimes	No	No
x - Comments	AI is given additional resources at the start of the game
Cooperates against human players	No	Sometimes	Sometimes	Yes; coordinated attacks, optimized building strategies. etc.	Yes

Note: The above is only for random map games.

Difficulty	Distance an enemy unit must be within when the computer player unit looks for a new target
easiest	LOS (can be modified by sn-easiest-reaction-percentage)
easy	LOS (can be modified by sn-easier-reaction-percentage)
moderate	LOS * 2
hard	LOS * 2
hardest	LOS * 2

Computer players ignore relics on the easiest level.

Difficulty	If a non-exploring computer unit gets attacked, the computer player's attack delay is modified
easiest	allow attacking one minute earlier
easy	allow attacking two minutes earlier
moderate	allow attacking immediately
hard	allow attacking immediately
hardest	allow attacking immediately

Difficulty	After a wolf kills a unit, have it gorge itself (not attack again) for
easiest	35 seconds
easy	30 seconds
moderate	25 seconds
hard	20 seconds
hardest	15 seconds

Difficulty	Distance a unit must be within when a wolf looks for a new target
easiest	LOS * 0.5
easy	LOS * 0.75
moderate	LOS * 2
hard	LOS * 2
hardest	LOS * 2

Source: This Reddit /r/aoe2 post, which refers to the Official Computer Player Strategy Builder Guide (cpsb.doc) in the AOE 2 CD 'GOODIES' folder, pages 63-64. (Screenshot of the table on page 63)

1

may be it's too late but i think this question "does not take old"... AOE was criticized for the earliest versions because in the hard/hardest mode it does not take too much to beat the AI, so some cheating was introduced in "Age of the kings"(that's my own opinion). I can tell that because AI players can upgrade to feudal age since the first 5 mn easily(for any civilization) while human player can not do that with his resources(250 food !)[ less than the required 500 ].to prove that,start a new game ,in hardest mode ,and quit immediately ,then read the screen of the statistics ,you will find out that AI players have well higher scores because they were given more resources ! Another thing to mention is that AI managed units/buildings are some how "auto-healing" or "auto-reparing" and more efficient but it's not a bad thing,instead this makes the game more attractive and invites the human intelligence to improve each time and finest the strategy !

1

Not 100% if it does anything other than improving the AI in the campaign mode.

In skirmish mode it improves the AI, and being attacked by the enemy and how often it happens depends on the difficulty. For example; If you play on Easiest in Skirmish mode, the enemy will never attack you, the higher you go in difficulty makes them attack you and more often/earlier in the game.

They don't use "cheats" for resources and you can make them run out of resources just as any other game if you/the game lasts long enough.

1

I would say the CPU never cheats, but you have to remember while your human clicks only control one thing at a time, the CPU is controlling everything everywhere always. It might look like auto-repair or auto-heal on buildings, but the CPU probably takes a villager for a few seconds and sends them back to work.

One thing I do know, the CPU always knows your location in full even if it hasn’t scouted you. And it will always choose the obnxious option versus facing you with dignity, especially when it does so at a loss, throwing the game rather than playing more honorably like not attacking civilians.

I believe Moderate difficulty and above will inherently receive more starting resources than Human player for those three tiers, accordingly. In addition the AI WILL be more prone to earlier aggression regarding resources and other miscellaneous outskirt buildings if importance..

As for strategy, well I merely observed an AI/Computer opponent's play style.. -Seemed like the better option is to go for a Villager High by Late Feudal Age rather than Militia/M@A, .. -Don't worry about Barracks until Castle Age! Just make sure you have a Dock if practicable, a Blacksmith (and/or a MARKET if allied ASAP for Cartography perk !) -( Rely on Town Bell if things get ugly before Castle Age..) just build a Castle ASAP when you Advance and gather-point 2 Bombers to an enemy resource ASAP. They won't know what hit em! -( (Important) )BEFORE you click Castle Age (III), be sure to have 4-6 villagers mining stone with wheelbarrow + stone mining perk and you should have enough for a Castle as soon as you hit Castle Age.