Alright, so I had this crazy idea the other day, right? I was thinking about Town Centers in Age of Empires, and how much of a pain they are to take down. So, I thought, “How many spears would it actually take to break one of those things?” Yeah, I know, super nerdy, but hey, curiosity got the better of me.
First things first, I hopped into a custom game. Standard settings, nothing fancy. I picked Britons, because, well, I like archers, and it gave me a good starting point. I built a Town Center right in front of my starting base. Nice and exposed, ready for the spear onslaught.
Next, the army. I started cranking out spearmen. Loads of them. I figured, the more the merrier, right? I queued up like, a hundred or so at first. Then another hundred. You get the idea. It was a spear-making factory over here. I upgraded them to Man-at-Arms later, because, let’s be real, spearmen kinda suck.
Okay, so here’s where the “science” comes in. I set up my army in attack move and sent them straight at the Town Center. I watched the HP bar like a hawk. It took FOREVER. Seriously, those Town Centers are tough cookies. I’m talking a good 10-15 minutes of constant stabbing.
I was keeping a rough count of how many units I lost. Spears kept dying to the Town Center arrows. It was a slow, painful process. I had to keep reinforcing the attack wave with more and more units. I lost probably like, a hundred spears to the TC arrows!
After what felt like an eternity, BOOM! The Town Center finally crumbled. It was a glorious moment of pixelated destruction. But the big question: how many spears did it actually take? That’s the tricky part.
I tried to estimate based on the number of units I lost and had to replace. Plus, I looked at the resource costs. Best guess? Probably around 200-250 spearmen (eventually upgraded to Man-at-Arms) constantly attacking. That’s a LOT of spears! Especially early game!
Now, I know this isn’t exactly scientific. There were probably some idle units, some missed attacks, etc. But it gives you a general idea. Taking down a Town Center with just spears is a seriously costly and time-consuming strategy.
So, the takeaway? Don’t try to spear rush a Town Center in a real game. It’s a recipe for disaster. Build some siege weapons, folks. Trust me, it’s way more efficient and less painful on your unit count.
Things I would do differently next time:
- Actually use a mod or something to track the exact number of units attacking. The manual count was a pain.
- Try it with different civilizations and their unique units. Maybe some civs have spear units that are secretly TC-busting machines?
- Record the whole thing for a sweet time-lapse video. Imagine the epicness!
Anyway, that was my little Age of Empires experiment for the day. Hope you found it as amusing as I did! Now, back to conquering the world… with siege weapons!
