Age of Empires: Chess Style 

Hosting the Scenario

While this map can be played many ways, the recommended standard configuration is Neutral, High Resources, Explored, Post Imperial, Conquest, No All Techs. Reasoning:

• Neutral: if playing 1v1v1v1, lock teams and don't pick team #'s. This requires each player work harder to destroy an enemy's weaker civilian units.
• High Resources: The more resources, the more your villagers can repair and the more palisade walls and towers they can build. If you select Standard resources, your villagers can repair nothing and build nothing. If you select Low or Medium resources, your villagers can repair and build very little (as the cost of towers is 125 stone and either 25 wood or 100 gold).
• Explored: the map contains no hidden resources or terrestrial vantage pts, and I'd prefer each player understand the terrain (and its symmetry/beauty) faster than scouting would allow. This is only important when playing pre-imperial, as Town Watch has virtually the same effect.
• Post Imperial: allows each player to realize the full complement of bonuses attributed to one's chosen civ.
• Conquest: While it is possible to set the victory condition to Time Limit or Score, the real object is to kill the other player's king. Once a player's king has been killed, all of that player's remaining military force is destroyed, and thus defeated as if by total conquest.
• No All Techs: Make these armies slightly more interesting. The player with more knowledge of each civ's bonuses will have an advantage.

Gentlemen's Agreement Style

Before the game starts, players may agree not to attack during the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game, usually to provide time to plan and build supporting defenses for their attacks. To make this easier, it is possible to automatically remove all enemy outposts near each player's base at the beginning of the game. After the game starts, a flag will appear near the host's king. If the host moves that king onto the flag during the 1st 20 seconds of the game, all forward outposts for each player will be removed. This feature is only available in v3, v1a and v2a scenarios.

Single Player Mode

Although this scenario is not really designed for single player mode, its can be helpful to practice new plays and strategies. When playing Single Player, it is recommended one use the easiest difficulty setting to minimize lag and enemy interference.

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