I may have challenged some people to a game, and have no idea how to play (i went from war/star craft straight to Empire Earth)

tips pointers would be nice.

What country is good?

Depends on what you want to do.
I haven't played it in the longest time, but I seem to remember that the turks had badass gunpowder units later on (was that the Turkish or were they the ones with the camels?)

If you have played EE then you know the basic formula of AoE 2, focus on gathering food early on, stone and gold later on, walls and towers are actually useful but only if you have the resources. All I can say for sure that I actually remember.

It's been years since I've played AoE II (once I got Age of Mythology, I never looked back), but I could probably help you out a little bit.

Most teams are pretty good. My personal favorites were the Japanese and Byzantines, because I loved the Samurai and Catphracts. Of course, a fully upgraded Champion could outperform a Samurai, and a fully upgraded Paladin was superior to a Cataphract in most ways. :(

Personally, I'd recommend just playing through the campaigns to get a feel for everybody. Also, the Conqueror's Expansion is a must.

I played it tons, but all I did is cheat, so I don't have much in the wat of tips. Neverthless,
I liked the Byzantines, because of the Paladins, which are tough, strong cavalry. The Mongols are great if you like to us hit-and-run, as they have excellent horse archers. The Japanese have very fast-assembling trebuchets, if you like seiging.

@Vlad: Yeah, Turks had the Janissaries, the gunpowder units. Saracens had the Marmelukes.

The games are somewhat similar to EE, but also very different. In EE I found that it took a very long time to build up a significant number of troops, and those troops would die annoyingly fast in an actual battle.

I need to download AoEII one of these days. I stupidly sold my copy to a friend years ago, and now I need it so I can install the expansion on my PC.

Cataphracts.  Paladins were the standard, fully upgraded cavalry for all civilizations.

The Mongols were fun to use too.  I enjoyed their campaign missions.

Overall, its a well balanced game, and you could pick any civilization ,each have strong/weak points. The only obvious thing is if its a water filled map, Vikings should be the best choice

The Byzantines are my favourite in the main game, but if you have The Conquerors, I think the Spanish are by far the best. The French are also good.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I may have been schooled a bit, but oh well

Wow, AoE 2 now that bring back memories (is 18) but jeez lol talk about a blast from the past game, do people even play that still?