My longbowman/champion/ and my conquistador/missionary/paladin/caste counter both your strategies. I onl play as the spanish or the brisitish because imo they are the best. Unless people play a race that speciffically counters the brisitish. Then I play as the persians.

Catphracts may not be all thay powerfull, but they aren't really meant for dierect combat. They have great vision, speed, and their wings look awesome. I would use them to slaughter enemy villagers and run whilte seige weapons bang down their castles. Dunno what you protect the siege weapons with, may be champions and some cataphracts.

I usually send 30 longboats, becuase if the enemy sends 20-30 fireships against your 8 longboats you are screwed. 30 longboats fully upgraded can just barely outrun fireships though. But if they get fast fire ships, you gotta focus fire, and then you take even casualties. Too bad for them fire ships cost a bit more than longboats.

I know this a little of point, but relational none-the-less...

I actually was a huge of Age of Empires 2, but I really didn't care for the 200-man army limit.  A game that is almost exactly the same, but allows you to have literally thousands upon thousands of soldiers is a game called Cossacks: European Wars.

If you find yourself a fan of AOE2, then you'll adore the Cosacks series... you should give it a try.

It helps to know the unit strengths of weaknesses, but I'm probably saying that because I liked to play a lot of blood maps where winning was all about countering what your enemy was using.

Just build tons of... um... those building where you create mounter units... and create LOTS of... um... those cheap, quick mounted units. They should keep coming out at all time.

You can use that with the british ... bowmen that have lot of range too.

Actually, I agree.. the Britons are the best in my opinion because of their bowman.  I always built about 60 bowman with th castle to stand behind a line of swordsmen, which where behind knights... great strategy.

For those who are unaware, the Briton's bowman built with the castle have a super long shooting range, and they shoot REALLY far... somtimes I just charged whole armies with just them any they are highly affective.. best unit in the game if you ask me.

I still play Age Of Empires 2 single player,not into multiplayer..

Put a group of 40+ of them behind sturdy walls and set them to defensive or stand ground. It's even more deadly when you select the entire group and hand pick the enemies that are closing in.

Turks were the Jannisaries.

They were all good except for the Goths and Huns... who were my favorites.

A good tactic for begginers is taking the Britons and massing Longbowman.

Or pick a quick Civ and tower rush.

If you have the conquerors - Go huns! (Also the scout type unit gets a boost in the fuedal age with the conquerors so hang your scout around their base and try to pick off lone villagers once you age up)

Reason -> Less micromanagement between wood/food/gold as wood is the slowest resource and faster stables. You won't be housed so you can expand faster than the enemy.

Fast Fuedal -> Go with a group of Archers/Skirms or one of either and attempt to kill the enemies economy.

Next best: Mongols - they have the fastest hunt in the game. Also quite a stable of siege units as well. So if you get lots of hunt and you want to really take the hurt to them, build stables because the 80food scouts will be a boon to you as noone builds pikes in the 2nd age unless specifically encountering horses and you can always mix it up by going full horses then switch to horse/archer or horse/skirms.

If you don't have conquerors, erm you could try British. The Brits have longer ranged archers starting in the fuedal age and faster Archery ranges. Their bonus to sheep use really helps if you can get all 8 sheep and maybe steal some of the enemies.

Number 1 rule in AOE2 - Be specific, if you want to attack age 2/3/4 focus on doing that.

Number 2 rule in AOE2 - Be aggressive, attack you enemies hard and fast. If you age up quickly to Age3 hit them with 2+2 knights (blacksmith armour upgrade) That way your knights can keep him inside as much as possible and hang round long enough to do some damage.

If he walls - archer/scout units are good for their range to harrass and don't give him an easy pass building a wall. If your scout sees a waller, attack it and keep it from completing it. If you're lucky he won't see it and his wall won't get built/you score a free villager kill.