


Selecting an attacking stance essentially means your selected units will attack any enemy forces in their way. When it comes to attacking enemy units, it's normally wise to select an attacking stance and to select an area for them to move to, as long as they pass the required enemy unit. The gameplay requires micromanagement of your troops and villages. Heroes also have special abilities to give an advantage to your units in the heat of battle, such as William the Conqueror who can increase the attack speed of allied units within radius of him. Some units within certain factions have special abilities to counteract this balance, ie English archers can use Palings (wooden stakes) to defend their position from a cavalry charge. Spears beat cavalry, cavalry beat archers and archers beat infantry is the combat in its simplest form. It retains the same foundations of base building and rock, paper, scissors combat. The simple answer is that AoE IV retains the old Age of Empires formula.
