History YMMV / AgeOfEmpiresII

** The Tatars' Flaming Camel unit is essentially a [[SuicideAttack Petard]], but [[AntiCavalry stronger against cavalry]] than buildings. Considering the civilization already has access to fully-upgraded Heavy Camel Riders, there's pretty much no reason to waste your gold on a one-use unit that lacks the strength or blast radius to ever be worth it. It doesn't help that it requires a special Imperial Age technology to even unlock.

** Unless you're performing the all-in "[[MemeticMutation [=YouPudding=]]]" strategy where you rush up to Castle Age to spam out as many Serjeants as possible to ZergRush down the opponent, you end up never seeing Sicilians picked for high-ranked games or tournaments from 2023 onward. This is largely due to two problems: the civ being quite awkward to play since its gameplay revolves around its unique Donjon tower structure, and its CripplingOverspecialization as, Donjons aside, the civ is considered to be quite bland, to the point where anything it specializes in is viewed as [[OvershadowedByAwesome better performed by other civs, making the Sicilians feel weak as a result]].

** Black Forest maps are often played by newer players due to other map modes (such as Arabia and Nomad) being much faster paced and would require more micromanagement and reaction time. Unsurprisingly, two of the most popular civilizations in Black Forest maps, Celts and Britons, happen to be SkillGateCharacter civilizations that are good in Black Forest maps (with the former having good siege to create new paths in Black Forest with their Siege Onagers and the later having good archers to secure the narrow chokepoints in Black Forest maps).

** Unless you're performing the all-in "[[MemeticMutation [=YouPudding=]]]" strategy where you rush up to Castle Age to spam out as many Serjeants as possible to ZergRush down the opponent, you end up never seeing Sicilians picked for high-ranked games or tournaments from 2023 onward. This is largely contributed to two problems. The first being that the civ is quite awkward to play since its gameplay revolves around its unique Donjon tower structure. The other problem is that outside of the Donjons, the civ is considered to be quite bland where anything that it specializes in is viewed to be performed better by other civs. Thus, making the Sicilians feel obsolete.

** Unless you're performing the all-in "[[MemeticMutation [=YouPudding=]]]" strategy where you rush up to Castle Age to spam out as many Serjeants as possible to ZergRush down the opponent, you end up never seeing Sicilians picked for high-ranked games or tournaments from 2023 onward. This is largely contributed to two problems. The first being that the civ is quite awkward to play as since gameplay revolves around its unique Donjon tower structure. The other problem is that outside of the Donjons, the civ is considered to be quite bland where anything that it specializes in is viewed to be performed better by other civs. Thus, making the Sicilians feel obsolete.

** Bay tends to be called the "Pants" map.
** Quarry tends to be called the "Pokéball" map.

** Unless you're performing the all-in "[[MemeticMutation [=YouPudding=]]]" strategy where you rush throughout Feudal and Castle Age to spam out as many Serjeants as possible to ZergRush down the opponent, you end up never seeing Sicilians picked for high-ranked games or tournaments from 2023 onward. This is largely contributed to two problems. The first being that the civ is quite awkward to play as since gameplay revolves around its unique Donjon tower structure. The other problem is that outside of the Donjons, the civ is considered to be quite bland where anything that it specializes in is viewed to be performed better by other civs. Thus, making the Sicilians feel obsolete.

* CasualCompetitiveConflict: For the first few years of the HD era, competitive players tended to ignore anything beyond ''The Conquerors''. The most common reasons being performance bugs on multiplayer in the HD versions and many changes that disrupt the well-established metagame for said expansion such as several LowTierLetdown and HighTierScrappy civilizations introduced in ''Forgotten Empires/The Forgotten'' and ''The African Kingdoms'', as well as biased changes to the existing civilizations. Not to mention the fact that Creator/EnsembleStudios had nothing to do with the HD version and its expansions. However this became more of a BrokenBase situation around late 2017 with the release of fan patches that brought the new civilizations of the modern expansions into the ''The Conquerors'' engine. The ''Forgotten Empires'' expansions were pretty much universally accepted by the competitive scene by the time ''Definitive Edition'' came out; nowadays ''HD'' retains a dedicated following among fans who want a more purist experience, while the majority of both the casual and competitive playerbase focuses on ''DE''.

** ''Western'' Slavs such as Poles and Czechs don't like that the "Slavs" are called that instead of "Russians" or some other alternative and think that the Teutons are closer to their culture. Grouping all Slavic cultures together as one civilization could be compared to grouping the Spanish, French, and Italians together and calling them "Latins". While the Lithuanians civilization is a decent alternative for Polish players due to the eventual Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland is still represented by the Slavs in the reworked Genghis Khan and Barbarossa campaigns. While the ''Dawn of the Dukes'' expansion eventually added both the Bohemians and Poles, some players are still unhappy that their architectures are the same as the Slavs, complete with Orthodox instead of Catholic monasteries.

** Similarly, Indian players don't like that there is a single "Indian" civilization due to India's ethnic diversity, likening the "Indians" of the game to having a single civilization called "Europeans". This was addressed in the ''Dynasties of India'' expansion that was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRaihXDjkkw released in April 2022]], which adds 4 different Indian civilizations, the Gurjaras, Hindustanis, Dravidians and Bengalis, with the Hindustanis outright replacing the existing Indian civilization.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: While the original game was OK, this game and the expansions are universally acclaimed and seen as great improvements.
** The ''Definitive Edition'' has also been praised for actually improving on the HD version and being not just a cheap cash-in. It was very favorably compared to ''[[VideoGame/WarcraftIII Warcraft III: Reforged]]'' in particular.

** Armenian and Georgian players are unhappy on how their civilizations are represented in Tamerlane's fifth scenario, "Scourge of the Levant," where Byzantines and Persians were used as "placeholder" civilizations to represent them respectively when it is more appropriate to have a completely separate civilization to represent them. Alternatively, they could have used one of the "Eastern European" civilizations like Slavs or Magyars to represent them since medieval Armenian and Georgian architecture strongly resemble Eastern European architecture in real life. In the Georgians' case, they could've been represented by a Central European civilization such as the Goths or Huns, as the Central European Monastery is based on a Georgian cathedral. This was eventually rectified with the release of the ''Mountain Royals'' DLC in 2023.

** Greeks don't like that the Byzantines speak Latin and use the Islamic-inspired Middle Eastern architecture set. The latter is fixed in ''Definitive Edition'', which gives the Mediterranean architecture to the Byzantines along with the Spanish. But now there are already complaints that the Mediterranean set is too Italian looking, and therefore Catholic...
** ''Western'' Slavs such as Poles and Czechs don't like that the "Slavs" are called that instead of "Russians" or some other alternative and think that the Teutons are closer to their culture. Grouping all Slavic cultures together as one civilization could be compared to grouping the Spanish, French, and Italians together and calling them “Latins”. While the Lithuanians civilization is a decent alternative for Polish players due to the eventual Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland is still represented by the Slavs in the reworked Genghis Khan and Barbarossa campaigns. While the ''Dawn of the Dukes'' expansion eventually added both the Bohemians and Poles, some players are still unhappy that their architectures are the same as the Slavs, complete with Orthodox instead of Catholic monasteries.

** Similarly, Indian players don't like that there is a single "Indian" civilization due to India's ethnic diversity, likening the "Indians" of the game to having a single civilization called "Europeans". This is being addressed in the ''Dynasties of India'' expansion that was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRaihXDjkkw revealed in April of 2022]] with a release slated for the end of the month, which adds 4 different Indian civilizations, the Gurjaras, Hindustanis, Dravidians and Bengalis, with the Hindustanis outright replacing the existing Indian civilization.
** Vietnamese players don't like that their civilization uses the Southeast Asian architecture set, and would have preferred the East Asian set instead. The developers' reply that the Vietnamese use the SE Asian set because of the Champa kingdom triggered a worse reaction, because Champa was a historical rival of Vietnam that was conquered and assimilated by it[[note]]This would be comparable to the Spanish using the Middle Eastern set because of Al-Andalus[[/note]]. [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales This, however, didn't affect the game's massive popularity in Vietnam]]. Additionally, the Vietnamese now use the East Asian architecture set in ''Definitive Edition''.

* GoddamnedBats: In some of the HD campaigns, there are enemy factions that don't have a base but would constantly spawn units out of nowhere to harass villagers gathering resources far from a fortified base, such as the Raiders in "The Right Partner" (Yodit mission 2) and the Javanese Bandits in "The Pasunda Bubat Tragedy" (Gajah Mada mission 6). Similarly, the Turkish in "Lepanto" (one of the Battles of the Conquerors) do have a base across the sea, but even if you destroy their docks, they will continue to spawn warships and transports out of nowhere infinitely.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: In the Definitive Edition the scripts and voices in the campaigns were modified and re-dubbed, dialing back many of the more hammy and stereotypical voice acting from the original. Many players however feel that the original voice acting was passionate and lively and gave it a [[NarmCharm distinct charm]], while the new voice acting come across as [[SoBadItWasBetter restrained and uninspired]]. This is especially noticeable in things like the third Huns mission where in the original the Romans had a hilarious whiny voice but in the re-dub it was dulled down.

* ArchivePanic: As of ''Return to Rome'', there're ''60''[[note]]The 43 civilizations from ''II'' and its expansions, and the 17 ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' civilizations introduced by ''Return to Rome''[[/note]] ''playable'' civilizations and ''41'' campaigns. Each campaign is at least 5 maps long, with the ''Age of Kings'' and ''The Conquerors'' campaigns being ''6'' map long and the "William Wallace" tutorial campaign being 7 maps long. And even then, those capped at 3 or 4 maps such as the original ''The Forgotten'' campaigns compensate their lack of missions with an increased ''difficulty''. And if all of this isn't yet enough, there are two extra level packs called "Battles of the Forgotten" and "Battles of the Conquerors", which contain 8 individual maps each. And since we're talking about an RTS game, where matches tend to be several ''hours'' long, with some particular exceptions, each map might last several ''hours''. Needless to say, there's A LOT of official content to delve into. Hope you get A LOT of hours to spare...