How to Play Ageforge: A Beginner's Guide

What kind of game is Ageforge?

Ageforge is a lane battler: two keeps face each other across a single lane, and each player trains units that march toward the enemy and fight automatically. It plays in any modern browser with no download and no account, and a match takes about eight minutes. There are 15 units spread across 4 ages, from the Stone Age to the Future Age.

The whole match runs on the server 30 times a second. Your browser only shows what happened, so both players always see the same fight.

The goal

Destroy the other player's keep. Each keep starts with 1,200 HP, and keeps never heal. Units that reach the enemy keep attack it; if both keeps somehow fall on the same tick, the player who dealt more total damage wins.

Your four decisions

Units walk and fight on their own. Every decision you make is one of these four:

1. Train units. Spend gold to queue a unit. Your keep trains one unit at a time, then it walks out and fights.
2. Advance an age. Spend XP to move to the next age. Your shop switches to that age's units, your income goes up and your keep gains a new tower.
3. Upgrade towers. Spend gold to upgrade a keep tower once. Towers shoot the closest enemy in range and can't be damaged.
4. Fire your ultimate. Every age has one free, lane-wide special on a cooldown. It hits every enemy unit at once.

Gold and XP

You earn gold every second (6 per second in the Stone Age, rising to 21 in the Future Age) and from every kill. A kill pays 60% of the dead unit's cost as gold and the same number as XP. XP is only spent on advancing an age, never on units, so defending well moves you forward too.

Read more in Gold economy: income, kill rewards and spending well.

Your first two minutes

1. Open with a frontline unit. The Clubman soaks damage so whatever you train next can shoot from behind it.
2. Add a ranged unit such as the Slinger once the frontline is out.
3. Watch what your opponent sends and answer it. The Wolf Rider costs only 60 gold and is a quick answer to a slow, heavy push.
4. Save your ultimate for a big enemy wave rather than using it on the first unit you see.
5. Advance as soon as you have the XP, unless an enemy push is about to reach your keep and you need that gold for units first.

Counters in one line

Frontline beats Ranged, Ranged beats Fast, and Fast beats Frontline. Splash units sit outside the triangle and punish armies that bunch up. The full breakdown is in Ageforge counters explained.

How to start a match

Press Play free on the home page, pick a name and choose Quick match to be paired with another player, or Create private room and send the link to a friend. The match starts when both players are ready.