Hold off unit
From GenieWiki
A hold off unit is a unit used to avoid the inevitable conquest defeat of a human or CPU player in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II when all other units and buildings (et cetera) are destroyed. The hold off unit is employed at various times, such as at the start of a scenario for a timed appearance, opening credits etc, or when a player is defeated or briefly without any units, and defeat is not desired (or a brief delay of defeat to allow for a message etc is needed). Hold-off units can also be used to prevent a CPU player from being defeated in a similar manner. The goal is generally to have a unit that is invisible or carefully hidden, to avoid the contrived nature of using the unit in the first place. Newer games (e.g. Empire Earth) tend to allow 'conquest' style defeat to be turned off. Hold off units that are easily visible (e.g. a unit simply placed somewhere else on the map) are generally seen as a poor effort by the designer.
Age of Empires
In Age of Empires hold-off units used are typically those without any line of sight, namely the blind lame priest and the mercenary. These two units have 0 LOS, rendering them invisible and unselectable when there are no other units around to allow them to be seen. These units can be used for various reasons - a timed appearance is one popular method seen in several campaigns (e.g. The Two Brothers and Chou Kung by Ingo van Thiel). The principal here is to avoid defeat while a Gaia unit moves into the players line of sight, giving the player control of the unit as it makes its appearance. Anther example is starting with a unit that will render the player defeated by itself - for example a fishing boat, or an artifact. A third example is the brilliant sleep trick in Mago, where the player begins 'asleep' and must find a way to fight their sleep and awaken before it is too late. As mentioned above, the hold off unit could also be used to prevent a CPU player being defeated, for example a town center placed somewhere out of sight. This could also mean the player must defeat them by killing a specific object instead, using the bring object to object method for example.
Age of Kings
The hold off unit is widely used in AoK, where it has been developed extensively over the years. Garrisoning a unit in a transport ship was popular initially, used for example in the opening cutscene of Tamerlane. In more recent times newer templates employing more complex methods (involving the invisible tile) have become available. Berserker Jerker is one designer who helped pioneer these developments, using DiGiT's AOK Trigger Studio in creating the effect. Also notable is the fairly recent Renaissance data file, which contains a built-in hold-off unit that can be placed out of site anywhere on the map.
External links
- The hold off unit by Berserker Jerker
- Hold Off Unit Templates - Template scenarios by BJ
- The Invisibility Cloak Hold off Unit - Invisibility cloak template by newIdea
