Age of Empires - DS

Easier than Advance Wars you say? Might have to look into this I'd love to really get absorbed into AW but find it too difficult at times... which is strange because I'm great at chess.

Advance Wars wasn't too hard for me. I really don't like the DS battles where the ally AI controls one battlefield while you battle it out on the other battlefield. Here's to hoping we see a sequel soon with WiFi support.

I think I should try AoE. I'm going to Toys R' Us to hopefully exchange my DS Web Browser for an actual game.

Freaky that was the last game we got from there too. A present from my new born sister (though how she managed to get to Toys R Us is a mystery to me )

Best tip I've got is save often! I played it for a while with no problems, but blam! The dreaded freeze/lock-out problem!!! Not saying that it will happen to you but I thought it wouldn't with me!

Regular saving helps, but I did need to restart a mission once as whatever I did whenever I loaded, it still crashed. Hasn't happened too much to me - although it's been admittedly annoying, it's been a small price to pay!

The only other tip I've got is if you can get into a good defensive position, you can overcome a much larger enemy force with perseverance... and a lot of patience. I wasn't too keen on crossbowmen at first, but as I went on I was more and more won over!

There's a few decent online guides (albeit incomplete), haven't really used them but they seemed pretty good.

Overall, I think AOE is a great game - wouldn't say I prefer it over AW, as they've both got their own strengths.