Age of Empires 4 takes us back to the halcyon days when RTS was king. Constructing your perfect base to pump out the best units to overcome your enemies — Warcraft, Command & Conquer, and Age of Empires were the undisputed kings, and instead of totally changing the formula, AOE4 refines it for modern audiences. It also has a few old-school concessions that modern players might not totally understand. And they’re incredibly important for strategizing on the medieval battlefield.
Here we’re going to talk about hotkeys. Hotkeys are essential for micromanaging your troops and moving around the map efficiently, and you’re free to rebind them if you want. One of the most important functions is grouping and merging — really, its the only way to handle your army. By grouping units and assigning them to different numbers, you can quickly swap between groups mid-fight. This is all basic stuff for the RTS experienced, but for the rest of us, its a concept you might not know about. Let’s break down grouping and more hotkey functionality below.
How To Group Units
- To group units, select the units you want to group, then press [CTRL+1-9] — you can use any number on the keyboard, including numpad. You can create up to 9 groups of units and quick-select by tapping the corresponding number.
Grouping is one of the most important tactics of a modern RTS. By grouping units, you can send them to different areas of the map easily. Double-tapping the group number will reorient the camera on the group. Pressing once selects them, allowing you to select and move units from off-screen. You can also micromanage units by grouping infantry, cavalry, archers, and so on into different groups to more efficiently control the battlefield.
- To merge units into one group, select the units you want and press [SHIFT+1-9] to put them all together.
- To cancel / reset groups, select nothing or a different group and press [CTRL+1-9]. This will overwrite the previous grouping.
How To Move The Camera With WASD
By default, you need to scroll the mouse to the edges of the screen OR use the pointers on your keyboard to move the camera. You can also use WASD naturally without changing any settings.
- To move the camera with WASD keys, hold [ALT]+[W/A/S/D]. While holding the alt key, you can scroll the camera with WASD. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it is baked right into the game.
This also works with the [SHIFT] key. You can change SHIFT / ALT in the control settings.
How To Rebind Keys — All Keys
There is a default hotkey rebinding menu in AOE4 — but some keys are locked. You can rebind most keys, but some are disabled. If you want to rebind any key, you’ll need to find the keybinding profile. Here’s how to find it.
- In AOE4 settings, create a New Control Profile and select it. Make your changes and save.
- Close the game and navigate to the Control Profile file in the AOE4 installation files.
- Navigate here: documents\My Games\Age of Empires IV\keyBindingProfiles
- Open your profile with Notepad++. The file will be .rkp format.
- Search for the hotkeys you want to rebind. Replace the keys, then save the file and close it.
If your control profile is selected in AOE4, your custom hotkeys should work. If something went wrong, just delete the Control Profile and start over. This issue is known to the developers, and is on the top of their priority list — easier hotkey rebinding is coming soon. For more information on hotkey rebinding, check out this guide.
