The Art of Scouting
_NeT_AnGeLs_ Help and Tips
Scouting is one of the hardest and most vital aspects of the game to master.
Even I, and many other players who have been playing for a good one and a half
years still have not mastered the art of scouting. I have written this guide to
explain the basics and more in-depth aspects of scouting that every player must
know.
To Use Waypoints or Not?
This is a choice that must largely be left up to the player. Personnaly I would
never scout without hotkeys, but believe it or not some players and well known
experts choose not to use them. Well they choose not to use them while scouting
around their base.
Not using waypoints to scout can be incrediably difficult and requires you to be
conscious of the Scout all the time for atleast the first 10 minutes of the
game. This will often lead to not so experianced players forgetting about
villagers that have just been created and their TC.
Waypoints are the preffered method of scouting used by the majority of
experianced AoC players. Waypoints is also the easiest method of scouting
because it requires less management by the player. There is one problem with
waypoints though, that mainly been the fact that waypoints will try and take the
easiest route, ie; they will not run around forests, cliffs, etc. But this only
happens occasionally.
So to sum it up; Always use waypoints unless you are confident you can manage
your economy and your scout excellently at the same time.
How to Use Waypoints
When first starting the game lay down waypoints (shift, right click) in a circle
around the fog of war surrounding your intial starting area and keep laying them
down in a circle around your fog of war until you have found your 8 sheep, 2
boar, deer, decent forests, gold and stone. Just a quick note on scouting around
your base; Constantly watch the mini map to see where the Scout is travelling
and if you see it not travelling around a forest or something re-route its
course to make sure it does!
Once you have finished scouting your starting area, send your scout out
exploring the map. Now use the mini map to lay down the hotkeys, its alot easier
than doing in it on the main screen since you have a much larger amount of
ground to cover.
Sheep Scouting
Sheep scouting plays a huge part in scouting for the first couple of minutes.
Send 1 or 2 of your first sheep scouting around in the opposite direction in
what your scout is scouting (note: don't let those first 2 sheep wander
to far from your tc, because you will be needing them fast). If you find anymore
sheep after that, use them to fill in all the black bits around your base (note:
don't forget about your sheep, once you've finished scouting with them, keep
them near the TC to avoid them been stolen).
Scouting The Enemy and Determining What His Doing
When you find your oppenent, scout he/she very well to find out what he/she is
doing. If he/she is mining heavy stone that could mean a
trush or flush defence? Remember to scout your oppenent out thougurly to
discover what you think the enemy is doing and counter he's/her's strategy
properly. Doing this takes away the element of surprise for them and will
definantly give you a huge advantage.
Other Tips For Scouting
Place your scout as group 1 (select the scout and press CTRL-1) so you can
easily find him on the mini map.
Use your starting vills to scout for your sheep if you can't find them right off
the bat.
Harress the enemy with your scout in Fuedel. This isn't really a scouting tip,
but its a great way to annoy your oppenent.
Watch expert recorded games to see how they scout. This is most probably the
best way of learning how to scout.
Objectives:
Part 1:
Scouting out YOUR area
You want to find:
1. A place to pit wood (and a place for a 2nd camp)
2. A stone mine
3. A gold mine
4. As much food as possible (your two boars, the groups of sheep-4,2,2, 1or2
groups of deer )
You're looking at the terrain to determine which mines to use, and WHERE you can
most effectively hold off or stall an enemy attack.
Part 2:
Scouting the ENEMY area
1. You want to find his resources
2. Decide which can be towered (if flushing) and attacked most easily
3. Try to deny access to one resource TOTALLY. This will do the most damage. The
terrain determines which resource(s), Gold is the best to try to go for.
4. Decide the points to keep your scout moving on. Try using the "Z"
button to patrol the points.