Speed
Being fast is very important. Always try to do things as fast as possible,
so you can spend more time on other things which you naturally try to as
fast as possible as well. Then there are three other things you can do.
Learn hotkeys, speed up your mouse, and resolution.
THE MOUSE – The topic on what settings
to have your mouse on is very debated. It doesn’t help that there is a big
difference in how you control a optical and a regular mouse. Personally I’ve
moved around a lot with my settings and currently have my speed on close to
fastest while my acceleration is off. You can set scroll rate (naturally on
highest) in the AoC options (where I hope you already have highest
resolution). Scrolling with Arrow keys is not recommended as you then wont
be able to do as much with hotkeys.
HOTKEYS - Learn all hotkeys. Preferably
even change them to make them suit you even better. I myself have tried to
keep them all at the left.
RESOLUTION - In AoC
options put the resolution on highest. It is faster and you are able to see
more of them map, which means better control.
Economy
RTS is really about being able to build up and maintain your economy while
trying to kill your opponents with warfare-units. The economy is the key to
it all. Often overlooked by beginners and as often perfected by experts.
Therefore I recommend you to pay lots of attention to this article.
BOOMING - Dark and feudal age booming is
simply to keep making villagers in the TC non-stop (except when researching
new age or getting wheelbarrow etc).
In castle age you should try to mass multiple TCs and keep them building
villagers non-stop. Ideal placement for TCs are to protect certain areas, be
close to natural resources and especially then close to resources that you
need at the moment.
In imperial age its basically just to keep replacing those villagers that
you lose in the fighting and keep spreading out over the map so you quickly
can reboom in some area to make up for enemy killing your economy in a
different area.
The ideal villager number to have is around 120. When having more villagers
you naturally can’t mass as big armies as with a lower villager population,
but you can keep spending and replacing your warfare-units.
BALANCING ECONOMY - I'm in early feudal
skirm war. I have 40 food, 300 wood and 400gold. Should I then go archers
(that cost wood/gold) to balance my economy that way? Pure suicide.
Skirmishers will kill the archers and then move in on my villagers.
Lets say u go skirms still... the results then will be a very late castle.
There is something more that you need! Economy balance.
Balancing economy for specified goals is imo maybe the most important thing
in AoC. Its very hard to master. And you can always get better at it. A
great balancer of economy can do wonders.
Example: Defensive
feudal
Lets say you have a great map for walling and want to use it to castle
rather quickly to turn the battle around with your new knights. So maybe
around 22-23min you should be able to hit castle upgrade if you have done
some walling and cut down on your army production much. Which of these
resources stats would u want to have then?
Wood Food Gold
1.600 500 0
2.100 800 200
3.400 400 600
I think all of us would say alternative 2 because then you are able to reach
ur goal of being able to hit castle upgrade. Notice alternative 3 has much
more resources but they are not balanced and the player HAVING those
resources will not be able to castle in a while.
Once you have understood the philosophy of this it is just practice and more
practice.
Philosophy of Economy balance: Balance your economy towards one or more
goals. A good balancer with small economy can out produce a bad balancer
with big economy.
Micro
What is micro? Micro is all the small stuff that you do, both economical and
with warfare units.
When to micro?
When you have time for it simply. When there is nothing more important like
making new villagers or moving your army. The border between what is micro
and what isn't can be hard to tell.
Some micro techniques:
BUILDING SCOUTING - Hit hotkeys for
build+building and move it over an explored area. You will now notice that
when you move it over an area where enemy has buildings or units it will
turn red showing that you cant build there. You don't actually place the
building on the ground. Just move it over the ground.
This naturally works with all buildings. I'd recommend palisades or houses
for it though.
Use the trick to find enemy forwards, know if he is going stone/gold or to
find his army.
Note: Often mistaken
for a similar trick where you actually put down the building on the ground
but never send your villagers there to build it, as it then remains on 0 Hit
points (=enemy can’t see nor hit) while giving you a view on every unit that
passes over it. This trick I find much worse but it can be used around enemy
gold or over wolfs for example.
EFFECTIVE ECONOMY - Small things that
added together can do a noticeable difference.
When mining gold or wood, try to not have the villagers bump INTO each
other. Instead move them to a different tree or gold pit.
When villagers begin to walk too long FROM lumber camp to wood, build
another lumber camp next to the wood.
BALANCE ECONOMY - When you want more
food and have much wood. Build some more farms. If you have too much gold
and want more wood move some gold miners to wood. I think you get the
picture.
This is something that you ought to be doing all the time. With hotkeys it
is done very fast and it has a huge impact on your economy and game play.
WARFARE - There are loads of things you
can do here.
In feudal your scout gets +2 in attack as we all know. If you try to kill
one of the enemies villagers chance is that he will just get help from his
buddies and you will have to flee. That isn't the case if you attack one of
the villagers that have low hit points (from boar catching etc), chances are
big you will kill him before he can get rescued. Alone villagers that are
building something a bit away from the other villagers are also good goals
to attack with your scout. Attacking units with low hp is generally always
paying off.
Lets say you have skirms+few spears vs. your opponents scouts and skirms.
Add your spears and skirms to different #number groups or just double-click
every time you want to use the sort of unit. Make the skirms attack his
skirms while your spears attack his scouts.
This situation might sound a bit weird but it happens quite a lot for me and
might give you some ideas for other things as well.
Your chasing away your enemies cavalry with your own. It’s a blur of units.
Some of his are first... then some of yours and then some of his. Rather
than just following the cavalry of his (no point because you won’t be able
run faster than his) attack the ones in the back. You will get in several
hits on them that might even kill them.
When enemy is coming with mangonel towards your archers. Hit the hotkey for
staggered formation and run away. If you got some cavalry, send them to kill
the mangonel and then send your archers back.
Always when you think that the enemy army will win yours, run. Always when
you think that you will win, attack.
Lets say enemy is coming with melee units in feudal (Men at arms, scouts,
drush). Wall in your gold miners.
No matter what he is coming with, if enemy army is bigger than yours or if
you got no one at home and he is approaching your wood. Make a wall from
wood to the TC farms so that enemy army will have to walk through your TC to
get into your wood (so you can shoot at his army with your TC if he dares to
move in).
A usual situation. Enemy has Men at Arms and a few skirmishers. Best thing
then is naturally to have an army combo of skirms and archers as well. As
with the spears and skirms vs. scouts and skirms situation you can earn much
from hitting the enemy skirms with your own skirms and his Men at Arms with
your archers.
But you should also use the "Hit and Run" strategy. Shoot at the Men at
Arms. Then flee. Then shoot again. Then flee. Eventually you will kill all
of them.
The "hit and run" strategy can be applied to many similar situations. Like
disturbing villagers with your skirmishers. When he send them to attack your
skirms, run away. When he goes back to work you attack him again etc.
Training Methods
1. Start playing much 1vs1 rated. Preferably Arabia. Use different
strategies and perfect them. Learn and remember them, so that you wont mess
up when you do them again. Playing in rated will get you tough opponents and
will SHOW you what works and what doesn't = Experience.
2. After every game you win and especially after everyone that you lose
analyze what you did good or bad. What opponent did good or bad. And they
keys to what ended the game. Remember it so you can avoid doing those
mistakes again or remember it so you can do the good things again but even
better.
Its not as easy to just play the game lots and eventually you will arrive at
Koven's level. Play vs. the right opponents, analyze your game and get
information from other players thru recorded games or articles such as this
one.
Good luck |