_NeT_AnGeLs_
Knight Rush

The objective of this Strategy
The main idea of this strategy is to interrupt your opponent's economy and put him or her on the back foot, while your economy is running smoothly. This is done by attacking your enemy with knights around the 16.50mins mark, then add rams and monks. This means that you will have a castle time under 16 minutes, which is blazing by any standard! This strat is ideal for 3v3 Arabia when you are positioned in the pocket (that is, surrounded by your allies) so that you can run an undisturbed early economy.

The Plan:
Civilization: Chinese
Map Type: Arabia. Could work well on Oasis, Highland (lots of sheep, always a good forest). It could also work well in a 1v1 on a water map, surprising a galley rusher.
Number of villagers: 28 villagers in Dark Age + 2 created in feudal age. Plus one scout. Total population for castle age is 31.
Castle Time: Around 16 minutes 
Objective: To attack your enemy with knights around 16.50mins, then add rams and monks.

Basic Build Order

Dark Age:
First 5 villagers collect 10 food of berrys
Research loom
6th villager builds a house (population limit = 15) then goes on to sheep 
7th villager Builds mill
8th villager goes to berries
9th villager goes to berries
10th villager goes to straggler tree near the town centre and chops wood
11th villager goes to straggler tree
12th villager goes to straggler tree
13th villager "lures" the 1st boar. (see this guide for lureing boars) Once the boar is killed, transfer the boar lurer and a hunter back to sheep.
Meanwhile, take a woodcutter off wood and make it build a house (population limit=20) then put it back on wood.
14th villager goes to wood
15th villager goes to wood
16th villager builds a house (population limit=25)
Take 3 villagers to build a lumber camp
17th villager goes to wood
18th villager lures 2nd boar to town centre. The boar will be killed at the TC by the 5 remaining hunters. Lurer becomes hunter himself, then.
19th villager goes to wood
20th villager goes to wood
21st villager builds a farm and becomes a farmer
Take a woodcutter and make him build a house (population limit=30)
22nd villager builds a farm
23rd villager builds a farm
24th villager builds a mining camp and then mines gold
Take 2 hunters and build 2 farms
25th villager goes to gold mine and mines gold
26th villager goes to gold mine
Take 1 hunter and make him build a farm. The other 3 hunters go to pick berries.
27th villager goes to gold mine
28th villager builds a house (population limit=35)and a barracks

The Feudal Age:
Your aim here is to advance to the Castle Age as soon as possible. Remember, you need 800 food and 200 gold when your two Feudal age buildings are up (here we're going for a stable and a blacksmith: 175 + 150 = 325 wood).

one gold-miner makes a stable

2 wood choppers make a blacksmith (note: watch your stockpiles! If you see you risk not having enough gold for instance, take your builder from another ressource)

Create 2 villagers, with the TC gather point set on your gold pile. (again, watch your resources: if you fear not having enough food when the buildings are up, just produce 1 villager, or if things are going really wrong food-wise, skip villager creation altogether).

Click to advance to the Castle age
Research the following:
Double-bit axe at lumber camp
Horse collar at mill
Gold Mining at mining camp

Further villager tasks:
Direct 2 more villagers to harvesting food (farms)
Direct 2 villagers to stone
Build a second stable (you can build it in your home base or on the way to your enemy).

The Castle Age:
As soon as you reach castle age, immediately create knights from both stables (you should have enough resources to create at least 4 knights). Make the way point from the stables near the enemy.
The most important things at the moment are to keep your town centre pumping out villagers and keep the knights pumping out, so the main resources you need at that point are food and gold.
Basically, continue creating villagers at home while attacking his and making him relocate and garrison those villagers.
You really have to scout around his town to find his woodcutters, stone miners and gold miners. Once you make him garrison, you have the upper hand.

At the 18 min mark you should have enough resources to build your second town centre. Remember to keep at least 5 villagers ahead on your population limit as you now have 2 stables pumping out knights and 2 town centres pumping out villagers.

Multi-tasking (meaning doing lots of actions fast) is the key to success. You really need to monitor your economy and still attack your enemy (without losing your army to a town centre or spearmen).

Take 2 villagers and create a forward military town. Build a siege workshop and a monastery. You desperately need rams (or mangonels) to destroy the town centre and monks to heal wounded knights.

At about 22-25min mark keep building farms and make woodcutters with newly produced villagers. Build your farms around the town centre so that if need be you can easily garrison without losing a villager in case of an attack. Notice in the picture the even resources. There is no point having too much of one particular resource. I really cannot stress that enough, economic balance is the key.

The Final Assault!
Once you have at least 10 knights and 2 ram and 1 monk, attack your opponent's town centre. You need to catch him unprepared. Order the rams to attack the town centre and use your knights to attack any spearmen, villagers or mangonels that are trying to destroy the ram. Continue creating rams and make the way point on the town centre.
When attacking don't let the knights get too hurt from the enemy's army or town centre fire. Make them come back to the monk for a quick heal then resume their protection of the ram.
Once you feel like you have him on the back foot start to expand your town out. That is, create more town centres; produce villagers and keep them from becoming idle; always build farms around new town centres and place either your first or second new town centre near stone.
Now it's just a matter of keeping the pressure applied and making sure your opponent doesn't relocate and rebuild.

Tips on Economy and Scouting:
It is vital that you find either sheep or berries immediately. The "Chinese start" differs from the "standard start": you have six villagers instead of three. You need to get 50 food as quickly as possible (in time to create villagers as soon as you have researched loom). For instance, if you spot your berries but have no sheep in sight, send 5 villagers immediately to the berries (don't bother with a mill). Hopefully, when they return to your town center to drop their food, you'll have found your sheep by then so you can re-task your villagers to the sheep. If you haven't found your sheep yet, then your 7th villager will shortly have the mill up.
You need to have consistent villager production. An idle towncentre can cost you valuable seconds and every second counts. 3. You need to find all your sheep and both your boars, early.
It is important not to get housed (ie, don't forget to build your houses in time!).
Scout around your target's town to find his woodcutters, gold miners and stone miners.
Keep your villager production at home continuous.
Important: keep pressing "." (the "find idle villager" button, or the TAB button if you have change it like i have).

Tips on Attacking:

When attacking with knights it is important that you "Hit and Run". That is, when you attack villagers with knights, it is inevitable that either they will run to the town centre, or spearmen will appear to defend them. In either case, run your knights away and attack something else... which means that you have to constantly monitor your attack.
Attribute "group numbers" to your knight squads by selecting them and pressing ctrl-# (where "#" is a number from 1 to 9) and switch your view to them by pressing alt-# or #, spacebar. Go back to your town in the same way by pressing "H" or the number you have assigned to it.
Use the "defensive" attack stance so that your knights won't get lured into TC fired while your attention is somewhere else.
It is very effective to have 2 groups of knights (groups of 4) and have them attacking in 2 different places at the same time.
Have one knight on "defense" stance positioned next to your opponent's stone mines or possible booming spots (good places to drop a TC and heavy farm - usually means near a forest but with lots of space on the other sides to place farms): that will cut down his defensive and expansion options.
Wall in your opponent so he can't boom out (let's say you're attacking mainly to the north and west, put walls in the south and east so he can't sneak away his villagers and rebuild his economy somewhere else on the map).
I suggest Bloodlines and the attack and armor upgrades when you can afford them, but try to get Forging early: it means your knights will need one less strike to kill villagers.
Later in the game, remember to keep your scout (if alive - if not, build another one when you can afford it) on the move on the map to spot "extra" mines and possible rebuilding attempts by the opponent.
Answers to some common questions

Q. What should I do if I get flushed (attacked very early with towers and archers)?
You should hit the Feudal upgrade button at around 10 minutes with a good economy. Just take 3 or 4 villagers and place them on stone. Also create 2 or 3 militia. Once in Feudal age, get "Town Watch" and build an archery range instead of a stable. If it is a heavy feudal attack, do not advance to the Castle age, but fight it out while staying yourself in the feudal age. Build skirmishers and a tower in the area he is attacking. And most important, don't panic!

Q. What do I do if my partners get flushed?
This strategy offers flexibilty. By producing 6 to 8 knights early, you can have several pairs of knights which can attack the flusher on the spot of his attack or at his home base, or both (remember that the flusher usually doesn't expect an attack home, so you can deal him a lot of damage in a short time).

Q. He has so many spearmen, they're just killing my knights with ease. What can I do?
There are a few options there. You can build an archery range and pump out a few archers. Or you can produce a few extra monks and micromanage your knights and monks so that you kill some of the spears and convert some also. Be careful to heal your knights, as they are costly! Last of all, you could produce some scorpions from the siege workshop.

Q. Should I send villagers to build a forward base near my enemy's?
I take 2 villagers off wood and get them to forward build just outside the enemy town. You should have at least 8 to 12 knights by this time and the most important forward building is a temple. Your knights will be low in life and u need to pump out priests and start healing. Then you need a siege workshop to be a total menace and get rams to his town centre as soon as possible.

Q. Where should I set my TCs' gatherpoints to after I have castled?
First off take a look at your ressources. Your main needs early castle age are food and gold (for knights). Once you are really disrupting his economy get some more people on wood (as you really need to get the temple and siege workshop up). The main rule to remember is to keep resources even. There is no point in having 1000 food and no gold. Ressource management is what can win or lose you the game.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the game!