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!