Boom - "get economy advantage"

Main advantage of this strategy is building strong economy in early castle age, but on other side you don´t have army in first times of game. You should manage to up castle between 16:20 – 17:00. Notice this is strategy for closed maps, or for middle player in tg. If you play this strategy in duel or as side in tg, you will have big troubles againts good players.

Dark Age
first seconds – economy
First time you need to click in tc and make 4 vills, build house with first 2 vills and 3rd vill + scout start scout for sheep. When you find sheep, build next house with 3rd vill. Immediately send 2 sheep under tc and vills work on sheep.

first scouting
You can set waypoints for your scout (Press shift and click about 5 flags to unexplored places, then he automaticaly explore in circle and you don´t have to care about him some seconds) When you set waypoints to scout, you can set some waypoints in close dark places for sheep last waypoint is to tc, but always make sure, that one sheep is being eated and next is alive close to killed one, set gathering point for vills to one of your sheep)



Scouting using waypoints

vills – how to send them
1-6 vills to sheep (if you find very late sheep put 7 on sheep, but only if it´s really necessary)
7,8,9,10 – build lumbercamp and cut trees around
11 – start lure boar + build house
------------- loom
12, 13,14,15 – on berries (make sure when you have about 250 food on boar, send vill to build house near 2nd boar and lure him, you can send 13th vill lure boar instead of berries.)

Now you are on 16 pop, this is usual start for classic fast castle
Next vills put to wood, then send 4 to deers, hurted vills let build farms. Make sure your tc isn´t idle during time.
you should make vills up to 28 population
manage vills:
4 on berries
9-10 on wood (on 2 lumbercamps)
4 on deers hunting by next mill (if you have good deers)
3 on gold
3-4 on sheep by tc
hurted/rest vills on farms

up to feudal
You should know position of enemy and try to scout his resources (if you are not on arena).
Manage maximal effectivity of mining (if you let mindeyour vill 1 box out of lumbercamp, you mine more wood, than in case he must makes f.e. 4 steps)


Maximal effectivity of mining. Lumbercamps should be built in holes of forest, so vills will not need to build next lumbercamp early.

You can think about his civilisation and predict what he plans to do (if you see about 4 vills on stone, he might build castle soon), if he is korea he might try push or turk fast imp etc.
During up make sure, you will go with your food up to 800, gold 200 and wood 300+ (for up buildings). If you have too much food and lack of wood, you can send vills by tc from sheep to cut trees close of tc etc.
You can delete your walls backs and get free spaces for farms in castle age (if you are on arena).
Make ready, when you hit feudal, make 2 vills in tc, 2 vills from resources will build market and one vill blacksmith. If you have much food, you can start research first lumbercamp up during up and get a little advantage.
Notice: if you have over 320 wood and lack of food build buildings with wood vills. If you have enought food , it can be built by sheep workers or by deer hunters.
If you hit before 14th minute castle up button you have good start for next ages.

up to castle
First important thing is to research first wood up (if you already didn´t do it.) scout and try to discover strategy of enemy. Manage maximal effectivity of your vills (not idle and mining as close of resources as possible)
Research first mill upgrade.
Make sure, if your berry workers aren´t gone with berries (I usually send 2 to wood or build 2 farms when they are working on last bush and 2 left on bush)

Castle age
Immediately after up research wood up and build wheel barrow in main tc, build 1 tc and then next. Build your tc by forest, so you can send them easyand fast to wood
Sometimes it´s good choose place close to gold or stone and in same time wood, tc can be touching it with corner.


This tc supports gold miners, wood cutters, farmers. New workers can be added fast to their job, they can hide if attack comes and they can give resources fast to tc.

When you think enemy is not offensive, you can send 2 vills of gold to work on food/wood. You will research second mill up later. With your strong economy upgrades start to make vills of your tcs. When you have 50 food, click to make vill, when have 60 wood make farm. You will need about 5-6 vills on farms, to make enought food for nonstop making vills from one tc. You should think about your civilisation and plans to future, if you are f.e. aztec you will be ok with 3 tcs, if you plan to make elephants or paladins, you should make at least one more tc to get strong economy for resource expensive units. Two vills on stone are usually enought if you plan to build next tcs.When you get about 20 vills on food and you are about 21th minute, you can start to send vills on gold and before up imp send to stone (if you plan to build castle units in imperial age). Research 2nd wheel barrow up and 2nd upgrade for farms, also gold and stone upgrades. Always make sure, that your tcs or vills are not idle and if you have enought time, try to manage maximal effectivity of mining. When you have vills on gold and food and you expect soon up, build 2 uprade imp buildings. I usually build university and workshop (you can make monastery and 1-2 monks to collect relics). If you plan to make castle units, you should build some castles in late castle age. Make sure your imp tc is the most safe (it´s not good to make up in one that will be probably attacked first).
Build barracks
Notice: manage your gold/wood/food with. It is not good to have like 1600 food and/500 gold. It´s the best to hit 1000 food/800 gold in similar time.

up imperial
You should be now about 100+ pop, make nonstop vills from tcs (instead of imp research one). You should have already barracks now, make next blacksmith and about 6-8 military buildings and start to research feudal + castle army upgrades and make army. Make sure you will have some resources to up your units when you hit imp. Manage your gold mines (try to work on at least 3 different places.) When you hit imp it´s time to challenge enemy, if you feel you can hurt him badly now, build 2-3 workshops near his base and start to give some in garisson of buildings for later sieging.

Imperial age
Make imperial upgrades and continue making vills up to 130 (this number depends on units you use, you will be good with about 120 vill,s if you make trash units like skirms, but will you need like 140+ for elephants/paladins), try to fill 200 pop with your military units. Make non-stop army from buildings and make more buildings forward. Try to manage gold piles and in team games trade with your allies (if you already haven´t started).

If your enemy have some opened places in eko – flood him. Build stables behind his eko. Husars are best option for it, send gathering point in middle of his eko and get him in chaos. Once I won game flooding guy from 3 different places in time I was almost dead this helped me to win.
You should always reach all upgrades for your unit and try to counter your enemy. Good luck with your imperial fights!

How to play againts enemy strategies (written for arena)

1) Dark rush – very rare situation, enemy probably do it, if you have hole in wall (when you hunted boar in dark behind wall), in other case he can do it, if you have vills forward on deers in front of wall.
Defense – Get scout to your base and research for militia and help defend vills if necessary. If you hide behind wall and put house in hole and don´t let him in, you will have advantage of earlier up castle. If he gets in build palisades around your mining vills.


Funny situation - enemy abusing weaknesses - forward deer hunters and hole in wall.

2) Feudal rush – this is also very rare. You need to build next wave of stone wall or house if he is pushing throught it. He will have up probably after 20th minute and in that time, you can have already strong boom. If he pushes with towers, send some vills to stone and build defense towers or next waves of walls so he doesn´t get in.
If you see enemy upping before 11:00 to feudal age, there is some chance he tries it, don´t panic and take it easy, massive stone walls are hard challenge for feudal attackers.

3)Rush monks + onagers – If you see enemy vills going in center of map he is probably doing some kind of rush. If you don´t see his vills, you probably notice in time, he knocks on your walls. Send some vills to stone + gold and make next wave of your walls or houses. Make some onagers to defend and try not to get him in as long as possible. If he builds units like knights, you easy counter them by monks. If he is agressive, send about 6-8 vills to stone and try to build castle near centre of attack. Onagers + castle is hard challenge for castle attackers. If he also builds castle and you try to building second one, you should stop making any army and up imp as fast as possible. Trebuchets in imp easy destroy all of your castles in short time. It is not good to build more than 2 castles in castle age. If you defend to time when you up imperial age, make many buildings and click in all making army. He will not have that much resources againts your powerful economy.
Notice: If he gets in, you should make your castle in middle place of your tcs, if he starts attack them, make some units like onagers to defend and you can build more tcs to overboom him. Do not make knights if he has monks, better solution is to make light cavalry, ca or crossbowmen if you wanna make army.

4) Castle push – you should make next wave of wall in place he can´t shoot with castle. You can add second wave of wall or some houses behind it. With onagers and defend castle he will have troubles. Notice, if you defend and have 3 tcs, he probably attacks using 1-2, you will have great economy advantage. If he is too agressive in castle, make some units do defend (monks/pikes are good againts cavalry units, crossbowmen againts monks, onagers againts crossbowmen or monk packs etc.)

5) Castle at home + petards destroying your walls – It can be unexpected, you will see petards destroying your walls and in short time army will come to your city. You should build immediately military buildings and make more tcs if you don´t have f.e. gold covered by tc. If he gets out of wall, you can fill destroyed space. If you expect this, you can upgrade your wall or build next building like houses behind your walls, he will have troubles to get in.

6) Castle attack – It can be done by knights or crossbowmen combined with some siege. If you see him attacking his walls, make next wave of walls and make onagers and some monks, if he has knights. You can make some knights too.

7) Aztec rush with eagles + monks – This is hard to counter for somebody. You can can make light cavalry and some knights againts eagles and siege. Hordes of crossbowmen supported by monks and some onagers are also good plan. Building one castle on key place can help you easier to survive.

8 ) Fast imperial – Sometimes you see your oponent up later feudal and castle, he might do fast imp. With good fast imp he ups imperial about 22th-24th minute, you usually have army on boom about 32th minute, so you would probably die fast. Good option is to make 3-6 ars and mix elite skirms with crossbowmen. If he goes husars, you can add some 2+2 armor knights. You don´t have to hurry in imperial age, it would be the worst thing you can do. He is in imperial age and have military and technology advantage. You can click up imp after 35th minute or even after 40th minute, he will have probably hand canoneers, but they are weak againts hordes of skirms/crossbowmen/knights made by boomed player. If he makes paladins or cavalry units, you counter with monks. Elite eagles are usually countered by knights in castle, you can add ca or crossbowmen if he plans to make monks,.

9) againtst other boom – In this case, you will just make vills and try to make strong eko for later imperial fights. Try to profit of your civilisation and think what your opponent can do. If you see him to be Frank, you can expect that he makes paladin, Goth will probably flood you with infrantry units.

(written by WindyHunter 7th October 2010)

Excellent

How to play against enemy strategies (written for arena)

WindyMaster <3

Press shift and click about 5 flags

- really i didn't know this thanks

windy, that text is really awesome, the pictures are really good setted pls make more

It look really good ^^

I often tend to reach castle around 19 min in BF so maybe I should change my start a bit. One thing I often do in BF (which I hope is a good startegy) is to buy wheel barrow in early Feudal age and wood upg (if I have enough food) while I w8 for my villagers to gather all food before buying Castle upgrade. Though this tactic requires pop 28 or 29 before buying Feudal upg.

Olof wrote:It look really good ^^

I often tend to reach castle around 19 min in BF so maybe I should change my start a bit. One thing I often do in BF (which I hope is a good startegy) is to buy wheel barrow in early Feudal age and wood upg (if I have enough food) while I w8 for my villagers to gather all food before buying Castle upgrade. Though this tactic requires pop 28 or 29 before buying Feudal upg.

I watched many fast castles of L_clan_chris, he often manages to up with 26 pop from dark without of loom and reach castle around 15:30, but this is hard to balance all your economy and reach 800 food and 200 gold to up castle. Good civ for it is mong or some civ that has early economy bonuses. I think 28 pop is good for all players and you get 2 extra vills that help you build stronger eko in early times. I learned fc up and upping castle during 16th minute is really helful. I saw some recs of chris, when he builds wheels barrow on feudal age, it is good option if you forgot to build houses, put +2 vills are more public. We calculated statistics with one mate and if you have 35+ more vills it worths to make wheel barrow instead of more vills. Many boomers make wheel barrow in time they hit castle, I like this option the most.

Thank you for your comments guys, I like to help clan with some articles and discuss about public strategies.

I watched many fast castles of L_clan_chris, he often manages to up with 26 pop from dark without of loom and reach castle around 15:30, but this is hard to balance all your economy and reach 800 food and 200 gold to up castle.

Yeah it is a bit hard, but with training it works well. I now think, after watching some good Michi players, that pop 26 might be the best option for an fast boom. This way you reach castle around 15-16 minutes.

We calculated statistics with one mate and if you have 35+ more vills it worths to make wheel barrow instead of more vills. Many boomers make wheel barrow in time they hit castle, I like this option the most.

Interesting. Though I watched one of the best Michi players [RoR]Nightmare play, and he didn´t seem to buy wheel barrow until after he bought the imperial upgrade. He managed to reach imperial within 26 or 27 minutes and go siege onager rush at 30 minutes ^^