CHINESE KNUSH
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 16'30", 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.
Basic Build OrderDark Age:
First 6 villagers go to the first food source sighted (in this particular demo its sheep)
7th villager builds a house (population limit = 15) then a mill
Research loom
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. After hitting the boar twice, it heads back to the town center (garrison it if necessary), where 6 awaiting shepherds become hunters. 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
*CLICK ADVANCE TO FEUDAL*
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 gatherpoint set on your gold pile. (again, watch your ressources: 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 ADVANCE TO CASTLE*
CASTLE AGE:
While you are on your way to Castle, research the following:
Double-bit axe at lumbercamp
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).
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 17 minute 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. From the 20 minute to the 22 minute mark things are going pretty smoothly economy and military-wise. My population grows from 53 to 63 (in the demo game), I research town watch and wheelbarrow (at the town centre) and forging (at the blacksmith). 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. 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.
FINAL ASSAULT:
Once you have at least 10 knights and 1 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 span 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.
