Archer Rush Build

As the title suggests this post is a guide to doing an archer rush. Although this can be done by any civ some civ's have an advantage because of their bonuses,like the low cost farms of Teutons will reduce the wood spent on farms and help produce more archers.

1. H , Shift + C , Shift + C
This will produce 10 villagers from your town center
2. Select all your villagers and build a mill near the bushes. ( B , I )
Search around and find the bushes immediately as this is vital to a quick rush
3. Select the first created villager and build a lumber camp near the trees. ( B , Z )
Set the rally point of your town center to a tree near the lumber camp so the newly created villagers will go there.
4. Search with your King and scout and find the 8 sheep nearby your base and send them to the town center.
Sheep are free food so you should make full use of them. If there are any deer around send tow foragers to hunt them. More free food... , and what about wild boar ?? attach with three to four villagers and when he comes to attack send the villager that is attacked near the mill and around it if its not dead by the time he gets there.
5. Select the sixth create villager and send him to build a mining camp near the gold mines ( B , G )
Send the next two villager to the mining camp.
6. Send the ninth created villager to build a mining camp near the stone.
Stone is needed if your rush was unsuccessful and you need to defend.
7. Use the tenth villager to build a house ( B, E )and then a barrack ( B , B )
After building the barrack build about 3-4 more houses depending on your wood.
8. Advance to Feudal age
If you have found the bushes quickly and build up properly you should reach 500 food during the house is build. After clicking advance to feudal age send 4 of your foragers to the lumber camp.
9. First things to do in Feudal age
Research double bit axe ( lumber camp ) , Gold Mining ( mining camp ) and wheel barrow ( town center ). Build two archery ranges and a blacksmith. Start producing archers and some pikemen if your worried that the enemy might have cavalry ready when your rushing.
10. Attack
Soon as you produce 15-20 archers and some pikemen send them to one of your enemy bases. Do the upgrades for archers in your blacksmith if you can spare the gold. This is a must for Spanish player since their blacksmith upgrades doesn't cost gold.

Little Things That Keep You In The Game

In one of my previous posts I gave some tips on how to keep your king safe. But keeping the king alive alone wont win you games. If your base gets destroyed and your not able to produce armies to support your allies , chances are you will eventually lose the game. In this post we'll look at some things you can do to stay in the game , even if your base is destroyed.
Some civ's have a advantage when it comes to surviving. For example since the Huns don't need houses it is pretty easier to build up again when your playing Huns. Since most civ's don't have this luxury they have to prepare with a backup plan.
One thing that you can do is not to build all your houses nearby in a heap. Because the enemy players can easily destroy all your houses once and seriously slow your progress. Build some around your base and build in your allies base as well. Always have a small base setup with about 5 farmers and 5 woodcutters working. Make this small base as far away from the battle line as possible. If possible build a castle near that base this not only gives you additional protection from harassing horse archers it also gives you population capacity of 20 limits. Build your unit producing building behind the base and like houses don't build them all in a heap. This is one of the easiest ways an enemy can destroy you. Since all your unit producing building are destroyed and your villagers are running it will slow you down considerably. Building some unit producing structures near your small base is good idea.
If you feel like you cant defend your base the best thing to do is flee to the small base you setup and build up there. First thing you have to do is setup the Market and start sending those carts again. Usually an overrun of a base happens during mid game or late game. So you should have plenty of resources at hand except gold. So build up some barracks and start producing some Halberdiers. Their great at taking out raiding cavalry. If you have relics in your base make sure to take them with you since they are a important source of gold. Even when rebuilding don't just defend , send some units to their trade route and harass them since when their concentration is not on you , you can build up easily. If you see your allies base getting destroyed and you thing you cant help him out best thing is attack the enemy who's attacking your ally since most of his army is near your allies base. Always remember offense is the best form of defense.

Flooding Infantry with Goths

Barrack units are the most cheapest units in the game and with Goths they become even cheaper , 25% cheaper to be precise when it come to imperial age. Add perfusion ( One of Goths unique techs) to that and you have a civ that is capable of producing mass armies very quickly and very cheaply. With Anarchy ( The other unique tech of Goths ) you can start producing Huskarls ( Goth Unique Unit ) from barracks so it is very easy to take care of archers. Because of their ability to produce large armies almost instantly it is very hard to destroy a Goth base and very hard to stop a Goth attack when in full flow. One civ that can take out Goths easily is Turks because of Janissaries. So be a bit careful when playing against Turks. With Huskarl Goths have a barrack capable of countering almost any unit in the game. If your enemy hit you with Cavalry you can instantly produce some Halberd's and counter attack them.No civ can match the infantry of Goths and Huskarls just demolishes archers. Goth Barrack units also have a +1 attack against buildings so destroying building with Champions is not a problem since they already have a attack bonus against buildings.
Another advantage with Goths is that it is not that dependent on gold ,so protecting trade routes is not that much of a hassle. Mostly in games that goes for a while Goths usually end up with lots of extra gold. Don't waste those gold buy some stone and build up some castles so you can go to the battle front without worrying too much about your base defense. Food and wood is the most important things you need. Experienced players usually try to kill Goth wood cutters early because it seriously slows down their progress. Be sure to protect your lumber camps , put up tow lumber camps in two locations so you want get stuck with no wood.
Goths are a great civ to play and a great civ to support any civ. Because of the team bonus ( Barracks work 20% faster ) alone they are a good ally to have. So have fun playing Goths.

Ruling with Turks

Turks are a very impressive civ especially in the late game. Their unique unit Janissary can take out Infantry and Cavalry with ease , but are vulnerable against spear men and archers. So try to avoid engaging civilizations like Britons , Chinese and the Mayans. What make this unit unique is there incredible damage , especially so when attacking as a bunch. A fleet of janissaries can take out a cavalry fleet easily if used correctly. Turks also have an additional +2 range for bombard cannons , bombard towers and cannon galleons. This is also very useful since you can take out any castle except the Teuton castle without getting hit , so you don't need to build Trebs.
One disadvantage of playing turks is that they are gold heavy civ so you need to protect your trade route by all means. Since your best unit is produced from the castle you need a lot of stone to build few castles. And if the enemy take outs few of your castles you'll be helpless since your cavalry or infantry is not that strong. So it is always better to be defensive in the early game since you can rule in the late game.
Best way to counter Turks is using archers. Try to rush him with some archers early and take out their gold and stone miners as quickly as possible so he want be able to build some castles quickly. Harassing the trade route is also a good way to slow down the turks , since they are heavily gold dependent. Another this you must avoid with Turks is try to attack a fleet of Janissaries with a small forces of Cavalry. I have seeing countless players trying this and coming back without killing a single janissary. Always attack with archers and you have a pretty good chance of coming out on top, Britons can totally own Turks because of their superior range.

Team Game Starategies

In AOE you get team bonuses for different civilizations , some are impressive but some are not that impressive. For example the Spanish team bonus is very impressive since your trade carts generate 33% more gold. Team bonuses where the unit production speed increase are also good. Huns ( Stable ) , Brits ( Archery Range ) , Goths ( Barracks ) and Celts ( Siege Workshop ) improves unit production rate by 20%. So when selecting civilizations in a team game it is important consider these team bonuses. And once you select your teams it is important that use them effectively. For example if one of your team mates is playing Byzantines and you haven't made any monk , then your wasting the 50% more healing rate your monks get because of Byzantine bonus.
Trade carts play a big role in team games. Protecting your trade routs is a must especially if your playing a gold heavy civ like Turks , Spanish or Teutons. Always build your market close to your castles so it is well protected. And when sending carts to an allies markets don't send all to one market , this is a very risky strategy since if his market gets destroyed you have to redirect all your carts to a another market , delaying your gold income. The number of carts you create depends on your civ and the population limit. With most civ's if its a 200 population limit game you can create about 30 carts , but for civ's like Goths you don't need that much since you dont't need huge amounts of gold. Another important thing to remember is that if your market gets destroyed you should immediately create a new one and signal your allies. Otherwise he might not notice that his trade carts are not working and suddenly finds himself short of gold.
Since trade routes are very important one good way to slow down your enemy is to attack there trade route. Trade carts have low hit points and can be killed easily. You can create about 10-15 cavalry archers , go straight to his trade routs , kill about 5-6 trade carts and retreat to your base. If you keep doing this he either has to post some units there or have to send units to protect the route again and again. This not only limits his gold but distracts him as well making his progress very slow. When taking trade carts always try to take trade carts of gold heavy civ's like Turks , Huns or Spanish.

Sneak Attack Strategies

In the last post I talked about sneak attacking with Huns , Since every civilization doesn't have Tarkans lets see what other civilizations can do. One of the best options is to send some Petards followed by Cavalry Archers. Petards have an attack bonus against buildings so they will make quick work of Castles. Some civilizations have siege engineers ( University ) which makes the Petards really destructive. Always make sure to follow up with some Cavalry Archers to finish off the King. Normal Archers are also good but they are very slow to move and very vulnerable to attacks.
Another good combination is about 5-6 trebs and Cavalry Archers. Japanese have bit of an advantage in this move since their trebs fire and pack faster. Be sure to take some pike men or Halberdiers to protect the trebs from Cavalry units.
Even if the King escapes your sneak attack if you play your cards right you can get a considerable advantage. When a sneak attack comes some players panic and send their kings to the allies base , this gives you a slight advantage since now he doesn't have control over the building the King is in , so your chance of the next sneak attack increases. And when a sneak attack comes your opponents focus is primarily on the king , so make this a good opportunity to kill some of his villagers. And sometimes he might pull his armies back giving you sometime to regroup. So sneak attacks are one of the best ways to win Regicide games. In the next post we'll see some general things that can and should be done playing AOE.