How to get through the early rush

In the first previous post I gave some points how to go for a archer rush build. This time I'll give some tips how to avoid and get through the first rush. Remember that if you defend correctly without letting him do you some considerable damage you have a big advantage over him resource wise. In a team game you have to consider many things when preparing for a rush. Your location is the first thing to consider. In a 6-8 team game if your located in the middle you can be a bit complacent about where you place your lumber mills and other buildings but if your in the corner you have to build your base in a systematic way so it isn't easy for your enemies to take you down.
If your in the bottom part of the map then your lucky since you have an automatic protection from the side that is most likely an attack could come, since your castle is situated nicely to the side the attack could come. Castle's have a great attack and a range so its almost impossible to do an early rush from the side the castle is on.
If somebody's rushing you with archers when your still in dark age then you have a long way to go learning to play Regicide type of games. Mostly an early rush will come when your in Feudal age. Mostly he will rush with some Archers and pike men or Archers and swordsman. If the bases are not that near the enemy have to spend some time moving his units and finding a nice place to attack giving you more time. Protecting your town center with houses is a good way to save your villagers and farm without much hassle. Build your house close to each other around your town center.Leave some space for farms as well. Building your lumber camps near the castle is another thing you can do to avoid falling back in the economy.
When someone is rushing you should at least have some archers to defend your base. Without an army it is pretty much impossible to defend a base. Best units to defend a base are archers. If you are very good at moving your units a small force of archers can defend until help arrives or until you build up the army. Remember that enemy has to come to your base so other than his initial force he has to spend some time to bring in more troops. Move your archers back and forth between the castle and the town center , this way he either has to come and kill your archers ( getting hit by the castle and the town center in the process ) or he will have to destroy some buildings that are out of castle and town center range. Archers are poor at taking down building so you have a slight advantage here since his archer force is wasted because he didn't kill many villagers. Target his swordsman if he brought any of them since they are good at taking down buildings.
If you have successfully defended one of the best things to do is send your remaining force to his base. Most likely you will have some archers left so take them and try to take out some of his villagers. Since he concentrated on attacking most likely he hasn't planned his town well so look for vulnerable spots and try to take out some of his villagers. In future I'll give some tips to how to do a tower rush and how to avoid one.