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Training
This site is a self training site, but don't read the whole thing and think that will make you an expert. It's more like.. how you learn Golf. You keep swinging and adjusting small things at a time until your swing is right. Then you beat people and brag (in that order). Anyway, small things at a time. Try focusing on your start and getting people moving before 15 sec. Then move on to rushing, and then quick econ. Focus on one thing at a time.. You've been a newb for a long time. A little more time won't hurt!
First, Check out Hotkeys Section. There, you'll learn why to adjust your hotkeys and suggestions for new hotkeys. Make sure you skim all the topics. The 'Patrol' topic is very important.
Second, Check out the 'Speed' section. There, you'll learn how to build effectively. That means maximum building in minimal time.
Third, take a look at the 'Military' section. This is the longest section and stuff that can't be covered in a day. It's also things many of you know. I recommend reading the shorter paragraphs and move on.
Fourth is economy. Economy is something players either get or don't. Some people, I can't emphasize it enough, and others focus too much on it. The best tip I can give is to make it while attacking or while defending. A battle should be going on...
Fifth is raiding. Raiding is easy and doesn't take a lot of skill, time, or resources. It will give you an advantage though.
Six is Huns Strategies... Why Huns ? Simply because it's the most popular 1vs1 civ in RM and DM..learning them will make you understand the basics of pretty much every civilizations.
Seven is Micro. But i recommend getting the hang of the basics stuff first before working on your micro.
Recorded Games Teaches you to analyze recorded games and improve without someone telling you what to do. That is very important when you become better than most regular dm'ers
Mains Points
Use hotkeys.
Default hotkeys limit your potential.
Go To Commands add to speed in mid/late game.
Utilize the mouse wheel. You can scroll down four times before you click twice.
Screen resolution should be on highest it can possibly go.
Scroll speed should be high.
My Hotkeys -- CooKiEs
Mains Hotkeys
The Mouse wheels Is OFTEN used by Experts... it's an extra boost which is easy to use...Some Hotkeys aren't there ... im just posting the "REQUIRED ONES" For the rest you can use your own.
Actually, if i think about it, You can use your own set of hotkeys as long you're fast with it, the only thing i think is really required is the mouse wheel.
Pressing on the Mouse Wheel Should Be Your "Go to Town Center Hotkey"
In Your Town Center .. You Should Create Villis With "Mouse Wheel Down" ( Scroll Down To Create Villis)
E Should Be "Ask Villi to Build a Archery Camp"
T Should Be Your Go To Idle Villi
D Should Be" Ask Villi To Build A Barrack"
C Should Be " Ask Villi To Build A Stable"
X Should Be " Go To Your Stable "
S Should Be " Go To Your Barrack"
W Should be " Go To Your Archery Camp"
G Should Be " Ask Villi to Build a Market"
H Should be " ask villi to build a castle"
R Should Be "ask villi to build a building from the Military Buildings"
Space Bar Should Be "Ask Villi to Build House"
Space Bar Should Also be "economy Buildings"
Mouse Wheel UP Should be used for Skirm(Archery Camp) Hussar (Stable) Eagles(Barrack)
Mouse Wheel Down Should Be used for Paladins(Stable) Halbs ( Barrack) Heavy Cavalry Archer (Archery Camp)
Z Should be "ask villi to build a Town Center"
Example: At Start .. If You Want To Make's 5 Stables ...Your Going To Queue Up Your Town Center With Villis ( Press Middle Mouse Wheel Then Scroll Down With Mouse Wheel ....)
Then You Press T ( Go To Idle Villi)
Then Press R ( Military building Section)
Then C (Build a Stable)
If You Want to Make A COUPLE Of Stables Without Going Throught ( T , R, C) Again You need to hold the shift button....
Patrol
Patrol is a command (hotkey Z) that tells your units to walk back and forth between two spots. When they see an enemy, they immediately attack it. This is very helpful when attacking because if you patrol to their enemy base, you know for sure they'll see an enemy. Patrol is more effective than just telling a group of units to attack one unit.
I use patrol most of the time.
Shift
We all know holding shift while building things will allow us to build more than one at time, but what happens when you use it when building units? It creates more than one at a time(Shift Make 5 units)! The difference is pressing 15 times and 3...
Main Points
Speed isn't just for rushing.
Main factors in early game are:
Building placement.
One villager to one building.
Use Go To Commands.
Use every building you build. Keep them working.
Speed is more important than the units you build.
Buildings
How you build is one of the biggest factors in how fast you are, so:
Villies don't walk. Villies should only walk 0-1 tile before they start building at start of game.
Build tight and around your Town Center. A circular motion will allow villies to spend less time walking to your buildings, and more time building.
One villager to one building. Why? For every extra villa added to a building, that villa loses efficiency. Two people have 3 villas. Blue puts 1 villa to 1 building. Red puts all 3 villas to 1 building, and after they're complete, starts another one. By the time Red gets 2 buildings, Blue will have 3. That's speed.
What to build is up to you... If you're an infantry civ, start with about 8-10 barracks. If you're a castle civ (mongols), start with your strongest units (camels), and castle in the spots between them to get castles up early.
If you build something, USE it. Imagine if i were sitting behind you and was about to delete your building if units weren't being produced within 5 seconds. It's not hard, hold shift and press your hotkey 3 times...
Now you got some speed!
Start
Press Middle Mouse Wheels, Shift + Scroll Down (Mouse Wheel)
Then Sent Scout to Ennemy Berry Bush
Step 2
Got villies building asap. Notice where they walked to( Walking Time = 0 Secs). Also All of Them Are Working Under 15 SECS (Clock Time press f11 if u want to see time) At Start (Dont forget to queue up Town Center First before doing Step 2) Now Press T ( First Idle Villi) Then R ( Military building ) Then The Building of Your Choices ( Mostly Barracks and Stables).. Do This 2 Times (3 times if your playing with huns) for the 3rd villi Press T (Idle Villi) Then SPACE BAR (Economy Building) Then Space Bar Again ( build Houses)
Step 3
Build military while keeping 1 villa to 1 building. Gotta be fast. ( Spread Villis 1 Per Building ) DO NOT FORGET TO QUEUE UP BUILDING WITH UNITS !
Go To Command
The Go To Commands are the best way to build units in mid and late game. When your resources run low, and queue'ing your buildings will only put a couple buildings to work, you're wasting all the empty ones. A solution would be to build a coupel in each building but that takes too long. This is when you use the Go To Commands. Pressing W and E at the same time 10 times takes a couple seconds and you'll have put one unit in each building.
Some people have taken this to the extreme, and use it to build all their units. Blitzkrieg (one of the best aoc players) is one. He gets into a rhythm of pressing his Go To Command, then Shift + Unit Hotkey. Then he repeats this. That's for in the beginning. Then, he uses the above paragraph to build units. Personally, I think this takes too much concentration. It is very effective if done right though.
Main Points
Speed topic below.
Use counter units and expect them to use counter units.
Don't save resources.
"What to Build..." topic under "All units have their place" heading.
Start with Stables or Barracks.
Clumping is obselete (bad).
Topics like "Anti-Huns" are more important than topics like "Huns"
Speed !
Speed is important because 40 champs against 30 champs.. 20 will survive, not 10. Just a few more units could make the difference between winning a battle and losing.
This is the 2vs1 Rule ... ( 2 Pals vs 1 Pal ... The lonely paladin will die without killing any of the 2 paladins)
Counters Units
When I put together my initial army, I try to counter all the counters within that army.. Lost? OK, i start with camels. Halbs counter camels, so i need a counter for halbs. That's why i build hand cannoneers. The guy will probably add arbs to his army if he can... His halb/ arb army will deal with my camel fairly quick leaving my gunz (hand cannoneers) to be eaten by his arbs. If i added champs to my army, his arbs might pick them off, but i'll deal with the halbs quickerand lose less camels.. then my camels will attack the archers while the champs walk up and slaughter them! So, now we have a good solid army.
Camels, Champs, and Gunz! A lot of scopions would deal with this, but I attack before he can even start to build siege (siege builds very slowly). AND, I can sell wood at the market because this army doesn't use wood. There are a couple more counter to all these units. Castles and towers. If we add rams to the army, we can take any army... Our rams might even catch some of the archer's arrows.
This is one of my favorite combinations when rushing. Turks and Saracens have this combo. Try the patrol rush with it, and castle/tower on top of the guy.
Resources
Think of resources as worthless until you use them to buy something. They have no value or purpose in resource form. You have to convert them into military before they benefit you. SO. Turn your resources into military! Don't ever save gold of food or wood... Use them all, and try to run out evenly. Let's say you're saracens and have a lot of wood left over. Sell it if it's useless as wood... If you have 12k wood (no gold or food), and the price is 17 at market, that could be 1.7k gold and 2k wood, which is more valuable than just 12k wood... So, Never die with resources!
Sometimes resources determine what you build. If you're out of gold. Make halbs or pikes! even if they're fighting champs. Instead of your gold units dieing, you're non-gold units will take the hits, so you can save your good units. Let's say you're doing a goth war, and you have a bunch of hand cannons left over, but no gold. He sends champs to go kill them. Instead of reaching your hand cannons though, the champs are stopped by... HALBS. The champs of course rape them, but you don't lose any hand cannons!
Here's a final thought. dying with 2k gold is dying. Dying with 0 gold is dying... Might as well use it and see what happens.
All Units Have Their Place.
All Units Have Their Place...
Halbs- Sweet Unit because they don't cost gold, and if gold units are killing halbs.. They're not killing your gold units. That's why they're so great when you're lacking gold.
Champs- Great when you're attacking other infantry or you're low on wood.
Skirms- Skirms suck. They're effective against archers, right? Who is going to just build archers? Skirmishers attack the closest unit to you. That means that if they have paladins and horse archers, ALL the paladins have to die before it will even shoot at a horse archer! The only time I can justify building them is if you're using them to protect gold units or you have no gold. Say... you're mayans or britts. You're castle units build slow, and you all ready have archers so you build skirms. You stay at pop and since skirms have less range, they stand in front of the bowmen/plumes. That means the skirms die first, and you're good units stay alive killing longer. They're kinda like decoys!
Hand Cannons- Expensive for what you get.. They're weak, and if I can avoid building them, I do. Instances where they're good to build.. When the other person is building infantry that are effective against archers. Hand Cannons rape Eagles and Husks while Arbs do not.
Arbs- If I need range quick, I will build Arbs. However, in the middle of the game, they lose their effectiveness.
Heavy Calvary Archers- I realize huns made this popular for other civs, but.. NO. Personally, I think they're only good for killing trade. At 70 gold, I'd rather build a Scorp.
Hussar- Hussars are good to takes attacks when you're using a civ that demands lots of gold and wood, but little food. For example: Mongols and Koreans.
Paladin- Many people are confused about the purpose of Palies. Why build a unit that isn't really effective against anything but so many things are effective against it? Well, enough paladins with some kind of range behind will kill any army, and when another unit is produced, kill it before your enemy can mass units. We all know what happens when a large army is sitting right next to our military producing buildings. They don't die but all your units do. Paladins great at putting someone in this situation. 4 Halbs might take down a paladin, but how many halbs does it take to kill 4 paladins attacking 1 halb at a time?
Camel- Camels are the best anti-paladin. If you're saracens, they can even take the place of a paladin!
Scorps- I like Scorpions, but they're not good in the beginning of the game. Building them will get you killed! In mid game tho.. If you put them next to a castle on defensive mode. They rock. It might even be wise to build a castle where your Scorpions are going to be. Pay close attention to enemy color on the minimap while you're moving scorps tho.
Rams- Rams take range like it's nothing. The more aggressive you are, the more rams you should make..
Onagers- One disadvatage is that you can't patrol them. That's why they're best for defence and taking out range.
Treb- Great when rams can't get the job done...
What To Build...
What I build is mostly dependant on what I have resource-wise. It's a good idea to run out of all resources evenly. That means, If you're Franks and have 1k stone, 5k gold, 8k wood, and 6k food. Build 100 villies, 15 paladins, almost 50 scorps, a few Halbs, a couple Trebs, 2 Castles to protect Scorps, and some barracks and stables by farms (help protect).
That leaves me at pop (assuming I have some army and 20 villies from start left over) with a nice sized military. It also leaves me with a booming and protected economy. What I don't have are resources (no stone, gold, wood, or food), but by the time my military dies, I bet I do...
Your Turn!
Think of other ways you could spend those resources with other civs and run out evenly. It's hard with those high numbers... Good thing I usually only have 1k of each resource!
Civs @@
These are my personal settings, but remember.. I almost always like to rush, and squander resources...
Aztecs:
Waypoint rush with eagle warrior.
Build Champs or Pikes (whatever counters) and Arbs in back. Patrol in.
Castle on top, and make trebs to treb buildings.
Rams of course too!
Sell wood, a little food, and 1k stone.
Start with 4-5 Barracks, 2-3 Castles, 5-6 Archery Ranges, Siege Shops.
Britons:
Start with Champs or Halbs or both..
Make archeries and produce Arbs
Patrol in. If they get raped. Stop....
Make max no. of castles with 2 villies on each.. Keep producing arbs and champs
Sell Food, a little wood. Mine stone too.
Late game.. Long Bows and Onagers.with plenty of trebs to knock down buildings quick. Only use melee units to kill rams. Long Bows kill onagers...
Byz:
This civ is hilarious simply because it's like, one of the most dumbass civ of the game, i don't think there's millions of way to play them, just watch against what you're playing, go with Halbs,Arbalets,Camels if you're playing against a Cavalry civ, if you're playing against an infantry civ, just go with Cathas,Arbalets,Ram's,Champ's, Against sieges.. nothing really to do.. either kill him fast with paladins rush and tower on top of it.. other then that you're pretty much screwed.
Celts:
I like to start with 2 stables even though they palies are 2nd rate..
Then Barracks, then castles, and woads. I of course patrol these units in with rams...
What about scorps? Scorps produce slow, so producing them in early game might get you killed. The disadvantage with making paladins and building up before building scorps is that you lose resources... But wait... We got villies to get those... Anyway, the rush fails, but gives you time to build scorps and economy.
Celts are easy, and a very strong civ. Econ is nice because you can run out of resources evenly... I always like to collect wood, farm, and mine at same time....
Chinese:
3-4 Barracks, 2-3 Stables, 4-5 Castles should be you're usual Chinese start, Chinese is an awesome civ, there's not millions of way to play them, as long you make tons of chukonus and no scorps at all.
Goths
2 villie on rax. 1 vill on house. Make Huskarls. Make more barracks, and most villies on houses. Pruduce all huskarls, and way point them in to kill villies. especially house villies. If you have men back there, keep them there waiting for villies. While they wait they can knock down a house.
Market. Sell Wood, and 1k Stone
Castle on top of them, and make siege workshops. make onies, and some scorps cuz you'll be running low on food.. the scorps will be fine sitting by castles and protecting trebs. The reason i hate scorps is that they're hard to attack with.. They always seem to get raped, but if they dont' move, and they just kill stuff attacking trebs.. it's all good.
IF you can. IF... IF the guy isn't good, and you've got a bunch of husks still alive at his base. DESTROY the TC.. That will totally screw him over.
If someone clumps, attack TC if you can.. If you can't: barrack, or seige workshop. Not house because 2 wall tiles will cover the house... Goths rape clump.
I prefer this strategy because killing them quick is always good.
Huns:
Most people suck with Huns. They're too good though...
Produce Paladins, Cav Archers, and Rams. Build Barracks too ( 4 Stables,5 Barracks, 9 Archery Camps Will Do IT)
Market. Sell wood, food, and 1.5k stone. ( You Can Use it or NOT)
Waypoint 2 stables to kill villies.
Patrol Army in. Build TC's everywhere. Castle on top of him.
Game Over
Anti Huns:
Make paladins or camels and halbs if you can. Onagers are good too. Build in a semi clump. Protect villies the best you can.
Castles to plug the holes in your semi clump. 3 villies to castle should do. Make it congested to protect villies.
STOP THE PATROL!! If he's not patroling. he's a newb, and you can stop him by yourself. Take a waypoint from a stable or something. and put it on his base. It will slow him down giving you the advantage.
PREVENT MARKET!! Even if you dont' need it or it might hurt you. Try to market before him, and sell. The bad prices will force him to pruduce halbs.
Doing these things, and a tad bit of help from your partner could stop the Huns.
Goths are the only counter civ to huns. Chinese are ok.. If you're Saracens, He'll just make more halbs and you'll be screwed...
Franks:
Franks are weird... You have to accept that they can counter everything you build, and press on anyway.
If he builds camels, counter with Paladins and Halbs.
If he build halbs, counter with Paladins and Axes.
Castle whore middle and keep pressing on. I always seem to build a lot of trebs with franks because i used lots of food, and mine lots of gold.
Farm early!
Japanese:
They have good infantry and good archers and good trebs.
They have horrible economy techs.
Go for Arbalest, Champs For Start ( Then jump to Samourai,Arbalest,Onagers...)
Koreans:
Kors are slow.. start with Halbs or Champs.
Castle early, in semi clump.
Make lots of War Wagons, and Onies.
Market. Sell Food
Anti Kor:
Rush, and rush hardcore with everything you got.
If you don't, you're dead anyway.
Mayans:
Mayans are the easiest civ to be good with.
Eagles and Plumes and Rams.
I like to way point their base to kill villies with a couple of rax.
Market. Sell Food/Wood. Mine stone with about 5 villies.
TC as much gold as you can. Worry about wood later..
Mongols:
Start with Camels.
Make rax too. Build champs in case he patrols halbs in.
Castle early. Mangs rock.
Mangs, Onies, Rams, and some Hussars, and maybe some champs are a bad ass combo.
I recommend mining stone with a few villies.
Persians:
I think we all know Persians and have our own personal preferences with them... I'm here to say it doesn't matter..
Farm and TC's early.
Sell wood. Mine stone.
Anti Persians:
There is only one effective way to fight persians. Halbs and scorps.. and plenty of each. Would i build scorps if i didn't have heavy scorpions? Yes.. but i'd build more halbs. Make sure you have over 10 barracks, and about 10 seige workshops. Replenishing your units quickly will save you.
Get right up close to him, so when he starts to attack. you're halbs and scorps are waiting for him... Wait for him to attack. Maybe use a treb to draw him in. Let him tire himself out whild you build econ. Then bring in the trebs, and end it.
Put Paladins or Hussars near spots ideal for persians to farm. No Food = No Elies.
Saracens + Turks:
I play Saracens and Turks very much the same. Read Goblins tidbit.. The only difference is taht i tower instead of castle on top of them with turks.
I also sell stone with turks. WHAT?! Sure. why not? Tower cost 1/5 the stone as castles. That = instant gold for something I can mine later. I was never good at tower whoring anyway...
Spanish:
Spanish are like Turks with Paladins and a bit more speed.
I patrol rush with this civ as well. Read Goblin's counter units, and just replace paladins with camels. Spanish also have Halbs which i like to build as well...
Teutons:
I don't like Teuts.
I start with 2 stables and go to rax after that (Patrol Stuff). Bring Scorps,Onagers,Teuts Knight Once you got a decent eco )
Most people build Scorps with Teuts. I will if I'm low on my food... When i castle on top of the guy, I also build seige workshops for onies. I will however produce a few scorps if they're not busy...
I make a ton of Halbs with Teuts. I also make skirms if he's makin archers.. which is rare because I don't like skirms.
TK's always seem to die. I don't know why... I still make them even tho they're expensive.
Econ early.
Vikings:
Vikings are the No. 1 underestimated civ. If you opponent is building halbs (most Koreans).. That's the Green Light to rush! Make lots of buildings with vikes, specifically rax in beginning. Produce Champs, and patrol them in.
Champs, Arbs, and Rams make a good, cheap combo, so you can keep the rushin going... Set up econ while you're rushing. Castle on top of them.
Most people make scorps with vikes. I don't like scorps... but if the situation calls for it. i will.
Mains Points
Have about 8 Town Centers.
Helps to spend less time doing economy.
Helps protect against raiding.
Creates a huge economy quicker.
Economy does not come before making military.
Economy is not more important than speed.
Economy does come before micro-management. That's why you are allowed to do economy during battles.
All civs need at least 100 villagers. Expensive civs require 150.
Dedicating too much time (consecutively) to economy is bad.
When To Econ....
Since this site started.. the most common question I get is, "When do I start economy?" A simple question... that annoys the hell out of me because I usually start before 5 min (F11 for game time), and if a newb starts before 5 min, they're not going to build enough military buildings. Then the game won't even go down to economy. Make sure you don't do that. Most rookie games are not demanding enough to start it in 5 min.
Another question I get is, "Should I start to farm if I only have X amount of food?" I don't have a set amount, and having one will not help you. I farm when I am using food and my villies start to come out. They'll be chopping wood or getting gold and I'll make them farm even if I have 4k food and 200 gold.
Keep in mind, 100 villies costs 5k of food.
Quick Drill
Get a pard to do this with. Both of you be hunz. Start off by hitting pop as quick as you can. 5:30 sec is a good time to hit pop at. That's not the vital part of the exercise though. After you're done hitting pop, build 8 more tc's, and castles around economy. Ghost build the farms. After the tc's are built, fill the tc's up and put a waypoint on them so you don't have to mess with this villa doin that. Now, the villies won't come out because you're at pop.. so, send your units to die. Let them kill each other (don't attack enemy city).
Keep building units, and what you'll notice is that you are able to keep building units! You're economy should take care of itself. Now you know what you have to do in a real game, while opponent is comin at you.
Of course, you can't just spend that much time on economy, making it perfect, so... start building tc's before you're at pop. And while patroling units in, the patrol command will take care of the military strategy for you, and you can tend to economy. Watch d/l'ed recs on lock view. All xtreme's do this.
Mass Farms = BAD
A big mistake i see people make is that they're busy with their military. They're micro'ing it like a pro... Then they realize they have to food, so they spend a good amount of time building mass farms. Then they turn around, and all their scorps got picked off by halbs or an onie while their were moving. Another thing people do is stop attacking and hide behind their castles for 5 min while they set it up.
Here's what to do. you're watching army.. you're watching army... everything's doin ok.. build 5 farms with wood/gold villies. flip back to battle. All your camels died, pull the hand cannons behind castles. make sure camels and champs are being produced. click battle.. everything's peachy. position your rams... ok, build 5 more farms. patrol in. build 5 farms.
I like to think of my starter army as a sacrafice to get econ running. A failed rush should not be devastating. You have econ. His was slower.. Both of you took losses...
The Arts Of Farmings
Although this may seem incredibly elementary, do not be decieved. There are too few players out there who build farms to their ultimate potential in both speedy collectability and safety. Food is the hardest resource to collect in AoC because it requires the most effort. Because of the effort required, people often half-ass their farming. Do not fall victim. There are two aspects of successful farming:
1) decreased villager walking distance
2) increased farmer safety
To accomplish these goals, there are two ways to approach farming:
1) like a DMer
2) like a RMer
Like a DMer: Have your villager(s) lay a Town Center and surround it with farms in a tight circle. Once this setup is lain, queue your villagers and set the gathering point on unused farms. Repeat this setup to create a farmland with multiple TCs for defense and very little walking distance. Place castles, walls, buildings nearby as needed. The advantage of farming this way is that it is easy to set up, and very effective.
Like a RMer: As your villagers begin coming out of your TCs on wood, gold, and stone (ie, the easy resources to collect) begin highlighting handfulls of villagers and laying farms down individually by your town centers. Continue doing this all throughout your town. Defend as needed . The advantage of farming this way is that your base can be set perfectly and your farms can be extremely well protected.
Personally, I attempt to combine both methods together. I consider the "Like a DMer" method to be easiest, while the "Like a RMer" method is more advanced. Top DMers L_Clan_Bender (Lance) and VN_Loc (nR_AuDiGy) display the fusion of these two methods at their finest.
Mains Points
Raiding is a cheap way to gain the advantage.
Raid during main attacks.
Raiding indirectly protects you from being raided.
Note: I chose to call this section raiding instead of map control because having the map in itself doesn't give you an advantage. You have to use it to your advantage. I called it raiding because if you learn to raid, you'll learn to get map control. Map control is an idea. Raiding is an action...
Early Game Raiding Tip
I think that the most annoying thing in this game is where you tell your villies to build the stuff for farming and they get wiped out by one paladin while you're not looking. Not only did you lose your villies, but you're not getting the food that they would have. I spent some times looking at recs figuring out the best way to do this... With your big army, take 1 paladin, and way point it on the minimap to his sides where he'll most likely farm. That's it! Now, you can raid in early game like a pro.
Have a look at this screenshot, give you a preview of what it should look like
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The Huns
Over the years, the DM Gameplay has changed, along with the different civs strats, so here we'll have a look at the common used strats nowadays.
Marketers.
4 Villi Market:
Consist of starting with 4 villager on market, sell food and wood to 34 ( 8 click with shift) and Stone to 85 ( 3 click with shift), it should give you about 5k gold in extra.
4 Villi Market is dangerous against top dmers, you pretty much can get raped by the first patrol if you're not fast enough, you're also better starting off with stables if your doing a 4 villi market strat, going rax is gonna slow you down and get you killed in long terms.
Tips: Build Tight that way it will be easier to protect you're villagers from a paladin rush, never make more then 5 Stables, the rest is up to you.
2 Villi and 3 Villi haven't been used really much over the years, it's pretty pointless unless you're sure your opponent is gonna go for a 1 villi market.
1 Villi Market.
That one is interesting because, you don't lose that much speed with building the market, you can still rush and stuff, however you still need to be carefull, there's not any special way to play it as long you don't make more then 5 stables.
Just for fun, i'll post here my building order.
5 Stables, followed by 5 Barracks, 9-10 Archery Range, and 3 Siegeshop.
5x 15 Paladins, 5x 15 Halbs, 9x 15 archers, and about 25 Rams.
.
Rax Strat.
Popularized by "Pino" a few years ago, it consist of starting with 9-10 Barracks and Archers, it takes extreme unit control since nowadays most people use tons of Cavalry Archers and Rams, It does still work nowadays though.
However in the past few years, "Late Stables" we're added to this strat, and it honestly work extremely well, most of the time the opponent is not expecting 50-60 paladins in one shot, if you got rams and archers ready with that, it can give you an interesting push.
9-10 Barracks
10-11 Archery Ranges
(If Late Stables) 4-5 Stables
2-3 Siege Shops.
PS: Might want to get wood asap, you'll see it goes down fast pretty.
The Stable Rush.
Popularized by Chris (Argonaut_Jidba,BsK_India,CsI_ShaDoWs,Exalted_Jidba,)
4 Stables,4-5 Barracks 9-10 Archery Ranges, 2 Siege Workshops
Consist of rushing the hell out of you're ennemy with paladins, killing as much vills possible, then a series of quick patrols, then it's all about making tons of gold villagers and microing you're units.
Chris is probably the best huns wars player ever, his gold mining strat is deadly, he likes to rush the hell out of you then sending a series of quick patrol that often give him the edge.. and just when you think you're gonna be able to finally attack him.. oops you notice he has all the relics and 3/4 of the map and a couple of castles in middle hehe.
Probably the best strat if you're really fast and got great unit control.
: Rush, Patrol in, Take Map, Raid.
Mains Points
Pretty much experts stuff, don't bother with most of this unless you have the hang of the basics.
Basic Micro Tips (Example of Huns)
Using rams in front of fight is deadly, first of all it attract's the arrows which give you an advantage over him.
Use Your Rams (Ramming) Against his Rams ... That way you end's up with rams in front while he doesn't... he'll eventually have to pull back.
A lot of players just like to mass economy and patrol's non stop, that's why most of those players never get over 1900, Some of you might believe that having non stop eco is obviously gonna give you a victory.. but the problem here is, if you keep patrolling, eventually i'll have a bigger army then you therefore im going to push you, and kill you because you won't have any units alive, Unit control is more important then economy.
Here's some different Unit Control actions that can be done during a huns wars.
Small Distance Patrol For Archers, basically it make's your units look retarded, however the advantage of it is, they are going to attack first, and you don't have to worry about them, so you can either do economy or take relics or whatever you feel like doing at this point of the game.
Stand Ground For Archers, extremely useful when playing against market, it makes all your archers shoot at one unit at once, pretty good vs rams or paladins.
A little Combo of mine that i like pretty much to do whenever im on defense or offense, is to put my units on "Stand Ground" and patrol them, it's quite usefull for axemens too (Franks wars).
Taking advantage of Hills, this is really important in every wars, hills give armor bonus and stuff, always try to sit on a hill with a castle and units.
Luring units in, don't be afraid like to move your paladins in front of his units, make them follow your paladins to your archers, if you notice that his units are not following yours, it's mean that he has his units on Stand Ground, therefore the best thing to do in that situation is to patrol in your archers that will pick up his archers one by one because they won't move.
Monks Micro, Onagers Micro -- credit to November_I2ain
This is a little micro trick that I use. Ive asked alot of dmers if they use this but none know what Im even talking about. Top rmers do this though.
Ill start with an example that is a Persian killer. Lets say you have like 15 monks ready to steal some eles. You double click on one of them and then you have all of them highlighted. It will show all of thier icons on the bottom of your screen. Now a bunch of eles are coming at your army. With your group of monks that you have highlighted, click to convert one of thier eles. You dont actually want to convert one elephant with your whole group of monks. You want each monk to steal an elephant, rite ? Now intead of using the whole group of monks on one elephant, deselect one of your monks.
This is done by clicking on one of the monk icons while holding the Ctrl button at the same time. Now you will have 14 monks highlighted so you click on another elephant with them and then deselect one of them. The monk that is deselected will be converting an elephant. If you are fast you can have all 15 monks trying to convert an individual elephant in a matter of seconds. I will say that on average you will steal about 7-8 (50 % of what you wanted to do) for a few reasons. First is because there is a random chance that the conversion will fail. Another reason is that maybe the 7th, 8th, or any monk that you selected is accidentally trying to convert an elephant that is already in the process of being converted.
I think if you are good at this you can own persian with almost any civ in a 1v1 type of battle and this trick is why.
This can be done with siege to. Lets say you have a bunch of onagers and you want to use them to kill your enemies onagers. Take some of them or maybe everyone you have then double click on one of them and make it attack an onager. Now deselect one of them and just let that one onager hit an enemy onager.
You can do this with regular units too. Lets say you have a group of paladins, hussars, or any fast unit that is good against siege and you want them to kill the scorps that are with the persian army. Double click on a paladin to highlight the whole group and then attack a scorp then deselect one of them and use the group to attack another one, and so on....
This is micro to me. I hear alot of people refering to great micro skills in dm while all I see is them constantly pulling back thier units to keep them in tight formation. I call that army control not "great micro". Good micro to me is making certain units in your army attack what they are good at killing. Archers vs pikeman, paladins vs siege units, siege against archers, and so on.
In lots of civ wars like huns and mayans this is not needed except for maybe killing rams. In them civwars you probably are just going to use patrol followed up with good army control meaning pulling back your groups. Later in the game if you are trying to make a comeback, or maybe some small skirmish off on the side of the map where you have a few of your units run into a small group of your enemy this deselecting will come in handy
Recorded Games are an important part of the game.
First of all, always record your games, that way if you lose, you can take a look at the mistakes you did..
How to analyze a recorded game may it be yours or someone else ?
Lock View + Normal Speed
Have a great look at the start as it is, the main problem of most AoC DMers.
Obviously you can't understand every little moves a 2000+ DMers makes, so obviously what you need to do is take a look at what those 'little moves' had for consequences.
Exemple of a Little Move: Raiding his opponent while there is a major battle in middle
Consequences : Opponent lose focus/ Control of his main army to 'ring the bell' or to provide units to kill the 'raiders'.
This site is a self training site, but don't read the whole thing and think that will make you an expert. It's more like.. how you learn Golf. You keep swinging and adjusting small things at a time until your swing is right. Then you beat people and brag (in that order). Anyway, small things at a time. Try focusing on your start and getting people moving before 15 sec. Then move on to rushing, and then quick econ. Focus on one thing at a time.. You've been a newb for a long time. A little more time won't hurt!
First, Check out Hotkeys Section. There, you'll learn why to adjust your hotkeys and suggestions for new hotkeys. Make sure you skim all the topics. The 'Patrol' topic is very important.
Second, Check out the 'Speed' section. There, you'll learn how to build effectively. That means maximum building in minimal time.
Third, take a look at the 'Military' section. This is the longest section and stuff that can't be covered in a day. It's also things many of you know. I recommend reading the shorter paragraphs and move on.
Fourth is economy. Economy is something players either get or don't. Some people, I can't emphasize it enough, and others focus too much on it. The best tip I can give is to make it while attacking or while defending. A battle should be going on...
Fifth is raiding. Raiding is easy and doesn't take a lot of skill, time, or resources. It will give you an advantage though.
Six is Huns Strategies... Why Huns ? Simply because it's the most popular 1vs1 civ in RM and DM..learning them will make you understand the basics of pretty much every civilizations.
Seven is Micro. But i recommend getting the hang of the basics stuff first before working on your micro.
Recorded Games Teaches you to analyze recorded games and improve without someone telling you what to do. That is very important when you become better than most regular dm'ers
Mains Points
Use hotkeys.
Default hotkeys limit your potential.
Go To Commands add to speed in mid/late game.
Utilize the mouse wheel. You can scroll down four times before you click twice.
Screen resolution should be on highest it can possibly go.
Scroll speed should be high.
My Hotkeys -- CooKiEs
Mains Hotkeys
The Mouse wheels Is OFTEN used by Experts... it's an extra boost which is easy to use...Some Hotkeys aren't there ... im just posting the "REQUIRED ONES" For the rest you can use your own.
Actually, if i think about it, You can use your own set of hotkeys as long you're fast with it, the only thing i think is really required is the mouse wheel.
Pressing on the Mouse Wheel Should Be Your "Go to Town Center Hotkey"
In Your Town Center .. You Should Create Villis With "Mouse Wheel Down" ( Scroll Down To Create Villis)
E Should Be "Ask Villi to Build a Archery Camp"
T Should Be Your Go To Idle Villi
D Should Be" Ask Villi To Build A Barrack"
C Should Be " Ask Villi To Build A Stable"
X Should Be " Go To Your Stable "
S Should Be " Go To Your Barrack"
W Should be " Go To Your Archery Camp"
G Should Be " Ask Villi to Build a Market"
H Should be " ask villi to build a castle"
R Should Be "ask villi to build a building from the Military Buildings"
Space Bar Should Be "Ask Villi to Build House"
Space Bar Should Also be "economy Buildings"
Mouse Wheel UP Should be used for Skirm(Archery Camp) Hussar (Stable) Eagles(Barrack)
Mouse Wheel Down Should Be used for Paladins(Stable) Halbs ( Barrack) Heavy Cavalry Archer (Archery Camp)
Z Should be "ask villi to build a Town Center"
Example: At Start .. If You Want To Make's 5 Stables ...Your Going To Queue Up Your Town Center With Villis ( Press Middle Mouse Wheel Then Scroll Down With Mouse Wheel ....)
Then You Press T ( Go To Idle Villi)
Then Press R ( Military building Section)
Then C (Build a Stable)
If You Want to Make A COUPLE Of Stables Without Going Throught ( T , R, C) Again You need to hold the shift button....
Patrol
Patrol is a command (hotkey Z) that tells your units to walk back and forth between two spots. When they see an enemy, they immediately attack it. This is very helpful when attacking because if you patrol to their enemy base, you know for sure they'll see an enemy. Patrol is more effective than just telling a group of units to attack one unit.
I use patrol most of the time.
Shift
We all know holding shift while building things will allow us to build more than one at time, but what happens when you use it when building units? It creates more than one at a time(Shift Make 5 units)! The difference is pressing 15 times and 3...
Main Points
Speed isn't just for rushing.
Main factors in early game are:
Building placement.
One villager to one building.
Use Go To Commands.
Use every building you build. Keep them working.
Speed is more important than the units you build.
Buildings
How you build is one of the biggest factors in how fast you are, so:
Villies don't walk. Villies should only walk 0-1 tile before they start building at start of game.
Build tight and around your Town Center. A circular motion will allow villies to spend less time walking to your buildings, and more time building.
One villager to one building. Why? For every extra villa added to a building, that villa loses efficiency. Two people have 3 villas. Blue puts 1 villa to 1 building. Red puts all 3 villas to 1 building, and after they're complete, starts another one. By the time Red gets 2 buildings, Blue will have 3. That's speed.
What to build is up to you... If you're an infantry civ, start with about 8-10 barracks. If you're a castle civ (mongols), start with your strongest units (camels), and castle in the spots between them to get castles up early.
If you build something, USE it. Imagine if i were sitting behind you and was about to delete your building if units weren't being produced within 5 seconds. It's not hard, hold shift and press your hotkey 3 times...
Now you got some speed!
Start
Press Middle Mouse Wheels, Shift + Scroll Down (Mouse Wheel)
Then Sent Scout to Ennemy Berry Bush
Step 2
Got villies building asap. Notice where they walked to( Walking Time = 0 Secs). Also All of Them Are Working Under 15 SECS (Clock Time press f11 if u want to see time) At Start (Dont forget to queue up Town Center First before doing Step 2) Now Press T ( First Idle Villi) Then R ( Military building ) Then The Building of Your Choices ( Mostly Barracks and Stables).. Do This 2 Times (3 times if your playing with huns) for the 3rd villi Press T (Idle Villi) Then SPACE BAR (Economy Building) Then Space Bar Again ( build Houses)
Step 3
Build military while keeping 1 villa to 1 building. Gotta be fast. ( Spread Villis 1 Per Building ) DO NOT FORGET TO QUEUE UP BUILDING WITH UNITS !
Go To Command
The Go To Commands are the best way to build units in mid and late game. When your resources run low, and queue'ing your buildings will only put a couple buildings to work, you're wasting all the empty ones. A solution would be to build a coupel in each building but that takes too long. This is when you use the Go To Commands. Pressing W and E at the same time 10 times takes a couple seconds and you'll have put one unit in each building.
Some people have taken this to the extreme, and use it to build all their units. Blitzkrieg (one of the best aoc players) is one. He gets into a rhythm of pressing his Go To Command, then Shift + Unit Hotkey. Then he repeats this. That's for in the beginning. Then, he uses the above paragraph to build units. Personally, I think this takes too much concentration. It is very effective if done right though.
Main Points
Speed topic below.
Use counter units and expect them to use counter units.
Don't save resources.
"What to Build..." topic under "All units have their place" heading.
Start with Stables or Barracks.
Clumping is obselete (bad).
Topics like "Anti-Huns" are more important than topics like "Huns"
Speed !
Speed is important because 40 champs against 30 champs.. 20 will survive, not 10. Just a few more units could make the difference between winning a battle and losing.
This is the 2vs1 Rule ... ( 2 Pals vs 1 Pal ... The lonely paladin will die without killing any of the 2 paladins)
Counters Units
When I put together my initial army, I try to counter all the counters within that army.. Lost? OK, i start with camels. Halbs counter camels, so i need a counter for halbs. That's why i build hand cannoneers. The guy will probably add arbs to his army if he can... His halb/ arb army will deal with my camel fairly quick leaving my gunz (hand cannoneers) to be eaten by his arbs. If i added champs to my army, his arbs might pick them off, but i'll deal with the halbs quickerand lose less camels.. then my camels will attack the archers while the champs walk up and slaughter them! So, now we have a good solid army.
Camels, Champs, and Gunz! A lot of scopions would deal with this, but I attack before he can even start to build siege (siege builds very slowly). AND, I can sell wood at the market because this army doesn't use wood. There are a couple more counter to all these units. Castles and towers. If we add rams to the army, we can take any army... Our rams might even catch some of the archer's arrows.
This is one of my favorite combinations when rushing. Turks and Saracens have this combo. Try the patrol rush with it, and castle/tower on top of the guy.
Resources
Think of resources as worthless until you use them to buy something. They have no value or purpose in resource form. You have to convert them into military before they benefit you. SO. Turn your resources into military! Don't ever save gold of food or wood... Use them all, and try to run out evenly. Let's say you're saracens and have a lot of wood left over. Sell it if it's useless as wood... If you have 12k wood (no gold or food), and the price is 17 at market, that could be 1.7k gold and 2k wood, which is more valuable than just 12k wood... So, Never die with resources!
Sometimes resources determine what you build. If you're out of gold. Make halbs or pikes! even if they're fighting champs. Instead of your gold units dieing, you're non-gold units will take the hits, so you can save your good units. Let's say you're doing a goth war, and you have a bunch of hand cannons left over, but no gold. He sends champs to go kill them. Instead of reaching your hand cannons though, the champs are stopped by... HALBS. The champs of course rape them, but you don't lose any hand cannons!
Here's a final thought. dying with 2k gold is dying. Dying with 0 gold is dying... Might as well use it and see what happens.
All Units Have Their Place.
All Units Have Their Place...
Halbs- Sweet Unit because they don't cost gold, and if gold units are killing halbs.. They're not killing your gold units. That's why they're so great when you're lacking gold.
Champs- Great when you're attacking other infantry or you're low on wood.
Skirms- Skirms suck. They're effective against archers, right? Who is going to just build archers? Skirmishers attack the closest unit to you. That means that if they have paladins and horse archers, ALL the paladins have to die before it will even shoot at a horse archer! The only time I can justify building them is if you're using them to protect gold units or you have no gold. Say... you're mayans or britts. You're castle units build slow, and you all ready have archers so you build skirms. You stay at pop and since skirms have less range, they stand in front of the bowmen/plumes. That means the skirms die first, and you're good units stay alive killing longer. They're kinda like decoys!
Hand Cannons- Expensive for what you get.. They're weak, and if I can avoid building them, I do. Instances where they're good to build.. When the other person is building infantry that are effective against archers. Hand Cannons rape Eagles and Husks while Arbs do not.
Arbs- If I need range quick, I will build Arbs. However, in the middle of the game, they lose their effectiveness.
Heavy Calvary Archers- I realize huns made this popular for other civs, but.. NO. Personally, I think they're only good for killing trade. At 70 gold, I'd rather build a Scorp.
Hussar- Hussars are good to takes attacks when you're using a civ that demands lots of gold and wood, but little food. For example: Mongols and Koreans.
Paladin- Many people are confused about the purpose of Palies. Why build a unit that isn't really effective against anything but so many things are effective against it? Well, enough paladins with some kind of range behind will kill any army, and when another unit is produced, kill it before your enemy can mass units. We all know what happens when a large army is sitting right next to our military producing buildings. They don't die but all your units do. Paladins great at putting someone in this situation. 4 Halbs might take down a paladin, but how many halbs does it take to kill 4 paladins attacking 1 halb at a time?
Camel- Camels are the best anti-paladin. If you're saracens, they can even take the place of a paladin!
Scorps- I like Scorpions, but they're not good in the beginning of the game. Building them will get you killed! In mid game tho.. If you put them next to a castle on defensive mode. They rock. It might even be wise to build a castle where your Scorpions are going to be. Pay close attention to enemy color on the minimap while you're moving scorps tho.
Rams- Rams take range like it's nothing. The more aggressive you are, the more rams you should make..
Onagers- One disadvatage is that you can't patrol them. That's why they're best for defence and taking out range.
Treb- Great when rams can't get the job done...
What To Build...
What I build is mostly dependant on what I have resource-wise. It's a good idea to run out of all resources evenly. That means, If you're Franks and have 1k stone, 5k gold, 8k wood, and 6k food. Build 100 villies, 15 paladins, almost 50 scorps, a few Halbs, a couple Trebs, 2 Castles to protect Scorps, and some barracks and stables by farms (help protect).
That leaves me at pop (assuming I have some army and 20 villies from start left over) with a nice sized military. It also leaves me with a booming and protected economy. What I don't have are resources (no stone, gold, wood, or food), but by the time my military dies, I bet I do...
Your Turn!
Think of other ways you could spend those resources with other civs and run out evenly. It's hard with those high numbers... Good thing I usually only have 1k of each resource!
Civs @@
These are my personal settings, but remember.. I almost always like to rush, and squander resources...
Aztecs:
Waypoint rush with eagle warrior.
Build Champs or Pikes (whatever counters) and Arbs in back. Patrol in.
Castle on top, and make trebs to treb buildings.
Rams of course too!
Sell wood, a little food, and 1k stone.
Start with 4-5 Barracks, 2-3 Castles, 5-6 Archery Ranges, Siege Shops.
Britons:
Start with Champs or Halbs or both..
Make archeries and produce Arbs
Patrol in. If they get raped. Stop....
Make max no. of castles with 2 villies on each.. Keep producing arbs and champs
Sell Food, a little wood. Mine stone too.
Late game.. Long Bows and Onagers.with plenty of trebs to knock down buildings quick. Only use melee units to kill rams. Long Bows kill onagers...
Byz:
This civ is hilarious simply because it's like, one of the most dumbass civ of the game, i don't think there's millions of way to play them, just watch against what you're playing, go with Halbs,Arbalets,Camels if you're playing against a Cavalry civ, if you're playing against an infantry civ, just go with Cathas,Arbalets,Ram's,Champ's, Against sieges.. nothing really to do.. either kill him fast with paladins rush and tower on top of it.. other then that you're pretty much screwed.
Celts:
I like to start with 2 stables even though they palies are 2nd rate..
Then Barracks, then castles, and woads. I of course patrol these units in with rams...
What about scorps? Scorps produce slow, so producing them in early game might get you killed. The disadvantage with making paladins and building up before building scorps is that you lose resources... But wait... We got villies to get those... Anyway, the rush fails, but gives you time to build scorps and economy.
Celts are easy, and a very strong civ. Econ is nice because you can run out of resources evenly... I always like to collect wood, farm, and mine at same time....
Chinese:
3-4 Barracks, 2-3 Stables, 4-5 Castles should be you're usual Chinese start, Chinese is an awesome civ, there's not millions of way to play them, as long you make tons of chukonus and no scorps at all.
Goths
2 villie on rax. 1 vill on house. Make Huskarls. Make more barracks, and most villies on houses. Pruduce all huskarls, and way point them in to kill villies. especially house villies. If you have men back there, keep them there waiting for villies. While they wait they can knock down a house.
Market. Sell Wood, and 1k Stone
Castle on top of them, and make siege workshops. make onies, and some scorps cuz you'll be running low on food.. the scorps will be fine sitting by castles and protecting trebs. The reason i hate scorps is that they're hard to attack with.. They always seem to get raped, but if they dont' move, and they just kill stuff attacking trebs.. it's all good.
IF you can. IF... IF the guy isn't good, and you've got a bunch of husks still alive at his base. DESTROY the TC.. That will totally screw him over.
If someone clumps, attack TC if you can.. If you can't: barrack, or seige workshop. Not house because 2 wall tiles will cover the house... Goths rape clump.
I prefer this strategy because killing them quick is always good.
Huns:
Most people suck with Huns. They're too good though...
Produce Paladins, Cav Archers, and Rams. Build Barracks too ( 4 Stables,5 Barracks, 9 Archery Camps Will Do IT)
Market. Sell wood, food, and 1.5k stone. ( You Can Use it or NOT)
Waypoint 2 stables to kill villies.
Patrol Army in. Build TC's everywhere. Castle on top of him.
Game Over
Anti Huns:
Make paladins or camels and halbs if you can. Onagers are good too. Build in a semi clump. Protect villies the best you can.
Castles to plug the holes in your semi clump. 3 villies to castle should do. Make it congested to protect villies.
STOP THE PATROL!! If he's not patroling. he's a newb, and you can stop him by yourself. Take a waypoint from a stable or something. and put it on his base. It will slow him down giving you the advantage.
PREVENT MARKET!! Even if you dont' need it or it might hurt you. Try to market before him, and sell. The bad prices will force him to pruduce halbs.
Doing these things, and a tad bit of help from your partner could stop the Huns.
Goths are the only counter civ to huns. Chinese are ok.. If you're Saracens, He'll just make more halbs and you'll be screwed...
Franks:
Franks are weird... You have to accept that they can counter everything you build, and press on anyway.
If he builds camels, counter with Paladins and Halbs.
If he build halbs, counter with Paladins and Axes.
Castle whore middle and keep pressing on. I always seem to build a lot of trebs with franks because i used lots of food, and mine lots of gold.
Farm early!
Japanese:
They have good infantry and good archers and good trebs.
They have horrible economy techs.
Go for Arbalest, Champs For Start ( Then jump to Samourai,Arbalest,Onagers...)
Koreans:
Kors are slow.. start with Halbs or Champs.
Castle early, in semi clump.
Make lots of War Wagons, and Onies.
Market. Sell Food
Anti Kor:
Rush, and rush hardcore with everything you got.
If you don't, you're dead anyway.
Mayans:
Mayans are the easiest civ to be good with.
Eagles and Plumes and Rams.
I like to way point their base to kill villies with a couple of rax.
Market. Sell Food/Wood. Mine stone with about 5 villies.
TC as much gold as you can. Worry about wood later..
Mongols:
Start with Camels.
Make rax too. Build champs in case he patrols halbs in.
Castle early. Mangs rock.
Mangs, Onies, Rams, and some Hussars, and maybe some champs are a bad ass combo.
I recommend mining stone with a few villies.
Persians:
I think we all know Persians and have our own personal preferences with them... I'm here to say it doesn't matter..
Farm and TC's early.
Sell wood. Mine stone.
Anti Persians:
There is only one effective way to fight persians. Halbs and scorps.. and plenty of each. Would i build scorps if i didn't have heavy scorpions? Yes.. but i'd build more halbs. Make sure you have over 10 barracks, and about 10 seige workshops. Replenishing your units quickly will save you.
Get right up close to him, so when he starts to attack. you're halbs and scorps are waiting for him... Wait for him to attack. Maybe use a treb to draw him in. Let him tire himself out whild you build econ. Then bring in the trebs, and end it.
Put Paladins or Hussars near spots ideal for persians to farm. No Food = No Elies.
Saracens + Turks:
I play Saracens and Turks very much the same. Read Goblins tidbit.. The only difference is taht i tower instead of castle on top of them with turks.
I also sell stone with turks. WHAT?! Sure. why not? Tower cost 1/5 the stone as castles. That = instant gold for something I can mine later. I was never good at tower whoring anyway...
Spanish:
Spanish are like Turks with Paladins and a bit more speed.
I patrol rush with this civ as well. Read Goblin's counter units, and just replace paladins with camels. Spanish also have Halbs which i like to build as well...
Teutons:
I don't like Teuts.
I start with 2 stables and go to rax after that (Patrol Stuff). Bring Scorps,Onagers,Teuts Knight Once you got a decent eco )
Most people build Scorps with Teuts. I will if I'm low on my food... When i castle on top of the guy, I also build seige workshops for onies. I will however produce a few scorps if they're not busy...
I make a ton of Halbs with Teuts. I also make skirms if he's makin archers.. which is rare because I don't like skirms.
TK's always seem to die. I don't know why... I still make them even tho they're expensive.
Econ early.
Vikings:
Vikings are the No. 1 underestimated civ. If you opponent is building halbs (most Koreans).. That's the Green Light to rush! Make lots of buildings with vikes, specifically rax in beginning. Produce Champs, and patrol them in.
Champs, Arbs, and Rams make a good, cheap combo, so you can keep the rushin going... Set up econ while you're rushing. Castle on top of them.
Most people make scorps with vikes. I don't like scorps... but if the situation calls for it. i will.
Mains Points
Have about 8 Town Centers.
Helps to spend less time doing economy.
Helps protect against raiding.
Creates a huge economy quicker.
Economy does not come before making military.
Economy is not more important than speed.
Economy does come before micro-management. That's why you are allowed to do economy during battles.
All civs need at least 100 villagers. Expensive civs require 150.
Dedicating too much time (consecutively) to economy is bad.
When To Econ....
Since this site started.. the most common question I get is, "When do I start economy?" A simple question... that annoys the hell out of me because I usually start before 5 min (F11 for game time), and if a newb starts before 5 min, they're not going to build enough military buildings. Then the game won't even go down to economy. Make sure you don't do that. Most rookie games are not demanding enough to start it in 5 min.
Another question I get is, "Should I start to farm if I only have X amount of food?" I don't have a set amount, and having one will not help you. I farm when I am using food and my villies start to come out. They'll be chopping wood or getting gold and I'll make them farm even if I have 4k food and 200 gold.
Keep in mind, 100 villies costs 5k of food.
Quick Drill
Get a pard to do this with. Both of you be hunz. Start off by hitting pop as quick as you can. 5:30 sec is a good time to hit pop at. That's not the vital part of the exercise though. After you're done hitting pop, build 8 more tc's, and castles around economy. Ghost build the farms. After the tc's are built, fill the tc's up and put a waypoint on them so you don't have to mess with this villa doin that. Now, the villies won't come out because you're at pop.. so, send your units to die. Let them kill each other (don't attack enemy city).
Keep building units, and what you'll notice is that you are able to keep building units! You're economy should take care of itself. Now you know what you have to do in a real game, while opponent is comin at you.
Of course, you can't just spend that much time on economy, making it perfect, so... start building tc's before you're at pop. And while patroling units in, the patrol command will take care of the military strategy for you, and you can tend to economy. Watch d/l'ed recs on lock view. All xtreme's do this.
Mass Farms = BAD
A big mistake i see people make is that they're busy with their military. They're micro'ing it like a pro... Then they realize they have to food, so they spend a good amount of time building mass farms. Then they turn around, and all their scorps got picked off by halbs or an onie while their were moving. Another thing people do is stop attacking and hide behind their castles for 5 min while they set it up.
Here's what to do. you're watching army.. you're watching army... everything's doin ok.. build 5 farms with wood/gold villies. flip back to battle. All your camels died, pull the hand cannons behind castles. make sure camels and champs are being produced. click battle.. everything's peachy. position your rams... ok, build 5 more farms. patrol in. build 5 farms.
I like to think of my starter army as a sacrafice to get econ running. A failed rush should not be devastating. You have econ. His was slower.. Both of you took losses...
The Arts Of Farmings
Although this may seem incredibly elementary, do not be decieved. There are too few players out there who build farms to their ultimate potential in both speedy collectability and safety. Food is the hardest resource to collect in AoC because it requires the most effort. Because of the effort required, people often half-ass their farming. Do not fall victim. There are two aspects of successful farming:
1) decreased villager walking distance
2) increased farmer safety
To accomplish these goals, there are two ways to approach farming:
1) like a DMer
2) like a RMer
Like a DMer: Have your villager(s) lay a Town Center and surround it with farms in a tight circle. Once this setup is lain, queue your villagers and set the gathering point on unused farms. Repeat this setup to create a farmland with multiple TCs for defense and very little walking distance. Place castles, walls, buildings nearby as needed. The advantage of farming this way is that it is easy to set up, and very effective.
Like a RMer: As your villagers begin coming out of your TCs on wood, gold, and stone (ie, the easy resources to collect) begin highlighting handfulls of villagers and laying farms down individually by your town centers. Continue doing this all throughout your town. Defend as needed . The advantage of farming this way is that your base can be set perfectly and your farms can be extremely well protected.
Personally, I attempt to combine both methods together. I consider the "Like a DMer" method to be easiest, while the "Like a RMer" method is more advanced. Top DMers L_Clan_Bender (Lance) and VN_Loc (nR_AuDiGy) display the fusion of these two methods at their finest.
Mains Points
Raiding is a cheap way to gain the advantage.
Raid during main attacks.
Raiding indirectly protects you from being raided.
Note: I chose to call this section raiding instead of map control because having the map in itself doesn't give you an advantage. You have to use it to your advantage. I called it raiding because if you learn to raid, you'll learn to get map control. Map control is an idea. Raiding is an action...
Early Game Raiding Tip
I think that the most annoying thing in this game is where you tell your villies to build the stuff for farming and they get wiped out by one paladin while you're not looking. Not only did you lose your villies, but you're not getting the food that they would have. I spent some times looking at recs figuring out the best way to do this... With your big army, take 1 paladin, and way point it on the minimap to his sides where he'll most likely farm. That's it! Now, you can raid in early game like a pro.
Have a look at this screenshot, give you a preview of what it should look like
[url][/url]The Huns
Over the years, the DM Gameplay has changed, along with the different civs strats, so here we'll have a look at the common used strats nowadays.
Marketers.
4 Villi Market:
Consist of starting with 4 villager on market, sell food and wood to 34 ( 8 click with shift) and Stone to 85 ( 3 click with shift), it should give you about 5k gold in extra.
4 Villi Market is dangerous against top dmers, you pretty much can get raped by the first patrol if you're not fast enough, you're also better starting off with stables if your doing a 4 villi market strat, going rax is gonna slow you down and get you killed in long terms.
Tips: Build Tight that way it will be easier to protect you're villagers from a paladin rush, never make more then 5 Stables, the rest is up to you.
2 Villi and 3 Villi haven't been used really much over the years, it's pretty pointless unless you're sure your opponent is gonna go for a 1 villi market.
1 Villi Market.
That one is interesting because, you don't lose that much speed with building the market, you can still rush and stuff, however you still need to be carefull, there's not any special way to play it as long you don't make more then 5 stables.
Just for fun, i'll post here my building order.
5 Stables, followed by 5 Barracks, 9-10 Archery Range, and 3 Siegeshop.
5x 15 Paladins, 5x 15 Halbs, 9x 15 archers, and about 25 Rams.
.Rax Strat.
Popularized by "Pino" a few years ago, it consist of starting with 9-10 Barracks and Archers, it takes extreme unit control since nowadays most people use tons of Cavalry Archers and Rams, It does still work nowadays though.
However in the past few years, "Late Stables" we're added to this strat, and it honestly work extremely well, most of the time the opponent is not expecting 50-60 paladins in one shot, if you got rams and archers ready with that, it can give you an interesting push.
9-10 Barracks
10-11 Archery Ranges
(If Late Stables) 4-5 Stables
2-3 Siege Shops.
PS: Might want to get wood asap, you'll see it goes down fast pretty.
The Stable Rush.
Popularized by Chris (Argonaut_Jidba,BsK_India,CsI_ShaDoWs,Exalted_Jidba,)
4 Stables,4-5 Barracks 9-10 Archery Ranges, 2 Siege Workshops
Consist of rushing the hell out of you're ennemy with paladins, killing as much vills possible, then a series of quick patrols, then it's all about making tons of gold villagers and microing you're units.
Chris is probably the best huns wars player ever, his gold mining strat is deadly, he likes to rush the hell out of you then sending a series of quick patrol that often give him the edge.. and just when you think you're gonna be able to finally attack him.. oops you notice he has all the relics and 3/4 of the map and a couple of castles in middle hehe.
Probably the best strat if you're really fast and got great unit control.
: Rush, Patrol in, Take Map, Raid.
Mains Points
Pretty much experts stuff, don't bother with most of this unless you have the hang of the basics.
Basic Micro Tips (Example of Huns)
Using rams in front of fight is deadly, first of all it attract's the arrows which give you an advantage over him.
Use Your Rams (Ramming) Against his Rams ... That way you end's up with rams in front while he doesn't... he'll eventually have to pull back.
A lot of players just like to mass economy and patrol's non stop, that's why most of those players never get over 1900, Some of you might believe that having non stop eco is obviously gonna give you a victory.. but the problem here is, if you keep patrolling, eventually i'll have a bigger army then you therefore im going to push you, and kill you because you won't have any units alive, Unit control is more important then economy.
Here's some different Unit Control actions that can be done during a huns wars.
Small Distance Patrol For Archers, basically it make's your units look retarded, however the advantage of it is, they are going to attack first, and you don't have to worry about them, so you can either do economy or take relics or whatever you feel like doing at this point of the game.
Stand Ground For Archers, extremely useful when playing against market, it makes all your archers shoot at one unit at once, pretty good vs rams or paladins.
A little Combo of mine that i like pretty much to do whenever im on defense or offense, is to put my units on "Stand Ground" and patrol them, it's quite usefull for axemens too (Franks wars).
Taking advantage of Hills, this is really important in every wars, hills give armor bonus and stuff, always try to sit on a hill with a castle and units.
Luring units in, don't be afraid like to move your paladins in front of his units, make them follow your paladins to your archers, if you notice that his units are not following yours, it's mean that he has his units on Stand Ground, therefore the best thing to do in that situation is to patrol in your archers that will pick up his archers one by one because they won't move.
Monks Micro, Onagers Micro -- credit to November_I2ain
This is a little micro trick that I use. Ive asked alot of dmers if they use this but none know what Im even talking about. Top rmers do this though.
Ill start with an example that is a Persian killer. Lets say you have like 15 monks ready to steal some eles. You double click on one of them and then you have all of them highlighted. It will show all of thier icons on the bottom of your screen. Now a bunch of eles are coming at your army. With your group of monks that you have highlighted, click to convert one of thier eles. You dont actually want to convert one elephant with your whole group of monks. You want each monk to steal an elephant, rite ? Now intead of using the whole group of monks on one elephant, deselect one of your monks.
This is done by clicking on one of the monk icons while holding the Ctrl button at the same time. Now you will have 14 monks highlighted so you click on another elephant with them and then deselect one of them. The monk that is deselected will be converting an elephant. If you are fast you can have all 15 monks trying to convert an individual elephant in a matter of seconds. I will say that on average you will steal about 7-8 (50 % of what you wanted to do) for a few reasons. First is because there is a random chance that the conversion will fail. Another reason is that maybe the 7th, 8th, or any monk that you selected is accidentally trying to convert an elephant that is already in the process of being converted.
I think if you are good at this you can own persian with almost any civ in a 1v1 type of battle and this trick is why.
This can be done with siege to. Lets say you have a bunch of onagers and you want to use them to kill your enemies onagers. Take some of them or maybe everyone you have then double click on one of them and make it attack an onager. Now deselect one of them and just let that one onager hit an enemy onager.
You can do this with regular units too. Lets say you have a group of paladins, hussars, or any fast unit that is good against siege and you want them to kill the scorps that are with the persian army. Double click on a paladin to highlight the whole group and then attack a scorp then deselect one of them and use the group to attack another one, and so on....
This is micro to me. I hear alot of people refering to great micro skills in dm while all I see is them constantly pulling back thier units to keep them in tight formation. I call that army control not "great micro". Good micro to me is making certain units in your army attack what they are good at killing. Archers vs pikeman, paladins vs siege units, siege against archers, and so on.
In lots of civ wars like huns and mayans this is not needed except for maybe killing rams. In them civwars you probably are just going to use patrol followed up with good army control meaning pulling back your groups. Later in the game if you are trying to make a comeback, or maybe some small skirmish off on the side of the map where you have a few of your units run into a small group of your enemy this deselecting will come in handy
Recorded Games are an important part of the game.
First of all, always record your games, that way if you lose, you can take a look at the mistakes you did..
How to analyze a recorded game may it be yours or someone else ?
Lock View + Normal Speed
Have a great look at the start as it is, the main problem of most AoC DMers.
Obviously you can't understand every little moves a 2000+ DMers makes, so obviously what you need to do is take a look at what those 'little moves' had for consequences.
Exemple of a Little Move: Raiding his opponent while there is a major battle in middle
Consequences : Opponent lose focus/ Control of his main army to 'ring the bell' or to provide units to kill the 'raiders'.
