Have you ever wondered how other players can have a castle while you still have to use the militia? This can happen simply because they have a stronger economic power than you. This article will explain one way to make sure you always have the resources to do what you want in Age of Empires 2. This strategy works best on maps that are dominated by land (since there is no need to build a dock or navy), and assuming that no civilization has advantages or disadvantages in terms of technology and resources.
In general you will receive 200 food. wood, gold, and stone early in the game, and this article uses those initial numbers as a basis for strategy without having to attack at any age.
Step
Method 1 of 5: General Advice
Step 1. Don't stop creating villagers
Villagers are the key to economic power because they function as resource collectors and builders. It could even be said that every second you don't spend creating a villager in the town center, those precious seconds are wasted, especially in the Dark Age (your performance in the first two minutes can determine whether you can have more economic power. stronger than other players or not).
Step 2. Don't forget the military
This article should not be used as a step-by-step guide to the game! Victory can be achieved through a strong and sophisticated military force, but to reach that level you need a strong economy. Be careful when dealing with players who invaded during the Feudal Age, early Castle Age, or late Castle Age. You will lose if you neglect military developments (except when racing to build wonders).
Method 2 of 5: Dark Age
Step 1. When the game starts, there are several steps that must be done quickly and in order:
- Immediately spend 200 available food by making 4 villagers from the town center. The default hotkeys that can be used are H to select a town center and C to create a villager (can only be used if you have selected a town center). The fastest way to do this is to press H, and then shift +C. The shift key is used to make 5 units at once. This pattern is probably the most important hotkey pattern in the game.
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Order two villagers to build two houses.
This will temporarily increase the population limit to 15 and increase the number of villages that can be created. Don't tell each villager to build one house – make each house use two villagers to maintain villager creation speed. After completing two houses, instruct the two villagers to build a lumber camp near the forest (at this stage your scout should have found at least a forest).
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Use a scout to monitor around the area that is already visible.
Finding the first 4 sheep is a very important step in completing Dark Age. Sometimes, you can find a sheep in an area that is still covered in fog. If this happens, instruct the scout to walk towards the sheep. The four sheep will be yours and you can continue looking for the other 4 sheep (in pairs) further afield, the berry bush, two boars, deer (not available on some maps), gold mine, and stone mine.
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Order another villager to cut wood near the town center.
Step 2. When the 4 sheep found arrive at the town center, leave two outside the town center and order the rest to stay in the town center
Command your newly created villager to collect food from one by one sheep (split the shepherds into two groups if you run out of space, this is hard to avoid). Also save the wood that has been cut by other villagers and instruct them to collect food from the sheep.
Step 3. Learn Loom after creating all four villages
Loom will allow villagers to defend against wolves alone (important on higher difficulty because wolves will be very aggressive) and give them more health when used as live bait for boar fishing. You have a target to click Loom at 1:40 (1:45 in multiplayer mode due to lag).
- At that time, one sheep will have been exhausted. Continue collecting food from the sheep in the town center, not from the two you left outside. Make sure you keep no more or less than two sheep in the town center so that villagers don't have to walk inside to store food.
- After learning Loom, make more villagers. You may have to force the Shepherds to stock up on the food they carry as little as possible to get to the 50 needed food. Make sure you know when population reaches 13 and creates a new house.
Step 4. Instruct a villager who is not gathering wood to make a mill near the berry source
With this you will have both requirements to move from Dark Age to Feudal Age and get food sources that produce slower but more stable speed. In the end, once you have more villagers, allocate more villagers to collect food from the berry.
After finding the other four sheep (each in a pair), repeat the same process with the first four sheep.
Step 5. Lure the boar
Boar fishing should be done when the sheep you have are almost gone. Order a villager to attack a boar and move the villager to lure him to the town center. After the boar is in front of the town center, instruct all villagers who are still collecting food from the sheep to collect what they brought (if there are still sheep left. Villagers will be silent when they are finished.) and attack the boar.
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Do this step carefully, there is a possibility that the villager you are using will be killed. There is also the risk of the boar returning to its original place. Be careful because if these problems occur, the time you allocated for this stage will be wasted.
There are two boars to hunt. When the food produced by the first boar reaches around 130-150, send a villager (NOT the one you used to fish before) to repeat the fishing process.
- When both boars are used up, hunt for deer. Order 3 villagers to hunt down a deer. These animals are easy to kill, but cannot be provoked.
Step 6. Keep creating villages until you reach 30 population
Keep building houses until the maximum population reaches 35. Order some new villagers to collect wood, which is an important resource in Feudal Age and beyond. Order 10-12 villagers to collect wood.
- Make a mining camp next to the gold pile near the town center. While you don't need gold to reach Feudal Age, starting mining in the Dark Age is an important step (or at least while the Feudal Age research process is going on) because you won't be in the Feudal Age for very long. Some civilizations have an initial capital of 100 gold, and having initial gold is a very valuable capital. Do not order more than 3 villagers to collect gold.
- Farm will be the main source of food in the next age even though it can be made in Dark Age. You need 60 wood to make it. You will need to farm because deer and berries will run out eventually. Farms are made of wood and you may have to allocate villagers who were gathering food to collect wood. Ideally the farm should be located near the town center, which has a garrison, but you can also build a farm around the mill if you run out of space.
Step 7. Study the Feudal Age
Finally, increase the population limit to 30.
Method 3 of 5: Feudal Age
Step 1. After reaching the Feudal Age, there are several steps that must be carried out very quickly and orderly:
- Order three villagers who are gathering wood to make a market.
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Order a villager who is gathering wood to make a blacksmith.
This unequal division of labor is due to the fact that the market takes longer to build than blacksmiths. After the market and blacksmith are completed, the two Feudal Age buildings that are the next age requirements will be fulfilled and the villager used must return to collect wood.
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Make 1 (or maximum 2) villager from the town center.
Order this villager to collect wood.
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Don't do any research.
Food and wood (indirectly) are very important resources as a requirement for Castle Age. All villagers who collect food other than the farm (except those who harvest berries) must already be working on the farm.
- Always use a scout to monitor the surrounding area, especially in 1 on 1 games.
Step 2. Get 800 food
After getting a lot of food when Feudal Age research was running, the amount of food you should have should be close to 800. In fact, after building a market, you should already have 800 food and 200 gold (this is the target you must achieve). If you only create one villager, you may have to force the market to produce 800 food.
Step 3. Study Castle Age
The Feudal Age is a period of “transition” - with this strategy you won't be in the Feudal Age for too long.
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While Castle Age research is in progress, upgrade the technology provided by the mill and lumber camp.
When researching Castle Age, there is a chance that the wood supply will be very thin. Collect 275 wood and build a mining camp near the stone. Allocate two villagers who collect wood to collect stones. Stone is a very important resource for the town center and later the castle.
Increase the population limit to 31 or 32 during the research.
Method 4 of 5: Castle Age
Step 1. Just like in the previous two ages, there are several steps that must be carried out very quickly and in order: Order three villagers who are gathering wood to create a town center choose a strategic place, for example near a forest or a gold or stone mine (ideal if the resources are close together). If you don't have enough wood, collect 275 before building the town center. Building more town centers is a very important step because you can create more villages at once. In addition to 275 wood, the town center also requires 100 stone to build. If necessary, exchange the required resources in the market. In Castle Age, create 2 or 3 additional town centers to achieve optimal growth rates.
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Make more villagers.
In order to continue the steady pace of villager production, you'll need to keep building houses regularly using lumberjack. New Villagers must be allocated equally to gathering food, wood, and gold, but you must provide at least 8 people to collect stones.
Step 2. Learn heavy plow
This research requires 125 food and wood, so you should wait a while before clicking on it. You can also re-seed the farm by using the reseed action queue in the mill.
There are several technologies to learn, including Bow Saw, Gold Mining, and Wheelbarrow. Remember to keep making villagers with other town centers while one learns the Wheel Barrow.
Step 3. Create a university and a castle
The University has technologies that are useful in the economic and military fields. Make a castle using four villagers who are tasked with collecting stones once you have 650 stones. If you are still far from 650, especially when attacked by rioters, you can replace it with a monastery (or castle age military building), to fulfill the two Castle Age building requirements.
Step 4. Continue to expand the civilization you are building
Keep building farms using new villagers. Take advantage of reseed in the mill, especially when you are trying to organize a military force in the middle of a small or large battle. At times like these manually replanting the farm is annoying and can be frustrating at times. Creating a new town center can reduce the number of mills you have to make.
- Unlike mills, you have to keep making more lumber camps, especially at castle age because enemies often attack lumberjacks which are generally out of reach of the town center. Lumber camps should also continue to be built to reduce villagers' walking time after the number of trees in the forest begins to decrease.
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Allocate villagers to mine gold.
Build more mining camps to increase productivity. If you don't allocate villagers properly, then 800 gold will be a difficult target to achieve. Villagers allocated to collecting gold have an important role, especially in the Castle Age, because at this age you have to develop military power. Most military units require gold (even some civilizations have military units that are more expensive than others). Mining stone has a lower priority because it only serves as raw material for towers, town centers, castles, walls, and Murder Hole.
Step 5. Build a monastery if you want to create a monk
Monk is the only unit that can retrieve relics. Relics will give out gold regularly and can be a good source of gold especially when there are not many other gold sources left (and when exchanging resources through the market can be very inefficient).
Step 6. Trade cart is a good way to earn gold if you play with at least one friend. The farther the target market is, the more gold is generated from each trip. In addition, learning to caravan will increase the speed of the trade cart by two times. Be careful because trade carts are very easy to attack by enemy cavalry units.
Population to be divided into several sections when you study the Imperial Age. As the game progresses, you will spend more resources creating and developing military units compared to the economy. Keep in mind that you will still have to increase the population limit while studying Imperial Age
Step 7. Study the Imperial Age
Research can start at different times. If you play patiently and keep building up your military power (this is a strategy you should follow, except in the wonder race mode), 25:00 is a great time. Ideally, you will use the first town center to do your research as the area around it is already developing. You can also use another town center to learn Handcart during your research (requires Wheelbarrow).
The population limit is something that is often forgotten. Order one villager to keep building houses as the game progresses (it doesn't have to be the same villager)
Method 5 of 5: Imperial Age
Step 1. Starting at this age, military power will dominate the game
Continue to develop technology and military units to create a well-armed army. Even so, there are a few things you should do:
- As in the previous three ages, keep making villagers! Ideally, you should have around 100 villagers. When fighting the most difficult AI or other players, new villagers will replace the dead villagers when an attack or surprise attack occurs. Allocate villagers based on the resources they have. For example, if you have 7000 wood and 400 food, use some lumberjack to create a farm and put the reseed in the job queue. Wood on the mainland map will generally be less important than food and gold in the Imperial Age.
- Learn Crop Rotation, Two-man Saw, and Gold Shaft Mining. Stone Shaft Mining is lucrative research, but it is optional and the necessary resources can be diverted to more important military purposes. Treadmill Crane is also a useful technology that can be learned at university.
Tips
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General food statistics:
- Sheep: 100
- Boar: 340
- Deer: 140
- Farm: 250, 325 (Horse Collar), 400 (Heavy Plow), 475 (Crop Rotation)
- Learn and use hotkeys. You will become a more efficient player by using your left hand to press hotkeys and shift key and right hand to swipe the screen and move the mouse.
- As mentioned above, don't forget the military stuff! Military buildings must be created, military units must be upgraded, and new technologies must be continuously studied according to need. Also implement a defense strategy. For example, build a watchtower near the lumber camp in the Feudal Age to repel Feudal mobs who want to slow down your wood production.
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The body of research for each age is as follows (some civilizations have exceptions):
- Feudal: 500 food, 2 Dark Age buildings
- Castle: 800 food, 200 gold, 2 Feudal Age buildings
- Imperial: 1000 food, 800 gold, 2 Castle Age buildings (or 1 castle)
- In single player mode, when the screen goes black (just before the game starts), you can press H CCCC (or H shift -C). You'll hear the town center sound when you press H, even when nothing is visible yet. If you do this combination right after the screen goes black, then the target at 1:40 will be achievable (in fact it will be around 1:45 to 1:48)
- If you are mobbed or attacked, press H then B. This will force the villager to take refuge in the nearest building that has a garrison feature (town center, castle, tower).
- Every civilization has different advantages and disadvantages. For example, Chinese has 3 more villagers but 200 less food at the start of the game. Try experimenting with each civilization to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of each.
- The targets mentioned in the article should be attainable by everyone. While some targets are too difficult for new players to achieve, try to meet them as much as possible.
- Order each villager to build a house at the start of the game to maximize villager production.
Warning
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Watch out for rioters. There are three types of rioters, namely Feudal rioters (Frusher), Castle early rioters, and Castle late rioters.
- In general, Feudal rioters will search your town at the start of the game for lumber camp. They will send archers, spearmen, and skirmishers (or sometimes men-at-arms) to harass the lumberjack and slow down production (NOT aim to kill villager). Slow production at the start of the game will seriously damage your economic development. Keep in mind that watchtower will only partially solve the problem Frusher is causing.
- Castle's early rioters are the most dangerous type of rioters. They will make about 6-10 knights and some battering ram. In this phase of the game, their goal is to kill villagers around the lumber camp, mining camp, and farms around the mill while destroying the town center using battering ram. Use a pikeman troop and some camels (if you're using a Byzantine or other civilization with camels) to block this attack. Infantry or knights can be used to stop the battering ram (town center can't because the battering ram has high pierce armor).
- A common strategy on Black Forest maps when playing online, especially when playing as the Aztecs is to increase the priority of making monk, and using monk or mangonel (or sometimes battering ram) to attack. Making several scouts is the best way to fend off attacks by users of this strategy.
- Castle's final rioters have a similar purpose, but with a more developed army. The unit used depends on the selected civilization.
- You should be able to recover quickly and return to the original strategy. You will be left behind, by both friend and foe, if you fail to recover. (If your production speed in Feudal Age is very slow, the enemy has succeeded and defeat is certain). If you manage to recover, the attack will only hurt the enemy's economy more than yours. Counter-riot attacks are one way to take advantage of a weak enemy.
- Dark Age rioters (Drusher) only exist in high-level games (very rare in lower levels) and are very rarely used because Dark Age has very limited military power. In general, this type of rioter will send 4 militia, a scout cavalry, and several villagers to harass your villager who works in the lumber camp and gold mine. Since drusher is a rare type of player, you don't have to worry about any attacks until the Feudal Age.
