Advice for fast castle?

Age of Empires IV IV - Discussion
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I’m currently Platinum 3 (I’ve reached Diamond before, but I also go back down to gold sometimes), and play mostly HRE, Abbasid and French.

I’ve tried many times to experiment with fast castle strategy, especially with HRE and Abbasid, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. Even with HRE I find that going 2 tc and THEN castle age is sooo much better.

When I go fast castle, I usually manage to grab 3-4 relics, and then start feeling like I must play defensively because by that time the opponent army is so much stronger. So by that time I usually build more military production building, around 6-7. But and try to build an army, and keep. But after many battles I always end up loosing because I basically get surrounded and lose control of the map, run out of gold or wood… And the opponent Eco is much higher.

Same problem with Abbasyd, I usually just lose if I try a fast castle on 1 TC. I’ve also tried making a TC right after hitting castle, but my eco doesn’t seem to catch up the opponent when I do this.

Is fast castle just a bad strategy? Or am I playing this wrong? Any advice of what do to, not up to castle, but AFTER reaching castle and after taking the relics, would be appreciated. Because that’s where I start to struggle.

Even in HRE vs HRE matchup, I find that I win way more often by going 2 tc (even if the meta seems to show that fast castle is the strategy here), I’ve had a game where i had so much army (after going 2 tc and delaying my castle, while he went for fast castle) that even though the opponent took the 5 relics, i still went with cathedral and then ram through the opponent base and stole 2 relics from his outpost. And by that time i had so much more villager than him that i won the game. This is just one game example, but it seems to be a pattern in my games.

What do you think?

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I don’t know at what level this starts to matter but fast castle is not a viable playstyle on open maps; but can be pulled off on chokepoint maps like altai, hill and dale given the matchup and sometimes resource spawns.

And typically it’s a stragetical counter to civs that plan to boom (rus abbasid mali etc). You endeavor to hit your stride sooner than they or hit them with superior units to stifle their eco lead.

Imo, sometimes we succumb to defeat because we force a strategy despite the flow of the game and/or MU. A better approach is to respect the MU and learn a few different viable stratagem and be able to apply the 1 or so that best fits the SCOUTED Scenario before you.

Overall, what I’m suggesting is easier said than done but it is somewhat applicable at all ranks where players have the appropriate APM to actively scout.

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Maybe were i go wrong is that i’m thinking i need to play DEFENSIVELY after a fast castle (against boom) but I should actually be more agressive?

I always had the impression that it is easier to make an army when booming though, because a TC is just 750 resources, while castle i 1800. And i need even more resources for all the MAA upgrade and blacksmith upgrades. So how can you be more agressive if you are behind already in resources?

I dont force TOO much the flow. Usually if i see they go feudal army i will try to defend and delay my castle. But i don’t have too much an issue against that because i can castle later naturally and they are still on 1 TC.
Where I struggle the most is when i go fast castle and they go 2 TC. I’m not too sure how I’m supposed to gain advantage when their eco is so much better.