@FreedonianArrow said:
Hi all!
About Tool age - Axeman rush strategy
In 1v1s I found that the Axeman rush is realy efective,
(Build order: 2 houses and Granary 5 or 6 Villagers on berries the rest on wood, then as fast as possible a storage pit near a good forest once more food sources are found the focus goes on food until aging up to Tool age while aging build two barracks and then to start to train club man and simply upgrading the Leather upgrade in storage pit and Axeman and rushing to opponents base)
What do you all think about that strategy which gets people mad (sometimes super mad… and for a good reason) for being rushed?
And what is the best way to counter it other then doing it yourself before the opponent?
Please post any seggestion of good counters to the Axeman rush
The Storage Pit is worth the investment if you have 2 straggler trees next to it (each gives 75 wood) if you have a different resource nearby, like a stone mine, gazelles or elephant(s). The straggler trees allow fast wood chopping for another storage pit in a different place while you profit from effective gathering/mining due to short ways. It’s even worth to build pits next to shore fish. 2 fishermen gather food extremely fast if they do not need to run to drop off their fish.
It’s also possible to start with storage pit instead of a granary. This will help especially with Persians or Palmyrans, since Gazelles/elephants/shore fish are hunted faster. You need to be fast for this though, but it works if you can find shore fish or gazelles near your town center within the first minute.
Counters to Axemen rushes are archers and slingers (with micromanagement aka “hit&run”).
Worst thing you can do is going bronze if you cannot protect your economy. If you have a good start you can try that though, but it’s risky since you could loose lots of villagers if your enemy scouts you well.
Also, another thing I see from new players is that players try to fight upgraded Axemen with villagers. If rushed by Axes it’s extremely important to not fight them with villagers. Instead run away and redeploy your storage pit/granary somewhere else and while doing that to produce military yourself. If ever you get in a position to fight axemen is when they a) have no armour upgrade or b) are alone and you have at least 8 villagers that can club the Axeman to death. If not you’ll loose villagers, and this is bad.
edit: also, a good axemen rush should happen around the 10-12 minute mark. Any later and you risk that your enemy gets to bronze age, which negates a lot of your rushing potential (wheel tech, Cavalry, better archers etc.).
