Your feedback is deeply appreciated. I have played Extreme AI for a long while, and they went well, but it’s this time I went badly. Why?
Your allies didn’t help you in the attack at 22:22 when you went double castle against Odoacer, so you lost the synergy of the attack. If you let them boom, the Romans are very strong with their centurions because they boost their infantry. You should have gone with keshiks and pikemen to pressure the attack, and the cavalry archers to provide support, not as the main army.
I’m not sure how detailed I need to be in my analysis, so I’ll just write everything down, just in case. Think of it as a way to improve.
0:00 → 8:00; If your aim is to pull off a scouts rush, there are several things your can improve on. Like, why are you collecting gold even though you don’t need it, etc.
10:00; once you’ve produced two scouts (plus the initial one), it’s a good time to go and give your enemy a hard time
11:00; another thing people sometimes do is play pocket vs pocket, especially if you’ve been quicker to go up
13:00; why are we switching to CA? It makes no sense. You’re playing Pocket; play Pocket. The best strategy is to keep producing Knights, from 2 stables non-stop. To produce a decent number of CA units, you need 3 archery ranges, which you have to build. And you have to upgrade the unit all from scratch. If you add 1 extra stable (2 total) and start producing Knights, the gameplay is much better.
16:00; just to give you an idea of what happened a few minutes later. You’ve lost the initiative, you’re well behind in terms of population, and all because you switched to CA.
20:00; since you and your ally both produce archers, it’s only natural that the Skrims are causing you so much trouble
23:00 The enemy pocket, which hadn’t been attacked at all throughout the game (a serious mistake), finally arrives and rightly punishes you. Against a human player, you would have been punished much earlier.
26:00 → END. As far as I’m concerned, the game’s pretty much over. But if you’ve noticed, your are still stuck at 1 archery range and you’ve got a long way to go before the units can upgrade.
Of course, producing CA is very expensive in terms of wood, which is what’s most lacking on the map (unless you’re playing Black Forest)…it’s better to save the wood to replant farms and siege units and use food and gold instead for Keshiks (the Keshik saves you a lot of gold, since it also generates gold) and heavy cavalry like Knights…with Keshiks, Knights, Battering Rams and Scorpion (for infantry) it should be enough to raze enemy bases (for castles use trebuchets from a distance)…
Thanks man, actually, I’ve done CA rushes before, as Magyars, Mongols, and Huns on this map, and it’s almost always successful, although it’s costly. And adding in a UU as soon as the first Castle is up. Actually, here are the reasons:
0:00-0:800 - I aimed to up to Castle at 30 villagers, and I was afraid I would stall as I may not have enough gold yet
10:00 - Went for five scouts, because I don’t want to risk enemy villagers attacking me. That is my default
13:00 - Done this before as Mongols, Magyars, and Turks, and it was all successful, but yeah you are right. It’s a costly yet effective investmen. What if I do Steppe Lancers instead? And if I am planning to make Cav Archers, when should be the best time to do so?
Erm, you only managed to click up because you’d been idling the TC for a bit. What’s more, as you get better at it, you’ll learn how many extra scouts to send out. Because if the opponent doesn’t close down and is exposed, it’s only right to keep punishing them.
So, in reality, you can send 0 villagers to gold; 7-9 to wood is fine. Everyone else to the farms.
When you think it’s time to go up to the Castle Age, you send five villagers in a row to collect gold, research wheelbarrow, and end up with 200 gold to click.
EDIT. Another approach is to send a 2-4 villagers to mine gold mine once you already have around 25 (just to give you a figure). And then go back to adding farms. This way, you’re ready to either play a heavy feudal age with bloodlines scoutes or go for the Castle Age later on.
To build up a large army fairly quickly, you need 3 archery ranges, except for the Magyars, for whom 2 are enough. So it works best with two civs: the Huns and the Magyars. Huns’s CA are cheaper, so it doesn’t put such a strain on their economy; Magyars’ CA are produced more quickly, so you save on the wood used for a third archery range.
With all the other civilisations (except the Wei, because Xianbei Raiders are borderline OP), you have to make a compromise. Either you go for 2 archery ranges, sacrificing a bit of production, or you go for 3, slowing down your economy a little. The choice is yours.
It’s fine at the start of the Castle Age, but if you’ve been producing scouts, you’ll need to sort out your economy as you age up. Five vills on gold are never enough. And you don’t need all those farms anymore. You literally need to move some villagers from the farms to the wood and gold. Also, remember to research Gold Mining and Fletching and build the archery ranges before reaching the Castle Age.
Knights are better vs archers, steppes are better in raid your enemy.
To produce knights non-stop from 2 Stables, you’ll need roughly 10 farms and 12 villagers on gold.
To produce steppes non-stop from 2 Sables, you’ll need roughly 16 farms and 8 villagers on gold.
In addition to these, you need to add 6 farms to continue producing vills from 1 TC.
As you can see, they require a different eco managment.
Yes, ultimately find a middle ground… 13 farms and 10 villagers in gold… I always try to keep 10 villagers in each resource and then create 5 villagers at a time and send them to where they are needed most…