I keep seeing people complain and I’m getting tired of it mainly because I love this game.
I play just English. I’ve had to learn to adapt builds due to what I face.
I played a chinese player who completely stonewalled (figuratively) the fastest ram rush I can get off by fast castling. He used ONE villager to build the barbacan and walled off on Altai. Allowing him to have more resources to fast castle.
Now as the English knowing this build I the best response is to know if a player is going to do it to start. However even if not you scrap the ram rush after the 1st push and go hard eco. I’d prefer to just take it into account from the start of the build and not ram rush at all, however it can be hard to know if a player will do it as its not even in the meta really yet. If it was I’d be waaaay more likely to simply match it with my own castle age that I prepped from Dark Age. The same can be said about matching an Abbisid 2 TC build on larger maps and small maps because the camel in Feudal does work on English pikes. So knowing this I’d be more prone to have 2 tc MAA’s with Longbows. HRE goes fast castle so again if I don’t feel the early ram pressure will seal the game match the strat. I fought a HRE player for a relic and managed to get 3 relics to 2 on Hill and Dale. Vs Delhi Scholar I defend 2 sacred sites in Feudal and ALWAYS build a Feudal army. Vs French I build defensively and try to fast castle for the keep as going toe to toe in Feudal you’ll lose long term vs them. Vs Mongol I rush and look to fight Feudal with them forcing them to use stone on army.
Every civ has this same flexibility inherently built into them and each map will adjust the end game strat of whether you go Siege battles or heavy army. The more walling that can take place the more siege is a factor that simple. The more walling and siege that can take place the more SECONDARY win cons play a factor.
In all this people are overvaluing one strat and always forgetting to be able to back it up with army. MEANING
You can’t go HRE and get relics without a fight, or relics for that matter. You can’t go all siege of massive resource investments of 500+ and then lose them to pikemen, massively setting your eco back. Which is the same thing for Imperial Officials, Scholars, and Monks. I know this because I TARGET them as English when ever I ram rush. So the answer is the same for a fast castle. You can’t go 1200 food and 600 gold and expect not to be squashed by an army vs certain CIVS!!! Like thats two upgrades for english plus some worth of gold and 12 Longbows. So you’re looking down the barrel of a ram and army with upgrades just to castle with no army. So if you can’t wall off and even if you can Expect some sort of push back.
Plus people are HIGHLY undervaluing walls. Certain maps are hard to wall but the right placement of a keep or wall can drastically secure an area of the map. So again KNOW YOUR MAP AND KNOW YOUR CIV. Then also know the civ your up against and adjust accordingly.
So something to note. If I play a chinese player with 1 vill on a barbacan I know I can safely go 1 vill on council hall and get the wheelbarrow and play long game farms early castle. I could likely use this same build vs Abbasid 2TC boom and match the TC with my own and still go keep castle age behind it.