I am reaching out to get some advice on improving my gameplay in high-level multiplayer matches in Age of Empires IV. I have been playing the game for a while now, and while I have made it past the lower ranks, I still find myself struggling to consistently win against stronger opponents, especially in ranked matches.
One of the main areas where I feel I could improve is my strategy execution; particularly in terms of timing attacks and making efficient use of resources. I often find myself falling behind in economy or not having a solid counter to certain strategies; especially when it comes to managing both military and economic aspects of the game simultaneously.
What are some of the most effective build orders for different civilizations in high-level multiplayer games? I am particularly interested in strategies for fast expansion while maintaining strong defense.
How do you guys manage your resources in the mid-to-late game? I often find myself in a situation where I run out of food or wood when I am trying to ramp up military production.
What units do you prioritize when playing against other high-Elo players? I am struggling with countering certain units and often feel overwhelmed during mid game battles.
How do you manage map vision and control in high level games? It seems like my opponents always know where I am weak before I can mount an effective defense.
Well, you are talking about a lot of things at the same time. What ELO are you? Not to judge you, just to have the proper context to answer you.
Strategy execution and attack timings: This is all about knowing your “victory condition”. If you are going trade, then you know defending your trade for some time is what will give you the victory. If you play 2 TC you know you have to survive until you boom enought to have a better eco and production than your enemy, if you go FC you know you have to survive, take relics and press your enemy until you have enought production, etc. One of the major problems of people starting in this game is that they don’t have a clear idea of what they are going to do. It’s not only about researching everything, reaching Imperial age and mass an army. To counter some strategies you need experience, there is no other way we can help you with this. You must test and evaluate if your idea works against certain strategy or not.
Most effective build orders: This is a hard question. Every civ have many ways to be played and all of them are valid depending on the map and the matchup. But, if you are the kind of player that likes expansion and strong defenses, then you should focus on civs like Chapel FC HRE, 2TC FC English, 2TC FC Rus, 3TC Abbasid or 2TC Song Chinese. Don’t even try to be defensive with French, JdA, Delhi, Ayubbids, Zhu Xi, etc
Resources Manage: Move Villagers, not only your TC rally Point. If you need wood and have a lot of gold, then move some villagers quicly to wood. If you have a lot of wood and don’t have food, then move villagers to food or make farms. A common problem with low-medium level players is that they don’t move the villagers. Another solution is to always build a market to balance your economy a bit, but don’t overuse your market, it gets more expensive every time you use it. Another common problem is building A LOT of military production building without the proper economy. Every time you build more barracks, stables, etc, you need to send more villagers to food/wood/gold, depending on the kind of unit you are making. I usually see people in feudal age with 4 barracks, 4 estables and only 15 on food. Only construct more production buildings if you can keep the production rate with your economy. Another important thing is that you should never make and extended queue, for example 15 spearman on just 1 barrack, or 20 villagers in just 1 TC. This takes all your resources for an extended time and your production will be the same.
Units: There is no way to answer that. Every civ and every matchup has different units. You should always try to use the best units of your civ, unless your matchup makes you change, for example:
But that doesn’t mean you can not make spearman/MAA with French, or archers with HRE, or horsemen with English. You try to use your best units, but remember that almost every 2 Unit comp can be destroyed with just 1. For example, if you go spearman/archer, your enemy can beat you with only archers. If you go spearman/horseman, your enemy can kill you with only spearman. If you go cavalry/archer, your enemy can kill you with only cavalry. Never abuse a type of unit you are not needing. I have beaten some Diamond players that started to produce archers when I had literally not even 1 spearman, or horseman when I had not even 1 archer.
Map Vision: Building keeps and outpost is the best way to have vision on your enemy. Try to always move your villagers with 1 outpost for every 5 villagers you move outside your base, and try to wall as much as you can, unless you have the entire map control, you are going aggro and there is no way your enemy can move to raid you.
Map control: This is about resorces. Don’t focus just on destroying your enemy main TC. Both you and your enemy need to take food/gold/wood/stone (usually in that order) around the map. Try to constantly scout the resources outside your enemy base and kill every unaware villager he has. Sometimes, people just focus on an straight attack, and on the replay you can see there were 30 villagers on a deer pack without army or outposts. The same way, your enemy will do the same to you, so make walls, outposts, keeps or position your army in a way you can defend your economy.
I often find myself in a situation where I run out of food or wood when I am trying to ramp up military production.
