Pre-lumber drush (every civ)

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

I just remembered the pre-lumber drush order I made in the past, so I wrote down. It’s for every civ basically. (sry I have no plan to post this video now)

"pre-lumber drush into fc order"(number is villager count)

-5 sheep
6 straggler tree
7 sheep
8 straggler tree
9 boar lure
10- boar, sheep and farm

build barracks and 2 houses with vils on straggler tree
eat boar with 10 vils
(7 on boar and 3 on sheep is better)

make 2,3 militia and attack
then bring 6 vils from boar into straggler tree (8 on wood)
other vils on food (gather 10 gold if making 3 militia)

build mill and gather berries with 6 vils
build 2 houses
build lumbercamp with 8 vils on straggler tree
build 8 farms and bring 3vils on gold
reserch loom and go feudal & castle with 27+2 vils

This order can attack loomless vils with 2,3 militia.

However it needs some effort and both lumbercamp and mill in post dark age (even Khmer). Straggler trees will run out. Moreover, I can’t go into feudal archer after pre-lumber drush because of lack of luring deer.

I’ve played it only about 5 times on ranked (especially 1v1 gold rush), because it’s risky and difficult. 11

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2

Do you remember at what ELO you tried this strategy?

3

At 11xx elo on 1v1. One game is 4v4 (instantly 2 men dropped and go into 3v3) at 13xx elo. It worked well (probably because the opponents went fc every time on gold rush).

4

Thanks a lot. Can you tell me what you do from 13th villager onwards? Go to berry or build lumbercamp?

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5

All goes food under TC; boar,sheep or farm. 13th vil will lure boar.

Move your vils from TC into some camps appropriately.

  • after queuing militia (about making 14th vil) - 6 vils from boar to straggler tree (so 8 on wood)
    (for building camps)
  • when you get 100 wood - 6 vils from sheep to berries
    (for keep food gathering)
  • when you get 25 wood - build 2 house with a vil
    (for pop space)
  • when you get 100 wood - 8 vils from straggler trees to lumber
    (because straggler trees run out)
  • 10 gold gathering is ok anytime.

then you’ll make 2 farms, move 3 vils from sheep to gold, make 6 more farms.

And I mistaked, you can click up feudal with 27 vils instead of 28. If you wall, you should make 2 vils more on wood.
Final eco valance is “8 wood, 8 farms, 6 berries, 3 gold”, same to normal drush fc.

(If you eat sheep with 3 vils and first boar with 7 vils, you eat only one sheep and keep the other 5 sheeps at this time. These sheeps are eaten by 17-22th vils.)

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6

Thanks again.

Maybe you added loom as 1 villager?

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7

If you pick Lithuanians you can build barracks + 1 house immediately at the start of the game. First 1 or 2 villagers then go to stragglers then next 6 on sheep. Then you just need to remember to make a house when you’re at 8 out of 10 population.

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8

No, I misread “28 pop (27vils + 1 sc)” in my memo as “28 vils”. It’s ok to go up with 28 vils if you want to go steady (I always do it).

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9

This topic reminds me that at some point I had the idea to change the Roman eco bonus to
“villagers don’t need to drop off wood”
Similar to the Khmer Farms.

Then Romans could do good drushes that cost almost no timing.

Btw, the current knowledge is, that too early drushes are almost useless as there is practically nothing to hit. That’s why you don’t see them from pros anymore.

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10

Yeah, I’m hoping there are enemy’s free vils when I attack with militia.

11

Can always hit the lumber camp or berries.

Also it depends on your ELO level. Low to mid elo players have a very bad habit of quitting too early when they get flustered, especially if it’s an early rush which they’re not used to, e.g. drush, early feudal towers + man at arms, persian doosh etc. They also often quit when they’re ahead economically, failing to realise that the early rush player sacrificed eco for the forward push. Some even quit when they lose a vill to boar, not realising how much idle time there is at low ELO, especially when under attack. Players literally stop making vills during fights. Stopping vill production for 90 seconds is like having 3 villagers killed, so many people forget that. Especially when they’re forward doing damage, killing vills, meanwhile their eco at home is suffering, TC idle etc.