I found a build order and tweaked it a little, managed to get First Crusade in 20 minutes! Has anyone managed faster? I wonder how good it works in 1v1 games!
Check it out and let me know what you think + any suggestions of things that would make it quicker if you know any, Cheers
As long as it’s arena you should win most of the time, this tech is really too much 11
Here is one in 19:
But I consider it a bit stronger if you take you a bit more time. The prob with the 19 min is the one-time powerspike but no followup other than just going full donjon rush. This makes you predicrable. Of course if your opponent isnt prepared in time, it’s too late. But if he knows he can go for the counters, which is walling + siege or elephants if he has a strong ele civ.
Here’s why: The first crusade total ressource spike in military is nice, if you give the castle age serjeants a value of about 80 res/unit you get about a value of 4800 (necessary add. upgrades + buildings included) in long swordsman from it. The Investment done is about 3400 res though, so you are indeed 1400 military value ahead, which is indeed much more than any good eco civ can pull of. But the time you spent walking over + the defences of your opponent can mitigate some of this advantage. The Advantage is not that much it guarantees you a win. It’s a very strong powerspike but no unbeatable powerspike, especially in arena, which is way easier to defend.
So, the Idea is to take you one or two minutes more time, the powerspike itself is the same, but you have more options to continue. Because you should already have build some farms you could just knock on the enemy door and booming behind because you already placed 5 TCs on the most important ressources, so your eco is protected while you threaten a donjon rush and get the map control. You bust your powerspike because the tcs you placed to get the crusade rolling now become booming tcs “for free”.
The other option is that you comit hard to the donjon rush then. Because you took yourself a bit more time and placed some farms and placed your tcs well organized and not too close to another you have a healthy eco behind that donjon rush and use the ability of the serjeants to build them as “free builders”.
And of course you can also go half boom half donjon rush.
Bacause your opponent loses all map control once you researched first crusade he has no clue what you are doing and has to decide preemtively what strat he will go for to answer this. As you will see this due to your map control you just adjust your strategy that way you either use the first crusade just as a distraction if he heavily commits to counter the donjon rush or donjon rush him if he gets too greedy.
With this strat in mind, there is almost no counter to the fc first crusade strat other than try to punish the fc, which is indeed impossible on maps like arena.
I also wouldn’t go for a castle drop or something like this. The first crusade gives you the utility to get an insanely strong offensive powerspike from a pure defensive play. This you should utilize as much as you can. Because the serjeants + donjon rush give so much offensive value you don’t need a castle drop. It just gives your opponent the opportunity to snipe your forwarded vills. But the advantage of the donjon rush is, that you don’t need to bring any villagers forward to pull it off, so making a castle drop takes away one of the advantages of the first crusade + serjeants.
I haven’t made a buildorder or something like this yet, because I think in its current state its just not balanced. The donjon rush is in it’s current state impossible to balance until they take away pe the arrows from the donjons. It’s a even more utilized version of the tower rush which is impossible to balance either, so how the donjon rush can be?
And the first crusade needs to be adjusted. I’d like to see that you get serjeants for each donjon you already build, so it gets utility, either offensively or defensevely. But other than it’s state atm you need to have already invested in and commited to the donjons already. This would balance it out and make the uncounterable outplay I described above impossible, because the oponnent will know what he is against.
every strat that includes not making vils is counterable
I actually made it work without sacrificing eco: 38 vils by 20 min first crusade.
Key are some adjustments to the build, if you hit feudal with 27 pop you can skip building early farms and make farm/wood upgrades wen hitting feudal, still go up with 29.
Then you can place 8-9 farms so you have a food income in castle, whilst your building your tcs => vil production. Then just skip a min to make the first crusade, then making the blacksmith upgrades whilst you are housed.
I built the first tcs with only one villager, as I can’'t keep them busy the saved build time is more valuable then building them early. Sicilian Vils build Tcs in the same time as other civs build them with 4, 75 secs. This saves you about 100 res with that walking Every additional vil costs you about 20 res of that advantage.
Of course the tc you build while researching first crusade you need more than 1 vil to build. I used 5 but I think you can use 3-4 depending on when you start building it.
I actually mistakenly went up with 28 and couldn’t afford the wood upgrade immediately which led to 8 farms instead of 9. With 9 farms you get first crusade just 20 secs later but with at least 3 vills more, which is more valueable. Its also easier to get the blacksmith upgrades with 9, aswell as I didn’t had probs with that as I immediately added farms after researching first crusade. But I needed to make the first attack upgrade before the second armor. The other way around is more valueable.
I don’t play this with strict buld orders rather than adjusting my eco “on the fly”, but i’m sure if you adjust the mentioned build orders above to my concept they will work fine.
I think just over 20 mins with 41 or 42 vils first crusade is stronger than the build orders in the videos, because it even puts you ecenomically ahead if your opponent goes 1 tc full military to counter the first crusade. I think this strat is literally unbeatable in arena if you use the outplay I mentioned above.
Edit: As I don’t play arena usually I thought you would always get 4 deer, but if you only get 3 the build doesn’t work as described above. If you only get 3 you need to place 3 early farms and then 8, go up with 28 pop. Sorry for that. The adjustment is then only the focus on farm upgrade and wood instead of stone + the additional farms.
Awesome thanks man! I’m going to try this out. Cheers!
Now it’s over, the hotfix makes it balanced.
So now you want to make standard playstile and bring it after your boom after placing some tcs at the most important ressources.
I’m sorry for your arena clown strat, but I’m actually glad it is fixed now.
Lol I used it once and never again. I actually ban blasted Arena. Just wanted to try it out 
yeah abusing it in ranked just causes more players to pre-emptively alt f4 v sicilians… glad its nerfed though