Exactly why you have no idea and why you’re in gold. You don’t start collecting resources unless you specifically need them for something.
And those two strategies that I told you about it won’t matter how much wood you collect it wont help you to win against, because its not right response.
For example build order I use. It has everything essentially calculated perfectly (Finally some final pieces fell together in this patch). Every single resource is so tight that you won’t be able to start randomly throwing outposts or production buildings without ruining the build order and there is no need because this build order is insanely hard to stop or deal any dmg to me and my 80% winrate in ranked is good enough proof that it works against any civs or comps. Alongside the fact that I reached +1800 elo in QM with this build order.
This is where you’re horribly wrong. This has everything to do with TG’s and specifically how Malians work there. You still don’t understand at all that map size plays big part in if you can punish something or not. Punishing trading in larger maps is insanely difficult.
In 1v1 its easier to punish trading (depends on map too), because Malians need to focus making army and traders. When you try to boom and make army then one or another suffers, but in TG’s where your allies can compensate the lack of army makes Malian trade even stronger top of that where Malians can offer safe food under TC which has higher gather rate than farms which allows rest of allies to gain overwhelming advantage in terms of military and able to protect the trade route. Plus getting cows under TC saves all the resources that would otherwise go into farms.
Then there is another fact because the maps are larger this means higher gold income than in 1v1 maps, those 1 or 2 toll outposts are enough to pay off trader and gain profit which makes protecting trade route much easier and this again is TG thing and not in 1v1 at same extend.
Im not saying Malians trade should be nerffed, but whole trade system needs complete rework for every mode with different rules, because it creates this kind of things where something becomes super broken and extremely hard to punish. Its essentially impossible to stop this kind of trade on large maps specially if map has chokepoints that are easier to wall off.
Then there is another fun fact. Even if neutral market is not used, Malians can turn into ally to make market which is again TG speciality and makes it even more viable than in 1v1. This applies to any civ regarding trade, but some civs are stronger than others with trade and having ally to help you out can make it even harder to punish.