The difficulty changed on us recently

After reading your build order description, I have to say its not doing you any favours and is very vulnerable to an timing attack, which the AI will do if it senses that you are slow to mass up, the AI is getting better in that regard, they will do timing attacks, and not just try to rush or boom.

Imma adapt a few points from these guide

A few points:

  • Start immidiately with 3 vils on coin (after crates), and then put the rest on food, every single one of them, dont add any new ones to wood before you age up.

  • Only start collecting wood after the age up is underway, and when you do, send all of your vils to wood to collect enough for a bank, then switch to collect food for the bank as well, dont build a market or a second house in transition, build a bank. Your age up should also be the quartermaster (400 wood) most of the time

  • Try to max out on Banks as fast as possible.

  • Your card choices are slow to pay off ( the food trickle, the wood gathering upgrades), the first card in age 1 should be 3 vils, always. Dont send any upgrade cards, focus on cards that will help you get out banks. That means wood crates, both 600 wood and 700 wood.

  • You are building too many barracks and stables way too early, most early ecos cant sustain double barracks production in age 2, especially dutch and it becomes resources that could have been another bank or more houses. Start with 1 and only 1 (often a barrack), you cant even build both barrack and stable, only 1 or the other at first. Only in age 3 or late age 2 when you have maxed out banks can you think to add another building

  • You are dutch, get to age 3 as fast as possible, if you can get away with not even making units in age 2 then do so.

  • And timing is important, while you may have gotten to age 2 faster then the AI, they have better resource spread and also faster workrate then you, so even if you are gathering more, they have spent it better and can hit you in the face harder. If you have resources unspent then its effectively wasted.

I don’t play large maps too big. The AI play like idiots so that makes it easier. They tend to retreat a lot. Just because you can’t beat extreme AI that does not mean other people can’t.

The question here is, how long does it take you to get to age3 °-°

jaja yo me he encontrado en ocaciones que la ia me llega a insdustrial al minuto 12 y a imperial al minuto 20 xD y yo con suerte llegando a IV en el minuto 19 xd

On hard they are attacking us at the 5-5:30 min mark with their combined armies which is around 70 pop. I get to AGE II at 4:30 and start making my army as fast as possible. I have more villagers than they do. I have ZERO chance vs both of their armies but honestly either one of their armies would destroy me solo.
If I play 1v1 on hard I beat them with ease. I can beat 1v2 on hard without too much headache. We play 2v2 on hard and they steamroll us with impossible armies attacking impossibly fast.
Talking about Large texas frontier map. They have an army of 35+ each attacking us at the 5 minute mark. It takes almost that long to just walk from my town to one of theirs. It’s like they are starting with these armies and sending them the instant the game starts.
It only happens when we both play together. I don’t get attacked until AGE III when I solo on hard mode.
Also, when we play multiplayer on hard their units are way tougher than normal. One of their units can easily kill 5 of mine. They have calvary already, usually about 12 each and the rest are some kind of normal military unit depending on the civ and it’s already attacking us right around the 5 min mark.

I age faster than the AI’s. I get to AGE II by 4:30 and AGE III like 20 or so seconds before or after they do, usually pretty close. I always beat them to AGE IV and V though. I also have more villagers and a higher score as well. They have a higher score in AGE I but by AGE II I have usually passed them up score-wise.

I didn’t say I can’t beat extreme AI. I beat the AI solo with not a problem. When me and my nephew play 2v2 vs AI they are impossible. They are 100x more difficult on any setting.

This is what I’ve been currently doing (in solo and try to do in multiplayer with my nephew): At the very beginning of the game the starting 6 villagers, after they gather everything, (by this point I have 3 villagers in queue heading for the nearest mine), I put 1 villager on coin and 5 on hunting animals.
Once I have 5 gathering coin I can usually produce villagers without any downtime. Right when I get to 100 coin it will be time to produce another villager. I put one or two more on food and usually have 3 on wood while aging up to II. i always get the 400 wood upgrade on AGE II and send villager cards and wood crates. I make all the banks I can as soon as possible. They are my main goal.
If I do not make any military in AGE II the game is usually over as they attack me too early and I have no military.
I’ve made the mistake of rushing AGE III too many times. It has NEVER worked out (edit: now it did for the first time as I said in my other reply. Still not sure why). I get attacked and destroyed with no or little army.
If I only have 1 barrack and no stables the game is over. I can’t pump out enough military to hold off their attack in AGE II. They are hitting me with at least 14-17 military before the 6 minute mark and they will continue to send groups continually for the rest of the game every 30 seconds to 1:30. I usually don’t make stables until AGE III though. I have 2 barracks and pump out enough to hold them off while I’m trying to get enough resources to make it to AGE III. Sometimes I beat them to AGE III sometimes I don’t. Some games they are sending 5-10 artillary while I’m still stuck defending in AGE II.
As far as cards I always start with 3 villagers and get the other villager cards in the other ages. I get wood crates in early ages and I get the two wood cutting cards so I can get banks faster. I do not get the food trickle card anymore. I think the wood ones are worth it though.

I’m getting to AGE III at 11:30, just checked in this last game and I rushed AGE III as fast as I could. So getting there in 8 or 9 minutes, I don’t know how. I was getting wood to max banks… I don’t know what I could of done to get to III faster unless I sacrificed getting banks in AGE II maybe…

I just played a couple more and went more closely with what you said to do. I don’t know why, but the AI didn’t attack like they usually do. I rushed age III, didn’t have but 1 barrack… etc… etc… only need to use the one 700 wood crate though, but I didn’t get to age III until 11:30 but I could get there faster maybe with less banks / people cutting trees… but my resources would be coming in slow…
I was able to beat them with my nephew (I basically soloed them as he had a bad game and didn’t do a whole lot) but not sure if it was because of the changes or if it was because of who the AI civs were or something else. They just didn’t attack early like they usually do. Normally I would be dead before I got to AGE III if I had no military but for some reason, it worked. Don’t know if it was just luck or not… was just one game.
I will keep trying this way though as maybe they didn’t attack me due to something I was doing differently. I just don’t quite understand what happened. if 11:30 is too slow to get to AGE III let me know. I was just waiting for the armies to come crush me but for some reason they didn’t show up this time. Almost like it’s random.

you are going to need to provide the in game chart here cause what you are describing is near impossible. Assuming like you say you age up before the AI so the AI is reaching age 2 after 4:30 and are reaching your base by 5:30 then they are pumping out about 30 pop each in 30 secs. not to mention its also a large map

The AI attacks depends on your score, if they were attacking you early before, then its because you werent building up fast enough. Alot of this will be just ability to shore up your eco and defenses by the time they ##### ### maxing out the first 4-5 banks is key. always send 600 and 700 wood and also the bank wagon, dont even send the 4 vils card. A bank is worth 3-4 vils on coin, so sending a crate for the banks is worth about the same as sending 4 vils.

In addition, for dutch a key skill is base building, people buid their house and banks surrounding the TC, within TC fire range and also her all their hunts underneath so that the enemy has to path around and take more fire from your skrims and tc

They aren’t impossible by any means, it just takes practice.

Yeah I’m seeing that now. I age up to AGE III around 6:40 now… then I start making my army out of a single barrack like you said… it does work vs AI… they just don’t attack… I just got to keep my score higher than them and the game is super easy on HARD… now on HARDEST I can’t keep above their score and they do attack and it’s a challenge but can beat them… 1v2 on HARDEST, I don’t see how that’s possible… people saying they can 1v7 on extreme with no “cheese method”… I find that so hard to believe. I looked for vidoes… the only ones I found where people did that, they cheesed the AI by building all over the map so their armies are fighting single pillars of wall all over the place that have tons of HP and while they are busy doing that he has a section walled over several times with lots of towers and forts and then makes his army there… took him almost 7 hours. It was also on a much older version of the game.

But anyway, yeah what you said works… I did figure out the bank wagon card was very good… but have been using the villagers card first so will switch that order like you said. I can usually defend my town pretty well, at least against 1v1 hard/hardest… anything beyond that I need walls and more towers and 2 forts… but I tried vs 2 on hardest and I lasted a long time but they just keep coming and they play much smarter, like kiting my troops and their units seem so much stronger… I can’t keep up and they eventually get through.