I’ve recently started researching professional scouts every game. The only time I wouldn’t do it is maybe boulder bay or island maps as the reduced amount of deer/increased fish focus don’t justify it. On every other map I feel I have to get it and go out grab all the deer and bring back to base or I’m putting myself behind my opponent. The gather rate on deer is so good compared to sheep or berries I feel it’s a necessity. It also delays the move to farms/pastures so you can use the wood on other things. I’ve noticed that the pros seem to almost always get it too but occasionally they won’t.
This is probably a complicated question but when is it worth not getting it? If you have some specific plan that needs that gold immediately maybe?
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I think there are some major factors which decide if you want to go professional scouts since its still a quite big investment in early feudal age:
- You need or want to turtle. For example you want to go fast castle or you are expecting a push soon and cant spread out your base without risk.
- You want to take advantage of some eco-bonus your civ has. For example the prelate/Aachen Chapel bonus which is limited in the location or chinese IO boosting the mill you bring the deer to.
- Your strategy involves having a lot of scouts. For example mongols on hybrid maps to go against enemy docks or rus for bounty.
Imo only if one of those points are checked you CAN go for professional scouts. In other cases its more efficient to build a mill and maybe a tower near deer or a boar.
Hope this helps!
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Yeah I play Mongols so I can get a lot of scouts out early game that I usually use to destroy enemy gold mine before I hit feudal.
I think it depends a lot on the match up and the civ you play, not to mention the map. Against the rus for example you kinda have to otherwise they will take all the hunts on the map including yours and they have very good defenses, it’s also very strong against turtle srrats too.