Post by l4rg3 on Feb 16, 2008 14:54:13 GMT -5
I ain't actually read this but i thought it might help a little bit 
Build Orders are fine and good, but if you ever want to be really good you must be able to alter your BO midgame. I rarely ever use the same build order, because it differs depending on map, resource placement, and resource amounts. While it is fine to have a base BO, you should never use the same BO all of the time.
[LAND BUILD ORDER: For both FH or Classical fighting]:
This is my own strategy, which basically consists of grabbing a TC immediately upon advancement in classical age, and then casting rain afterwards. Around 7:45 you should have enough resources to advance to heroic age. However, when facing a rusher, such as norse or atlantean/kronos, it is often best to forego the FH and the second TC. Instead, cast rain as soon as you can, (get plow+husbandry+shaduf first) while building barracks simultaneously. With your boost in food supply, it should be easy to keep military flow in 3 barracks. (adding a fourth may be preferable) The other possibility is to grab an early TC but remain in classical. Each of these three variants follow the same basic build order, though you will need to change it up depending on whether you will research hunting dogs or not.
Note: The two reasons to scout with the pharoah is to find food and settlements. You won't need a large number of food sources because you'll be casting rain as soon as you hit classical, so you won't need to scout much with your pharoah. I usually just do a small circle on the food side of my base, and I scout with herdables on the sides of my base. If I have enough food in my base to reach classical easily, I won't scout with my pharoah at all. (example, Marsh) If so, I will scout out for my side TC with my herdables.
[IF HUNT (enough hunt for hunting dogs (800) or a map where you know there will be alot of hunt]
#1+#2+priest (pharoah if not scouting): hunt.
#3+#4: gold.
#5+#6+#7: hunt.
[If scouting with pharoah send him to food once he's done, move priest to gold.]
About this time you should have 38 gold, so build a monument and a house with both gold villagers. (empower with priest)
#8+#9: wood.
#10+#11: hunt.
#12: gold
#13+#14: food. A different food source than your other villagers, send them to berries or chickens. (if you have a choice go to chickens)
#15: build a temple, you should have 100 gold by now. if not, have the villager build a house until 100 gold is collected. As soon as the temple is done begin training a priest, who will empower your secondary food source. (note that most times you will send your hunt villagers to your secondary food source once all nearby huntable aniamsl have been depleted. If so, have your pharoah empower your secondary food source and send your priest to wood.)
#16+#17: food
#18 and on: gold, until you have 400 food to begin researching Classical Age. The earlier the better.
After hitting the Classical age button, send all of your food vills except for 6 or 7, AND send your pharoah, to gold. Have your temple/house builder begin building your second monument. Also, get pickaxe as soon as you have 120 wood. (doesn't matter when this is, get it anyways) Get husbandry as soon as you have another 100 wood. Since you'll also be researching shaduf and plow immediately upon reaching classical age, you will want to add a 3rd wood villager.
[If building a 2nd TC, and FHing]
As classical age research nears completion (90~%), send your pharoah and three villagers to your secondary TC, so that you can begin construction as soon as you advance. Have a priest empower the gold once again, the other one should be empowering food. After hitting classical age, begin researching shaduf as soon as possible. Once that has been researched, begin building farms around your first TC. (research plow too) Your first few created villager should go to gold, then after that send the next couple to food, then back to gold.
When your second TC is completed, have those three villagers build farms. Send your pharoah to your main TC, and send one of your priests to your secondary TC. Cast rain when you have around 11 farmers.
The first couple of villagers from the 2nd TC should go to food, then the next couple to gold. The rest should go to wood. Once you've begun researching/have researched both plow and shaduf, have your wood villagers build a blacksmith. (not including the ones being made from the 2nd TC) Your monument builder should help out on the blacksmith as well. By the time you have 800G and 500F, the blacksmith should be done and the time will be around 7:45. Advance to Heroic with your first TC, your second TC should continue making villagers. When rain has finished, send your pharoah to gold, and send the priest he replaced back to the TC. Research the first wood upgrade as soon as you can, get the 2nd upgrade of gold, and the 2nd upgrade of wood as well.
[If building a 2nd TC, not FHing]
It should be the same as above basically, except that you'll be throwing in some barracks, and you'll want to get the wood upgrade as soon as you can after you cast rain. It's up to you as to where you send your villagers, as it will depend primarily on what your opponent is doing.
[If not FHing or building a 2nd TC]
Build barracks immediately, begin researching shaduf and plow. As soon as shaduf is done you should have enough gold to lay around 13 farms (500~ gold). Cast rain and begin making military.
~~
When you don't have enough hunt to effectively research hunting dogs (800 food), it's best to use a slightly different build order.
Vil #1+Priest: granary/food
Vil #2+Pharoah: monument. Once that is completed the villager should be moved to food, and your pharoah should scout for food. (follow the scouting procedure as mentioned above)
Note: You might want to research husbandry if you have alot of herdable, but if you do you'll have to forcedrop food to keep a constant villager production.
Vil #3+#4+#5+#-6: food
#7+#8: gold (pharoah should be back around now, have him empower food, priest goes to gold)
#9+#10: wood
#11: build houses until you have enough gold to build a temple.
#12+#13: food
#14: gold
From here on out it's basically the same as the build order given above.
[Archaic WATER build order- good for any water map]
Vil #1-2+Pharoah- Food
Vil #3+Priest- dock (after dock is done, villager builds two houses, priest goes back to base)
Vil #3-5- food (if you have hunting, you only need 4 food vills. When priest arrives back at base he empowers food, pharoah switches to wood)
Vil # 6-9 wood
Vil #10-12 gold
Meanwhile, for your dock/house builder, once he is done with the dock and two houses, have him build a dock at another good position. (on highland, prerferably at another lake, on anatolia same lake) When he's done with the dock he should build more houses.
Vil#13-14 food.
[IF MIDGARD]
Vil #13-14 wood. (fish boat spam)
[/END IF]
Vil #15-16 food.
Rest to gold until you advance, once you get 100 gold you should build a temple with your gold villagers.
[IF MEDIT OR ANATOLIA]
Shift all but one or two food vills to gold and wood. It should roughly be a 3/2 ratio of wood/gold. Move pharoah to gold, have priest empower wood. Make a priest from the temple and have him empower a 2nd wood pit. (have only one or two chopping there at first, when you advance you should build villagers and send them to that wood pit) Build a 3rd dock with your dock builder, so you'll be able to pump kebenits out the wazoo. Don't forget to get the wood and gold upgrades.
[IF MIDGARD or HIGHLAND]
Tough decision here, how hard should you go on the water? On Highland you shouldn't go water too hard, so you won't have to have alot of lumberjacks. Shift a few foodies to gold, along with your pharoah. The rest of the foodies stay food, with a second priest empowering. (1st stays wood) Get eco upgrades, and you have two strategy options. You can either FH or stay in classical with an early 2nd TC. This decision is completely up to you, though against norse and atlantean you should probably stay in classical. (if they rush, if not you can fh)
On Midgard, you'll want to go relatively heavy on sea. (unless you're facing an isis, where you will want to fh) Leave about 4 food guys, and split the rest up to wood and gold. (should be a few more wood than gold) Empower gold with pharoah, empower food with a 2nd priest, get eco upgrades. You should have around 4 docks because you'll have fish boomed like crazy. If you don't understand the fish boom then download expert egyptian recs at AoTS. Pretty much every eggy vs. eggy midgard game features a heavy-duty fishboom.
~~
Here's a helpful Highland tip. It's not widely known, (I actually figured this out by myself, though I'll guarantee I'm not the only one) yet it's extremely helpful. If you want to know where the water is without scouting, then do this: Select a villager (or ulf) and click on the temple icon. Move your view to the middle of the map where the water should be, and move the temple foundation around. (don't click) As the foundation moves over water, it will 'sink down' into the map. Try this out in singleplayer before you ask questions, it's really easy to get the hang of, and once you do you won't ever have to worry about docking on a small pond.
If you have any questions (maybe I left something out), feel free to ask.
All credits to ChronoJJ
Build Orders are fine and good, but if you ever want to be really good you must be able to alter your BO midgame. I rarely ever use the same build order, because it differs depending on map, resource placement, and resource amounts. While it is fine to have a base BO, you should never use the same BO all of the time.
[LAND BUILD ORDER: For both FH or Classical fighting]:
This is my own strategy, which basically consists of grabbing a TC immediately upon advancement in classical age, and then casting rain afterwards. Around 7:45 you should have enough resources to advance to heroic age. However, when facing a rusher, such as norse or atlantean/kronos, it is often best to forego the FH and the second TC. Instead, cast rain as soon as you can, (get plow+husbandry+shaduf first) while building barracks simultaneously. With your boost in food supply, it should be easy to keep military flow in 3 barracks. (adding a fourth may be preferable) The other possibility is to grab an early TC but remain in classical. Each of these three variants follow the same basic build order, though you will need to change it up depending on whether you will research hunting dogs or not.
Note: The two reasons to scout with the pharoah is to find food and settlements. You won't need a large number of food sources because you'll be casting rain as soon as you hit classical, so you won't need to scout much with your pharoah. I usually just do a small circle on the food side of my base, and I scout with herdables on the sides of my base. If I have enough food in my base to reach classical easily, I won't scout with my pharoah at all. (example, Marsh) If so, I will scout out for my side TC with my herdables.
[IF HUNT (enough hunt for hunting dogs (800) or a map where you know there will be alot of hunt]
#1+#2+priest (pharoah if not scouting): hunt.
#3+#4: gold.
#5+#6+#7: hunt.
[If scouting with pharoah send him to food once he's done, move priest to gold.]
About this time you should have 38 gold, so build a monument and a house with both gold villagers. (empower with priest)
#8+#9: wood.
#10+#11: hunt.
#12: gold
#13+#14: food. A different food source than your other villagers, send them to berries or chickens. (if you have a choice go to chickens)
#15: build a temple, you should have 100 gold by now. if not, have the villager build a house until 100 gold is collected. As soon as the temple is done begin training a priest, who will empower your secondary food source. (note that most times you will send your hunt villagers to your secondary food source once all nearby huntable aniamsl have been depleted. If so, have your pharoah empower your secondary food source and send your priest to wood.)
#16+#17: food
#18 and on: gold, until you have 400 food to begin researching Classical Age. The earlier the better.
After hitting the Classical age button, send all of your food vills except for 6 or 7, AND send your pharoah, to gold. Have your temple/house builder begin building your second monument. Also, get pickaxe as soon as you have 120 wood. (doesn't matter when this is, get it anyways) Get husbandry as soon as you have another 100 wood. Since you'll also be researching shaduf and plow immediately upon reaching classical age, you will want to add a 3rd wood villager.
[If building a 2nd TC, and FHing]
As classical age research nears completion (90~%), send your pharoah and three villagers to your secondary TC, so that you can begin construction as soon as you advance. Have a priest empower the gold once again, the other one should be empowering food. After hitting classical age, begin researching shaduf as soon as possible. Once that has been researched, begin building farms around your first TC. (research plow too) Your first few created villager should go to gold, then after that send the next couple to food, then back to gold.
When your second TC is completed, have those three villagers build farms. Send your pharoah to your main TC, and send one of your priests to your secondary TC. Cast rain when you have around 11 farmers.
The first couple of villagers from the 2nd TC should go to food, then the next couple to gold. The rest should go to wood. Once you've begun researching/have researched both plow and shaduf, have your wood villagers build a blacksmith. (not including the ones being made from the 2nd TC) Your monument builder should help out on the blacksmith as well. By the time you have 800G and 500F, the blacksmith should be done and the time will be around 7:45. Advance to Heroic with your first TC, your second TC should continue making villagers. When rain has finished, send your pharoah to gold, and send the priest he replaced back to the TC. Research the first wood upgrade as soon as you can, get the 2nd upgrade of gold, and the 2nd upgrade of wood as well.
[If building a 2nd TC, not FHing]
It should be the same as above basically, except that you'll be throwing in some barracks, and you'll want to get the wood upgrade as soon as you can after you cast rain. It's up to you as to where you send your villagers, as it will depend primarily on what your opponent is doing.
[If not FHing or building a 2nd TC]
Build barracks immediately, begin researching shaduf and plow. As soon as shaduf is done you should have enough gold to lay around 13 farms (500~ gold). Cast rain and begin making military.
~~
When you don't have enough hunt to effectively research hunting dogs (800 food), it's best to use a slightly different build order.
Vil #1+Priest: granary/food
Vil #2+Pharoah: monument. Once that is completed the villager should be moved to food, and your pharoah should scout for food. (follow the scouting procedure as mentioned above)
Note: You might want to research husbandry if you have alot of herdable, but if you do you'll have to forcedrop food to keep a constant villager production.
Vil #3+#4+#5+#-6: food
#7+#8: gold (pharoah should be back around now, have him empower food, priest goes to gold)
#9+#10: wood
#11: build houses until you have enough gold to build a temple.
#12+#13: food
#14: gold
From here on out it's basically the same as the build order given above.
[Archaic WATER build order- good for any water map]
Vil #1-2+Pharoah- Food
Vil #3+Priest- dock (after dock is done, villager builds two houses, priest goes back to base)
Vil #3-5- food (if you have hunting, you only need 4 food vills. When priest arrives back at base he empowers food, pharoah switches to wood)
Vil # 6-9 wood
Vil #10-12 gold
Meanwhile, for your dock/house builder, once he is done with the dock and two houses, have him build a dock at another good position. (on highland, prerferably at another lake, on anatolia same lake) When he's done with the dock he should build more houses.
Vil#13-14 food.
[IF MIDGARD]
Vil #13-14 wood. (fish boat spam)
[/END IF]
Vil #15-16 food.
Rest to gold until you advance, once you get 100 gold you should build a temple with your gold villagers.
[IF MEDIT OR ANATOLIA]
Shift all but one or two food vills to gold and wood. It should roughly be a 3/2 ratio of wood/gold. Move pharoah to gold, have priest empower wood. Make a priest from the temple and have him empower a 2nd wood pit. (have only one or two chopping there at first, when you advance you should build villagers and send them to that wood pit) Build a 3rd dock with your dock builder, so you'll be able to pump kebenits out the wazoo. Don't forget to get the wood and gold upgrades.
[IF MIDGARD or HIGHLAND]
Tough decision here, how hard should you go on the water? On Highland you shouldn't go water too hard, so you won't have to have alot of lumberjacks. Shift a few foodies to gold, along with your pharoah. The rest of the foodies stay food, with a second priest empowering. (1st stays wood) Get eco upgrades, and you have two strategy options. You can either FH or stay in classical with an early 2nd TC. This decision is completely up to you, though against norse and atlantean you should probably stay in classical. (if they rush, if not you can fh)
On Midgard, you'll want to go relatively heavy on sea. (unless you're facing an isis, where you will want to fh) Leave about 4 food guys, and split the rest up to wood and gold. (should be a few more wood than gold) Empower gold with pharoah, empower food with a 2nd priest, get eco upgrades. You should have around 4 docks because you'll have fish boomed like crazy. If you don't understand the fish boom then download expert egyptian recs at AoTS. Pretty much every eggy vs. eggy midgard game features a heavy-duty fishboom.
~~
Here's a helpful Highland tip. It's not widely known, (I actually figured this out by myself, though I'll guarantee I'm not the only one) yet it's extremely helpful. If you want to know where the water is without scouting, then do this: Select a villager (or ulf) and click on the temple icon. Move your view to the middle of the map where the water should be, and move the temple foundation around. (don't click) As the foundation moves over water, it will 'sink down' into the map. Try this out in singleplayer before you ask questions, it's really easy to get the hang of, and once you do you won't ever have to worry about docking on a small pond.
If you have any questions (maybe I left something out), feel free to ask.
All credits to ChronoJJ