* The Pros and Cons of 1.

0
Speed - Author: CD

I hope this doesn't degenerate into another of my unnecessarily long posts but this is a pet peeve of
mine so you'll excuse me if I err on the side of long-windedness.

In general, 1.0 speed favours the better player. The faster the speed, the easier it is to narrow the
skill gap between players. The reason for this is that good players make full use of the extra time
whereas new players often sit around watching their villagers gather berries and thus do not
understand why it is necessary to sit around and wait.

For them, the game only 'starts' once they hit Tool or Bronze (and in many cases Iron) and they don't
do much in the meantime except sit around and watch their SimCity, hence their preference for faster
speed settings.

Good players, on the other hand, subscribe to the maxim - "God is in the details." They understand
that games are won or lost in Stone, that starting positions, effective scouting, finding good places to
wall and locating the enemy is important.

For them, the First Four Minutes are the most important in the game. It is in this time that you need
to squeeze out the maximum amount of production and scouting before you finally decide on where to
plop down that important first wood pit.

For players like these who understand the importance of making use of the extra time, 1.0 speed is
the natural preference. (For those of you who are wondering how speeds come about, hitting F11 will
show you the clock and the speed setting, whether it's 1.0, 1.5, 2.0).

The advantages of 1.0 speed for the non-newbie player also extend beyond the first four minutes.
After the initial frenzy of economic activity, the extra time is now used to find secondary and tertiary
sources of food, chokepoints in which to wall, a good place to dock, shallows to cross and control. All
this is done while avoiding lions (or at least surviving lion fights where possible).

This again is the other distinction between a skilful player and a weaker one - the skilful player is a
masterful explorer, and makes maximum use of his extra time on his way to Tool.

In Tool, the extra time is used to Wall - to make a snap decision on where to place the initial military
building(s), moving villagers from food to wood and/or gold and stone - these little things improve
your Bronze times, and often - strengthen your economy.

In sharp contrast - the new player who insists on 2.0 speed does not understand how to fine-tune and
micromanage his economy even at 1.0 speed, and will be frustrated by having so much extra time.

Contrary to one other person in this thread said, it is not more difficult to play at 1.0 because you
need more patience - in fact, the opposite is true - you can never run out of things to do. Whatever
extra time I have is spent examining Achievements, and even that examination is limited to a hasty 3-
4 seconds.
With 2.0, the efficiencies gained from fine-tuning your economy and effective exploration are lost.

I have a maxim of my own that pretty much sums up micromanagement and making full use of the
extra time: "If you are sitting around waiting for something to happen, or have nothing to do, you are
doing something wrong."

Good players always can do something with that extra time, and if there is nothing to do - they make
something happen. In essence, this is why the better players prefer a game at a slower setting to a
faster one. 1.0 allows players to seize and dictate the initiative while keeping their economy at full
hum.

The other reason for not playing 1.5 and 2.0 is that it limits the tactics and strategies that can be
employed. As correctly pointed out by Angel Omnivac in this thread, it does not allow you to try
fancier tactics like outflanking, diversions, raids and surprise attacks.

You will find that even in DM, top-flight DMers (and I'm not talking about the big group that call
themselves 'experts') prefer 1.0 speed simply because they can better manage a combined-arms
army backed up with Towers. No single-minded 1 unit Choson Legion army for them - which is
probably the easiest way to play DM if it is at 2.0 speed.

To follow up on that last paragraph, the faster the speed setting, the more difficult it is to manage
combined arms armies - you are far more likely to see brainless single-unit armies like all Cav, all CA,
all HA, all Cats etc.

I think though, that the greatest appeal of 1.0 for the better players is the ability to control multiple
battles while keeping their economy at peak efficiency. It is not humanly possible (not for me anyway)
to manage 50+ villagers/boats and invade/defend, 'dance' etc at the same time. Even at 1.0, when I
pay too much attention to one, the other will suffer. How more so at 2.0 speed! Walling in those
games would become doubly or triply hard due to the time-consuming nature of laying down walls -
rushes would become even easier to execute, with higher percentages of success.

Simply put, higher speed settings reduce the diversity of options available in the game and streamline
the game towards more of a 'rush' type game. It's a fair bet that if your opponent prefers to play at
2.0, they are either:

1. New to the game and therefore do not know what to do with their extra time; or
2. Are brainless single-unit rushers who have memorised their strat down pat, and can't wait to get to
Bronze and kill you. These players are inflexible and will not know what to do if they are faced with
unexpected situations.
If I am ever unfortunate enough to be caught in a game like this, I'll usually Tool Rush the hell out of
them if they take Yamato or Assyrian - they usually have no conception of Tool defence, and won't
have time to Wall.

Now don't get me wrong, there are many good players who can play extremely well at 1.5 or 2.0 - but
these players do even better at 1.0 speed. The point here is not whether there are players who can
play brilliantly at higher speed setting, but rather that every player, regardless of skill level, can do
more, and is more efficient at a lower speed setting.

And that, I believe, is the strongest argument for playing at 1.0, irrespective of the civs, or game
speed.
Even with slow civs, I prefer 1.0 - 1.5 reduces the time I have to wall - usually when I wall at 1.5, my
economy suffers at a result. 1.5 also messes up my exploration, because even though the villagers
walk faster - it reduces your reaction time to lion attacks. Trust me when I say you'll lose more
villagers to lions at 1.5 speed than you will at 1.0. As you can see, it's not the fact that your villager
walks faster at 1.5 that matters, it is your reaction time and your ability to multitask that is your
cornerstone of success in 1.0 games.

The other reason, as pointed out by Angel Omnivac is that the faster the speed, the MORE lag it
creates. Internet newbies think that faster speeds reduce lag - but it actually is the other way around.
The faster the game speed, the more data has to be moved around to keep all players in synch. The
greater the number of players, the more pronounced the effect of jacking up the speed will be.

I don't like 'labelling', but the moment someone presents the argument that 'you get less lag with
faster speeds', I immediately think 'newbie'. I also think 'newbie' the moment someone tells me that
playing at 1.0 is 'too slow' and 'boring'. As I've pointed out earlier in this short essay, you can never
run out of things to do.

It's evil and sometimes unfair to 'label' players as newbies, but unfortunately in this context, the label
often rings true. I will conclude by restating that key maxim of micromanagement and efficiency: "If
you are sitting around waiting for something to happen, or have nothing to do, you are doing
something wrong."

The quality of a good player - Author: Your_Old_friend

I found what makes a good player and distinguishes it from the less good player.

After being so frustrated with my whimpiness, I HAD to know why - which, in turn, taught me the
opposite: what makes the good player.

Please note, this is NOT "HOW" to do these things - if I knew, I would be DOING them, LOL!...

This is a enumeration only.

The proportions in which these different factors intervene are also something I could not obviously find
much about (would need to be much closer to the winners to find out...).

So, here goes, in the order I personally think that is more determinant, but the list is really what
matters:

Things required (in varying scale and proportion) to be a very good AoE / RoR player.

1. MULTITASKING

Meaning the ability to CONSTANTLY DISTRIBUTE ATTENTION, AWARENESS and ACTION through a
wide spatial matrix, in a very narrow timeframe.

The player should be able to execute simultaneously at least two different tasks going on in at least
two different places of the playing field. Obviously, the expert will be able to perfectly monitor and act
upon three and more simultaneous events.
This quality applies not only to "pre-programmed" tasks, but also at the level of mere attention: being
able to constantly monitor all areas of possible problems, like menaces to Villagers - even when
enemy presence is not detected - points of passage, depleted resources, idle Villagers, level of enemy
forces in more than one spot, etc., etc. The ability to dedicate attention to any particular area is
considered a "task" for this purpose - and the most important in RTS games, too.
One of the most forgotten "tasks" is the ability to monitor enemy situation. Sometimes I notice that
good players never seem to quit important activities to attend others - while still caring to all of them.

IMO, this "awareness" and the accompanying "speed of response" is the most striking factor, the one
that most contributes to differentiate an elite player.

I remember that once, while passivelly watching Dustyn perform the traditional Yamato Cav rush, I
was completelly lost and unable to follow all the action, because he was scrolling and making things
happen all over the place. The speed of jumping from here to there was dazzling - and in not one
second was Dustyn the least confused. The beach was explored maybe 20 or 30 tiles in each direction,
the enemy camp was found, storage pits were laid, berries picked and more than a dozen of 50-cost
villagers created in just the first 3 or so minutes of the game. Whew!... Later, during the attack (the
opponent's workers and assets were distributed in a 30-tile deep camp (not an easy task to hunt
those fast villagers so spread out), not a single aspect of the economy back home was being neglected
- more berries and shore fish were activelly sought, found and explored - all at the same time that the
action was being taken to the enemy.

Simultaneous (or almost) activity throughout the board is the hallmark of expertise.

2. COMPETENCE

Competence is made of:

a) Deep knowledge all the fundamental aspects of the game (what, when, how and why).

b) Achieving a respectable level of execution through continuous practice.

The good players DOMINATE all the BASICS (even without thinking) and KNOW about even the
intricate details of the determining factors in the game.
They are, furthermore, able to EXECUTE those routines without hesitation and in the proper context.

The debated stuff about "build orders" has ignored the fundamental aspect of it: a build order is a
"probability-oriented" method of achieving an end. It mechanizes and makes efficient both the
execution and the decision.
Example: You look at your TC and, just for the presence / absence of the required number of
stragglers, determine if Celestial Dawn's "Crappy bronze" tactics are feasible or not. Imediatelly, you
orient scouting to find a remedy for the perceived problem (by fetching "forest near TC" or close
enough shore fish, or a sweet spot with forest/stragglers and shore fish), or to boost the probable
avantage (by fetching shore fish near forest/stragglers, or plain old berries).
You CAN make these decisions almost instantly because you ALREADY know those basics and that
knowledge provides you with a "free" mental slot to design and evaluate a possible general strategy
for the game at hand.
The reason why good players and experts learn about the game is because it makes the minutes that
they spend THINKING about the game more worthwhile than just figure out the same old routine for
the "nth" time.

To achieve this result, good players will both learn and practice constantly.

Here, the difference between "competetent" and "expert" players is clear: Experts INVESTIGATE and
CREATE new strategies, tactics and "build orders".

While the good / very good player is a great executant of true and proven methods, the true expert
continuously questions even the acquired "evidence" and comes up with new stuff - or with the deep
knowledge of why and how things are what they are in the game.

3. DEXTERITY

Yes, this is quite ovious, but not as influential and important as Multitasking and Competence.

It will just enhance and maximize those two great traits while they come to life in the battle field.

Dexterity, defined as great eye-hand coordination mixed with precision and lack of hesitation, is like
the ointment in the wheel. It does not make it roll, it only makes the rolling smoother and the wheel
last longer...

Dexterity increases its role with lag. With lag, every movement and every click that you make get
coupled with a "forecasted outcome" and a "no-fail" demand. Your order to the unit must be so timed
that initiation and completion of the desired action occurs in the forecasted lag factor. Everybody is
aware of the drama of trying to save your HA from the unexpected greetings by Catapult boulders...

4. TACTICAL ACUMEN

Now, we have players that are not tactically very clever and they end up being tops.
They master all the aspects of the game and can gain economic advantages that will, in turn, end up
translating into military advantage.

The experts, however, are far more aggressive and flexible.

The experts have learned how to imaginate, design and execute an ALTERNATIVE tactical master plan
for the game on the fly.

Starting with a generically applicable aggression and logistics support pattern, the expert is able to
change the base pattern of his game to adapt and be responsive to changes in the enemy way of
doing things.

An expert will change his weapon mix after the first few failures, so that he can fight you. People with
less tactical sense will insist longer in a defeated course of action.

Summary
IMHO, what defines a good player and an expert is the presence of these pilars of RTS gameplay:

1. Multitasking abilities, which include both attention and action to many points in the board at the
same time.

2. Competence, made of knowing what to do in each situation and swifness at doing it, qualities only
possible to acquire by means of study and practice.

3. Dexterity, the ideal complement of multitasking.

4. Tactical acumen, the ability to correctly evaluate the situation and devise alternate tactical plans
based on the actual game situation and balance.

Complexity of AOE - Author: _C

Any debate such as this requires a clear and careful definition of terms. Those claiming aoe to be the
more 'complex' of the two games have defined complexity in terms of mathematical possibilities. Their
argument is largely circular: aoe is the most complex game because it has the greatest number of
possibilities and the game with the greatest number of possibilities is the most complex. Even
overlooking the circularity of the argument, it doesn't provide a very satisfactory definition. Using this
definition, a childs game of 20 questions is at least as 'complex' as aoe.

However, at least those arguing for aoe have ventured forth a reasoned (though poorly) response. As
of yet, those of us defending the Great Game have not. So here is my attempt.

Complexity - The level at which a game allows a player to interact with his opponent.

In trying to explain myself let me first break down all contests into their two basic components:
mechanical & interactive.

Mechanical - To put it simply, this is the aspect of the game which is self contained. Easy examples of
this would be a basketball player's leaping ability, an aoe player's bronze time, or memorizing lines of
a chess opening. A player's mechanical ability is that ability which might best be described as
'athletic'. This is the aspect of a game amplified by real time play.

Interactive - This is the aspect of a game which is not self contained, but is rather, well, interactive.
Examples of this might be, a basketball coach's substitution scheme, an aoe player implementing
'guerilla tactics', or a chess player accepting a gambit. The interactive part of a game is what might
properly be called intellectual. This is the aspect of a game amplified by turn based play.

Now - When using common vernacular, say in the realm of sports, it is clear that basketball is a more
'complex' game than say, diving. It is not for a lack of mathematical probability that diving is a simple
sport (ask any diving judge and they will tell you the mathematical variations are infinite), but rather
because it emphasizes the mechanical aspect almost to the exclusion of the interactive. Chess, on the
other hand, is almost the opposite. Chess emphasizes the interactive element almost to the exclusion
of the mechanical.

According to this more satisfactory definition of 'complexity' chess reaches planes of complexity that
aoe cannot hope to attain.
Let this be viewed as an anti-aoe post, let me emphasize, I love aoe precisely because of its dual
nature. It is a near perfect balance between mechanical and interactive. This is what makes aoe so
much FUN.

HOTKEYS for the english version of the game.

One of the major differences between "experts" and beginners is the ability to "multi-task" during the
game. This means being able to conduct battles and scout while at the same time tending to your
empire's economy and military production. In order to do this effectively, you MUST use hotkeys. Even
if you set your screen scroll speed to maximum and have a wickedly fast mouse, you will not be able
to compete with a hotkey user, all other things being equal. This tip explains ALL the hotkeys -- not all
are in the manual -- and gives some advanced techniques on usage to help you even faster. However,
I still cannot help you find our berries.

Hotkeys. I recommend you memorize and practice with the hotkeys for each buildings and the units
they produce. This table describes building selection. To use the CTRL+ and ALT+ hotkeys, hold the
CTRL or ALT button down and push the appropriate letter, then release both.
Building / Hotkey
Town Center H/CTRL+N
Barrack CTRL+B
Dock CTRL+D
Archery Range CTRL+A
Stable CTRL+L
Temple CTRL+P
Siege Workshop CTRL+K
Academy CTRL+Y

In addition to unit production, you can use hotkeys to control your villagers as well as other units. This
table describes the unit order commands.

Action Hotkey Units

Build B Villagers(See below)
Repair R Villagers
Stop S All
Stand Ground D All Combat Units
Attack Ground T Catapult Units
Group G All
Ungroup U All
Heal E Priests
Convert C Priests

When commanding your villagers to build buildings, hotkeys can be used to speed the process. The
table below gives useful building hotkeys to use in conjunction with the villagers' "B" hotkey. Holding
the SHIFT key while placing the building allows you to build multiple buildings of the same type with
one command. Note: this capability is now deactivated for the town center until you have build a
government center.
Building/Structure - Hotkey
House E
Barrack B
Granary G
Storage Pit S
Dock D
Archery Range A
Stable L
Farm F
Tower T
Wall W
Market M
Government Center C
Temple P
Tower Center N
Siege Workshop K
Academy Y
Wonder O

To group units and control them, use the customizable group numbers. The following table illustrates.
The # key refers to the number you assign a particular unit/building.
To... / Press...
Assign units/buildings to hotkey / Select units, then CTRL+#
Select group / #
Select group and center screen / ALT+#
Add units to group / #, then hold shift and select new units, then CTRL+#

Techniques. By grouping units into squads assigned to numbers you can control them more
effectively. For example, you can put your catapults in the front on "1" and the infantry defending
them on "2", then attack only with group 1. Group 2 defends. As the enemy charges your catapults,
assign "1" the Stand Ground order(so your infantry do not get crushed by friendly fire) and attack with
"2". Or simply have "1" retreat back through the line of infantry while "2" handles the enemy charge.

Another use is for scouting. By assigning scouts/villagers hotkeys, you can quickly select them to
retreat from lions, give them attack orders or build outputs. This is much quicker than scrolling your
screen or looking for them on the small mini-map.

Another use is to assign upgrade buildings such as a storage pit, granary, market, or government
center to a #. These buildings do not have their own hotkeys, and in the heat of battle, when you
want to research alchemy, it can be tough to remember where you built that darn government center.
Assigning it to its own hotkey means you can instantly select the building and begin researching, all
while still keeping your eye on the fight.

Finally, by selecting your military bases, such as archery ranges or stables and grouping several of
them under one #, you can quickly churn out large masses of military units, all without leaving the
field of battle. Just select the buildings you want(I recommend keeping them of the same type) and
CTRL+# to assign them a hotkey. Now you can easily make more troops by hitting:
1 #
2 the hotkey for the unit you want
3 TAB to next build
4 unit hotkey, and so on...

The units will all be built simultaneously. This can be done even while in fierce combat. Just listen for
the distinctive sound that tells you construction is complete, then repeat. You will quickly overwhelm
your enemy with large numbers of units.

Walls. The quick and easy method to build a line of walls is to simply click and drag the mouse where
you want the wall to stretch. Assuming you have sufficient stone, the foundation for the entire wall will
appear and your villagers will begin the task of fishing. Walls cannot be built on water, trees, wild
animals, units or existing structures. Wit a bit of practice, you can quickly lay down a line of defenses
to protect your fledgling empire.

Farms. The quickest way to lay down multiple farms is to hold the SHIFT key while placing each farm.
The designers have made it easy for you to begin farming in this manner. As each farm is built, the
villagers move from farm to farm finishing them up, except one villager per farm stays behind to work
the soil and collect food. To do this, grab a group of villagers, click "B" and "F", then hold the SHIFT
key and place one farm for each villager. It's that easy. This way you can quickly begin harvesting
food without tying up all your management time placing the farms.

Tips I - Author: Praetor_Staffa

*Lions and Elepehants dont cross shallows.

*It is almost never right for your villagers to attack tool archers with +2 armor, about the only time it
is right is when the archer sneaked in, and you just finished your walls so you are assured that no
more will be coming, because if you fight back, you can be damn sure 2-3 more are comming, and
then your gonna have to flee anyway, so what did you gain but a few seconds and a few dead
villagers.

*Spread your houses and other illrelevant buildings around your area, when enemy villagers attempt
to find a place to put military buildings near your area, they will find it much more difficult if you have
much of your area lighted up by houses/barrecks. Not to mention each time they run near a house
you have a chance of seeing them, making it much more periously for enemy villagers to float around
your town's area.

*You can wall off any area in stone with houses, its very expensive, and very rarely usefull, but
something you should consider if you only need 2-3 houses to wall off a big area. If a narrow pass
borders water, you can build a dock+house to wall that off, very expensive, but you can always use
the dock to fish. You can also build docks in shallows to block it, though this is used quite often
nowdays, I only mention it for the few that might not know.

*Ballastics is imo, one of the must underappeciated techs in the game(for archer civs) Many think it
only helps tiremes/catapults/helepos/bastillia towers. But in truth it helps ALL archers. Everything that
shots will have a very good chance of missing a moving target, depending on which direction that
target is moving reletive to the shooters, and how fast. villagers fleeing from archers at a slanted
angle can ussualy get away with very few hps lost. Even if there are many archers. Unless you have
ballastics, this tech changes
everything, villagers cant flee, caverly cant run past archers without suffering any hits, and cats can
slaughter charging caverly.

*Chariot(HA) vs cavelry fights, caverly tend to attack one chariot, ignoring the others. Have the
chariot that is being targted run away from the caverly that are trying to hit it. Your remaining
chariots will continue to fire at the caverly, while the caverly chase uselessly after the chariot. If you
find this happening to you, split your caverly and target each chariot individualy

*Either way, the archer comes out ahead simply because he can concentrate his firepower, and you
can not.

*If someone walls off your Towncenter(TC), its as good as dead, I have walled off hundreds of TC's
and have never seen the walls broken(once built) just delete your tc and build a new one somewhere
else.

*The cheapest, fastest, and most surprising way past walls is with transports. Catapults are vastly
more expensive, alert your opponant, and are very vuneralbe to ground troops. Transports are vastly
cheaper, can usually flee the scene of battle via water, and the docks they require can also be used to
build war ships and fishing boats. Siege buildings only take up room.

*Dont get me wrong, catapults have their uses, they are very effective at taking out buildings/leveling
towns. And in chariot fights, a couple catapults on your side can be decisive, as your opponant either
has to target
the catapults, which means moving in range, giving your archers more fire time, dance around the
catapult's shots, which like wise gives your archers more firing time. Or die, which is just nice.

*Combined firepower is very important, 4 chariots will kill 8 chariots if they can kill the 8 chariots 1 at
a time. Thus when your military buildings are being guarded by an opponant's army, its usualy unwise
to attempt to
build units there, as they will be taken down with brutal swiftness(this only applies when your vastly
outnumbered, buildings compared to enemy units)

*Now, to contridict what i said above, its not always unwise to build military units at buidings that are
under heavy fire. You can flee the unit creating distractions for the opponant you may buy your
villagers time to flee, build new mliitary buildings/walls, or support a relief army that is on the way.
Also, when having trouble taking out an opponants town due to the size of his army, I like to entice
him to attempt to remove my military buildings, he will charge with a massive army, which my 8-12
defenders will attempt to defend, and die doing so, and while i keep pumping more units out, he starts
to concentrate on that fight, and the buildings he is trying to destroy, while a second army of mine is
now playing "Who can shoot the most innocent defensless villagers and run away like cowards before
their army
returns" The neat thing about this trick is that the opponant wont even realize his town is under attack
untell your buildings are gone, and his town is empty, a fair trade imo.

*And remember, no one is unbeatable, the map, and more importantly, the decisions that are made
on too little information play a crucial role in determining the outcome. The simple choice of which
way to explore
first can be the difference of who wins and who loses, and there was no way to know which way was
the right way. The best we can do is to make the decisions most likely to succede, while remembering
that they may not be the right decisions for this specific case. This is what is called playing the odds,
and even the best odd's players lose sometimes.

Tips II - Author: Praetor_Staffa

*Plan your economy ahead, this is crucial during the stone-bronze phase, if you find yourself lacking
easy food and decide to start dock fishing, realize that this will cost massive amounts of wood and put
the woodcutters that you will need on it early. Same if you decide You will need to farm. If you want
to put down 3-4 ranges/stables during tool, make sure you have enough wood to support it. And
remember, anytime you enter a new age, food is at a premium, upgrades are expensive, and you
want to be able to build the new mlitary units and more peons. Thus try to get a good ready supply of
food when you enter a new age. And NEVER let your food supply run out leaving you with no incoming
food. Unless the game is all but over, you will be amazed how fast your food will run out when you
have no new food coming in. Always keep food coming in somewhere, in fact, this goes for all
resources that you might need.

*Economic upgrades are very important, assyrian players should research woodcutting while bronzing,
or if they are staying in tool for a good long time, they should research it as soon as possible. During
bronze, you should research the bronze age wood cutting tech as soon as possible(after wheel) Gold
tech should be researched before or soon after you start mining gold, these techs improve your
villagers ability to gather resources, thus making them faster and more effective, which translates into
a larger economic base in the long run, and wood techs improve ur range.

*villagers with siegecraft can in moderate numbers level towers quicker then catapults, this is another
under used tech, and it doesnt cost gold, which can be crucial as gold can get scarce, while food is
freely aviable.

*If your peon is being chased by another peon, there are many tricks you can use to avoid being
caught. You can try to circle around a lion and hope the lion triggers on the chaser, this does work
quite well, as if your carefull about where u put urself, it will almost always go after him and not you.
You can try to put a tree between the two of you, this is very hard with lag, but if done right the peon
will lose a couple steps on you and fall behind, and if he isnt watching you can be far off before he
catches up again. You can attempt to fight him on a hill, gain an elevation advantage, and you gain
more damage, this has worked for me, was really cool cause i had fewer hps at start and I managed
to win it.

*When building military bases in your opponants town, put your peon next to a forest wall, the waters
edge, or the edge of the map, or near a pile of stone/gold so that when you build the building you will
be mostly surrounded by other things, and if you suspect peons might notice you building it, start
building walls on the 1-3 holes left that a peon might be able to walk in through, thus you can then
safely finish the building while his peons stare angerly at you from the other side of your wall. I do
this almost every time now, and it has proved usefull. Usualy requires 10 stone and a few seconds
biulding up each one a few hps.

*Going into a game with the intent to do a specific strategy is normaly a good way to pracitce a
specific strategy, but neccesary the best way to win. You should tailor your strategy to the game being
played, some strategies work better on some maps then others, and this isnt so much depedent on
wether or not your playing inland, but what your maps ends up being like once your in the game, and
also what your opponants/team mates end up doing. Also, practicing iron rushing on a map ill suited
for such a strategy is fruitless, as you are not learning how to iron rush in a good iron rushing
situtation.

Learn how to TRADE

correctly in aoe - Author: FWH_Foistie

I have listed my conclusions and recommendations first so that you can refer back to them at a later
date for a quick summary. Information supporting these conclusions is found in the main body of the
text.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Never build more than two trading ships for EACH ally or opponent you trade with. If possible, trade
with more than one ally or opponent using two additional trading ships.

2) Never upgrade the trading ships to merchant ships, unless you are traveling a great distance.

3) If possible, always trade food first, wood if you must, and never trade stone for gold.

4) Build your dock as FAR AWAY as you 'safely' can from the dock you expect to trade with.

5) VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you and your trading partner DO NOT have additional docks closer to
each other (in between your trading docks) or you will only get gold credit based on the distance
between these closer (non-trading) docks.

6) Try to trade in a straight a line as is possible (avoid going 'around curvatures in the land'). Bottle
necks (created by land or too many boats/ships in a tight space) will cause your traders to stop and
sit idle in the water.

7) Make sure you have no 'idle' trading ships waiting at his dock. If you do, you are either too close to
each other, you have built too many trading boats, or you have run out of food/wood to trade with. An
idle trading boat has a built in penalty as described later.

Begin trading as early in the game as possible. In ROR, that means early tool, given the amount
of food you can also obtain from fish. Not finding that first gold pile becomes less crucial. Understand
that trading creates NEW gold. It does not 'steal' gold from you, your ally, or your opponent.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION:

WHAT IS THE 'GOLD TICKER'?:

The minute the game begins, any dock (yours for trading with others and others for trading with you)
begins with a gold 'ticker' starting at zero. If you click on any dock, you can observe the gold ticker as
it accumulates this gold. Every second which passes adds one unit of gold to the gold ticker up to a
Maximum of 100 units of gold. The ticker stops at 100. If you trade for gold, the ticker is reduced by
the number of gold units you 'load' onto your trading ship. This gold ticker is then replenished (one
unit per second) until it once again reaches 100 units of gold. This represents how many gold units are
available for trading for that entire particular ALLY OR OPPONENT RACE.

HOW MUCH FOOD/WOOD/STONE CAN A TRADING BOAT CARRY TO A DOCK AND HOW MUCH GOLD
CAN A TRADING BOAT CARRY BACK TO YOUR DOCK?

Your trading boat can carry up to 20 units of a commodity (food/wood/stone) in its cargo hold. When
you port at the ally/opponents dock, you will receive up to 20 units of gold, IF the units of gold are
available (to be explained further).

WHAT IS A UNIT OF GOLD THAT i PICK UP AND STORE IN MY CARGO HOLD, AND HOW MUCH IS IT
REALLY WORTH?

Remember that 20 units of gold you loaded into your cargo hold? This is NOT how much gold you
eventually receive credit for and can actually use in the game. These 20 units of gold increase or lose
value depending on how far you travel to get it. Think of it this way. At your dock, you have loaded 20
units of food onto a boat. Let's call them 20 'crates' of food. You then trade them for 20 crates (units)
of gold. Each crate has a dollar value which changes based upon distance. For example: A crate of
gold has a certain value in the United States. Transport that gold crate to Europe, and it now has a
new value. Travel another distance to Russia and your well traveled crate of gold takes on still a new
value.

In AOE/ROR, the further you travel, the more valuable your gold crates in your cargo hold become.
Ultimately, you will receive 'true' gold value of anywhere between 7 and 75 gold for each round trip
your trading ship makes depending upon the distances between YOUR dock which is closest to HIS
closest dock. The amount received is based on the number of tiles away, etc. But let's just say, if you
put your dock right beside his, you will receive just 7 spendable gold pieces and you have wasted your
time. Try longer distances and you will see how it works. The simple rule of thumb is, place your dock
as far away as you 'safely' can. I say safely as the trade route must be protected from enemy attack.

Here's a cruel twist: Let's say you are trading a long distance from dock 'a' to dock 'b'. Without
thinking, you build a second (or third, etc.) dock much closer to the ally/opponent you are trading
with (or he builds a new dock closer to you). You will now receive 'true' gold value based on the
distance between YOUR CLOSEST dock and HIS CLOSEST dock, even though you are using 'other'
docks to trade with which are further apart.

Here's another twist: The amount of gold credit you actually receive and can use in game play is
determined by distance based upon the 'shortest distance between two points' and not by how far you
really traveled. For example: If you are at 12 (Continental map) and you go 'around the cape' at 3 and
trade with someone at 5, you have traveled a very long distance. But the gold calculation is based on
the direct line from dock 'a' and dock 'b'. In this case, the direct line is across the land, not around the
land.

WHY DO MY BOATS STAND IDLE IN THE WATER, OR STAND IDLE AT HIS DOCK?

Idle in the water: If you are on inland or narrows, your boats can clog up in tight spaces (hitting each
other or other ships) and they will then sit there until you see them and get them moving again.
Therefore, try to trade on straight stretches of open water.

Idle in the water: Your trading boat carries 20 units of a commodity if it is available. For example, if
you are trading food, and you run out of food (lazy peons didn't build new farms), then your trading
boat will stop trading and will sit there, dead in the water until you get him going again.

Idle at his dock: How long your trading boat has to wait at his dock depends on how many units HE
has available to trade (0 to 100 on his gold ticker). Example: If he has 60 gold units available and
your boat arrives, your boat will immediately trade 20 commodity for 20 gold units and depart
immediately. But if HIS dock only has 8 units of gold to trade, you will wait 12 seconds at his dock
until his ticker gets up to 20 units at the rate of 1 unit per second. You remember that gold ticker (in
the dock) that ticks up to 100 units (one per second) and represents how much gold a given race can
trade? If that ticker depletes down below 20 gold units (too many trading ships arriving too quickly),
then your trading boats will sit and wait at his dock until new gold units are created (one per second)
in a sufficient amount to load the cargo hold of your boat with 20 units of gold.

WHY DO SOME OF MY TRADE BOATS NEVER LEAVE HIS DOCK WHILE BOATS ARRIVING LATER
CONTINUE TO DEPART?

The trading boat that you BUILT LAST is always FILLED FIRST at his dock. For example, let's assume
that you are trading with just two ships and one of your ships is at his dock. Now, let's assume this
was the VERY FIRST trading ship you built earlier in the game. This ship currently has 15 units (of 20)
of gold loaded into his cargo hold. Your second trading ship (built later) arrives at his dock.
Surprisingly, the Second ship (built later) now takes priority and begins to load gold into its cargo hold
while the first ship (with 15 units of gold) just sits and waits until the second ship is fully loaded and
departs. Quite a pecking order. Now, compound this if you have built three or more ships (a big
mistake) to trade with just one ally/opponent!!! You will always have ships waiting at his dock, some
will be half full, AND some will NEVER leave his dock due to the continuously arriving (younger) ships.

WHY ONLY TWO TRADING SHIPS PER ALLY/OPPONENT?

You want to create a situation where you have just enough ships whereby one is always arriving and
the other is departing without having your ships wait at his port. If you want to get into the math,
that's fine. But simply put, two is almost always the right number of trading boats to use per each
race you trade with. Any more is not only a waste, but will decrease efficiency and productivity.

Think of it this way. If it takes you 40 seconds (quite a distance) to make a round trip from your dock
to his dock and you are using three ships, then in 40 seconds you can take 60 gold units (20 gold
units x 3 ships) from dock to dock. Remember his gold ticker counts up to 100 and replenishes his
gold at 1 gold unit per second. His intial 100 units minus the 60 you took now leaves him with 40 units
of gold available for trading. Your next wave of 3 ships will return in 40 seconds which allows his dock
to increase to just 80 units of gold available (20 less than before) when you make the next trade.
After this trade, he now has 20 units of gold (80 minus 60) and will replenish to a total of 60 units of
gold when you arrive the third time. This third trade wipes out his total gold supply (60 minus 60 = 0)
and from here on out you will have one trade boat waiting at his dock for the rest of the game.

A better example would be: If it takes you 40 seconds (still quite a distance) to make a round trip
from your dock to his dock and you are using TWO ships, then in 40 seconds, you take 40 gold units
(20 gold units x 2) from dock to dock. His initial 100 units minus 40 units (first trip) now leaves him
with 60 units of gold available for trading. Your next wave of two ships will return in 40 seconds which
allows his dock to fully replenish his gold units up to a maximum of 100 units. This means you are
trading in an equal amount to the amount being replenished to his dock/race and your boats will never
wait at his dock. Don't let the fact that his dock once again has 100 gold units mislead you. If he can't
replenish up to 100 units before your return, then eventually you will have a trade boat waiting at his
dock. REALISTICALLY, EVEN WITH TWO TRADING BOATS, ONE WILL BE WAITING AT HIS DOCK AS
MOST OF THE TIME THE ROUND TRIP TRAVEL TIME WILL BE LESS THAN 40 SECONDS FROM DOCK TO
DOCK.

IF I SHOULD BUILD JUST TWO TRADE BOATS, THEN WHY EVEN TRADE?

Well, so you can win the long iron game! You can generate a ton of gold if you do it right. Think about
it. You start trading early, over a great distance. Assuming the 40 second round trip scenario, you
would probably get the full amount of 75 'usable' gold times two ships or 150 gold every 40 seconds.
Assuming you have been trading for just 30 minutes with only one ally/opponent, YOU WILL
GENERATE 6,750 IN 'USABLE' GOLD (30 minutes equals 1,800 seconds divided by 40 seconds per trip
equals 45 full trips times 150 gold [75 gold each from 2 boats] equals 6,750 in 'usable gold). Hey,
even if you trade far less efficiently with two ships, it becomes obvious that you can still generate tons
of gold.

WHY SHOULDN'T I UPGRADE TO MERCHANT SHIPS UNLESS I TRAVEL A GREAT DISTANCE?

Trade boats travel at the rate of 2 squares per second. Upgraded Merchant Ships travel at the rate of
2.5 tiles per second (per the manual). Who cares if they are faster but arrive too quickly and have to
wait? The upgrade is not worth the cost, unless the trading docks are very far away.

WHY TRADE FOOD FIRST, WOOD SECOND AND NEVER STONE?

Food: When farming, 75 units of wood converts into anywhere from 250 food to 475 food (depending
on how many farm upgrades you have). You can buy a lot of gold with 250-475 food as compared to
wasting your wood.

Wood: It's a non-renewable resource which can be converted cheaper to food or used in your war
efforts. Trade with wood only if you are very short on food and have a ton of wood collected. Use
discretion.

Stone: Once stone is depleted from the land, it is gone for good. Use the stone for walls, towers, etc.

SUMMARY:

It's not really as hard as it sounds. Just follow the conclusions listed at the top of this analysis and you
will find an unexpected gold bounty when you need it the most.