maybe more so in team games than in 1v1, it is not so much about picking off a villager here and there but more about maintaining the army numbers. I have played many team games where both teams had roughly equal numbers of knights and xbows and you wouldn't really get into a full engagement. Yes, ballistics is nice since it allows you to better harass enemy wood lines, and to pick off fleeing archers/cavalry, but sometimes the game develops passively and you never get to use the army that much. Instead you just maintain army numbers and then in imp you can use siege ram or trebs to start some real damage. In those scenarios researching ballistics might not be fruitful, and a priority on army numbers and imperial age would be more preferred.
I'm not saying each game plays out like that, and perhaps your playstyle is more aggressive. Maybe this is just my playstyle, but I do see that at low to intermediate level players fight too often where they shouldn't be fighting. Flanks in team games often send out their xbows in castle age without knowledge of where the enemy army is and lose all their units. Ballistics or not, that is not what you want.
From my experience this is what you want to do as flank:
early feudal: if you had a good dark age move out with a hand-full of archers and fletching, make spear and/or wall if you are afraid for pocket scouts.
if you had a rough dark age: maybe make a tower, definitely make walls (enemy doubling up on you means you are out the game), prioritize fletching, if its very bad mix in a few skirms
mid feudal age: if you have advantage go and split troops to hit multiple wood lines, if you have number advantage and run into enemy units, feel free to press the number advantage - but be aware of enemy scouts popping up. You can also choose to go to pocket if enemy flank defends with skirms or towers (the damage has been done)
if you are behind: don't move out at all, maybe your pocket can do something. If you get pressured heavily, make towers, make army (you might need to make army over villagers or over clicking up to castle to stay in the game) Communicate with team, maybe your teammate spotted enemy army moving away from you to double your pocket. In that case help defend your pocket. Maybe you can get a succesfull sneak attack when enemy is out of position.
Regardless of attacking or defending it is important to maintain large army numbers, because your main goal is to build towards critical archer numbers.
Late feudal age: Again, the goal is maintaining army numbers. prioritize clicking to castle age. now decide if you want to keep making more archers or halt production for a second to collect resources for TC's or for a castle. While you are in late feudal age the enemy pocket might hit castle age. This is the time you should be even more cautious about moving out since your feudal archers can easily get destroyed by knights.
Early/mid castle age: as soon as xbow and bodkin comes in this is your powerspike. If you are ahead, make sure to threaten the enemy who is still in feudal age. Stick together with pocket knights and your army is really strong now. Add (forward) Siege workshop if you wanna go aggressive in castle age.
if you are behind, make defensive mangonels. Defensive castle can also help or even guard towers. Try to catch up in army numbers by not engaging the enemy untill you have a great mass - even if that means losing your TC
mid/late castle age: this is the time to either boom(1), to launch a castle age attack (2) or to prioritize imperial age (3). In the booming scenario you continue archer production, but on a low tempo. You won't make extra ranges and you delay upgrades until you really need to get them. Sometimes a few good defensive mangonels and a lot of walls mean you can boom without taking losses, even if you don't have many numbers and all the upgrades. In scenario 2, the castle age attack, you want to focus all resources you are collecting on making more army and upgrading your army. You can gradually add a 2nd and 3rd TC but your main priority is archer production (from multiple ranges), upgrading army, and adding siege. For the fast imp (3) you stay on 1 TC, and prioritise making enough farms to get you to imperial age. You can either go full eco (halting archer production), or you can keep making archers, maybe combine it with a 1TC push, and gradually save up food and gold for imperial age.
Imperial age: This is the time when you can do real damage. your objectives are 1) kill enemy flank's economy and army. 2) take down castles and TC's 3) take map control and deny trade. Trebuchets and siegerams make it much easier to take down castles - a task which wasn't easy in castle age. In imperial age you as flank might actually become stronger than your pocket. Your pocket might get raided, and has the extra distance to cover to the battlefield. You yield archers and/or siege and/or pikes. You raze the buildings, you push to the trade, and you take mapcontrol to gain control over enemy gold piles.
Oh and at any stage of the game:
- Maintain army numbers
- Moving out without support from pocket can be danagerous
- Control the Hills
I'm not saying each game plays out like that, and perhaps your playstyle is more aggressive. Maybe this is just my playstyle, but I do see that at low to intermediate level players fight too often where they shouldn't be fighting. Flanks in team games often send out their xbows in castle age without knowledge of where the enemy army is and lose all their units. Ballistics or not, that is not what you want.
From my experience this is what you want to do as flank:
early feudal: if you had a good dark age move out with a hand-full of archers and fletching, make spear and/or wall if you are afraid for pocket scouts.
if you had a rough dark age: maybe make a tower, definitely make walls (enemy doubling up on you means you are out the game), prioritize fletching, if its very bad mix in a few skirms
mid feudal age: if you have advantage go and split troops to hit multiple wood lines, if you have number advantage and run into enemy units, feel free to press the number advantage - but be aware of enemy scouts popping up. You can also choose to go to pocket if enemy flank defends with skirms or towers (the damage has been done)
if you are behind: don't move out at all, maybe your pocket can do something. If you get pressured heavily, make towers, make army (you might need to make army over villagers or over clicking up to castle to stay in the game) Communicate with team, maybe your teammate spotted enemy army moving away from you to double your pocket. In that case help defend your pocket. Maybe you can get a succesfull sneak attack when enemy is out of position.
Regardless of attacking or defending it is important to maintain large army numbers, because your main goal is to build towards critical archer numbers.
Late feudal age: Again, the goal is maintaining army numbers. prioritize clicking to castle age. now decide if you want to keep making more archers or halt production for a second to collect resources for TC's or for a castle. While you are in late feudal age the enemy pocket might hit castle age. This is the time you should be even more cautious about moving out since your feudal archers can easily get destroyed by knights.
Early/mid castle age: as soon as xbow and bodkin comes in this is your powerspike. If you are ahead, make sure to threaten the enemy who is still in feudal age. Stick together with pocket knights and your army is really strong now. Add (forward) Siege workshop if you wanna go aggressive in castle age.
if you are behind, make defensive mangonels. Defensive castle can also help or even guard towers. Try to catch up in army numbers by not engaging the enemy untill you have a great mass - even if that means losing your TC
mid/late castle age: this is the time to either boom(1), to launch a castle age attack (2) or to prioritize imperial age (3). In the booming scenario you continue archer production, but on a low tempo. You won't make extra ranges and you delay upgrades until you really need to get them. Sometimes a few good defensive mangonels and a lot of walls mean you can boom without taking losses, even if you don't have many numbers and all the upgrades. In scenario 2, the castle age attack, you want to focus all resources you are collecting on making more army and upgrading your army. You can gradually add a 2nd and 3rd TC but your main priority is archer production (from multiple ranges), upgrading army, and adding siege. For the fast imp (3) you stay on 1 TC, and prioritise making enough farms to get you to imperial age. You can either go full eco (halting archer production), or you can keep making archers, maybe combine it with a 1TC push, and gradually save up food and gold for imperial age.
Imperial age: This is the time when you can do real damage. your objectives are 1) kill enemy flank's economy and army. 2) take down castles and TC's 3) take map control and deny trade. Trebuchets and siegerams make it much easier to take down castles - a task which wasn't easy in castle age. In imperial age you as flank might actually become stronger than your pocket. Your pocket might get raided, and has the extra distance to cover to the battlefield. You yield archers and/or siege and/or pikes. You raze the buildings, you push to the trade, and you take mapcontrol to gain control over enemy gold piles.
Oh and at any stage of the game:
- Maintain army numbers
- Moving out without support from pocket can be danagerous
- Control the Hills