Recs are DE Patch 47820.
No Deer.
Two openings for mesos, showcased with Aztecs, the second one being more often seen of the two due having more options for castle age and having feudal map presence to secure walling and contest map control.
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This opening is more or less akin to a scouts-knights of cavalry civs, in that it sacrifices army power during feudal to get a bigger power-spike of castle age tech faster. In meso case, you can have some feudal strength to defend any early archer raids while teching into a large, strong force of castle-age Eagle Warriors. With this you can raid (mobility over archers) or secure an aggressive position for siege pressure.
Idea is to buy time and defend your walling with MaA and some EWs, much like with scouts-walls-knights.
A more meta archer+melee unit opening, where instead of skirmishers, mesos can add EWs as archer-support in a typical range-vs-range to keep map presence.
This allows them to more smoothly transition into a combined arms military, or to decide on either xbows or EWs as a primary castle age unit depending on game circumstances. All 3 mesoss Incas, Mayans and Aztecs have access to Arbalest which they can take advantage of early-imperial, if Elite Eagle Warrior is not immediately relevant.
(feud)EW eco module is ~1f/2,2g due 60sec creation time, thus, for 1 range archers and 1 barracks f-EW, need ~2w/7g, which already has slight surplus to gather 200g castle-prerequisite, can be sped up by 8g.
If feudal archers remain, xbows is a greatly efficient upgrade, or alternatively one can add ranges and go for primary xbows army if that is preferable.
No Deer.
Two openings for mesos, showcased with Aztecs, the second one being more often seen of the two due having more options for castle age and having feudal map presence to secure walling and contest map control.
____
Rec1:
[Aztecs] 22pop MaA-Eagles_castle-EWs
Related aoezone thread with recs:https://www.aoezone.net/threads/aztecs-22pop-maa-feudalews-castleews-22pop-maa-range_arch-f-ew.176037/____This opening is mo...
youtu.be
This opening is more or less akin to a scouts-knights of cavalry civs, in that it sacrifices army power during feudal to get a bigger power-spike of castle age tech faster. In meso case, you can have some feudal strength to defend any early archer raids while teching into a large, strong force of castle-age Eagle Warriors. With this you can raid (mobility over archers) or secure an aggressive position for siege pressure.
Idea is to buy time and defend your walling with MaA and some EWs, much like with scouts-walls-knights.
Rec2:
[Aztecs] 22pop MaA-range archers+EW
Related aoezone thread with recs:https://www.aoezone.net/threads/aztecs-22pop-maa-feudalews-castleews-22pop-maa-range_arch-f-ew.176037/____A more meta archer...
youtu.be
A more meta archer+melee unit opening, where instead of skirmishers, mesos can add EWs as archer-support in a typical range-vs-range to keep map presence.
This allows them to more smoothly transition into a combined arms military, or to decide on either xbows or EWs as a primary castle age unit depending on game circumstances. All 3 mesoss Incas, Mayans and Aztecs have access to Arbalest which they can take advantage of early-imperial, if Elite Eagle Warrior is not immediately relevant.
(feud)EW eco module is ~1f/2,2g due 60sec creation time, thus, for 1 range archers and 1 barracks f-EW, need ~2w/7g, which already has slight surplus to gather 200g castle-prerequisite, can be sped up by 8g.
If feudal archers remain, xbows is a greatly efficient upgrade, or alternatively one can add ranges and go for primary xbows army if that is preferable.