A generic Build Order for Landings on water maps such as Islands and Team Islands.
After watching some sets of the Two Pools 2 Tournament I thought now would be a good time to post this Build Order, seeing Team Islands being a popular pick among the contestants, and Islands/Team Islands often being available in the RM map pool rotations of late.
Landings on water maps has become somewhat meta by now, personally I believe it works best on Islands since it's not as obvious a strategy with less land mass, and going archers, since they can deal damage even if the enemy recognises your landing- e.g. can't just quick-wall your scouts out, if they quick-wall they can be ranged by your archers, forcing them to respond quickly with either towers or an archery range producing skirms. which obviously causes idle time and can possibly slow down their castle time as well as naval production. ideally, of course, you want to remain undetected and sneak into his wood-line or gold-mine by surprise, taking down a couple vils or more before he realises and can drag them to safety.
Making a few fire galleys as illustrated in the video can help bring your opponent under the illusion you're going water, keeping his attention away from his base, increasing the chances of your landing remaining undetected.
Now, for the Build Order:
Landing on Water Maps - Build Order
DARK AGE:
* 6 vils on sheep
* 4 vils on wood
* 1 of the 6 on sheep to lure boar (90 food on sheep)
* 1 vil build dock near shore fish (builder shore fish)
* 3 fishing ships
* 1 vil to boar (7 vils total)
* 1 vil to wood (5 vils total)
* 1 vil lure 2nd boar
* 6 vils on sheep (6 on sheep, 8 on boar)
* Research Loom
* Advance to the Feudal Age
* Garrison all vils under the TC and put on straggler trees
* Send 2 vils to the initial lumber camp
* Send 7 vils to 2nd lumber camp
* Send 5 vils on gold
* 1 transport ship
* Build barracks at home
* Send one of your fishing ships forward to scout as to not bump into the opponents' dock + fishing ships' line-of-sight with your transport ship (optional)
* Put 2 vils + scout into the transport ship and loop around the enemy's islands undetected, land them on the back of the island
* Scout around trying to find his lumber camps while remaining undetected (as soon as you see the lumber camp of a villager getting wood go back so he doesn't see you)
FEUDAL AGE:
* Research Double-bit Axe
* Queue 1-2 fire ships to harass the enemy's fishing ships and give him the impression you're going water
* Start building the 2 archery ranges + a blacksmith
* Queue Archers in both Archery Ranges
* Research Fletching
* Once you have 4-5 Archers with Fletching, go out and harass his wood-line, killing villagers in the process
* 2 vils to gold
* 6 vils to mill + berries
* 8 vils on farms
* Build market
* Sell stone and ''market abuse'' your way up to Castle Age if you have lost your fishing ships. (Go Castle Age)
-by Adal
After watching some sets of the Two Pools 2 Tournament I thought now would be a good time to post this Build Order, seeing Team Islands being a popular pick among the contestants, and Islands/Team Islands often being available in the RM map pool rotations of late.
Landings on water maps has become somewhat meta by now, personally I believe it works best on Islands since it's not as obvious a strategy with less land mass, and going archers, since they can deal damage even if the enemy recognises your landing- e.g. can't just quick-wall your scouts out, if they quick-wall they can be ranged by your archers, forcing them to respond quickly with either towers or an archery range producing skirms. which obviously causes idle time and can possibly slow down their castle time as well as naval production. ideally, of course, you want to remain undetected and sneak into his wood-line or gold-mine by surprise, taking down a couple vils or more before he realises and can drag them to safety.
Making a few fire galleys as illustrated in the video can help bring your opponent under the illusion you're going water, keeping his attention away from his base, increasing the chances of your landing remaining undetected.
Now, for the Build Order:
Landing on Water Maps - Build Order
A basic illustration of a Grush and landing into Archers. Feasible on most water maps and with any generic civilization. Video by Adal
www.youtube.com
DARK AGE:
* 6 vils on sheep
* 4 vils on wood
* 1 of the 6 on sheep to lure boar (90 food on sheep)
* 1 vil build dock near shore fish (builder shore fish)
* 3 fishing ships
* 1 vil to boar (7 vils total)
* 1 vil to wood (5 vils total)
* 1 vil lure 2nd boar
* 6 vils on sheep (6 on sheep, 8 on boar)
* Research Loom
* Advance to the Feudal Age
* Garrison all vils under the TC and put on straggler trees
* Send 2 vils to the initial lumber camp
* Send 7 vils to 2nd lumber camp
* Send 5 vils on gold
* 1 transport ship
* Build barracks at home
* Send one of your fishing ships forward to scout as to not bump into the opponents' dock + fishing ships' line-of-sight with your transport ship (optional)
* Put 2 vils + scout into the transport ship and loop around the enemy's islands undetected, land them on the back of the island
* Scout around trying to find his lumber camps while remaining undetected (as soon as you see the lumber camp of a villager getting wood go back so he doesn't see you)
FEUDAL AGE:
* Research Double-bit Axe
* Queue 1-2 fire ships to harass the enemy's fishing ships and give him the impression you're going water
* Start building the 2 archery ranges + a blacksmith
* Queue Archers in both Archery Ranges
* Research Fletching
* Once you have 4-5 Archers with Fletching, go out and harass his wood-line, killing villagers in the process
* 2 vils to gold
* 6 vils to mill + berries
* 8 vils on farms
* Build market
* Sell stone and ''market abuse'' your way up to Castle Age if you have lost your fishing ships. (Go Castle Age)
-by Adal