I've been 1200 elo player half a year ago, when I realised that berber villagers can be effectively used as offensive military in the dark age due to speed bonus. Since then, I've been playing around this idea, experimenting with berber villager rush buildorder over hundreds of games and refining the strategy, until I've figured out what seems to me flawless execution. By executing this strategy, I rose up to 1800 elo, and I think that with better micro and APM this strategy could be used to break 2200+ elo players easily. I am active AOE fan, I watch all the events and subscribed to many stream channels, I've watched countless youtube videos, but I've never ever seen anyone doing anything like what I've came up with. It seems that I am the only one who has unveiled the secret power of berber villagers. So in this post, I want to share this sacred knowledge with community, describing in detail berber strategy which I've been refining over hundreds of games.
My build order goes like this:
1. Build 2 houses right away. Order 2 vils + loom in your TC. Send scout to search enemy base right away, dont waste time searching for your own resources. Send 2 of the starting vils forward right away, remaining villager on food. Use sheeps to find your boars.
2. Send new villagers to food, until you have 6 (or 8 if you like) on food. After u have 6-8 on food, send all new villagers forward to enemy base. Your villagers at home will be collecting sheep and boars and berries to support vil production, all rest new vils will be sent to enemy base.
3. With scout sent forward, find enemy TC, boars, woodlines, berries and deer. Use 2 of your starting villagers which you sent forward to help your scout find resources. Ideally, your 2 starting villagers should lame 2 enemy boars, it is possible because your vils arrive before enemy should start to collect his boars. I often manage to lame both boars before opponent notices anything, but sometimes you will fail and not lame even one, this is OK.
4. Next tasks to these 2 forward villagers do something from following list in any convenient order: kill unloomed enemy wood vill using scout blocking, wall in enemy lumbercamp, wall in berries, kill deer, build house. If you get chased by enemy scout, fight him.
5. When new villagers from your TC arrive to enemy base, you use them to push enemy villagers off resources. Start pushing him from berries and wall them in, then push him from his lumbercamp and wall lumbercamp in, if you succeeded find where else he is collecting res and follow him and push him from his res. If enemy vilfights you, pull your weak vills back and chase his weak vils. This is where berber speed bonus is most powerfull: he will never catch your weak vils, while you can outrun his weak vils, block them and finish them. This makes you much, much stronger at vilfights. With fresh vils arriving from your TC you will never run out of steam, making defence complete nightmare for your enemy.
6. With weak vils you pulled back, build lumber camp near enemy base. Send all new weak vils to collect wood.
7. If opponent walls some of his res to protect form your vils, it is very good. Wall around his walls so he cant escape.
8. When you got 280+ wood, it is time to douche. Delete your starting TC and build it near enemy tc. If you walled some enemy vills in, build your TC so that i can attack enemy tc and trapped vills simultaneously, if you managed to do this it is almost surely GG, I finished games like this many times. Otherwise, build your tc on berries or enemy farms or near his woodline, whichever more convenient.
9. During TC war, pull weak vils into TC to regenerate, use fresh vils to collect wood, lame enemy woodlines and vilfight. When his TC collapses, chase his vils and finish the enemy. If he rebuilds tc, repeat douche and vilfights. If cant repeat douche, go up to feudal and finish him with military, at this point his economy should be much weaker.
If you execute everything properly, you can break player who has higher APM, macro, and is mich higher than your elo. The only downside is that you will often need to research spies to finish the game, but it's worth it.
My build order goes like this:
1. Build 2 houses right away. Order 2 vils + loom in your TC. Send scout to search enemy base right away, dont waste time searching for your own resources. Send 2 of the starting vils forward right away, remaining villager on food. Use sheeps to find your boars.
2. Send new villagers to food, until you have 6 (or 8 if you like) on food. After u have 6-8 on food, send all new villagers forward to enemy base. Your villagers at home will be collecting sheep and boars and berries to support vil production, all rest new vils will be sent to enemy base.
3. With scout sent forward, find enemy TC, boars, woodlines, berries and deer. Use 2 of your starting villagers which you sent forward to help your scout find resources. Ideally, your 2 starting villagers should lame 2 enemy boars, it is possible because your vils arrive before enemy should start to collect his boars. I often manage to lame both boars before opponent notices anything, but sometimes you will fail and not lame even one, this is OK.
4. Next tasks to these 2 forward villagers do something from following list in any convenient order: kill unloomed enemy wood vill using scout blocking, wall in enemy lumbercamp, wall in berries, kill deer, build house. If you get chased by enemy scout, fight him.
5. When new villagers from your TC arrive to enemy base, you use them to push enemy villagers off resources. Start pushing him from berries and wall them in, then push him from his lumbercamp and wall lumbercamp in, if you succeeded find where else he is collecting res and follow him and push him from his res. If enemy vilfights you, pull your weak vills back and chase his weak vils. This is where berber speed bonus is most powerfull: he will never catch your weak vils, while you can outrun his weak vils, block them and finish them. This makes you much, much stronger at vilfights. With fresh vils arriving from your TC you will never run out of steam, making defence complete nightmare for your enemy.
6. With weak vils you pulled back, build lumber camp near enemy base. Send all new weak vils to collect wood.
7. If opponent walls some of his res to protect form your vils, it is very good. Wall around his walls so he cant escape.
8. When you got 280+ wood, it is time to douche. Delete your starting TC and build it near enemy tc. If you walled some enemy vills in, build your TC so that i can attack enemy tc and trapped vills simultaneously, if you managed to do this it is almost surely GG, I finished games like this many times. Otherwise, build your tc on berries or enemy farms or near his woodline, whichever more convenient.
9. During TC war, pull weak vils into TC to regenerate, use fresh vils to collect wood, lame enemy woodlines and vilfight. When his TC collapses, chase his vils and finish the enemy. If he rebuilds tc, repeat douche and vilfights. If cant repeat douche, go up to feudal and finish him with military, at this point his economy should be much weaker.
If you execute everything properly, you can break player who has higher APM, macro, and is mich higher than your elo. The only downside is that you will often need to research spies to finish the game, but it's worth it.
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