I'd be interested how people decide on their opening strategy (speaking of team games as flank, that is).
Appearently the success depends mostly on yours and the opponent's map as well as his own opening (and ofc the execution).
In the following I've tried to list my ideas or what I heard from other players. Perhaps you can tell me if I'm wrong somewhere or what I missed
Often when deciding on a strategy I haven't scouted the enemy base extensively enough yet to know how his map or strategy could be, might not even know his civilisation. Means I can base my decision on seeing my own map, my civilisation and my pockets' one.
One factor might be of course if my civilisation has a certain strength in the drush or the scout rush. Perhaps I'm frank/spain and will need the stable later anyway, or I need the bloodlines for cav archers, so going scouts is a good preparation for that.
Then there are other civs which have a good bonus for either of them (britons, persians) or civs without any bonus.
I don't think that having a bonus is the most important factor to decide. It comes into play mostly when your enemy and you are doing the same strategy. If your openings differ, then a civ without bonus might be superior having chosen the better strategy.
What about the map factor? Sometimes I heard having a pretty easily wallable map implies doing a drush+wall followed by a fast castle. A very open map is said to serve scouts better. What role do ressource locations play? Going for an archer opening (although I think it's a bad opening anyway) is hard when you have forward gold, as the enemy might block it with an early drush/scout attack. Forward berries with a scout rush would probably suffer from a drush, so drushing yourself could be better - however berries can be walled rather easily..
Is the archer opening equally strong as scouts or drush? In my opinion scouts+fast archers have an advantage over it, as you hit early, force the enemy to stay passive, and in a combat situation your 3-5 scouts might be stronger in combination even though you have less archers than the enemy.
Leading to how to follow-up the opening? In teamgames you usually have two options, going for archers or walling up strongly - otherwise you'll end up getting doubled by the knight+archer combination which beats other army compositions.
I notice going scouts + slowly switching to archers after enough farms mostly loses against the drush+fc strategy, as the scouts can be scared away by a few spears, and the archers hit too late and are then at a tech disadvantage. It seems to me that you can vary the level of aggressiveness after the scout rush by deciding how many farms you seed before going on gold and archery ranges. Perhaps doing a fast follow-up archer rush with minimum farm seeding is better then, as scouts hinder the enemy from walling and the archers have enough time to do damage before he reaches castle?
What about the drush? It allows a much faster castle compared to scouts, which force you in feudal for some time, but a fast feudal with archers after the drush is also feasible (pop 27-28, vil count 23-24). A very aggressive strategy, it seems to me, and so far I didn't have much success with it - probably depends much on the enemy gold location, however a quick tower can still allow him to reach castle with enough gold income to hit you with tech advantage, while you are still in feudal for a longer while.
If he's going for an archer opening, and you can't hit the enemy gold early enough with the drush, his archer army will be superior to yours and the militia won't help in that fight. That makes me think that against an enemy drush or archer opening, your own drush followup must depend on whether you get to his gold or not. That decision must be made fast though, as the drush+fc and drush+flush builds differ significantly.
What's the situation like if the enemy scout rushes and you do a drush? You might disturb him some time, but then you are at a passive role. Going for a fast castle after drush was already mentioned above and is pretty risky with a more open map. Going for archers however leaves you at a disadvantage, as his scouts+archers again probably win against your archers.
Of course, once the knights from the pocket come in, the situation turns around. The scouts become pretty useless, as knights tank the fire better, and more archers are stronger. It's about getting the better army composition than the opponents. So.. for a pocket going early for full knights to your side, an archer opening might be the best choice. If he's going for more economy and less knights, you might need to create the composition on your own my mixing in scouts/knights.
What do you think, what other dynamics have to be taken into account? I really enjoy rethinking these strategies as the teamgame is a really complex system and personal skills matter much less than having a better global view on events happening
Appearently the success depends mostly on yours and the opponent's map as well as his own opening (and ofc the execution).
In the following I've tried to list my ideas or what I heard from other players. Perhaps you can tell me if I'm wrong somewhere or what I missed
Often when deciding on a strategy I haven't scouted the enemy base extensively enough yet to know how his map or strategy could be, might not even know his civilisation. Means I can base my decision on seeing my own map, my civilisation and my pockets' one.
One factor might be of course if my civilisation has a certain strength in the drush or the scout rush. Perhaps I'm frank/spain and will need the stable later anyway, or I need the bloodlines for cav archers, so going scouts is a good preparation for that.
Then there are other civs which have a good bonus for either of them (britons, persians) or civs without any bonus.
I don't think that having a bonus is the most important factor to decide. It comes into play mostly when your enemy and you are doing the same strategy. If your openings differ, then a civ without bonus might be superior having chosen the better strategy.
What about the map factor? Sometimes I heard having a pretty easily wallable map implies doing a drush+wall followed by a fast castle. A very open map is said to serve scouts better. What role do ressource locations play? Going for an archer opening (although I think it's a bad opening anyway) is hard when you have forward gold, as the enemy might block it with an early drush/scout attack. Forward berries with a scout rush would probably suffer from a drush, so drushing yourself could be better - however berries can be walled rather easily..
Is the archer opening equally strong as scouts or drush? In my opinion scouts+fast archers have an advantage over it, as you hit early, force the enemy to stay passive, and in a combat situation your 3-5 scouts might be stronger in combination even though you have less archers than the enemy.
Leading to how to follow-up the opening? In teamgames you usually have two options, going for archers or walling up strongly - otherwise you'll end up getting doubled by the knight+archer combination which beats other army compositions.
I notice going scouts + slowly switching to archers after enough farms mostly loses against the drush+fc strategy, as the scouts can be scared away by a few spears, and the archers hit too late and are then at a tech disadvantage. It seems to me that you can vary the level of aggressiveness after the scout rush by deciding how many farms you seed before going on gold and archery ranges. Perhaps doing a fast follow-up archer rush with minimum farm seeding is better then, as scouts hinder the enemy from walling and the archers have enough time to do damage before he reaches castle?
What about the drush? It allows a much faster castle compared to scouts, which force you in feudal for some time, but a fast feudal with archers after the drush is also feasible (pop 27-28, vil count 23-24). A very aggressive strategy, it seems to me, and so far I didn't have much success with it - probably depends much on the enemy gold location, however a quick tower can still allow him to reach castle with enough gold income to hit you with tech advantage, while you are still in feudal for a longer while.
If he's going for an archer opening, and you can't hit the enemy gold early enough with the drush, his archer army will be superior to yours and the militia won't help in that fight. That makes me think that against an enemy drush or archer opening, your own drush followup must depend on whether you get to his gold or not. That decision must be made fast though, as the drush+fc and drush+flush builds differ significantly.
What's the situation like if the enemy scout rushes and you do a drush? You might disturb him some time, but then you are at a passive role. Going for a fast castle after drush was already mentioned above and is pretty risky with a more open map. Going for archers however leaves you at a disadvantage, as his scouts+archers again probably win against your archers.
Of course, once the knights from the pocket come in, the situation turns around. The scouts become pretty useless, as knights tank the fire better, and more archers are stronger. It's about getting the better army composition than the opponents. So.. for a pocket going early for full knights to your side, an archer opening might be the best choice. If he's going for more economy and less knights, you might need to create the composition on your own my mixing in scouts/knights.
What do you think, what other dynamics have to be taken into account? I really enjoy rethinking these strategies as the teamgame is a really complex system and personal skills matter much less than having a better global view on events happening