I'm a noob, but I've thought about this a lot: It seems to me like the most valuable villager pick off might be someone on their way back to the TC/Mill carrying a load of deer/boar. Here is what the enemy is losing:
50 food to replace the villager
30 food villager was carrying for a total of 80 food, as much as a scout cavalry
30 seconds time to create the villager
however many seconds it takes for the replacement to walk back to gather more of what the villager was carrying
Do pros specifically target villagers carrying loads of food/wood/gold when raiding, particularly the ones walking back to the dropoff point with a full load? I say the one carrying dear/boar meat is the most valuable because he can carry 30+, rather than any other resource. Boar is not much of an issue because they are almost always lured under the TC, but in the instance that the enemy has milled the dear on a map like yucatan, it makes a lot of sense to me to selectively target those vils first.
50 food to replace the villager
30 food villager was carrying for a total of 80 food, as much as a scout cavalry
30 seconds time to create the villager
however many seconds it takes for the replacement to walk back to gather more of what the villager was carrying
Do pros specifically target villagers carrying loads of food/wood/gold when raiding, particularly the ones walking back to the dropoff point with a full load? I say the one carrying dear/boar meat is the most valuable because he can carry 30+, rather than any other resource. Boar is not much of an issue because they are almost always lured under the TC, but in the instance that the enemy has milled the dear on a map like yucatan, it makes a lot of sense to me to selectively target those vils first.