First of all I want to thank kreeshak for organising this contest. Unlike the previous one (fastest 20 knights) which had byz as the set civ and also is a simpler one, this one interested me because the strategy or the method of execution weren't immediately obvious to me. This interested me so much that, despite not having a mouse (I am on touchpad), I wanted to give a serious try to winning this because getting the strategy right had a great importance.
Initially I did a quick intuitive analysis on what would be the best strategy for this. I gave my first attempt with goth feudal spear massing strategy (the strategy that came to the top of my head for a first try) and reached 225 pop in 26:50. Since VASCO's time for fastest 200 vils was 26:5x with Vikings, I decided that definitely pure boom is not the way. Which probably means that Goths are the civ for this (Reason: They have a unit that can be built for 39 res, the spearman which is less than that of villager). So the question before me was basically whether to do an FC mini-boom and mass spears OR to stay in feudal and mass spears with Goths.
A quick analysis made it seem to me that: the 1000 res for advancing to castle age, the extra food to make the extra villagers, the extra farms required to gather all this extra food, the extra res for every TC added won't pay off in time compared to the feudal spear massing strategy despite the boom and stronger economy.
So, since I decided to stick with the feudal spear massing for now, the questions were things like when to feudal? How many farms? How many villagers? How many barracks? What eco upgrades to do? etc.
In my first try that I got 26:50, I had went for something like 23 vil feudal, immediately did double bit and horse collar, skipped wheelbarrow till the end. At the end of the rec, I took a look and found that most of my farms were replanted with more than 150 food(?) remaining. Which means that horsecollar was better done without, unless I changed something. It is clear though that horse collar will save resources if farms are timed properly.
So, I wanted all my farms to expire almost the same time I reach 225 pop. I decided to lay down all my farms such that in one shot they will ideally expire exactly when I had the res for 225 pop spears. I aimed for 26 min mark at first, did some 13:25 feudal (31 vils) and with this I got 26:02 time. I did wheelbarrow too, since it allows for lesser farms and due to so many vils working, would eventually pay off not only in terms of res, but also for the 225 pop. Next I tried to see if staying longer in dark age (like 17:00) and skipping farm up and wheel would do better. I got a worse off time 26:25 and went back to original.
So, in my winning attempt (25:49) I went for 13:00 feudal with 30 vils, immediately did double bit axe, horsecollar, wheelbarrow (delaying wheelbarrow for a couple of mins maybe better) and laid down 19 farms (which I caluclated that would have just enough food for hitting 225 pop with spears and 46 vils). These farms were set to expire around 25:30 which would guarantee me enough food for 225 pop. I ended up doing 9 miltia too since 100 gold is basically free deeming the cost of miltia a mere 39 food. (Possibly, pure spears are better if you get food balance exactly perfect with no excess food, but queuing miltia allowed me to add the last few barracks faster and militia train in 1 less second than spearmen so I'm not sure really). The resources basically ended up near 0 at the end, and most of my farms expired. The number of villagers was basically a question of stopping vils exactly at a point where they can't work long enough to pay back their cost. (Ofcourse my try didn't get everything perfect)
A summary of my attempts:
Try 1: 26:50
Try 2: 26:02
Try 3: 26:25
Try 4: 25:49
Try 5: 26:30++ (was an overambitious attempt, initially looked like I would beat my best time clearly, but my farms ended up expiring before I had food to support 225 pop :lol: )
Try 6: 25:50 (This was a last ditch-attempt to beat my own time yesterday night, could have done 25:40 or so if it werent for a small strategic error)
Composition: 46 vils, 169 spears, 9 militia, 1 scout. (7 barracks)
Initially I did a quick intuitive analysis on what would be the best strategy for this. I gave my first attempt with goth feudal spear massing strategy (the strategy that came to the top of my head for a first try) and reached 225 pop in 26:50. Since VASCO's time for fastest 200 vils was 26:5x with Vikings, I decided that definitely pure boom is not the way. Which probably means that Goths are the civ for this (Reason: They have a unit that can be built for 39 res, the spearman which is less than that of villager). So the question before me was basically whether to do an FC mini-boom and mass spears OR to stay in feudal and mass spears with Goths.
A quick analysis made it seem to me that: the 1000 res for advancing to castle age, the extra food to make the extra villagers, the extra farms required to gather all this extra food, the extra res for every TC added won't pay off in time compared to the feudal spear massing strategy despite the boom and stronger economy.
So, since I decided to stick with the feudal spear massing for now, the questions were things like when to feudal? How many farms? How many villagers? How many barracks? What eco upgrades to do? etc.
In my first try that I got 26:50, I had went for something like 23 vil feudal, immediately did double bit and horse collar, skipped wheelbarrow till the end. At the end of the rec, I took a look and found that most of my farms were replanted with more than 150 food(?) remaining. Which means that horsecollar was better done without, unless I changed something. It is clear though that horse collar will save resources if farms are timed properly.
So, I wanted all my farms to expire almost the same time I reach 225 pop. I decided to lay down all my farms such that in one shot they will ideally expire exactly when I had the res for 225 pop spears. I aimed for 26 min mark at first, did some 13:25 feudal (31 vils) and with this I got 26:02 time. I did wheelbarrow too, since it allows for lesser farms and due to so many vils working, would eventually pay off not only in terms of res, but also for the 225 pop. Next I tried to see if staying longer in dark age (like 17:00) and skipping farm up and wheel would do better. I got a worse off time 26:25 and went back to original.
So, in my winning attempt (25:49) I went for 13:00 feudal with 30 vils, immediately did double bit axe, horsecollar, wheelbarrow (delaying wheelbarrow for a couple of mins maybe better) and laid down 19 farms (which I caluclated that would have just enough food for hitting 225 pop with spears and 46 vils). These farms were set to expire around 25:30 which would guarantee me enough food for 225 pop. I ended up doing 9 miltia too since 100 gold is basically free deeming the cost of miltia a mere 39 food. (Possibly, pure spears are better if you get food balance exactly perfect with no excess food, but queuing miltia allowed me to add the last few barracks faster and militia train in 1 less second than spearmen so I'm not sure really). The resources basically ended up near 0 at the end, and most of my farms expired. The number of villagers was basically a question of stopping vils exactly at a point where they can't work long enough to pay back their cost. (Ofcourse my try didn't get everything perfect)
A summary of my attempts:
Try 1: 26:50
Try 2: 26:02
Try 3: 26:25
Try 4: 25:49
Try 5: 26:30++ (was an overambitious attempt, initially looked like I would beat my best time clearly, but my farms ended up expiring before I had food to support 225 pop :lol: )
Try 6: 25:50 (This was a last ditch-attempt to beat my own time yesterday night, could have done 25:40 or so if it werent for a small strategic error)
Composition: 46 vils, 169 spears, 9 militia, 1 scout. (7 barracks)