Roamer_Rizas AoC Tips (in love to Genette who fixed my fp problem and re-read this article)
Hello, I might not be the best player and my English is kinda sucks, but i want to write down a little list with tips that I discovered over the past two years I play AoC online and that helped me to become ~18++ (maybe more likely 1750-1850). I've taught many noobs since I reached 16++, i.e. play games and discuss them afterwards. Some made progress, some didn't. However I found a few important steps you have to mention, some routines that can improve your game greatly. Ofc I am still a big noob, maybe some of the things I am going to say are trivial, even wrong, but I guess I cant hurt to publish and discuss them here. It's clear I can't mention all, simply because I don't know them all. Btw, this guide is mostly for Arabia players, that's the map (besides islands) I know the best and is most interesting for most noobs.
1. AoC is a scouting game / Information is key
Yes, you heard right. Doesn't sound new? To me, it didn't when Levi (good friend of mine who's been playing this game for over a decade now and taught me many things) told me that after a game we played. He is a very aggressive player and likes to fwd and raid with small ca groups, especially because I almost never wall (I will discuss the factor of not-walling later). At that time, I thought scouting is just about finding sheep, boars, resources and check my part of the map (i.e. look if he fwd or if I should fwd myself). That's wrong!!! You have to scout all game (even in Imp kinda). Where is his army? How many scouts did he do? How many on gold? Is he walling? That maybe means he want to up fast. Can I attack him? Should I add more scouts? Should I attack or defend now etc.? This rule is super important, it helped me a lot. Scout everything! Click a unit, if it walks by. Any upgrades? If u see scout + 3 attack or +1 defence, be prepared! If you see 2 stables in feudal, be prepared! If you see he mines stone, be prepared! Think: Where will he put towers? How can I defend? Maybe u still want to go scouts and raid him, if your eco is safe, or mine some stone too and do skirms to prevent his tower from going up. I didn't mention everything, start to think for yourself! (And watch recs carefully to see how the pros react)
2. Don't queue too many units in one building too early. Don't idle important buildings
When I was 16++ish (or even 17++) I often did 3 CAs in one or more archeries in early castle. Don't! If u just do one, you can add a tc earlier or do university (scout whats better) or replenish a lumber camp. It's important that you don't idle them, too. That's most the important thing in feudal and early castle, when you need to be as efficient as possible!
3. Check your eco. ***ing spam your idle vil/idle army button.
It's a good idea to check your eco more often than not at all. Is one vil blocked at the LC? In dark age u really can afford a few secs to check it a few times. You will see it almost immediately if smth. is not as it should be. Best is, if every vil just chops one tree (most of the time). Have the right amount of farms for the army you do. If u had deer/made less scouts, you wont need as many farms etc. In caslte age, think of not rebuilding farms for university/tc etc. Think: Do I add a siege workshop or a new tc? That's highly connected with scouting, as you can see (like everything in AoC).
4. Protect vulnerable spots BEFORE you get attacked there
Always think: where can he raid me? (Again: Scouting!) How can I protect myself. That sounds trivial, but it's important and doing it automatically will improve your gameplay a lot.
5. Play many different maps, learn different strats
I mostly played ara hunwars, but then cloud (GKT_cloud, or [Str8]_cloud) practiced a lot of water with me and I improved a lot! My ara huns got so much better just by playing islands. Mysterious.
6. Counter attack
If your enemy is in your base with an army u can't defeat, it sometimes is a good idea to just raid his base yourself. Protect your vils as good as you can, maybe add siege workshop/any counter and try to do as many damage yourself. If he is at your base with a big army, his defense is weakened. Profit!
7. Camp hills, play defensive if u want to win, play aggressive and don't wall, if u want to improve.
I got 18++ mostly with no walls, not even palisades (walling off drush in rare cases excepted, 5 militias will kill you sometimes, if you don't wall your wood/gold in). That has the huge advantage that you have to think more, play better and by losing, learn your faults faster then with walling. You have to be faster/better etc then your walled enemy. Sometimes, its really hard, if he stonewalls and booms and does tarkans/paladins and you don't know whats coming until its to late. You have to scout/guess what he is doing and react as good as you can. It's a great feeling to win unwalled vs a walled enemy. You just showed your skill. It's like altitude training! Try it. I myself greatly profit from it and i enjoy unwalled games much more then stupid wall/camp/standard boom games. And it's a huge plus to know what to do, even if you can't wall and your only wood trapped your gold and is 10000000 screens away. (it's still a disadvantage ofc!)
8. Watch your recs slowly.
What did you do wrong? Do it better next time. And don't say **** like: Oh, I had a hole in my wall. Or: I forgot bloodlines. What you should learn is: check your walls more often, check your units, react at the right time, if you see the fight isn't going as expected etc.
9. Have patience. Love the game
It needs thousands of hours to become good at this game. Maybe you have more important stuff to do. Study for university/ marry a beautiful wife. Maybe you don't want to become better and just enjoy the game with your noob friends in 4v4 BF NR 45 cut games. That's a cool attitude. It shows, you most likely have a real life. It's important to love what you do. Stop playing, if you just want to become better.
10. Be friendly
It's sad how rude a few players are. I don't mean Chinese guys who don't greet (they don't speak English etc.) but players that run after they won like a little girl or insult you etc. I play Go (board game, kinda like chess) and there it's normal to discuss the game after it's over. What did you wrong? Any better moves etc. You can do that in AoC, too. I can understand that some players are selfish, but to be honest, they suck. I always try to have a nice talk with my opponents and even if I can't give a re right away I message them later and ask if they want re etc. Just act like a grown-up and be friendly. The fact that you can play the game is due to the work of many cool people like Elusive, Katsuni, Taff, Genette, and 100 more. Give smth. back to the community. That's simple politeness.
Hello, I might not be the best player and my English is kinda sucks, but i want to write down a little list with tips that I discovered over the past two years I play AoC online and that helped me to become ~18++ (maybe more likely 1750-1850). I've taught many noobs since I reached 16++, i.e. play games and discuss them afterwards. Some made progress, some didn't. However I found a few important steps you have to mention, some routines that can improve your game greatly. Ofc I am still a big noob, maybe some of the things I am going to say are trivial, even wrong, but I guess I cant hurt to publish and discuss them here. It's clear I can't mention all, simply because I don't know them all. Btw, this guide is mostly for Arabia players, that's the map (besides islands) I know the best and is most interesting for most noobs.
1. AoC is a scouting game / Information is key
Yes, you heard right. Doesn't sound new? To me, it didn't when Levi (good friend of mine who's been playing this game for over a decade now and taught me many things) told me that after a game we played. He is a very aggressive player and likes to fwd and raid with small ca groups, especially because I almost never wall (I will discuss the factor of not-walling later). At that time, I thought scouting is just about finding sheep, boars, resources and check my part of the map (i.e. look if he fwd or if I should fwd myself). That's wrong!!! You have to scout all game (even in Imp kinda). Where is his army? How many scouts did he do? How many on gold? Is he walling? That maybe means he want to up fast. Can I attack him? Should I add more scouts? Should I attack or defend now etc.? This rule is super important, it helped me a lot. Scout everything! Click a unit, if it walks by. Any upgrades? If u see scout + 3 attack or +1 defence, be prepared! If you see 2 stables in feudal, be prepared! If you see he mines stone, be prepared! Think: Where will he put towers? How can I defend? Maybe u still want to go scouts and raid him, if your eco is safe, or mine some stone too and do skirms to prevent his tower from going up. I didn't mention everything, start to think for yourself! (And watch recs carefully to see how the pros react)
2. Don't queue too many units in one building too early. Don't idle important buildings
When I was 16++ish (or even 17++) I often did 3 CAs in one or more archeries in early castle. Don't! If u just do one, you can add a tc earlier or do university (scout whats better) or replenish a lumber camp. It's important that you don't idle them, too. That's most the important thing in feudal and early castle, when you need to be as efficient as possible!
3. Check your eco. ***ing spam your idle vil/idle army button.
It's a good idea to check your eco more often than not at all. Is one vil blocked at the LC? In dark age u really can afford a few secs to check it a few times. You will see it almost immediately if smth. is not as it should be. Best is, if every vil just chops one tree (most of the time). Have the right amount of farms for the army you do. If u had deer/made less scouts, you wont need as many farms etc. In caslte age, think of not rebuilding farms for university/tc etc. Think: Do I add a siege workshop or a new tc? That's highly connected with scouting, as you can see (like everything in AoC).
4. Protect vulnerable spots BEFORE you get attacked there
Always think: where can he raid me? (Again: Scouting!) How can I protect myself. That sounds trivial, but it's important and doing it automatically will improve your gameplay a lot.
5. Play many different maps, learn different strats
I mostly played ara hunwars, but then cloud (GKT_cloud, or [Str8]_cloud) practiced a lot of water with me and I improved a lot! My ara huns got so much better just by playing islands. Mysterious.
6. Counter attack
If your enemy is in your base with an army u can't defeat, it sometimes is a good idea to just raid his base yourself. Protect your vils as good as you can, maybe add siege workshop/any counter and try to do as many damage yourself. If he is at your base with a big army, his defense is weakened. Profit!
7. Camp hills, play defensive if u want to win, play aggressive and don't wall, if u want to improve.
I got 18++ mostly with no walls, not even palisades (walling off drush in rare cases excepted, 5 militias will kill you sometimes, if you don't wall your wood/gold in). That has the huge advantage that you have to think more, play better and by losing, learn your faults faster then with walling. You have to be faster/better etc then your walled enemy. Sometimes, its really hard, if he stonewalls and booms and does tarkans/paladins and you don't know whats coming until its to late. You have to scout/guess what he is doing and react as good as you can. It's a great feeling to win unwalled vs a walled enemy. You just showed your skill. It's like altitude training! Try it. I myself greatly profit from it and i enjoy unwalled games much more then stupid wall/camp/standard boom games. And it's a huge plus to know what to do, even if you can't wall and your only wood trapped your gold and is 10000000 screens away. (it's still a disadvantage ofc!)
8. Watch your recs slowly.
What did you do wrong? Do it better next time. And don't say **** like: Oh, I had a hole in my wall. Or: I forgot bloodlines. What you should learn is: check your walls more often, check your units, react at the right time, if you see the fight isn't going as expected etc.
9. Have patience. Love the game
It needs thousands of hours to become good at this game. Maybe you have more important stuff to do. Study for university/ marry a beautiful wife. Maybe you don't want to become better and just enjoy the game with your noob friends in 4v4 BF NR 45 cut games. That's a cool attitude. It shows, you most likely have a real life. It's important to love what you do. Stop playing, if you just want to become better.
10. Be friendly
It's sad how rude a few players are. I don't mean Chinese guys who don't greet (they don't speak English etc.) but players that run after they won like a little girl or insult you etc. I play Go (board game, kinda like chess) and there it's normal to discuss the game after it's over. What did you wrong? Any better moves etc. You can do that in AoC, too. I can understand that some players are selfish, but to be honest, they suck. I always try to have a nice talk with my opponents and even if I can't give a re right away I message them later and ask if they want re etc. Just act like a grown-up and be friendly. The fact that you can play the game is due to the work of many cool people like Elusive, Katsuni, Taff, Genette, and 100 more. Give smth. back to the community. That's simple politeness.