Favourite opening is 21p scouts or forward. Never used to like forward, but I'm doing a lot better with it nowadays. 22p sucks vs drush and you can have a nice food eco with just 1 farm before horse collar too with 21p. I think drush + archers from home is the weakest strat by far, you will never be ahead if he goes scouts -> 1 AR skirms with fast blacksmith then transitions into standard 2 AR play (completely different story if you fw the ranges and much stronger)
Goths, 21 pop m@a (usually 5 m@a) from home. Most other civs 22 pop or more if m@a. Or if you go 21 pop or less with fast civs like mong/jap, make 3-4 m@a typically.
Byz, skirms (23 pop typically) from home (apply some forward pressure if he is full walling).
I like to maintain the element of surprise, but forwards definitely provide very exciting games. I would answer full feudal, but that's not so much a strategy as a meta-strategy. Either way, I think a decent feudal war leads to much more unpredictable and strategically diverse games as they give you the chance to grow your economy enough to field varied unit compositions. When this happens, countering counts for much more than merely executing your strategy marginally better than your opponent, and the investment in multiple upgrades makes transitions into different unit lines much easier to manage. This is my problem with the current Arabia "meta-game". When people aim to reach the castle age early, they end up forced down very narrow and specific strategic channels from which it's difficult to deviate, which holds back the strategic depth of each civilisation from shining through. That's why the typical Hun war has become so boring; when both players focus on massing cavalry archers, it's easy to forget that a good long feudal war makes knights and skirmishers so much easier to deploy in the castle age.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.