Age of Empires Strategy:The Scout Rush

Scout Rush strategy increasingly gained importance after the advent of Age of Empires 1.0e.Scout rush is mainly done in Age of Empires multiplayer 1v1 games.But in my opinion it can be done in any type of game,be it 2v2,3v3 or 4v4.In this post an in depth analysis of the scout rush is provided.

Civilizations favorable for Scout Rush
The most favorable civilization is the mongols.This is because you can do a faster scout rush with mongols as compared to any other civ.Huns is another good option.Other cavalry civs including persians,saracens etc. are also preferred.

How to do it?
Step:1 Making the economy
I have seen people doing a 25 pop scout rush with 4 farms,although very stable,this is very slow as the time taken to attack is around 13 mins.This gives the opponent the time to defend himself with spears.That is why a 22 pop advance with 2 farms and then a scout rush is preferred.
Follow a 22 pop flush strategy initially but try to get at least 2 deer for extra food.As soon as feudal age research is completed,build a stable and start making scouts.Then make farms with the new vils because you need more food.6-7 scouts are enough for initial rush.

Step:2 The Raiding
Scout raiding is most effective on those vils who are away from the town centre.Scouts are vulnerable to arrows so care needs to be taken so that they dont get too close to the town center.The advantage of scouts is,that they are quick and are very effective in hit and run.

Tackling spears:-If you have 6-7 scouts then you can easily tackle upto 2 spears.The best micro will be to move the scout away from the spear he is hitting and attacking him with other scouts.This way none of them dies.
Another way is to surround him and attack.This exploits the weak AI of the Age of Empires script.The spear is confused as to whom to attack and is half dead by the time it decides on one of your scouts.This method can only be used if he has one spear.
Another good trick is to look at villagers' hit points, if you have already hit one villager but spears chase you off, lure that spearman in some other direction with a scout while the others hit that villager. You might take a couple of hits but it's worth it to kill that vil. If you are attacking vils and you see spearmen coming, check the hit points on the vil, if it's close to death don't run until you kill it.

Dealing with different situations

Scenario 1:If the opponent sees you building a stable,then he knows that you will be going for a scout rush.So he will go for 5-6 spears.In this case I still prefer a scout rush but with 4-5 skirms. This will take care of his spears and then he gets very vulnerable as he does not have any more army.

Scenario 2:If the opponent is very aggressive and does a forward attack.In this case just defend yourself with a wall and tower and attack his base with 4-5 scouts.As he is doing a forward attack he wont have any enemy at base and you can easily raid.

The main point in scout rush is the micro.They are very vulnerable to spears and will die away cheaply if proper care is not taken.

Age of Empires Civilization:Mongols

The newer version of Age of Empires i.e. 1.0e proved to be the most beneficial for the Mongols civilization.The Scout Cavalry now has 2 additional hit points in the feudal age which makes it the deadliest unit for raiding.The Mongols are basically a cavalry civilization in Age of Empires with mangudai and hussars being the most preferred.Lets scrutinize them in detail.

Civilization Bonuses for Mongols

• Cavalry archers fire 20% faster.

• Light cavalry,Hussars +30% hit points.

• Hunters work 50% faster.



Cavalry archers fire 20% faster

This advantage for Mongols can be exploited only after castle age.Cavalry archers instead of Knights can be used for raiding. Mongols,use 3 archery ranges for effective raiding .Collect atleast 10 cavalry archers before you go for a raid.But unlike the Huns civilization,Mongols' cavalry archers are not cheaper and require a lot of gold and wood.So collect resources appropriately.

Light cavalry,Hussars +30% hit points

Age of empires provides one of the best advantages to Mongols in team games.Hussars instead of paladins can be used for raiding continuously.First,they are the cheapest unit one can get in the imperial age and second they have greater resistance to arrows because of increased hit points.But, they are as vulnerable as ever to helbs,so use them carefully.

Hunters work 50% faster

This bonus is exploited by Mongols in the feudal age and a strategy known as AK-47 Mongol Rush is entirely based upon this bonus.Due to faster archers, Mongols have 3-4 deer quickly and make 5-6 scouts in the feudal age faster than any other civilization in Age of Empires.Due to the speed of the attack this strategy is often referred to as AK-47 Mongol Rush.

Team Bonus:Scout Cavalry,Light Cavalry and Hussars have +2 line of sight

This advantage empowers the Mongols civilization in Age of Empires to quickly explore your enemy territory.In a team game generally the Mongols are the first to explore the whole of the enemy territory.This helps in a team game when you want to point who is where so that the team strategy can be modified accordingly.

Unique technology:Drill(Siege Units move 50% faster)

This advantage enables Mongols to use Rams extensively even in 4v4 games.Of course this technology can only be done in imperial age.This is the reason gamers prefer to use rams instead of trebeuchets in mongols.This research provides a quicker and more economical way of destroying buildings.


Unique Unit:Mangudai(Cavalry Archer)

This civilization possess a good castle unit named Mangudai.Mangudais possess a bonus attack over siege units.The Ram + Mangudai make a deadly combo for Mongols.They are also good at raiding.The important researches for Mangudai are the range and armor researches from the smithy and the parthian tactics research from the archery range.Their counters include helbs,archers,skirmishers and paladins.

Playing with Mongols

As I said before AK-47 Mongol rush strategy can be highly effective in feudal age.In fact this strategy sometimes even faster than the Huns flush.Use the scouts to raid the lumberjackers.Dont go near the town center as they are vulnerable to arrows.The main drawback of this strategy is that it does not allow for any delay.Delaying means the opponent gets time to make spearman which is a very good counter for scout rush.
Once in castle age use the bonus of faster firing cavalry archers and make a combination of cavalry archers and knights for raiding.
In imperial age use mangudai +ram combo for army to army fight.For raiding use hussars instead of cavaliers.

Any suggestions regarding Mongols are most invited.

Age of Empires Civilization:The Huns

After the advent of 1.0e version of Age of Empires, Huns civilization has become a hot-favorite of every player.In fact, the flush strategy is based primarily on huns. The primary army of this civ is cavalry and only cavalry.It’s perhaps the best civ for 1v1 combat.Lets see how huns fare against the rest.

Civilization Bonuses

• Do not need houses but start with -100 wood.

• Cavalry Archers cost -25% in castle age,-30% in imperial age.


• Trebuchets are 30% more accurate.

Do not need houses but start with -100 wood

This is perhaps one of the best bonuses of Huns. This enables them to save wood and makes them superior in feudal age. One of the disadvantages is that huns cannot detect the enemy’s forwards with house bugs(though they can do the farm bug which costs 30 more wood).This bonus can be best exploited in the feudal age by attacking fast(Flush).

Cavalry Archers cost -25% in castle age,-30% in imperial age

This bonus can be used in combination with the flush strategy, in which at least two archery ranges are mandatory. As soon as castle age research is complete,cavalry archers can be created to raid the enemy from time to time.They are best used in combination with knights.The range research is important in this regard in absence of which they become vulnerable to pikeman.

Trebuchets are 30% more accurate

This is an advantage which can be exploited only in the imperial age.The more accuracy allows the trebs to attack even infantry and units which occupy more surface area(very effective against group of War Wagons,onagers and BBCs from a large distance).Of course they need to be guarded by army.Even more effective after ballistics and chemistry.

Team Bonus:Stables work 20% faster

This bonus makes their cavalry even better. Knights can be very effective in castle age due to their higher speed of production.


Special Unit: Tarkan

The Castle unit of Huns is a Cavalry unit named Tarkan.It has an attack bonus vs. buildings which is not much of an advantage because you never destroy buildings with the army often.I haven’t seen many people playing with tarkans.So the castle unit is not much of a bonus for Huns.

Playing with Huns

As I have said before, Huns are a hot favourite in 1v1 combat. While playing with Huns the only strategy that comes in mind is flush of which the 22 pop flush is most popular. For micro you may refer to the Flush strategy. They don’t have much of an advantage in the imperial age,so try to finish the game at the earliest preferably in feudal itself.Attacking variations in feudal age include two archery range +1 barrack flush, 1 archery range+ 1 stable +1 barrack flush. Of these I wish to point out one strategy in particular.Start with a scout rush so that the opponent makes spearman. Meanwhile make archers to take his spearman by surprise.

Protecting your base is also important.One of the disadvantages of Huns is that they cannot make a house wall.So you need to either protect them with pallaside or with army buildings.

Knights are the most effective unit in castle age.For Huns they can be used in conjunction with the cavalry archers.So while advancing to castle age make 3 stables.If you have your feudal age army intact then I would advise upgrading them.In castle age try to raid as much as possible with cavalry archers and knights(keep them protected from pikemen).

Age of Empires Strategy:Army Control

Controlling the army is a very important aspect in Age of Empires.If you are not alert while attacking and looking elsewhere, your opponent may exploit this opportunity and they will die away cheaply. You should try out different stances and formations that suit the army. I prefer keeping each army numbered and making them attack on their counters only. Moving back is also effective when the opponent is not alert at the moment. His army will follow yours to the base where you can take on them with your greater number.

In feudal age while flushing you have 4 units; spearman, skirmisher, scout and maybe archer later on. These units are comparatively weak and are vulnerable to even vils when alone. So don’t attack unless you have a group (at least 7-8).The counters for this age are

1. Spearman for scouts,

2. Scouts for skirmisher and

3. Skirmisher for archers

4. Skirmishers are effective against spearman from a distance. For example keep scouts on
skirmishers and spearman on scouts.

If you don’t have a counter for a particular unit at that time, then moving back your army would be a wise choice.

If you are not so confident, you can defend your base first by making army at the base and then taking them for attack. The advantage is that in case of an attack on your base, you can still defend but the disadvantage is that it will take you more time to attack in which case the opponent may protect himself with pallaside.

If you want to play aggressive then make your military buildings in the opponent's base(make sure he doesn’t see you).You may improvise by pallasiding his buildings and even gold mines.
What happens if you have your army in his base and he has his in yours?You might want to bring yours back to your base. I would prefer to keep mine in his base,at the same time keep defend myself with vils. While defending attack one unit with one vil(because they stop attacking after they have killed their target) and keep making army at your base. Take care that the vils don’t follow up to a very large distance.

In castle age, the most powerful unit is knight. The meso civs(Aztecs and mayans) are at loss here though they have the option of the eagle warrior. You may use archers or cavalry archers in combination with knights. Again, guard your knights and cavalry archers from pikeman and raid continuously.You may also go for rams to raze his town center.

If the game stretches up to imperial age then you must look for special units. Assuming that you have boomed well, play at pop limit, make many military buildings etc. The good units in imperial age are the castle units, BBCs, Paladins, Elite EWs. The use of trebs is restricted in open maps and rams are advised in such a case.Dont stop raiding even at this stage .

The Smithy researches required depend on the type of units you are making. For cavalry most important ones are cavalry armor and attack. For archers armor and range researches are important and same thing holds for infantry also.

This is just a basic guide for army control.You want to improvise on the strategies enumerated above.Please pour in your suggestions.

By
[DZ]Blitzkreig

Age of Empires Units:The Eagle Warrior

Hit points:100(Mayans),60(Aztecs)
Attack:9+4(Mayans),9+8(Aztecs)
High armor but low pierce armor

A unit which is available exclusively to only two civilizations, namely Aztecs and Mayans which is very powerful in raiding and destroying buildings.

Where to be used:- Acts as a counter against all types of cavalry(except Cataphract).Very very effective in raiding.So its acts as a counter to those civs with cavalry(like Huns and Spanish etc.).

When to be used:-In dark age itself these two civs have an advantage because of its increased line of sight.Most people exploit the fact that this unit is extremely cheap.It can be very effective if you are pursuing a fast castle strategy so that you can make more no. of eagle warriors than knights.So my advice would be;hit fast castle age and start pumping eagle warriors from 2-3 barracks.Combination of an onager and 10 eagles can win the game for you in 23-25 mins.

In a long game:-Important researches to be done include the smithy ones,the elite research and either el dorado(Mayans) or Garland Wars(Aztecs) whichever is applicable.Use eagle warriors with the combination of arbalests and monks for an effective army.

Additional strategies in Age of Empires:-If you have aztecs then you should go for a drush strategy with 4 militia + 1 eagle(scout) in the dark age.Reach feudal age in around 17 mins then castle age in 21-22 mins.Then raiding with eagle warriors will surely win the game for you.

Precautionary measures:-As you are doing a fast castle you are vulnerable for flush or trush. So make sure you either wall your resource points,make towers or go for a drush strateggy(Attack is the best defence remember).

Counters for eagle warriors:-The best counter is champions.Other counters are special units like huskarls,samurai,berserk,teutonic knight etc.The only cavalry unit which can help is Cataphract.Ranged units like arbalest and skirmishers also help.


Comments and improvements are invited

Newbie FAQs on units in Age of Empires

1.I get an out-of-sync worldtime error after 10-12 minutes of the game.What to do?

Ans. Install 1.0e patch

2.What is attack bonus/Shield???
Ans.
Normal Situation
Take the example of a hypothetical unit in Age of Empires say SCODA with an attack of 23+4 . Now it hits another unit RAX with hit points 230 and armour 2+3/0+4. If SCODA is a Contact attack unit, Then RAX would lose 27-5=22 hitpoints on 1 hit, while if it is a pierce attack unit, RAX would lose 27-4=23 Hitpoints.

Attack bonus.
If RAX loses more than 22 points (say 29 pts) to a contact attack SCODA, then we say that SCODA has an attack bonus of 7 over RAX.

Shield

If RAX loses less than 22 points ( say 18 pts) to a contact attack SCODA , then we say that SCODA has a shield of 4 vs RAX.

3. What is the difference between Barrack and Castle Huskarls?

Ans.First of all , the barrack huskarls don't get counted in the total army. They are treated as a different unit than the castle huskarl by the Age of Empires applet.

Secondly, It is only the barrack huskarl which is created faster while the castle huskarl is created at the normal speed.

Thirdly, Although the stats of both castle and barrack huskarls are the same , the barrack huskarls are substantially weaker than the Castle huskarls when it comes to fighting in groups.The programming is different in Age of Empires.

4.What is the advantage of huskarl over archers and scorpions?

Ans.A Huskarl has High pierce armour + Attack bonus + Shield vs Archers..while vs Scorpions it has only Pierce armour

4.What about eagle warriors????

Eagle warriors are exactly the other way round .... They have High pierce armour + Attack bonus + Shield vs Seige attack...while ony pierce armour vs Archers.

5.Which is the most effective unit vs Elite war elephants(If you want to kill them)?

Ans.Heavy Scorpion(Celts/ and to a slightly lesser extent Chinese)

6.What is ground attack in Age of Empires??

Ans. 7 helbs are hitting a war elephant, while the elephant is hitting only one, still all those hitting the elephant are losing hitpoints, we say that the elephant has a ground attack.

The Cataphract Trample damage is limited only to infantry. vs infantry it is ground attack.
8.Are trebeuchets of any two civilizations same???

NO

Japs > Celts > Viking > Huns >.......>Saracens> Teutons

9.Does huskarl have a bonus over gunpowder??

Yes

10.Do Archers have bonus over Cataphracts??

NO

11.Does eagle warrior has bonus over Cavalry??

Yes

12.Changing the Difficulty level of the game changes the number of wolves???

Ans. YES. You have more wolves in hardest than in hard mode

13.What is house bug Age of Empires??

Ans.HOUSE BUG - build house and move it over an explored area. You will now notice that when you move it over an area where enemy has buildings or units it will turn red showing that you cant build there.
works with all buildings.
Use the house bug to find enemy forwards, know if he is going stone/gold or to find his army.

14.What is a HANG in Age of Empires?

Ans.Hang is the situation when the Age of Empires engine has to do more calculations than normal. e.g. when 40 scorpions fire on 40 Paladins..... the number of calculations involved is too high. Each scorpion Arrow in 2 dimensions passes through n paladins in 2 dimensions each...and they are moving... So the Age of Empires engine has to find the intersection of them..Now it has to do the same for all 40 Scorpions. ... Stopping the Moving Paladin reduces the number of calculations, so Age of Empires applet sometimes does that also..

Typical reasons of HANG

Age of Empires engine supports a maximum population of around 600-700... When the total population goes beyond this , the number of calculations involved gets too high... e.g. In a 3v3 with 200 pop each player (total 1200) the number of calculations is too high

Mongol moving onagers... Now the onager is moving...Say 10's of onagers are moving..40 paladin are moving...this situation gives the Age of Empires engine something impossible to calculate...So what it does, first it stops the Paladin, then it stops the onager and then takes the shot first, before allowing them to move.

15.Which is the best seige weapon in Age of Empires???

Ram/Trebuchet/Bombard Cannon

In my opinion Bombard Cannon is the best of these 3. Gunpowder + Bombard Cannons is the fastest sweeping army in Age of Empires. But Gunpowder Civs are only used in maps like Arena. So we don't get to see the Actual power of these units very often. In arabia , civs Huns / Mongols / Chinese are used which lack Gunpowder.

RAMs are the most overrated of these 3 in Expert gaming. I see a lots of experts using RAMS to kill even Mongol Casltes which is wrong. Otherwise rams are a better option then trebs and can be used for very fast sweep.

Trebs.
If you are Japanese , there is no point using RAMs .. You must take full advantage of your Civ bonus. Also in maps with constricted paths, Trebs are the best option of these three because of their range. Try playing Danube . However in open maps like arabia, Trebs are mostly useless(except of course vs Mongols opponent)

16.Aztec Seige onager vs Mongol Seige onager vs Teuton Seige onager??

Ans.You give command to an Aztec onager to take shot on some unit which is some distance away(the intervening terrain is arbitrary), It will follow the shortest path to the unit (reach a distance 8/9) and take the shot. We say that the aztec onager is normal.

A teuton onager on the other hand will not follow the shortest path (the terrain is arbitrary) , follow some path according to its own intellegence and will take a slightly inaccurate shot.We say that teuton onager is unintellegent.

A mongol onager(fully researched ) will dance on your guidelines, follow your exact commands and will also create a hang for the moving units which come in the firing range(for a very accurate shot). We say that the mongol seige onager is intellegent.

Courtesy:Rajat Kalia or Atilla the Hun