A Basic Guide to Scouting

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Canada Mitoe
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A Basic Guide to Scouting

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Post by Mitoe »

I've noticed that many people--especially newer players or players who don't play a lot of civs--seem to have trouble scouting or don't know how to read what they see in their opponent's base.

Why should I scout and how do I know what to look for?
Scouting is a key part of any RTS game, and AoE3 is no exception. Knowing what your opponent is planning means you can afford to adjust your build orders to cut corners with your build orders or take risks that you otherwise would not be able to do safely.

I've seen a lot of players say that they don't really know what they should be doing at certain stages of the game--especially once they've run through their build order and have entered the mid to late stages of the game. If you're ever uncertain about what to do the first thing you should ask yourself is what your opponent might want to be doing, or what you are scared they will do. The next step is to confirm what they are doing (so, scout!), and then to work to counter that plan.

So how do you know what to look for? Well, as I've already mentioned, you should be looking for threats to your own gameplan. For example, if you're playing a slower civilization like Japan or Dutch, you want to be on the look out for rushes or other aggressive strategies and timings so you know if you need to be making units or if you can continue to boom. If you're playing an aggressive civilization you want to scout to see if your opponent is over-investing into defenses, such as walls, outposts, or cards like Colonial Militia and stuff like that, so you can decide whether it's really worth it to continue with the all-in rush style of plan, or go for some sort of slower economic-timing.

The first thing I will cover in this guide is what to look for in the early game against each civilization. It's important to note that you should not try to look for every single one of these things every single game: your explorer/scouts cannot be everywhere at once. Try to prioritize looking for the things you are most worried about facing.


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Aztec

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
Not a lot to look for here. If it's a wood start he could go for a Trading Posts -- keep an eye out for that, it will tell you where his explorer is if he does build one, and if you happen to bump into his explorer after he's constructed a TP keep an eye out for the Warrior Priest. If it's with his explorer it means he skipped the Firepit, or if it's not with the explorer it could indicate that he went for a TP + Firepit start and chopped 100w for a House, which will likely slow down his age up a bit, giving you more time to prepare for his rush/timing.

Make sure to check his deck for potential water cards.

Transition to Colonial:
• Your priority is to look for forward villagers.
• If you have an extra scout, check his base and see what he's gathering in transition and early Colonial. Coin means he's likely training Puma and could be rushing you pretty hard!

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~3:30
• This is what most Aztec players will do regardless of what strategy they choose to do. Your priority should be to look for the forward base. If you cannot seem to find one, then it's a priority to scout the base!

1) There's a Forward Warhut
• Great! He's most likely going to be rushing you. If you have an extra scouting unit, check his base and see if you can scout him gathering coin. If he is, he will be going Mace/Puma, otherwise it's most likely Mace/Coyote.
• Does he have Trading Posts? If he has more than one TP, he could be going for stagecoach. This means he will be slower, and it could give you a chance to push out of your base early to kill his Warhut or to age up!

2) I Can't Find a Warhut
• Scout his base, look for a Warhut there. If there isn't a Warhut there could still be a forward Warhut somewhere you haven't checked.
• How many Warrior Priests does he have? One? Could be doing something Colonial oriented. Four or more? Watch out for a potential FF or even FI. If he has villagers dancing on the Warhut for Warrior Priests as well that means you'll be pretty safe for a few minutes, and he's even more likely to age up.

3) They aged around 4:10 - 4:30, instead of the normal 3:30?
• This means that they likely did not use the Messenger (Fast Age) option! This means it is easier for them to get to Fortress later.
• If you already saw a Warhut being constructed before he aged up, it's most likely a Skull Knight rush. Be careful!
• They could be on water.
• Scouting the base is a priority in this situation. Most likely they aged with the Warhut, do you see it in their base? If it's not there then it's likely placed aggressively, or on the coast if they have a water deck. Do they have villagers dancing on the Firepit for Warrior Priests?[/spoiler]

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British

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for water cards or Virginia Company.

If he constructs an early Trading Post watch out for a VC boom. Keep in mind that an early TP also means that he's unlikely to get the optimal age up time (~4:10), and will likely be up sometime around 4:30 - 4:40.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:10 - 4:35
• Check the base for his age up politician. In particular, try to find the Outpost. If it's in his base that means that there's most likely no forward base.
• Does he have a Barracks or Stable? Or no military building?

There's honestly not much else to look out for here. If British has a forward base you may need to adapt your build order, but otherwise you likely have a few minutes to do whatever you want. The main thing to watch for is a possible VC build, and consider how best to punish it.[/spoiler]


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China

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck. Water cards? How many Colonial and Industrial cards? This should give you a good indication of the options available to him.
• China has 3 options in age 1. TP start, double village, or dock rickshaw. You should always be able to check which he's doing without ever scouting his base by checking whether he has a TP or whether or not the dock card is in his deck. In general it doesn't really matter what he goes for, it's unlikely to change his game plan, although it may be a good idea to take action against any sort of water play.

Transition to Colonial:
• Scout his base and see what resources he's gathering. Wood = potential age 2 play. coin = Pretty much always FF. If you scout late, just click on his gold mines to see if he's gathered from them and how much. He will want ~300 coin from mines and treasures if he wants to FF.
• Which wonder is he using? Summer Palace? Could mean anything. Porcelain Tower? FF/FI. White Pagoda? Parmesan or Feta.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:30 - 5:20
• Wait ~40 seconds after he ages up to confirm his first shipment and which build he's going for. 700c is an FF for sure, anything else most likely means Colonial play.

Transition to Fortress:
• Scout for the wonder. Porcelain Tower will be slower economic play, possibly an FI; Confucian Academy could be defensive or aggressive, depends on your civilization; Summer Palace to age 3 means that he's doing a Fast Industrial.

Fortress Age
• A couple of minutes into Fortress, if you haven't already been interacting with China you will probably want to scout what their unit composition is (either infantry heavy or cavalry heavy), and also make sure they're not going Industrial.[/spoiler]


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Dutch

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for CM and 8 Pike/3 Huss to get an idea of what kind of defensive options he has available to him.
• Only thing to watch out for here is a TP start maybe. This will mean that his age up time will be slower than normal, but he also has the option to send Colonial Militia pretty easily. Could possibly be punished by forcing the CM and then transitioning into a boom and timing while killing his TP. Might be difficult for him to get his Banks up in early Colonial, especially if he tries to send 700w first.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:10 (3:45 with 14 villagers)
1) Check his base.
• What does he do with his 400w age up? A 2nd Bank means that he is sending 700w first pretty much guaranteed, and will be slow to get military units out. A military building means that he is most likely sending Bank Wagon first: he will have units out very quickly but his boom will be slower.
• Watch how many vills he puts on gold after he constructs the 2nd Bank. If he only has 2-3 vills or less on gold, then he's planning to add a 3rd Bank on 700w. If he has 5-6+ he could be planning to skip the 3rd Bank to get units out earlier.
• Come back in a minute or two to check if he's added a military building, or whether he's decided to go full Bank boom.[/spoiler]


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France

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• What were the starting crates? If it's wood he most likely has to build a Trading Post, and you can take treasures freely.
• If you get the opportunity to scout his base, ask yourself: does he have a TP or market? If he has neither he could be aging fast with 13 villagers. If you scout the entire base and can't find a House he could be going for a 12/10 fast age.

Transition to Colonial:
• Not a whole lot to look for here. Maybe watch for forward villagers.

Standard Age Time: ~4:05 - 4:30
1) Check his base.
• Does he have a military building in base? Is it a Barracks or a Stable? Does he have both?
• How many Houses does he have? He will have 2 no matter what--he needs the 2nd House if he wants to send 4 CDB. More than 2 means he has a military building somewhere and is making units for sure. If he has only 1 House, and you can't find the military buildings, that means he is most likely doing the Samwise build and has a forward base with both a Barracks and Stable somewhere, and will construct Houses off of a 700w shipment.
• What is his first shipment? 4 CDB is the most common option nowadays, this locks him into one type of military unit for a while--most likely Hussars or Musketeers. 700w gives him more options: he can add a 2nd military building and diversify his unit composition or invest in additional Trading Posts. 3 Hussars first? Hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife--you're getting 8 hussed.

2) He Aged Earlier Than 4:00
• He probably did a 12/10. Watch out for the 8 hussar cheese![/spoiler]


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Germany

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• It's Germans. He will build a TP on wood starts, giving you freedom to take treasures. Nothing else to look for here, really. If he builds a TP on any start other than a wood start, he will most likely age very late (~4:50 - 5:00).

Transition to Colonial:
• If he hasn't yet constructed a TP, consider scouting the TPs he's most likely to build and try to kill his explorer.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:30
1) Check his base.
• What is he gathering? wood = Xbow/Pike, coin = Uhlans or Dopps.
• Does he have a military building? Stable or Barracks? If he doesn't have a military building, he could have a forward base somewhere, or he could be doing a naked FF.
• Try to leave the base before his first shipment arrives, lest you lose your scout to 2 Uhlans. It's not super important what his first card is most of the time, as he will likely try to do some sort of semi or naked FF almost every game.[/spoiler]


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India

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for water cards--or for Good Faith Agreements if you're playing vs Umeu.
• The crate start can give you a good indication of India's age up time. coin starts will place India on the slow side, while wood starts will place them on the faster side. On wood starts, watch for a possible early TP: this will most likely slow him down by quite a bit if he goes for one.
• If you ever see a wonder placed by 2:10 or earlier, he is most likely 10/10ing (or even 9/10ing), and will play pretty aggressively.
• Consider looking for where he will likely place an Agra Fort early on in the game. India will usually place their wonder between 2:40 and 3:20. You can try to find the forward villager and block the wonder.

Transition to Colonial
• Look for his wonder. If you're closer to his base than mid-map where an Agra Fort would likely go, you can always check his base for a wonder. By this time if he hasn't aged yet all of his vills will be on food; if he has already aged his vills will be on wood or some other combination of resources. If there is no wonder in his base then there is a forward Agra somewhere.
• Is he building a consulate? This almost certainly means he will send Diplomatic Intrigue (300 export) as his first shipment. This could mean one of two things: either he will go for some sort of timing push with Ottoman Hussars or British Redcoats, or he is going for some sort of greedy play with early Ottoman villagers or French allies. You should be able to figure out which he is going for based on the location of his wonder.
• If you're playing against Umeu: click on his Consulate and check if it's an "Advanced Consulate." If it is an Advanced Consulate, that means he sent Good Faith Agreements and will be doing some sort of French consulate build, which will most likely mean a slower build.
• His villager distribution can also give you an idea of what he's doing. If he has lots of vills on food/coin when he's close to aging that means he's going to be training military units of some sort after aging.

Standard Age Time: ~4:40 - 5:10
1) He Has a Forward Agra.
• Does he have a consulate? If not, you're probably facing a 12 Sepoy rush--or something similar.
• If he does have a consulate, try to scout it ~50 seconds after he's aged up. Look at what civilization he's allied with: British is for sure a Redcoat/Sepoy timing. Ottoman could be a timing with Hussar, or he could just be booming. French is almost certainly just booming. Portuguese allies is a show of dominance and you should be offended.

2) He Has a Defensive Agra.
• Could be doing any number of things. Check for the consulate all the same. At the very least you will know that you have an extra 15-20 seconds of safety if he tries to do something aggressive because of the walking time.

3) He Has a Karni Mata.
• Scout for his military building.
• He's probably FFing or Semi-FFing.

4) He Has Neither Agra nor Karni
• Resign, he's better than you.[/spoiler]

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Iroquois

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• (RE Patch) He will build a TP.
• (ESOC Patch) If there's an extra food crate, Iroquois will most likely age a villager early, placing him on the earlier side of their optimal age up times. If there's a wood crate, keep an eye out for an early TP--that can open the door for a fast age to Colonial and potentially very aggressive play, at least more easily than without a TP.

Transition to Colonial:
• Scout his base and see whether he's gathering a lot of gold or not. Iroquois can't spend gold on anything except an age up or market upgrades. Sometimes they will chop additional coin so they can convert their early coin treasures into wood . You can actually check if they are doing this by checking your market and seeing if they have traded for wood . If they haven't traded for wood then the coin was most likely invested into wood upgrades from the market or they plan on FFing.

Standard Age Time (RE Patch): ~3:30 (fast age) or 4:30 (slow age)
Standard Age Time (ESOC Patch): ~3:05 - 3:30 (fast age) or 4:05 - 4:30 (slow age)

1) He Aged Fast
• Prepare your ass for 4 Kanya, and check for where he places his military building.

2) He Aged Slow
• Look for where he places the military building, and whether it's a Stable or a Warhut.
• If he placed the military building at home, check if he's gathering gold for an age up.
• Don't worry about his first shipment too much. You will know if he sends a unit shipment, and if he doesn't then it's most likely 5v or 600w.[/spoiler]

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Japan

[spoiler=Click Me]Just check his deck. Seriously. Check it all the time and you should always know what he is doing. This is the #1 rule against Japan.

Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for CM and his other age 1 options.
• He has to send Heavenly Kami, 2v, 3 Boats, or 300w. Heavenly Kami obviously means slower boom style, 2v, 3 Boats, or 300w means he will age at a reasonable time, maybe even early.
• If you get the chance you can check his base for a consulate as well. Japan will most likely always have a consulate on a wood start, but on a non-wood start they will have had to chop 107 - 125 wood to construct a Shrine if they want an early consulate. If they do this they will most likely age pretty slowly.

Transition to Colonial:
• Which wonder is he aging with? Torii Gates means he'll be pretty aggressive if he sees a forward base from you. He can still play greedy if you don't forward base, but it will be weaker than Toshogu. Toshogu Shrine is a bit more versatile, and can mean any number of things.
• Check his Consulate ally when he's close to aging or shortly after he's aged up. Watch out for Japanese Consulate: could indicate a Club rush.
• If you have any early units, like pets or scouts, scout out the hunts and camp them to deny Shrines.


Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:30 - 5:30
• Just check his deck and you will be able to estimate how many units he will have. 600w/4v is pretty slow, 5 Ashi or 5 Yumi means he will have units early (duh), 600c is either Nagi or FF--try to find his military building if you see 600c being sent. If you don't see any of these cards being sent then it's possible he's sending the Daimyo or Diplomatic Intrigue (300 export).
• Constantly check that deck. It is easy to know what they are doing because of this deck trick, but don't get complacent. Japan often reaches Colonial with 2 shipments available, and they can try to trick you by queueing up something like 600w and then 5 Ashi, with the intention to cancel 5 Ashi once the 600w arrives and send something else instead. I've never actually played against anyone who's done this, but Japan players really should be doing this type of thing every single game if they can.
• Try to keep a scouting unit alive for later if you can. Especially if you see a 600c shipment coming you will want to use that scout to check for a Stable or a Fortress Age wonder.

Fortress Age
• If Japan reaches Fortress before 11-12 minutes, they will usually have to send Cherry Orchards pretty soon thereafter. Checking the deck for this can tell you when you may have a timing. You can also see how effective any pressure you might be applying is if they aren't sending orchards yet and it's getting close to when they should be running out.[/spoiler]


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Ottomans

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for water cards.
• Ottos have a pretty consistent age 1. You already know that he is going to build a Trading Post, so you can use this information to either find and kill his explorer or to get free treasures. I guess the main thing to look out for here is if he doesn't build a TP--in which case he is most likely on water already.

Transition to Colonial:
• Not much to look for here either. Look for forward villagers, and keep an eye on the number of Trading Posts he builds throughout the game. You can also look for which TPs he's building and find that explorer, or position your own explorer near his base so you can scout his age up politician and first shipment when he hits age 2.

Standard Age Time: ~3:40 - 4:00
1) Try to scout his age up politician if you can.
• The Governor (200c + Outpost) means he's going to be sending 700c first and aging, try to follow the Outpost and find out where he places it. Keep in mind that Ottomans will almost always place it aggressively, unless he expects you to rush it down or plans to Fast Industrial.
• The Quartermaster (400w) means he has a lot more options. He is likely staying age 2, but can still FF--if he does FF he most likely won't forward base without a tower.

2) Is he still gathering wood?

• Once they're in Colonial there's not really any good reason for Ottomans to continue chopping wood , unless he's going for water or a really hard boom with TPs + villager shipment or something strange like that. Or perhaps a native rush? Make sure you're checking the score for Native TPs.

3) How many houses does he have?
• Ottomans have a pretty low villager population early on. They only need 1 House for a long time if they intend to Fast Fortress. More Houses this early on most likely means that he's training units somewhere, or else he could be on water.

4) How many TPs does he have?
• Zero: He's on water, or perhaps doing some weird cheese? Unless you're on a non-TP map there's no reason why Otto should not have a TP, so be prepared for random shenanigans.
• One: He could be planning something very aggressive. Most Ottoman players will like to have at least a 2nd TP up already or will be mixing it in with their 400w politician. One TP means that he's saved the wood for something else, like a second military building. The first shipment is important to scout in this situation.
• Two or more: He's almost certainly going for stagecoach and will most likely need to send 700w as his first shipment. He can still FF with 700c as his first shipment, but he will have had to have aged with the Governor to pull this off without idle time most likely.

5) What is his first shipment?
• 700c: There are 2 things to recognize here. Either he is FFing or he has 2 military buildings and he's rushing you: double check how many Houses he has. If he is FFing he will only have 1 House, if he is making units he will have more than 1. Keep in mind that it is possible that he can construct Houses at his forward base to prevent you from scouting it, but most players will not do this.
• 700w: He's staying Colonial, and most likely has a forward base somewhere.
• 700f: You're getting dual rax Jan rushed, or maybe Jan/Huss.
• Military units: You're getting hard rushed.[/spoiler]

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Portugal

[spoiler=Click Me]It's worth mentioning that Portugal really likes the Colonial Militia card, and because they have so many Town Centers it ends up being pretty cost effective, almost regardless of what stage of the game it is. This is something you can easily scout without even forcing villagers to garrison. Simply click on the Town Center and check it's "Anti-Ship Attack"--CM will improve the Anti-Ship Attack from 75 to 112, so you can tell by looking at this number whether he has already sent CM or not. This is pretty much always something you should be on the look-out for against Portugal.

Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for ATP, CM, and water cards to give you an idea of what kind of options he has available. Also note how many Colonial or Industrial age shipment he has available to him.
• If you are playing against Breezebrothers, also check for the age 1 explorer card because the dog is annoying :)
• If it's a wood start watch for him to construct a TP. If he does, he will be aging on the slower end of things because Portugal don't have any age 1 shipments that will compensate for the extra 100w he has to gather for his House. Keep in mind he could still 10/10 though, and if you suspect your opponent might do this consider scouting his base for a House--clicking on the trees closest to his TC can be a good way to see if he's chopped wood for a House without actually needing to search his entire base.

Transition to Colonial:
• Did he send ATP? Watch for villagers walking to TPs, click on his TP foundations to see if it has 2500hp or 3750hp, etc.
• Check the coast for a dock if it's a water map and he has water cards.
• Consider positioning your explorer so that when he hits Colonial you can follow his Town Center wagon.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~3:50 - 4:30
1) Did he age with 400w or 500f?
• 500f means he's FFing pretty fast.
• 400w means he can still FF, but most likely he will semi.

2) Where did he place his 2nd TC?
• As long as the TC is not forward you most likely don't need to worry about getting rushed.
• If it IS forward, he has the potential to try to rush you, but it is not necessarily the case.

3) How many houses does he have?
• Portugal will only build more than 1 House if they are making units in Colonial, or water booming, the 2nd TC will give them enough population to FF comfortably otherwise.

4) What resources is he gathering?
• wood means that he is on water, unless he's Xbow/Pike rushing, but who even does that nowadays? You can likely tell which he is doing just by checking his deck to see if he has water cards or not.[/spoiler]

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Russia

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for water cards. Be wary of Suvorov Reforms when playing vs an Aizamk fanboy.
• Not much else to watch for here.

Transition to Colonial:
• Look for forward villagers, other than this there's not much to look for--except maybe a dock.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:10 - 4:40
• Find dat Blockhouse

1) Watch how many TPs he has.
• Most Russian players will do some combination of the 3 unit shipments (5 Cossack, 4 Cossack, and 13 Strelets), with 700w mixed in somewhere--and that 700w will often be used to add in Trading Posts. This means that he will have less military units during this time.[/spoiler]


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Sioux

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• You actually probably just want to avoid scouting Sioux in age 1 or interacting with them at all. Sioux is very strong in age 1, and losing your scout would hurt you a lot. They are pretty hard to scout for this reason, and you have to make a lot of assumptions about what they're doing based on other information.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:10 - 4:30
• Scout his base if you can. Pay attention to his villager distribution after he ages, and whether or not he has any military buildings in his base. If he has villagers on wood and you don't see a military building, he could have a forward Warhut. Otherwise, assume that you either missed the Stable or he's aging.

2) Pay attention to how many units he has on the field.
• Usually you can guess what Sioux is doing based on how many units they have. They will normally do some kind of semi-FF with Axe Riders or Bow Riders, and they'll want to do something like this:

5v (4v on RE patch) 700w 700c
- He will have 10-15 units raiding--you can also tell if he sends 700w if you see that he has more than 2 TPs. It's also reasonable to assume that he might have a forward Warhut if you can deduce that he sent 700w.

or

5v 700c
- He will have 5-7 units raiding--you probably won't realize if he's doing this build until he's almost aged. However, he might not have resources for a Warhut or to upgrade his units when he hits Fortress for a while.



1) He aged earlier than this
• He probably fast aged, in which case you could be facing an early 4 Axe Rider shipment, potentially with a few Bow Riders to back it up. It will be difficult for him to age up safely without the fast age up politician, so keep that in the back of your mind.

In general though, Sioux is probably the most difficult civ to truly scout what they are doing. They don't need a lot of buildings and most of the time they will be gathering food/coin pretty much regardless of what their plan is. They also have very fast units, making it very easy for them to shut down any scouts you may reveal. And to top it all off, you normally can't afford to make cavalry against Sioux because they have access to Bow Riders, meaning that your units will likely be locked in your base for much of the early game, denying you even more information.[/spoiler]

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Spain

[spoiler=Click Me]Discovery Age:
• Check his deck for ATP, CM, or water cards.
• Specifically on a wood start where you do not receive an additional food crate either, watch if he makes a TP. This will likely mean he has to do a 16 villager age up instead of a 15 villager age up, slowing down both his Colonial and Fortress age times by ~25-30 seconds.

Transition to Colonial:
• Watch for additional TPs, and possibly villagers heading out onto the map to construct TPs.
• Consider positioning your explorer outside of his base around 4:00 so you can scout his age up politician.

Standard Colonial Age Time: ~4:10 - 4:30
1) Did he age up with the Philosopher Prince (500f) or the Governor (200c + Outpost)?
• 500f means that it's possible he will be staying age 2 for a while. One of the main reasons to age up with this politician is to get the stagecoach upgrade pretty easily upon age up, or to produce hussars.
• 200c + Outpost is most likely an FF of some sort. Try to follow the Outpost.

2) What's his first shipment?
• 700w or 5v = Colonial play
• 700c = FF
• 8 Pike = Wtf

3) How many houses does he have?
• Spain will only have 1 House if they are going for an FF. If they have more, you know for sure that they are going to be training units in Colonial.[/spoiler]

That should cover the early game for most civilizations in a wide variety of situations--not all them, grant you, but I don't think it's possible for me to cover every single option for every single civilization.

So what about later in the game, when build orders are no longer relevant? What do you look for then?

Because infinite sources of resources like mills and plantations are very costly and gather very slowly, the later stages of AoE3 generally revolve around how many natural resources remain on the map, and so most of the information you want after the early game will also revolve around the state of the natural resources. Knowing where your opponent is currently gathering and where he will likely go next can be a good way to develop a plan to continue the game. So make sure you are constantly checking the natural resources for your opponents villagers, and use that information to decide how best to use your army! Also keep in mind you can always check hunts in the fog of war, without actually sending a unit to scout.

If you ever end up getting past the point in the game where natural resources no longer matter and you've both transitioned to mills and plantations, there's no much left to try to scout, and your opponent will likely start walling themself in anyway, denying you any information. The only things you could really look for here is the location of military bases and wherever the opponent's economy is centralized.

Hopefully this is helpful to some of you, good luck in your games!
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United States of America Cometk
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Cometk »

pin it baby
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Turkey iamturk
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

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Post by iamturk »

Balloon best scouting unit i show that many times on my stream.

@Mitoe Thank you very much for your efford. :flowers:
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

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Post by Aizamk »

I usually right click on the black part of the minimap
oranges.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Hazza54321 »

Aizamk wrote:I usually right click on the black part of the minimap

Do u shift click ?
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Aizamk »

Hazza54321 wrote:
Aizamk wrote:I usually right click on the black part of the minimap

Do u shift click ?

yes it very helpful
oranges.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by aligator92 »

tldr just take my like
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Mitoe »

It is now completerifico.

If anyone thinks I need to add something let me know!
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Warno »

Wow, amazing post @Mitoe. Thanks
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by deleted_user »

I can't wait to keep blaming RNG for consistently losing age 1.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by [Armag] diarouga »

The 5/4/13 isn't the only option with Russia tbh. The timings based on 700w/700c are quite strong, even spice trade/700w is decent.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Mitoe »

Yeah, I should probably mention that it's pretty significant if they don't send 5 cossacks first--other than that though I don't know that the other information changes things all that much.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by [Armag] diarouga »

Well, he could be water booming which is an important thing to know. Other than that, all the timings are about the same, that's true.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by AndiAOE »

Hello Mitoe.
Great "basic" Guide to scouting. I think the Strategies you talk about are a bit more advanced than basics, obviously a great read. Will you update this Guide for DE?
I did a more "basic" guide to scouting and linked to this guide for more details, the target group for my guide is players who are just getting started with the game.
Thanks for the work you put into this and i hope you can do an upgrade for DE :)
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Don Nameless »

When will this guide be updated for DE? It seems that this guide belongs to a different game. I think it's one of the best guides in the forum like that of Diarouga guide "A Basic Guide to Strategy".
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by minimoult21 »

I couldn't find the part where you lose your nat scout to treasure guardians. When did this become meta? @Mitoe
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Kaiserklein »

Don Nameless wrote: ↑
19 May 2023, 10:27
When will this guide be updated for DE? It seems that this guide belongs to a different game. I think it's one of the best guides in the forum like that of Diarouga guide "A Basic Guide to Strategy".
Imagine adapting all existing guides to the huge amount of BS that DE introduced. Sounds like a waste of time
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Italy Don Nameless
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Don Nameless »

Kaiserklein wrote: ↑
19 May 2023, 13:16
Don Nameless wrote: ↑
19 May 2023, 10:27
When will this guide be updated for DE? It seems that this guide belongs to a different game. I think it's one of the best guides in the forum like that of Diarouga guide "A Basic Guide to Strategy".
Imagine adapting all existing guides to the huge amount of BS that DE introduced. Sounds like a waste of time
I imagine, just to understand the new civilizations it's taking me a long time and I often forget how to play another one because there are so many match ups to remember, to write such a guide for De it will be very complex, let's hope someone has the desire and such knowledge.
I think it's a waste of time just playing a complex asymmetric game with 22 civilizations and new mechanics/units/variants and moba abilities :lol:
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Mitoe »

Don Nameless wrote: ↑
19 May 2023, 10:27
When will this guide be updated for DE? It seems that this guide belongs to a different game. I think it's one of the best guides in the forum like that of Diarouga guide "A Basic Guide to Strategy".
I would like to update it, but I don't have enough game knowledge about the meta build orders for many of the new civilizations (and even some of the old ones).

I won't say it's impossible, but it would be a larger undertaking than it was originally considering my inactivity.
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Re: A Basic Guide to Scouting

Post by Kaiserklein »

Don Nameless wrote: ↑
19 May 2023, 13:57
I think it's a waste of time just playing a complex asymmetric game with 22 civilizations and new mechanics/units/variants and moba abilities :lol:
Yeah pretty much this, plus stupid maps and nats. And once if you've sort of learned it they just revamp a civ next patch or something haha. It's like a full time job, but you don't get paid, just frustrated instead
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