The Opening
This is the baseline start that will get you an idle-less 16 villager age up with a TP and no treasures taken.
- Drag-box 3 villagers to a
crate. On most spawns, the bottom 3 villagers are closest. - Drag-box the other 3 villagers and have them start hunting. Pop them through the TC if the starting hunt is on the other side.
- Send the monk towards the TP you want to build and the disciple scouting in a similar direction.
- 5 seconds after the villagers start working, the first crate is gathered, so queue a villager.
- When the second crate is gathered the villagers will automatically split up and go to 1
crate each. Shift-click each of them to their crate and then a nearby tree so they won't go idle when their crate runs out. If the trees are on the other side of the TC, shift-click into the TC instead and make sure you waypoint the tree and release them right away. - Villager #7 goes to wood, after that all further villagers go to food. You can afford to use a few villager seconds for herding with villagers and still don't get idle TC, but you shouldn't walk too far before you have 5 on .
- Place a TP as soon as you get 200 (for most builds).
- Place a village behind your TC with a single villager at 190 , then put everyone on . If your village is late (10th villager already started), build it with 2 villagers. If it's really late (10th villager more than 1/4 done), build with 3. Each of these additional villagers costs you ~10 in lost gather time so only do this when necessary.
- Eat your goat if you have less than 550 when your 15th villager comes out.
- Start your age 2 wonder with 1 villager to prevent bumping, then add 3 more villagers to it.
- If there's a <= 50 treasure in base or near your TP, put villager #7 straight to food since you'll need less wood.
- If there's a >= 80 treasure that you're confident won't be contested by the enemy, take it after the TP and only chop the difference with 1 villager. You'll age up at 15 villagers, but if this treasure gets stolen you're screwed so only do this when you're sure it's safe.
- Good livestock or food treasures can also allow you to age up at 15 villagers.
- Keep your monk and disciple close so they can take treasures together. Their LOS should not overlap so you can maximize scouting, but they should be able to join up quickly.
- While building a TP, use the disciple to scout around it for useful treasures nearby, especially and .
- The disciple can solo small guardians like wolves or coyotes when they're stunned. If you see a small treasure like that in base or on your way to the TP, consider throwing a quick stun, let the disciple finish the guardian, then pick it up with a villager or the monk after building the TP.
- Make disciples if you see tough but strong treasures. There is a 225 for 3 outlaw riflemen that you can take with reasonable HP loss by making 2 extra disciples for a cool 65 profit and the 2 disciples paid for. Making one disciple can also be good if there are multiple 3 wolf food treasures. Usually you'll start building up a food surplus around 10 villagers to afford this.
- You can use the stun trigger to kite guardians. Click a guardian with the stun ability, watch the animation start (the monk raises his hand), then click away from the treasure. The stun won't fire but the guardians will chase you. Take them to the edge of their radius, then stun one right there. Wait for the others to start their run back, then take out the stunned guardian. This is great for treasures with 3 tough melee guardians, like 3 tigers 150
or 3 orang-utan 145 . It can also be good if you want to save HP against 2 guardians, but it takes longer and the risk of a steal is greater. - The stun ability does 30 damage at a range comparable to a musketeer. You can use this to steal treasures by positioning yourself next to the treasure but away from the guardian when the enemy explorer is fighting it. Wait until the guardian's HP are low, then kill it at range with the stun and pick up the treasure.
All FF builds should gather 380
in age 2 to afford one set of minutemen in case of pressure. The FF builds start gathering once the age 2 wonder is placed, the colonial build starts gathering instead. Use 4 villagers on the wonder going to age 2, and 8 going to age 3.- Economic FF: Ship 700 700 in age 2, age up to fortress with the Porcelain Tower.
- Defensive FF: Ship 700 700 in age 2, age up to fortress with the Confucian Academy.
- Aggressive FF: Ship 700 700 in age 2, age up to fortress with the Confucian Academy. Send 2 villagers forward to build a village and war academy in transition. Push when the first war academy batch and the first age 3 shipment come in.
- Colonial: Usually villagers on during transition and opening with a unit shipment, which one depends on what you're facing. Can be defensive or aggressive with a forward village.
- FI: Same as the economic FF, then follow up with 1000 in fortress and age up with Confucian Academy to industrial. Alternatively, go with Porcelain Tower to age 1 and then Summer Palace to age 2 for a slightly slower age 3 but faster age 4.
With no market upgrades, each of the commonly used banner armies requires this many villagers to continuously produce. Additionally, you'll need 5 villagers on hunts for villager production, and 5 or 6 on wood if you don't have the Porcelain Tower or stagecoach.
- Old Han (bow/pike): 12 , 15 .
- Standard (bow/cav): 12 , 12 .
- Territorial (arquebus/sword): 10 , 13 .
- Imperial (arquebus/cav): 20 , 15 .
- Forbidden (full cav): 20 , 20 .
- Shift-click your wonder villagers so they won't go idle. On the Summer Palace I usually leave the one nearest to the TC alone so he'll gather the crates and shift-click the other 3 to . On the Porcelain Tower, everyone to is often fine, and on the Confucian Academy about half on and half on .
- Don't forget to toggle the Summer Palace and Porcelain Tower once they're built (usually Old Han and , respectively). Toggle the Summer Palace again (usually Territorial) once you hit fortress shortly after the previous army came out.
- When doing an FF with the Confucian Academy, gather 80 in transition so you can get 2 villages, war academy, and consulate from the 700 shipment.
- The first village always goes behind the TC, unless you're better than me and know what you're doing. Even against civs you don't expect to be aggressive. Losing that village to an unexpected rush gets you into major housing trouble. Build your second village in front during age 2 if there's a mine or hunt you want to cover.
- Disciples aren't great units, but they're still worth the cost against archer or skirmisher units or to body block cavalry. The monk in cover mode is an excellent tank at range.
- When going aggressive, make sure you waypoint your Summer Palace, Confucian Academy, and consulate forward in addition to your production buildings.
- Repelling Volley is a great shipment if you're facing heavy infantry or ranged cavalry once you have > 20 Arquebus. Can be as early as the 3rd fortress shipment e.g. against Carolean spam.
For other China players, do you think there's anything else to add to this as general advice? Do you disagree with any of the points I've raised?
, i think with haud i have never be under 6 sec and 7 with spain (for some reason spain crate are more annoying to macro).
