As a result of many differences between AoE and AoK, I've had tremendous success with "stone-walling," here after referred to as "dark-walling". The most obvious means of dark walling is the palisade, the 2-wood cost single tile wall that provides perhaps 60 seconds protection against the attack of a single militia. Houses, however, make an excellent wall with 2x2 tile coverage and 900 hit points, all while providing room for 5 more against the pop limit at a cost of 30 wood. Many maps provide enough natural barriers to allow you to completely house-wall up using the choke points. Consider first, however, that much as in AoE, the purpose of dark-walling is NOT to provide a lasting defense against castle-age (bronze equivalent) armies. Much as in AoE, once AoKs siege is available, the viability of building-based defenses (including towers) is reduced to near nil. Instead, dark-walling is done to provide, at minimum, a warning of attack and, at most, a blocking of intruders. To a great extent, the strategy for dark-walling is map-dependant. In Black Forest maps, for instance, the passes between nations can often be blocked with 3 houses and a single tiled palisade wall filler. Coastal, Baltic and Crater Lake maps also generally have lush forests which create excellent choke-points for dark walling. Other maps that do not have good choke points require a different walling strategy which I'll also detail. A MAJOR change in AoK vs. AoE is the defensive capabilities of the Town Center. Ive done no scientific study, but a garrisoned TC flat out CRUSHES a fuedal rush in seconds. At the first sign of offending militia at near the TC, any exposed villagers can be called to defend the TC providing both full protection for the villagers while created a free weapon to destroy the offensive. Free in that the only cost is the lost production of the garrisoned villagers - there is no required upgrade or need to queue a counter unit. A TC's riange is 6, and of course, for 75 food, you could chose to upgrade the visual range of the TC by 2... So, with defense of the TC-area economy taken care of, the only significant danger that a feudal rush poses is to the distant operations. Generally speaking, wood/gold/stone economies are run at a distance too far from the TC to receive protection. THESE operations are the target of dark-walling when choke-point walling is not viable. Ive found that my entire wood operation can be walled with an average of 6 well-placed houses, and that if gold or stone is nearby I can protect BOTH with 10 or so houses. Tell an AoEer that he could stone-wall both wood and gold while simultaneously protecting food and hed call you Methos. :-) Now, more than 10 houses are not really necessary for about 15 minutes, so the key is to waste as few houses as possible on non-walling locations. Pick a location for wood early and begin placing houses in a semi-circle as though you were placing a round-wall around an epicenter than would be your lumber mill. The first house (I call it the foundation house) should be placed abutting the forest, thereby preventing entry between the house and forest without requiring the use of a palisade wall filler. As you begin to move new villagers to wood duty, continue to build your dark-wall around the operation until there is only a 1 or 2 tile opening closest to your TC. Leave that access point open to allow the addition of more wood cutters until a feudal rush is detected. Should a rush be detected, house or palisade up the hole to provide MINUTES of protection against the rush. Other considerations to take into account when dark-walling a wood/gold/stone operation are: (1) leave enough room to drop a TC in the castle age, thereby providing new additions to the economy on location without required the deletion of a walling house, (2) should an archer arrive with the militia men, having the stone to drop a tower just inside the house-wall is really nice (other wise, a single repairing villagers can keep out perhaps 5 militia all by himself. One other general consideration is that you should work to balance your food income source. Should your farming be interrupted by the need to garrison the TC, having a fishing boat or two (or ten) to provide the resources to reach the castle age is nice too.
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