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The Mayan Flush
With the release of the Age of Empires 2: The
Conquerors Expansion, Feudal rushing in rated zone
has become even more popular than before. The new
American civilizations were each given definite
dark and feudal age bonuses, ranging from
economic, military and of course the Eagle
Warrior. When playing 1vs1 it has been proven time
and time again, that taking the conflict to your
enemy as early as possible is definitely the best
solution, and the "Flush" or "Frush" is the most
common way of doing so. Here is a bit of a guide
to help you get the upper hand over your enemy.
Mayan Bonuses:
Lets analyse the Mayan bonuses and see how it
affects their feudal age, both on an economic and
military scale.
Civilization Bonus:
1. Start with 4 villagers but -50 food.
2. Resources last 20% longer.
3. Archers cost -10% Feudal, -20% Castle and -30% Imperial Age.
4. Starts with eagle warrior!
Team Bonus:
5. Walls cost half- price.
1. Many people believe this bonus to be
ineffective, since starting out housed it means
changing the normal start-up procedure of HCCCC to
H (move mouse and click loom) CCC. However,
getting a free 20 - 25 seconds (depending on how
quick you can click that loom compared to somebody
pressing HC) is definitely a big bonus when feudal
attacking, allowing you either an extra villager
before you reach feudal age, or a 20 - 25 second
quicker feudal time.
2. Longer lasting resources benefit the Mayan in
several ways, all of which contribute to a faster
Feudal Age time. For example, combining the "free
loom" time with the longer lasting sheep, it makes
sense to lure your boar after only the first 4
sheep and store your spare sheep by your berry
pickers (that way they are far enough from the TC
not to cause any sleep walking butchers). Keeping
in mind that resources last longer, you now get
about 50 more FAST food out of every boar than
other civilizations, meaning that IF you have to
farm you can do so much later, or in this case,
your dark age build-up is much less intensive
compared to that of china since you don't have to
lure 2 boars simultaneously.
3. Cheap Archers! In Feudal age, a Mayan flusher
only pays 22 wood and 40 gold for every archer,
compared to the 25 wood and 45 gold that "normal"
civilizations pay. The real saving here is GOLD,
because you now need 1 less villager on gold to
keep up a steady production of archers. This
almost means that Mayan's get 2 villagers free.
:-)
4. You may wonder why I list the Eagle warrior as
a "civilization bonus", but that is because it
most definitely is one, especially for feudal
rushing. The Eagle warrior's increased LOS makes
scouting your home base for natural resources
easier and quicker, leaving you enough time to
scout the enemy base and surrounding area so you
can strike at the most important resources first
up.
5. Why would anybody want, and more importantly,
USE cheaper walls? Well in AoKTC, walling will
soon be highly popular once more, mainly because
of the new raiding units introduced to the game
(Cavalry Archer, Eagle Warrior and Hussar). The
best protection you can have is, and always will
be, preventing the enemy access to your economy.
Thus walling yourself in dark and feudal age is a
much higher priority than it was in AoK. This is
also partly due to the new random map types that
are becoming popular, like Yucatan, Mongolia and
Scandinavia where walling is "mostly" easier than
on Arabia.
Walls can also be quite effectively used to
protect the base of an offensive (or defensive)
tower. Providing defense from villagers, men at
arms and later on in castle age from siege
weapons. Usually the cost of a strong wall system
made a Castle look like a much better defense option.
Compared to paying 300 stone as you
normally would or 650 stone for only a partial
spot. Overall this team bonus has been overlooked
and underused, and I hope this article changes
that. :-)
Principles of Feudal Rushing:
Feudal Rushing, hated by many, implemented by even
more, and mastered by but a few. Why is flushing
so popular? As explained earlier, the one who
initiates conflict usually has an advantage over
the victim. The flush counts on finding your enemy
with his pants down, and then hitting him as hard
as you can. An obvious requirement for a feudal
rush would be getting to feudal age quickly, and
effectively scouting the enemy surroundings,
identifying key resources and choke points.
Another requirement is an economy that is able to
support your attack, and also an attack that
effectively denies those scouted resources. These
are in order of priority: stone, wood, gold and
food.
When defending a flush your 2 most important
assets would be stone, and the ability to build
defensive towers. As a flusher you want to prevent
your enemy making use of these abilities as early
as possible. Thus your very first target would be
to eliminate both his stone mines very quickly,
ensuring your enemy only has access to one tower
when he hits feudal age. Your secondary object
will be to deny your enemy of wood, which he will
use to build farms, a barracks, archery ranges,
blacksmith and market, produce skirmishers to
counter your archers, and also sell for gold to
make men at arms or archers and stone so he can
build more towers. As you can see wood is a very
important resource, so you need to scout out all
of the nearby forests for an enemy lumber camp.
Sending groups of 4+ archers to guard all these
forests is a good idea, but only feasible much
later in your attack when you can afford that many
units.
Usually your enemy will by now have advanced to
feudal age, and proceeded to tower up his goldpit.
You still need to deny him of gold, so scout all 3
of his gold patches aggressively, making sure you
know exactly where he is mining and what defenses
he has. Remember that even 2 defensive towers are
not enough to completely protect any resource, so
you should be able to find an angle where an
offensive tower of your own will cover his gold
patch. Always bring archers with your tower
builders, because if your enemy has any experience
he will do his utmost to prevent that tower going
up, even storm it with villagers.
Once you covered all of his key resources (stone,
then wood, then gold) you can tower his Town
Center by building a tower (so that 2 farms can
fit between the TC and your tower) 7 tiles away
from his Town Center. This will cover at least 3
of his farms and also provide you with an idea of
where he is sending new villagers. Create a
perimeter wall around the enemy base with houses,
archery ranges, towers and any other building you
make, so that you will notice the vector of any
escaping villagers. Follow these up immediately
with a scout and some archers and prevent him from
setting up a fortified outpost.
By cutting of your opponent's resources you
prevent him from setting up a defence, and also,
if/when he advances to castle age he will not have
the wood to make siege weapons, or the gold to
make knights/eagle warriors to mount a counter
attack. So even if your opponent reaches castle
age several minutes before you, he will still be
unable to do anything about the siege on his town.
Feudal rushing is actually a strategy developed to
counter fast castle rushes. It's actually quite a
specialist strategy and only successful because so
many people try to go to castle age without
setting up any defense. Several flush counter
strategies have been developed, and among the most
effective are specially designed to counter a
flush, and have no other real purpose. These
strategies are rare however, mainly because they
are weak when faced with a quick castle, which is
still a common enough strategy today.
There are many civilisations in AoKTC that have
bonuses making them excellent flush civilisations,
but Mayans rise above with each and every one of
their bonuses strengthening their feudal age
attack. Britons, Chinese, Aztecs, Mongols, Huns,
Koreans, Japanese, Vikings and even Celts can be
effective flush civilisations depending on the
specific flush you use. For fast flushes use
Britons, Chinese, Mongols and Mayans, or for a
stronger economy that equates into a stronger but
slower attack, civilisations like Aztecs, Huns,
Koreans, Japanese and Vikings do a better job. It
is possible to launch a feudal offensive with any
civilisation, but the easiest flushers would
definitely be a pick among fast and simple
economic civilisations such as Britons, Mongols
and Mayans. Thus, the combination of Mayan's ease
of use and powerful dark and feudal age bonuses
makes them the king of the flush.
So how do I flush with Mayans?
Here is my economic buildup for a Mayan flush.
Keep in mind that there are other possibilities,
I build a total of 20 villagers in dark age, that is
16 new villagers plus loom, which gives me (17 x
25s) + 130s [time to reach feudal age] = 555s =
09:15. Because Mayans require you to loom first up
you lose about a total of 10 seconds due to game
startup lag compared to 5 - 7 for other
civilisations but this balances out later. When
playing on fast (as I did for the example game)
you will lose more time than usual. Once you
regularly feudal between 09:35 and 09:50 your
doing well. Take note that my opponent knew what
was coming, and that he was trying out this very
same guide for the first time (don't use fast for
your first try). He is doing much better now
though. ;-)
Game launches:
6. HCCC and click loom ASAP. (WHAT? You can't do
that your HOUSED! Actually you can, because by the
time your instructions fought through the lag and
the TC is actually creating a villager, you've
already clicked the loom button. Loom takes
priority over any other current build instruction
and suddenly starts right after you get the little
"you need more houses" message. Take note that on
low latency connections like DSL and higher this
might not be such a good idea, as the villager
creation might start before you can drag your
mouse over to the loom button.)
7. Assign 2 villagers to build a house, and
explore in different directions with the remaining
2. Explore with the eagle warrior in a growing
spiral around your TC. Never let your eagle go
idle, when flushing it needs to spend every
breathing moment on scouting. Once you found
sheep, send all exploring and idle villagers back
to the TC and start on the sheep. When your house
builders are done have them join the other
butchers.
8. So Villager 1 - 6 goes onto sheep, and now
Villager #7 build a house near berries. Villager 8
builds a mill next to the berries and the house
builder joins him to complete the mill. Villagers
9 and 10 also go onto berries.
9. By now you should have found your boars and you
can also see if they are within one screen
distance from your TC or whether they are further.
With Mayans you must send out a villager to lure
the boar a little later than you would with normal
civilisations, so Villager 11 goes onto straggler
trees. (Note that if the boar is very far from
your TC it will be a better idea to send Villager
11 as the lurer and put Villager 12 on wood).
0. Villager 12 lures your first boar. Since you
already researched loom don't pause your villager
creation here.
11. Villager 13 - 15 also cuts straggler trees
around your TC. You should now have 7 hunters, 4
berry gatherers and 4 woodcutters totaling 15
villagers including loom.
12. Villager 16 lures the 2nd boar. Once again
experience will teach you exactly when to lure to
get the perfect result.
13. Villager 17 builds a house and Villager 18
builds a lumber camp. (Send all your wood
villagers to complete the lumber camp, since it is
your 2nd Dark age building required to upgrade to
Feudal Age. Needless to say, it is imperative that
you complete it before you complete your 20th
villager, otherwise you will waste unnecessary
time before you can click the Feudal upgrade)
14. Villager 20 builds a mining camp by stone.
(Even though you won't have enough wood for it
now, you will by the time it arrives at your stone
mine).
15. Have your boar and berry villagers drop all
their food at the TC and Mill and Click the Feudal
Upgrade! Now some intensive micro management is
required.
Do the following from top to bottom:
Take 5 hunters from your boar (make sure they
are all on 100% health) . Send 4 of them as
forward builders towards enemy stone patch, and
send the remaining one to join your other stone
miner.
Have all 4 berry gatherers join your woodcutting
team. (Note that if your berries are closer to
the enemy stone mines than your TC you should
send your 4 berry villagers as forwards and have
the boar villagers fill their place in the
woodcutting team).
Make sure you found BOTH enemy stone mines! and
if you already found them scout his lumber camp
and all of his gold patches (usually 3).
When your forward villagers arrive at the enemy
stone mine, build a barracks next to it (you
should just have enough wood to build one as you
arrive).
16. The moment you hit feudal age start building a
tower covering your enemy's other stone patch. If
your barracks is completed you can make a spearmen
to help defend the builders. This is a critical
moment, since you need to get this tower up no
matter what. Use your eagle warrior to scout the
surrounding area and defend your builders if
necessary.
17. Queue new villagers at your TC, and allocate
them so that you end up with 4 on stone, 6 on gold
and 8 on sheep/berries. The rest goes onto wood or
new farms depending on what resources you have. Do
not spend any wood until you have 2 towers and an
archery range started.
18. Once you've completed the first tower, start a
2nd one covering the stone patch, but if at all
possible covering some other resource as well
(preferably the 1st stone patch. Although a
barracks will scare off 90% of players, some will
be smart enough to palisade wall it, put a tower
up and mine the stone anyway).
19. As soon as you can afford it, build an archery
range under the cover of your 2 towers. Once the
archery is started, move 4 villagers from your
lumber camp to a nearby gold mine and build a
mining camp. Go up to 6 villagers on gold ASAP
since you will be massing archers very soon.
(Check that you have enough housing space left and
make additional houses as you have the wood. The
only reason you need to get 2 towers up so quickly
is that they can cover each other's bases. This
way you can garrison units inside them and
probably kill about 5+ villagers before he can
take a tower down, which is more than a fair trade
for you).
20. Your third tower should cover his current wood
pit, and you will now be able to build towers in
more daring locations since your backup archer
force will be continually growing. Build a 2nd
archery range as soon as you have the wood, and
continue building archers non-stop. If he counters
with skirmishers, move to skirmisher production
yourself and save your archers by garrisoning them
inside towers or retreating them slightly from the
action.
21. Keep on massing archers, and building new
towers. Set up a perimeter of buildings around his
base, consisting of houses, towers, archery
ranges, smith, barracks and anything else you
build. Keep scouting the surrounding area for a
hidden stone/gold patch and make sure that he
isn't using one of your own patches. Also keep a
constant lookout for a new lumber camp.
22. As soon as you have a steady supply of stone
and gold coming in, get the farming upgrade and
start farming. Your berries will run out very
shortly and you will need extra wood to support a
large farming economy.
23. From here onwards you should play it as it
comes, denying the enemy stone at all times, and
eventually upgrading to Castle Age. Once you hit
Castle Age, use 2 - 3 Mangonels to destroy the
enemy Town Center, and use rams garrisoned with
eagles or swordsmen to take out towers. Beware of
knights if your enemy is anything but Mayans or
Aztecs and post 3 spearmen by each of your towers
when he hits Castle Age.
The finer points of feudal attacking are explained
in more general terms in the previous paragraph,
and should be applied to the game wherever
possible.
Conclusion
Ok, so now you are ready to go out there and start
some early combat! Feudal rushing is a whole lot
of fun and can be a nice change of pace in your
game. Keep in mind though that practicing a build
order is one thing, but pulling of a succesful
flush is something totally different. Practice
makes perfect, and even then you will have bad
games. Remember, surprise is your greatest
advantage, so don't lose it by forcing your
opponent to play the Arabia map. Mongolia, Ghost
Lake and other maps offer equally good frushing
opportunities and this same build order will work
for them.
Have fun, and remember, due to the highly
specialised nature of this build order, losing a
villager to a boar, not finding both boars, or a
forest a long way from your TC will all have a
severely negative impact on the result. This is
basically how it "should" go, but we all know that
there is always something wrong with a random map.
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