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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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