War Selection – How to Have a Great Economy

Ever wondered how the enemy has 40 archers while you only have 5 slingers? Ever wondered how someone can reach Medieval era 10 minutes earlier than you? EVER wondered why you can’t make a good army while playing as Asia in Bronze/Medieval ages? It’s because you don’t understand how the economy and build orders in this game works. In this Guide I will teach you the basics of having the best economy possible from stone age to industrial revolution era and explain each different era and civilizations preferences and short comings in terms of economy.

Economy Guide

All credit goes to Eris pads her chest!

Game Start

Basics of Starting

• Train 1 worker, Queue “Fur shoes” upgrade, queue 30 – 50 workers depending on your starting position and role in the specific match. Rally your main building on a berry bush so your workers start gathering berries as soon as they are out.
• Grab 1 berry worker and Queue up to 4 huts to be built. Continue building huts until you cover the entire pop cap of 70. Approximately 17 huts.
• Use scout to look for additional, better sources of food such as: Fish, Cattle, Deer. Even iron nodes and tree patches as well.
• Have 10 food workers on berries, then switch your rally point to a nearby tree source.
• Get both extra resources upgrades from warehouses after you pass 25-30 workers. In most cases you will have to farm berries even with additional food sources, otherwise only take extra wood.
• Your temple needs to be ready by the time you reach 50 pop. Either use multiple workers to finish it fast, or make one around 40 pop so it finishes by the time you hit 50.
• DO NOT remove your 10 berry workers until you have a functional food farm somewhere else.
• Make a warehouse as close to the new resource as possible. Start taking wood workers and few berry workers at a time to add to this new food resource.
• Every second you are not making a new Worker is a huge loss in the long term. Never hit pop cap without realizing it. Always have a spot for new workers to come out.

For people who play aggressive

• If your intention is to rush, you can go for 30-40 workers and create army with the rest of your pop cap.
• If you intend to rush, it is very important to look for cattle/Mammoth/fish or even Deer for extra food to help you max out your army. Use your early warriors to look for them.
• Mammoths are great food source to early game rushers, make sure to kill any you find and farm it. 1200 food = 20-30 pop worth of food.

And most importantly the tips for both pro and beginner

• Due to terrible pathing and AI in this game, “Fur Shoes” upgrade is mandatory. Your workers are ALWAYS moving so never skip them specially if you are new to the game.
• Remember the benefits of faster gathering on non-berry resources shrink if your workers have to walk more than 5 seconds to drop off and get back to work. Sometimes there is a large batch of fish, but no area to put down a good, close, warehouse. In such an event, opt for a different resource such as Deer or Cattle.
• It is of utmost importance to use your huts from the start of the game to create yourself a wall against the enemy. Just consider your huts a sort of wall and stick them together in a line that protects your main buildings. This will unquestionably save you many games. Make a habit of doing this ASAP.
• Pay attention to the distance your workers have to walk before reaching the resource and the drop off point. It is extremely important your workers aren’t walking for more than 0.5 to 1 second before being able to return to gathering duty. Mitigating this issue by placing “Warehouses” or placing your workers on a better tree line/fishing area/stone node/iron node is sign of an experienced player.
• In the event of wild animals near important resources, take 1 worker and kite the animal away, no need to always kill it. When your workers die, the animals starting position changes to where it last killed something. Meaning the animal won’t reset to it’s initial location anymore.
• On the same topic, you can just kite away Mammoths and Alligators, they never reset, so all you do is take their attention, walk away your 1, single, worker and after the animals are far away from the resource, you circle back your workers through a different route.

Also if a Mammoth is brought to your base, all you need to do is make sure he is interested in only 1 of your workers:

1. Grab your group of workers, and right click them away.
2. Select 1 worker from group and have him take Mammoths attention.
3. Walk your worker away from the Mammoth in a direction you prefer him to be instead.
4. Keep close distance from Mammoth so he won’t lose interest but also can’t attack the worker. this requires some attention so keep clicking or queue movement near the animal by using Shift+Right click.
5. After he is far enough from your resources, circle back your worker through a different route.

So in Short

• Keep making warehouses to reduce worker downtime (Walk time = down time).
• Make Housing/Huts as if you are making a wall.
• Scout for extra food specially.
• Don’t ever get pop capped unless aggressive play styles.