Personally I think most beginners (depending on your definition but below 1000elo) should avoid them as part of an army to convert knights, this is much more important at higher elo's. Low elo isn't determined by these factors and if you're like me will nearly always loose them because i wasn't watching close enough (not enough APM to manage home eco and do monk micro). obviously you can use them to pick relics. This is also why I don't mass too many mangonels, as they are a big cost and if not looked after properly can loose them all. need to improve on other aspects of the game first me thinks 🙂

Survivalist has a great video all about monks that you might want to check out as well. 40 minutes long and packed with some nice information. Here is the link kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rbadnNhy2dm5YGw.html&ab_channel=Survivalist

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rbadnNhy2dm5YGw.html

I'm 1650 ELO and also rarely use monks actually, I prefer the boom/snowball effect, my APM isn't bad but when I go monks, my macro suffers 😅

Only time i use them is to get relics

Not knowing that not knowing

@@ihmpall to know or not to know, that is to know.

Great list! A rd. 2 video on these timings would be great!

I second that list and maybe would add not securing your eco afte expanding

This is kinda the point of the game. its ever evolving and what you should've done 1 minute ago is now too late to do and now you should instead do something completely different. Also even at the very top play styles vary quiet a bit. Hera loves Hussars, where as MBL loves Pikes, Mangonels, Monks, skirms. Lierrey loves archers and fast Imping with them into Arbs.

Yeah, I think there is a certain level needed. Like when I watch T90 I'm like "damn, T90 is so quick", but I then I watch watch Hera and I'm like "damn T90 is so slow" 11.

as a piano teacher what you call multitasking we generally call coordination/hand independance. The way we multitask playing the bass / chords with left hand and play the harmony / melody with right hand is we play each hand seperatly, very slowly, and gradually increase tempo over a few days as the nervous system builds myelin and stuff to make the neural pathways precise and fast. Once left hand and right hand require no thought to be played, play them together, starting slow, increasing tempo over a few days. It's really logical and simple when you think about it, biggest bararier is actually our own patience. Good pianists have actually felt how fast they make progress by taking it step by step and slow, so they compound progress much faster than those working without method. For AOE multitasking, the way i transpose my piano knowledge is to drill the build orders without touching at my army (drill the macro, the "left hand") and then play some games where i focus on the army and micro (from scouting to raiding to focus firing to formations / patrolling into units etc), in effect drilling the micro, the "right hand". Finally, you can go ahead and play your best game possible in ranked mixing macro and micro. The cheat code to learning aoe might reside in changing game speed, slower to faster, but most people including me probably don't have patience for that. Wait, you didn't think you where just gonna HAVE FUN and PLAY A DAMN GAME ? Hopefully you perceive the learning process closer to play than work. If not, you'll stay stuck in low elo, miss the rush of being good at the game, and eventually quit.

Hi, i play this game since i was 7 yrs old, now i am 25, and i can tell you the most important thing are HOTKEYS, when fighting multiple enemies always bind your armies CTRL + 1 +2 +3 +4 etc.. Always build multiple towncenters when hitting castle age and spam C key, they are as good as a castle almost, and you can keep building villagers constantly

@@tom6069 yeee hotkeys are damn important, and just like piano fingerings most people are lazy about them when they're sooo useful and make playing much easier. Very ironic

What I find the absolute hardest is not idling military, I am very paranoid about leaving my base undefended and afraid to forget my eco while moving around with army

Why didn't Pros select them more in RB Wololo? I'm a fan but I've suspected I've been missing a memo

@@thingsmac Ew is too agressive for Poles. They want time to prepare their base for Folwarking and in EW thats easier to deny which hurts them a lot.

Poles are almost impossible to stop if you reach castle age on an even footing. 60% is ridiculous.

@@thingsmac poles demand defending a bit before its op. Not so simple

@@thingsmac in addition to what others have said, your first Folwark is placed for you in Empire Wars. Some times it's up against another resource or otherwise bad for farming. Not ideal.

Yes, I always have had a problem with this. I’m either way late or just remember out of panic and go up without an actual plan

I'm afftaid there is no universal answer to that its very civ map and situation depedent. As a rule of thump I would say if you are safe at home and maybe wone a big fight or got a good raid on your opponent it is a good idea to focus on economy and get a faster uptime and secure strategic points with castles. But again very civ dependent as Malians (bad endgame) you better keept the pressure up as Mongols it's probably better to get economically ahead and get your strong endgame units out as fast as possible. But I'm a 1200 elo pleb myself so what do I know

Tatoh says in general if you have 70 vills (near 30 mins) you have to decide if go imp (idling military buildings for a while) or keep pushing in Castle age.

@@die1097 that is actually a really useful benchmark

If you don't wanna overthink it, just idle at 80 vils until you can click up and then keep making vils until 100-150 vils

It's also more relaxing than cycling through all the buildings.

sure thing, unless u misplace your gatehr point :D Cycling is the move :D

Disabling auto farm before castle age was a big game changer for me :D

@@krystofcisar469 is difficult if you need wood for other buildings or something. Specially is your under pressure

@@die1097 I like to have it on right after i got to imp - Queue some trebs, get at least heavy plow, add some vills to wood and then not worrying about replacing farms while your armies diing somewhere on the map :D

As around 1000elo this banking is biggest problem. Whole game is fine but as soon as i hit imp its either floating res and not really having time to spend it or having weak eco and buying trebs and upgrades. Hussar uprages costs a lot gold tho.

Good point. Most of the best unique techologies is bascially unaffordadble is you not bank thinking about it...

So expensive, cant remember last time i researched it :D

you can't get capped ram in Castle age, unless you're Cumans

usually from wood. If you followed a proper build order, you should have just enough on food/gold to keep 1 tc + your military production going. On the way to castle age you stock pile a ton of wood, so you can take villagers from wood and use them to build tc, you then add farms to sustain production from these tcs

Most commonly you have 20 and click up to fuedal age. In a long game, you might have at least 80, but maybe around 100-120 vills top.

I was thinking about that. EW duo would be great as well!

I prefer 3v3

@@IndexInvestingWithCole I just love the 2x2 way to play. Archers+knights fighting each is so cool

It's situational, if you spend 1.5k resources making units but your opponent focuses solely on a boom, they can afford an extra tc over you/eco upgrades earlier and snowballs into a 1 or 2 minute faster imp and before you know it, you're fighting arbs and trebs just as you get to imp. That's where the town patrol comes in, you can react quicker and avoid loosing eco :) if your army poses enough threat to them when raiding it can also stop them hitting you or at the very least, further reinforcements.

you can send just 1 unit ahead to check what the enemy is up to, this is what i do xD Preferebly one that has a big LOS, like a scout/ light cav, monk or even a vil to build an outpost. i call them "the messenger" unit. They never come back :( But it helps a lot, especially when the enemy is massing a big army but they're just sitting on their butts.

TC's being on the list was a bit odd. Nothing wrong with going 1 TC if you're going heavy on aggression. 3TC is just a bit safer and in a 1TC v 3TC game 3TC is probably going to win more often. But 1TC play is perfectly viable. That said, if you're dying to siege monk and xbow all the time you probably aren't defending properly. You need to make your own mangos and your own monks and maybe add a knight or two later on. If Opponent is on 3 TC then you should be winning with the defenders advantage. If the opponent is on 1TC behind and you're on 3, and then opponent "drops a castle and boom behind", well you should have at least a 5 minute headstart with the boom, so in that scenario you are miles ahead and should just be winning every time. If you aren't then something else is wrong. As for idling: almost never a good idea. Occasionally a 1 minute idle to age up can be worth it. But almost never. Better to build farms. Better to use the market. As for floating resources: no. Don't do it. Have enough production buildings. Have them in a control group. Then you can requeue them without looking away from the fight. If you're floating wood you have to make more farms. Just practice. Don't float and don't idle.

I´d never go 3 tcs on open map unless i got defensive castle or some army production before. Floating wood is essential to my late game :D rather sell it than be dry whne u need siege units...

I'm around that elo and what I found to work often is to just back off a bit (not throwing away multiple archers just for one vill kill) and getting to castle age ASAP. This opens up multiple options: Early castle you can take fights with upgraded xbows against unupgraded skirms (skirm upgrade takes quite a while, too), but you also have mangonels and knights as an option: knights, even without upgrades, are really good against skirms; you don't need to heavily commit on them. Just evading the skirms and hitting woodines/exposed ressources also works well in any age, because the skirms won't always be in position. And always remember-- a group of xbows is the much more valuable and versatile unit then a bunch of skirms; you are not necessarily "worse" just because his units counter yours ATM.

When you see a bunch of skirms, wall up, go to Castle, 3 TC boom.

You can stay with archers. I would pull back to your base, then get him chasing you and move some archers behind a wood line to harass his villagers. Scouts are going to drain too much food. You should be forcing him to spend food on skirmishers and he will have less to go up to castle. Elite skirmisher is a very expensive upgrade in castle and will further hurt him at a time where knights can clean up the skirms easily. Others have offered great advice. If you are in castle and are taking on skirmishers make sure to get thumb ring.

I play archer civs quite often so if opponent counter hard, usually i jsut pull back and rush for castle age. If he massed enough skirms you should have few minutes faster uptime and thus you can crush skirms with +2 crossbowmen with siege. I mean even elite skirm without +2 armor dies to crossbowman (if u dont let them die ofc :D

exactly my issue! how to play vs raids? how to play if being or feeling outnumbered?

A knight can kill a lots of vils so its good to send one time to time to the enemy base while you are defending also the wont notice because they a too much concentrated in the atack

To be fair Hoang focuses on Town centers, enemy Town centers :)

jokes aside much love hera. still wonder who made that strat popular on ladder ;)