Yep my friend uses this tactic.He is the russians and puts his houses and market like a wall.I'm going to start trying it.

once rushed by someone, who soon sent grenadiers, they destroyed my houses so i was continually rebuilding houses. It isnt nice if they destroy your houses

This is a well- organized, comprehensive guide on house placement. I don't think it could be more complete. However, most of the strategies are already in use by most good players. The only one that I really disagree with is the use of houses for LOS. That's just asking someone to raid your houses, which is terrible for your economy. I wish AOE 3 had outposts, to use for LOS and early warning.

Note--- Houses placed like that give you an early warning, but if you don't have the population room to build more troops to counter the enemy attack because the enemy has razed all of your houses, then it is not worth it.

P.S.- I really like the "House Wall" and "Along the Edge" strategies. Also, I use the haphazard "Around the Area" method more than I should, but I also use the "House Wall".

I know one of my first games my Dutch partner made buildings in the middle of the map to see when the enemy would attack.He placed some markets,churches and livestock pens.

In your TC house wall, the first example of houses, have all those troops move inside the house wall by right-clicking a spot between the houses and the TC. Once the bulk of the troops are there, right-click the TC to burn it down.

In general, this is a better way to siege buildings with a mass of troops. If you just straight up right click the building, the first troops stop at maximum range, forcing the rest to move all over trying to get in range. Just bring the whole block in tight on the target and then pound it down.

I like early warning/LOS for Caribbean. Makes sense, very useful. Assumes you can drive out invaders as soon as you spot them, though.

Quote:

Agreed, this was a great guide and the pictures showed us the situation. Thank you, turbo_supra!

Here's another Technique:

Town Box:

Place all your unit production buildings in a row, next to your TC. Make sure they are flush against each other, leaving no room for troops to squeeze through. Unit producing buildings are TC, Barracks, Stable, Artillery Foundery, etc..

Now Place all your non-unit producing buildings, like houses, banks, Markets, etc.. in a paralel row to the TC's row. The goal here is to have a "main street" between the two rows of continous buildings. The main street should be as wide as a Mill.

Now fence off the two ends of the main street with walls, and put gates in. This method gives you maximum secure internal space for Vils, Infantry and other units, without spending much on defensive structures.

Adding in a pair of outposts really locks down the box. Also, the Box and all buildings are within gunshot of the TC. Defensively, all your buildlings only have 1 of their 4 sides vulnerable. Best of all in my opinion, newly created units are protected, very helpful when being raided and trying to ammas troops.

[This message has been edited by Diceclock (edited 12-21-2005 @ 08:50 PM).]

It's easy to beat this. Just by keeping your army in position before attacking.

ie try that setup again but make the army move behind the houses. They'll stay in formation better and when you get to the TC, you'll have all within their siege range (1-6) and can start attacking sooner (even faster than the way you did against the open TC). That's the reason the army got lost trying to get thru the houses when you attacked. You attacked from further than the unit's siege range and the units tried to path their own way to the TC and started attacking at 6 range (which blocked other units).

You can even use that setup against them. Run behind the houses and get right next to the TC. The houses/TC act as a wall against the enemy melee units, not allowing them to surround the army.

You do the same thing in other games too like 20 Knights against a TC (there was empty space underneath the TC, you run under there and then start attacking - you get like 15 Knights attacking at once with only 5 or so needing find a spot to attack).

Pics here:

It only took one click to defeat the houses in a ring.

The rest is fine.

^ that is what i always do, i never tell them to atack and then let them circle it, it dies so much quicker if you just move your whole army in, then attack, its like 2 secs longer before you attack, but then half your army is walking around getting in line to attack...

I do random house placement until ive got enough where its not like i need a house NOW or else i slow down my creations. Once i do that, i tend to do blockades aroung mills and plantation, just because it looks cool and it serves as a diversion before troops break onto the fields.

I prefer scattering them about, all around my town. They break up some armies, and cant destroy my pop limit all at once. And the house wall will only work for age 2, then artillery come and schoot over it.

You know, I think thats what walls are for. But of course the walls are flawed for the fact that units can shoot through them, and I think they might be weaker than houses, not sure. But Its an interesting concept none-the-less. I like the LOS idea.

yes, making houses used as a wall is a tactic used in the other aoe games. more effective there because of the
grid-lock. it can still be done here but its a little harder to do.

Can't get my damn links to work.

[This message has been edited by Diceclock (edited 12-21-2005 @ 08:54 PM).]

The ring idea is dumb, since it also makes it more difficult for your villagers to get to the TC in the first place, and if it falls, to get out of there.

I do however like to use Houses as diversions and breakers. I find walls more effective for actual defense, but I will usually make my houses in a box around my Mills and Plantations, with a clear path to nearby Outposts and TCs. It is just a nervous habit from earlier Age games, minus AoM, the houses made horrid shields in that game.

As for using them as surveillance, an idea.

Also, Senor, units can fire through all buildings last time I checked.

Wow I love the building shield idea, that really is pretty neat. I may have to try that out.

Nice thread!

The ring around a building would only be really efffective if you left no gaps, but that is useless for a unit production building because your troops cant leave. Would work nicly on towers or mills/plantations or if you really like your market/arsenal/capitol. Though perhaps one on the land side of a dock would be useful to prevent a land based atack and buy time for reinforcements

(As above) Is a tc really that important to spend 500+ wood on a house wall? Brits would find this strat impossibly expensive, while Ports would hardly even care for the loss of a tc.

Overall great strat gj turbo.

[This message has been edited by Chipmunkrage (edited 12-21-2005 @ 09:02 PM).]

I quick note I would like to add...this is simply a "suggestive guide," i will leave the final decision up to you. And the "house ring" idea is easily countered when your enemy has no defensive troops, however if I had soldiers attacking you while you were "trapped" among the houses you would lose much more troops. Remember, it takes more than 10 seconds to move 40 soldiers in the circle and another 10 to leave so if I was hit-and-running with my soldiers you could not get to me in time even if your range was double my soldiers.

Quote:

It takes 3 seconds to enter, 3 to leave.

I don't ever go for TCs anyway. Unless I've already ensured the win or have direct counters. There are much better things to go after.

I used to do this type of thing, but I soon realised it was much better to build your houses forward to give advanced notice of an attack.

I'd like to point out what I think is the obvious: you can use walls for the same purposes, and a much, much lower wood cost.

I agree, houses should be on the outer edges of your main base. they are the cheapest things to replace. But if you are playing a defensive game, then walls would serve a better shield than houses...

If your opponent, in his/her enternal wisdom used say CANNON or units with a BETTER RANGER, like skirmishers against Janissares you just killed yourself. A housewall is a nice idea on paper but a wall is way mroe powerful and economical.

At last few posters who said use a wall:

The whole point of the house wall is to provide the benefit of a wall WITHOUT paying extra resources/villager seconds. Of course you can build a wall, but that eliminates the point.

Nice guide.

[This message has been edited by Echoic (edited 12-22-2005 @ 02:56 AM).]

Sorry if this is just a bit off topic...

Turbo_supra, how do you access your screenshots? whenever I go to the screenshot folder, its blank. How do you access them? (Sorry if I ruined this topic of conversation)