The most important thing for a gothic m@a rush is food. You'll need to eat up all the free food and probably start on farms before you get to feudal age.

I usually go with 6 on sheep, three on berries, scatter some straggler lumberjacks in between the berry guys so that you can get enough wood for houses and then lumber yard. After (or before) you've got your lumber yard up, lure boars. It's also a good idea to put 3-4 villagers on deer without making an additional mill. But when your boars are done, you'll need to make farms immediately (but save enough wood for two barracks).

You'll probably want to feudal with around 24 pop, this will allow you to feudal in about 11 minutes if you got loom and have no TC idle time. Also, when you start to feudal, you'll need to put 3-4 villagers on gold and have two other villagers make two barracks. Hopefully by the time you get to feudal you'd have scouted your opponents and know where his lumber yard/gold/stone mines are.

If you've been good collecting food in the early stages, you'll be able to afford lumber/farm/gold/and wheelbarrow, as well as the m@a upgrade. Here's where I have to say "hm?", because my mentor is adamant that you should get all the econ upgrades immediately. If you do, you'll have a stronger game, but I doubt you'll get 20 m@a's by 15 minutes. Anyways, as you prefer, I suggest the m@a/wheelbarrow/lumber/farm/gold upgrades in that order. Expect to keep both barracks and your TC working non-stop. You may also want to build a third barracks a little later.

When attacking, be sure to stay outside of his TCs range. I would say, focus on his lumber because he can't counter m@a's without wood (archers/towers), unless he get's to castle age. Also, if you take out his wood, take out some of his houses - he wont be able to build more, which means you'll have him housed. Since m@a bonus is vs buildings, don't be afraid to take out his lumber camp and move on to find if he's made another one. Soon he'll also run out of food (no farms). Don't go for his TC unless you've pretty much destroyed everything else. About 20 m@a's can take down a TC with significant casualties, be sure to have the infantry armour upgrade. If you're at this point, the only reason to go for his TC is if you need to finish him off in a hurry, cause you've already won.

wb isn't worth it that early in the game, until i have about 35 - 40 pop i'd rather have the +3 vill rather than wheelbarrow

thanks valan...i've been feudaling with 20 pop at 10 mins and getting 20 m@a's by 15 like i said but i think i'll go for a few more villies. other than that i've been doing pretty much like u suggest. though i get wood/farm/wheelbarrow upgrades in that order generally.

do people think it's better to attack with let's say
5 m@a's as soon as u get them and then keep them coming or wait till i have more, like 20? by waiting for more i find the enemy thinks maybe after all i'm not attacking though he does have more time to prepare but if i go in with 5 or so i can hit him earlier. also with 20 i can walk in and control all his resources simultaneously by placing 5 or so at each site and move them as needed. any thoughts on all this people?

I'd attack with the 5, then stream more in. Waiting for 20 takes too long, and if he's scouting, he'll see what you're up to. Attack early and keep the pressure on IMO.

Since you're only attacking with 5 initially, hit his gold first. Get his stone with the next wave, then hit lumber. Tower at least one resource.

I agree with your upgrades - gold upgrade is insignificant since you'll only have about 3-4 miners anyway.

Also, palisade off your gold miners - this can generally be done with just two palisade segments - it looks like this:

GOOOOOOOOOLD
p 4 Miners p
MINING CAMP

That'll stop him from knocking you off your gold with scouts.