First some tips: learned, experienced, and borrowed.

1. Get to know this site.
Read,ask questions,read,read,ask,read,read,read,ask,read...
Like I said before, It's an incredible resource for AOK players.

1.5 When you see an interesting post, hit "file","save as"and save the page as a '.txt' file for later resource.

2. Never be afraid to build.
You should build buildings constantly. By the end of a RM game, you should have several Town Centers, Castles; tons of farms ; and so many stables etc. that you don't know were they all are.

3. Never be afraid to build villagers.
You should probably have more than 100 villies by mid-imperial in a 200 pop. game. More villies= more resouces= More soldiers= A better chance of winning, which is what it's all about, right?

4. Use Hotkeys.
Yes, I know it's hard, I don't do it as much as I should either. But speed will make you a better player.

4.5 Assign the idle villager hotkey to the spacebar and hit that thing A LOT."The Idle villager serves an ignorant master."

5. Make your City BIG, and try to refrain from walls. They limit expansion. The periodic placement of castles, Towers, TC's, and troops can do the same job better.

6. (Quoted From Gordon B, added in edit)The best way to become better at this game is practice. Play some games, any games. The more you play the game, the better you'll get at it. The more you apply what you've learned, the better you'll get. You can know everything there is to know about AoK, but if you don't play it enough, you won't be able to do anything about it.

And Now, some links to posts that have been especially useful to me:

*Dragons89'sUltimate AOK Guide, and TheShadowDawn'sRecomended Strategy Articles are both great places to start, with hundereds of very useful posts. Add both of these to your Favorites.

*Gaparr64's Test Summary is long and somewhat technical, but the information is useful and interesting.Obviosly LOTS of time put into this.

*The Civilisations of the Ages series, By TheShadowDawn is
a great series of posts about all 18 Civs. in AOK. They make very good reading and each one makes you want to try that civ. when you're done.

*Stevay's 13 Minute Mongolian Castle Guide is one of many fast castle guides, but I prefer his because it was made for my favorite civ., the Mighty Mongols.

*The Mongol Power Flush is an awesome version of the flush. This is why I am an intermediate. AWESOME.

*Micr0boy's Collection of Stratagies is a great place to start leaning any of the most popular Strats in AOK.

*Micromanagement and Hotkeys, a guide at Gamespy by Champsta, is a good article about, well, Micromanagement and Hotkeys!

*And just in case you were wondering about Trebuchets, a link to My "History of the Trebuchet" post can be found in my sig.

Good Luck to all new players! May your sword deal a swift and steady blow to anyone who challenges you in the future.

[SARCASM]Disclaimer:The contents of this post are the sole opinion of its originator, King Bob VI. The opinions displayed above will not be forcibly imprinted into the heads of anyone who reads this, but he/she has the right to not believe any of it, especially that King Bob is a intermediate, or that he has any brains at all, as long as he/she keeps these thoughts private in the deep recesses of his/her mind. If the above FRIENDLY HELP offends anyone, he/she has the right to that opinion, but King Bob does not want to Hear it.[/SARCASM]

Oops, it appears the BB code is broken.

EDIT: changes according to suggestions, add hotkeys link, add tip. Nice tip Gordon B, THANX.
EDIT2: Disclaimer added, due to negative feedback, and to prevent lawsuits.
EDIT3: Added power flush link.
P.S. Check out the "art" link in my updated sig.

[This message has been edited by King Bob VI (edited 06-01-2004 @ 07:31 AM).]