DM vs. the Persians Revisited
I have found that when playing DM, Persian players come in two different settings: Those who wait until they have 30 + eles and kill you with them supported by bombard canons/paladins, and those who rush.
Reading Viracocha’s paper about how to defend yourself against a Persian player I realized that (as Viracocha pointed out) it only applies to the first case. This is not applicable to a rusher.
I have developed somewhat of a methodology to minimize the time in which my first paladin starts attacking an enemy’s town. I have taken the time under 2 minutes. Here is how:
Once you enter the game, immediately start building a series of stables (preferably 8) with 2 of the villagers. Try that the last stable is the closest to your villagers, so they will not waste time traveling any distance. I normally make a straigth line if space permits, but you can also use two lines of stables. Try that the distance between stables is minimal. Meanwhile send your scout to the nearest gold mine. In AOK there are small and larger mines, generally the larger ones are really close to the starting positions of other players. Start making villagers in your Town Center until the queue is full. Put the third villager to make houses, same arrangement than the stables. Once the 2 villagers finish the first stable, fill the queue with paladins. Repeat the operation as your stables are completed. By the time your scout spots your enemy’s town you should have at least one paladin. Send your paladin to kill the enemy’s villagers, which hopefully by this point are just trying to finish the second or third TC or the first castle and some houses. Once your got a 4th and 5th villagers put them to work in the same stable than the other ones, which by this point are almost finished. As paladins are emerging from the stables send them to kill first the villagers (which must be scrambling to make towers or castles) and then the houses. Once you got your enemy pretty busy with the incoming paladins, sneak those 5 or 6 villagers very close to his/her town and make 3 castles (if possible). Once the first castle is finished, fill the queue with elite elephants. So, lets review the situation, your enemy’s town is filled with paladins and you have at least one elephant hitting on your enemy’s TC with more coming on the horizon, supported by castles. Most players panic and resign. The more experienced ones will try to get far away while you are leveling their TC’s (again probably around a mine) to rebuild. Once you encounter no strong resistance, send some paladins to search near mines for possible rebuilding.
I have found very little resistance to this strategy. When utilized in a 3v3 game (with 2 other members of my clan using the same strategy) we normally finish our oponents in less than 10 mins. Sometimes experienced players find a way to slow down the rush and rebuild. The best defenses against my rush I’ve found so far:
Walls: If you manage to put a wall in a bottleneck before the rush is completed it severly slows down your opponent, (specially if no castles are present) giving you some precious time to build defenses. Castles : And I say castles in plural, because one has no effect (eles can level one castle really easily) Paladins: Yes, if you aim to rush and somebody try to rush you, they normally find a nasty surprise.
If you manage to repel the rush, use Viracocha’s strategies when possible. They should give you an edge to recover and make a big comeback. (but probably your attacker is aware of them too 😉
Don’t forget in using the Persian Rush strategy to have your incoming villagers to build a second town, fill the queue and to make a castle just accross your TC. Combined with the paladins pumping out of your stables it should be a deterrant for your enemy’s partners to get you while you are attacking. Work in your economy, specially farms and gold. As you wipe out your enemy from his/her town, build TC’s and mines around to get resources. Most important of all: Practice, time yourself and again… Practice.