Goth M@A Rush

They key to success of this strategy is this M@A + skirm combo of Goths which can be deadly effective in an open feudal war.

Also keep in mind how deadly Goths are, if you take them through to the late castle and imperial ages.

DARK AGE:

BUILD ORDER:

V 1-2 House > Sheep
V 3 Explore/chop wood until sheep arrive > Sheep
V 4-6 Sheep
V 7 Make 2 houses > chop wood at forest
V 8-9 Wood (vil 8 build lumbercamp)

Go to lure first boar with a shepherd after dropping food off as your 3rd sheep has about 10-20 meat left (So that typically, your first boar arrives inside TC right when u have finished your 4th sheep).

V 10-12 Sheep (or boar if its already lured)
V 13-16 Forage (Build a mill with first forager when you get wood)

Go to Lure second boar with healthy boar villager when your current boar has about 180-200 meat left, then build a farm as soon as possible after the second boar is dead.

V 17-20 Wood (Villager 17 must build a house on the way to wood)

-Research Loom at town center. Sometimes you may need to get it much earlier if you have a far boar/or in some cases if enemy is Aztec/Mayan since Eagle is so strong vs villager. If you loom really early, like before 14 pop, you may not be able to do 21 pop without idle TC. Decide yourself whether you want 22 or 21 pop in that case-

After your second boar is done, send a boar vil to forage. Drop off food with the vils gathering food near tc just before last vil is made.

-Press Feudal Age button-

Assign a sheep vil to build barracks after dropping off food. The barracks should be in direction of enemy (but not forward).
Send 1 sheep villager to cut wood near lumbercamp (This makes your total wood villagers 8 in number).
Send 2 healthy sheep vils to goldmine, build a mining camp. Wall the vils inside if you think they are vulnerable to drush or scouts or maa.
After Barracks is complete queue militia, build 3 houses with this villager, then go back to do anything useful.
Make a farm with the villager on straggler wood, followed by another farm with one sheep villager when you get enough wood.

NOTE: Another option is to build barracks forward, in that case send 2-3 vils forward. Also, even if you place your barracks backward, many times it is profitable to build one or more offensive towers. (send 1-3 vils for this purpose, more than 1 if you need to build more than one tower)

It is preferable to wait until feudal age to start training militia for goths when doing the men-at-arms rush, since they have no cost savings in dark age.

FEUDAL AGE:

(You will reach feudal age at 9:45 to 9:50 if you had no idle time in TC in dark age)

Queue up militia (To make a total of 5 militia to be used for initial attack)
Queue vils and get double bit axe immediately, followed by horse collar. Don’t do horse collar right now if you know you are going to be forwarded by enemy, or if your food got stolen by enemy significantly, or didnt find for whatever reason (more than 2 sheeps).
As soon as you have 5 militia, set off for the enemy base. if game goes properly, there wont be any idle TC. Set the gather points on stragglers initially and after sometime set it to a new wood where you will build a new LC – the straggler villagers are to make more farms when you get spare wood.
Get Man-at-arms upgrade right when you get resources.
Keep the towncenter running continuously.
Make more M@A usually without delaying villager production(but in certain cases, like vs a fwd its sometimes a good idea to make more military without making vils fulltime).

-You will attack the enemy with 5 Men-at-arms typically by 12:30 to 13:00- (If the enemy is very close to you you may be able to hit early, and if enemy is too far, it can be late)

If enemy is going archers, make a range soon (This range is necessary to make skirms quickly to counter archers). Otherwise maximise on farms and see if you want to build second rax or first range, or blacksmith first. If he is going scouts, mix in spears after your initial attack, and assign 1-3 of them to guard vulnerable resources. Your feudal army is to be M@A + skirms + spears, adjust the proportions based on what units enemy has. The time when you should get second barracks/ first range up depends on the game, and your style. Get fletching and padded armor in feudal if you make lots of ranged units (skirms/archers). Also, if you get really massed Men-at-arms, getting forging can be a good idea. If you hadnt done horse collar already, get it at around 15-18 min, and wheel barrow when u have around 35-40 vils(and 13+ farms). I usually dont make much (or any)archers (maybe 1-2 for villager killing power), unless i got excess gold flowing in. Your foragers may be either tasked to wood and new farms, or to deer if the deer isnt very unsafe. If you choose deer, then the no.of villagers to hunt them is to be 2-3 ideally. Mill the deer (though taking deer without milling is sometimes not bad, if deer are close). If the enemy is stone walled/heavily palisaded or strongly towered up with defense towers, sense his actions, stop making many feudal units, and try to go castle age pretty early, but get horse collar, wheel barrow before clicking castle age button preferably.

NOTE: If you found out early feudal itself that enemy is already walled/ multiple-towering his base up or in any case playing passively and not making army, switch to an FC set-up while putting maximum pressure with your 5(or less) m@a. Put around 13 farms, skip horse collar and wheelbarrow until you click castle age, so as to reach castle age before 20:00.

COUNTERING CASTLE AGE ENEMY WHEN YOU ARE IN FEUDAL:

Keep an eye on what units he is going to make in castle age, by seeing his military buildings, or his feudal units left over. It can be necessary to get upto 3 barracks and 3 ranges soon to counter his castle age units. Make few more M@A, and lots of spears and skirms. Spearmen cost-effectively kill knights, especially Goth spears. Likewise, skirms cost-effectively kill crossbows/cav archers. And since you havent clicked castle age yet, you can make lot more of skirms/spears. Keep the pressure up on him, while making villagers continuously. If he is rather playing passively with walls/towers and booming, focus on going to castle age and booming yourself. Remember to make m@a vs eagles of aztec/maya!

CASTLE AGE:

This is my style of play, but if you have other preferances, go with your style if you find it better for yourself:

Early Castle Age: Against most civs, go Pikeman+Elite skirmisher, but against civs like Aztecs, Mayans, Goths, Japanese etc, go Longswordsman+Elite Skirmisher since those civs don’t usually make much cavalry (Aztecs, Mayans obviously can’t, but if Goths/Japanese enemy choose to go knights, make lots of pikes also to kill them).
Later in Castle Age (when you finished seting up a Castle): Against most civs, go Pikeman+Huskarl. Against Aztecs/Mayans, go Huskarls, and if he holds his own with Longswords, make your own Longswords. Against Goths, mass lots of longswords and make Hukarls/pikes against crossbows(or cavalry archers)/knights. Against Japanese, do likewise as against goths- vs samurai and xbow make either swords + husks or swords + eskirms.

IMPERIAL AGE:

Halberdiers + Elite Huskarls against cavalry civs. Champions + Elite Huskarls against usual infantry civs. Against Japanese, if he mass Elite Samurai along with hand cannons, go Champions + Elite Skirmishers/Bombard Cannons. Goths really own in Imperial Age.

Many people think Aztec Elite Jaguars can’t be stopped with Goth infantry. Amazingly Goth champs kill Elite Jags cost-effectively, especially without Garland Wars. To counter Elite Jaguars + Arblaests, go mass champs and few Elite Husks. If his jaguar numbers are getting high enough that you are being limited by pop limit, mix in around 10 HC (Hand Cannoneer) along with your infantry army.

Versus Elite Throwing Axemen, go HC ASAP along with champs.

Keep in mind Goth champs crush all other champs cost-effectively, despite the lack of plate mail armor.

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