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Subsections

1 Introduction



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1.1 Assumptions

As the title implies, I assume that you playing Shang on a land based map (i.e. inland, highland or coastal).

I assume that you know the rules for ``Age of Empires'' and that you know the basic concepts (1 house supports four villagers, it takes 35 or 50 food to conceive a villager, ``you need to build more houses'' means you made a mistake, hot keys, etc.). Section 12 explores some of the facts needed to get to the bronze age fast. Section 5 lists the skills that you will need to learn and suggest some exercises that you can use to acquire them.

1.2 Basic principles

Your time is the most important resource. After the first couple minutes you will not have time to micro-manage.

Hit ``H, C'' as soon as you hear the birth announcement (i.e. conceive another villager). After a while this becomes automatic.

When you hear the attack sound, hit alt-1 and click on the offending animal. See section 3.2.1 for details.

Don't watch your villagers fight lions, or build buildings. Give them instructions, move on and come back to them later.

1.3 Importance of getting to the bronze age fast

Games are not won and lost on the basis of who gets to the bronze age first. You can win without getting to the bronze age at all with a tool age rush. And, you can win by delaying your advance to the bronze age in favor of more villagers and fishing boats and hence a more robust economy (vil bomming).

However, the same skills that allow you to get to the bronze age in fifteen minutes are necessary for both of these other strategies. If you can't get to the bronze age consistently in fifteen minutes with Shang, you aren't going to beat a strong player with a tool age rush nor by vil booming.

How fast you can get to the bronze age on an average random map is as good an indication of your skill at handling the economic side of AoE as there is.

1.4 Fixed build sequences

Using a fixed build sequence is the easiest way to achieve a consistent fifteen minute bronze time. It isn't optimal and it won't get you a thirteen minute bronze. But, it can make a beginner an intermediate in a hurry.

The pros disdain fixed build sequences such as the one that I recommend here, because they do not allow you to take maximum advantage of the map.

1.5 Goals

Your first goal is to create 3 villagers each minute (that is as fast as the Town Center will allow). Check how you are doing by clicking on a house, dividing the number by three and subtracting one to show the minimum time it should have taken to get here (ignoring the time spent on the next villager). I figure that I am doing well if I have only lost 2 seconds for each villager that I have. And, hence if I have 24 villagers by 8 minutes I am happy indeed. It takes 4 Shang villagers[*] foraging to a nearby granary to generate 105 food[*] per minute.

Your second goal is to find the resources that you will need to get you to the bronze age, i.e. 2500 food and about 2000 wood. Three additional food sources will usually suffice[*].

Your third goal is to gather enough wood for a storage pit, build a storage pit near a forest and start collecting some serious wood.

Your fourth goal is to gather enough food to advance to the tool and bronze ages. i.e. exploiting the food sources that you have found during your exploration.


next up previous
Next: 2 Sequence Overview Up: A beginner's guide to Previous: A beginner's guide to
Ken Stanley
1998-09-01