Dark Age: First Steps

Age of Empires 4 is both a military and economic strategy game. Starting off on the right foot economically from the very beginning is essential, and the key to that is Villagers.

Always — and I cannot stress this enough — the Town Center must be producing Villagers. Under no circumstances should you leave your Town Center idle. In future lessons we will cover how to optimize this using hotkeys.

Your first priority will be gathering enough food to keep producing Villagers. Your second task will be to explore the map with your Scout: not only will you gain invaluable knowledge of the terrain, but you can also find Sheep, which are an excellent early food source. Keep your Scout away from the enemy Town Center to avoid losing it prematurely.

As you produce Villagers, you will also need to build Houses to avoid hitting the population cap. This is where Build Orders come into play. Depending on the civilization you are playing, both the number of Villagers assigned to each resource and the ideal moment to advance to the next age will vary.

I don't want you to become blind followers of Build Orders; flexibility is also key. My goal is to teach you to understand the game, not to follow instructions mindlessly. But, especially if you are just starting out, following a basic Build Order — the most common one assigns 7 Villagers to food and 3 to gold — will allow you to gather the necessary resources to advance to the second age efficiently.