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Hotkeys: Glossary and Feudal Strategies

Editorial guideAuthor Pilsen

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Glossary of Terms

Before diving into strategies, it is useful to get familiar with the most common terms you will encounter in guides and online matches.

◆Hotkeys / Keyboard shortcuts: Key combinations to perform actions quickly without needing to click through menus.
◆HP (Health Points): Hit Points. Indicates how much damage a unit or building can take before being destroyed.
◆Kite / Kiting: Technique of pulling ranged units back after attacking, avoiding melee combat.
◆Macro / Macromanagement: The skill of managing the economy and unit production at a large scale.
◆Melee: Units that fight in close combat, such as Men-at-Arms or knights.
◆Micro / Micromanagement: The skill of individually controlling units in battle to maximize their efficiency.
◆Pop / Population: Short for "Population". Indicates how many units and Villagers you have in total.
◆Ranged: Units that attack from a distance, such as archers or Crossbowmen.
◆Resource Drop-off: Places like storehouses, mills, or docks where Villagers deposit gathered resources.
◆Rush: A strategy that involves attacking the enemy as soon as possible, generally in the early ages of the game.
◆Scout: Exploring the map with fast units to gather information about the enemy and the terrain.
◆Siege: Equipment or units specialized in destroying buildings or walls, such as Mangonels or trebuchets.
◆Skirmish: Individual battles unrelated to the main campaign of the game.
◆TC (Town Center): The main building where Villagers are produced.
◆Tech / Technology: Upgrades researched in buildings such as the university or monastery to improve units or gain advantages.
◆Treb: Short for "Trebuchet", a siege machine used to knock down buildings from a distance.
◆Treeline: Lines of trees on the map that can be used for defense or wood gathering.
◆Turtling: A defensive strategy where the player fortifies their base by building walls and towers.
◆Upgrade: Improving units or buildings to increase their efficiency.
◆Wall Off: The act of building walls to block access to an area or protect resources.

Strategies Upon Reaching Feudal Age

It is crucial that, before reaching Feudal Age, you have decided on your strategy. The three main ones are the rush, the boom, and the fast castle.

Rush

Launching an early attack on opponents.

Boom

Building an extra Town Center to strengthen the economy long-term.

Fast Castle

Advancing quickly to the third age to access its exclusive advantages.

Military Development in Feudal Age

With the advance to Feudal Age, the military landscape expands significantly. You are no longer restricted to barracks and

Spearmen as your only defensive option. You can now train archers

archers (perfect for raiding

Villagers and fighting

Spearmen) and

Horsemen (specialized in raiding and countering archers

archers). The balance between

Spearmen,

archers, and

Horsemen is fundamental in Feudal Age combat.

Economic and Technological Upgrades

Feudal Age allows you to research key technologies. If you have more than 10

Villagers on a resource, it is advisable to invest in the relevant upgrades.

Double Broadaxe

Improves wood gathering.

Horticulture

Speeds up the gathering of sheep and berries (does not apply to deer or boars).

Survival Techniques

Improves hunt gathering, researched at the mill.

WheelbarrowBest at Feudal start

Increases the speed and carrying capacity of all

Villagers. Possibly the most important economic upgrade in the entire game; it can be researched from the first age but is best done at the start of Feudal Age.

Feudal Age also gives access to the blacksmith (to buff units) and the market (to balance the economy and establish trade routes).

The Unit Triangle

Your own civilization and the enemy's is the most determining factor for choosing what to produce. There is an essential counter triangle:

Archers beat Spearmen

Archers are strong against

Spearmen.

Spearmen beat Horsemen

Spearmen are strong against

Horsemen.

Horsemen beat Archers

Horsemen are strong against archers

archers.

Always try to have at least two types of units. If you only produce one, you will be very vulnerable to its counter.

Chokepoints: Melee + Ranged

On many maps there are chokepoints: gaps between forests, rivers, corridors between buildings, or breaches in walls. With an exclusively melee army, only a small portion of your troops can fight at these points. With a combination of melee and ranged, both layers fight simultaneously: melee units hold the line while archers

archers fire from behind.

Unit Combinations in Feudal Age

Horsemen and ArchersStrongest

Generally the strongest combination in Feudal Age.

Horsemen have more health, attack, and speed than

Spearmen — excellent as a frontline and for quick raids, as long as the enemy has no

Spearmen on their front line. Archers

Archers fire from a distance and are especially effective against

Spearmen; with 10 archers

archers a single volley can eliminate an enemy

Villager (if they haven't researched textiles).

Horsemen act as shield and hammer while archers

archers deal damage from safety.

Spearmen and ArchersCost-effective

A more cost-effective alternative, especially useful if the enemy relies on cavalry.

Spearmen are cheaper than

Horsemen and highly effective against cavalry, while archers

archers provide the same ranged support as in the previous combination.

Horsemen and Spearmenvs heavy cavalry

Especially effective against civilizations with unique heavy cavalry units in Feudal Age, such as Franceses

French,

Mongols, and Rus

Rus.

Archers are useless against these units, so

Spearmen are the only way to counter them.

All Three UnitsLong Feudal games

As the match progresses, especially in long Feudal Age games (frequent with Sultanato de Delhi

Delhi or

France), it is advisable to also produce the third unit you have not included up to that point. In the end you cover all possible counters with

Horsemen,

archers, and

Spearmen.

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The Market

The market is available as soon as players advance to Feudal Age, although it is not always imperative to build it immediately.

Economy Balancing for Beginners

It is common to accumulate surpluses of certain resources while others run short. The market allows you to buy and sell to balance the economy, but each transaction has a cost: initially, acquiring 100 food costs 130 gold. Use it to get out of tight spots, but don't rely on it excessively to avoid significant losses in the long run.

Trade Routes

The main function of the market is to establish trade routes. Place your market as far as possible from the neutral market and create traders that travel to it. On their round trips they generate gold (and sometimes other resources depending on the civilization).

Place your market as far as possible from the neutral one: traders generate gold exponentially on every round trip. Protect the route with walls or palisades.

◆In team games, you can trade with an allied market. However, if the distance is identical, trading with the neutral market generates 25% more gold.
◆The way traders work follows an exponential logic: the longer the journey, the much more gold they generate (it is not proportional, but exponential).
◆Protect routes with walls, palisades, or castles.

Market Considerations

◆The location of the neutral market varies by map: in a corner (easy long route) or in the center (risky route). Adapt your strategy accordingly.
◆Neutral trade posts also function as land markets: you can send traders by land to a neutral post.
◆Maritime trade routes generate gold and additionally an identical amount of wood.

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Content by Pilsen — Academia AoE