Germans Age 1 Guide- By Etherimp

Age 1 Guide

Whenever I refer to villagers, I will not specify "Settler wagons". 1 Settlerwagon = 2 villagers. So if I say "7 villagers on food", that can be any combination of villagers/settler wagons that gives you a grand total of 7 population. (2 sw + 3 villies, 3 sw + 1 villie, etc). If you do this standard build properly you should end with 17 population. 5 Settler Wagons, 7 villagers. Only a total of 12 units, but 17 population all around. So you will have to be smart about dividing your villagers up going into age2, keeping in mind that just because it says there are only 2 villagers on a resource, there are actually 4 if both of those villagers are indeed settler wagons.

That being said, this Age 1 Guide applies to ALL strategies listed below unless stated specifically otherwise. This guide will cover you from the moment the game begins, to the point where you click the age button. What Politician you select and how you divide your villagers after that is covered in the specific strategies.

-Start with 3 Settler Wagons (6 pop), 1 Explorer.

-Immediately click 3 Settler Wagons to collect FOOD crates only.

-As soon as your SW's begin collecting food, begin clicking the villager button (or hitting V) until you have a villager queued up. Remember to place your TC Gatherpoint at the nearest huntables.

-Set a circle of waypoints immediately around your TC's Line of Site for your Explorer to scout out. He should locate the nearest huntables (if not already visible) as well as any treasures in the immediate vicinity.

-Set ONE settler wagon to move out beyond a herd of the closest huntables and fire towards the TC while the others continue collecting crates. Reset the TC waypoint as needed to send villagers to the nearest DEAD huntable now.

-Your 2 SW's should be about done collecting resources. Use the 2 of them along with your 3rd to kill up to 4 huntables as close to the TC as possible. Seperate your SW's so only 1 of them is on each huntable while fresh villagers are going to the nearest dead one. This ensures that your villagers do not have to stop and kill more huntables in the middle of your age1. This costs valuable time. If you notice that too many villagers are beginning to crowd around 1 animal, you may want to move them over 1 by 1 to an animal with more resources remaining in it.

-Queue up as many villagers as you can

-Use 1 SW to build a house and return to collecting food.

-Queue up villagers until you reach 13 pop

-During this time you should be checking in on your explorer, and using him to collect any treasures nearby. After he finishes with that, have him do a circle around the enemies base. Make sure you find the nearest food and wood sources to your enemy. Afterwards, use your explorer to fill in any 'black' spots on the map as well as check the parameter of the map as sometimes gold mines and even huntables hide here.

-As soon as you have a shipment available send 2 settler wagons (Or 300 food if you do not have the 2sw card yet).

-Check back in with explorer and continue to scout out area, and gather treasures. This is a time period where you do not need as much micro on your TC/Villies, so you have time to properly scout and gather treasures.

-About the time your SW shipment and last villagers arrive you should have between 650-750 food.. Start clicking your age button like a maniac to be sure you begin aging RIGHT when you have 800 food. You should age with 17 population. 5 SW's, 7 villies. You should be clicking the age button somewhere between 3:00-3:30, and actually hitting age2 between 4:30-5.

-As soon as you click the age button, move your villagers to designated resources listed in the strats below, and queue up 2 more villagers if possible, for a total pop of 19.