Age of Empires 4 is a continuation of the legendary strategy, in which you can observe the development of civilizations of peoples in several eras. Each nation has its own advantages and disadvantages. Advantages allow you to get priority over the warring faction, and disadvantages can serve as a defeat if the enemy side takes them into account.
There are 10 factions in Age of Empires 4: Rus’, England, France, Mongols, Holy Roman Empire, Abbasid Dynasty, China, Delhi Sultanate, Malians, Ottomans. All of the listed factions have their own fighter buildings. The balance works almost like rock – scissors – paper, in some ways they win and in some ways they lose. In order to successfully defeat the enemy, you need to know his weaknesses in the economy and the characteristics of the army.
In this article, we will look at the most basic and important points related to the initial development of the economy at the beginning of the game. Since it is the right start that will allow you to get priority in economic development over the enemy. At the same time, such development is almost standard for all factions.
The initial development of the chosen faction, in the game Age of Empires 4.
A very important point related to the epochs and the choice made in the epochs. In most cases, the winner is the one who has a higher era status and well-established economic moments. At the same time, of course, military installations were built on time, where you can hire fighters for protection or attack.
Extraction of food.
The extraction of food is the most basic moment in the initial development, since we buy workers for food. At the same time, at the very beginning of the game, it is important to recruit a large number of the working class so that the speed of economic development is sufficiently intense. Since from among a large number of workers, you can select groups and distribute them to different resources.
At the beginning of the game, several types of food production are available to us, these are Berry Bush, Food Extraction from Deer and Sheep. Of the above, the most efficient source of food extraction will be the extraction of food from a sheep. Therefore, as soon as the game starts, we select all the workers and send them to get food from the sheep. We leave other types of resources for later, “Deer Food”, when the mill construction appears, and “Berry Bush” as a reserve.
We are setting up a search for new sheep.
At this time, we take a scout and run to patrol the territory. But not just to expand the view at the borders, but to look for a valuable resource – a sheep. The scout himself automatically picks up the found sheep, he just needs to be brought closer to the sheep. It is advisable to send a scout towards the mountains, as there are the most chances to find sheep.
To simplify and speed up the work of a scout, you need to set him a patrol path around the territory and immediately do other things. For example, we switch our gaze to the main building and workers.
We hire workers.
As soon as all the workers were sent to extract food from the sheep, we immediately switch to the main center. In the main building we hire workers for all the leftover food that is in the warehouse. This is approximately 6 people workers. The summoned people can speed up the production of food or start building other producing buildings.
Building a house.
The house is needed to increase the capacity of the number of workers. It is advisable to have time to build before the main building produces the ordered workers. After building a house, you need to hire workers again and send them to produce other resources.
We are setting up gold production.
Gold is the most important resource for moving to another era, it is the era that allows you to get high priorities in factions. For example, resource production increases, which improves development even faster and unlocks new buildings.
From the hired workers that we hired before building the house, we send them to build a mine for gold mining. While one is building, the others continue to extract food resources from the sheep. When the mine is built, you need to send all the new workers hired to produce gold. It is very important to collect the right amount of gold for the transition to the second era.
Closely monitor the availability of sheep for food.
Since the workers are sorting the sheep for food, it tends to run out and if there are no other sheep nearby, the workers will be idle. Downtime in the extraction of food should not be allowed, as the economic priority over the enemy is lost. In order to prevent such downtime, it is tedious to pay attention to the Scout, who is looking for sheep. If the scout has 2 or 3 sheep, then it makes sense to return him to the base and transfer the sheep to the city center. After delivering the sheep to the main base, the scout should immediately be sent in search of new sheep.
The second era, in the game Age of Empires 4.
Organize the transition to the second era.
Having collected the required amount of gold, you need to immediately begin the transition to the second era in order to get new technologies. It is important to choose the right direction for yourself when moving into a new era. Having chosen a special building, we build workers who were engaged in gold mining. Since at the moment it is more important to build an important building, and not to continue the production of gold.
We do not touch the workers who produce food, they are engaged in an important business, food production must be continuous. One worker must be sent to build a sawmill to produce wood.
After building a new building from the second age, you can distribute workers between the extraction of wood and gold. Or send all the workers to the production of wood, since the tree will be needed for the construction of other buildings. At the same time, it is important that the workers who mined gold and new workers are involved.
We are setting up the production of stone.
The stone will be required for the construction of the second city council, the main base. It is important to build the second building as early as possible, as in this case we speed up the production of workers. A large number of workers will allow you to establish a stable economy of various resources, which is very important.
Therefore, it is desirable to send all workers, after the construction of a new building when choosing the second era, to the extraction of wood. We send one worker to build a stone mine when the required amount of resources appears.
Building a house.
As soon as the number of workers reached 17-19, you need to start building a house. Usually there are enough resources for a house after the construction of a stone mine. We take a worker for the construction of a house from a sawmill. We send new workers to extract stone, do not forget about the production of workers.
Construction of the second “City Council” (main building).
By the time of choosing a site for the construction of the main building, most of the territory should be reconnoitered. We are trying to build the second main building closer to the center of the map, where there is gold and other resources. Usually the best amount of resources are located in the central part. Opponents are ready to compete for such resources. Therefore, it is desirable to build the main building first in order to secure the territory.
After the addition of the second city council, we call for new workers. You can build another mine, for example, for gold mining. Since gold will allow you to organize the transition to the third era.
We continue to produce the resource of gold.
When the workers have collected about 300 – 400 units of wood, they can be transferred to gold mining, at the first base. You can leave a few workers to harvest wood, but such a moment will increase the transition time to the next era. With stone quarry workers, the same story, we leave to quarry stone or transfer part of it to gold mining. It is possible, and probably desirable, to distribute workers from the mine with stone to the extraction of gold and food.
We build a mill.
The mill could be built back in the first era, before the transition to the second era, and an improvement for the workers could be upgraded. But, we did not do this, since the period of entry into the second era would be increased. In this case, our opponent would most likely be able to get ahead of us and win in the future.
As the resources of sheep food are running out, there is interest in building a “mill”. To make an upgrade for the workers and in the future to start producing food from deer. It is desirable to build a “Mill” next to a deer pasture.
The first improvement in the “Mill” is desirable to pump for workers, for example, “Wheelbarrow”. Since it increases the carrying capacity of workers by 5 units and movement speed by 15%. This is a good boost for resource production. At the beginning, it could have been a priority, but at that time there were few workers.
We pump mines and a sawmill.
In the sawmill, we pump “Forestry”, as it increases the felling of a tree by two. The feature of this improvement is that the workers cut the tree to the ground faster. That is, workers extract a tree only when it is felled and lies on the ground. Mines can be upgraded in the same way, this will speed up production and bring the faction closer to the third era.
Let’s move on to the third era, in the game Age of Empires 4.
We note right away that it is advisable to start the transition to the third era after reconnaissance of the enemy. Due to the fact that it is not entirely clear what the enemy began to do. If the enemy already has troops, then it is better to start building military structures. Since most likely the enemy will launch an early attack, and we need to defend ourselves. Well, if the enemy has no troops, then we hasten to begin the transition to the third era. And if we do not have time to organize the transition to the third era first, then the enemy will most likely be able to win.
We begin the transition to the third era immediately, when the required amount of resources has accumulated. The transition to the third era is very important, as there will be new technologies and the ability to hire a stronger army. You should not spend resources on any nonsense in the form of improvements, we improve what we need and save up the right amount of resources for the third era.
After the transition to the third era, you can start building military structures for hiring troops, depending on the priority of the factions. You can start building military structures in the second era, but this can make it difficult to move to the third era. Therefore, the transition to the third era must begin depending on the prevailing conditions.
Conclusion on the starting development, in the game Age of Empires 4.
The described development of the base at the beginning of the game is suitable for most factions. There are factions for which there are starting priorities in the production of resources. For example, the French have the Prelate unit, which increases resource production by about +40%. But, again, it is effective with a large number of workers and slightly changes the development described above.
You can change the development described above to suit your desires. For example, you can build a sawmill almost immediately after sending workers to the sheep and hiring new workers. This will allow you to get the wood resource earlier, but will slow down the growth of workers, since you need food in a good growth.
If we consider the features of the factions, then Delhi needs to build a mill in the early stages of the game. Since the Delhi faction allows you to research technologies for free. The Mongols can do without stone, which means they need to prioritize gold, food, and wood.
