Beating a Buddy: Strategies for Success
- This topic has 13 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 1 year, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I have been competing with a friend for over a year and I have been unable to win a single game.
We usually play Full Random on MegaRandom and I am familiar with the proper economy management, different build orders, my opponent’s strategies and the various stats from SOTL.
I can beat the AI on hard difficulty, but I just can’t seem to get the upper hand against my friend.
His strategies involve scout or archer rushes or sneaking a castle near my base.
I have my base walled and I have outposts with pikes and skirms to counter him, based on his civ, and I scout rush about half the time in order to damage his economy, but it hasn’t been successful.
I recently got Capture Age to analyze my game and I noticed that I have around 2-3 minutes of idle time even though I am constantly making villagers.
The only civilizations that have worked well against him are Hindustani and Gurjara.
I do not play multiplayer.
Do you have any advice that could help me improve my game and finally win against my friend?
Sounds like your friend is overall more experienced.
Improve overall. 2 minutes of idle time is a lot.
Make it you first priority.
Then look how a proper opening of pros looks like, focus on the relevant parts we normal people can do.
Heras “how to play series” might be interesting for you.
Have you ever tried to drush?
Just wondering.
Don’t focus on only reacting with pikes and skirms.
You need to be aggressive as well.
Don’t let your friend lead the pace of the game.
If they see what you are making all of the time, they have time to react before you get to their base.
Try to make gold units that can kill some of their villagers while maintaining your own villager production (minimal TC idle time).
​
Also hotkeys for EVERYTHING!
Also keep in mind that mega random, more often than not, have extra resources…
sometimes ALOT of extra resources, and that is often in addition to a closedness (center lakes) or extra defenses, so it is way more rewarding to FC builds than most open maps.
If opponent usually executes a powerful feudal rush, a good FC timing with knights followup might throw him on his heals hard
if you like I’ll play you and see if i can offer any constructive feedback, I’m not a good player but can hold my own at 1000elo.
Have you tried with the Hoang build?
It’s your UI optimized for you?
Moving the minimap to the center of the bottom could help.
There are mods for that and more.
Play some ranked multiplayer to up your game, learn some hotkeys.
At this point he is prob getting cocky.
I would recommend learning how to Persian douche and put them back in their place.
It’s incredible how much skill difference can show.
A 1k ELO player is so much better than a 600 ELO player.
A 1300 is way better than a 1k and so on.
To the point where top 100 players can do silly challenges against decent players (look up T90 trolls)
I play with friends and family against the AI because then at least it’s fun.
Yes, I just defend them and boom so they can make army and do some attacking (where is the fun of me killing the AI before my buddy has army), then back them up as needed.
My buddies aren’t idiots, they know how to play, but, like you, a few minutes of idle time can make a massive difference.
If you are 2 minutes behind getting to feudal and then commit to a scout rush, chances are your buddy has clicked castle AND has a bigger army.
My tips:
1.
Instead of playing against each other, play together against the AI.
2.
If you do play against each other, try playing MP first – find where you are at, and try strategies against human opponents.
The AI is predictable (especially on hard or lower), and really easy to cheese.
3.
Try getting really good at a FC build and small-wall your resources to keep the scouts at bay.
If he commits to feudal army, clear them out with some knights once you get to castle.
One of the best strategies for an Ok player is to get 2 stables consistently producing knights (especially with the second armour upgrade).
I’d recommend an ultra aggressive build in land maps such as the [5 militias drush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLABa_iZ_E) or a men at arms.
I coached a couple low elo players in the past and they were impressed how 5 militias drush work wonders for them.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to push to click up to feudal age exactly as in the build order or closer because what usually happens beginners execute build orders but omit the cruciality of time (Press F11 to enable ingame time) and practice against the AI to improve it as much as possible.
give us the rec, if he is way better than you i dont think there is something u can do more than keep practicing more than him.
Get a build order.
Practice it against the extreme AI.
Win from there
Do you use any hotkeys like go to TC and Queue villager.
It really reduced my idle time from a few minutes to almost nothing during dark age and fuedal.
To be honest the #1 tip I would give is to pick civ.
It would balance it out so you have a competitive chance against a stronger player and that should be more fun for both players.
Picking civ also allows you to fine tune a build order which will help you improve.
To your game play, try to keep tc idle time below 30 seconds though feudal age.
Work toward a strong army for your civ as opposed to reactively training trash units.
There is a reason even byzantines make gold units like xbow.
Lastly, start using some hotkeys for houses, farms, and training units.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
