[Anonymous Player]

I have been viewing numerous educational videos about build orders and was wondering how they are created?

Is it the result of a lot of trial and error to determine what is the quickest?

Or is there some mathematics involved in calculating potential builds that are then tested?

[Vixark]

A copy paste of a comment I wrote sometime ago about how I approach making build orders:

* Set 1 or 2 primary objectives.

For example, start producing archers at 2 ranges as fast as possible and then start producing crossbows at 3 ranges as fast as possible.

Use Survivalist’s tool to check how many villagers per resource you need [https://aoe2-de-tools.herokuapp.com](https://aoe2-de-tools.herokuapp.com)
* Use the standard start: 2 villagers one house, 1 villagers one house, and then have 6 on sheep.

Starting from the villager 7 you can deviate from the ‘standard’.

I usually prefer to send the 7th villager to boar, but you can do as needed according to your objectives.
* Save your game every few minutes so you can load it and test different villager distribution.
* When you reach your objective, check if you have floating too much resources.

For example, if you have too much wood, load an earlier save and try to asign less villagers to wood and you may reach faster your objective.
* Usually you should never have TC idle time, but there are some all-in strategies where it applies.
* Minimize villager idle time.

Still, sometimes a couple of seconds of idle time (for example a farmer waiting for 60 W for rebuilding farm) is acceptable, don’t be too scared of it.
* If you advance age or build a building, it should serve a purpouse inmediatly.

If you can’t use it right away, you don’t need that building or advance that quickly and you could use those resources elsewhere.
* Double Bit Axe is very important, but for some strategies you can delay it a bit, still you could test when is the best moment to research it in order to reach your objective faster.

Wheelbarrow is not important in the short term, I usually skip it until castle age, see this [https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/10ze0y0/research_wheelbarrow_in_feudal_or_in_castle_age/](https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/10ze0y0/research_wheelbarrow_in_feudal_or_in_castle_age/)
* Don’t forget deer, see this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/t4y547/deer_vs_berries](https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/t4y547/deer_vs_berries)
*

[Blocklies]

I like just taking another build and altering it until it works, math also works but I don’t want to do math.

If you want to use math then use survivalist website to figure out how much resources you’ll have and remember that you NEED 6 on sheep as a generic civ to maintain vill production so just start with that before making the rest of the build.

[Nyacreeps]

Yes it’s “math”.

For example I know that you need 5 on gold to maintain 2 archery ranges production of archer (don’t quote me on that one) so a build order aiming at making as much archers as possible would take that into account.

[WombozM]

Its about timing when you can make certain things as fast as possible.

Most build orders revolve around getting 500 food to feudal asap and 350 wood for barracks + stable/archery range.

The rest is to be able to maintain unit + villager production and houses and farms while progressing to castle age.

Most people Feudal with 19-21 villagers these days to get out their first unit before their opponent.

The key in build orders it to always have enough villagers on a certain resource to continue exponential production and growth of economy.

[Author]

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