N' den de grate Oger-Mage Zeek n' Dez sed ta me, "Joss n' Jot, ye knowz dat ta get dere de firztezt wid de moztezt, ye muzt know what ta do at all timez," they pauzed lon enuf ta rip an haplezz Peazant ta tiny leettle bitz, "n' tell ye what ta do at all timez we'll do!"
There'z nothin' to Grunt ruzhez. Juzt Zeek n' Deztroy!
--Zeek n' Dez, Ogre-Mage of the Laughing Skull Clan
The open land building orders assume that you are required to build a Town Hall First and may not Peon rush. They also assume that you can get to your enemies without having to chop or to blast through to them. If you have to chop or to blast through to reach your enemies, you probably want to build a second or even a third Town Hall immediately to build more Peons while he's unable to take advantage of your early defenselessness.
On Low Resources (The Three Grunt Rush)
There is only one way to build on low: The Three Grunt Rush. The Three Grunt Rush hasn't ruined low like the Seven Grunt Rush has medium because of two reasons; first, the Three Grunt Rush is not widely known; second, the Three Grunt Rush is not as specialized as the Seven Grunt Rush, and therefore is not as "loopholish," although it's every bit as devastating.
Here's how to execute the Three Grunt Rush:
- Build Town Hall (lumber bug).
- Build Farm1.
- Put Peasant1 on gold.
- Put Peasant2 on gold.
- Put Peasant3, Peasant4, Peasant5 on lumber.
- Build Farm2 with the Peasant who brings in the 250th lumber.
- Put the Peasant who finishes Farm2 on lumber.
- Put Peasant6, Peasant7 on gold (stop training Peasants).
- Build Barracks with the Peasant who brings in the 500th lumber (resume training Peasants)
- Put Peasant8 on lumber.
- Build Farm3 with the Peasant who brings in the 250th lumber.
- Put Peasant9 on gold.
- Put the Peasant who finishes Farm3 on gold, the Peasant who finishes Barracks on lumber, and train Peasant10 and Footman1.
- Peasant10 goes on gold (stop training Peasants).
- Send Footman1 to find the enemy town.
- Send Footman2 to Footman1.
- The Peasant who brings in the 300th lumber builds Farm.
- While Footman3 is building, train Peasant11 to cheat the Farm limit.
- Send Footman3 to join Footman1 and Footman2 in Peon slaughter.
- The Peasant who finishes Farm4 builds Farm5 (resume training Peasants).
On Medium Resources (The Seven Grunt Rush)
Much like on low, there is only one way to build on medium: The Seven Grunt Rush (assuming Town Hall first, of course). There are many versions of the Seven Grunt Rush on the 'net, some versions are better than others. My version of the Seven Grunt Rush here has been optimized. As far as I know, it is the most effective version.
Here's how to execute the Seven Grunt Rush:
- Build Town Hall (lumber bug).
- Build Farm1.
- Build Barracks.
- Put Peasant2 on gold.
- Build Farm2 with Peasant3.
- Put Peasant4, Peasant5 on gold.
- Put Peasant3 on gold, Peasant1 builds Farm3 (start training Footmen non-stop).
- Put Peasant6 on gold (stop training Peasants).
- Send Footman1 to find the enemy town.
- When Peasant1 finishes Farm3, put him on lumber.
- When Peasant1 brings in the 300th lumber, build Farm4 with him.
- When Footman7 finishes, put all Footmen on Peon slaughter.
- When Peasant1 finishes Farm4, put him on lumber (resume training Peasants and put the next six on lumber).
On High Resources
Assuming Town Hall first, high is unlike low or medium in that there are a few "best" building orders, because these building orders relate to each other in the same way rock, paper and scissors do. After trying just about everything, I have settled on the one building order that has a chance against any of the high building orders I have seen. Many "experts" believe that there is no building order on high, since one can simply build everything at once. This is not true. Using the "casual" building order approach on high will get you killed by better players.
Here's how to execute my Standard High:
- Build Town Hall (lumber bug).
- Build Farm1.
- Build Barracks.
- Put Peasant2 on gold.
- Build Farm2 with Peasant3.
- Put Peasant4, Peasant5 on gold.
- When Peasant3 finishes Farm2, put Peasant3 on gold (remember to train Peasants non-stop).
- When Peasant1 finishes Barracks, build Farm3 with him (start training Footmen non-stop, send Footman1 to scout; start building Farms non-stop with Peasant1).
- Build Blacksmith with Peasant6.
- Put Peasant7, Peasant8 on gold.
- Build Lumber Mill with Peasant9 (lumber bug; continue putting new Peasants on gold; when the Lumber Mill is more than 40% finished, put all new Peasants on lumber).
- When Peasant6 finishes Blacksmith, put him on lumber (upgrade Weapon first, then continue upgrading).
- Decide what to do next depending on scouting results.
Building orders on the open sea are a lot fuzzier than building orders on land. Once you have the Shipyard, you want at least three or four Oil Tankers working on the Oil Platform. On low, don't build the Foundry too soon, build the Oil Platform first. On medium, you have the time to put out a couple of Oil Tankers before your Foundry's done.
On Low Resources
On low, the most important thing is this: You have the time to build a lot of Oil Tankers before you can build a Battleship, so do it! With that many Oil Tankers, you will need a second Shipyard around the time you build your Barracks to build more ships (including Transports).
Here's how to start on low:
- Build Town Hall (lumber bug).
- Build Farm1.
- Put Peasant1 on gold.
- Put Peasant2 on gold.
- Put Peasant3, Peasant4 on lumber.
- Put Peasant5 on gold.
- Build Farm2 with the Peasant who brings in the 250th lumber.
- Put Peasant who finishes the Farm2 on gold.
- Put Peasant6 on lumber.
- Put Peasant7 on lumber.
- Build Farm3 with the Peasant who brings in the 300th lumber.
- Put Peasant8 on gold.
- Put Peasant9 on lumber (continue to build Peasants, alternate between gold and lumber).
- Put the Peasant who finishes Farm3 on lumber.
- Build Lumber Mill with the Peasant who brings in the 450th lumber (lumber bug).
- Build Shipyard.
On Medium Resources
Open sea building on medium is a lot like open sea building on low, except that you can get a first Battleship out before you build your Oil Platform. Most medium building orders make the mistake of putting too much into getting the first Battleship out first. It takes a while to find and rip down a Shipyard or Foundry. The great sacrifices some building orders make to get the first Battleship out are just not worth the few early (and rather pointless) shots on the Oil Platform.
Here's how to start on medium:
- Build Town Hall (lumber bug).
- Build Farm1.
- Put Peasant1 on gold.
- Put Peasant2 on gold.
- Build Farm2 with Peasant3.
- Build Lumber Mill with Peasant4 (lumber bug).
- Put Peasant5 on gold.
- When Peasant3 finishes Farm2, put him on lumber.
- Put Peasant6 on lumber.
- Build Farm3 with Peasant7.
- Put Peasant8 on gold.
- When Peasant4 finishes Lumber Mill, put him on lumber.
- Put Peasant9 on gold.
- When Peasant7 finishes Farm3, build Shipyard with him.
- Put Peasant10 on lumber.
- Build Farm4 with Peasant11.
- Put Peasant12 on gold.
- Put Peasant13 on gold.
- Put Peasant14 on lumber.
On High Resources
I don't play sea on high. Too much depends on guessing here. It is even more of a rock-paper-scissors game than land on high.
War2 Building Orders / University of Utah / Ivory (sl7506@u.cc.utah.edu)
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