3 Scouts → Fast Castle
SitauxProduce exactly three Scouts from the Stable and combine them with the starting Scout. Stop there by default: every extra Scout costs 80 food and pushes the Castle timing back.
Keep the group alive, force Spearmen and walls, deny scouting and protect your own closure. Do not dive Town Centers or trade into Spears merely to justify the investment.
A generic civilization should target Castle Age around 19–20 minutes. Map food, civilization bonuses and clean execution can improve it; defensive Feudal production must delay it when the opponent commits.
Build timeline
The first row shows new villagers, transfers and task assignments; the figures below are the totals after the step.
Dark Age
1Build the 2 starting houses with the initial villagers, then establish the first 6 villagers on sheep under the Town Center
6
06
0
0
2Send villagers 7 through 9 to wood and build a Lumber Camp
93600
3Villager 10 lures the first boar; finish the current sheep before switching the food villagers
1037004Send villagers 11 and 12 to food under the Town Center
123900
5At 13 population, take one food villager to build 2 houses, then return it to food
12 villagers total
6Send the next 4 villagers to berries and build a Mill
16313007Lure the second boar before the first one runs out so food remains under the Town Center
8Send villager 17 to food and villagers 18 through 20 to wood; seed 1 Dark Age farm and research Loom
+12061400
9Click Feudal Age at 21 population: 20 villagers plus the starting Scout
2061400
10During the transition, move 2 food villagers to wood, then build a Barracks and a house
208120011Queue 2 villagers before reaching Feudal and rally them to straggler trees
Feudal Age12On reaching Feudal Age, build a Stable with 2 villagers and research Double-Bit Axe and Horse Collar
2081200
13Produce exactly 3 new Scouts, then stop Stable production: the starting Scout makes this a group of 4
14Move out as one group, avoid Spearmen and Town Center fire, and use the threat to finish walling your own base
15Send villagers 21 through 24 to straggler trees and turn them into farmers as soon as each 60 wood is available
2481600
16Stabilize at 10–12 farms; do not buy Bloodlines, Forging or additional Scouts before the Castle click
17Send villagers 25 through 29 to gold and build a Mining Camp; stop adding farms once roughly 400 food is banked
2981650
18Build a Blacksmith with one walling villager and click Castle Age as soon as 800 food and 200 gold are secured
2981650
19During the Castle transition, move 2–3 exhausted hunt or berry villagers to wood, reach 6 on gold and keep the rest on farms
12910136020Add the second Stable during the transition only if you can still queue a Knight immediately on reaching Castle Age
Castle Age21On reaching Castle Age, queue the first Knight immediately; add Bloodlines after the first units rather than delaying the initial power spike
22Use the surviving Scouts for vision and surrounds while the Knights raid; add a Town Center only after military production is stable