Should I be advancing to the next Age/Level of units immediately or max out on the current Age first?

I am very much interested in strategy games such as Age of Empires, and one thing I always find hard to figure out is to whether I should:

a) Max out to the permissible level of all my available buildings before I upgrade to next age or level, or
b) Immediately upgrade when the option is made available

Is there a general rule for this? Are there other things to consider?

age-of-empires-ii-the-age-of-kings

Best Answer

There are a number of things to consider when looking at ageing up.

What type of strategy are you playing?
Are you going for a rush (feudal/knight rush) or more of a long-game type strategy?
Can your economy sustain the growth from advancing to a new age?
What is your opponent doing?

If you're going to play a rush-style game, you need to advance quicker. If you're being rushed, you need to make sure you can get some defensive structures up. Researches and upgrades are expensive - you need to make sure your economy can produce enough resources to buy them.

Personally, I like to get to feudal age as soon as possible after reaching ~20 villagers, and then try to rush down the enemy, and only go to castle age once I have a well developed economy, or I need rams to take a town center.

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How do I get better at Age of Empires?

What you need to do to Fast Castle

Immediately queue up as many villagers as possible in your Town Center (TC). ...

Your scout should be on the move, searching out domesticated animals (like sheep) and wild animals (like boars) near your TC. ...

Send two villagers (1, 2) to build one house.

How do you beat Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition?

At this point in time, you will hopefully have over 100 villagers (in a normal 200 population game) and you will probably want around 130 villagers working at all times before you stop making new ones. This is to make sure you can supply your troops with the best upgrades and replace dead troops with new ones.

Beginner guide to the first 15 villagers [AoE2]

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