Economy Modules and Build Order dissection

The aim is to cover why the basic builds go as they do, from VS-perspective, in order to crystallize for player-beginners or advanced-noobs alike, why it is exactly the steps that one sees in gameplay. This will be a bit of a mashup of already known figures and things from various resources. Rare is the player who doesn't know every possible army-production module out there (4w/7g 2-range arch, 9f scouts (huns 11f), 7f/7g knights etc), but the same should be applied and understood for economy as well, which is the focus here.

Knowing this will help in planning correct re-allocation of villagers, especially in situations where you are forced to do so (because of forward/MaA/trush inflicted pressure), to prioritize certain aspects of the economy, or to at least further one's understanding what threatens them later if a particular module is disrupted. The focus, instead of the steps executed in a BO, is how long which kind of Eco-allocation is in effect, presenting the "matrix" of modules enabling different things with different timings.

For simplicity, I will take an example of a standard 21-22pop feudal, following the standard { 6f | 3w | +2f=8f(boar1) | +4f(mill) | +2f | +4w | Click-up } scout rush.

Starting from the beginning, the first section on written BOs is usually 6 vills on (a) sheep, which everyone knows to be the VSf amount to sustain villager production from one TC. This priority scales to castle age for booming purposes, naturally.

Second step is 3 to wood, building a 100w Lumber Camp. This module collects enough for houses every 5pop increase and a mill at 4minute mark when you move onto berries*. Why you want to not have 6w this early, during the dark age, and go only 3-4, is because you're using natural food sources instead of farms. Also follows that the last villagers on Dark Age are wood-additions in preparation of farming-economy during Feudal, when most of the natural food-resources have been extinguished (or, in some cases, simply re-allocations to wood from a food-tight build after click-up, eg. drush to early feudal with 23-25villagers).

By Loan, I mean to imply a production module that is, for a time, unsupported by villagers, relying on the banked resources.

-4. One needs 325w to build a Military Building (stable, 175w), double-bit axe (100f/50w), horse-collar (75f/75w) and to have wood for a house (25-30w). You will gain this even with 8w (4+4), but 10w is needed since we are already maintaining 2 farms, which require 60w each. Your natural food sources will also be running out, and you need 60w for each natural-food villager under TC (5 of them, after diverting 3 out of the 8 boar/sheep eaters to a 2nd LC), as soon as plausible, in order for the banked resources to suffice long enough , to achieve a steady state (of fully villager-supported eco-modules). Upon arriving to feudal, the 100+ wood surplus will be used to make farms with the TCf villagers, nearly instantly.

-5. As stated above, the eco techs require 175f, and the rest will be "banked" for later, ~400-175= 225f, the loan.

-6. When a steady state of scouts- and villager production is reached, stopping scouts-production (when not researching food-costing upgrades) effectively gives 9-10F of a surplus each 30 second interval, namely the scout-cost of 80f/30sec, even while creating villagers. Note that during Wheelbarrow, surplus may net a total of 14-15f for 75sec, totaling as much as 350f banked, leaving idling of scouts-module to generate only 450f, or even less if there is efficiency-brought banking from earlier. This then varies, but it can be estimated to be within 4 minutes of after WB has been completed, but potentially as low as 2 minutes.

-7. 3G gather a bit over 150g in just under 3minutes, eg. from 13min till 16min mark. If continuing to add up to 6G from 13min on-wards, while researching for example Bloodlines (100g), 250g mark is reached still within 4mins, so researching 100g worth delays Click-up by approx. 1min.

*subsequently, for really food-tight builds where you don't even think of adding dark farms, like trush, one sees only 1+1, which provides houses and a mill, so no barracks or dark farms (the latter ones being mutually exclusive alternatives on <4w builds).

**25w-30w (WK-AoC) every 125sec, from "Rule of 10", an approximation: 1 vill 10 res every 30 sec = ~33 for a woodcutter in 100sec and 25 VS for building it.

***from fulfillment of TC-food module no. 1 and house+mill no.2 at min 3, starts a surplus addition of each new villager to this module, growing by one man/woman each 25 seconds, accumulating food in an exponential manner. Note, that the last step (a 25sec increment) can be 14 food villagers if Loom is researched last (or just 8 if researched earlier/at start), resulting in a potential 100+ difference compared to an earlier Loom, making it possible to gather up to 650f for this module before 8 minutes and clicking up, boosting the 'loan' directly.

I will leave this a bit WIP since I'm getting tired, but I hope it's still helpful for some, and that with it people can begin to analyze different builds or their own playing in the same manner, to get better and more accurate in eco, or to simply understand builds better without needing to blindly believe in them.