Help a low elo player improve their castle age game

Hey DE fans,

I used to play a bunch of AOE2 in high school / college and am loving the rejuvenation of the community thanks to DE!

I mainly play infantry civs. I do play 1v1, but have mostly been playing 3v3 or 4v4 ranked with friends. We used to get our butt kicked on Arena / Black Forest, but realized that our strength is in rushing and early fights, that’s why our new favorite maps are Oasis / Yucatán etc.

https://aoe2.net/#profile-76561198000790940

I generally play civs like Bulgarians (free Militia line upgrades, OP imperial age Konniks), Goths (cheap infantry, spam spam spam), Japanese (Fast infantry and Samurai). I still need to try Aztecs and Vikings.

My gameplay is pretty standard. 21 vill feudal, make 5 Militia, upgrade to MAA, get both Blacksmith techs. Attack and harass. Sometimes I die to archers, sometimes I kill vills, depends.

Then I go castle with 27 vills. Then I hit my main problem. Once I’m in castle, I’m not sure what to do. Just make 5 knights and rush? That seems like the best option. However, a lot of times the opponent masses archers or has many more knights. Either of these easily break through my palisade walls and it’s gg.

• I could make castle units but by the time I make 5-10 new vills, get the stone etc, I’m already attacked. And if I make more vills, then I don’t have resources to make 20-30 army units.

• Should I do scout rush in feudal instead?

• Should I just make 10 Longswords and 10 skirms to play safe?

Most of the time I wind up making pikes (since I’m in castle and don’t have tons of RSS), become the defacto meatshield while my allies mop everyone else up.

I’m trying to figure out what to do as soon as I hit castle, especially with respect to the army composition.

Thanks for the help! Wololo.

P.S. I’m still perfecting my build order. I’m sometimes 2ish villagers behind others, mainly because I keep forgetting to load up the TCs with new vills. I wish there was an Idle TC mod like the Idle Vill mod :).