21 Vils Malay Flexible Opening

The goal of this build is to reach Feudal Age around the same time as other civilizations, but with 2 extra villagers that pay off as an advantage over time. You'll be fragile early on, since those 2 extra villagers take a while to pay for themselves, so play it safe in the early game. This same Dark Age build lets you go into Archers, Spear/Skirmisher, or a Scout rush, giving you a lot of flexibility. You could also go Militia or Man-at-Arms with free armor, which looks good on paper, but it doesn't really fit what the Malay want to be doing early on, which is buying time and playing safe until they reach a faster Castle Age. That's why this build sticks with Feudal Age play, using this flexible opening, then picking the right strategy in Feudal Age based on your opponent's civilization, the map, and your own strengths.

  1. [Dark] Send 6 villagers to sheep (pop 6)
  2. [Dark] Send 3 villagers to wood (pop 9)
  3. [Dark] Send 1 villager to boar (pop 10)
  4. [Dark] Send 1 vil to make house then make a mill (pop 11)
  5. [Dark] [Recommended] Lure deer with your scout once you found all your sheep
  6. [Dark] Next 5 vils to hunt under TC (get the second boar during this time) (pop 16)
  7. [Dark] Send 3 villagers to berries (pop 19)
  8. [Dark] Send 2 villagers to wood (pop 21)
  9. [Dark] Research loom
  10. [Dark] Research Feudal Age (perfect landing time: 9:13) (pop 21)
  11. [Feudal] Send 5 vils from hunt to make a second lumber camp (pop 21)
  12. [Feudal] Send 1 vil from hunt to make a barracks so it is ready when you hit feudal (earlier than other civs!)

What next: This is left open-ended on purpose, since the build is flexible enough to lead into 3 different openings from here, all of them strong: 1. Open into 1-Range Archers: send 4 villagers from hunt to gold once you hit Feudal Age and follow the regular Archer build. 2. If you see a Range: either follow up with Scouts to hold map control, or build your own Range and make defensive Skirmishers while walling and heading to Castle Age. 3. If you see them adding a lot of Militia or Man-at-Arms: either match them with more Militia, or add a Range and play into Archers. 4. Open into Spear/Skirmisher: just build a Range and start making Spearmen right away, Spear/Skirmisher with free infantry armor is a very dangerous opening for Malay. NOTE: every opening picks up Double-Bit Axe. Horse Collar is optional if you'd rather play more defensively and passively. In every opening, you're not going for an early kill, the point is either to stay safe while applying a little pressure to buy time to wall, or to stay defensive and wall up, deliberately giving your opponent the initiative so you get the defender's advantage. You can make as many Spearmen as you feel you need in any of these openings, the free armor makes them very effective early on. The overall goal is to hit Castle Age first and use that timing advantage to do some damage. From there, develop normally, your next big spike comes from reaching Imperial Age faster than your opponent, and timing that with a forward or central Castle is a great way to close out the game. Malay's late game is playable but awkward, so avoiding a long, drawn-out late game is important.

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