22+2 Vils Fast Castle on Fortress

Fortress is a tricky map that shows up fairly often in both 1v1 and Team Game map pools. There are a few strategies to choose from here, but most of them start the same way: a Fast Castle. Fortress starts you with 10 villagers, 1 Scout, 5 farms, 1 Barracks, 1 Castle, 4 houses, 4 towers, and a fully stone-walled base. NOTE: the Regicide version has some minor differences, most notably that you only start with 150 stone instead of 200. Just take 50 stone on the way to Castle Age to make up for that. This build gets you to Castle Age efficiently, opening the door to all kinds of strategies like pure booming or Unique Unit relic control. You don't want to go for a fast Feudal Age here (unless maybe playing Cumans or Malay), since Feudal Age units are too weak to pressure the map's defensive structures.

  1. [Dark] Queue up vils
  2. [Dark] Send 4 vils to berries and make a mill (pop 4)
  3. [Dark] Send 3 vils to wood and make a lumber camp (pop 7)
  4. [Dark] Send 3 vils to farms (pop 10)
  5. [Dark] Lure the boar with your scout (or a villager if you’re not comfortable luring with a scout)
  6. [Dark] The first 1-2 vils trained go to farms while waiting for the boar to come in
  7. [Dark] Next 6 vils to food under TC (9 total + 4 on berries) (pop 16)
  8. [Dark] Lure 2nd boar when it’s necessary. Time it so it comes before the first one runs out
  9. [Dark] Send 4 villagers to wood (pop 20)
  10. [Dark] When boar runs out, send all vils to farm, seeding 4 new farms
  11. [Dark] Send 2 villagers to gold (pop 22)
  12. [Dark] Research Feudal Age (perfect landing time: 7:10) (pop 22)
  13. [Feudal] Nothing to do so feel free to think about strategy, fix any stuck villager, or grab yourself a coffee
  14. [Feudal] Make sure to heal your scout then scout for relics/opponent
  15. [Feudal] Send 2 villagers to wood (pop 24)
  16. [Feudal] Take 3 wood villagers and make a market and a blacksmith (2 on market, 1 on blacksmith)
  17. [Feudal] Research Castle Age (perfect landing time: 10:40)
  18. [Castle] Research double bit axe
  19. [Castle] Research horse collar
  20. [Castle] When berries run out, send the vils to where you want to place your first TC (the timing should be about perfect)

What next: That's the end of the build. Here are a few ways to continue strategically: – You can go for a boom: simply add 2 more Town Centers and get Bow Saw and Heavy Plow – You can do a hybrid boom plus Unique Unit relic control: usually 1 extra Town Center right away, then a Monastery too. Make a few Unique Units and go for the relics – You can go for a 1 Town Center all-in: add Unique Units and send a villager forward for Siege, or use Petards to break down walls. Very effective with a strong Unique Unit, and you can always add Town Centers once the initial push runs its course – Don't be afraid to add a 4th Town Center in late Castle Age, it's usually a late-game map, so having a lot of villagers pays off. GLHF

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