CBA Bible

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Halt
Posts: 662
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 6:48 am

CBA Bible

Unread postby Halt » Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:02 pm

This thread was originally posted by Lord Mijatovic on aoe2mac.net

Chapter 1


In the beginning, God created CBA

Overview
CBA is a game of teamwork and military attacking and defensive strategies
The optimal game is 4 v 4 players choosing random civs, to achieve civ balance. It can also be played 3 v 3, however anything lower then this usually ends in an unbalanced game.

Initial Gameplay

Civs and Chat
Once the game has started the first move of all players should be to click the horn in the top right corner. This reveals who your teammates are, you enemies and what civs you all have.
Initially, if you chat, your teammates will be the ones that see the messages. However you have the option of ticking your enemies chat box in order for them to see what you are saying also.
The idea of doing this at the beginning is to get an idea of where your team is strong and where it is weak. Also where your enemy is strong and where they have weakness.
Top players will coordinate an immediate attack and defense strategy.
Razing civs - like huns and goth will most likely be directed to a particular enemy base, and vice versa to protect your own team from the enemies strongest razing civs. Ranged civs will mostly be used for protection and defensive strategy in the initial stages of the game.

The Map
The colours never change in CBA and are always in the same position. Its important to memorize these colours, so you can quickly coordinate with your teammates.
One of the biggest mistakes from new and inexperienced players is not monitoring the game map regularly during the game. Through this map we can see where the enemy is attacking and if one of our teammates is getting doubled or tripled. Top players will be able to see this quickly and go and help their teammates even before the teammate needs to call for help.
Just outside the top left of the map there is a small button which allows you to mark a spot on the map with an X for your teammates to see. This can be used to highlight you need help, or highlight where you wish your team to attack.

Razing Gates and Castles
This is how you obtain villagers in CBA. Each civ has a different amount of razes necessary to obtain (2) villagers. For example, Mayans and Brits need one raze, Chinese and Byza need 2 razes, Spanish need 3 razes and so on.
Getting villagers allows you to build defensives walls, along with barracks, archery ranges, stables etc.
When a players castles have all been razed by his enemies that player has lost the game.
Players cannot delete front gates or original towers during a game or they will be autobooted.

Upgrades
Behind your castles lie your university and your blacksmith. In the beginning of a game, only the Viking civ starts in Castle Age and has access to castle age upgrades which should be obtained straight away. All other civs start in Feudal ages and will not have access to upgrades until they reach Castle Age.

Castle Age and Imperial Age
Aside from Vikings, all other civs need a certain amount of kills to reach castle age and imperial age. Once these ages have been reached, upgrades are available and more units can be made.
The amount of kills to reach Castle and Imperial age is dependent on the civ you have. For Castle Age most civs are between 200 and 300 kills.
For Imperial Age it varies a lot more, with Mayans being 450 kills, but Persians and Spanish being 750 kills.




Units Available once in Castle and Imperial Age
Each civ has different strengths when reaching imperial age.
For example Mayans do not have Cavaliers or Paladins, nor do Aztec. Instead they have Eagle Warriors. Franks have an excellent Paladin. Mongols have excellent siege rams and cavalry archers.
Players must choose which units to build sometimes not only based on what is available but also what his enemies are using. Knowing where you civs strengths are and how to use though strengths is vital to winning games of CBA.

Close and Long Spawn
Behind a players castles he has a king. The king controls where your units spawn to. In front of the king are 3 relics, Close, Normal and Long Spawn.
When under attack, close spawn is the optimal spawn in order to be able to mass units. Long spawn is utilized often when a player has built up his base heavily and wants his castle units to spawn to outside his front gates.
The player who does not close spawn when his front gates are destroyed is a player who will be dead soon.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____
Crush your enemy, have him driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women

Last edited by Lord Mijatovic on Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: The CBA Bible
Lord Mijatovic
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 6:15 am


Posts: 247
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:49 am
Location: Xanadu
Chapter 2: The Civ's

Possibly the most important thing to know when playing CBA is how to use the civ that you get. Who to use it against, and how to micro manage that civ to get the best results

The most basic knowledge is whether your civ is suitable for razing or not. If you start razing gates and castles with the wrong civ, you will just feed your enemies with kills leading them to imperial age quicker and so giving them a huge advantage.

At the simplest level, you have civs that are ranged, and civs that can raze. Some can do both quite well. Ranged civs primarily should be used for protecting your teammates in the early stages of the game. A typical mistake is a ranged civ going straight away to raze gates of his next door opponent before getting blacksmith upgrades therefore not defending the team and putting the team at an instant disadvantage.


Ranged Civs

Brits

Brits are very effective when massed and used against the right units. They are ideal against infantry aside from Goth. It is important to take advantage of the Brits range. So when going to defend a teammates gates its important not to put them in the middle of the fighting, but on the outside of the fighting. They should be kept in tight formation to focus their arrows. Much of the time they should be kept in Stand Ground formation to keep this tight formation.
Brits should not raze in the beginning unless a teammate prepares a gate raze for them that only needs a few hits to finish. Otherwise they will take too long to take a gate down and get killed in the meantime, or your teammates will get killed because you are not protecting them.

Once Castle Age upgrades have been taken Brits can go get the single raze they need to obtain villagers.

Brits should travel in numbers or they won't be effective.

At all costs Brits need to stay away from Mayans and Goth who will own them. If you are getting attacked by either call for help from your teammates or it will be a fast death for you

In imperial age brits do not get Paladins. Usually the most effective units to make are 200 Arbalasts or 200 Cavalry Archers.


Chinese

Chinese are the weakest ranged civ in CBA. They can be owned by Brits and Mayan so stay away from them as well as goths. Again their main use is defending your teammates in the beginning.

Chinese in mass can be very effective if used in combination with your teammates. They can make fast work of infantry units - aztec, jap and teuts

The same principals count for brits as for chinese in general. 200 arbalasts or cavalry archers is also the desired imp unit to produce depending on what your opponents have.
They can raze faster then Mayan and Brit, and need 2 razes to get villagers.

Mayans

Mayans are the fastest spawning civ and are the best archer civ in CBA. They will own Brits and Chinese. They are great against infantry, aside from Goth.

The same principal goes for Mayan as for Brit, don't go razing gates early unless helped by a teammate.

One of the best attributes of these three archers civs is that they are very good for blocking the sides of your castles. Sometimes infantry units move by their own accord from the stand ground position. Archers will not and are very effective to help your teammates also by blocking the sides of their castles.
For example if your teammate is goth and he is getting his castles attacked, you should be blocking the sides for him with your archers and letting him kill the units.

Mayans can get to castle age very quickly if used against the right opponent civs and once they have castle age upgrades they are very effective and should move to imperial age quickly.

However Mayans do not have Stables which is a big drawback. Instead they have eagle warriors, so strategy once in imperial age is to build 200 eagle warriors. Alternatively you should build 200 archers.

Mayans need only 1 raze to get villagers

Mongols
Mongols can be an excellent civ in CBA due to their speed. Again they should be used for defense in the early part of the game. At all costs stay away from Goth and Saracen. Byzantines will also chew up Mongols because of the Byza armour.
Mongols can be used very well with a hit and run tactic. Using their speed to stay away from infantry while still picking them off. Mongols will totally own Japs, Viks, Aztecs and Teuts if used correctly. Therefore you should be looking to defend your gates and your teammates gates in the early part of the game as this is where your opponent will be going.

Mongols also have the fastest Rams in the game. They are hugely effective. If possible put some of your teammates infantry inside those rams and the rams will move faster then paladins. They are also very strong and will make fast work of walls and castles

The imp strategy for Mongols is to make about 180 cavalry archers and 20 rams. They are one of the most effective civs in imperial age because of the strength and speed of their rams.

Mongols need 2 razes for villagers.

If possible Mongols should build an extra wall area outside their base. Once the wall is made with a gate they should build siege workshops to produce their rams while making cavalry archers inside their base

Spanish

Spanish are one of the top civs in CBA. They are very effective in defending yourself and your teammates, have good range and good power. The first move of Spanish should be to defend your teammates along with defending any quick attack against your own gates. Ideal strategy is to leave 10 units outside your gate and send the rest off to defend your teammates.

If it is quiet spanish are also effective at razing gates and will need three razes to get villagers. Most of the time once you have received your castle age upgrades that is the best time to get villagers and go razing. Spanish need 750 kills to get to imperial age so its important to concentrate on kills because spanish become less effective when the opposition is imperial age already.

Spanish have a strong Paladin and so 200 Paladins is ideal for imperial age. If your opponent builds a heavy camel, its better to change to cavalry archers


Turks

Turks are a good civ in CBA because they are strong with good range and very good for defending. However if not used against the right opponents and micromanaged they can be very weak.
Turks should be kept in close groups so their firing is not all over the place. The first move of Turks should be to defend his teammates. This is the critical mistake of most new players with Turks because they go straight to razing gates, giving kills away and letting their teammates die.
The ideal strategy with turks is to use the main group to prevent an opponent getting out of his base, using range to take his units one by one. At the same time 10 units can be used to take another opponents gate out from afar. If mirco-managed properly your opponent might not even notice you are razing his gate with your small group because the turks range is so good and they can stand far away from the gate to raze it.
Turks will need 4 razes for villagers and should start looking for them in Castle Age.

In Imperial Age the only issue with making 200 janissaries is that they take a long time to spawn. So often a cavalry archer is a better option. Or making a mix of both.

Turks are very effective at blocking the sides of castle from being razed

Saracen

Saracen is one of the top civs in CBA and can often be the difference between winning and losing. Sara will own all horse civs - Mongol, Spanish, Byzantine, Huns, Perisans and they will also own infantry.
Sara should be used to defend your teammates straight away, especially if your opponents have Huns or Persians.

Sara does have an achilles heal and that is Teuts. Teuts eat Sara for breakfast and they do it without a side of bacon.
The most effective Sara players will simply follow Huns or Persians for the whole game, trapping them in their base, while sending the other third of their units off help another teammate. This alone can win the game for your team nullifying your opponents most dangerous weapons
With all this helpful work from you, your teammates should set you up some razes that you can grab quickly in Castle Age.

Sara get a nice upgrade in Imperial Age for the marmelukes. Theres a few different strategies for imperial age - you can combine marms with rams, or you can build 200 cavalry archers. Sara do not have stables. Sara also have a great heavy camel if your opponent has Paladins

Sara will need 2 razes to get villagers

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____
Crush your enemy, have him driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women


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Re: The CBA Bible
thomas
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:05 am


Posts: 204
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:57 pm
why the heck would you close group jannisaries. thats the opposite of what we do, we put them in spread formation so they can kill more stuff at once.
i will wait for your pieces on the other civs.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____
Names Ive gone by
HIDragon
The_Dragon
xThomas


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Re: The CBA Bible
Lord Mijatovic
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:53 am


Posts: 247
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:49 am
Location: Xanadu
Same reason as with archers, I find it more effective for killing

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____
Crush your enemy, have him driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women


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Re: The CBA Bible
leonidas
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:18 am
Talkative horse anatomy


Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:34 pm
for range units, the formation (closed or open) and the stance (attack defense or stand ground) depends on the situation, as follows:

SITUATIONS WHERE SPREAD FORMATION GIVES YOUR RANGE UNITS THE ADVANTAGE
-your units have longer range than enemy*
-there is a possibility of enemy onager-type units

SITUATIONS WHERE TIGHT FORMATION GIVES YOUR RANGE UNITS THE ADVANTAGE
-vs melee attack units
-your units have shorter range than enemy units, or equal range*

SITUATIONS WHERE STAND GROUND STANCE IS THE BEST FOR RANGE UNITS
-you found the perfect spot, ie on a hill or protected from melee in a niche

SITUATIONS WHERE DEFENSE STANCE IS BEST
-you are raiding a base and your army needs tight control and unit-to-unit micro
(almost exclusively for dark and feudal age in rm, sometimes in castle age as well, probably never in cba or dm)

SITUATIONS WHERE ATTACK STANCE IS BEST
-you are vs an enemy army and are patrolling into his army as a technique to kill it
-you are patrolling your army into enemy base as a raid on his eco

*some units ie janissaries have a listed range of 8, but they are inaccurate at that range; they are only acccurate close (im not sure exactly how close) so their effective range is quite short. mostly they do well bunched up.

Anyone who wants to test this out, pm me. we do a test game dm, post imp, and do janis closed vs janis spread for example and see what works out


The Civs continued....


Byzantines

In some ways Byza are the best civ in CBA simply because they own so many opponents. A handful of byza can take out 3 times as many goth. Even Sara which is the best counter civ for Byza does not kill them as quick as it does other 4 legged civs. Maya can be used effectively against byza if micro-ed correctly.

Many noobs will make the mistake of rushing to gates and starting to raze immediately with Byza. This is a major error because it takes away the advantage of byza immediately. In the early part of the game byza should be used to firstly protect your teammate who is getting the brunt of the attack and to also kill the units at enemy gates of where your team is attacking.

Byza only need 2 razes to get villys, and unless you are getting attacked hard from the beginning you can wait a little while before you go razing, do it when the time is right.
Byza should only raze castles if the enemy base is empty, or if your teammates do not have any razing civs and you have to take that role. Byza is not a razing civ by any means but can be utilised to do so if necessary.

In imp byza can make paladins and camels, selection determined by your opponents unit type. A nice cataphract upgrade is also available when turning imp which is 650 kills

Japs

Japs can be a very effective razing civ if used correctly. Samurai are also good against most other infantry and can quickly build up kills against vikings, aztecs and celts. When faced with archers wide formation is important in order not to get picked off. Japs own Korea, but are owned by Mongol.
Initial strategy with Jap should be to head straight for the gates of the enemies most potent razing civ in order to force that civ to defend. The ideal initial strategy is to send the first 16 guys out to hit two of the enemies gates and the next 8 sitting out in front of your own gate in case of attack. Should you not get attacked then you can follow up with a nice batch to finish off gates or to head straight for the castles of your opponent.
This strategy should be used in almost all cases unless Korea is one of your enemies whereby you should attack korea units preventing him from protecting his teammates or owning your teammates archers.
Japs are not the most effective civ in Imp, archery ranges are good to build as Jap Cav archers get two upgrades and spawn very fast allowing quick mass.
Japs needs 3 razes for villys.

Vikings

Vikings are a tricky civ indeed and in some cases could be considered the worst civ to get in others they can win the game. Importantly you get castle age university upgrades at the beginning of the game and viks is the only civ to get this. So instantly you should click on the wall upgrade which makes it much harder for your enemies to raze. These instant upgrades also allow you to be a bit more careless with your defence in the early part of the game leaving less guys to defend as your castles and walls are stronger.
Its very important to get two quick razes with Viks and get your villys building early. If you can do this and quickly wall yourself and mass 200 archers or knights - whichever suits your attacking plans, this extra amount of castle age units can give you a huge advantage early on in the game before your opponents are castle age/imp.
If however you cannot get these razes at the early stages and mass units, this is where the pain begins with vikings. Without villys its exceptionally hard to get to imp and you can end up getting completely owned by your enemies once they hit castle and imp.
Vikings are a bit weak when it comes to razing, but essentially they are a razing civ. Although its best to follow a similar strategy to Japs, when razing castles you must send units in mass otherwise they will get picked off by castles and towers
450 kills doesnt sound much to get to imp, but sometimes it can take an eternity if you have not got villys.
Imp vikings are one of the worst imp civs, without paladins, camels or strong cav archers. Best bet is to mass 200 archers or skirms and support your teammates with the stronger civs

Aztecs

Certain individuals who will remain nameless (Sol Buddha) seem to think Aztecs are a good civ. In reality they are the worst CBA civ. They are weak against other infantry, weak against ranged civs because they are not quick enough and weak against 4 legged civs.
For this reason you must choose your target cleverly and also help out in defence of your teammates.
Aztec are essentially a razing civ, but like vikings they need more mass then Japs to be effective. The same principals of wide formation apply against archer and ranged civs.

2 razes for Aztecs are important to get relatively early in the game so you can wall up and protect yourself.

Recent upgrades of Jags in the latest CBA version has improved them a little bit, but they are still a pain in the ass.

Aztecs do however have decent archers, and in imp you can spawn 200 eagle warriors very quickly. Only Goth spawn faster from barracks in imp. At 450 kills its not a long stretch to imp but if your enemy has a strong team you must consider getting kills early while also razing. Otherwise you will rendered useless late in the game unable to get kills because of weak units facing imp opponents.

Celts
Celts can be an exceptionally effective civ if handled with care. Without clever use they can be very ineffective.
The benefit of Celts is their extra speed over other infantry, and also they are quicker at getting through gaps in enemy lines. Nippy would be a good way to describe Celts. This nippyness is key to surprising your enemies and taking advantage of poor defensive setups. Against Persia Celts can fit through tiny gaps around the castles and if used in numbers can raze very quickly.
Against ranged civs celts can again be very effective if microed properly. Against a single archer civ celts can actually own if sent in wide formation on open ground. But they must be sent in numbers, as archer civs will own celts if numbers are not enough.
Same attacking principals as Japs apply.
Two razes will get you villys and 450 kills will get you imp. Celtic Paladins are far from the best paladins but still effective enough to do damage simply because of the low kill count in order to reach imp. Best to mass knights quickly in castle age to get to imp fast.

Teuts

Teuts are the second best razing civ after huns. If you get teuts in numbers to an unprotected opponents castle its bye bye castle very quickly.
Teuts are Sara's kryptonite and if Sara is your opponent you must attack Saras base or at the very least attack his units. If you do not you will be relegated to being a perennial noob for the rest of your life.
Teuts drawback is that they are slow movers, so you need to be very strategic in where you attack. When sending to gates you can send low numbers, when sending to castles it must be a decent sized force so it wont get thinned out while approaching the castles at slow pace.
3 Razes will get you villys, and Paladins are the imp weapon of choice.
If used wisely teuts can win a game on their own provided they are protected well by teammates.

Persia
Persia is indeed a riddle. Unusable for noobs, highly effective for pros as long as sara isnt around.
The riddle is whether to use your eles to raze or to kill. Eles are deceptively slow razers, but because they are difficult to kill they can still raze well if there is not an effective enemy attacking the units.
Generally eles should create an attacking diversion allowing quicker razing teammates to get around the sides of the castles while the eles take out units in front of the castles.

Defending with ele's is very difficult and the reason why noobs can't handle them. You can jam the sides of your castles with eles and there can still be a gap which infantry can slip through despite it looking like you have blocked sufficiently. They key when defending against castle razing is to block with at least double the amount of units you usually would use and close spawn keeping some units on front of the castle. This will help you clean out the attack quick and they launch your own attack.

The other riddle with eles is whether to build other units in castle and imp. A strategy I enjoy is not to build any other types of units at all and try and get the magic 750 kills to get imp. I have won 2 v 4 games with imp eles plus another civ. If however your team is being over run by paladins you will need to mass heavy camels.
Imp elephants will run rampant, are very hard to kill and will quickly raze any scattered enemy buildings or buildings inside the enemies base.
If you adopt the no building strategy you should build double or triple front walls, and then build 6 x 6 set of towers in the middle of your base behind your triple walls, and leave 5-6 eles outside your walls to kill any rams sent to you.
The no build strategy should not be used when Mong rams are around.

Huns

Huns are the best civ in CBA because they can win a game in minutes. They are fast, furious and if not defended against perfectly will destroy you before you blink.
An experienced player who shall remain nameless (Sol buddha) once told me to get kills at the start of a game with huns instead of razing. This is madness as it takes away your early advantage instantly. Those of you who want to make the game last long may want to adopt Sols strategy, but essentially winning the battle in the quickest way possible should be the aim of CBA.
There are very few players who know how to play Huns well, but even played poorly Huns can still win the game for your team.
Ottoman has a strategy of razing a single gate of each of the enemies before going for castles, opening them all up, this is one strategy.

My strategy is to quickly send out the first 8 huns to open up the agreed target. Then send the second 8 huns to the same targets second gate. Your first batch should arrive even before he is out of his gate and you have an instant advantage. When the second batch arrives this is then when you decide whether to keep sending to that target or go elsewhere. If the target is still open, the third batch should be a lot bigger and head straight for the castles, picking up the early troops that were sent en route to the castle. If the attack is coordinated properly your teammates should be taking out the blocks of your enemy allowing for quick castle attack.

Good teams will see where huns are attacking and they will send defenses. If this happens and theres too much traffic, its time to change target and letting your team know you will do this. Because Huns are so fast this target changing is very effective as defenses simply cannot get to the other target quick enough to prevent huns razing. Ideally you keep repeating this razing strategy and change target strategy unless you have taken out one of your opponents.
Of course this is based on the assumption that your teammates are protecting you.

As soon as the game starts with Huns, close spawn. As soon as you get villys build 1 stable and upgrade bloodlines.
If you have not been able to raze an opponent and have no more opportunities to raze because opponents are walled up, thats the time to go for kills. Huns imp after 350 kills, and then you simply mass paladins.

The single biggest mistake even good players make with huns is waiting at the beginning and massing units. This removes your speed advantage instantly and can lose you the game because your enemies will be on your gates before you even get out, blocking you in and forcing you to defend therefore alleviating your razing power

Goths

You gotta love and hate goths at the same time. Exceptionally effective against archers mong and korea, but shocking defensively.
Goths spawn very slow in the early stages, making it hard to block and also attack at the same time. Goths need two razes for villys but they cannot build concrete walls and therefore are very open to enemy attacks. You are basically relying on your team to defend you and wall you as soon as possible.
Effective defense with goths is to build 2 towers at the sides of your castles, building them all 20% each before moving to the next one and then finishing them all off.

If you can survive the initial attacks on you and get those 450 kills to make imp, you then build barracks very fast. Be careful building barracks in castle age and taking the goth castle upgrade because you will suddenly see all your barracks auto delete.
Goths spawn out of barracks in imp like lightning. They are miles faster then any other civ and you can mass 200 goths in almost a minute if you have enough barracks. Do that and most of the time you will win the game

Chapter 3: Defense

Rm Bourgeois will tell you there is no skill in CBA, and they would be wrong. Chapters 1 and 2 alone prove that. Defending is also a skill in CBA and your ability to defend yourself and your teammates is the difference between winning and losing the game.

Defense is really a step by step thing, and if you get it right your enemy can't raze your castles unless you are getting doubled or tripled.
Firstly at the start of a game you must make a decision on if your enemy is going to attack you specifically. If you are persia, goth or another razing civ, ideally after you have sent some troops out to the enemy, you should leave about 8 troops hanging around outside your gates to protect your gates from the imminent attack. This is also good for getting kills at the start of the game because the enemy will be focused on your gates while your few guys will be cutting them down. Never only defend and put all troops outside your gates waiting. If you do this you are inviting trouble onto you and simply cannot win the game. You must ABK - always be killing. Your enemy must be made to think about defending himself as well as attacking.

When you see your gate starting to go on fire, this is the signal to Close spawn (move your king behind your castles in front of the Close spawn relic). After closing spawn you need 6 - 8 guys blocking the gaps on each side of your castles in order to prevent the enemy getting around the back of your castles. Blocking units must be put on Stand Ground stance. Here you must be careful that you block but do not block your own spawn from the castles. So pay close attention and micro your units well into position.
If your enemy is smart he will send in a ranged civ along with a razing civ to take out your blocks. He may only need to take out one guy to make the gap for the razing troops to get around the castle. If the enemy succeeds in this you must take your blocking units off stand ground and quickly attack the units that are razing your castle.

Without villagers this is really all you can do. But the most vital thing if you are under heavy attack is to tell your teammates EARLY. While you can expect your team to be watching the map and see you need help, they may be busy at the time and miss it for 20 seconds. So you need to mark the map and say help before its too late. 20-30 seconds can be the difference between your team getting to you or you getting killed. Manys as game has been won with a teammate who had all but one of his castles razed and a 500hp remaining castle - but 100 of his teammates troops eventually got to him and made it impossible to finish the last castle. You dont communicate well in CBA, then you die simple as that. You can't bitch and moan if you dont signal your team and you die because its your own fault for not signaling.

Once you have villagers, there are a few important steps to take. If you don't take these steps religiously you are only reducing your odds of winning the game. I have seen the best CBA players get over confident and leave out walls, gates etc only for someone to sneak in and kill them leaving them feeling like a noob.

The very first thing you do when you get villys is wall your castles off. If you are under heavy attack or imminent heavy attack then you quickly build two concrete blocks at the sides of your castles where you would normally have your troops blocking.
If you are not under imminent attack then you highlight both villys and draw a full wall all the way across just in front of your protecting towers. When the wall is drawn and your villys are building it, deselect your villys and delete one or two unbuilt blocks of the wall in the centre. Then select one of the villys and build a gate BEHIND the wall. Never ever build your gate in the same line as your wall. You might as well not even have a wall if you do that because your gate will get razed easily and its also much easier for the enemy to sneak through it.
At this point you must change back your spawn from Close to Normal, otherwise troops will stop your villys from completing the wall and gate.
Whether you delete one or two concrete blocks in front of your wall depends on your civ. Bad idea to have a very small gap with Korea for example because the troops will all get squashed together in a bottleneck slowing you down overall.
Remember you can lock your gate and if huns or teuts are approaching lock it fast before they sneak through.

Once this wall is complete you separate your villys to different tasks. If there is no enemy at the front of your base or passing the front of your base a lot, send 1 villy and draw a full wall outside your gates if they are still there or where the gates had previously been if they are gone. Once the wall is drawn quickly delete a block in front of each of the gates allowing yourself 3 exits. If your gates are all gone, just delete one block allowing for a single gate to be built behind the wall. Again you must build the gate behind the wall or else it is useless.
If you have the time and are not getting attacked make a second gate behind the wall because you do not want your enemy blocking your only exit and therefore removing you from the game until your teammate helps you out.
While you are doing this you should also be using your other villy. Beside your castles you also have a gate which at this point should be deleted. Some players delete this gate right at the beginning which is a mistake because it makes it easier to attack your castles. This gate should only be deleted once you have walled the front of your castles.
Once you have deleted this gate you build 2 buildings at the back of the available square. When they are complete you build units and set your spawn for the middle of your base.
Then you build two more buildings in front of the two you have just built and repeat spawn setting etc. You must build them in this sequence otherwise sometimes your villys wont be able to get back around or finish the back two buildings easily.

So, after all this is done you can think about building buildings in the main area of your base. This should only be done when your front wall is complete, otherwise you are leaving easy razes for your enemies to stroll in and get villagers from incomplete buildings and undefended buildings. This is one of the most common mistakes.

Things to consider when building in the main area - does your enemy have a ranged civ? Will he pick your villager off if you are building too close to your outside gates? So best thing is build 4 buildings to start with, two on either side directly in front of eachother. Once complete build another 1 on either side and then another 1 on either side. At least then if your villy does get picked off you have still completed at least 6 buildings inside your main base area. Once you have 8 buildings in the main area, set the spawn of all your units to outside your front gates. Also change your king at the back to Long Spawn. Then you wont have any traffic jams in your base which cause big problems. Once this is done you can build 3 more buildings down the centre of your main base remembering to set the spawn outside the gates when they are complete.

Now you are really motoring, and you can decide whether to delete some of your castles in order to fit more buildings. If your castles have basically become irrelevant because they are not spawning and not defending attacks, you should really delete at least one of them to fit and additional 3 buildings. If massing units fast is vital to your survival, delete 3 castles and replace with buildings. But you better be sure that lone remaining castle cannot be rushed quickly and undo all your good work. I have won many games because of people making this mistake. All it takes is one eagle eyed enemy to spot that you have left your castle prone and tell his teammates to attack and you can be dead in less then a minute.

Other tips for defense of your own base If you know huns or another razing civ are coming, simply put 6 guys on stand ground right in front of the gate so it cant be razed. This will slow down your enemy and make it much harder to get a raze unless they are doubling or tripling you.
If your enemy has prepped one of your gates for maya or brits leave about 12 troops on attack stance outside your gates around the range of where maya/brit can hit the gate and obviously in the place where they are mostly likely to shoot from. Preventing your enemy getting villys can be the difference between winning and losing.

Defending your teammates is again very important and not simply a matter sending units to his base. If you have a civ like turks, spain, mong, maya when your teammate is getting attacked you need to get these units as close to his castle as possible so they are being protected while they are protecting your teammate. Its almost impossible to raze someone if his teammate has a big bunch of ranged troops sitting in front of his castle.

If your teammate is Hun, goth or persia, you should be doing him a favour if you have a ranged civ and blocking his sides for him freeing up his troops to go and raze. Very few people do this in the game, yet its such an important tactic. The difference between 16 mayans and 16 huns outside attacking is huge and can be the game changer.
You can't be selfish in CBA unless you have Huns and to an extent goths and persia. With every other civ, your team comes first. If you have this mentality then your win ratio will vastly improve and you will also notice your score improves as well.

Lastly walling your teammates is a key element of CBA. If you have more then two villys this should be the first thing you do with villy number 3 - send him to your teammate. Obviously recon the area and route which the villy is going to travel through. Sending a villy through a bunch of mayans is not a smart move. Timing is key and you must make sure the coast is clear. If the coast simply isnt clear and you have spare villys, you can attempt a skillfull navigation through the enemy. I have seen villys wander through a sea of enemies and make it alive, but when doing this against decent players its about a 5% chance the villy will make it through.
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Clown
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Re: CBA Bible

Unread postby Clown » Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:10 pm

Couple things to note and emphasize on behalf of Halt's colleague:

- Walling opponents is very annoying to deal with.
- You need to be able to collect information (i.e., colors, civs, players, positions) and develop an initial game in about 5 seconds.
- You need to know how to be effective with your unit type.
- Make 200 units in the late game. Learn hotkeys so you can make tons of units quickly.

CBA is not hard.

Fair enough?


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