The controlling the territory by placing military buildings part is so real. You don't even have to train units most of the time, it's just a psychological advantage against the opponent that makes them second guess if it's worth engaging. Making your opponent doubt themselves is probably more important than saving a few resources most of the time.
I have a suggestion for the next topic: army deployment transitions. Such as: offensive territory capture, defensive tactical retreat, auxiliary army deployment (some intermediate position that makes your troops available for multiple tasks and quick to reach multiple locations). And most importantly: the flow of battle between those in some real professional games. It would be awesome to see your insights, IamMagic.
I see it as TC range, Tower ranges, (Sentinel ranges for hades), Potential TC expansion location(s). Main goldmine, Chickens, Berries, Treelines. The TC range clips the towers and reaches everything built inside that circle. A tower doesn't do much DPS but it somewhat deters harass. Main goldmine has 3k gold, it lasts a lot longer than main hunt, chickens or berries, trees there are usually 3 options in main, often another at TC expansion. So I identify my expansion TC location options, I like to place my production buildings towards where I will expand but in range of my main TC or TC towers if needed. That way the troops are closer to where they will be needed and the buildings are safer too. I like to protect my tower(s) that protect my main goldmine, putting houses or other buildings to prevent the enemy getting into melee range of that tower. Early in the game I like to identify where I might want to put walls, related to if/where to expand and where my 2nd and 3rd goldmine options are. I like to make a place for my archers up against my production buildings so they can protect them cost effectively vs melee. I really enjoy building placement planning, it feels strategic. It might be my favourite part of the game. I like how it interconnects with the other elements of the game like being able to know what the opponent might have at that time and how it interconnects with game theory. Pity my apm is low XD.
And it might be ideal to have a gate in and out of production & or your main gold, especially if you go 2TC vs 1TC. It's pretty close to workers for repair and it might stop a pursuing army from getting on top of your army and production as you look to mass up.
From having worked daily with accountants you can definitely tell an accountant is making these videos! 😂 I love the analysis and approach though and truly appreciate these, could you please see if in the future we can hear more about unit compositions, counters and how to think about your army at each age? ❤
This explains so much. I've always wondered why I never see that many walls in high level games. I saw the whole house line and understood the purpose but always thought it was risky getting population capped if they destroyed the houses. Understand now that population rarely gets capped early game but was still nice to see the original reason. One thing I'm curious about, how often do people build towers? Seems like they reinforce the initial free ones but rarely if ever build more later on. It feels like fortress or bust.
Please make a second one... covering diagonals & rotated buildings. Pros severely underutilize the ability to rotate buildings & put them at angles. I'd also be curious to see if putting a building at an angle affects it's actual range or the range needed to hit it. I'd also be curious how long of a "house wall" you can make via houses in different angles vs in a straight line.
What if you are securing a second town center and placing barracks or stables? Where is the best place to position military buildings at an expansion? Do you place them in front of the town center towards the enemy base? Do you place them behind the town center away from the enemy base? Do you surround the town center with the military buildings on multiple sides? The final example of the video sort of discusses this. You placed the military buildings behind the town center away from the enemy base. There is an opening in between the water and the treeline where the enemy could attack from and the town center is exposed. In Age 2 there are no fortresses so the town center is basically exposed since the military buildings are behind it. Obviously, you could place a wall in between the water and the treeline to cover the opening, but is it more important to keep the military buildings protected or the town center protected? In that specific example you could have placed 2 barracks in front of the town center facing the enemy base and two barracks behind the town center facing your base. Is it worse if the enemy army has closer access to the barracks or the town center? I realize that this can be situational, but a lot of players are curious where to actually place military buildings at a 2nd TC. You could probably make an entire video covering this specific topic.
Your videos are soo great, I like them! But I think you said a tiny mistake for this map. There are 2 path in the water that can be used to cross the river. You have to go all the way around, but units can cross there. It's at the top of the map where the river is a bit grey on the minimap (Maybe I'm wrong but it looks like units can cross there)
...? I just click the hotkey and place it with left click. A dude walks there and smashes the ground with a phage until the building materialises. Is there more to it? Are there unions that could sue me for making him do that? Is his angry wife coming to scold me? In my defense these dudes never requested any financial compesnation, hell they dont even have contract signed...anyway I am gonna ignore this video and click a hotkey and enslave these poor fellas to summon my buildings with their little hammers. If the unions come for me jokes on them, I also have little dudes fighting for me (and theyre not getting paid either).
What if a norse player starts placing houses on gold mines? Should you use your villagers to destroy the house. Should you send army to destroy the house. Should you just gather at the gold mine with the house there?
Very situational, sometimes you might have to just turn tail and run, sometimes you can just plop a fortress down and forget about it, every situation needs to be assessed differently
Usuaully vs Norse I wedge my Tox in the small gaps between Norse production buildings. In my few experiences of this it ended up not mattering and they all died :p.
I think you briefly mentioned this, but how would this change for a Norse player? Since your army is mostly melee. Create open spaces to invite your opponent into so you can flank them?
it all depends on the match up really, like i said you're going to have civs that abuse you with ranged units such as eggy with priests/wadjet and greek with tox, for that you have to build a bit forward so they get zoned out you have to make it unraidable but at the same time place buildings in a way where if you need to you can take a fight in your base, don't let him use your building layout to his advantage
Can you talk about when you would want to make heros as Atlanteans. I see some people making hero troops even when the opponent doesn't have very many myth units
I’d honestly be making them for counter opponent myth units or picking up relics, perhaps if I’m at full pop I can make some to make my units stronger as well
