Winery · 3 stone opener — Byzantines AoE4
Three stone miners, four Cisterns (0:00–4:38)
Start the Grand Winery at 2:57 with 13 villagers, 3 of them on stone, then send everyone to wood from 3:17: 8 on wood, a Barracks and Limitanei at 4:27, Age II at 4:38 with 19 villagers.
- 0:00 — 3 villagers put a Mining Camp on the stone, 1 a Mining Camp on the gold, 1 builds the Cistern then the House; the last one goes to sheep.
- 0:20 — Rally on the sheep until you age up.
- 1:20 — A stone villager builds the second Cistern and links it with an Aqueduct.
- 2:38 — Third Cistern.
- 2:57 — Age up: 4 villagers from the sheep build the Grand Winery.
- 3:17 — Every villager leaves the stone for wood, and one of them puts down the fourth Cistern.
- 3:20 — Rally on wood until 8 on wood. The gold villager joins them once 35 gold is set aside for the Limitanei upgrade.
- 4:00 — A House.
- 4:27 — Barracks, then Limitanei non-stop.
Limitanei, Longbowmen and forge (4:38–13:05)
Produce Limitanei then Longbowmen non-stop while the Cisterns speed up the upgrades; around 11:00, stop the units and grow to 38 villagers (23 on food, 12 on gold) for Age III.
- 4:38 — Age II. Every food villager goes to the berries, around the Grand Winery.
- 4:50 — Mercenary House. Silk Road Mercenary Contract for Javelin Throwers against knight civilizations, Western Mercenary Contract for Longbowmen by default.
- 5:55 — Longbowmen in the queue; 3 villagers on gold.
- 6:00 — Blacksmith: queue Steeled Arrow and Iron Undermesh.
- 7:00 — 5 villagers put an Outpost and a Mill on the second berry patch, with a fifth Cistern.
- 7:08 — Second batch of Longbowmen.
- 8:18 — Wheelbarrow.
- 8:30 — Third batch of Longbowmen.
- 11:00 — Stop producing units and build up the economy for Age III: 2 or 3 villagers on wood, the rest on food and gold.
- — Golden Horn Tower with 8 to 12 villagers, and a Stable. Keep some wood for the Monastery.
Cataphracts, Longbowmen, relics (13:05)
Bring out Cataphracts and Longbowmen, take the relics with the Monastery, and attack as soon as you arrive: the upgrades come very fast thanks to the Cisterns.
- — Monastery with the wood you kept, then Cataphracts and Longbowmen non-stop.
- — Take the relics and look for the fight: this is a key moment to attack.
Tips
- Standard opener against the French, Jeanne d’Arc or the Malians, but exposed to early rushes: against a spear opener, Valdemar suggests the mill opener (“Mill, Hippodrome, Castle at 12 Minutes”).
- After the fourth Cistern, stone gathering stops: every stone villager leaves the vein (from 3:17 in Valdemar’s version).
- At 11:00, stop the units and switch to economy; the Golden Horn Tower goes up with 8 to 12 villagers so Age III arrives fast.
- Variant: Private Dum Dum starts the Grand Winery at 2:30 with 4 villagers, keeps 2 stone miners, ages up at 4:14, then aims for a big push with Battering Rams between minutes 8 and 10 (or a semi-fast Castle into the Golden Horn Tower).
- The upgrades land very fast thanks to the Cisterns’ scaling: in Age III this is the right time to attack, so look for damage.
Source: AoE4 Guides