Pro Scouts · Clocktower — Chinese AoE4
Mill, gold and Imperial Academy (0:00–3:45)
Reach Age II around 3:45 with 17 villagers: 2 on gold, the Imperial Academy started at 2:30 by 2 villagers, then 5 sheep villagers to wood for the Lumber Camp.
- 0:00 — The first villager builds the Mill; the others gather food.
- 0:40 — 2 villagers on gold.
- 2:30 — Checkpoint: 11 villagers on food and 2 on gold.
- 2:30 — Age up: 2 food villagers build the Imperial Academy.
- 2:35 — Send 5 sheep villagers to wood.
- 3:00 — The 5 wood villagers build a Lumber Camp in the Imperial Academy’s area; rally on wood.
Imperial Officials, Scouts, Clocktower (3:45)
Bring out 3 Imperial Officials, buy Professional Scouts at 5:20, then send 4 Scouts hunting deer at 7:40; the Age III landmark, the Astronomical Clocktower, starts at 8:30.
- 3:45 — Age II: produce an Imperial Official; 1 gold villager builds a Village.
- 4:00 — Rally on food. The Imperial Official collects the Mill’s taxes and supervises it; 1 wood villager builds a Stable.
- 4:40 — A second Imperial Official, who supervises the Mining Camp.
- 5:20 — Professional Scouts. One more Imperial Official supervises the Stable, then produce Scouts.
- 5:50 — Produce Scouts. Professional Scouts done: new villagers go to food, rally on food.
- 6:40 — Imperial Examinations.
- 7:40 — 4 Scouts hunt the deer; another one scouts the opponent.
- 8:30 — Age up to Age III with the Astronomical Clocktower.
Tips
- Important: set the Scouts’ deer drop-off to the Mill (nini).
- As you approach the 300 gold for Professional Scouts, move the miners to wood, then rally on food.
- Imperial Examinations is researched in the Imperial Academy.
- Variant (nini): Imperial Academy at 2:25, Age II at 3:40, Imperial Officials at 3:40, 4:15 and 4:55, Professional Scouts at 5:10; for a fast Age III, all the wood villagers move to gold at 7:20.
- After this build, three paths: Fast Castle to the Imperial Palace if the opponent puts no pressure on you, with Lancers and Archers, or Spearmen, Palace Guards and Archers; a Feudal all-in with Horsemen and Archers; or the Song Dynasty through the Barbican of the Sun, for Zhuge Nu and Granaries.
Source: AoE4 Guides