Overview
In this guide learn all the tricks and strategies for arena to turn yourself from a 1500 to an 1800! The author has been playing Age of Empires II for many years before it came out on Steam and is here to share his expertise! He will outline many strategies from the Castle Drop to the Monk Push to the Boom.
Introduction
Generally in Arena its a game of “Rush or be Rushed”, 90% of the time you want to be the one keeping them on the defensive in order for you to be able to expand all over the map and gain map control. Arena is the smallest map there is because of how it is surrounded by trees and because of the walls. This is why it is so important to either take control of the map so the enemy cant and slowly weedle him down till he resigns, or take the enemy out in one big attack.
The units most used in arena are the ones that cost no food… Generally speaking. There are other important units used as well. The most used units are:
>Monks
>Mangonels and Rams
>X-bows (CrossBows)
>Pikemen and Skirmishers
>Petards
>Various Unique Units, Conquistadors, Mamelukes, Chu Ko Nus, Mangudia being the main ones you usually see.
The reason that we want to use mostly units that dont cost food is because ultimately arena is a race to see who can get access to trebuchets first. Trebuchets are totally OP on arena as you can sit behind their walls and destroy half their base. By cutting down on food costing units allows one to reach Imperial Age Faster.
In the hundreds of Arena games i have seen and played I very rarely see people attacking with food heavy units in the castle age. With the exception of Conquistadors and hordes and hordes of Light Cavalry which had been recruited to stop a monk rush.
Various Tips for Arena
Delay Loom!!!
Delaying the researching of loom till say, just when you are about to advance to castle age will give you a stronger and much more rounded economy. This is because you have an extra villager in the same time it would have taken to research loom. As you begin with walls you dont have to worry about feudal rushes or the enemy killing vills with his scout and i usually dont take loom till castle age. No one rushes in feudal age on arena and i will not recommend it so you shouldnt require loom early.
Place your military buildings near your walls!!!
I cant stress how important this is. When you get castle dropped (enemy makes a castle out side your walls and pushes with either his Unique Unit or monks or siege) and you will, it is super important to make sure your military buildings are at the front of your base in order for you to be able to hide your economy in the back of your base. This is so you dont have the enemy building a castle covering 20 of your farms and rendering them useless, instead his castle will be near your Siege Workshops, Monasteries, Archery Ranges and etc.
Scout out all the Relics very quickly!!!
The first thing that 99% of people do when they reach castle in Arena is make a few monks and go after the relics. Having 5 relics in a map with little gold will give you a huge advantage and will most likely win you the match!
Guard the Relics!!!
When you reach Castle age send your monks to take the relics closest to your base to ensure you get those ones, meanwhile send your scout to patrol near the main gate of the enemy/relics closest to the enemy. This is so that you can catch his monk defenseless and kill him with your scout. Scouts are the best unit to use against monks as they have a damage bonus against them and a conversion resistance as well.
Scout out you and your Enemies base before deciding your strategy!!!
So you are scouting your enemy and both of his golds are next to each other at the front of his base… What do you do? Do you monk rush cause its fun? Or do you castle Drop because thats the best move for the situation. Obviously the Latter.
Your map and his map both influence what moves you should go for. If I have gold and stone mines near the front of my base I will most likely make a castle in my own base so that i can assure I hold onto those mines.
Map control is super important!!!
I have played many games where enemies havent left their own walls!!! While i’m booming and expanding all over the map theyre confining themselves to their little walled area and boy are they in for a shock when they notice my siege workshops and castles tiles away from their walls!!!
Taking and maintaining map control is basically a sure way to win as if you can drag the game on long enough you will most likely win because you have more gold, which you have grabbed from mines between the walls.
I will go into detail later with which strategies are best to use and in what situation.
The Monk Rush and Its variations
The idea of the monk rush is to quickly advance to castle age with only a few villagers on food and lots on gold and wood. You then will make 2,3,4 or even 5 monasteries and pump monks (you must add siege to break his walls). Usually it is a good idea to make 2 monasteries, then a siege workshop and then add more monasteries, though i often delay the last few monasteries in order to make tcs and farms so I have a good economy for if my rush fails.
You will want to break into the enemy base with your siege to allow your monks to convert enemy units, it is not recommended to make that many monks if you arent very good at micromanaging each monk to convert a different unit. The monks main purposes in this strategy are to 1. stay alive and 2. protect the siege.
The most Popular civ for monk rushing is definitely the Aztecs as they have the full monk tech tree and their monks gain 5hp for every monk technologoy they research. Saracens, Japanese and Spanish also have very good tech trees and have great monk rushes. In fact a monk rush can be performed by every civilisation but I recommend having the bulk of the army combo as another unit,as having 30 Hun Monks is useless without all the upgrades.
Ultimately the monk rush should end up with 15-30 monks, 10-20 crossbows, 3+ rams and at least one mangonel. This is probably one of the best if not the best Arena Strategies and is a strategy everyone should learn.
When I monk rush I generally up to feudal with around 25-26 pop, then make two more villagers whilst making a market and blacksmith. I usually hit loom as soon as i reach castle age or just before i click to research castle age.
The situations that make me consider using a monk rush are:
>when i have back gold and an easy to defend map, if i have front stone but back gold though i will probably castle my stone.
>I get aztecs or saracens
>Enemy has forward resources (so i can convert his vills)
>I think enemy is booming
The Castle Drop
The Castle Drop is the strategy in which you reach castle age with enough stone for a castle and you take your 5-6 villagers off stone and create a castle either outside the enemies wall or in a strategic place in your own base. It is superbly effective to drop a castle outside the enemy walls if you have a particulary useful Unique Unit such as the conquistador, plumed archer or longbowman (you want to try make ranged units mostly in Arena).
I generally make a forward castle if:
>the enemy has his main gold The one with 8 gold blocks near the front of his base and in range of where your castle is going.
>I have a good unique unit for castle age ranged warfare
>I have a terrible base and want to take all the combat to the enemy
>I’m teuton (they have insane castles because of the extra arrows shot and free murderholes)
>I’m not Aztec (Aztec should generally monk rush or make a defensive castle to shut down enemy attack)
^^Example of me making a forward castle and pushing the enemy with conquistadors and siege. I chose to make this as I wanted to keep the heat at the enemy.
I generally make a defensive castle if:
>I am getting forwarded, that is if the enemy has for example a castle and a siege workshop outside my walls, I will make my castle just out of range of his and try shut off where his troops can move.
>I have a powerful booming civ and need a bit of defense in order to boom to imperial, these civs include vikings, persia, and britons.
>I’m Turks and am fast imperialling for janissaries and trebs
>I think I am an inferior player and need to play safe (if you send 5 vills to his base you will have a worse economy than him).
^^Example of me making a defensive castle in order to hold my gold and protect my boom. I also chose to make it defensively as I had a civ with a superior boom, but weaker castle age military.
When Making a forward Castle I either make it 1 tile away from their wall and take down their walls with my castles arrows and unique units or you can be sneaky. If you make it 10 or so tiles away from their walls and make 5-6 units plus 2 petards, you can take down their wall in under a second and be in their base straight away. I have lost many games to this as I was not expecting a rush, much less a castle and 6 mangudai in my face 😛
A strong type of attack i also enjoy is to make some unique units, a forward monastery and siege workshop and camp my mangonels under my castles line of fire and hammer at the enemies buildings. Whilst converting his villagers and units with my monks and raiding his vills with my troops.
In order to be able to afford a castle by the time you reach castle age i put pop 23-25 on stone and pop 26-28 on gold. Then put two more villagers on stone during the age up. This allows you to be able to reach castle age without selling stone. Doing this will give you around 690 stone as soon as you hit castle. It is recommened to take your 5 villagers off stone to build the castle. As you wont yet have enough stone for another tc I like to use extra wood on monasteries and siege workshops.
This is generally how I think and I am trying to teach you to think and I hope you dont follow this guide mindlessly and that you perform what you think is the best strategy for your given map, civ and situation.
The Boom
We should all know what a boom is, when we put our focus on growing our economy and reaching imperial age with a decent economy and putting less focus on military, usually making either none or just enough to defend your economy. Building placement is really important in arena and i like to make my economy right up the very back of my base. I usually build a wall with all my military buildings shielding the enemy from my economy and put a castle and a mangonel behind the wall, this is usually enough to hold your military in turn with a few monks and counter units e.g. skirms and spears. 
^^Example of walling defending your boom
The best civs to boom with are:
> Vikings, the best boom civ by miles, their free wheelbarrow and handcart allows you to reach imperial age before anyone else with a serious economy!!! They can then either spam like 6 barracks Champions or wield their deadly early imperial combo Arbalests + Siege Rams.
>Persians, faster working tcs, what more could you want. Persians are deadly if left to boom with a nice tech tree including War Elephants, Paladins and Hand Cannons and Bombard Cannons. Destroying an enemy wall tile with 2 petards and flooding them early on with Paladins can give even the best of enemies a headache!
>Britons, cheaper tcs allows for more tcs generally, or a cheaper boom. They are a nice boom civ although I like to also abuse their huge ranged archers in castle age with a longbow + ram push.
>Teutons, cheaper farms, plus virtually every tech there is, they are the only civ with the three best units arguably, the Paladin, the Siege Onager and the Bombard Tower.
Be warned though, a boom may seem nice and fun, as you wont have to worry about microing army but I almost never full boom, the chances of a huge enemy attack taking you out are just too damn high.
If you are losing the front of your base to an assault be it in early castle age or late imperial age, one must learn to boom under pressure. This means doing whatever you can to buy time as you boom right up to the last little area of your base. It is important to not waste space with your buildings in order to get the most out of your area. I have won many games where i was forwarded and pushed back into a tiny corner, but i outboomed the enemy and pushed him back and attack him at his own base.
^^Example of booming under pressure
The Fast Imperial
The aim of this strategy is to reach the imperial age between 20-23 minutes and pump hand cannons and bombard cannons and push the enemies base ASAP. This strategy only really works with turks and byzantines. Turks have free chemistry and therefore the second they hit imperial age, they can make gunpowder units. Byzantines are good as well because they can reach imperial age earlier (imperial research costs 33% less) and research chemistry and still be able to create these units at a decent time. There are two variations of fast imp, FI + castle and FI without castle.
^My imp time WITH a castle, could be quicker without one. (22:25)
This strategy counters the boom and the castle drop if you execute it right, as bombard cannons take down castles like they’re sand castles. To execute the Fast imp one advances to feudal and castle a little later than usual but with enough resources to either drop a siege workshop and university ASAP and imperial, or make a castle and imperial. Turk Fast imp with castle is normally around a minute later than archery range + siege workshop rush but it is more powerful, as janissaries are better with +1 range and better stats. Also you have a bit of defense for your base and the opportunity to make trebs.
I highly recommend executing this strategy if you get Turks from random civ; as most people (myself included) struggle greatly to counter the fast imperial. When executing the fast imp I usually up to feudal with around 31-32 villagers (no loom) and make 2 more in feudal whilst making blacksmith and market and 2-3 more whilst building siege workshop and uni/castle.
^Breaking their walls and busting their ass before 26 minutes 🙂
It is recommended to pull this type of attack off against opponents who are weaker than you as they will probably not be able to stop you. The reason for this attack being so strong is that gunpowder is OP before 30 minutes.
Conclusion
To conclude Arena is a map that is largely based on luck with civilisations and map. It is a map that should be played on instinct, not on a blind following of a build order like maps such as arabia and islands. Arena also favours civs that bloom in the imperial age although most combat starts in castle age.
If this guide gets enough hype I shall create a guide to countering certain rushes such as castle drops and monk rushes which might just seem unbeatable. Hope you all read the guide and use some of what you’ve learnt. Thanks for reading and glad to have helped! 🙂