Defending the Rush

Overview

This guide will tell how to defend against the pesky Flush (Feudal Rush), how to determine when the enemy is rushing and what they are rushing with, and how to defend against that. Also i will include other basic Random match tips to help with your game. The rush is only valid on Arabia/Random Land MapComment any questions you can possibly think of and ill get back to you and update the guide.Check out this cool group, this is where Aoe has been played for years, and will be played for many more, if you want to get really good, have a game with voobly. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/VooblyCommunity

Efficient (Annoying) walling

The first way to defend the rush, is to only let the enemy fight, where you want it to happen. This is because you want the enemy to be fighting where the majority of your army is and even where a few of your towers are. This is most commonly done by walling with houses+buildings and even 2 layers of palisades so that the only opening into your base is defended by your army. If the enemy is going scouts, you MUST attempt to wall some of your base, other wise you have to spread your spearmen everywhere to defend all your resources.

Beware, do not wall too much, or your reputation is at stake, and you are likely to be called a lamer/noob/rude word. Walling with your buildings is fine for most people, but too many palisades isnt fun for anyone.

remember to wall these bits in the lakes

Judging what they shall rush with

Its quite simple really, unless they are an absolute noob and dont know what they are doing, you can usually tell which sort of rush they are going for by looking at their buildings and villager distribution

Here are the types of rushing and here is how to spot them:

M@A rush (man at arms)- when they are upping they will have 3-4 on gold, also once they hit feudal if they dont build anymore military buildings then its a M@A rush. What i mean is, if you see stable going up as well, they should be going scouts, not M@A.(although a good player will drop an archery range within the next few minutes so they can wield the deadly M@A/Skirm combo)
The counter to a M@A rush is massed archers/ scouts with bloodline as a meatshield. So that the archers can safely shoot. M@A are pretty slow so once you know they are coming patrol around the outskirts of your base with your scout and be ready to intercept them, as if they are given alone time with your villagers you will suffer heavy losses
~If enemy is Goths, Japanese, Aztecs or even Vikings, look out for M@A
Below is what it would look like if they were to go men at arms

Scrush (scout rush)- Scouts, very fast, very deadly (see my guide on scout rushing). It is quite easy to tell if someone is scout rushing, generally they will only build 1 or 2 farms in feudal and upon hitting it immediately make a stable. To counter scouts you have to wall at least half of your base, e.g. the half with your wood and gold, and then defend with spears on the other spots with vills in your base. Take note though, Man at arms beat scouts, when the scouts dont have bloodlines(bloodlines gives scouts 65 total hp as oppose to 45). If enemy is going to scout rush you, in my opinion, the best thing is to wall, make spears, and then hit their base with your own scouts/archers+spears. To defend against scouts you have to go extremely quickly as they move fast and are easily gotten in mass. i.e. most people go and attack when they get only three scouts, which is your original + 2 more, so that doesnt take long.
~If enemy is huns, it is almost certain that he will scout rush you, also any civ is viable apart from aztecs and mayans, this strategy is so popular due to it being so incredibly easy to perform/hard to counter~

Archer rush- Archers are in my opinion the best unit for attacking in feudal age, (only in late feudal) because of the fact that they are the only unit that can soundly kill farmers(as they can poach from afar) apart from skirmishers and skirmishers suck against anything but archers. Though an archer rush is easily recognised as they should have at least 7 on gold by 12 minutes and when they hit feudal they generally drop two archery ranges right away. To defend go scouts and 1 archery range and hit their gold + with your scouts +defend with your own skirms. If they are britons or mayans also tower important resources, as those two civs can get pretty incredible feudal armies.
Below is an example of an archer rush, with that many on gold its obvious its archers

~If enemy is mayans, its a 90% chance they are archers, also britons and aztecs the chance is high~

Drush (Dark Age Rush)-The Drush or dark age rush is a very annoying strategy if pulled off well and also costs next to nothing (180 food and 60 of starting gold), as when they perform this they will attack your lumber guys and then run off, forcing your villagers to go through periods of not working. Spotting a drush is very easy. To pull off a drush you need 110 gold, but you only start with 100. This is because they need 60 for the 3 militia and 50 for loom. So whenever i walk past enemy gold mines, i check to see if there is a plot with only 790 gold, as opposed to 800, if thats the case, its a drush. How ever Aztecs, get free loom so it is very common to see a 5 militia +scout drush. Also if you see an enemy barracks by around 7 minutes, its a drush, as there is no other reason to build a rax so early. To avoid a drush, generally lame wall and try and draw them into your towncentre for the killing. What i like to do is wall my important vills, then up quick and harass their town with scouts, especially their gold as you can upgrade to castle age quick after a drush.

~Aztecs, Huns and Mayans have very goood drush, so those are the civs to look out for~

How to wall vs drush ^

Other tips

>Your TC should never be idle
>If you are rushing, the first thing you should do when you hit feudal is research faster wood chopping (double bit axe)
>you can place “spy” palisades walls around your enemy gold mines (dont build them and if they stand on the walls to mine, you can see, this is great for determining whether or not your enemy is going M@A/archers and lets you see how many they have on gold

See the villager below!

>try and get wheelbarrow by 17 minutes
>by 18 minutes you should have at least 13 farms, so that you can hit castle before 26 minutes
>if you and your enemy are having huge wars consisting of mostly archers, when you hit castle, train a mangonel as they take only 1 damage from archers and can flatten a huge group of them in one shot
>you can delete your enemies stragglers(these are the various trees near their tc). do this by clicking to build a palisade wall over their tree once they have started chopping it, then immediately delete the wall. The tree will be gone!! Only works on trees separated from other trees.
PS this is very very lame, and some might say its immoral.

Keep the heat at their base, thats how to stop the rush

Basically what im trying to say is, if you are attacking them and they are defending, you the advantage. If you want to not become a victim of the rush one of the most effective ways is to keep attacking them and never let up, because if you do they will go for your base.

This is why if you have a bad map (only 1 wood forest, forward gold, hill gold e.t.c.) you should go for a forward rush. Click feudal with around 24 villagers and send 4 over as you are advancing, then build a barracks and later two archery ranges and mining camp near their stone closest to you. If you can effectively build towers into their base, while defending your builders, its good game as you will have a better economy and wont have to ring your bell when attacks come.