19 Pop + 3 Fishing Ship Build
Steps 12 · 6 → 19 pop · ~9 min
Source: Hera — Strategy Guide (December 2025)
Recommended Civilizations
Use the extra food from three Fishing Ships to reach Feudal Age around 9:15 with a faster, water-fed economy on hybrid and water maps.
Step Timeline
Follow the villager rail and resource-split columns while you play.
14 
5 Opening
9 steps · pop 6–19 - 6 60
6 → sheep under the Town Center - 11 65
+5 → wood, drop a Lumber Camp - 12 75 +1 → lure the first boar
- 13 85
+1 → build a House, then a Dock and put it on shore fish ↳ Place the Dock where it can reach the shore-fish patch
- 14 95 +1 → add to the boar under the Town Center
- 15 105 +1 → lure the second boar
- 15 105
From the Dock, queue Fishing Ships up to 3; build a House after the first one ↳ Fishing Ships are made at the Dock — they do not count toward your villager pop
- 19 145 +4 → food under the Town Center
- 19 145
Research Loom
Feudal
3 steps · pop 19 9:15 - 19 145 Click up to Feudal Age 9:15
↳ Land with roughly 5 on wood and 14 on food
- 19 712 Move 7 from the sheep over to a second Lumber Camp
- 19 712 Keep all 3 Fishing Ships working the water for a steady food trickle
Strategy Notes
- The whole point of this opening is the Dock: three Fishing Ships add a fat, uninterruptable food stream that your land villagers cannot match, so your boom snowballs without crowding your sheep and boar.
- It shines on hybrid and water maps where the shore fish and deep fish go uncontested; on a closed map like Four Lakes you can flex into a Barracks with Archers or Scouts off the same eco.
- Once Feudal lands, pick your water plan early — Galleys or Fire Galleys (around three to five villagers on gold) to fight for the lake, or stay economic and keep fishing if the water is safe.
- This build leans into Castle Age power: sell stone at the Market to rush up, and remember that Demolition Ships are brutally strong once you reach Castle, so plan to contest the water hard there.
- Defend your Dock and Fishing Ships as you would your Town Center — losing the ships erases the entire advantage this opening was built around.
- Civilizations with water bonuses (Italians, Japanese, Vikings, Lithuanians, Malians) squeeze the most value out of the fishing, but any civ can run it if the map gives you the water.