Glossary

A play style focused on economy: skip early aggression to build extra Town Centers and out-produce your opponent.

A typical Castle Age “boom” adds 2–3 Town Centers immediately on hitting Castle Age, producing villagers from all of them simultaneously. By 20 minutes, a boomed player has 50–70 villagers compared to ~30 for someone who fought in Feudal Age — an enormous economic lead that translates into a much larger army in Imperial.

Related terms: Fast Castle, FC, BO Boom, 23-pop FC.

Short for “Dark Age Rush” — sending 3 Militia from a Barracks built in the Dark Age to the enemy base, before either player reaches Feudal Age. The militia arrive around the 5:30–6:00 mark and harass enemy villagers while you continue your build order.

Drush is rarely a kill blow on its own; the purpose is to slow the opponent’s economy by 30–90 seconds, forcing them to pull villagers off resources to defend. The economic lead the drush creates is then snowballed via a Feudal Age push or a Fast Castle.

Common follow-ups: Drush → Fast Castle (advanced), Drush → Archers, Drush → Scouts.

The second of four ages. Reached by researching the age-up from the Town Center, requiring 500 food, a Mill, and a Barracks (or two age-up buildings on most civilizations).

Unlocks the Archery Range, Stable, Blacksmith, walls (palisade and stone), Watch Tower, Market, and many critical military units: Scout Cavalry, Archers, Skirmishers, Spearmen, and the Man-at-Arms upgrade. The Feudal Age is when most early aggression happens — the gap between when one player reaches Feudal and when the other does is the most predictive timing in the game.

Typical Feudal Age click time: 8:30–10:30 depending on build order.

Stealing the opponent’s sheep or boars in the Dark Age, typically using your scout. The action causes a severe food deficit for the victim — sheep and boars are the highest-yield food sources of the Dark Age, and losing 1–2 of them sets the opponent back ~40–60 seconds in Feudal Age timing.

Laming is legal but considered aggressive and is a regular high-level open-map (Arabia) tactic. The defense is to scout your own resources early and bring sheep close to your Town Center under guard.

Related: Boar steal, sheep steal, hunt push.

Defensive barriers built from wood (Palisade Wall) or stone (Stone Wall, Fortified Wall in Imperial Age). Walls are essential on most maps to deny opponent access to your villagers and force them to commit siege units to break in.

Palisade Walls are cheap (2 wood each) and available from Dark Age but have low HP and can be destroyed quickly by Battering Rams. Stone Walls unlock in Castle Age, cost 5 stone each, and resist siege significantly better. Fortified Walls are the Imperial Age upgrade, with the highest HP and armor.

Tactical notes:

• Always leave a sally gate in your wall to flee villagers under attack.
• Full walls on Arabia are usually impractical and slow your Feudal timing — partial walls covering the most exposed flank are the norm.
• Wall chokepoints (between trees) before the open spaces — chokepoint walls do most of the defensive work.