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THE SMUSH Sheriff's Amazing Saracen Monk rUSH As castle times get faster and faster we begin bumping up into the theoretical limit at how fast you can be and still have sufficient resources to attack your enemy. As was demonstrated in the castle time challenge, practical castle times can be as 12:00 or lower, given sufficient time to micromanage events. However castling too fast leaves weak and unable to develop sufficient military to take advantage of your speed. It makes sense that there is some optimal time for castling that allows speed but also sufficient economy. So far, that optimal time was around 15:30 or so. However, while puttering around at Microsoft, Sheriff has been working on some killer new strategies to whomp on his fellow testers. One of those strategies is his Saracen monk rush which we now reveal to the rest of the AOK world. This new strategy seems to lower the boom on the old thoughts of size of economy necessary to support an offensive, especially when castle times are now two full minutes below the old times. In real games, defeating real opponents, Sheriff has achieved castle times of under 13:30! This article explains the general concept, contains a recorded game example in action (against real opponents), and the follows with some broader implications for AOK strategy. Sheriff's step-by-step actions are presented at the end for those that cannot review the game or want more detail.   (continued at bottom of page)    A guide to learning the art of war... "Know the enemy and know yourself and in a hundred battles you will never put yourself in peril" SunTzu  Strategy Articles: SunTzu: A guide to the art of war MACHIAVELLI: ON WAR

1. The concept is basically four-fold:

• First, we Feudal early with only 19 villagers.
• Secondly, using the market, we can improve the Saracen's early economy by trading our initial stone for wood and food, improving our castle time significantly. This is why we use Saracens: their rates are better.
• Next we mine stone almost exclusively, trading it away for gold, which we can then use to buy some extra wood for our castle buildings. Again, this is why we use Saracens: their rates are better.
• Finally, we use monks, en masse, which have no counter this early in the game, and allow us to focus most of our entire economy on gold.

2. At this point you can download the recorded game and watchTHE SMUSH.

3. Implications

As you can see this is a devastating attack and it comes too early for his opponent to respond effectively. However, it was not perfectly executed, nor was his opponent providing perfect defense.

How can we improve this strategy?

• Fewer or more villagers do not seem to improve performance significantly. Fewer villagers do not lower time to castle and more villagers delays the assault.
• Other civilizations are possible choices for this strategy, but it would have to be modified to account for poorer market-trading performance. For example, Chinese should be able to get to castle very early and they could also make only monks. It is important to have both sanctity and redemption, however. Using other civilizations we might call this the MUSH (for Monk rUSH)
• In team games, having a Byzantine ally makes this strategy amazingly effective. Your monk army is nearly invincible, since the Byzantine team bonus is 3x faster healing
• If the enemy defends with tower, we can quickly switch to producing rams.

How can we improve counters to this strategy?

• Towers are the only real defensive measure. Monks have a range of 9 and towers have a range of 8. It is possible to keep monks away using a few towers.
• The SMUSH economy is very lean and there are no defenses at home. Making a few archers and sending them to the SMUSHers base could devastate him, especially if you do it early enough.
• In team games, your ally can castle rush the SMUSHer and crush his economy. In team games it is vitally important that your ally also rush the other opponent to prevent aid from coming and hurting you.

What this means is that against a SMUSH, you will either need to defend with towers, or attack with feudal units. Units defending at home are likely to get converted and used against you. (His monks are a poor target unless you can wipe all of them out. You are better off attacking his base.) Since towers are generally a losing proposition when used at home in defense, attacking with feudal age troops will most likely be the best defense.

4. Sheriff's step-by-step plan is very simple and can be executed by almost anyone. Your performance may vary based on the map, number of resources, your opponent, and other evils that befall you. Note that this is not against a computer; this is a real game with real opponents with real lag. You will notice many mistakes and areas where he could have improved.

Villager /Time	Action	Notes
1	Build house, then mill then gather berries	Scout moves around in concentric circles identifying sheep, berries, and 2 boars. Then scout out wood, gold and stone
2 & 3	Build house, slaughter sheep
4 6	Slaughter sheep	As many villagers on one sheep as possible
7	gather berries
8 & 9	Slaughter sheep	Move your next sheep closer to the villagers so they can start on the next one immediately
10	Gather berries
11	Build house, gather berries
12 14	Chop wood (stragglers)
15	Lure boar #1	We donÕt have loom be very careful
16	Gather berries
	10 villagers slaughter boar	As many villagers on one boar as possible
17	Gather berries
18	Lure boar #2	We donÕt have loom be very careful
	2 choppers go build lumber camp
19	Chop wood (forest)	Scout enemy locations with scout
	10-11 villagers slaughter boar
7:36	Click Feudal Upgrade
	3 boar eaters move to wood rest go to finish sheep
9:46		Reach Feudal
	Immediately begin market	Use one villager (berries) if possible, unless you have enough food
	Sheep villagers move to wood
	Trade 200 stone for gold, then buy 100 food and 100 wood
	Build blacksmith
11:12	Click Castle Upgrade	Note we have not gotten any upgrades
	2 forward villagers move out	Sheriff doesnÕt use scout to escort villagers IÕd recommend this based on no loom
12:27	9 villagers move and begin mining stone
		Now we have 2 forward, 2 on berries, 9 on stone and 6 on wood
	Build a couple houses
	Sell stone at market and buy just enough woof to build to monasteries (350 wood)
13:52		Reach Castle
	Immediately build 2 monasteries	Watch how he hides and guards his two forward villagers
	Train 2 monks
	Train extra villagers as food allows
	Begins converting enemy villagers
	Train 2 monks
	As berries run out, use some wood to make two farms
	When the sell price of stone drops below 100, move all miners to gold pile
	Research fervor and sanctity	Speed and hitpoints
	Research redemption as swiftly as possible
	Use new peons to mine stone in enemy town
	Build siege workshop to finish off TC

Newbie Guides Newbie Guide to AOK Newbie-Expert Guides "On The Road to Expert" Other lists of strategies http://www.AoE2.net The Boom by VG_Ranger and VG_Messiah Rushing 101 by VG_Ranger and VG_Messiah http://aok.heavengames.com Unique Weaknesses by Vaidency http://www.aokza.co.za/ Economy by Glowworm Return of the Castle Rush - the Britons   If you still searching i believe the best site for a general strategy is: www.mrfixitonline.com/

Other Strategies: General Tactics (aok) Famous Strategies blueboatboom // douche // fastcastlebrits // smush // The flush Other Strategies AoE 2 Races // The Knights Rush // The Phalanx Formation // Monks // English Longbowman // Armor Glossary   ADVANCED STRATEGIES-Warfare Principles of Defense // Principles of Warfare // Principles of Offense US Army Strategy Guide - Link // The Art Of Real Time Simulated War // Tenets of Army Operations // Concentration of Mass // Machiavelli on War - Link