PvP Strategy

PvP Strategy is based on understanding the game mechanics and applying that understanding to the decisions that a player will make in the game. Note: this section focuses on ranked pvp only.
==General Strategy==
Most strategies whether based around early pressure (also known as rushing) or a late game push (also known as turtling) will rely on these factors:
*Economy Management (also known as macro)
Economy management refers to the player's ability to appropiately balance income of all four types of resources and time to maximize his/her army production.
To improve your economy management make sure your villager production is constant and avoid getting house blocked, this also applies to army production. If you have economy management issues in the later stages of the game try working on your multitasking abilities, the problem most likely lies on focusing too much on army movement and/or engagements while not focusing enough on economy management. Hotkeys will allow you to multitask much faster and easier.
*Scouting
Scouting is a very important element of the game, it will allow you to allocate resources spread around the map and will also allow you to see what your opponent is doing to react accordingly. For example: Scout sees a player making 3 archeries and there is no barracks or stable in sight, you react by making only anti-ranged units to crush his army composition.
*Army Composition
Army compositions refers to the units that compose your army, it should be based on having no overall weakness. For example: A Toxotes/Peltast composition might work relatively well against a Slinger/LongSwordsman composition, but it will get shattered by a Woad Raiders.
It is also important to understand that some units are supposed to be support units, these units are not intended to be massed and will be much weaker en masse than other units.
It is also important to consider the cost of units to build compositions, a Toxotes/Peltast composition requires no food. This is generally not a good thing, a better balanced composition like Hypaspist/Toxotes will be easier to produce beacuse of the resource balance that their cost have.
*Army Management (also known as Micro)
Army management refers to how a player controls their army. The most important thing to know for army management is to be able to use the attack-move command.
Army management is based on correctly positioning and controling units to maximize your army effectiveness. Positioning advantages can be based around abusing terrain to defend ranged units by creating choke points or flanking with a group of faster units to maximize damage the the less armored units in the rear part of the enemies army.
Raids (also known as harrasment) are a slightly more advanced technique where the player uses small groups of units to cause economic damage by killing villagers or forcing them to evacuate preventing villagers from recollecting resources.
==Map Control==
Map control is one of the most important factors to consider when strategizing. When a player has map control it means that he/she has the ability to safely (for the most part) move around the map, this is achieved by forcing the opponent into a defensive position. Some of the methods to gain map control include:
*Having a stronger army
*building Fortresses and/or Guard Towers at chokepoints
*raiding
Advantages aquired by gaining map control include:
*Access to more natural resources (which are the fastest forms of gathering) and better market lines
*map vision. Additional vision will make it easier to respond to threats and will allow you to manouver your army more freely for the optimal engagement or to ravage the enemy base when the opponent is out of position.
==Civilization Specific Strategy==
*Celtic Strategy
*Persian Strategy
*Egyptian Strategy
*Greek Strategy
*Babylonian Strategy
*Norse Strategy
*Roman Strategy
Category:Strategy