Concept:

The Fast Castle with Fishing strategy focuses on reaching the Castle Age quickly after a slower Feudal Age. It leverages a strong economy built on fishing ships to transition into Castle Age, allowing for rapid development and the ability to overpower opponents later in the game.

When to Use:

This strategy is most effective on maps with water where you have a safe fish resource and your land is either secure or distant from your opponent. It’s particularly useful when your water access is not in direct competition with your enemy.

Ideal Civilizations:

Italians, Portuguese, Dravidians, Japanese, Persians

Key Considerations:

  • Ensure houses are built promptly, especially during the Dark Age when producing both fishing ships and villagers.
  • Avoid Town Center idle time.
  • Focus on gathering food from sheep, boars, berries, deers, and farms (deer hunting is crucial—if you can’t lure them to your TC, send villagers to hunt them long-distance).
  • Exact resource allocation isn’t critical; flexibility is key.
  • Regularly spend your resources to avoid delays in advancing through the ages.

Execution

Dark Age:

  • Assign 6 villagers to food (sheep, boars, berries).
  • Send 5 villagers to wood, and have one of them build a house.
  • The next villager constructs a dock to gather shore fish.
  • Add 3 more villagers to wood, totaling 8 on wood.
  • Produce 6 fishing ships and gather shore fish.
  • Focus the remaining villagers on food collection until you have 25 villagers.
  • Research Loom and advance to the Feudal Age.

Feudal Transition:

  • Assign 4 villagers to berries.
  • Increase your wood gathering to 10 villagers (using two lumber camps, switching some to a second lumber camp as needed).
  • Have 4 villagers to gold and 6 villagers to food under the TC.
  • Have 1 villager on shore fish near your dock.
  • Construct a second dock to expand your fishing capacity.

Feudal Age:

  • Queue 2 villagers and send them to gold.
  • Build a market and a blacksmith as soon as possible.
  • Transition to the Castle Age as soon as you have the resources.
  • Research the wood upgrade.
  • Reassign all food-gathering villagers to wood.
  • If needed, create fire ships to protect your fishing ships from enemy naval threats.

Castle Age:

  • Upgrade to the second wood gathering upgrade.
  • Add additional Town Centers (TCs) to further bolster your economy.
  • If you’re engaging in naval combat, research War Galley upgrades to improve your ships.
  • Build a Monastery to train monks, which are inexpensive and useful for both defense and map control during your boom phase.