Fortified Clearingg is a closed map where you start with stone walls in the front of your base. This gives you safety early on, allowing you to focus on building your economy or executing Castle Age-focused strategies once you walled the sides. Games on Fortified Clearing often go into the late game, where relic control can become crucial depending on your skill level. Compared to open maps, this map features more powerful and expensive units due to the slower and more strategic pace of the game.
General tips:
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Learn and practice a solid Fast Castle build order.
Choose a civilization with strong economic bonuses and good late-game potential, such as Burgundians, Bohemians, Turks, or Bengalis.
Think ahead about your late-game army composition, especially based on the civ matchup.
Wall the sides of your base with houses, palissades and a gate on each side, you will stone wall it later on the way to the imperial age.
Make a monastery early castle age and focus on accessible relics, usually where your opponent doesn’t have army, you can go one side or an other or directly to the middle if you have army yourself !
Build your extra Town Centers more towards the back of your base.
Optimize your Dark Age efficiency as it’s easy on this map.
Prioritize economic upgrades early as this is a macro-focused map!
Hide your scout inside your base when transitioning to the Feudal Age to keep it safe.
Aim to get a castle before reaching the Imperial Age in most games.
Controlling the middle in the late castle age is very important for space
Don’t forget to continue villager production at the start of Imperial Age, even while microing your army. You need around 130 villagers in total.
Focus on building a strong, steady push in the late game, army control is key. Mobility isn’t that important
