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My Age of Empires II build order

So I've bought Age of Empires Definitive Edition in 2023. The original Age of Empires II was installed on my first PC when I was a kid, so it's nostalgia. Since then I've playing a lot of games against the Extreme AI, I'm spending most of the time honing my build orders, which are non-standard. But that's how I play. This article is more of a note to self (like the entire blog is, no one reads blogs anymore except AI bots), so if I have a long break, I can check this and continue here.

First 11 villagers in dark age

Since I'm struggling to push in deer while luring boar, while building 3rd house and mill, while force dropping to keep the TC going. I decided to mix things up and start the build by sending 11 villagers to food. So here is how it goes. Assume the following baseline: generic civ, the map gives you sheep, boar and deer to push:

Opening moments: queue vills, 2 vills build 1 house, 1 vill build 2 houses, 2 sheep go under TC, 2 sheep go and scout two half circles around the TC, control group the 3 starting villagers, shift queue them to first two sheep, send the scout to walk a large square path around TC to find the other sheep.
The first 6 villagers eat 2 sheep.
The 7th villager lures boar, add this guy to the control group, force drop to queue a villager (so your TC don't get idle right at the moment when you start shooing the boar).
The 8th villager goes to finish the 2nd sheep. The lurer and the other 6 villagers shoot the boar. Shift queue all villagers to boar (so the lone shepherd doesn't continue to slaughter the rest of the herd), and set rally point to boar.
The 9th villager goes to boar. Force drop to queue more vills. Now you have a bit of time to look at your scouting think about where your walls go.
The 10th villager goes to lure the 2nd boar, add this guy to the control group.
The 11th villager goes to finish the first boar. Once the 2nd boar is in, do a final force drop, ask the villagers to finish the 1st boar, the shift queue all of them to the 2nd boar, then 2 sheep, then a straggler tree.

After this your food eco is on autopilot. You should have 4 vills in queue, so fyou don't have to force drop anymore. Now you can push in your deer without distractions and use the 5 control grouped villagers to collect them (drop food first and queue more vills). Soon you have enough food to queue all the dark age vills and loom and now the TC won't go idle anymore.

If the map gives you other food sources then the order of things change slightly:

The map gives you cows: In this case the first 2 cow gives you 300 food instead, so it collects slower. In this case the boar lure is delayed by a villager: you send the 8th lure the boar, and after the hunt 2 villagers remain on the cow and then go to boar. And after the 11th villager, you shift queue only 1 cow rather than 2. This also applies when you play the Tatars where the herdables last longer.
The map gives you rhino/elephant: Those contain 400 food instead of the usual 340. The 2 rhinos therefore give you 120 more food, consequently, you need to shift queue 1 less sheep and you need to lure the 2nd rhino 1 villager later with 11th villager.
The map gives you rhinos AND cows: In this case 8th goes to lure the first and 12th to lure the 2nd, when the 12th goes out to lure send 1 villager from under TC to wood.
The map gives you javelina: Javelinas only have 300 food, so 2 of them gives you 80 less food than a boar. Therefore you should queue 1 more sheep after collecting the javelinas to have the necessary food to click up to feudal in time.
Chickens: In this case you only keep the first 3 villagers you've added to the control group in the control group, and send them out to collect the chickens remotely, after you have lured the 1st boar. The luring of the second boar is delayed by 1 villager because there are less villagers collecting it. Make sure they collect a full load before returning to the TC. Collect two full loads, after that you add the 2 injured (in the boar hunt) villagers to the group to make them 5 again.

Once the 5 control grouped villagers finish with the deer you pushed in, you shift queue them to sheep then berries, and leave them alone. In feudal age, build the first 2 farms with the 2 injured villagers and remove them from the control group.

The rest of the villager allocation depends on what you are trying to build, but I generally go for these:

1 range archers: 11 food, 6 to wood line, 2 to gold, get loom and click up, 6 villagers from under the TC go to stragglers.
Scouts: 11 food, 5 to wood line, 3 to berries, get loom and click up, 6 villagers from under the TC go to stragglers.
Skirm, spear: 11 food, 6 to wood line, 2 to berries, get loom and click up, 6 villagers from under the TC go to stragglers.
Man at arms: 11 food, 6 to wood line, 3 to berries, 1 to gold. Eat 1 additional sheep, because you need the extra food for 2 more villagers.

These are 20 pop uptimes (except MAA which is 22 pop) and include walling. 1 villager go out and build barracks. Then 2 villagers also go out and build 1-1 houses as part of the wall. 1 villager goes out to build a section of palisade wall. When the barracks and houses finish, those villagers build palisade walls too. When the wall is complete, you send the walling villagers to wood.

If you don't want to wall, you can send 1 villager less to wood and if the map doesn't have chickens you can click up 19 pop (or 21 pop for maa).

Feudal age

When you go scouts: upon arriving feudal you drop stable, get double bit axe, and when the stable finishes, make 2-3 scouts and raid with it. In the rest of the feudal age, you are adding farms until you have 20 on food, then send 5 to gold (mining camp), and add a blacksmith when you afford it and click up to castle.

When going 1 range archers: This is going to be a bit food tight. Upon arriving feudal you drop range, and drop a mill with the 2 straggler villagers, and TC rally point is on berries, when the range is complete you start making archers. Get double bit axe as soon as you can afford it. Then start adding farms and set the TC rally point to wood. If there are too many villagers on berries move the berry villagers off berries to farms first, before moving the wood villagers to farms (there should not be more than 6 there). Make 4 archers and attack, then once you have 8 farms, add blacksmith and start making skirmishers (get fletching and armor), so the gold villagers can collect the 200 gold needed to go to castle. Again keep adding farms until you have 20 on food. Ideally the range should never stop producing army.

When going spear-skirm: This is similar to the 1 range archers. Except it's not as food tight. You have the mill already. Just add range, get bit axe, and add farms. On the army side, make 2 spears and 1 archer and 1 skirmisher as you can afford it and attack as soon as your walls are complete (ideally before 12 minutes). Add 8 farms and start producing whatever to counter your opponents army. More spears if they make scouts, more skirms if they make archers. If the opponent attacks with man at arms, still use skirms to peck at them until they leave or die. On the eco side keep adding farms until you have 20 on food, then send 6-7 to gold then add blacksmith and get range and armor upgrades and click up to castle.

When going man at arms: you make 3 militia as soon as your barracks is up. In feudal you get bit axe, and research man at arms, as soon that 1 villager that's pecking at the gold gets it. This is also a bit food tight like the 1 range archers. So initially new villagers go to berries, then you add farms. Once you have 4-6 farms up, you save for an archery range and start skirmisher production to counter the archers that were made to counter your man at arms. Add 1 villager to gold so there are 2 to collect the gold for castle age. Then as before, you continue adding farms until you have 20 on food then add blacksmith to get range upgrades.

Feudal into castle age transition

While going up to castle, check eco upgrades and get them: double bit axe, horse collar, gold mining. Make sure to have 16 on farms. Queue wheelbarrow after castle age once all other things are done.

Unit specific:

Knights: Have 2 stables, get cavalry armor and bloodlines.
Archers: Have 3 ranges, have fletching, have 15 on gold (move from wood), produce archers from all ranges as you can afford them.
Cavalry archers: Have 3 ranges and a stable, get fletching.
Castle unique unit: Send 8 on stone as soon as you have the farm set up and 2nd feudal building up.

In castle age

On the economy side of things:

Get bow saw.
Have 15 to gold (from wood), if you haven't already.
Add 2 extra town centers (so you have 3) when you can afford it.
Get heavy plow
Gradually add 20 additional farms when you have the wood.
Get gold shaft mining when all the mentioned eco and army upgrades are in.
Finally build the necessary buildings required for going up to imperial age.
Move 15 villager from wood to stone and get stone mining (you collect stone for a castle).

On the army side of things. You should continuously make army from the production buildings, and use the army to attack the enemy. Unit specific:

Knights: Get the second armor upgrade when you can afford it, then husbandry. This is a food and gold composition, so it's important to quickly set up your extra TCs and farms.
Archers: Get crossbow then bodkin arrow, once these upgrades are clicked, move 6 villagers from farms to wood (so you have only 10 on food).
Cavalry archers: Get bodkin arrow, then move 6 villagers from farms to wood (so you have 10 on food).
Unique unit: Build a castle first to start production of unique units. Get the relevant upgrades for the unique unit, depending on its type. Depending on the cost you may want to adjust the number of villagers on gold. The stone miners should give you soon enough stone for another castle if necessary.

Archers are wood heavy, therefore the extra TCs and farms come up slower.

Castle to imperial transition

While going up imp, your focus should be on upgrades. Getting all the necessary upgrades cost a lot of resources.

Get hand kart. Get town watch (seeing more is nice)
Get all the attack and armor upgrades for your army.
Get all the unit specific upgrades (eg. husbandry, bloodlines, thumb ring, ballistics, etc.)
Tech into the non-gold units that counters your opponent and build the necessary buildings for them at least 5 of those production buildings.

Imperial age

Start making trebuchets, have at least 4 so you can start pushing enemy castles. Get unit upgrades.

Knights: Final armor upgrade and cavalier.
Archers: Chemistry, bracer, and armors
Cavalry archers: Chemistry, bracer, heavy cavalry archer, parthian tactics

Spam the non-gold unit that counters your opponent's composition. If enemy makes cav, you should make a lot of halberdiers, Against archers and cav, you make skirmishers. Against enemy skirmishers you make hussars. Generally you combine archers with hussars (wood and gold + food unit). Generally you combine knights with skirmishers or pikemen (food + gold and wood + food).

On the eco side of the things you pick villagers and send them to any unclaimed gold and stone you can find.

Fast castle opening

Play this if you are behind walls and you are safe. The order is:

10 to food, 6 to wood, 6 to berries and 3 to gold. No need to get loom, click up to feudal. Seed 4 farms with villagers under TC. In feudal you build blacksmith and market, while 2 more villagers come out, then click up to castle age. While going up to castle you get all the eco upgrades and queue loom.