Generalized Construction Tips
(written by Auratus)

Here's what has been working for me on most maps:

3 stone huts, 3 saw mills, 6 choppers, 5 foresters. I like fast "replant" time, so I have those extra foresters. I place foresters near the choppers and order their "plant centre" to be not where their hut is, but off a bit where other foresters are also planting; slightly off-centre of their plant locations.

I then look for a clear area for large residences (if to be found) and put a store house for stone and another for wood. I try to place the 2 store houses such that they are half way between that perspective residentially zoned land and the stone and saw mills (to reduce carrier time for those things). Ideally, the lumber industry should be close to where you plan to make large residences. Large residences are your top user of boards and stone!

As your population goes up, be sure to add builders and diggers (digger amount depends on how hilly the land is). I like a max of 10-20 diggers and 20-30 builders by game's mid point for fast residence construction.

Note: if your numbers of soldiers are high, even if L1s, the AI may leave you alone longer... so recruit L1 bows if you need to keep up a little with AI production to "buy time."

Tower Defence:

This is personal preference to a certain degree! Some swear to the one small tower strategy, as all the experts seem to, but I haven't mastered that.

I can win most maps not doing that method. The "hard" ones by some others, no doubt, require the one tower method in order to free wood and stone used for them for other important buildings; i.e., barracks, mines, fishers, smiths, and smelters. Some times it is important to crush all un-needed towers to get more wood and stone for important buildings, etc, for an earlier soldier production on "harder" maps.

A nice "rolling" economy might be:

3 to 4 iron smelters, 2 iron mines, 6-9 coal mines, 6-8 gold smiths, 2-3 gold mines, 3-4 weapons smiths, and 1-2 barracks.

Food: 4 grain farms, a mill, 2 bakers, 1 animal farm, 1 slaughter house, 2 water huts, 2 to 5 fishers. Sometimes I go to 2 mills, 5 farms, 3 water huts, and 4 bakers. It depends on the size I need for my economy according to the size of the enemy armies... and space available. Fishers should queue to all mines and be built first when possible. They will hold you over until the bread economy is going. If enough fishers are built, the meat economy isn't needed and the bread economy may not be needed either.

Animals/Spies/Sabos:

They change automatically to what your race is when captured to your land color. Pigs and Goats become Sheep, for example, if you're Roman. Also, mead becomes wine if your are Roman. Honey becomes grain, if your are Roman. Thieves/Spies fake as pioneers when you find them. Sabos (I think) appear as pioneers also until you are next to them (they then change). These are all strange quirks they put deliberately into the game, I think.

The best piece of advice I ever got came from a friend whom said to always make lots of archers, especially on tough maps. She also advises to always use the one tower method of defence. My soldier production is normally 10 percent swordsmen and 90 percent bowmen, normal L2 when quick hires are needed, otherwise L3. If really quick hires are needed, then L1s are hired. I have tired to reduce the numbers of towers I make early in the game in order to free wood and stone for residences and other buildings. My game has improved a lot due to this. Having higher archer production has helped me a lot also. Another thing I started doing was to be darn sure I get up to 20-25 builders ASAP. This will also help your game. Also be sure to have a steady wood and stone supply! With wood, it is possible to get a lot out of a small area by having more than one forester re-planting cut trees and by having at least 4 to 6 choppers in there. Always be sure wood and stone sources are close to your construction sites for large residence and eyes. Having your barracks near your residences will help also.

Bottom line? Try to reduce the distance any carrier has to move to accomplish something; have lots of free carriers: I have at least four large residences under construction at all times during the mid game when my basic economy is completed.