Guide

Well this has been on the AoL forums for a while, so now that I have time to forward it here, why not?  Please note that this was written for AoM players. Enjoy!  

Intro from the AoL forums...

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I. "The 4:15 Rush"

...Somewhat flexible, but mainly for use on high hunt against any Norse, Greeks except Hades, and only Ra for Egyptians...

The Goal - Hastily cripple your opponent's economy in relativity to your own and/or take over their first gold mine ASAP.

B.O.
-2 starting gatherers to hunt(use gh) + hunting dogs
-1 more gatherer to hunt
-1 gatherer to gold
-1 ox to gold
-1 gatherer to gold
-1 gatherer to wood straggler tree, preferably near your ox
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 gatherer to wood
-1 dwarf to gold
-3 hunters to food (Try to get a house up before this so you aren't popped. Also start a temple by the latest 2:35.)
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 dwarf to gold ---------------------------------------\ Interchangeable
-1 ox cart wood(Goto an actual forest now.) ----/ Steps
-Switch your 2 gatherers on gold to wood.

Transition
You should be up from anywhere around 3:12 to 3:15 if the b.o. is executed properly. I would probably go Heimdall unless you're going vs. Greek and you want an mu that won't die to the ranged hero + forest fire ---> possible wood strangle. Don't worry about econ ups unless you are going really passive, but make at least 1 hersir in transition. Set a gather point from your temple to where you want your ravens to scout.

The Classical Age
The Classical Age is the biggest part of any rush. Economically, know that you're gonna start with a few dwarves, but you mostly wanna pump gatherers onto sheep (and later wood) with some more dwarves on gold later. Right away make 2 rax, and go harass your enemy's economy like crazy with everything you've got. A bit of tc fire is ok, but it will really kill a rush if you linger in it for too long. Experience is really the best way to know how much damage your army can take and still be successful. If towers could possibly be a threat if they're to be upgraded, knock em down, but otherwise really go after your opponent's food and gold. If you get to a big enough military advantage cut your opponent off his gold with your ta's range attack and maybe horses. If you can't get into his mine that easily, you should really always be making villagers and striving to maintain a superior economy nonetheless. Be aggressive though, and try to use your speed! If the game goes on, they might take down your forward base, or they might not. Either way, you should have a good enough economy to compete with your opponent after failing to finish him early on.

Tips
-Archaic villager+ox micro is absolutely huge if you want to have enough resources to complete your b.o. Reduce the walking distanceconstantly!
-Use your ravens to immediately explore the vicinity of your opponent's base, including his food gatherers, and which side of his base his gold is on.
-If you think someone is going to counter your rush by advancing fast themselves, build 1 rax at a time and pump out a few ulfsarks first to help build the next rax and houses faster. Otherwise split your soldiers to make 2 rax at the same time and focus less on early ulfs.
-By even picking off the occasional villager and keeping up your own economy, you're bound to eventually pick up a winning pace over your opponent.
-If you're against Thor or Odin, don't build any forward buildings next to forests.
-When setting up your temple, and later on your forward base, try to set up by the side of your opponent's base that his gold mine is located. This will be huge when you're trying to gold cut, as if you had your base far away, you would possibly have to walk a long ways to cut gold, and risk having your base taken down.

Rec #1 (Attached)
Me against Boa on WH, I go for the rush...he puts up a good fight honestly, but this just demonstrates how powerful the rush is against other Norse in many ways...
Rec #2 (Attached)
On request, a rush against Greek, which is usually a lot harder than vs. Norse, but it really is doable. Me against Dabom.
Rec #10 (Attached)
Just updated this, thought it would be good to have a rec that really shows another huge aspect of the rush that I may not have emphasized enough. Loki_Warrior(hebrew_pride) beats my rush but because I maintain my eco I can come back and win. (Game says Ghost Lake but I think it was Oasis..not sure..)

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II. "The 4:10 Medi 6 Ships + Handaxe"

...For common use on Mediterranean against any god...

The Goal - Get a quick sea up with a good eco and take the water with your arrow ships.

B.O.
*** For the entirety of the b.o., keep pumping out fishing ships until you have 6.
-Send ulf to build dock, then after that, a house.
-2 starting vills + ox on straggler tree
-great hunt on your pigs
-1 gatherer to wood
-2 gatherers to the pigs(food)
-1 gatherer to wood(send him to the next straggler tree)
-1 gatherer to the food
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 ox to gold
-1 dwarf to gold
-5 villagers to food
-1 dwarf to gold
-When you have 6 fishing ships and you have 80 wood, switch your straggler wood cutters onto berries, chicken, or hunt.

Transition
You should be up anywhere between 4:05 and 4:15 if you executed the b.o. effectively. Go Freyja for forest fire of course. When you advance, combine all your 11 gatherers and go make them chop wood. Make your second dock ASAP(it's often hard to build it early enough) and get handaxe. Set a gathering point for your temple at your opponent's base for your ravens.

The Classical Age
For this guide, I'm only gonna cover the first 6:00 of the game, which is what you should ultimately know to have a good start with this strat. When you up, simply start making ships. You're probably want to get a few villagers on gold first before you add more to wood. Try to forest fire their woodies immediately, especially against Greek, this can be huge. It is really just like every medi game - micro. If you do a good job managing your eco and pumping ships out, you should have created about 11 ships by the 6:00 mark. 12 is great, and 10 is so-so.

Tips
-If you are facing Set, build your first house bordering the sea about half a screen down from dock. Later, when he has all his animals + his priest searching for your ulf to harass him, you can just locate yourself next to your house, build a dock in a manner that "traps" you between them, and then start building a house on the last gap.

---O*o----- * = ulf O = dock(in construction) - = sea line
......o....... o = house(the bottom house is in construction) . = land
-Use your pigs wisely, because you might not have enough. I'd say you need at least 6~ pigs to pull it off. Therefore, if you're low on pigs, eat them one at a time so the others can fatten.
-When scouting the map with your ulf, it is much easier to obtain 4 pigs by scouting shallowly on each side of you. There is always a very good chance you can find 2 pigs near your base on each side.
-After you have at least 4 pigs captured from scouting, send your ulfsark down half of the map and build your temple there. This way, your ravens will be able to fire up your enemy's woodies much faster(and safer).
-When you have a large number of woodcutters all using 1 ox, as you will, make sure you micro them to make the best use of the surface area of the ox cart, to reduce your villagers bumping into each other.
-Sometimes you must "force drop" your villagers and fishing ships to have enough food to make the next villager. This may take a bit of skill and practice, but it is necessary, especially when you need 400 food right away to advance.

Rec #3 (Attached)
A game of the AOTS 100 tourney I believe, I just nail this b.o. and take sea easily. I could've done a bit better on transition to land...

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III. "The 3:52 Rush"

...Deadly and crippling speed, but not effective at all if you are too passive, for use against Norse and possibly Ra...

The Goal - Knock your opponent off hunt and/or hit their gold mine ASAP. Get a definitive advantage over them.

B.O.
*** You must start out with a gold mine close to a forest to use 1 ox cart for both resources, which is necessary for this strategy. In addition, you must start out with hunt in the immediate vicinity of your starting villagers.
-2 starting gatherers to hunt(use gh) + hunting dogs
-1 gatherer to gold
-1 ox to gold
-1 gatherer to gold
-1 gatherer to wood straggler tree, preferably near your ox
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 gatherer to wood
-1 dwarf to gold
-3 hunters to food (Try to get a house up before this so you aren't popped. Also start a temple by the latest 2:15.)
-When you have 80 wood, send your two wood gatherers to herdables for extra food.
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 dwarf to gold
-After you have paid for your last dwarf, switch your 4 dwarves and 2 gatherers on your gold mine to herables for extra food.
-Switch your 4 gatherers on herdables to wood and your 4 dwarves on herdables to gold.

Transition
You should be up from anywhere around 2:50 to 2:55 if the b.o. is executed properly. I would definitely go Heimdall for this one. Don't worry about econ ups at all until a few minutes after you advance, and make as many hersir as you can in transition. Set a gather point from your temple to where you want your ravens to scout.

The Classical Age
For your economy, try to keep as constant a villager flow as you can, but don't worry too much if your tc is idle for 10 seconds or you're using dwarves on herables for food. You're just gonna wanna blitz it like crazy, make 1 rax, and then hammer their food and gold. You will have to make 2 rax eventually, but 1 is enough for a quick start. If you can't quite win it here, just make sure your eco doesn't plummet while at the same time containing your opponent's. If executed correctly, this strat can be one of the most devastating in the game.

Tips(Same as "The 4:15 Rush" tips)
-Archaic villager+ox micro is absolutely huge if you want to have enough resources to complete your b.o. Reduce the walking distanceconstantly!
-Use your ravens to immediately explore the vicinity of your opponent's base, including his food gatherers, and which side of his base his gold is on.
-If you think someone is going to counter your rush by advancing fast themselves, build 1 rax at a time and pump out a few ulfsarks first to help build the next rax and houses faster. Otherwise split your soldiers to make 2 rax at the same time and focus less on early ulfs.
-By even picking off the occasional villager and keeping up your own economy, you're bound to eventually pick up a winning pace over your opponent.
-If you're against Thor or Odin, don't build any forward buildings next to forests.
-When setting up your temple, and later on your forward base, try to set up by the side of your opponent's base that his gold mine is located. This will be huge when you're trying to gold cut, as if you had your base far away, you would possibly have to walk a long ways to cut gold, and risk having your base taken down.

Rec #4 (Attached)
One of the coolest games I've ever played, vs. WON_Xtinction, a very good 19+(at least) Thor player, I do the 3:52 against his rush, making a double rush game! There is a pretty close fight, but the effectiveness of the 3:52 is clearly displayed.

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IV. "The 6:45 Anatolia WW FH"

...Another "rush" strategy, for use strictly against Eggy...

The Goal - Advance as quickly as possible to the Heroic Age for Njord's Walking Woods, and cripple your opponent's eco. enough to finish him off later on, if you haven't already done so.

B.O.
-As we get on to strategies that take effect later in the game than rapid Classical rushes, an exact b.o. becomes much less important, but there are still a few guidelines that are nice to follow...
*** For the entirety of the b.o., keep pumping out fishing ships until you have 9.
-Send ulf to build dock on any side, then after that, a house.
-2 starting vills + ox on straggler tree
-great hunt on your sheep
-1 gatherer to wood
-2 gatherers to the pigs(food)
-1 gatherer to wood(send him to a forest)
-1 gatherer to the food
-1 dwarf to gold
-1 ox to gold
-1 dwarf to gold
-From here on out, make it up! You should try to make dwarves whenever you can, but make sure you have enough gold to start your temple by at latest 4:35. Don't make any more villagers to wood for now, make them gather food. Also don't get housed!
-Before you advance sometime, you need to make a 3rd ox cart for your gatherers on sheep, because they will soon become boar hunters!...or berry/chicken gatherers if you don't have boars. When you are up, send your villagers to gather another source of food(unless you haven't run out of sheep, of course), and research hunting dogs if necessary. For the end of all this, you should have a balanced of about 8-10/4-5/5-6 : villagers on food, wood, and gold, respectively, not including your fishing ships.

Transition
Transition is simple. You should be up from anywhere around 5:00 to 5:15 if the b.o. is executed properly. Tough choice between Freyja and Heimdall, but probably go Heimdall so you can knock some towers down...unless you're against Isis monuments. Don't get econ. ups...until a bit later, and don't make any hersir either. You need to resources. Set a gather point from your temple to where you want your ravens to scout. You should be sensing the 800 food and 500 gold that you need to be coming.

The Classical Age
Either queue up a couple villagers or a couple dwarves, depending on if you have extra food or gold; send them to wood. RIGHT AWAY, start making your armory with your original ulf. It'll take about the time it takes for 2 villagers to build for your ulf to complete the armory. When you feel you have enough resources, start making hersir/getting your Classical eco. ups, but make advancing your priority.

Transition
Ok...maybe or maybe not your water economy is getting wrecked by now, it doesn't matter too much. You're gonna wanna make rax with your ulfs and your hersir ASAP now, and start pumping out horses like crazy...make more hersir from your temple as well. Make sure your eco. in your base is balanced to sustain the production of the horses. Keep in mind as well that you're gonna be making hill forts/tcs later on. When you're just about to advance, gather all the army you have, pick a spot to cast WW, and go for it...

The Heroic Age
The key is to micro your horses to kill his priests and pharaoh. If you do this, then he will often be left totally unprepared and defenseless to your mighty trees. To prevent more priests from coming out, maybe try to gold block if you possibly can. The goal is to stall his economy, and if you're that successful, take down his base, I suppose. You should be soon building near his 2nd/3rd gold mine or 2nd tc a hill fort, and then building yourself a 2nd tc. With 2 tcs you'll be able to catch up to his sea eco. again. Keep your trees alive by killing heroes, and you shouldn't have too much trouble winning this matchup, unless you're just outplayed.

Tips
-When you cast WW, make sure that opponent can't lure the trees away, as this often really kills the power in the strat and will probably give you a loss.
-You could also wait another minute to attack possibly, and try to assimilate more raiders and huskarls to pick off heroes, but this can often ruin the total surprise of the strat, although very affective sometimes.

Rec #5 (Attached)
Far, far from perfect, but as I said, there is no real definitive b.o. for this one. This is just a game against an easy cpu to show the concept, as I really haven't posted any good games against other people that I'm aware of.

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V. "The Midgard Rush"

...Useful against mainly Norse, but can be easily used against other civs as well...

The Goal - Nail their gold mine! (Or their wood if you wanna go that way vs. Greek.) Go up decently fast, try to get earlier than 5:00, then go all land. Spam ulfs if they won't get picked off by towers/tc too easily. Mainly just nail gold and end the game ASAP.

Rec #6 (Attached)
Actually a pretty amazing game me vs. Phil. I did lose, probably because I couldn't gold strangle him efficiently enough, but you can really see here how dominating the rush can be. Also notice a really useful tactic I put into use, making buildings by his tc, making the tc automatically attack the buildings.
Rec #7 (Attached)
Verrry good game vs. the Grumpstah. A sea fight, not a rush, but the same concept of the b.o.

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VI. "The GH-on-sheep Classic Boom"

...One of my favorite strats, it can be used against pretty much any civ on low hunt...

The Goal - Maintain excellent tc production, get all your eco upgrades, get tons of fat sheep(to use gh on them), and dominate the game economically after mid-late Classic. Husbandry ASAP, not hunting dogs, and you may want to make 2 ulfs to scout for more sheep. Play a defensive raiding style, and just don't let your eco get hurt at all if you can help it.

Rec #8 (Attached)
Pretty much just a domination game vs. Moocow. You can see the strat executed near-perfectly and WW ends the game easy.

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VII. "The Ulf Raid"

...For use against Possy only...

The Goal - Treat this like a normal "Starsky" style raiding game, just make 2 rax instead of 3 for ulf spamming, because ulfs train fast anyways. Research Odin's special upgrade, which makes his ulfs nearly as fast as Poseidon's hippikons. Nail him at the second gold mine if you can.

Rec #9 (Attached)
Not a good game by any means against 1900, but shows the power of pure ulfsarks. Pretty long game too.


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-AoL_Dexter