Never idle your TC again.
Master the openings that win games.
23 Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition build orders from top players and the community. Each one is a step-by-step table you can follow mid-game.
Varangians 19 Pop Scouts into Bloodlines
A standard 19 pop scout opening that uses the Varangians' best early bonus: 10% of the food from herding and hunting is also gold. That trickle pays for Bloodlines without a mining camp, so your Feudal scouts have 75 HP and win nearly every early fight. The plan: go up at 19 pop without Loom, make 3 scouts, get Bloodlines right away and harass while you build farms and wall. Around 35 villagers, build the mining camp and click Castle Age. In Castle Age keep playing cavalry: light cavalry with relic control, a monastery, more Town Centers, then knights or Jarls. This is a first impression from Hera's pre-release video against the AI, so treat the Castle Age follow-ups as a starting point, not settled meta.
Saxons 19 Pop Archers with Tower
A safe archer opening that uses the Saxons' defensive bonuses. Every mill, lumber camp and mining camp you build gives you extra food and 10 stone, so you reach Feudal Age with enough stone for a tower without a single villager mining stone. Saxon towers shoot double arrows from Castle Age, which makes that tower even stronger later. The plan: two lumber camps for a smooth economy, archers to pressure, a tower on your gold and a full wall at home. In Castle Age go up to 3 Town Centers quickly: every Town Center or Castle makes your foot soldiers 5% cheaper, up to 20%. Then follow up with Varangian Guards and skirmishers, or Hearth Troops. This is a first impression from Hera's pre-release video against the AI, so treat the follow-ups as a starting point, not settled meta.
Danes 19 Pop Man-at-Arms Rush
Man-at-Arms opening built on three Danes bonuses. The extra food on drop-off makes an easy fast Feudal Age, the cheaper Man-at-Arms upgrade lets you go to gold later than usual, and every enemy building you destroy gives you back a quarter of its cost. The whole build is about attacking nonstop and destroying buildings. Hit villagers when you can reach them; when they run, hit lumber camps, houses and above all farms. Every farm you kill gives you 15 wood, while your opponent loses the 60 wood it cost. That wood is what keeps your army and your economy going, so never stop raiding. This is a first impression from Hera's pre-release video against the AI, so treat the follow-ups as a starting point, not settled meta.
Mongols on Water Maps
Mongols have no water bonus at all, but their hunters gather 40% faster, and that is enough. The hunt takes you to Feudal Age at around 5:50 — early enough to kill enemy fishing ships and own the water before the opponent has even arrived. Strong on Baltic, Mediterranean, Bog Islands and similar, and excellent on MegaRandom where hunt and water are both common. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Saracen Fast Castle with Market Abuse
Saracens have a 5% commodity trading fee and 75 wood markets, so buying and selling costs them far less than anyone else. Open with a Drush, transition into a Fast Castle funded by the market, and hit with fast crossbows — which get +2 attack against buildings on Saracens, so enemy walls are not the obstacle they usually are. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Aztec Siege & Monk Push on Arena
Aztecs are dangerous on Arena with a siege and monk push that grinds the opponent down while your economy keeps growing behind it. Every monastery technology gives their monks +5 HP, so the monks survive mangonel shots and scout raids long enough to keep converting. Villagers carrying more, and relics generating extra gold, fund the whole thing. Note this build skips Loom entirely. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Burgundians on Arabia
Burgundians get economic upgrades an age early at a 50% food discount, and this build cashes that in immediately: Double-Bit Axe goes down in the Dark Age, which is why you go up on 21 pop instead of the usual 20. Safe, wall-heavy, with a very strong Cavalier Castle Age. Finish in early Imperial with Paladins — Burgundians are not a great post-Imperial civ, so the damage has to be done before then. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Man at Arms into Archers/Skirms
Militia break walls that archers cannot, and they also scout for you: what the men-at-arms see decides whether you follow up with archers or skirmishers. Works on hybrid maps too, and pairs well with an aggressive tower denying a resource or a key position. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Cuman 2 TC into Kipchaks
Cumans can build a second Town Center in the Feudal Age, which no other civilisation can do. Done properly it buys you an early mini boom that is very hard to answer, provided the opponent cannot get at your economy before it pays off. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Scouts Opening
The classic Feudal scout opening. It has lost ground lately because people wall earlier than they used to, so by the time the scouts are out the opponent is often already closed off. Still strong on genuinely open maps like Acropolis or Land Madness, and on hybrid maps that are awkward to wall such as Four Lakes. Best on Franks, Magyars, Lithuanians, Mongols, Huns or Persians. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
1 TC Cavalry Archers with Huns
Opens identically to the standard scouts build, then diverges on the way to Castle to set up Cavalry Archers. Built for Huns specifically, because their Cavalry Archers are cheaper. You stay on one TC and push, which puts you on a clock: the opponent will be adding town centres, so the damage has to land. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).
Goths Forward
Goths have no economy bonus, so they need to win Dark Age instead: send your first villager forward, steal a boar, wall off the enemy berries and drush from a forward Barracks. Villagers deal extra damage to boar and Loom is instant, which makes this messy anti-meta style the best way to play the civ. If the lame or the idle time lands, you buy enough time to reach a safe Castle Age boom into Huskarls. Capoch streams on Twitch and Kick (kick.com/capoch).