Cavalier rush tactic by Zixonv
Start of The Game:
Build warehouses as needed during this, and you can add other buildings as you need but this is the core of the build. Population rewards should be spent on planks.
First few Minutes:
1. Noble Residence right next to your storehouse, Swords maker on the residence (Set to Fancy food when built)
1a. Build two prestige items if required to unlock buildings
2. Stronghold
3. Mountain Shelter next to the initial stone pile with atleast 2 stone cutters on it.
4. Lodge with Hunter on it Set to Fancy Food
5. Farm with Horse Stable, set to Simple food
5. Second Noble residence with 1 Butcher on it (set to Fancy food)
6. Two Butchers on the first Noble Residence.
7. Mountain Shelter with Smelter set to Fancy Food.
8. Trading Building
9. Build prestige on the stronghold to unlock level 3
10. Upgrade Stronghold
Now sometime during that build order your stronghold will complete order up 2 pikemen (2 Swords should have come out by then) and set your army off for the closest zone with coal or iron or both. After they conquer that first zone they'll have 5/4 pikemen wait until they're mostly healed and send them onto a second zone. Pick building supplies for your rewards again.
As soon as your trading building comes up hirer 2 hawkers, and trade off your left over 3 shirts, and 2 rings. Also watch your population and add a regular residence as needed, if your population is close to 40 (2nd population reward) build a toolsmith or other buildings you'll want in the future like the jewelry smith etc and set them to idle. Use this reward to give you whatever building supplies are holding back the Stronghold upgrade.
Note you can also modify the build to go with the trader after the stronghold upgrade but I prefer this way because there's always a rest period after everyone gets their second zone.
After the stronghold upgrade is up you'll have 8 coins atleast, way more than 4 swords, atleast 4 horses so you can immediately pump out 4 Cav. Now 4 Cav is a special number because it's enough to roll over a 3 pikeman neutral zone without losing any Cav's. Assuming you went trading then stronghold upgrade you can likely pump out even more likely 8 or so Cav. With this you now can roll over neutral zones at will.
From here the strategic direction of the game is upto you, you can rush headlong towards an opponent who if they don't pay attention or haven't fortified you can be in their castle in 3-4 minutes, you can expand your territory non stop and use the conquest rewards to feed your economy etc.
You will want to stabilize your economy as soon as you get the first 4 cavs out there. By that I mean you'll need a well, grain farms, atleast 2 coal/iron nodes, some wood/planks ,some fish, maybe throw a pig farm up and get another butcher going. Get your trading economy going with a shirt making and jewelry so you can continue to generate gold.
Either way by the 10 minute mark you'll be a powerhouse in terms of map control and then you can focus on picking up your victory points. Hopefully this will help some people understand how an army is marching into their castle in the early game.