OK a few weeks ago I was practicing this for the tourney so I played it at 1.5 spd. I concluded the following to fast bronze for the 1v1 tourney setting:
1) Play Shang no matter what.. food is scarce !
2) Unless you luck out and find a big nearby game preserve you will have to find a second
berry patch NO MATTER WHAT to bronze w/20 peons.. even if you hunt your way to bronze
you will be slower and still need more food to fuel any attack... thus ...
3) You gotta find that 2nd patch NO MATTER WHAT.. so somewhere between peons 12 -16 you better get out and explore... aha "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears.. Oh My !!" nope just lions and lots of em. Your single peons become cat food ! .. which leads to ...
4) Explore for the berries w/ groups of two peons spaced 3-4 tiles apart and given a ctrl# . The group of two has increased vision and sometimes 2 peons killed a pride of two lions w/out losses. I send out 2 groups of 2 ctrl#1 and ctrl#2 somewhere between peons 12-18ish depending how things are going. I practiced waypointing them in zig zags with each pair covering half the map starting nearby. If one peon gets eaten the other continues to explore. As soon as you find the 2nd patch slap up a granery and get the other explore group and some other
berrypickers to it as the first runs out.
5) Manage wood right and u get just enough to bronze w/2 graneries one pit by wood/game
for later, one rax, and 2 tool buildings
6) How fast is this?... well I broke 14 every time vs the computer when i found the 2nd patch reasonably quickly and one game i got 12:08 and another 12;27 when the berries were found quickly !!
7) The trouble with this is if you don't find the berries you are in trouble.. in the tourney I had 54% exploration and still no 2nd patch.So I bronzed late and butchered the game rushing into an assy ambush.