I have mostly been playing hills, and the strats surrounding successful play always suits a chariot civ. Gold doesn't seem to be a viable resource, and therefore it is best to stick with Assy or Egyptian.
But in order to venture out into other maps I think my current approach will suffer massively. I haven't been successful in any navy battle, and I think that this shang strat may allow me to continue my total neglect of naval warfare.
BTW - what is the best initial steps strat? I've had a look and the documented strats I have seen don't go into the initial steps. I have been doing the following so far:
Hills, 1v1, Large +, No Reveal (most people hate this, but does handicap good players more that you would think)
1. Train/queue villager(s)
2. Build 2 houses (paint) with 2 villies (both on same house)
3. Scout with 3rd villie (look for berry)
4. When house is 1/2 complete take 1 builder to scout (2 scouts)
5. Villager created (remember to queue) and scout for berry
6. When berry found (spread out scouts and go in circles) build granary and place all but 1 scout on berry
7. First 5 villies on berry, 1 scout (group =1) moving in circles around TC
8. Next villie berry (total 6 berry, 1 scout, 7/12 pop)
9. All new villagers on wood (should be tree v close to TC)
10. Pop = 10/12 scout build house (at current location)
11. Nearest trees to TC should provide enough wood for pit next to forest (found by scout) - build pit in between gold/gazelle/ele/wood if possible
12. Continue scouting, growing, and stockpiling (move villies to new berry spot if located or hunt) - do not get housed!
13. I usually go for 24 pop on hills before aging (never 26 as my execution of the above steps is not good enough at the moment). I have tried 21 but no good.
14. As soon as I hit tool I build barracks with woodcutters (near TC), hopefully I am close to locating enemy at this point with scout
15. I then move a few more to food (around 10 on food and 13 on wood with 1 scout).
16. As soon as I have tooled, build market and archery range with woodcutters (use all woodcutters).
17. Hit bronze.
18. By now I should have found the enemy. Scout builds archery range.
19. As soon as I bronze I hit wheel tech, queue villies, think about farming (unless berry found). New villies on wood (priority).
20. Wheel researched, should have 2 archery ranges up (remember 1 in TC), start training.
21. I now start first wave of attack with 3 CA, no upgrades.
22. First upgrade = woodcutting, then cav armor, then artisanship, then cav armor.
23. From then on I play randomly. I try and get the gov center up, a few villies on gold and stone (2 g, 1 s?). I build additional TC near forests across map, farm in 2 areas (I believe I usually over-farm, therefore skewing my wood:food ratio!).
24. I don't wall (useless for me on hills, too much micromanagement required), but I try to tower near my farms.
25. From then on it is mostly about holding onto forest locations, gold is a bonus, but mostly I mass produce CA (usually reach 200 pop limit no problems). Split army into 2 factions (defensive and attacking, attacking via flanking enemy, scouting for enemy woodies).
[This message has been edited by Rasteve (edited 02-14-2009 @ 02:39 AM).]