Normally, I get the first wood cutting upgrade and the gold mining upgrade during the bronze transition time. But once I hit bronze I am usually concerned with building more ranges/stables, a siege workshop, another pit, and a government center, and as all of you know, you can't have too much wood at this time of the game.
How do the rest of you manage your resources leading up to and during this time frame to avoid critical shortages? I know some of you are quite good at this because I've played with and against many of you and have been impressed with your ability to field significant armies in bronze and iron in the mid 20s.
Some possible solutions that come to mind but that I haven't proven yet are as follows: I can do as Ender says and immediately train 10 villagers as soon as I bronze. I do this sometimes but I probably haven't managed them very well. Another is to rely less on wood dependent bronze-age units like CAs and STs and go more with camels, cavs, or compies, but that doesn't make sense with CA civs like Hittite, Assy, Egypt, etc…. Also, I may be making too many boats leading to bronze as I usually have about a 34-40 pop with 22-24 real villagers once I reach bronze. Regardless, problem lies somewhere else since these ideas are really treating the symptom rather curing my problem.
I would appreciate your comments
Thanks
Jehu