Age of Empires IV – How to reach Feudal Age within 5 minutes on all civilizations

Reaching Feudal Age quickly is the first milestone for all standard openings in Age of Empires IV. Here is how you tech up to the second age fast on all civilizations.

Requirements for Feudal Age

While the landmarks differ greatly between the civilizations teching up to the next age all require the same amount of resources: 400 Food & 200 Gold

So how exactly do you hit that number? Just follow our quick build order. While some civilizations have a couple of differences in their approach, here is a build order you can follow to hit Feudal Age within 5 minutes every time.

Starting moves

As soon as you spawn into a match select your town center to start villager production. Then select your six villagers to gather food from the sheep you start with. After that collect the two sheep that will spawn nearby with your Scout (or Khan) before you go scouting further out with your rider.

1. Start Villager production in Town Center (Queue up to 4 Villagers)
2. Set Villagers to gather food from the starting Sheep
3. Collect two nearby Sheep with your Scout before heading off to discover the map

Securing the 200 Gold

Next step is securing your gold income. The first Villager produced by the Town Center (Villager number 7) should build the Mining Camp next to your close gold mine. The second Villager (overall 8th) should be tasked with building a house to increase your population cap (unless playing Mongols), afterwards he should also be moved to the gold mine to gather resources.

4. Construct a Mining Camp with your seventh Villager. Assign him to gold collection after
5. Construct a House with your eighth Villager. Assign him to gold collection after

While you were securing your gold income, your scout should have found a couple more sheep in the vicinity of your spawning location. Herd the sheep back to the Town Center and send off your Scout to find the opposing player. Assign other newly created Villagers to collecting food from the sheep.

Constructing the Landmark

If you have followed the build order correctly you will hit the required resources around the 2:30 minute mark. Pull off your gold miners from the gold and order them to start building the landmark of your choice as soon as you have the 400 Food and 200 Gold. Do not forget to keep up Villager production as soon as you have started on your landmark.

6. Wait for the resources to be accumulated
7. Pull the two gold miners off the mine and put them to work on the landmark
8. Continue Villager production

Establishing Wood or Gold Income

As your economy continues to gather Food during the transition to Feudal Age, you now need to establish your wood income as well. Depending on civilizations and which unit composition you are aiming for in Feudal Age pull 3-6 Villagers off food shortly after you started construction of your landmark. Order them to build a Lumber Camp and assign them to wood afterwards. You will need the wood for construcing the Feudal Age Buildings, but also for units such as Archers, Horsemen or Spearmen.

9. Pull off 3-6 Villagers off Food to construct a Lumber Camp
10. Assign them to wood or gold collection after

If you are aiming for a more gold heavy composition (such as Knights if French or Rus) put less Villagers on Wood, instead assign them to your exisiting Mining Camp next to the Gold.

Keep up in Population as you hit Feudal Age

While you are establishing your resource income, keep producing more Villagers to fuel your economy. Do not forget to build up houses as necessary. Once you are getting within two to three supply of the population limit, put down another house.

If you have followed everything to the letter you will hit Feudal Age around the 5 minute mark and have plenty of resources to start up on Feudal Age projects immediately. Be it buildings or units that you unlocked.

Establish a new source for Food

During your transition period your sheep supply will most likely start to run dry. Make sure to establish a new food income as soon as you see roughly 2 sheep remaining. Unless you are playing one of the Muslim civilizations (Delhi and Abbasids) you should aim for the Deer as next food supply and build a Mill next to them. While those are more exposed and vulnerable to enemy raids, Villagers are more efficient on those instead of Berries.

You now have a good basis for almost all kinds of strategies in the Feudal Age.

More Age of Empires IV:

Age of Empires IV Civilizations Tier List – These are the best Civs to play

Variety depending on civilization and strategy

Obviously this is a very basic build order that only covers the absolute necessary for newer players. You should use this build order as a starting point to incorporate your civilization or strategy-specific build orders. Detailled build orders will be tailor-made to specific civilizations and cannot be covered in this catch-all guide.

Rus for example do not need to build an early Mining Camp as they can easily collect the 200 Gold through their Bounty mechanic, while the Mongol start is very removed from any of the other civilizations as you first need to actually find a good place for placing your Town Center. You also need to scout your stone early for constructing your Oovo. Other civilizations like HRE, Delhi or China all need adjustments too to properly use their early special units (Prelate, Scholar, Imperial Officer).

Tweak the order to your heart’s content as its very basic formula means you can add on to it easily. Need an opening with more units early? You can push an earlier Barracks and adjust

Build orders should always be a guideline not a fixed thing you never deviate from.

Build Order Overview:

Start Villager Production in Town Center (queue up to four villagers)
Set Villagers to gather food from the starting Sheep
Collect two nearby Sheep with your Scout before heading off to discover the map
Construct a Mining Camp with your seventh Villager. Assign him to gold collection after
Construct a House with your eighth Villager. Assign him to gold collection after
Wait for the 400 Food and 200 Gold to be accumulated
Pull the two gold miners off the mine and put them to work on the landmark
Continue Villager production9.
Pull 3-6 Villagers off Food to construct a Lumber Camp
Assign them to wood or gold collection after
Feudal Age finishes around the 5 minute mark

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