Aoc Mastery (Not final, still editing and revising)
Mastering Macro and Micro
Macro-management is the management and control of larger systems (economy, large groups of units/structures, and military actions) within any RTS game, and micromanagement is the management and control of much smaller systems such as 1-15 units, operating split army tactics, organized knight raids, timed attacks..etc. Macro-management really shines in late fuedal and castle age. Micro shines in dark age and early feudal. Here are some good percentages to help you understand my point. From dark to feudal..Micro is about 60 % and Macro 40%. From Late feudal to Castle and to Imperial Age these percentages shift progressively to 75% Macro and 25% Micro. This is not very accurate, but its true in most cases especially versus an oppenent that is equally as good as you.
Within in AOC, macro-management is the control of the whole system. It is on a larger scale then micromanagement. It is about working behind the bigger picture to control your economy and military very well. One must use his ability to think in order to understand Macro. You must be able to think of queuing which units, while microing; and fighting battles, to think of which res you need while booming and trying to execute each of these simultaneously in action; and thought.
For example, macro would be thinking to queue vills, queue army, build 5 farms, planning where to build new tcs, build four barracks defensively, create outposts near wood or center of the map to see if he has any plans to siege you. Now I can think of all these things at once, and that is what Macro is: your ability to handle a large system progressively at once. Now I worded out what I would do but in the game, I thought all of that instantly didn't have to think twice unless the opponent has set up some kind of restrictions.
Macroing economically would be renewing gather points, making plans to build tc's that are also offensive as well as defensive (causing your enemies army to pass through them, entering or leaving your base). Queuing just enough vills, monitoring your stockpiles. Checking all sections of your economy to see if your villagers are operating fluidly.
It is careful planning and a insight of visualization of whats going to happen in the future. Not a prediction, but rather a good understanding of your opponent.
Learn to plan out your decisions. Micro is how you execute them. This is where Micro and Macro go hand in hand to help each other for greater good of the entire system. A good macroer should be able to think fluidly (without interruption or stunning during tough situations) while microing.
So you must learn how to macro and micro; and learn areas of focus. If your being attacked in two different places with archers and spears. And your scouts are ready to raid his woods, but there are three spears you can kill with micro.. I wouldn't do it. Because the area of importance is at your base. I would retreat my scouts for the time being, sending them home or let them lurk in his base for 2-3 seconds until I handle the situation at home.
Now stunning is when your in tough situations and things are elevating.The tides are overwhelming and your pressed into a corner; and your not sure what to do. If your find your self unsure of what to do. You may lack macro skills. You should always feel in control even when you are losing.
So what is Micro?
Micro is very simple. Micro is how you work out certain areas to press for advantages in battle and economy. It is when you lure spear-men out to kill them one by one. It is when you build a mining camp and make sure your vills are organized to help you gather gold efficiently. It is when your selecting units you know your enemy targeted and dragging that unit away to cause his army to follow. There are a lot of tricks, and even ones you can create with timing and split army tactics.
The thing about micro is you can not be lazy.. you have to have a diligent heart and mind to show proper care for your base and army. If your a lazy player you should take a break. Every time I take break, whatever I have sown to be better, grows. It grows according to how I have sown them. If your a lazy ass thing your going produce lousy results; and just about everything will be a struggle. However if you become diligent player at heart; and invest your time in learning, becoming better, and challenging your self by facing good openents; the ones you usually turn down; then after you take your break and come back you'll be amazing and formidable.
Lesson #1 Project Gabriel's Macro; The fundamental thinking of Aoc especially for Arabia.
This first lesson should help any player find the fundamentals of how to think actively during the game. It adds to your Macro arsenal. Most experts do these thing automatically, but rookies mess up in these areas all the time.
5 Fundamental rules!
1. Check Idles every 3-5 Seconds (space bar)
2. Scan Stockpile Income every 2 seconds (eye coordination)
3. GPR's every 1-2 minutes (thinking)
4. Mini Map Defensive Radaring by checking it every 3-5 seconds. (eagle eyes)
5. Think about if you need to Villager Shift every 2-5 minutes. (thinking)
GPR = Gather Point Renewals, both economically and military wise.
I use the power of anagrams to help your mind inhale the information. And after you mastered it you won't even have to think, you'll be reacting with ease.
So learn this Anagram to help you remember the 5 rules in game.
CSGMT
Chelsea Slammed Gabriel Moses Terribly.
Chelsea = Check Idles
Slammed = Scan Stockpile Income
Gabriel = Gather Point Renewals
Moses = Mini Map Radar the Eagles Eye
Terribly = Think about Villager Shifting to keep your economy balanced.
Now all you have to do for the next 25-50 games is think this sentence actively while gaming. Rehearsing in your mind the meaning of each. I have used this before and it helped me a lot.
How to use it
First just kept repeating the sentence, rehearse in your mind the meaning of each word. For instance my mind thought about Chelsea straightway I clicked the space bar, I slammed consistently by checking my stockpiles, I focused on Gabriel the Angel to be a good general in war, and keep my economy organized, preventing future idles. Moses walked with God so I focused on my mini map every 3-5 seconds using my eagle eye (the Radar) to understand where and how my opponent attacks me...Moses became my best defense; and also my best ally. I terribly thought about how I can balance my economy with shifting. I developed good eye coordination for and slamming and using Moses.
Gabriels require lots of understanding of the situation; if the battle has been won then set Gabriels near the battle or enemy, if the battle is being lost u set in a defensive spot, Econ Gabriels are microed every 2 minutes, b.c when is wood chopped down you need to renew your gabriel.The vills will go idle because of the tree is gone.
Slamming is relatively difficult when your facing a situation that is tough, because vs a good player sometimes the battle can cause you to lose focus on slamming, Try your best to learn how to slam while fighting. Slamming will help you see what you will have to do with your economy and should help you understand if you need shift your villagers, or if you need to just set Gabriels on wood to gain more wood for 3 minutes, to help boost your 2 siege workshop ram push.
Lesson #2 Wakka has Awesome Insight For Waging War; Paul Insists Strength Builds Strong Allies
This is for players that are advancing beyond Lesson #1
I'll post more on lesson 2, but I dont want my students to skip lesson 1 lol. Its important to rehearse in your mind the anagram until you no longer have to think about any of it, because it will become apart of your reactions instead of it becoming an actual thought. For instance if you say Gabriel in your mind, you should know its Gather Point Renewal every 1-2 Minutes depending the situation. If you have military buildings then you should actively use Gabriel. After doing this for 50-100 games you'll be reprogrammed to react without much thinking involved.
When I used this I became much better player. I designed it according to the help I received from my friends. I found that all their help was to much for me to think of in a game. So I created anagrams to program my mind to think about all their tips at once. I hope you find it as useful as I did. Just use it! Keep using it until your reprogrammed. An expert automatically knows most of these things. Lastly you reap what you sow, so be diligent and patient, wait for your harvest!
Lesson 2 will be added shortly....
Micro Mastery
In order to obtain skills in microing, you must be patient and learn to focus on your weaknesses. All micro is earned, and patiently acquired. First thing you must do is focus on important areas that need it. For instance scout micro is very easy.. its hard to explain things with words though but I'll try. Here are my methods for winning battles, and becoming good at micro.
Lesson 1: Focus on the area you desire to be good in.
So if you want to be good at micro learn to take risks, and also play to focus on your weaknesses instead of playing to win. So find the area you want to master and focus on that alone. If its scouts, go full scrush and learn to kill off 4 spearmen with 12-16 scouts with minimal losses.
Melee Unit Micro... 4 scouts are obtained by 12 minutes respectively, right?So you go to your oppenents base and he has 1 spear... so you have to decide if you want to kill it, or retreat until you have a larger amount of scouts, or if your planning to send in archers before 18-20 minutes. If your good at micro you should be able to do many things on your screen with your mouse effectively.
From here on out play to improve your areas of weakness. So say from now on you always choose to kill the spearmen. All you have to do is wait for the spearman to make contact or you could lure it, which is less effective versus good players. So let the spearman make contact with one of your scouts. Now quickly wireframe that scout, and pull him away while the other three attack. Now a good opponent will obviously just attack the next scout, so pull that one away and bring back the other scout to finish off the spearmen.
Range Unit Micro.. 40 Archers vs your 30 Archers.
How can 30 Archers win? Learn how to use your army commands. Number your army, and learn the "Stop" Command, learning how to "Stop" your army at good distances for them to fire arrows. So why learn to stop? With a smaller army attacking by selection is a good idea...but with 30 Archers it is not. Stopping your army at good distances (within the range of your adversary's army) makes your arrows far more accurate and is great for chases because the archer fires alone instead of you attacking by selecting your target. The most important reason to learn how to stop your army at range distances is because when you have 30-40 units you dont want all your arrows to kill one unit... to kill one archer with 40 units is stupid. Instead you could kill 4-5 units by stopping your army at a ranged distance. You can also use patrol, but I'm much more crafty with the stop command, I do collaborate patrol, stop, and standground. If I notice my opponent is patrolling I just retreat; and let him be. It's all about how you choose to play though. So investigate, learn and test these things until you develop your style. Styles are based on the type of decisions you make in a game. Every player has their own unique style. Every player also refines his style and discards bad habits; and does not make repetitive mistakes.
Your 30 Archers can win his 40 archers by outplaying your opponent. As you get better and better you will realize why micro is a small factor compared to Macro. With Macro you would have 45 archers vs his 40. That is why many expert players know why Macro is important and vital to becoming a good player.
There is way to much for me to cover about micro, but if you have questions please ask them and I'll add my insight on the matter. Micro is so broad of a topic.. considering there are so many different situations..
Like killing a trush is easy micro for me... I can draw away the weakest vills with ease and replace them. Other players underneath my level may be easily defeated by a trush.
I need to understand what areas your struggling with instead of coming up with imaginary scenarios.
Mastering Macro and Micro
Macro-management is the management and control of larger systems (economy, large groups of units/structures, and military actions) within any RTS game, and micromanagement is the management and control of much smaller systems such as 1-15 units, operating split army tactics, organized knight raids, timed attacks..etc. Macro-management really shines in late fuedal and castle age. Micro shines in dark age and early feudal. Here are some good percentages to help you understand my point. From dark to feudal..Micro is about 60 % and Macro 40%. From Late feudal to Castle and to Imperial Age these percentages shift progressively to 75% Macro and 25% Micro. This is not very accurate, but its true in most cases especially versus an oppenent that is equally as good as you.
Within in AOC, macro-management is the control of the whole system. It is on a larger scale then micromanagement. It is about working behind the bigger picture to control your economy and military very well. One must use his ability to think in order to understand Macro. You must be able to think of queuing which units, while microing; and fighting battles, to think of which res you need while booming and trying to execute each of these simultaneously in action; and thought.
For example, macro would be thinking to queue vills, queue army, build 5 farms, planning where to build new tcs, build four barracks defensively, create outposts near wood or center of the map to see if he has any plans to siege you. Now I can think of all these things at once, and that is what Macro is: your ability to handle a large system progressively at once. Now I worded out what I would do but in the game, I thought all of that instantly didn't have to think twice unless the opponent has set up some kind of restrictions.
Macroing economically would be renewing gather points, making plans to build tc's that are also offensive as well as defensive (causing your enemies army to pass through them, entering or leaving your base). Queuing just enough vills, monitoring your stockpiles. Checking all sections of your economy to see if your villagers are operating fluidly.
It is careful planning and a insight of visualization of whats going to happen in the future. Not a prediction, but rather a good understanding of your opponent.
Learn to plan out your decisions. Micro is how you execute them. This is where Micro and Macro go hand in hand to help each other for greater good of the entire system. A good macroer should be able to think fluidly (without interruption or stunning during tough situations) while microing.
So you must learn how to macro and micro; and learn areas of focus. If your being attacked in two different places with archers and spears. And your scouts are ready to raid his woods, but there are three spears you can kill with micro.. I wouldn't do it. Because the area of importance is at your base. I would retreat my scouts for the time being, sending them home or let them lurk in his base for 2-3 seconds until I handle the situation at home.
Now stunning is when your in tough situations and things are elevating.The tides are overwhelming and your pressed into a corner; and your not sure what to do. If your find your self unsure of what to do. You may lack macro skills. You should always feel in control even when you are losing.
So what is Micro?
Micro is very simple. Micro is how you work out certain areas to press for advantages in battle and economy. It is when you lure spear-men out to kill them one by one. It is when you build a mining camp and make sure your vills are organized to help you gather gold efficiently. It is when your selecting units you know your enemy targeted and dragging that unit away to cause his army to follow. There are a lot of tricks, and even ones you can create with timing and split army tactics.
The thing about micro is you can not be lazy.. you have to have a diligent heart and mind to show proper care for your base and army. If your a lazy player you should take a break. Every time I take break, whatever I have sown to be better, grows. It grows according to how I have sown them. If your a lazy ass thing your going produce lousy results; and just about everything will be a struggle. However if you become diligent player at heart; and invest your time in learning, becoming better, and challenging your self by facing good openents; the ones you usually turn down; then after you take your break and come back you'll be amazing and formidable.
Lesson #1 Project Gabriel's Macro; The fundamental thinking of Aoc especially for Arabia.
This first lesson should help any player find the fundamentals of how to think actively during the game. It adds to your Macro arsenal. Most experts do these thing automatically, but rookies mess up in these areas all the time.
5 Fundamental rules!
1. Check Idles every 3-5 Seconds (space bar)
2. Scan Stockpile Income every 2 seconds (eye coordination)
3. GPR's every 1-2 minutes (thinking)
4. Mini Map Defensive Radaring by checking it every 3-5 seconds. (eagle eyes)
5. Think about if you need to Villager Shift every 2-5 minutes. (thinking)
GPR = Gather Point Renewals, both economically and military wise.
I use the power of anagrams to help your mind inhale the information. And after you mastered it you won't even have to think, you'll be reacting with ease.
So learn this Anagram to help you remember the 5 rules in game.
CSGMT
Chelsea Slammed Gabriel Moses Terribly.
Chelsea = Check Idles
Slammed = Scan Stockpile Income
Gabriel = Gather Point Renewals
Moses = Mini Map Radar the Eagles Eye
Terribly = Think about Villager Shifting to keep your economy balanced.
Now all you have to do for the next 25-50 games is think this sentence actively while gaming. Rehearsing in your mind the meaning of each. I have used this before and it helped me a lot.
How to use it
First just kept repeating the sentence, rehearse in your mind the meaning of each word. For instance my mind thought about Chelsea straightway I clicked the space bar, I slammed consistently by checking my stockpiles, I focused on Gabriel the Angel to be a good general in war, and keep my economy organized, preventing future idles. Moses walked with God so I focused on my mini map every 3-5 seconds using my eagle eye (the Radar) to understand where and how my opponent attacks me...Moses became my best defense; and also my best ally. I terribly thought about how I can balance my economy with shifting. I developed good eye coordination for and slamming and using Moses.
Gabriels require lots of understanding of the situation; if the battle has been won then set Gabriels near the battle or enemy, if the battle is being lost u set in a defensive spot, Econ Gabriels are microed every 2 minutes, b.c when is wood chopped down you need to renew your gabriel.The vills will go idle because of the tree is gone.
Slamming is relatively difficult when your facing a situation that is tough, because vs a good player sometimes the battle can cause you to lose focus on slamming, Try your best to learn how to slam while fighting. Slamming will help you see what you will have to do with your economy and should help you understand if you need shift your villagers, or if you need to just set Gabriels on wood to gain more wood for 3 minutes, to help boost your 2 siege workshop ram push.
Lesson #2 Wakka has Awesome Insight For Waging War; Paul Insists Strength Builds Strong Allies
This is for players that are advancing beyond Lesson #1
I'll post more on lesson 2, but I dont want my students to skip lesson 1 lol. Its important to rehearse in your mind the anagram until you no longer have to think about any of it, because it will become apart of your reactions instead of it becoming an actual thought. For instance if you say Gabriel in your mind, you should know its Gather Point Renewal every 1-2 Minutes depending the situation. If you have military buildings then you should actively use Gabriel. After doing this for 50-100 games you'll be reprogrammed to react without much thinking involved.
When I used this I became much better player. I designed it according to the help I received from my friends. I found that all their help was to much for me to think of in a game. So I created anagrams to program my mind to think about all their tips at once. I hope you find it as useful as I did. Just use it! Keep using it until your reprogrammed. An expert automatically knows most of these things. Lastly you reap what you sow, so be diligent and patient, wait for your harvest!
Lesson 2 will be added shortly....
Micro Mastery
In order to obtain skills in microing, you must be patient and learn to focus on your weaknesses. All micro is earned, and patiently acquired. First thing you must do is focus on important areas that need it. For instance scout micro is very easy.. its hard to explain things with words though but I'll try. Here are my methods for winning battles, and becoming good at micro.
Lesson 1: Focus on the area you desire to be good in.
So if you want to be good at micro learn to take risks, and also play to focus on your weaknesses instead of playing to win. So find the area you want to master and focus on that alone. If its scouts, go full scrush and learn to kill off 4 spearmen with 12-16 scouts with minimal losses.
Melee Unit Micro... 4 scouts are obtained by 12 minutes respectively, right?So you go to your oppenents base and he has 1 spear... so you have to decide if you want to kill it, or retreat until you have a larger amount of scouts, or if your planning to send in archers before 18-20 minutes. If your good at micro you should be able to do many things on your screen with your mouse effectively.
From here on out play to improve your areas of weakness. So say from now on you always choose to kill the spearmen. All you have to do is wait for the spearman to make contact or you could lure it, which is less effective versus good players. So let the spearman make contact with one of your scouts. Now quickly wireframe that scout, and pull him away while the other three attack. Now a good opponent will obviously just attack the next scout, so pull that one away and bring back the other scout to finish off the spearmen.
Range Unit Micro.. 40 Archers vs your 30 Archers.
How can 30 Archers win? Learn how to use your army commands. Number your army, and learn the "Stop" Command, learning how to "Stop" your army at good distances for them to fire arrows. So why learn to stop? With a smaller army attacking by selection is a good idea...but with 30 Archers it is not. Stopping your army at good distances (within the range of your adversary's army) makes your arrows far more accurate and is great for chases because the archer fires alone instead of you attacking by selecting your target. The most important reason to learn how to stop your army at range distances is because when you have 30-40 units you dont want all your arrows to kill one unit... to kill one archer with 40 units is stupid. Instead you could kill 4-5 units by stopping your army at a ranged distance. You can also use patrol, but I'm much more crafty with the stop command, I do collaborate patrol, stop, and standground. If I notice my opponent is patrolling I just retreat; and let him be. It's all about how you choose to play though. So investigate, learn and test these things until you develop your style. Styles are based on the type of decisions you make in a game. Every player has their own unique style. Every player also refines his style and discards bad habits; and does not make repetitive mistakes.
Your 30 Archers can win his 40 archers by outplaying your opponent. As you get better and better you will realize why micro is a small factor compared to Macro. With Macro you would have 45 archers vs his 40. That is why many expert players know why Macro is important and vital to becoming a good player.
There is way to much for me to cover about micro, but if you have questions please ask them and I'll add my insight on the matter. Micro is so broad of a topic.. considering there are so many different situations..
Like killing a trush is easy micro for me... I can draw away the weakest vills with ease and replace them. Other players underneath my level may be easily defeated by a trush.
I need to understand what areas your struggling with instead of coming up with imaginary scenarios.