Note: Most of this is captain obvious stuff. But it migth be an intresting read. I made this based on RE patch.It is still just a theory,probably still needs some tweaking.
As China you have 2 different kinds of early building order; 300 food or 2 village+Northern refugees.
Both of these building orders represent the extreme.; 300 food gives you an fast age up(4:00 min) and allows for very aggressive early game ,but at the expense on the economy .While 2 village+ northern refugees on the other hand gives you an good economy+ a big pop space that is very useful for the chinese early game.But a poor age up time and a more passive early game(usually).Because im not a big fan of slow age up time nor a crappy economy I have tried to optimize the early game to a stage where I can have a decent economy+ a decent age up time.The solution is rather simple and obvious; 1 village+northern refugees.
It gives me:
a) an decent economy.Not as good as 2 village northern refugees,but neither as bad as 300 food rush.
b) an decent age up time.The build order makes me on par with the standard European age up(4:30)
Which means that Im roughly about 30 seconds faster than 2 village+Northern refugees and 30 secs slower than 300 food.
.Because im 30 sec faster than the Standardized age up(2 village+Northern refugees.),I can build my war academy 30 secs faster and I also get my second shipment faster.Which means that I get an tiny advantage over the 2 village+Northern refugees early on .
However there is a problem; Im short on pop space !. This is quite a disadvantage as I need as much pop as possible to be able to train villagers and military simultaneously ,but there is a simple solution. Just ship 700 wood and get a village up. But this means that I end up using my second shipment to a recource card instead of shipping military, 8 chu ko nu for example which could have resulted in giving me map control but also a stronger defence.
BUT we can manipulate the xp income so that we get the next shipment faster by building, getting treasures and training units.
THE SOLUTION: We build as much as we can get for 700 wood.
700 wood = 2 villages,consulate and a market = 2x40+50+20=150xp
or
1 village,consulate,1 tp and a market.=40+50+40+20=150 xp
That’s a free 150 xp to the third shipment without including villager train, banner army training or age up wonder ( 240xp) and if we builded a tp and got lucky with the tradecart going by we can get a nice 50 xp boost. The Third shipment is worth/costs 400 xp ,so we should get the third shipment rather quickly.
Note: the optimized build order can only be done when going standard army
SUMMARY
These are after game summary Optimized age up vs 2 village+northern refugees.Feel free to discuss
I played the both games on Andes without using treasures ( I know, its not the best test map. )
Shipments total with 2 village+northern refugee
Shipments with 1 village+northern refugee
militarycount+2villager+northern refugees
1village+northern refugees
I always, always, always build 1 village, the consulate, and a TP(natives if a normal TP is not available) that's 650 and the other 100 helps me get another village quickly as that's what most people go after against China.
