N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

One of the biggest areas for improvement in my game is scouting out what the other guy is doing, as I often find myself rather quickly and efficiently going down the wrong path.

I'd like to start a scouting thread that looks at: 1) good habits that you practice to help you know about what the other guy is doing, and 2) some money-tips on how you figure out what he's doing (examples - certain civ/deck/map combos you look for, certain fluctuations in the score at certain time windows in the game, when you use spies, etc)

Any tips or comments are welcome. I'm suggesting this be for high ranking players, but I'm just trying to screen for quality so if you have some solid tips that's fine whoever you are.

Hm. Well, what I do is search for crates of gold around his TC in early age 2. If you see 600/700 gold there, he's most likely FFing.

There aren't really any civ/map combos I look for. Just the basic, like Ports and water, etc.

To be honest... I really need to improve my scouting too.

Basically I just scout for vils to raid, etc.

[quote=""Navarone_Guy""]Hm. Well, what I do is search for crates of gold around his TC in early age 3. If you see 600/700 gold there, he's most likely FFing.

There aren't really any civ/map combos I look for. Just the basic, like Ports and water, etc.

To be honest... I really need to improve my scouting too.

Basically I just scout for vils to raid, etc.[/quote]

Seems to me that age 3, even if it's early age 3 is a little to late to scout a ff. But what do I know?

Mac

I pay a lot of attention to score. If the score goes down suddenly, something's going on with the other guy, like ageing. If when the score goes higher than before and he hasn't aged that means he's getting an army

I don't check the deck, only in water maps to see if the dude is really going into water or not. 25 cards are a lot of cards and you can make a standard deck for all situations. I know there are some exceptions but I'm too lazy to check the deck every time

Scouting for what units are being produced is very important too.

About FF and such, civs are now a bit predictable and I think there's no need to search for 700 coin card. Most civs don't FF, but that's me noobing it up :p

I can tell a good player by the way they normally scout my hunts. They seem to find all of them and during the transition and then I often get a gutful of hussars coming my way!

Also, remember to continue moving explorer after the first 6-7 mins - which I often fail to do so!

Another thing to mention about a big score drop is the possibility of a merc shipment. Shipping mercs will cause a big drop in score followed by a boost much larger than the drop.

Well, I guess my thoughts may not be highly valued due to my low rating and I'm just a member here but, for what it's worth I noticed a change for the better when I changed my thinking of the WC (in Aztec's case) as an Explorer first and a treasure hunter second. Scouting all the hunts, trees, enemy town, mines, etc (the entire map hopefully) cannot be overrated.


Mac

Don't get down on yourself, Mac. All thoughts are valued and I think your corner on the Aztec market has value on it's own. BTW, I'm learning PR (ranking?) don't mean much when it comes to contributing and helping others as anyone with experience can help others .

@Indy, have you watched the VOD by Parfait on the top of the news section on the main front? It's not much in the way of total scouting, but does give some great insight into the spying world. I think his rating/PR is high enough for you...

[quote=""Soccerman771""]Don't get down on yourself, Mac. All thoughts are valued and I think your corner on the Aztec market has value on it's own. BTW, I'm learning PR (ranking?) don't mean much when it comes to contributing and helping others as anyone with experience can help others .
[/quote]

Well, the title does suggest 30+ pr as well as leaders. I'm not 30+ and I'm just a member so it just seemed to me that I wasn't qualified to answer the question given the criteria presented.


Mac

[quote=""Soccerman771""]Don't get down on yourself, Mac. All thoughts are valued and I think your corner on the Aztec market has value on it's own. BTW, I'm learning PR (ranking?) don't mean much when it comes to contributing and helping others as anyone with experience can help others . [quote]

+1 - Mac's input is definitely valued.

I was just trying to avoid trivial or obvious comments so this thread has some value density not trying to be elitist or anything.

And I did watch the Parfait thing and I've been trying to add that dimension, but of course there are many topics it doesn't cover.

[quote=""IndyBrit""][quote=""Soccerman771""]Don't get down on yourself, Mac. All thoughts are valued and I think your corner on the Aztec market has value on it's own. BTW, I'm learning PR (ranking?) don't mean much when it comes to contributing and helping others as anyone with experience can help others .

+1 - Mac's input is definitely valued.

I was just trying to avoid trivial or obvious comments so this thread has some value density not trying to be elitist or anything.

And I did watch the Parfait thing and I've been trying to add that dimension, but of course there are many topics it doesn't cover.

[/quote][/quote]


It's ok Indy, I wasn't complaining about the title or any elitism on your part at all in any way. cya round...

Mac

dont trust your scouting too much tho, especially if he sees you doing alot of scouting, its easy to deceive. even the most trivial and obvious things can be the easiest to miss =)

If I remember correctly after you scout hunts you can see them fall meaning villes are now there.

Let's not dig up old threads, shall we? :p

ATM, I'm finding peppering the map with wall segments very useful. If you can push into their territory with wall segments so much the better. e.g., in a game I just played, my wall segment in his half uncovered a second TC with a mass of skirmishers - which I sent my Coyotes straight over too.

A while back, I got really caught out scouting out (with my WC) a lowish rank Spannish player dropping 700 gold in age 2. I automatically assumed he was FFing, so, I went puma heavy and stormed his base. Unfortunately, he'd used that 700 gold to build an army of Muskets and Rods and it was game over for me. Suppose I should have watched for the score drop!