Ok, so now you know what to do in general in age 1 and what to make back at your base, Lets look at scouting and using explorers/war-chiefs and hero(s). First of all you'll notice that each civilisation starts with an explorer (European civilisations) a war-cheif (Native American civilisations) or a hero/heros (Asian civilisations). For this guide I'll focus on the European explorers although I'll explain the differences between all 3 types and any specific things you'll want to do differently.
So after training your villagers and perhaps laying down your first house you're going to want to start exploring the map - venturing into the unknown. First of all, it's a good idea to scout around your town and locate nay nearby resources immediately allowing you to start herding (explained in a later post) and planning your base layout. After this you want to be going after the treasures (basically resource, xp or upgrade pick-ups obtainable after you kill the guardians - usually a few wild animals or outlaws). Treasures randomly spawn around the map but on some maps the best treasures always spawn in a specific location of the map. For example, on Yukon all the treasures spawn across the river. Ill probably do a map guide sometime in the future and I'll talk about this more there. Ok so by now, your probably wondering: what kind of treasures are there? Which ones should I pick up? And is it worth missing out some treasures in an attempt to find better ones?
What kind of treasures are there?
Anything from 20 coin treasures with no guardians all the way up to 455 food treasures and 350 coin treasure guarded by multiple outlaws. There's such a vast variety of treasures that I won't list them all here but read on and Ill list the most important ones that you should look out for.
Which ones should I pick up?
In general you want to be picking up any wood treasures 50 wood or more. Food treasures 80 food or more, any coin treasures 55 coin or more, xp treasures with 80xp or more and villager treasures. Also, other treasures might be useful such as ones that give a reduction to food or coin costs, ones that give you free military building wagons, a free native scout on a large map, free natives or tamed animals (to lame villagers and kill the enemy explorer so he can't collect treasures and scout). Obviously once all of these treasures have gone you can start taking the other treasures even if its just to get the xp from killing the guardians. Also you can't take the large treasures unless your playing a team game or you have special bonuses so don't try it :D Again, this is just a general guide and depending on your build you may well want to get certain treasures first.
è140 food treasure - one of the best and most cost effective treasure you can find
120 xp treasure - useful for faster shipments and smoothing/getting your build order out faster
è80 coin treasure - a standard treasure with an average amount of resources
è150 wood treasure - this treasure contains good resources but will require some time and micro to obtain
è35 coin treasure - an example of a treasure not normally worth picking up until you've found all of the others. These types of treasure are usually found close to your starting base
è300 wood treasure - an example of a treasure that you can't pick up without the help of a teammate or extra units
èNative scout treasure - scout the map, get line of sight and lame the enemy explorer - Interjections favourite treasure
èA family of monkeys - an example of a unit treasure useful for collecting larger treasures and of course, laming the enemy explorer! (for maximum troll use the Inca spearman to attack villagers and siege forward buildings) - use vs Kasierklein for maximum effect
Is it worth missing out some treasures in an attempt to find better ones?
It depends on the size of the treasure your missing. Here it's down to your judgement: How many resources does this treasure contain? (small amount? maybe I should move on). How much of the map have I explored and thus what % of the treasures do i roughly know about? Do I need the resources from this treasure now? How likely is it that my opponent could find this treasure and steal it whilst I'm gone? - potentially leaving me with nothing. Also you need to take into account where the enemy explorer is and whether you are likely to find/encounter him and what kind of units he'll have with him (i.e Spanish war dog) - killing the enemy explorer is often one of the best uses you can get out of yours.
Scouting
I've scouted and collected all the treasures and I have a good knowledge of the map I can just leave my explorer and forget about him until later right? Wrong! Arguably you explorer is just as important in age 2. Once you hit age 2 you want to find out what your opponents build is and what units he's making giving you information about what you should do to counter him. To do this though you still need your explorer. However, his role now shifts from Xx_coyoteslayer2000_xX, to master intelligence gatherer. Simply walk him through your opponents town to get an idea of what he's doing and adjust your strategy accordingly. Not only this but at 600hp your explorer can tank a lot of damage and is great at soaking up shots in the early fights giving you an advantage.
