DizBiz + Big Chunk
Show notes for

The next-game plan for DizBiz and Big Chunk

A coaching review of these two ranked Age of Empires IV 2v2 games, played October 24, 2026: DizBiz on French, Big Chunk on English, both on Mountain Clearing.

Both games were losses, and neither was close. Game two still showed real progress, and the biggest fixes are habits you can practise. Start with these three priorities, then open your own plan.

Open your timestamped decisions and shortcuts

Three things to practise, in order

  1. Keep the Town Center making villagers while you fight.

    Both of you

    When villager production stops, your economy stops growing. Chunk’s second-game problem can’t be blamed on lost workers: he lost none, but finished with just 37. DizBiz stopped finishing villagers at 14:15 in game two, almost three minutes before his first villager died.

    See the production gaps

  2. Fight as one army: French knights, English longbows and an English spear screen.

    Both of you

    Chunk’s first spearman in game two finished at 17:20, after the main battle. Meanwhile, eight of DizBiz’s 20 knight deaths in that game were credited to spearmen. Don’t feed knights into spears, and don’t let cavalry run onto unprotected longbows.

    See what killed your army

  3. Choose a plan for what you gather, then spend on it.

    Mostly DizBiz

    DizBiz’s gold income ran far ahead of his food in both games. In game one his food income stopped before the economy was wiped out. In game two he later banked enough for Castle Age but neither aged up nor turned that bank into enough reinforcements before the army collapsed. Rebalance workers, then spend on the plan you picked.

    See the unspent resources

Clicking speed (APM) isn’t the headline. The first fixes are repeatable decisions, queue habits and an army that works together.

DizBiz French: Royal Knights First fix: keep the Town Center queue alive through fights, and move miners to food when gold piles up. Open DizBiz’s plan Big Chunk English: longbows and spears First fix: keep the Town Center working through fights, and put Hardened Spearmen beside your longbows. Open Chunk’s plan

What to do at the actual timestamp

Pick a moment. Each decision gives you the resource bank, a concrete purchase or worker move, and a check for whether it worked. The remedy changes: sometimes you need food workers; sometimes the money is already there and the queue is the problem.

Exact facts are separated from suggested changes. “Move six miners” is a first adjustment to try and recheck; it does not claim we know the exact worker split you used.

Game 1 · DizBiz · 4:00

Your age-up bottleneck is the last 40 gold

Resource sample: 4:00424 food94 wood160 gold15 villagers

What the records show. At 4:00 you had 424 food and 160 gold. School of Cavalry was ordered at 4:34 with one selected builder; Feudal completed at 6:01.

Do this instead

  1. Temporarily move two food gatherers to gold until the bank reaches 200; keep 50–100 food reserved for the TC.
  2. Select three or four food villagers for School of Cavalry. Shift-queue a safe food source after construction.
  3. During the age-up, refill 100 gold and at least 240 food for one knight plus two villagers.

Check that it worked: When Feudal completes, both the TC and the School should already have a purchase planned.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

More food alone cannot pay a missing gold requirement. Extra landmark builders exchange gathering time for an earlier completion; this is a practice choice, not a simulated new timing.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 324 food / 69 wood / 60 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · DizBiz · 6:20

At 6:20 you can already pay for a knight

Resource sample: 6:20342 food44 wood140 gold20 villagers

What the records show. Feudal completed at 6:01, but the first knight finished at 8:00. At 6:20 the bank held 342 food and 140 gold.

Do this instead

  1. Select School of Cavalry and queue one Royal Knight now.
  2. Reserve 100 food for two villagers, and keep the next food/gold income for knight number two.
  3. Put the School on control group 5 so you can check it while watching the scout.

Already affordable: 1 Royal Knight + 2 villagers — 240 food / 100 gold. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: A knight should be training when the bank can pay for it, unless you deliberately chose a different purchase.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

This checkpoint is a spending/production decision. The recorded bank is already sufficient; another gold miner is not the immediate fix.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 168 food / 100 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · DizBiz · 12:00

Fix the food line before collecting still more gold

Resource sample: 12:0084 food116 wood724 gold35 villagers

What the records show. At 12:00 the trailing-minute income was 0 food versus 610 gold. The bank was 84 food, 116 wood and 724 gold.

Do this instead

  1. Move up to six gold miners to a safe, scouted food source; keep enough miners for the plan you actually intend to fund.
  2. If the nearby food is exhausted, 116 wood funds only one nominal 75-wood farm, not six. Build that farm, keep workers on wood, and add protected farms in small batches.
  3. Rally the next three villagers to food. Keep the surviving army near the workers while Chunk covers the transition.

Check that it worked: Within the next minute, food income should be above zero and rising; do not leave reassigned workers standing beside an exhausted mill.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

Gold cannot train villagers. Six is a suggested first transfer, not a claim that the replay identifies six specific miners. The enemy already has Castle-age counters, so do not turn the gold bank into unsupported knight charges.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 0 food / 190 wood / 610 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · DizBiz · 14:00

Use the wood bank to make a protected food economy

Resource sample: 14:00309 food791 wood1874 gold34 villagers

What the records show. At 14:00 you had 309 food, 791 wood and 1,874 gold. Food income was only 165/min.

Do this instead

  1. If your TC area can still be defended, spend 450 wood on six farms and reserve 50 wood for the next house.
  2. Move six gold miners onto those farms as each completes; have builders finish by shift-queueing the farm work.
  3. Stop sending new villagers to gold. Choose a protected Castle transition with your ally, or immediate defense if the attack is already arriving.

Already affordable: 6 farms + 1 house (nominal) — 500 wood. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: Six working farms are the goal, not six foundations. Check the idle-villager key after placing them.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The bank can finance a concrete food transition. This is a nominal shopping plan; placement still needs real vision, an escape route and an army response.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 165 food / 465 wood / 570 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · Big Chunk · 4:00

Click the age-up; you already paid for the requirements

Resource sample: 4:00775 food90 wood300 gold14 villagers

What the records show. At 4:00 you held 775 food and 300 gold. Council Hall was ordered at 4:09 with two selected builders and completed at 5:12.

Do this instead

  1. Start Council Hall as soon as 400 food / 200 gold is ready; use three or four food villagers for the practice opening.
  2. Once the age-up is paid, move two gold miners to wood. Your initial Feudal army needs food and wood, not gold.
  3. Set the Hall to control group 5 and plan the first longbow before it finishes.

Check that it worked: The landmark is under construction while the TC keeps working; builders return to food/wood afterwards.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The resource checkpoint rules out insufficient age-up funds at 4:00. Do not answer this delay by simply gathering more food.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 366 food / 40 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · Big Chunk · 5:40

At 5:40, wood—not food—is stopping the next purchases

Resource sample: 5:40483 food9 wood139 gold18 villagers

What the records show. The bank was 483 food, 9 wood and 139 gold. Food was plentiful; wood was almost empty.

Do this instead

  1. Move two gold miners and, if needed, two food workers to wood for the next minute.
  2. Use that wood for longbows, houses before the cap, and the 150-wood barracks you need for a spear screen.
  3. After this short transfer, rally the next two villagers to food and reassess both incomes.

Check that it worked: You can keep the Hall working without repeatedly waiting for the next 50 wood.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

This is a temporary wood correction. A permanent large food-to-wood transfer would create the opposite problem later.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 150 food / 150 wood / 20 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · Big Chunk · 10:00

Spend on the useful two-unit army, not a third unit type

Resource sample: 10:00655 food148 wood459 gold25 villagers

What the records show. At 10:00 you had 655 food, 148 wood and 459 gold, with 16 longbows and only two spears. The TC also had a long completion gap.

Do this instead

  1. Queue two Hardened Spearmen from the barracks and two longbows from the Hall, while reserving two villagers.
  2. Keep the spears beside the bows. Focus enemy spears so DizBiz can take a safer angle with knights.
  3. Move spare gold miners to food/wood; do not begin Vanguard production as the default answer to Castle-age armor.

Already affordable: 2 longbows + 2 spears + 2 villagers (nominal) — 300 food / 140 wood. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: A joint rally point with a visible spear screen, plus both production buildings and the TC checked.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The bank can afford this conservative, undiscounted basket. Unit queues and population space must be available; the basket is not a claim that all units would finish instantly.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 335 food / 270 wood / 70 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 1 · Big Chunk · 14:00

Castle preparation needs food, not more gold

Resource sample: 14:00958 food517 wood609 gold32 villagers

What the records show. At 14:00 you held 958 food and 609 gold. The nominal Castle requirement is 1,200 food / 600 gold.

Do this instead

  1. You are 242 food short, while the gold requirement is already covered. Stop adding gold miners.
  2. If the joint army can defend, reserve the Castle budget, put the next three workers on safe food, and limit optional Vanguard spending.
  3. After Castle, produce crossbows from Council Hall against the heavy infantry, with spears and surviving longbows protecting them.

Check that it worked: Choose and communicate the age-up branch before accumulating another large mixed bank.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

This does not promise a particular Castle completion: pressure and the villager queue still consume resources. If you cannot survive the age-up, spend on immediate defense instead.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 398 food / 310 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 4:03

Select the landmark crew before placing the School

Resource sample: 4:00436 food64 wood200 gold18 villagers

What the records show. School of Cavalry was ordered at 4:03 with one selected builder and completed at 5:46. At 4:00 the age-up bank was already 436 food / 200 gold.

Do this instead

  1. For the next practice game, select three or four food villagers when placing School of Cavalry; shift-queue them back to safe food.
  2. Keep about three workers gathering gold through the transition until the next knight is funded.
  3. Use the remaining workers/new villagers to maintain food and a small house/production wood line.

Check that it worked: One intentional landmark crew and a funded first-knight queue, rather than an age-up with no follow-up purchase.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The command proves the initial selection contained one builder. It does not prove that no helpers joined later. More builders accelerate construction but give up gathering time.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 410 food / 130 wood / 10 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 6:40

Use the School; the bank already covers the purchase

Resource sample: 6:40347 food39 wood420 gold27 villagers

What the records show. Your first knight completed at 6:20, just 34 seconds after Feudal—good. The next did not complete until 8:20. At 6:40 you held 347 food / 420 gold.

Do this instead

  1. Queue the next Royal Knight from the School now; keep a 100-food worker buffer.
  2. Keep the first knight scouting/harassing safely while the second trains. Do not wait for a second stable to use the first one.
  3. Use 4 → villager key → 5 → Royal Knight key → 1 as the practice loop. Use the unit key shown in your own tooltip.

Already affordable: 1 Royal Knight + 2 villagers — 240 food / 100 gold. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: No long gap between the first and second knight while the bank can pay for both economy and army.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The full command stream records knight queue orders at 5:51.75 and 7:51.25. This is a real 119.5-second gap between knight queue commands, alongside an affordable bank checkpoint.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 371 food / 60 wood / 380 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 7:20

Spend the existing bank before upgrading the gold income

Resource sample: 7:20570 food107 wood522 gold30 villagers

What the records show. At 7:20 you held 570 food / 522 gold. Specialized Pick finished at 7:25 and Forestry at 7:30; the second knight still had not completed.

Do this instead

  1. Put the School and TC queues first. The bank can conservatively reserve two knights and two villagers.
  2. Buy economy upgrades after the core queues and next house are funded; another gold upgrade is not the first priority while gold is accumulating.
  3. Do not infer that an upgrade caused the entire delay: the bank still had enough for units. The queue check is the fix.

Already affordable: 2 Royal Knights + 2 villagers — 380 food / 200 gold. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: A low, purposeful bank feeding production, rather than a growing gold number with an unused military building.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

Upgrades can be correct, and the pro French example also buys them. The difference is producing knights alongside them.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 361 food / 120 wood / 380 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 9:00

Do not add production that your food line cannot feed

Resource sample: 9:00278 food152 wood518 gold31 villagers

What the records show. At 9:00 food income was 360/min and gold income 470/min. An extra stable completed at 9:03.

Do this instead

  1. Before expanding the queues, move about three gold miners to safe food and rally the next two villagers to food.
  2. Keep one knight queue working. A useful budget is roughly 450–500 food/min and about 200–220 gold/min for a working TC plus about two knights/min.
  3. Use a second stable once the first queue is consistently funded and extra resources are building up; do not treat the building itself as the fix.

Check that it worked: Food income rises before you try to run two cavalry buildings continuously.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The income target is a rounded planning budget, not a measured worker allocation. A second stable can be useful, but one idle queue does not become productive by adding another.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 360 food / 260 wood / 470 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 10:00

Now it really is a food-allocation problem

Resource sample: 10:00184 food82 wood768 gold34 villagers

What the records show. At 10:00 the bank was 184 food / 768 gold, while income was 186 food/min versus 450 gold/min.

Do this instead

  1. Try moving six gold miners to safe food, and send the next two villagers to food too. If fewer than six miners are available, move what you can and use new workers.
  2. Recheck after 30–60 seconds: aim first for roughly 450–500 food/min while retaining around 200–220 gold/min for one knight queue plus the TC.
  3. If safe natural food is gone, use the wood bank/new lumber income for a gradual farm transition. Do not order workers onto an empty resource.

Check that it worked: Food funds villagers and the intended army; gold stops growing faster than you can use it.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

At an illustrative net 35–45 resources per working villager per minute, six transfers add about 210–270 food/min and remove a similar amount of gold income. Real food sources, walking, upgrades and attacks change that result. Check the actual income afterwards.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 186 food / 230 wood / 450 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · DizBiz · 16:00

At 16:00, choose the purchase instead of more mining

Resource sample: 16:001808 food275 wood1252 gold44 villagers

What the records show. You held 1,808 food / 1,252 gold. Neither lack of food nor lack of gold prevented a Castle click at this checkpoint.

Do this instead

  1. If scouting and a surviving joint army give you room, spend 1,200 food / 600 gold on Castle immediately and defend the builders.
  2. If the fight is already arriving, spend on immediate reinforcements and worker safety instead; do not save for an age-up you have not started.
  3. Before engaging, confirm Chunk has spears with the bows. An intact spear screen is more urgent than buying another optional upgrade.

Already affordable: Castle Age + 2 villagers (nominal) — 1300 food / 600 gold. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: One announced branch: “we defend my age-up” or “we spend and defend now.”

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The main army loss begins shortly afterwards. A bank is an opportunity, not proof a late age-up would have saved this fight.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 1040 food / 240 wood / 315 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · Big Chunk · 4:40

The first longbows were already affordable

Resource sample: 4:40280 food140 wood160 gold17 villagers

What the records show. Council Hall completed at 4:23. At 4:40 the bank was 280 food / 140 wood / 160 gold; the first longbow did not finish until 5:50.

Do this instead

  1. Select Council Hall and queue two longbows now, with 100 food reserved for two villagers.
  2. Move up to two gold miners to wood and send the next two new villagers to wood until the barracks/house budget is ready.
  3. Use the Hall on control group 5; the age-up should trigger a production check immediately.

Already affordable: 2 longbows + 2 villagers (undiscounted budget) — 180 food / 100 wood. Queue space, population and the required building still matter.

Check that it worked: Longbows start training promptly after the Hall completes, rather than waiting until the landmark lead disappears.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

The recorded food/wood bank was already sufficient. You need to turn the landmark into output; gathering more gold does not help this purchase.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 270 food / 40 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · Big Chunk · 6:03

Use the barracks you already built for a spear screen

Resource sample: 6:00444 food76 wood260 gold21 villagers

What the records show. Your barracks completed at 6:03. It produced Vanguard Men-at-Arms from 6:23, but no spearman until 17:20.

Do this instead

  1. Make the first three or four Hardened Spearmen from this barracks and keep them beside the longbows.
  2. Put spears on group 2 and bows on group 1. Do not send the spear group chasing away from the bows.
  3. English has Hardened Spearmen available in Feudal. The French Dark Age spear-upgrade warning is a different issue.

Check that it worked: A visible anti-cavalry screen before the first serious fight, not a new barracks you never use for counters.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

This is a unit-choice correction, not “build more buildings.” Unupgraded Vanguard cost food/gold and do not provide the spearman anti-cavalry role.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 310 food / 230 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · Big Chunk · 10:00

Turn the wood surplus into protection and reduce food pressure

Resource sample: 10:0092 food481 wood320 gold27 villagers

What the records show. At 10:00 you had 92 food, 481 wood and 320 gold. Wood was banked while food was repeatedly tight.

Do this instead

  1. Move about three woodcutters and up to two remaining gold miners to safe food; reassess after a minute.
  2. Replace the next four planned Vanguard with four Hardened Spearmen. At nominal prices that saves 120 food and 80 gold, costing 80 additional wood.
  3. Keep 150 food/min for one TC. A manageable army budget is four longbows plus two spears per minute: roughly another 280 food / 240 wood per minute before the Hall discount.

Check that it worked: Aim initially for about 430–500 food/min and enough wood for army, houses and the next farms; keep the core queues working.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

This is a recommended transfer, not a reconstructed historical split. The wood bank makes a spear substitution affordable; it does not prove every mill is safe or every worker is gathering efficiently.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 459 food / 320 wood / 60 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · Big Chunk · 12:00

Make the screen before the next engagement

Resource sample: 12:00100 food678 wood440 gold28 villagers

What the records show. At 12:00 you still had 678 wood banked, only 100 food, and no spearmen. Your first fight had already cost seven longbows and eight Vanguard.

Do this instead

  1. Stop adding gold workers. Send the next three villagers to safe food, with a few woodcutters transferred if food is still the limiter.
  2. Prioritize four spears and surviving longbows before resuming optional Vanguard production.
  3. If the enemy cavalry gets through, pull the bows behind the spears and the joint army; do not stand and trade at close range.

Check that it worked: Check “spears present?” before every new attack, not only after the bows have died.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

Mounted units eventually got the final blow on 35 of your 45 longbow deaths. That makes the missing screen a concrete response to a recorded threat, though it cannot tell us how many deaths a different formation would prevent.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 283 food / 320 wood / 80 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Game 2 · Big Chunk · 16:00

Read the counters before committing the big army

Resource sample: 16:00327 food213 wood560 gold35 villagers

What the records show. At 16:00 you had 37 longbows, 12 Vanguard and no spears. DizBiz had 17 knights and four Dark Age spears. The two opponents had 30 Spearmen and at least 30 mounted units alive (Horsemen, Keshiks and the Khan).

Do this instead

  1. The early three-to-four-spear screen must grow. Against this much cavalry, a training goal is roughly eight to twelve Hardened Spearmen beside a large longbow army, adjusted to what you scout. This needed preparation before 16:00; it cannot appear instantly now.
  2. If you still have no screen, avoid choosing this fight. Fall back together when possible, stop optional Vanguard production, and get spears training. Replacing twelve Vanguard with twelve spears saves a nominal 360 food and 240 gold while using 240 more wood.
  3. Use group 1 to focus exposed enemy spears with longbows, then move back between volleys. Group 2 keeps your spears with the bows. DizBiz waits outside the enemy spear line, intercepts cavalry where safe, and takes a flank only after the protection is removed.

Check that it worked: Before the next engagement, both players confirm where the enemy spears are, where your screen is, and where the army will retreat.

Why this recommendation fits this moment

These are alive-unit counts, not proof all those units stood in one formation. Scout their location. Your knights face a large anti-cavalry investment, while unsupported longbows face mounted threats. The main fight at 16:20–17:05 later cost 36 longbows and 12 Vanguard; a different composition is not a guaranteed win.

Trailing-minute income at the displayed sample: 600 food / 490 wood / 60 gold. Worker transfers are recommendations, not measured historical assignments.

Your repeatable opening: who does what?

This is a one-Town-Center training recipe for your team roles, not an optimized tournament build. Adapt to what the scout finds. Keep the TC queue working throughout.

DizBiz · French

  1. Start: six villagers on safe starting food. First new worker builds a house, then shift-queues food. The next builds the gold drop-off and mines; send the next two to gold too.
  2. Before Feudal: send new workers mainly to food, with about two on wood for houses/drop-offs. At 400 food / 200 gold, select three or four food workers to build School of Cavalry. Shift-queue their return to food.
  3. During the age-up: keep around three on gold until the first knight is paid for; use new workers/returning builders to grow food. A ready basket is 240 food / 100 gold for one knight and two villagers.
  4. When the School finishes: queue the first knight immediately. Keep funding the second. Check the School before adding another stable.
  5. While knights move: one working TC plus about two knights/minute needs roughly 450–500 food and 200–220 gold/minute. Correct the income mix before buying another production building.

Chunk · English

  1. Start: six villagers on food. First new worker builds the house and returns to food; the next builds the gold drop-off and mines, with one more worker joining gold.
  2. Transition: collect 400 food / 200 gold, then build Council Hall with a small, deliberate crew. Your 4:23 age-up was already useful; immediate output matters more than chasing a faster number.
  3. After paying the age-up: move the two gold workers to wood unless you have a specific gold purchase planned. Put returning builders on food/wood; plan the next house and 150-wood barracks.
  4. As the Hall completes: queue two longbows. Reserve food for the TC. Build the barracks with one worker, shift-queueing them back to gathering.
  5. First screen: train three or four Hardened Spearmen before extra Vanguard. Keep them with the bows. An initial budget of four longbows plus two spears/minute and one TC is about 430 food / 240 wood per minute, plus wood for houses and farms.
The shortcut routine to practise until it feels automatic

Use a small, chosen control-group layout. Select the units/building, then Ctrl + the number to assign it. Press the number once to select the group. These are proposed assignments, not claims about your current settings.

DizBiz

  • 1 Knights
  • 3 Scout
  • 4 Town Center
  • 5 School of Cavalry / active cavalry buildings

Chunk

  • 1 Longbows
  • 2 Spearmen
  • 3 Scout
  • 4 Town Center
  • 5 Council Hall
  • 6 Barracks

4 → villager key once/twice → 5 → army key if affordable → 1 → return to the fight.

Repeat about every 15–20 seconds. In the standard grid layout the TC’s villager key is Q; use the key printed on your tooltip if remapped. For knights, longbows and spears, use their displayed training key. Don’t blindly press Q in every building, and don’t queue five workers when their reserved food prevents the next army unit.

  • H: the official default to center on the TC when you need to inspect the base.
  • .: cycle idle villagers. Ctrl + .: select all idle villagers. Send them to a safe resource you actually need, not automatically to the nearest tree.
  • Ctrl + G cycles groups gathering gold; Ctrl + F cycles food groups and Ctrl + W cycles wood groups in the default game layout. Use these to find the miners/woodcutters you want to reassign, then select the intended number and send them to safe food.
  • Spacebar focuses the last notification. When a raid alarm fires, inspect it, select the threatened workers and use their Seek Shelter command (the tooltip shows your key). After the threat is gone, Ctrl + Shift + R is the official default to return sheltered villagers to work.
  • Shift + a following order: queue the return to gathering after a house, barracks or landmark.
  • Before a fight: check the spear screen, agree on the target, then check the TC. If horses get through, pull bows behind spears; don’t send the spear group chasing away.
  • After a fight: save exposed workers, check idle workers, set a safe rally, then restore the TC and army queues.

Practise these in a skirmish, with your own game layout. Official references: AoE IV shortcuts and the full Xbox Wire hotkey table. Defaults vary by layout and can be remapped in Settings → Controls.

Two actual pro demonstrations: copy the decision, understand the context

These are measured public tournament summaries from Road to Wololo: Londinium 4, February 2026. They are older 1v1 games on different maps, not a matched 2v2 experiment. We compare output and spending decisions; their timings are not pass/fail targets for you.

1puppypaw · French

Game 220455640, EGC King of the Hill, against LucifroN’s Chinese. School of Cavalry completed at 4:39; knights at 5:08 and 5:37—29 and 58 seconds after Feudal.

Your game two: Feudal 5:46; knights 6:20 and 8:20—34 and 154 seconds after Feudal.

Takeaway: your first-knight conversion was close to this example once you reached Feudal. The big difference was keeping the next knight coming. The pro also added a stable at 5:50 and bought eco upgrades; that is useful only alongside working queues and a supporting economy. Start by using your existing School.

1puppypaw · English

Game 220497790, KotR Front Range, against Anotand’s Macedonian Dynasty. He chose Abbey of Kings, not your Council Hall plan. Feudal completed at 4:24, a stable at 5:12, first horseman at 5:35 and first spear at 6:12.

Chunk reached Feudal at 4:23, so the age-up itself was already comparable. His barracks finished at 6:03, but first spear at 17:20.

Takeaway: the pro committed resources to a coherent army and early support. Keep Council Hall for your French/English team plan, but borrow that purpose: longbows plus a spear screen. This example is not a reason to switch landmarks or compare unlike unit training times.

The summaries provide completion events and resource samples; they do not reveal the pro’s intent or every micro decision. Source: tournament archive above, using its published “View Summary” links. No claim is made that complete match videos were watched.

Your plans

What to practise first, what to keep, and the numbers to beat. The goals are coaching targets for your next few games, not pro benchmarks.

DizBiz

French, Royal Knights

Practise first

  1. Keep the Town Center queue alive while you fight. Your last new villager finished at 14:15 in game two, before any of your villagers had died, and at 12:22 in game one. Every 15–20 seconds: Town Center queue, houses, next food, military queue, then your army.
  2. Grow food alongside gold. Your gold income ran far ahead of food in both games. When gold piles up while food is starved, move two or three miners to food, then restore gold once spending catches up.
  3. Turn your bank into a decision. At 16:00 in game two you had 1,808 food and 1,252 gold banked while still in Feudal. Decide earlier: age up behind a surviving joint army, or spend on reinforcements when a fight is coming.
  4. Ride around spears, not into them. Eight of your 20 knight deaths in game two were credited to spearmen. Let Chunk’s longbows thin the spears, take a side, and pull injured knights back.

Keep doing

  • First new villager at 0:22 (game one: 1:37)
  • First Royal Knight at 6:20 (game one: 8:00)
  • 34 villagers at 10:00 (game one: 29)
  • About 44% more resources gathered (16,737 vs 11,604)

Numbers to beat

MeasureGoalGame two
Villagers at 10:0036, none lost34
Feudal Age4:45–5:00, then 4:305:46
First Royal Knight5:306:20
Longest gap between villagersNo 90–120 s gaps1:53

Your moments in the film: game one, food income stops and game two, the 16:00 bank.

Big Chunk

English, longbows and spears

Practise first

  1. Keep the Town Center working while you fight. You lost no villagers in game two but finished with just 37. Villager completions stopped from 10:12 to 12:07 in game two, and from 8:39 to 10:37 in game one even though you had 655 food banked at 10:00.
  2. Put a spear screen beside your longbows. Your first spearman in game two finished at 17:20, after the main battle, and mounted units got the final blow on 35 of your 45 longbow deaths. Add a barracks during or soon after Feudal and keep a few Hardened Spearmen with the bows, on their own control group.
  3. Turn the age-up into units straight away. The Council Hall finished at 4:23 in game two, but your first longbow came out at 5:50. Plan the Hall’s first food and wood before it completes, and keep villagers coming.
  4. Give every unit a job. All 23 of your Men-at-Arms in game two were Vanguard, the weaker Dark Age tier, and none were upgraded. Longbows remove spears; spears protect against horses. Only add Men-at-Arms for a reason, with their upgrade.

Keep doing

  • Feudal at 4:23 (game one: 5:12), already a useful timing
  • 59 longbows made (game one: 36)
  • Zero villagers lost in game two
  • About 20% more resources gathered (13,833 vs 11,497)

Numbers to beat

MeasureGoalGame two
Villagers at 10:0032, none lost27
Feudal AgeKeep it near 4:234:23
First longbowRight after the Hall5:50
First spearmen3–4 by the first joint move, around 6:00–6:3017:20
Longest gap between villagersNo 90–120 s gaps1:55

Your moments in the film: game one, the 8:39–10:37 pause and game two, the first lost fight.

Together

One army, one call, one retreat

  1. Move as one army. Knights, longbows and spears together. A modest combined army can deny exposed resources and keep the opponents defending. It isn’t an all-in: if your scout sees a bigger force or a defensive landmark, regroup.
  2. Call every fight: where, what and when. For example: “Both armies at the forward tower; bows shoot spears; knights wait left; retreat to the tower if cavalry gets through.” That’s a suggested script, not something from your games.
  3. If one army isn’t there, don’t take the fight. Retreat and regroup instead of trading a slow ranged army on its own.
  4. When the alarm sounds at home, garrison or pull back exposed workers, move the rally point to a safe resource, ask for a specific response, and restart villager production.

Practice

DizBiz + Big Chunk: next-game checklist

Before your next game

A beginner opening and team routine built around the problems in these two games. It isn’t a copied pro build or a guaranteed timing.

First minutes, both of you
DizBiz
Chunk
First joint move, practice goal around 6:00–6:30

Every 15–20 seconds

  1. Town Center queue
  2. House space
  3. Next food source
  4. Military queue
  5. Back to the army

Don’t queue 15 villagers at once and lock away your food; a small buffer is enough. Put selection hotkeys on keys that are easy for you in your own settings.

Before each fight

Say where, what and when. “Both armies at the forward tower; bows shoot spears; knights wait left; retreat to the tower if cavalry gets through.”

When the alarm sounds at home

Garrison or pull back exposed gatherers, move the rally point to a safe resource, ask for a specific response and restart worker production. Don’t let a lost army become 42 dead villagers without trying to save the economy.

Your next five games

Each step builds on the last. Move on when the step’s goal feels routine.

  1. Ten-minute solo warm-up, each of you

    One Town Center, your chosen landmark, no army to manage. Aim for at least 36 French or 32 English villagers at 10:00 with none lost, Feudal by about 4:45–5:00, and prompt first military units. Tighten toward 4:30 once the queue habit holds. DizBiz’s next first-knight goal is 5:30, up from 6:20.

  2. Repeat with a small army

    Move and scout while keeping the same villager goal. Afterwards, check the villager completion list and remove the 90–120 second gaps. A fight is not a reason to stop the economy.

  3. Composition drill, together

    Chunk holds bows behind spears. DizBiz waits until exposed spears are being removed, then takes a safe angle. Practise retreating half-health knights and regrouping instead of losing the last expensive unit.

  4. One planned defense each

    Scout the approach, close a short gap with a palisade and gate where the terrain actually allows it, and practise saving workers. A tower is a place to fall back to, not a way to win.

  5. Ranked games, reviewed with five numbers

    Feudal completion time, villagers at 10:00, longest villager gap, first spear and combined-army timing, and villagers lost. Review one bad fight, not twenty unrelated mistakes. Keep the same civs while these habits improve.

Your five numbers so far

NumberDizBiz, game 1DizBiz, game 2Chunk, game 1Chunk, game 2
Feudal completed6:015:465:124:23
Villagers at 10:0029342527
Longest gap between villagers1:37 before the first one1:531:581:55
Last new villager12:2214:1516:5316:23
First knight / first spearknight 8:00knight 6:20spear 9:44spear 17:20
Villagers lost38 of 3842 of 4440

A win is welcome, but hitting these goals is progress even in another loss. Don’t switch civs as the first fix: French and English already have complementary tools for these problems.

What improved from game one to game two

These are measured improvements. They’re worth keeping while you fix the rest.

MeasureGame 1Game 2What it means
DizBiz
First new villager1:370:22Fixed the opening production delay. Keep this habit.
Feudal completed6:015:4615 seconds faster. Still room to simplify the opening.
First Royal Knight8:006:201:40 earlier: a real improvement, even though follow-up production stalled.
Villagers alive at 10:002934A better opening economy before any losses.
Total resources gathered11,60416,737About 44% more.
Big Chunk
Feudal completed5:124:2349 seconds faster. Already a useful Feudal timing.
Longbows completed3659More army production. The next job is protecting it.
Villagers alive at 10:002527Some improvement, but steady production is still the main habit.
Total resources gathered11,49713,833About 20% more.

One nuance for Chunk: the quicker Feudal didn’t turn into quicker longbow pressure. Your first longbow finished at 5:23 in game one and 5:50 in game two. In game two the Council Hall finished at 4:23 and the first longbow came 87 seconds later. That’s a delay before the first unit, not proof the building sat idle for 87 seconds, since training takes time too.

Why these three priorities

The replay records behind each priority. Every chart has a table version, and the numbers are also in the game film below.

Priority 1 The Town Center heartbeat

Each tick is a villager finishing at your Town Center. With a steady queue, DizBiz’s Town Center finished one about every 17–18 seconds and Chunk’s every 20 seconds, so gaps stand out. Shaded stretches are gaps of 40 seconds or more; the longest are labelled. Starting villagers aren’t shown.

Hover a shaded gap, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, to read it here.

Neither stop was caused by losing villagers. In game two DizBiz’s last new villager finished at 14:15 and his first villager died at 17:07. Chunk lost no villagers in that game, yet his Town Center paused from 10:12 to 12:07.

Show the villager gaps as a table

Priority 2 What killed your army in game two

The enemy unit credited with the final blow on each of your units. Final blows don’t show all the damage a unit took, but the pattern is clear: spearmen stopped the knights, and cavalry reached the longbows.

Chunk’s first spearman finished at 17:20. The main fight ran from 16:20 to 17:05.

Priority 3 What DizBiz left unspent

Food, wood and gold sitting in DizBiz’s bank at each 20-second sample. Saving up briefly for a specific purchase is fine; here gold kept piling up while production stalled, and in game two food piled up too once the farms came in.

Show DizBiz’s bank as a table

Game film, stage by stage

Pick a game. Each stage shows what the replay recorded, why it mattered and what to do next time. All times use the replay clock: game one’s replay ends at 18:39 and game two’s at 18:49. The match list shows 19:09 and 19:16, which is a different duration field, not extra play.

Game 1 on Mountain Clearing

You lost, by conquest, to ColombianS06 (Order of the Dragon) and RobFlo13 (House of Lancaster).

Order of the Dragon’s fast Castle Age and Lancaster’s untouched second Town Center were a strong combination. Your combined pressure window never formed, DizBiz’s food income hit zero around 12:00, and the opponents gathered almost twice as much.

Replay clock ends
18:39
Resources gathered
You 23,101; them 45,582
Your ages
DizBiz Feudal 6:01. Chunk Feudal 5:12, Castle 17:06.
Their ages
Order of the Dragon Feudal 3:59, Castle 9:14. Lancaster Feudal 4:57, Castle 15:17.

Match summary on AoE4 World

The match at a glance

Drag the slider or use the moment buttons to read exact values at any 20-second sample.

Show this chart as a table
  1. 0:00to4:00

    The opening creates the first deficit

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your first “train villager” command is recorded at 1:20 and the first new villager finished at 1:37. The starting food was there; the queue started late.
    • A house finished around 0:36, an outpost around 2:03 and a gold mining camp around 3:06. A second outpost appeared around 5:57.

    Why it mattered

    For the first 80 seconds nothing was queued, so every later villager arrived late and the economy started compounding late. The outposts were real spending before any knight existed.

    Next time

    • Queue villagers immediately. Put the starting six on safe food and bring sheep home.
    • Use new workers for the house and gold drop-off. Collect the 400 food and 200 gold for Feudal while villagers keep coming.
    • A barracks or outpost can be right against a threat you’ve scouted. Don’t make multiple early towers your default.
    • Simplify toward School of Cavalry and timely knights, then add defenses where you need them.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • New villagers started at 0:24. No villager finished from 2:58 to 4:01.
    • At 4:00 you had 775 food, 90 wood and 300 gold banked, yet Feudal didn’t complete until 5:12.
    • Your gold income kept going past what the age-up needed.

    Why it mattered

    The resources were there. The age-up and the villager queue waited while food piled up, and banked resources do nothing until you spend them.

    Next time

    • Start the Council Hall as soon as the age-up budget is ready.
    • Use a few builders rather than one slow builder, then send them back to gathering.
    • Keep villagers coming during the age-up.
    • Once the age-up gold is in, move most miners to wood and food for longbows and spears instead of banking gold without a plan for it.
  2. 4:00to8:30

    The combined pressure window never forms

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • School of Cavalry (Feudal) completed at 6:01; your first Royal Knight finished at 8:00.
    • At 8:00 you had 26 villagers and one knight.
    • No archery range or infantry production supported the knights in this game.

    Why it mattered

    Feudal only pays off once it starts producing. Two minutes passed between the landmark and the first knight, and you had no other unit type to support the knights.

    Next time

    • Set aside the first knight’s food and gold while you age up. When School of Cavalry completes, queue the knight and keep the Town Center working.
    • Decide what the landmark’s resources will fund before it finishes, not after.
    • Make a pair of knights, scout enemy production, and threaten exposed workers without charging into spears or Town Center fire.
    • Pull injured knights back. Healing only helps if the knight survives.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • Council Hall completed at 5:12 and the first longbow at 5:23, so this time the Hall started producing promptly.
    • Your first spearman didn’t finish until 9:44. At 8:00 you had eight longbows and no spears.
    • Meanwhile Order of the Dragon reached Feudal at 3:59 and was preparing a fast Castle Age; Lancaster reached Feudal at 4:57.

    Why it mattered

    Your longbows are what clear the spears that block DizBiz’s knights, and they need spears of their own in front of them. A slow ranged group on its own can’t do either job.

    Next time

    • Let the Council Hall supply longbows, and add a barracks during or soon after Feudal for a small spear screen.
    • Move with DizBiz rather than in a separate slow ranged column.
    • Scout: is the opponent adding army, a second Town Center or an age-up landmark?

    Together

    Next time

    The goal isn’t a reckless all-in. A modest combined army can deny exposed resources, keep the opponents defending and give you time to keep your own economy growing. If your scout sees a larger force or a defensive landmark, regroup instead of attacking into it.

  3. 8:30to12:30

    An economic fork and an age mismatch

    Their plan

    Observed

    Lancaster’s second Town Center finished around 8:40. Order of the Dragon reached Castle Age at 9:14, made Gilded Men-at-Arms from 9:35 and Gilded Crossbowmen from 10:28. One opponent grew a two-Town-Center economy while the other brought stronger units.

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your first two knights died at 8:32 and 8:39, both credited to Gilded Spearmen.
    • Five more died between 11:28 and 11:35. Final blows: two Gilded Crossbowmen, two Gilded Men-at-Arms and one Gilded Spearman.
    • At 12:00 your food income over the last minute was 0 and gold income 610, with 84 food and 724 gold banked. Your first farm appeared around 12:03.
    • Your first villager died at 11:09; the mass losses came later.

    Why it mattered

    Food collection was failing before your economy was destroyed. Without food you can’t make villagers or knights, so gold piles up with nothing to buy.

    Next time

    • Stop replacing expensive knights into a prepared spear and crossbow line.
    • Ask Chunk to clear the spears and threaten their ranged units from the side when it’s safe.
    • If your army can’t engage, stay alive while you rebuild a protected food source and prepare for Castle Age.
    • When food income is near zero and gold piles up, send more workers to safe food and move some gold miners.
    • Replace food before it runs out: sheep, deer or berries when safe, or a gradual, protected move to farms.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • No villager finished from 8:39 to 10:37: 118 seconds.
    • At 10:00 you had 25 villagers and 655 food, 148 wood and 459 gold banked.
    • You had 16 longbows and two spears. Your first Vanguard Man-at-Arms appeared at 11:03.

    Why it mattered

    The food in your bank shows this pause wasn’t forced by an empty food stockpile: the queue habit slipped. And Dark Age Vanguard Men-at-Arms were never going to answer Castle Age armor.

    Next time

    • Put the Town Center back into your combat routine. You need food for villagers as well as army.
    • A queue habit and a food and wood rebalance help more than another unit type.
    • If you keep making Men-at-Arms, research their age-appropriate upgrade. Otherwise spend on spears and longbows, and prepare a safe Castle transition for crossbows.
  4. 12:30to18:39

    The earlier deficits become irreversible

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your last new villager finished at 12:22.
    • At 14:00 you had 309 food, 791 wood and 1,874 gold banked, with food income of only 165 over the last minute. At 16:00: 485 food, 1,021 wood and 2,159 gold.
    • You stayed in Feudal. All 16 knights were lost by about 15:55 and all 38 villagers by about 17:28.
    • Gilded Crossbowmen are credited with the final blow on 10 of your knights and 30 of your villagers. Final blows aren’t a full damage breakdown.

    Why it mattered

    By 16:00 over 2,000 gold sat in the bank, with no knights left and no new villagers since 12:22. A bank only helps once it becomes villagers, units or an age-up.

    Next time

    • At the first food and gold imbalance, fix the income mix and keep the Town Center running.
    • Once your army is outmatched, pull workers toward a food source you can defend and rally new workers to safety.
    • Ask for Chunk’s army before the enemy reaches your gatherers.
    • A short palisade and a well-placed garrisonable outpost can buy reaction time, but static defense can’t replace an army or turn stranded gold into food.
    • A market can be an emergency conversion tool, not a substitute for fixing where your workers are.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • Castle Age (The White Tower) completed at 17:06. No blacksmith or unit upgrades are recorded.
    • You made 8 Vanguard Men-at-Arms, 4 spearmen and 36 longbows; all of them were eventually lost.
    • Lancaster’s White Tower landmark killed one Vanguard and two longbows during the late approach (15:21–16:01).
    • Most late longbow deaths are credited to Gilded Crossbowmen or Gilded Men-at-Arms. Your first villager deaths came only around 18:08.

    Why it mattered

    Your earlier economy gap wasn’t caused by losing workers. And longbows with no upgrades were fighting upgraded Castle Age units.

    Next time

    • Spot the opponent’s Castle timing earlier. Either punish the investment before it pays off, or keep your army alive and move to the counters you need.
    • Castle Age crossbows can come from your Council Hall, which works as an archery range. Protect them and the longbows with a screen.
    • Don’t walk into a newly finished defensive landmark.
    • Add ranged upgrades once your economy and army queues can support them, rather than fighting all game on base upgrades.

The economic result

You gathered 23,101 resources between you; the opponents gathered 45,582. That comes from production, civ economies, spending and pressure over the whole game. It isn’t proof that one early mistake caused the loss. The untouched second Town Center plus the fast Castle Age pressure was a strong combination.

Units made and lost

Thin ticks show units finishing; squares show units lost, at the replay time of the recorded final blow. Use the buttons to zoom into a fight.

Hover a mark, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, to read it here.

Show every recorded loss in this window as a table
Who got the final blow, game one

Where it happened: recorded coordinates

Town Centers, your buildings and where your units died, plotted from the replay’s recorded positions. Terrain is omitted: the files don’t include a terrain map, so forests, gold, stone and walls are not drawn, and the orientation may not match your minimap.

Describe this view in words

Positions are in the replay’s map units. Your Town Centers are on one side: DizBiz’s at about (−48, 96) and Chunk’s at (−96, −48). The opponents’ are on the other: RobFlo13’s at (48, −96) and ColombianS06’s at (96, 48). Lancaster’s second Town Center (8:40) sits about 60 units from RobFlo13’s first.

DizBiz’s five knights lost at 11:28–11:35 died about 70 units from his Town Center, toward ColombianS06’s base. Most of his villagers died in three groups: around the outpost and houses beside his Town Center (16:14–16:38), at the lumber camp about 40 units away (16:35–17:03), and finally right next to the Town Center (17:14–17:27).

Chunk’s army losses from 17:14 were recorded around DizBiz’s base, about 50 units from DizBiz’s Town Center and 100 from Chunk’s. The last ones died much closer to Chunk’s own base (18:14–18:27). His four villagers lost at 18:08–18:14 were about 80 units from his Town Center.

Game 2 on Mountain Clearing

You lost, by surrender, to a--- (Zhu Xi’s Legacy) and 失格OvO (Golden Horde).

Real early improvements, but the armies weren’t built for this matchup and production stalled: no English spears until 17:20, no new DizBiz villagers after 14:15, and a main fight from 16:20 to 17:05 that turned into an economy wipeout.

Replay clock ends
18:49
Resources gathered
You 30,570; them 43,563
Your ages
DizBiz Feudal 5:46. Chunk Feudal 4:23.
Their ages
Zhu Xi Feudal 4:10. Golden Horde Feudal 5:05, Castle 15:57.

Match summary on AoE4 World

The match at a glance

Drag the slider or use the moment buttons to read exact values at any 20-second sample.

Show this chart as a table
  1. 0:00to5:50

    Real improvements, then a missed conversion

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your first new villager finished at 0:22 (1:37 in game one).
    • A barracks completed at 3:17, with Dark Age spearmen at 3:35, 4:06 and 5:18, and a fourth much later at 10:19. Feudal completed at 5:46.
    • Those spearmen didn’t record a kill or a death until the main battle after 16:20. Nothing early in the replay shows an attack on your economy that forced this opening.

    Why it mattered

    The early military cost resources before Feudal. No early worker losses are recorded, but the data cannot tell us what threats you had scouted. Make these spears conditional on a real threat rather than automatic.

    Next time

    • Keep the improved instant villager queue.
    • For your default learning opening, get to School of Cavalry with less military spending before Feudal.
    • Make early spears when scouting calls for them, not automatically against every opponent.
    • If you keep spearmen after Feudal, research Hardened Spearmen: your four stayed at the Dark Age tier.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • Council Hall (Feudal) completed at 4:23, but the first longbow finished at 5:50.
    • Zhu Xi reached Feudal at 4:10, with its first Zhuge Nu at 5:56.

    Why it mattered

    Most of your 49-second lead over game one’s age-up was spent before your first useful unit came out.

    Next time

    • Plan the Hall’s first food and wood spending before it finishes.
    • Start with a few longbows, then a spear screen. The first unit should follow the age-up promptly while villagers keep coming.
    • You’ve already shown you can age up quickly. Now turn it into map presence.
  2. 5:50to10:30

    The armies grow; the economy starts to stall

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your first knight completed at 6:20, but the second not until 8:20.
    • No villager finished from 7:36 to 9:09, or from 9:44 to 11:37.
    • At 10:00 you had 34 villagers, 184 food and 768 gold banked, and income over the last minute of 186 food and 450 gold. At 12:00 your gold bank was 1,422.
    • Chivalry finished at 11:17.

    Why it mattered

    Knights and villagers both cost food, and your food income was well below gold, so gold piled up while production slowed. Chivalry helps knights survive, but it doesn’t solve a food shortage or an empty Town Center queue.

    Next time

    • Balance your income for knights and workers, not gold alone.
    • A good starting adjustment: when gold grows while food is starved, move two or three miners to food, then restore gold staffing as spending catches up.
    • Keep one production building working reliably before adding a second.
    • Add a second stable when you can fund it, or to separate research from production. It won’t fix an unbalanced economy.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • At 10:00 you had 27 villagers, 17 longbows and 10 Vanguard Men-at-Arms, with 92 food, 481 wood and 320 gold banked. Still no spearmen.
    • Another long villager pause began at 10:12 and lasted until 12:07.
    • For context: Zhu Xi had 29 villagers at 10:00 and Golden Horde 37. Golden Horde trains in batches, so its count isn’t directly comparable one-for-one.

    Why it mattered

    Food was nearly gone while wood piled up, and steady Vanguard production used food and gold that the Town Center and a spear screen needed.

    Next time

    • Constant Vanguard production isn’t your first team role. Add Hardened Spearmen to keep mounted units away from the bows.
    • Leave enough food for the Town Center when you spend on army.
    • Give spare wood a job: houses before the cap, a few safe farms as food transitions, useful defensive walls, and production you can actually feed.
    • Don’t add more production just because wood is banked if food is missing.
  3. 10:35to14:30

    The first losing fight, and a widening economy gap

    Together

    Observed: the first fight

    • Between 10:35 and 10:57, Chunk lost eight Vanguard Men-at-Arms and seven longbows.
    • Final blows: Zhu Xi Horsemen on all seven longbows; Zhuge Nu (five), Early Palace Guards (two) and a spearman (one) on the Men-at-Arms.
    • DizBiz had eight knights completed by 10:30, and none of his knights were lost until 16:27.

    Why it mattered

    It’s a good moment to rewatch together. The records don’t show where the knights were or why the two armies didn’t fight as one.

    Next time

    • Before attacking, call a shared target and confirm both armies can get into the fight.
    • If one army is behind, retreat instead of trading a slow ranged army alone.
    • Put longbows behind spears. Knights threaten a side and wait until exposed enemy spears are removed.
    • Don’t attack-move everything into their anti-cavalry front. Keep a retreat route.

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your last new villager finished at 14:15, before any of your villagers had been killed.
    • A blacksmith completed at 14:26, and the melee attack upgrade appeared at the same moment. That’s the French bonus that grants it free when the blacksmith finishes, not research you paid for.
    • All your knight deaths were still in the future.

    Why it mattered

    Villager production stopped while your army was still intact, almost three minutes before your first villager died.

    Next time

    • Don’t let army attention turn off the Town Center. Run the short loop: Town Center queue, houses, food source, military queue, then micro.
    • Fit the free French blacksmith upgrade into a sensible timing once core production is stable.
    • Don’t let a long list of economy upgrades crowd out your first army and villager queues.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • No blacksmith or age-appropriate Men-at-Arms upgrade is recorded. All 23 of your Men-at-Arms were Vanguard.
    • You still hadn’t made a spearman.

    Why it mattered

    Unupgraded Vanguard were an expensive, weak stand-in for the anti-cavalry job your army actually needed.

    Next time

    • Give every unit a job. Longbows remove spears and light infantry; spears protect against horses; French knights handle mobility and controlled flanks.
    • If you choose Men-at-Arms to soak up Zhuge Nu fire, get their age-appropriate upgrade, consider ranged armor, and keep them away from their counters.
    • Don’t add an unupgraded third unit type by default.
  4. 14:30to17:05

    Enough money, the wrong decision and the wrong protection

    Before the collapse

    Observed

    At 16:00 you had 79 villagers between you (DizBiz 44, Chunk 35) against 102 (Zhu Xi 47, Golden Horde 55), and neither of you had lost a villager yet. That shows a production gap before the wipeout. Actual resource income still matters more than a one-for-one count across different civs.

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • At 16:00 you had 1,808 food, 275 wood and 1,252 gold banked, still in Feudal.
    • That’s enough for the usual Castle Age food and gold price. It doesn’t mean aging up then would have guaranteed survival.

    Why it mattered

    The bank and the idle production show that income was no longer the only problem; the decision was. You can’t bank for an age-up you haven’t started and also expect a small production setup to match a growing enemy army.

    Next time

    • Before this point, choose one branch. If you have room and a surviving joint army, defend while aging up for better units. If the enemy is about to fight, spend on reinforcements and support now.
    • After Castle Age, Arbalétriers are a useful answer to heavy armor. Protect them.
    • The right call depends on scouting, not a fixed timer.

    Together

    Observed: the main fight

    • Between 16:20 and 17:05, DizBiz lost 18 Royal Knights and all four Dark Age spearmen; Chunk lost 36 longbows and 12 Vanguard Men-at-Arms.
    • DizBiz’s knight losses started at 16:27. Eight of his 20 knight deaths in the game are credited to Zhu Xi spearmen.
    • Across the match, mounted units got the final blow on 35 of Chunk’s 45 longbow deaths: 16 by Keshiks, 10 by Zhu Xi Horsemen, 5 by Golden Horde Horsemen and 4 by the Khan.

    Why it mattered

    Chunk’s first spearman finished at 17:20, after these losses. Earlier spears would have addressed the actual cavalry threat. We can’t calculate how many losses they would have prevented, so treat this as a moment to review, not a guaranteed alternate win.

    Next time

    • Have the English spear screen in place before this kind of fight.
    • Keep the slow army on a safe line.
    • Give the knights a side to work and a retreat, not a spear wall to charge.
  5. 17:05to18:49

    The army collapse becomes an economy wipeout

    DizBiz

    Observed

    • Your first villager died at 17:07, ten seconds after your last knight in the main fight. 42 villagers died by about 18:21, leaving two.
    • The first cluster of deaths was near the forward mill, followed by deaths deeper in and behind your base.
    • Final blows: 18 by Zhuge Nu, 9 by Zhu Xi Horsemen, the rest by Golden Horde cavalry, the Khan, infantry and spearmen.

    Why it mattered

    With no army left between the enemy and your workers, the exposed food spot went first. The recorded positions support that outline, not a full picture of terrain or exactly who was gathering where.

    Next time

    • At the army-loss alert, abandon an exposed resource spot and garrison or retreat straight away.
    • Rally new workers to safety and ask Chunk to cover the retreat.
    • Rebuild a food source where your remaining defense can reach it.
    • Short walls and vision give you response time. They won’t beat an intact army with rams on their own.

    Big Chunk

    Observed

    • You still lost no villagers, but finished with 37 after your last new worker at 16:23.
    • You made six spearmen from 17:20 onward and stayed in Feudal.

    Why it mattered

    Your workers were safer than DizBiz’s, but your economy was too small to replace the destroyed army quickly.

    Next time

    • Keep the economy growing even while you help your ally.
    • After a bad fight, re-form at a rally point with spears first, then protect the rebuilding longbows.
    • Don’t trickle slow units into the enemy one by one.
    • If your ally’s base can’t be defended, cover the evacuation and save the shared economy rather than feeding your remaining army in piece by piece.

The economic result

You gathered 30,570 resources between you; the opponents gathered 43,563. The gap narrowed a lot from game one but stayed large. This loss wasn’t just late worker harassment: the armies were already built wrong for the matchup, and production had already stalled before the raid at 17 minutes.

Units made and lost

Thin ticks show units finishing; squares show units lost, at the replay time of the recorded final blow. Use the buttons to zoom into the two major fights.

Hover a mark, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, to read it here.

Show every recorded loss in this window as a table
Who got the final blow, game two

Where it happened: recorded coordinates

Town Centers, your buildings, the opponents’ recorded palisade pieces and where your units died, plotted from the replay’s recorded positions. Terrain is omitted: the files don’t include a terrain map, so forests, gold, stone and wall lines are not drawn, and the orientation may not match your minimap.

Describe this view in words

Positions are in the replay’s map units. Your Town Centers are on one side: DizBiz’s at about (−96, 72) and Chunk’s at (−72, −96). The opponents’ are on the other: a---’s (Zhu Xi) at (96, −72) and 失格OvO’s (Golden Horde) at (72, 96).

Chunk’s losses in the first fight (10:35–10:57) were recorded about 100 units from his own Town Center and about 70 from Zhu Xi’s. The main fight (16:27–17:04) was recorded about 65 units from DizBiz’s Town Center and 130–140 from Chunk’s.

DizBiz’s villagers died first beside the forward mill he built at 15:21, about 40 units from his Town Center (from 17:07). Deaths followed around the mining camp built at 14:56, then among the farms and houses around the Town Center, and last behind the base, farthest from the opponents (18:10–18:20).

Straight answers to your questions

Should we build walls?

Yes: short, targeted palisades are a sensible addition, especially for DizBiz’s exposed economy.

Neither of you completed any walls in either game. Both game-two opponents did build palisade pieces, which doesn’t prove walls won them the game.

Recommendation The replays don’t include terrain, so no wall layout is drawn on this page. Check the actual map before you plan one.

  • Use short wood walls and gates to close gaps cavalry can ride through, so raiders have to enter where you can see and defend. Connect walls to terrain only where you’ve checked the real map.
  • Protect the resource area and the route home, not a giant ring around everything. Build behind your defended line when you can.
  • A wall is an alarm and a delay. Have a unit response and an escape or garrison plan: walls don’t stop arrows fired over them or a ram push with an army behind it.
  • Add an outpost when it covers a valuable food or gold spot that you can garrison or respond to. In game one, DizBiz’s two early outposts didn’t fix the missing economy or the Castle Age counter problem.
  • For Chunk: English Town Centers, outposts, towers and keeps give nearby units +20% attack speed when enemies are in range (Network of Castles). A safe outpost behind your joint army helps more than longbows walking far from any support. Don’t send a lone builder to die making a forward tower.
  • Don’t start a stone-wall economy as the first fix. The main bottlenecks are villagers, food, counters and response time.

Which units should each of us make?

DizBiz makes Royal Knights. Chunk makes longbows plus Hardened Spearmen.

That’s the default team plan for your next few games. Keep it simple enough that both Town Centers keep working, and add counters because of what you scout, not to have one of everything.

What to do about each enemy threat
Enemy threat you seeTeam responseAvoid
Spearmen screening their armyChunk focuses them with longbows; DizBiz waits or goes around.Frontal knight charges into braced spears.
Horsemen, Keshiks or the Khan reaching your bowsChunk’s spears stay with the bows; DizBiz intercepts where it’s safe.A ball of longbows with no anti-cavalry screen.
Zhuge NuUse longbow range, an upgraded armored screen if you choose one, and coordinated knight flanks once their spears are handled.Standing and trading at close range with exposed longbows or unupgraded Vanguard infantry.
Castle Age heavy infantry, such as Gilded Men-at-ArmsPlan Castle Age crossbows or Arbalétriers, screen them, and keep your army alive until the switch.Assuming more base longbows or Dark Age infantry will solve heavy armor.
Crossbows, such as Gilded CrossbowmenPressure them with ranged units or a safe mobile flank, after removing their protection.Presenting knights head-on to a mass of anti-armor fire.
RamsFight the escort, hit the rams with safe melee damage, and pull workers only with cover.Shooting rams with only bows, or sending workers into the escort.

Zhuge Nu (in game two) is Zhu Xi’s repeating-crossbow unit. It is not a normal anti-armor Crossbowman, so don’t read it as one.

Should we gather different resources, or put villagers in different places?

Yes. The replays prove income and bank imbalances, but they can’t show exactly where each villager worked.

Recommendation Treat this split as a starting point for coaching, not a measurement of your games or a fixed optimal build.

French (DizBiz)
Working gatherersFoodWoodGoldStone
2012350
3018660
4024970
English (Chunk)
Working gatherersFoodWoodGoldStone
209920
30141420
40191920

Counts are for villagers working once the age-up builders are back gathering.

These are flexible. Food source quality, upgrades, moving builders and how many military buildings you run all change what you need. Prioritize the next purchase rather than obeying the table.

  • French: get enough food for villagers and knights. When gold rises while food is low, move a few miners to food rather than rallying more workers to gold. Keep enough gold for your knight queue. Later, when food and gold are both banked, choose army or Castle Age instead of leaving both unspent.
  • English: longbows and spears both need food and wood. After the age-up, collect gold only for a specific upgrade or Castle Age. Constant Vanguard production and unused gold pull attention and resources away from your core role.
  • Start on stone only when you have a specific plan for it, such as a second Town Center, a keep or stone defenses. Get one-Town-Center play working before adding a blind boom.
  • Use food near your Town Center first, send sheep home, and scout the next food before the current source runs out. Put drop-off buildings close to the resource. Move to farms a few at a time; English especially relies on farms.
  • Only gather at a forward food or gold spot with vision and cover. If both enemy armies are missing, gather behind your defended line until you know where they are. Keep the route back to your Town Center open.
  • After a fight, use the idle-villager and Town Center selection keys. A living worker doing nothing is still an economy problem: game one’s zero-food-income stretch mattered even before the mass villager deaths.

How do we keep villagers alive?

Treat the army-loss alert as the signal to move workers, before the enemy reaches them.

In game two DizBiz’s first villager died at 17:07, just after the main fight, and 42 were dead by about 18:21. Chunk lost none in that game. In game one all 38 of DizBiz’s villagers were lost by about 17:28.

  • The moment your army is beaten, abandon exposed resource spots and garrison or retreat. Rally new workers somewhere safe.
  • Ask your teammate for a specific response (“cover my mill”) and restart villager production straight away.
  • Gather behind your defended line when you don’t know where the enemy armies are.
  • Walls and vision buy reaction time; they don’t stop an intact army with rams by themselves.

When should we age up, and what changes later?

Age up promptly, turn each age-up into units straight away, and decide on Castle Age before you start banking for it.

Dark Age to Feudal
Collect the 400 food and 200 gold while villagers keep coming, start the landmark promptly with a few builders, then send them back to work. Chunk’s 4:23 is already a useful timing; the next step is longbows right after it. DizBiz should aim for about 4:45–5:00 with fewer pre-Feudal extras, and queue the first knight as School of Cavalry completes.
Feudal to Castle
Watch the opponents’ timing. In game one, Order of the Dragon reached Castle at 9:14 and fielded Gilded Men-at-Arms from 9:35 and Gilded Crossbowmen from 10:28. Either punish an age-up before it pays off, or keep your army alive and switch to counters: Arbalétriers for DizBiz, crossbows from the Council Hall for Chunk, protected by a screen. Pick one branch before you bank: age up behind a surviving joint army, or spend on reinforcements if a fight is coming. Current game data lists Castle Age landmarks at a nominal 1,200 food and 600 gold.
Imperial, later
Neither of you reached Imperial Age in these games, so there’s nothing to review there. It’s the fourth age (a nominal 2,400 food and 1,200 gold in current game data) and opens the top tier of units and technologies. For now, a steady Feudal-to-Castle routine is worth far more than planning for it.

Words used here

Town Center (TC)
Your main building. It trains villagers; an idle Town Center stops adding new workers to your economy.
Ages: Dark, Feudal, Castle, Imperial
The four stages of a game. You advance by building a landmark, which unlocks stronger units and upgrades.
Landmark
The building you construct to age up, such as DizBiz’s School of Cavalry or Chunk’s Council Hall. Each has its own bonus or production.
Bank, or float
Resources you’ve gathered but not spent. A little is normal; a big, growing bank means resources aren’t becoming villagers, units or upgrades.
Income
On this page, the resources gathered over the last minute at each 20-second sample.
Queue
The units or villagers waiting to be trained in a building. Keep one or two queued, not fifteen.
Idle
A villager or building doing nothing. The game has keys to select idle villagers.
Screen
Units placed in front of fragile ones to protect them, such as spearmen in front of longbows.
Kite
Moving ranged units back while they shoot, so slower melee units can’t reach them.
Counter
A unit that beats another type: spears beat cavalry, crossbows beat heavy armor, longbows beat light infantry such as spearmen.
Upgrade and unit tiers
Research that makes units stronger. Units also come in tiers; the Dark Age tier (like Vanguard Men-at-Arms or DizBiz’s spearmen) is the weakest, and an age-appropriate upgrade improves it.
Macro
Running your economy and production: villagers, houses, resources, queues.
Micro
Controlling units in a fight: positioning, focus fire, retreating hurt units.
Control group
A set of units saved to a number key so you can select them instantly.
Attack-move
An order that makes units fight anything they meet on the way. Useful, but it walks knights straight into spears.
Rally point
Where new units or villagers walk to after they’re trained.
Garrison
Putting villagers inside a building, such as your Town Center, to protect them. A garrisoned Town Center also fires more arrows.
Palisade
A cheap wooden wall. Gates let your own units through.
Boom
Investing in economy, like a second Town Center, instead of early army.
Final blow
The unit credited with a kill in the replay records. It shows who finished a unit, not everything that damaged it.
Royal Knight
DizBiz’s French heavy cavalry, available from Feudal Age. Strong on charge, weak against spears.
Longbowman
Chunk’s English archer with extra range. Great behind a screen, fragile when cavalry reaches it.
Hardened Spearman
The Feudal Age spearman tier. Spearmen counter cavalry; English spearmen in these games started at this tier.
Vanguard Man-at-Arms
The English Dark Age tier of Men-at-Arms. Weaker than upgraded Men-at-Arms.
Arbalétrier
The French Castle Age crossbow unit, useful against heavy armor.
Zhuge Nu
Zhu Xi’s repeating-crossbow unit. Despite the name, it isn’t the anti-armor Crossbowman.
Gilded units
Order of the Dragon’s stronger, more expensive versions of normal units, so raw counts against them aren’t equal.
Keshik and Khan
Golden Horde mounted units: the Keshik is cavalry, and the Khan is a mounted leader unit.
Network of Castles
An English bonus: Town Centers, outposts, towers and keeps make nearby units attack 20% faster when enemies are in range.
Replay clock
The in-game time recorded in the replay. Every time on this page uses it.

Sources and method

This is an original reading of your decoded replays, checked against game data and published learning material. Nobody watched a video of your matches, and nothing here simulates a different outcome.

How the replays were read
  • Both full replay files were decoded to their final byte: 49,989 command envelopes in total. Every player’s command count matched AoE4 World’s independent summary (8 of 8 checks). That count includes system and marker records, so it isn’t APM.
  • Both official summary chunks were decoded to their final byte: 1,187 creation records and 338 loss records, giving unit and building types, timestamps, death positions, final-blow attackers and building positions.
  • The two public AoE4 World match summaries were fetched once and cached. They provide completed build orders, research and 20-second resource samples. No bulk scraping of pro games was done.
  • Game facts were checked against data derived from the game files and against the official civilization descriptions.
What’s measured, and what’s interpretation
  • Measured: completion times, counts, banked resources, last-minute income, recorded final-blow killers, and unit and building coordinates.
  • Interpretation: why a decision hurt, alternative army compositions, recommended resource splits and where to set up a defense. These are marked as recommendations where it matters.
Limits
  • This is a decoded replay analysis, not a video of your camera or a re-simulation in the game engine.
  • The logs don’t record an exact worker-by-worker resource assignment or a full terrain and resource map. Resource splits and wall advice are coaching recommendations.
  • Scouting vision and every combat movement can’t be reliably reconstructed. A command is an intention, not proof that an action succeeded.
  • The coordinate views are not screenshots or terrain maps. They show recorded positions only, with terrain omitted.
  • Kill credit identifies the final blow, not all damage. Failed charges, focus fire and exact fight control can’t be judged perfectly from these records.
  • Unit upgrades can change the unit type credited with a death, so army counts on this page are grouped into unit families.
  • Civ bonuses, batch training, gilded units and upgrades mean equal raw villager or army counts aren’t equal economic or fighting power. That’s why income is shown next to villager counts.
  • Neither of you reached Imperial Age, so there is no Imperial play-by-play.
  • The replays are from game build 11308. Current game data is used as a mechanics reference, so the few prices mentioned are nominal and may differ slightly from that patch.
About the clock

Every coaching time uses the replay’s event clock. Game one’s event stream ends at 18:39 and game two’s at 18:49. AoE4 World’s match list shows 19:09 and 19:16; that’s a different duration field, not extra play that was analyzed. Fractions of a second are rounded down, and whole-second build and summary events can differ by about a second from the raw records.

Sources

Further watching

Picked from each creator’s published titles, descriptions, chapter lists and companion written build orders. They haven’t been watched or transcribed in full for this review, and older videos may have outdated numbers.