In Age of Empires 2, a Fast Castle Boom Build Order is a popular strategy to quickly advance to the Castle Age while building a strong economy.
This strategy involves focusing on gathering resources, luring boars, building farms, and advancing to the Feudal Age.
Once you’re in the Feudal Age, your research should focus on improving the economy and building multiple Town Centers.
To help you get there quickly, here’s a guide on how to Fast Castle Boom in Age of Empires 2.
Build Order
- 1 villager builds 2 houses
- 6 villagers to sheep
- 4 villagers to wood
- 1 villager from sheep to lure a boar
- 1 villager to boar
- 1 villager builds 2 houses and then goes to berries
- 3 villagers to berries
- 3 villagers build a mill next to the berries, then go to berries
- 2 villagers to boar
- 4 villagers build 2 farms, then go to wood
- 2 villagers to gold
- Research loom
- Advance to Feudal Age
- Once they’re done with sheep, send those villagers to build 9 farms
- Wait for Feudal Age
- 2 villagers build market, and then Blacksmith
- Advance to Castle Age
From there, you should be able to build two town centers and start your expansion. That being said, you will need to pay attention to your opponent while you do it.
If they start being more aggressive, you might not want to expand too quickly and be left without resources.
If for any reason they are behind you economically, it might be the perfect time to make your Economy undefeatable.
When to Fast Castle
Achieving good castle times requires checking the in-game time, with a good castle time being around 15 minutes.
Some civilizations, such as Persians, Mayans, and Chinese, are faster, but going up with 25 or fewer villagers may sacrifice either economy or military power.
Fast Castle is generally recommended for new players or when in the ‘Pocket player’ position on the map. However, it can also be done on maps like Black Forest if you wall correctly or are good at defending.
Fast Castle is a good strategy but tends to work better at lower ranks. Experienced players will counter you with something like an Archer Rush or a Tower Rush.
Since you are very vulnerable when going for Fast Castle, you must be good at defending and walling to stay in the game.
After Fast Castle, there are several options. The most common is making two knights, sending them to attack, and then attacking with more knights. Alternatively, you can build two town centers and boom to strengthen your economy, which is good if you’re a pocket pick.
Countering
All you need to do is go for an aggressive tactic that will force your adversary to redirect resources.
Whether they are following this build order or a similar one, there is a lot of gathering and building before they can focus on military resources, which is why this strategy tends to fail against experienced players.
Send your scout out as soon as possible and look at what your adversary is doing.
If you see them going for Fast Castle, you might want to prepare an Archer Rush and focus on attacking their villagers.
Chances are, a small disruption will be enough to make them give up the idea. There is also a good chance you will ruin their economy and get a great advantage if you counter them well enough.
