Men at Arms are often used for early aggressions, and many players go for them. However, it might be a bit tough to know what to do next.

Archers seem to be a very natural next step, but not knowing how to transition might cost you time and extend your mid-game for longer than needed.

This build order below will let you know the step by step to seamlessly transition from one to another.

This is a Man at Arms into Archers build order for Age of Empires 2 that should help you understand better the game, and how builds work.

Build Order

The most common civilizations used for this build order are Vikings, Celts, Aztecs, and Goths. Unfortunately, not all of them are great civilizations.

To execute this strategy, follow these steps:

  • Initial villagers build 2 houses, then sheep.
  •  Send 6 villagers to food.
  •  Send 1 villager to woodline for lumber camp, then 2 more villagers to woodline.
  •  With 11th villager, lure boar under Town Centre.
  •  Send 1 villager to build 2 houses near berries, then build a Mill.
  •  Send 3 villagers to berries.
  •  Lure second boar with a villager.
  •  Next 2 villagers go to boar/sheep.
  •  With 19th villager, build Barracks, a farm, and 3 militia.
  •  Send 1 villager to gold, then build a mining camp.Send 1 villager to mine gold.
  •  Research Loom, then advance to Feudal Age.
  •  Take 4 villagers from food to build a second Lumber Camp.
  •  Take 1 villager from sheep/boar to build a Farm.
  •  After advancing, research Double-Bit Axe in Lumber Camp and Men at Arms in Barracks.
  •  Take 4 more villagers from sheep to woodline.
  •  Send 2 villagers to build 2 more Farms.
  •  Finish taking food from sheep and send them to make farms.
  •  Send 24th villager to mine gold.
  •  Build 2 Archery Ranges and a Blacksmith, and make 6 archers.
  •  Create 5 more villagers and send them to gold.

How to Use This Build

The Feudal Man at Arms into Archers build order in Age of Empires 2 is a powerful strategy that can help you gain control of the map, delay your opponent’s advancement to the next age, and force a reaction.

It might not work as fast as the Archer Rush, but the goal here is different.

The Man at Arms unit is especially useful in melee combat and can break down walls and kill villagers faster than scouts.

By targeting berries, wood, and gold villagers, you can disrupt your opponent’s economy and gain an advantage.

When using this build order, it’s important to watch out for archery ranges, as archers counter Man at Arms.

If your opponent has already built an archery range, move to a different area of their base and try to get some villager kills.

The natural follow-up to Man at Arms is archers, as the economy setup for this build order has excess wood in Feudal Age and not a lot of food due to Man at Arm production and upgrades.

By adding a few more villagers to gold, you can keep up the production of archers.

Variations

It’s important to note that there are multiple different build orders and variations, and they should be adapted depending on the map and your civilization bonuses.

Additionally, some build orders are more or less popular depending on the map, game mode, and elo range.

The Man at Arms build order is commonly used in 1v1 games, but it’s uncommon to see it used in team games where battles usually open with cavalry and archers.