How long does it take you to get to the castle age?

[aflashman]

I am not necessarily talking about a real game. I just mean if you forget about the other player and goes as fast as you can how long does it take you to get to the castle age. There are potentially a lot of variables with this question, so I''ll impose a few controls.

Arabia with standard resources
Byzantine
29 villagers and 1 scout

I am slow. My best time thus far is 18 minutes and 57 seconds. (Which I think should give some kind of an idea of my relative noobness)

In a proper game however it is usually much slower as I have to spend more resources building units to either make some kind of early attack or defend against an early attack.

I would be interested to hear how long it takes other people. I suspect some people are much faster.

[OkayTimeForPlanB]

Around 16:00-16:30 with 27 pop if everything goes well (that's in real games).

[Ham]

there are several "fast castle" stategies ranging from 14-17 minutes, this includes making an early castle army to attack with

[誰がｗｏｍｂａｔ]

If i'm not being ass-rushed or harassed by some jackass, then it's pretty easy to make it in 12-15 minutes.

[aflashman]

You guys are fast compared to me. I think if I could only pick one metric to gain a basic idea whether someone is a complete noob, novice, rookie, or advanced player it would how long it takes you to get to the castle age. I think if you can castle in under 18 minutes you are at least a rookie. Obviously there is far far more to the game than this but it could be a useful way of gauging the likely skill of non-advanced players.

Thus if it takes you more than 22 minutes you are very likely to get trounced by someone who can do it in under 18 minutes. But if you around 18 minutes someone who take 20 minutes could be a fairly even game. The lower the time the more likely to win, but there would be at least a potential for a challenge. If you can do it under 16 minutes there is no point playing a one versus one with a player who takes 20 minutes or more.

[Dots]

yeah with aztecs/mongols i can hit around a 14 to 15 min castle with 27-29 pop depending on if i get loom or not

[FlaMiN_RampaGe]

byzantine have no economic bonus so castle times will be a bit slower, but if your just focusing on getting a quick castle time with no regard for an actual multiplayer game against an opponent you can get castle times lower than 14 minutes if done right, certain civilizations even under 12. however you'd never be able to do it in a real multiplayer game as you'd have nothing to show for the fast castle time, not enough villagers to support a quick attack or even be able to defend yourself as feudal age=500 food and 130 in game seconds to research plus two dark age buildings {mill lumber camp= 200 wood}, castle =800 plus 200 gold and 160 seconds to research plus two feudal age buildings (market and blacksmith= 325 wood} =1300 food, 200 gold, 525 wood and 290 seconds {4:50 game time total} town center time which is a lot of resources and town center time not building villagers or any other units/buildings. You'd still have to make some houses and probably another mill or two for deer, or farms {60/wood each unless teutons} too!

Its fun to play around with and if you did manage to find an ally who could get a feudal time just before your castle time and build a market to tribute resources to you quickly you might be able to make something with that, but it would have to require great communication and abit of luck (both you and your ally not being flushed for example). Crexis and Method used to work some fast castle strategies like the Ram Express where one would fast castle and the other would sling him some resources to get some seige, a few monks, and archers to attack opponents quickly, and another was called the bullet were a frank player would fast castle and ally would tribute him stone and he'd make some cheap castles against his opponent. Not sure they would work anymore, most people get good feudal times, usually do some sort of flush, and if they saw you getting a super quick feudal time they'd be suspicious of your plans and with good scouting could probably tell what you were doing and foil it pretty well.

i probably couldn't get much lower than a 13 minute fast castle, maybe if i used aztecs, huns, or mongols i could push it under. i'd have to do some practice runs and a little testing/research at the least.

[ICheatAtGolf]

I usually reach Castle Age about 17 minutes in at 30 population. The reason I go 30 instead of 27 is because it only takes a tiny mistake and you won't have enough resources to advance. Going 30 gives you a little bit of room for error.

Edit: As others have stated, it's possible to castle TOO fast, meaning you have too few villagers to sustain an attack or a boom. If you reach castle in 14 minutes but can't even afford to build 1 extra Town Center, it defeats the purpose. Pretty much the only way to get faster times is to skimp on population (assuming your tc is never idle).

[god of being bad at everything]

i suck badly so badly that my fastest without enemy interference i e rushes in only 22 minutes