CBA Quick Guide

This guide is meant for you to learn the basics and somewhat more advanced play style for CBA.
It includes detailed screenshots to make it easier to understand the tricks and strategies to help you how to play CBA better.

Guide info

Castle Blood Auto
Guide by: LRC_GuNNm
Covers: CBA Original map

Expansion civs not included, but the basics are all the same.

General goal

• If possible kill your enemy at start by razing his castles.
  
• Get razings to obtain villagers.
  
• Get kills to advance to castle and imperial age.
  
• Expand your military to gain overwhelming power over your enemy.

The very Basics

 

• Razing counter: click on the Ram to see the number of razings you have.
  
• Kill counter: click on the King to see the number of kills you have.
  
• The Blacksmith: Upgrades available starting when Castle Age is reached. Vikings are the only civilisation that start with fully obtained Blacksmith Upgrades from the Castle Age since they already start in this age.
  
• University: Upgrades available starting when Castle Age is reached. At start only Vikings have upgrades available at the university, upgrade all of those.

Spawn controls

Use the King to set where the spawned Castle unit should gather.

• Just in front of castle
  
• In centre of base
  
• Outside the base

Table of Balance

Note: does not cover expansions.
This table shows that effort has been made by the creator to balance the civilisations to make the scenario more fair.


It shows also essential info about:

• The required amount of razings to obtain a villager
  
• The required amount of Kills to enter Castle Age and Imperial Age
  
• The spawn time needed to produce 1 castle unit. This is not real time but in game time in seconds.

AOE-AOK-TC Counter Units

This table “AOE-AOK-TC Counter Units” was include in the original Age of empires. This is the most important table that any player of age of empires should know.
Note: does not cover expansions.

Most essential part in CBA is to know the strong side and the week side of your units. Then you will know what unit is best to counter your enemy, or in this case for CBA, what unit to attack or stay away from if possible.
Example:

• Saracen strong vs most civs in CBA like Huns or Persians or cavalry/infantry civs, but week against massed archers/Elite Skirmisher and Teutonic Knights.
  
• Goths strong vs any archers but week against most other civs, they are good to take down castles fast.

Etc. etc. see the counter table below for full detail.
Note: In CBA Saracen Mameluke are one of the best units with great bonus vs cavalry to counter allmost anything, except for Teutonic Knights and massed archers/Elite Skirmisher. (Saracen Mameluke are considered Cavalry Archers in basic) Even if you face archers there will be little difference in kills in CBA.

Diplomacy / Chat box

You need to know what civ is week or strong vs your own civ.
As soon as the game starts you should check what civilisations your enemies have by pressing either one of the key combination:
ALT + D (=diplomacy)
ALT + T (=Chat box)

Now you can decide what civ to attack first or what civ to stay away from if possible.

Defence Strategies

- If you get rushes use your units to block the sides of your castles as shown in the picture. This
will prevent enemy from surrounding your castle to do maximum damage.




- Vikings start already at Castle Age. If you get Vikings immediately upgrade everything at the University starting with MASONRY to straighten your buildings with 10% more HP + extra building armor.



- Build Back wall as shown in the picture. Mostly this is the most important defensive wall to protect your base from enemy raids. Place the gate exactly like shown in the picture, behind the wall, this is to make use of maximum space to make military buildings and prevent blockades.

- Wall the front gates as shown in the picture to prevent, or make it harder, for enemy from razing them with infantry. Archers and other ranged units still can raze them but it will be harder. Leave 1 tile opening at each gate to pass through.



- If needed, you can build walls faster by letting your villager build half of the wall section and then move on to the other section and again building it half etc. etc. You will have a half-finished wall that still is enough to prevent enemy from rushing in. After this the villager can finish the wall completely. An example of half build back wall is shown in the picture.



- All tough seldom used, You can wall the front row of your castles, leaving the 4 spawn point open as shown in picture. This will prevent enemy units especially infantry and cavalry from doing too much damage to your castles. Normally you will not need this way of walling, if you do, this mostly means that you are trapped by many enemies and you need to hold as long as possible.



- Build a row of towers behind your castle to straighten your base firepower. You can build max 20 towers, if you build more all your towers will be removed automatically.

- In most versions creation of bombard towers is not possible however in some versions on steam bombard towers and siege units as scorpions and even onagers seems possible. In that case use them to straighten your defence power. In the original version it’s limited to only Rams. This guide covers the original version.

Basic Build Strategies

- Use the space in your base wisely. Build exactly as shown in the picture to achieve maximum occupancy for buildings without blocking the spawned units. You will be able to build 4 military buildings at the back of the gate and 12 buildings in front of your castles, making it a total of 16 buildings available to you. You can build 1 more extra building in the top right corner, it is generally a good idea to build a second blacksmith. You can then upgrade your units much faster. If you need the space to create more army then use it for a military building.
If it gets hard for your units to pass through the back gate you can delete the 1 tile extra wall that is partly blocking the back gate.

- In general if you have an archery civilization use the space at the back of your base to build 4 stables or barracks if you have Mayans. In the front you can build any other military building. When you get attacked in your base all the way up to your back wall with rams, you won’t able to kill those rams with archers. In that case your knights/eagles will be your last hope to kill the rams in case they break trough.

- Always delete partial build buildings when you get attacked since they are easily razed by the enemy.

- After you have walled yourself, build nonstop military buildings till you run out of space in your base.
Your buildings will be ready when you reach Castle Age to mass units fast.

- Never make Feudal Age units!
If you are still in Feudal Age, just wait till you reach Castle Age before producing military units. Feudal units are too week and easily killed thus giving faster and more kills to opponents.




- Never build towers behind front gate. The damage that a few towers can do is negligible and they are easily razed by archers and other ranged units, thus give free razing to enemy.

- Never waste the space in your base by walling in the middle, you won’t be able to build maximum amount of buildings of 16.

- Never rebuild a front gate that has been destroyed, just build a stone wall instead. You can leave a gap at the other gates if you still have them so your units can get through. If you have lost all 3 of your gates and you are in need of walling your base entrance, build exactly like the back wall with 1 gate behind it. Also you just can block the entrance with your units to prevent enemy from running into your base.

Attack Strategies

 
 
 
 

 
 

- Patrol command

As shown in picture: 1.Select all your units, 2.click patrol, 3.click right next to units.
If you get a ranged civilisation use the patrol command to tightly “clump” them together before attacking enemy units, This especially works well vs infantry civilisations since they won’t be able to attack many of your units. You should use this option in general to keep them from spreading out and becoming food for the enemy. You can use different stances according to the flow of battle.

- Teamwork patrol

Patrol in front of ranged enemy wile ranged ally is shooting them from behind you. For this to work, good team work is required. If you can manage, this is an effective strategy that makes use of lack of Ballistics in the early ages. Not having Ballistics means ranged units shoot less effective at moving targets. This Strategy is utilised by putting large numbers of ranged units (like archers) behind your ally, your ally must then put his units on “no attack stance” and patrol in front of them. While your allies units are running back and forth in front of ranged enemy units that are trying to shoot them, your teams ranged units are free to shoot the enemy that is standing still and being very busy trying to target your ally. This works well with any ranged units at back and a fast moving cavalry civilisation in front to distract the enemy. If needed you can do this also by yourself. For example if you are Maya just put a small group of your units between you and your ranged enemy. Put the small group in “no attack stance” and let them patrol. Use your main group of archers to shoot the enemy. Even if enemy has got the ballistics upgrade this still will be effective.

- Sneak attack

Because the units spawned from the castles are limited, most players will use all of their units to attack enemy or help ally. Especially when one of their gates are down there base will be open and vulnerable. Fast infantry civilisations like Celt/Vikings etc. can easily rush in and destroy enemy castles. Especially Huns are the very best in this strategy.

- While Huns are one of the most dangerous and best razing civilisation, they are also the ones getting attacked immediately at start of the game. If Hun player is not carful he will be overrun by enemy units. Allies should be rushing over to Huns base to defend him. In that case try to get as much Hun units out of your base to go attack the enemy. Since your numbers at start will be little, use hit and run tactics to take down enemy gates. As a Hun player your main objective is to raze buildings or setting them up. Staying in your base and trying to fight enemy will be futile without ally support. Your allies should be defending you by blocking the sides of your castle and give you the opportunity to move your units out to rush enemy base. This will also relieve the pressure at your base because the enemy will be forced to pull back to defend himself.

- Almost the same goes for Persians, with the difference that Persians are better at defending their own base (blocking sides of castles etc.) because of their strong elephants. Still Persians are attacked often because their front gates are week and easier to raze. Elephants are slow moving units that are easy prey for Saracen Mamelukes. An archery civilisation ally should be moving along the elephants for protection. Elephants in there turn are a great buffer civ that can be put between enemy and ally.

- Clumped Hitting

Normally if you target a building or gate your units will stand next to each other in a line and start hitting the building. If they can’t surround the building then it will not be very effective because only a couple of units will be able to hit it, rest of your units will be standing idle.

You can force your units to move tightly in front of a building and start hitting it with many more units at once. In order to do this you have to move your units in a correct angle to target the gate/building. If done correctly you will be able to raze gates at Hun razing speed or even faster.

Move your units somewhat diagonally in front of the enemy gates like shown in the picture.	With all your units selected point as close to the enemy gate as possible WITHOUT targeting it as shown in the picture.
While your units will move to the pointed location they will clump together because of the angel they were forced to move to. In doing so many units will be tightly packet together standing in front of the enemy gate as shown in the picture.	Target the gate and start hitting it with 3x as much (or more) units than normally. The enemy gate will be down in no time.
There is allso a mutch more easy way to do this by using the "Flank Formation" 1. select all your units 2. let them move paralel to the gates by pointing at a spot next to the gates you want to destroy 3. while the units are still moving click the "Flank Formation" option. You allso can press the hotkey V (=hd version) or F (=non hd versions)	Units will line up beautifully. Start hitting that gate!
What if you have to attack the green or cyan spots, which are harder to do with the first method. Just do as shown in the picture by using the Flank Formation option. 1. select all your units 2. let them move paralel to the gates by pointing at a spot next to the gates you want to destroy 3. while the units are still moving click the "Flank Formation" option. You allso can press the hotkey V (=hd version) or F (=non hd versions)	Again the units line up nicely. Kill the gate.

This is also a very powerful tactic to use against a castle when the enemy has blocked or walled the sides making it impossible for you to surround it.

Mastering the first method will require some patience but once learned the advantage will be great. To make this example easier to understand I used a large diagonal and a larger distance from the enemy gates, once learned you will be able to clump the units tightly almost on the spot without moving them too much. Pointing to an area close BEHIND the enemy gate will also make your units clump, practice using different angles and pointing to different spots. This way you will get a general feeling how to use this method.

If you use the first method correctly you have a chance that more units will clump together since you don’t divide your units in two groups. In general the differences between the two methods is little but the second method is way more easy.

Other Strategies

- Setting up razings

Set up razings for your allies by damaging enemy gates or towers leaving only a couple Hit Points so it’s easier for your ally to destroy them. Huns are especially very good at setting up razings. In general Britons and Mayans get the first razing since they only need 1 razing to get a villager. Then follow the Vikings since Vikings are already starting at Castle age they can mass archers or knights already at the start of the game. Razings by other civilisations follow according to game flow.

- Wall your allies!

If you get a villager, first wall yourself, especially the back wall is important. Send 1 of your villagers quickly to wall your allies. Never lose your villager out of sight when he’s walking to an ally to wall him, loosing villagers means less razings for your team, since you need to get a new raze.

- Blocking enemy Spawn points

In some cases it is useful to block enemy spawn points at his castles. This is mostly effective right after you have killed a large number of enemy units, especially Turks are vulnerable to this strategy. Your team then can quickly rush his base and attack his castle from the front or if your team has ranged units, put their units as close as possible to his castles before attacking it. Most suitable units to do this are Koreans and Persians but infantry civilisations will do also well.

- Kill enemies’ villagers

Count your enemies razings. If the enemy gets a villager he will do exactly what you would do, and that is wall himself. The moment enemy gets villagers your team should use there ranged units to rush to the enemy base to kill them while he is trying to wall himself. Main goal here is try to kill villagers and prevent enemy from walling himself.

- Spawn close

If you are under attack or trapped in your base by the enemy always set your spawn point to close spawn. The enemy will then not be able to lure your units to make more kills.

- Lure your enemy

If you have trapped your enemy is his base try to lure his units by sending a few of your units then shoot or quickly run back when he’s following you. That moment you can shoot/kill the enemy units that come in range. Main goal here is to make extra kills while staying out of range of his castles/towers. Works best with Ranged units (Turks/Spain/archers).

- Corner wall vulnerability

If the enemy has walled himself by building a back wall close to his castles it will be hard to take down that wall without rams. In that case you can try to target the wall ending point as shown in the picture. By removing the back gate at that point becomes a vulnerability. Most players forget to extend this wall by making 1 tile of wall next to it. Especially infantry civilisations are vulnerable vs this, since they have no range units to kill the units that are targeting that part of the wall. Huns for example will be able to destroy that part while being supported with ranged units behind them. All he can do is yet try to quickly build that tile of wall, either way his villagers will be killed by the supporting ranged units that are right behind the Huns or other civilisations that are pounding that wall.
So again it’s all about Team Work.

Things not to do

- DO NOT FEED your enemy

Feeding = giving (easy) kills to enemy. Your enemy will then advance faster to the next ages and will be able to produce stronger units, putting you at a great disadvantage. If your enemy has a full group of units do not engage them with small numbers.

Know what the strong point and week points are of the civilisation you have. Attack other civilisations that you are strong vs, and try to stay away from civilisations that are strong vs you. Use your ally as buffer between you and the civilisation that you are weak against.

For example: DO NOT attack Goths with archers, or Saracen with Persians or Huns, or Byzantines with infantry civilizations. If your are an archery civilisation and you are vs Goths, always stand behind strong ally who also has infantry or cavalry and use them as a buffer to shoot from behind. This goes for all weak vs strong civilisations, that’s why good team work is essential.

However, if you have a good razing civilisation like Huns or infantry, when you notice that the enemy has left his base empty, rush in regardless he is strong or weak vs your units. Main goal is to take down his castles fast. Do not Try this with archers, they can’t take down castles.

- Deleteting gates/towers

Do not delete the front gates and the towers in your base, if you do you will be auto booted.
Any other building such as the back gate, your castles and walls can be freely deleted. By deleting the back gate also the side walls in base will be removed.
Mostly it is not wise to delete your castles in order to create extra space. The amount of space you get is limited and you are vulnerable vs mass ranged units. All they have to do is then concentrate on shooting that one castle that you have left.

- Do not irritate your team mates

Keep calm and try to defend if needed or assist ally if he/she is in need. Just staying put in your base while your ally is under heavy attack is lame.
Always watch what your team is doing, and respond to signals. Try to often play with same players, you will get used to each other’s play style and strategy. This will improve your team play. Play as a team and use the tips and strategies mentioned in this guide to your advantage, hopefully it will help you in becoming a better CBA player.

About LRC clan

LrC stands for “Last Resistance Clan”
We are mostly active on Gameranger (https://www.gameranger.com)
Some of our members play on Voobly or on Steam.

Most of our members are RM players but we also have a CBA section with only CBA players.

Check out our site:
LRC clan web: http://daniel17810.wix.com/lrcoficial
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lrcoficial

[Gauss]

Yeah nah, validating a balancing issue in a video game by historical real life facts doesn't work at all.

[LrC_GuNNm]

@sacher

Concerning deleting buildings:
These tactics were being used in real military war and is called Scorched earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth

As i mentioned many times in the guide, CBA is a real team game. By looking at the civs and the danger from enemy civs your team is facing you mostly decided at start whom in your team gets the first razings to obtain a vill. Selfishly destroying all gates will not help your team, that is one of the things what i try to explain with this guide.

Would it not be boring to set rules to get something that you cannot obtain with your own skills?
Aside from that, as long as you set rules at start of the game and all players agree to it then, weather you play by rules as `no deleting`, `no walling` or `no playing in pink underwear`, there should be no problem.

[Gauss]

It's neither strategical nor tactial let alone skillfull.

[-Dare Devil/x/]

It is not noobish, it is a higher skill ceiling. One of the main points of the game is to strategically and tactically get villagers. That worth is diminished if getting villagers is easy. End-game villager sniping, expanse controlling, scouting wallers, path blocking, etc all comes into play.

[Gauss]

Please do not advise deleting buildings to avoid razes, it's just noobish.

[76561198162420976]

Thanks for your guide.

[Chepe]

we need this guide really,perfect details for newbies,thank you

[LrC_GuNNm]

@All: Thank you for your comments.

@Dare Devil/x/: I assumed that players know what “feeding” means, but it can’t hurt to be more clear. I adjusted the text.

@_zavalita: You are right about the counter table not being 100% correct. This was the original table provided by the game, I did not want to alter it. However, since it’s a bit dated and giving some wrong impression I did adjust the table slightly and put a note.

Your other remarks: The Saracen Mameluke are indeed a very strong strong civ, even vs archers since in basic they are considered cal. Archers themselves. It is also true that the Byzantines Cataphracts are not bad vs the Saracen Mameluke but when the Saracens clump together by using patrol they will have a big advantage over Cataphracts.

All tough our clan page is in Spanish, unfortunately my Spanish is terrible I’m Dutch (I use google translate). Most clan members speak Spanish also the webmaster.

[-Dare Devil/x/]

Read through this. Good job. One thing I would probably add under the DO NOT FEED section is the reason why you do not want to feed (feeding = them getting castle/imp faster = harder to kill/etc/etc).

[Stringer]

Te escribí en español porque en ese idioma está la página de tu clan. :v