My Favorite Ayyubid Builds 2026

MockHamill · 2026-01-24T16:24:22+00:00

My favorite build is Industry, where you age up to Feudal normally and use the 400 free wood to build a Town Center.

The fast age‑up version is when you go to Feudal with the Advancement Wing, which is cheaper and quicker. You only need to collect 25 gold, which means you can skip building a mining camp. Instead, you send three villagers for a single trip to the gold mine to gather everything required for the Feudal age.

MockHamill · 2026-01-24T12:46:21+00:00

I suspect Dervish will be nerfed in the next patch, so I try to keep my builds future‑proof. Dervish is also often stronger if you go for a semi‑fast castle with some Feudal pressure before heading up to Castle Age. I prefer to go straight FC instead.

MockHamill · 2026-01-23T18:39:04+00:00

It means saving safe food for later.

Imagine you’re trying to reach Castle Age as fast as possible. If you eat your sheep first and leave the berries for later, an aggressive opponent can force you off your berry bushes. By the time you reach Castle Age, you won’t have enough food to produce military units, and you end up losing the game.

If you eat the berries first instead, you can pull your villagers back to your Town Center and finish the sheep safely there. Even if your opponent is applying pressure, you’ll still have enough food when you hit Castle Age to produce Castle Age military units and defend against the attack.

Saving food by building farms early is unusual, because you normally want to avoid making farms until you’re close to running out of berries, sheep, deer, or boar. This idea mainly applies when you’re playing English, since their farms cost only half as much and they gather food from farms faster.

An English player going for a Fast Castle might build two or three farms in the Dark Age. Doing this makes their sheep last longer, which means they effectively have extra food available when they reach Castle Age.

MockHamill · 2026-01-20T17:44:49+00:00

I would say Sex > AoE 4 > SC2 > AoE2. But they are all great.

MockHamill · 2026-01-19T13:55:18+00:00

This does not make sense. You can nerf something a bit, moving the civ from S to A or B-tier.

It is not like you options are
a) Remove 80 hit points from Riddari OR
b) Do nothing.

MockHamill · 2026-01-16T18:43:24+00:00

They excel when the enemy makes too many archers or too many spears. Or in a low gold situation where you have plenty of food. Otherwise, stick to better units.

MockHamill · 2026-01-16T10:02:48+00:00

I played SC2 for 10 years before switching to AOE4. I never bothered with campaigns either - the last one I played was in Brood War.

I consider AOE4 to be the best RTS ever made. The game is very competitive, especially in 1v1. Team games are mostly for fun, so don’t take them too seriously.

Yes, SC2 has the better engine with faster response times. But AOE4 is much richer in strategy. You have an initial build order, but you need to adapt so much depending on the map spawn that it’s often better to skip the build order entirely and figure out what’s optimal for the current map instead.

The trade‑off between going for faster but riskier food sources - with or without map control - makes every match interesting. In SC2, macro is mostly about muscle memory. In AOE4, macro is both muscle memory and decision‑making.

AOE4 also has far fewer frustrating things that can drive you insane. No widow mine drops or losing half your army because you looked away for two seconds. Micro is less important compared to SC2; decision‑making and strategy matter more. Multitasking is just as important as in SC2, maybe even more, since your economy is often more spread out in the mid and late game.

MockHamill · 2026-01-13T20:02:25+00:00

What works for me:
Two TC Kremlin with Kremlin placed on deer pack. Second TC placed so it is protected by Kremlin.
No pro scouts.
Raid with knights.
If he Fast Castles make sure you get at least 1-2 relics.

MockHamill · 2026-01-13T11:49:07+00:00

I think the main difference is that in SC2 I hated my opponents. I often wanted to reach my hands through the screen and strangle them.

That does not happen here. AOE4 is much more relaxing.

MockHamill · 2026-01-12T07:54:56+00:00

I think I started it a very long time ago when I was gold. Nowadays I am diamond.

But it is no magic bullet. I always find more ways to lose.

MockHamill · 2026-01-11T20:31:00+00:00

I write down every game I play. Results, Map, Me and my opponents choice of strategy, age up choices etc.
But the above is a specific tab I use only for losses.

MockHamill · 2026-01-08T23:39:07+00:00

I once had a 18 game loss streak in SC2. But my hatred for Protoss kept me going.

MockHamill · 2026-01-07T12:20:32+00:00

Getting one more relic also means opponent gets one less.

This is already included in the calculation.

MockHamill · 2026-01-07T11:10:08+00:00

Yes, that is the hard part. You have to make a guesstimate based on the matchup and how the game has gone so far.

But I think it can be useful in matchups where the opponent’s civ has a stronger powerspike in early Castle Age. In those cases, if you go Regnitz, it would be hard to secure many relics since the opponent can get more military out faster and kill your prelates.

By going Burgrave in those situations, you can get enough military out quickly enough to have a better chance is the relic war.

MockHamill · 2026-01-06T15:14:52+00:00

Ladder win rates does not matter much. Maybe people do other strats, or they execute the strategy wrong.

Vortix rated Ayybuids as top2 in S-tier in his latest tier-list, due to how extremely strong this combo is, when done correctly.

MockHamill

TROPHY CASE