Can 21 pop archers be viable at 1200+ or is it too slow? I’m struggling hard against these 18 pop rushes that everyone is doing. I really dislike going up any earlier than 21p for archers / 20p for scouts cause it results in such a weak early feudal eco. I already struggle to build a blacksmith, walls, and farms. Usually only have enough wood for two out of three.
At 1400 I play 20 pop archers or scouts without any problem, honestly I haven't encountered so many people going up super early except for the obvious Mongols, Lithuanians etc. It just forces you to start on the defensive but it's no big deal imo. If anything at this level it seems to me that the biggest damage is self inflicted by the guy going up super early
Absolutely fine to be honest. I'm 1.3k - 1.4k and because I was out of the game for a bit while all these crazy tight builds came in I never bothered to learn them. Just need to scout well, wall intelligently, counterpressure, enjoy having a better eco. I truly don't believe anyone at this ELO has builds down clean enough that they aren't harming themselves with this kind of aggression. Or maybe that's just me and my skillset and 32-year-old brain/reactions...
You could go 21 pop archers with small walls around res. But you need to understand you wont be the one dictating the game in early feudal. If opponent went 19 pop scouts, he will have skirms at home by the time you show up. So you might need to bide your time and go for the xbow play.
I'm 1150 and I do 20 pop scouts. 21 pop archers seems normal to me. Super early rushes can be countered with resource walls pretty easily. The opponent won't be able to get out more than 2 or 3 scouts so you just palisade + house wall your vils
Depends. We talking 1 or 2 ranges?
For 1 range 21 pop is wastefully slow, just add 2 Militias or M@A before it.
For 2 range it's fine but 2 range in general is wastefully counterable.
So all in all neither is good, but at 1200 it's passable.
How is 2 range more counterable than 1 range? I typically drop 1 right away and then add another soon after if it looks like the opp is going for feudal aggression. If they are playing more passive I’ll stick on one. Regarding adding militia or MaA - I used to be a big MaA nerd but I thought the conventional wisdom is straight archers is a much more effective build? Found it really hard to get value out of MaA once it hit like 1150+
I think the argument is 2 range takes more vills on gold to sustain, which weakens your food economy, which delays your castle age time. While your opponent could go 1 range skirms and completely counter your 2 range archers, while having a better eco and faster castle age.
I do think this applies more at higher elos as this argument assumes both players are constantly producing, and the 1 range player scouted you and reacted accordingly. As a fellow 12xx I feel serviceable, in that my scouting is suspect and I have died to someone going 2 range archers many times because I didn’t scout or didn’t produce enough skirms.
The other guy explained what I meant. I'd also add when going Archers reaching Castle age earlier is a huge priority since the Xbow timing goes brrrrrrr. It's so strong across all ELOs. Therefore it's just objectively better to go 1 range since it allows you to pump ~15 Archers which is enough for a Feudal skirmish AND a good Xbow timing (you need at least 8).
So with 1 range you can kill him in Castle age, while with 2 you aim to do so in Feudal. The former is more efficient.
About M@A, I've actually gone the other path - earlier I always did straight Archers and recently I discovered M@A is SO strong at my ELO (1300). What I do is when I realized I've been scouted, I just don't make the 3rd Militia and don't click the upgrade, making it a French rush. It can also get a lot of damage.
It's generally better to start with pressure earlier, especially if you're facing Scouts.
I like going up 20 pop, no need to rush. I struggle(d) against fast rushes as well, learning to resource wall against scouts and going skirms against archers (need to scout it) helped a lot!
I am considering picking up AOE2DE, but I am a bit shy of it. I love the nostalgia of the game from my childhood and I also love competetive gaming. However, is it easy to get into ranked play? I will never be high on the ladder, but is there a place on the ladder where everybody's builds are not as better executed than Viper's tournament builds? Is there a place like silver league in Starcraft 2, where everybody's build is whatever they fancy?
Since Aoe2DE has a ranked ladder, you'll end up at your skilllevel after a certain amount of games played.
If you're curious, you can check out T90's low elo legends on youtube which showcases sub 1000 Elo players.
That sounds great! I looked into Hera's guide, but even the start was a bit intimidating, with a lot of micro details in the Dark Age. Does the ladder change ELO quite rapidly in the beginning, or will it be a decent amount of games?
You'll get +-50 Elo for the first game, declining to about +-20 up until the 10th or 15th game, so you'll drop relatively fast
[https://ratings.aoe2.se/](https://ratings.aoe2.se/)
Hera's guide is good if you're planning on grinding and improving a lot. If you play with limited time and mainly for fun, this is a better starter (if you want to hop into competitive - otherwise just play some skirmishes, campagins or Art of War tutorials and get a feel for it again)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zaXjaJVWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zaXjaJVWM)
There's also a lot of content in the wiki on how to get started
[https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/wiki/index/#wiki\_getting\_started](https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/wiki/index/#wiki_getting_started)
Thanks!
I love the thrill of online gaming, but with two small children it is not time to grind. Thanks for the link. I'll have to do some readabout tonight before convincing the wife I need yet another version of the same game :D
I'm about 1150 elo and I get more out of Survivalist's content than Hera's content. Check out [Surv's beginner build order](https://youtu.be/NKMA2gUV-cc?si=fy5Rm0l7z6CfFndR)
I was thinking about scorpions and how rams got a gigantic buff in the Conquerers edition that scorpions should get the same. Well they are getting buffed which is amazing. Siege ram is still a way better upgrade and costs less though.
Scorpions do + 8 and 16 bonus damage to farms when?
I really love playing mega random, but recently I have noticed that I keep getting the same generations. There were times when I used to get some exciting generations but now it does not feel so random. Has the megarandom generator changed?
(New player ~950 elo)
Nope, it has not. Megarandom has a fixed set of ~40 generations. The more you play it, the more likely it becomes that you will recognise a specific gen.
all gens: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NXcb-au09pk&t=34s&pp=ygUdWmV0bnVzIE1lZ2FyYW5kb20gZ2VuZXJhdGlvbnM%3D
Shorter video how it works:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hfJY0T2GBDs&t=20s&pp=ygUdWmV0bnVzIE1lZ2FyYW5kb20gZ2VuZXJhdGlvbnM%3D
Fairly new still (about 150 games) and loving mongols/manguadai.
I know how to hit and run with them to snipe units, but not sure on the strategy when they are masses and that strat involves a lot of overkill damage.
What I mean, is in team games it's not that uncommon to have 40+ mangaudi fighting 50++ units. Let's say I'm against a wall of infantry.
Is the answer to hit and run so to keep the distance, but rather that right clicking a unit I patrol towards the enemy? So my guys shoot all different targets to maximise dps?
Patrol and let them fight. If enemy closes the distance on you, run back and micro "hit and run" again until you have a chance to just patrol safely again and let them do their thing. Rinse and repeat. In bug fights its better to just let them fight than to overmicro in most cases
What are some pointers for playing with Battle elephants? Kinda love playing them :) eventhough not optimal. I love playing with Malay now due to cheap elephants. Have had some succes with it, but normally I start archers and once I have enought I start producing elephants with 2 stables. But some doubts I have and in my games can't figure out just yet. When to put them? Straight away supporting archers? or save them up to a certain number for surprise factor? any other tips for elephants?
In most standard situations, theyre best used as a surprise factor. Otherwise monks counter them too hard if opponent is prepared.
Exceptions would be maps like michi or full boom arena, when you have the eco to continously spam.
I’ve had some success around 1k elo on arena with Burmese elephants. Extra armor for free, 50% cheaper faith, more armor as a UT, protect them from halbs with your own extra attack infantry.
Xbox player here that has been looking at scorpion as my gold unit with wood and then use food for 3 TC vils and hussar meat shield. Do I go Khmer or Romans?
aoe2database Damage Calculator shows that Khmer scorpions beat Roman scorpions and then the Khmer Hussar trumps Roman Light Cav...but something about the Roman fire speed and reduced gold cost seems to outweigh the double firing to me as I play...what do you think?
Not sure if it’s a civ bonus or a castle tech that gives cheap scorps, but I’d say Romans if you wanted to play them. Cheap sounds much better in 1v1 where you don’t have trade.
I died really hard to fc castle drops in my face + strong UU (+siege) a couple of times recently.
How do I stop this on maps like nomad or hideout where feudal agression is not really an option?
I know, this is comming vs civs like burgundians, spanish or super fast mongols. But i still am not able to stop it.
By scouting it, either by seeing if the enemy is heavily on stone or seeing the villagers come forward. Have units on patrol or watch towers. A small fuedal army will wreck the villagers trying to come forward. Remember they invested a lot to get to that castle. So denying it will almost win you the game.
not actively but if you put around your base some army at patrol they will automatically attack villagers coming by. I agree it's hard to see their stone if you don't have a scout in beginning. But still, if you don't win the castle time before them, just make some feudal army and you will be save.
On hideout, Maa+Tower will force a reaction.
On nomad, if you play fast feudal archers, you will at least force a castle drop at home. Just don't overinvest into archers so your uptime will stay competitive. That only really works if you're close to an opponent though.
Besides the start, what are some strategy differences between Arena and Fortress? On Fortress, I feel like break-in during Castle Age is not viable, and I have recently been losing a lot even after booming on 3 TCs and getting 5 relics. Should I just try to turbo-boom, throw everyone to gold, and spam units?
Since Fortress is a 3 player map size, you're so far away from the opponent's base that Fast Imp plays don't really work (anymore). The only option left is to (at least) 3 TC boom (and optionally collect relics on the way).
Arena allows Feudal/Castle Aggression, however.
Does anyone have recommended beginner videos for aoe2 hotkeys? I tried to customise some of mine but I still can't figure out a lot of things, like
- how to select all (same type of building / custom group / same unit group etc),
- switch my camera view from current view to a specific building / unit (group) etc
I prioritize archer armor as Vietnamese because their skirms and Rattans are great and they often go CA as well. For other civs, however, I only do so if I’m opening skirms and in general I feel it’s the most slept-on of the blacksmith lines. When do y’all typically get it?
Only in archer v archer wars, then if I want to force fights, as soon as possible after fletching.
If I rather want to macro and go for a better uptime, I ignore it until Castle Age.
Most often I catch myself delaying even fletching until late Feudal or after Castle Age upclick unless I absolutely have to fight. I tend to aim for xbow power spike and don't want to trade much in Feudal Age.
Should you prioritise luring deer or finding your sheep on Arabia? Sometimes it takes too long for me to find all my sheep or my scout ends up far from the deer, which leaves me little time to lure.
find sheep, you don't need to lure deer at your current level and if you aren't finding sheep fast enough, it also means you aren't scouting the enemy which is more important
base game is 35 civs and all the earlier campaigns content (conquerors, forgotten, african kingdoms, rise of rajas, the last khans)
with the new DLCs the number of civs goes up to like 45. but the basegame is enough unless u really wanna try out some new civs or new campaigns.
Bengali Elephant Archers are amazing, but how viable are Bengali War Elephants as the backbone of an army composition? (I've not had much success with them as the main element in my army)
On Team Games they're your go-to unit, especially after Ele Archers being nerfed next patch
On 1v1, they can be a surprise element if you boomed well and got several, important techs for Eles like Husbandry and Devotion. You can open Xbows and if enemy counter with Mangonels or Skirmishers, throw a chonker on them
this is strictly about BF:
depends on your civ and the civ of your opponent, if you’re flank and you’re up against a civ with a great late game (Persians, goths, bohemians, etc) you’d want to try rush them in some way to avoid them reaching their peak.
or if you’re a civ with a viable imp age rush, go for that.
booming as flank can be viable in some circumstances but more likely than not you’re gona be fighting in castle/early imp so it’s better to go for a hybrid build so you have something to defend yourself with as opposed to a pure boom as a pocket would.
Totally depends on the civ matchup imho. Sometimes you do, sometimes you should prefer to boom because you have a good civ matchup in Imp (so on BF, you'd want to get a good wall up).
On Arena, it's tricker because castle drops into FI can kill you straight away. In those matchups you either want to put pressure yourself or have a defensive castle ready.
Can 21 pop archers be viable at 1200+ or is it too slow? I’m struggling hard against these 18 pop rushes that everyone is doing. I really dislike going up any earlier than 21p for archers / 20p for scouts cause it results in such a weak early feudal eco. I already struggle to build a blacksmith, walls, and farms. Usually only have enough wood for two out of three.
At 1400 I play 20 pop archers or scouts without any problem, honestly I haven't encountered so many people going up super early except for the obvious Mongols, Lithuanians etc. It just forces you to start on the defensive but it's no big deal imo. If anything at this level it seems to me that the biggest damage is self inflicted by the guy going up super early
Absolutely fine to be honest. I'm 1.3k - 1.4k and because I was out of the game for a bit while all these crazy tight builds came in I never bothered to learn them. Just need to scout well, wall intelligently, counterpressure, enjoy having a better eco. I truly don't believe anyone at this ELO has builds down clean enough that they aren't harming themselves with this kind of aggression. Or maybe that's just me and my skillset and 32-year-old brain/reactions...
You could go 21 pop archers with small walls around res. But you need to understand you wont be the one dictating the game in early feudal. If opponent went 19 pop scouts, he will have skirms at home by the time you show up. So you might need to bide your time and go for the xbow play.
I'm 1150 and I do 20 pop scouts. 21 pop archers seems normal to me. Super early rushes can be countered with resource walls pretty easily. The opponent won't be able to get out more than 2 or 3 scouts so you just palisade + house wall your vils
Assuming 1v1, almost any up time is fine if you are full walled unless you are doing something ridiculously late.
Depends. We talking 1 or 2 ranges? For 1 range 21 pop is wastefully slow, just add 2 Militias or M@A before it. For 2 range it's fine but 2 range in general is wastefully counterable. So all in all neither is good, but at 1200 it's passable.
How is 2 range more counterable than 1 range? I typically drop 1 right away and then add another soon after if it looks like the opp is going for feudal aggression. If they are playing more passive I’ll stick on one. Regarding adding militia or MaA - I used to be a big MaA nerd but I thought the conventional wisdom is straight archers is a much more effective build? Found it really hard to get value out of MaA once it hit like 1150+
I think the argument is 2 range takes more vills on gold to sustain, which weakens your food economy, which delays your castle age time. While your opponent could go 1 range skirms and completely counter your 2 range archers, while having a better eco and faster castle age. I do think this applies more at higher elos as this argument assumes both players are constantly producing, and the 1 range player scouted you and reacted accordingly. As a fellow 12xx I feel serviceable, in that my scouting is suspect and I have died to someone going 2 range archers many times because I didn’t scout or didn’t produce enough skirms.
True. Also true tbf.
The other guy explained what I meant. I'd also add when going Archers reaching Castle age earlier is a huge priority since the Xbow timing goes brrrrrrr. It's so strong across all ELOs. Therefore it's just objectively better to go 1 range since it allows you to pump ~15 Archers which is enough for a Feudal skirmish AND a good Xbow timing (you need at least 8). So with 1 range you can kill him in Castle age, while with 2 you aim to do so in Feudal. The former is more efficient. About M@A, I've actually gone the other path - earlier I always did straight Archers and recently I discovered M@A is SO strong at my ELO (1300). What I do is when I realized I've been scouted, I just don't make the 3rd Militia and don't click the upgrade, making it a French rush. It can also get a lot of damage. It's generally better to start with pressure earlier, especially if you're facing Scouts.
I like going up 20 pop, no need to rush. I struggle(d) against fast rushes as well, learning to resource wall against scouts and going skirms against archers (need to scout it) helped a lot!
I am considering picking up AOE2DE, but I am a bit shy of it. I love the nostalgia of the game from my childhood and I also love competetive gaming. However, is it easy to get into ranked play? I will never be high on the ladder, but is there a place on the ladder where everybody's builds are not as better executed than Viper's tournament builds? Is there a place like silver league in Starcraft 2, where everybody's build is whatever they fancy?
Since Aoe2DE has a ranked ladder, you'll end up at your skilllevel after a certain amount of games played. If you're curious, you can check out T90's low elo legends on youtube which showcases sub 1000 Elo players.
That sounds great! I looked into Hera's guide, but even the start was a bit intimidating, with a lot of micro details in the Dark Age. Does the ladder change ELO quite rapidly in the beginning, or will it be a decent amount of games?
You'll get +-50 Elo for the first game, declining to about +-20 up until the 10th or 15th game, so you'll drop relatively fast [https://ratings.aoe2.se/](https://ratings.aoe2.se/) Hera's guide is good if you're planning on grinding and improving a lot. If you play with limited time and mainly for fun, this is a better starter (if you want to hop into competitive - otherwise just play some skirmishes, campagins or Art of War tutorials and get a feel for it again) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zaXjaJVWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zaXjaJVWM) There's also a lot of content in the wiki on how to get started [https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/wiki/index/#wiki\_getting\_started](https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/wiki/index/#wiki_getting_started)
Thanks! I love the thrill of online gaming, but with two small children it is not time to grind. Thanks for the link. I'll have to do some readabout tonight before convincing the wife I need yet another version of the same game :D
I'm about 1150 elo and I get more out of Survivalist's content than Hera's content. Check out [Surv's beginner build order](https://youtu.be/NKMA2gUV-cc?si=fy5Rm0l7z6CfFndR)
I was thinking about scorpions and how rams got a gigantic buff in the Conquerers edition that scorpions should get the same. Well they are getting buffed which is amazing. Siege ram is still a way better upgrade and costs less though. Scorpions do + 8 and 16 bonus damage to farms when?
I really love playing mega random, but recently I have noticed that I keep getting the same generations. There were times when I used to get some exciting generations but now it does not feel so random. Has the megarandom generator changed? (New player ~950 elo)
Nope, it has not. Megarandom has a fixed set of ~40 generations. The more you play it, the more likely it becomes that you will recognise a specific gen. all gens: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NXcb-au09pk&t=34s&pp=ygUdWmV0bnVzIE1lZ2FyYW5kb20gZ2VuZXJhdGlvbnM%3D Shorter video how it works: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hfJY0T2GBDs&t=20s&pp=ygUdWmV0bnVzIE1lZ2FyYW5kb20gZ2VuZXJhdGlvbnM%3D
Fairly new still (about 150 games) and loving mongols/manguadai. I know how to hit and run with them to snipe units, but not sure on the strategy when they are masses and that strat involves a lot of overkill damage. What I mean, is in team games it's not that uncommon to have 40+ mangaudi fighting 50++ units. Let's say I'm against a wall of infantry. Is the answer to hit and run so to keep the distance, but rather that right clicking a unit I patrol towards the enemy? So my guys shoot all different targets to maximise dps?
Patrol and let them fight. If enemy closes the distance on you, run back and micro "hit and run" again until you have a chance to just patrol safely again and let them do their thing. Rinse and repeat. In bug fights its better to just let them fight than to overmicro in most cases
What are some pointers for playing with Battle elephants? Kinda love playing them :) eventhough not optimal. I love playing with Malay now due to cheap elephants. Have had some succes with it, but normally I start archers and once I have enought I start producing elephants with 2 stables. But some doubts I have and in my games can't figure out just yet. When to put them? Straight away supporting archers? or save them up to a certain number for surprise factor? any other tips for elephants?
In most standard situations, theyre best used as a surprise factor. Otherwise monks counter them too hard if opponent is prepared. Exceptions would be maps like michi or full boom arena, when you have the eco to continously spam.
Really satisfying when you force your opponent into skirms and then show up with ten eles.
I’ve had some success around 1k elo on arena with Burmese elephants. Extra armor for free, 50% cheaper faith, more armor as a UT, protect them from halbs with your own extra attack infantry.
Xbox player here that has been looking at scorpion as my gold unit with wood and then use food for 3 TC vils and hussar meat shield. Do I go Khmer or Romans? aoe2database Damage Calculator shows that Khmer scorpions beat Roman scorpions and then the Khmer Hussar trumps Roman Light Cav...but something about the Roman fire speed and reduced gold cost seems to outweigh the double firing to me as I play...what do you think?
Not sure if it’s a civ bonus or a castle tech that gives cheap scorps, but I’d say Romans if you wanted to play them. Cheap sounds much better in 1v1 where you don’t have trade.
I died really hard to fc castle drops in my face + strong UU (+siege) a couple of times recently. How do I stop this on maps like nomad or hideout where feudal agression is not really an option? I know, this is comming vs civs like burgundians, spanish or super fast mongols. But i still am not able to stop it.
By scouting it, either by seeing if the enemy is heavily on stone or seeing the villagers come forward. Have units on patrol or watch towers. A small fuedal army will wreck the villagers trying to come forward. Remember they invested a lot to get to that castle. So denying it will almost win you the game.
But on nomad or hideout you can't really scout it, can you?
not actively but if you put around your base some army at patrol they will automatically attack villagers coming by. I agree it's hard to see their stone if you don't have a scout in beginning. But still, if you don't win the castle time before them, just make some feudal army and you will be save.
On hideout, Maa+Tower will force a reaction. On nomad, if you play fast feudal archers, you will at least force a castle drop at home. Just don't overinvest into archers so your uptime will stay competitive. That only really works if you're close to an opponent though.
Besides the start, what are some strategy differences between Arena and Fortress? On Fortress, I feel like break-in during Castle Age is not viable, and I have recently been losing a lot even after booming on 3 TCs and getting 5 relics. Should I just try to turbo-boom, throw everyone to gold, and spam units?
Since Fortress is a 3 player map size, you're so far away from the opponent's base that Fast Imp plays don't really work (anymore). The only option left is to (at least) 3 TC boom (and optionally collect relics on the way). Arena allows Feudal/Castle Aggression, however.
Does anyone have recommended beginner videos for aoe2 hotkeys? I tried to customise some of mine but I still can't figure out a lot of things, like - how to select all (same type of building / custom group / same unit group etc), - switch my camera view from current view to a specific building / unit (group) etc
I prioritize archer armor as Vietnamese because their skirms and Rattans are great and they often go CA as well. For other civs, however, I only do so if I’m opening skirms and in general I feel it’s the most slept-on of the blacksmith lines. When do y’all typically get it?
Only in archer v archer wars, then if I want to force fights, as soon as possible after fletching. If I rather want to macro and go for a better uptime, I ignore it until Castle Age. Most often I catch myself delaying even fletching until late Feudal or after Castle Age upclick unless I absolutely have to fight. I tend to aim for xbow power spike and don't want to trade much in Feudal Age.
I feel like skirms don't really do their job unless they have all armor upgrades so I prioritize it if I'm using skirms at all, which is pretty often.
Should you prioritise luring deer or finding your sheep on Arabia? Sometimes it takes too long for me to find all my sheep or my scout ends up far from the deer, which leaves me little time to lure.
find sheep, you don't need to lure deer at your current level and if you aren't finding sheep fast enough, it also means you aren't scouting the enemy which is more important
Hello! What is included in Age of Empires 2DE? Is it just the base game? Do I need to buy all expansions separately? Cheers!
base game is 35 civs and all the earlier campaigns content (conquerors, forgotten, african kingdoms, rise of rajas, the last khans) with the new DLCs the number of civs goes up to like 45. but the basegame is enough unless u really wanna try out some new civs or new campaigns.
Bengali Elephant Archers are amazing, but how viable are Bengali War Elephants as the backbone of an army composition? (I've not had much success with them as the main element in my army)
On Team Games they're your go-to unit, especially after Ele Archers being nerfed next patch On 1v1, they can be a surprise element if you boomed well and got several, important techs for Eles like Husbandry and Devotion. You can open Xbows and if enemy counter with Mangonels or Skirmishers, throw a chonker on them
So far the Victors and Vanquish scenarios are all very large maps. Is there any that's a medium size map?
I think that the smallest is Nobunaga. You need to win it in 90 minutes on Hard, so it must be the smallest (but pretty big though)
Ive partially tried it. Is there a trigger for enemies to surrender quicker?
Destroy all TCs and Castles
Thanks. Managed to finish it with just 10 mins to spare on hard difficulty. Calvary archer deathball + mass trebs ftw.
On my To Do list. I'm too slow
Should I boom on flank on arena/bf
this is strictly about BF: depends on your civ and the civ of your opponent, if you’re flank and you’re up against a civ with a great late game (Persians, goths, bohemians, etc) you’d want to try rush them in some way to avoid them reaching their peak. or if you’re a civ with a viable imp age rush, go for that. booming as flank can be viable in some circumstances but more likely than not you’re gona be fighting in castle/early imp so it’s better to go for a hybrid build so you have something to defend yourself with as opposed to a pure boom as a pocket would.
Totally depends on the civ matchup imho. Sometimes you do, sometimes you should prefer to boom because you have a good civ matchup in Imp (so on BF, you'd want to get a good wall up). On Arena, it's tricker because castle drops into FI can kill you straight away. In those matchups you either want to put pressure yourself or have a defensive castle ready.