Age of Empires 2 Archer Rush Guide

Together with Fast Castle, Archer Rush is one of the first strategies new players should learn and master. If you either want shorter games to climb the ladder or know how to defend against enemy rushes, this guide is for you.

An Archer Rush consists of going for a fast feudal with enough resources to make archers as fast as posible and then attack with them catching the enemy unaware.

Objetives to Archer Rush

• Early Feudal Age.
• 11 lumberjacks and 8 gold minners to keep archer production and farm building.
• 2 Archery Ranges constantly producing.
• Blacksmith for Fletching.

Archer Rush Build Order

• Build 2 Houses.
• 6 Villagers on sheep
• 7th villager builds lumbercamp.
• 7, 8 , 9 and 10th villager chop wood.
• 11th lures boar (sheep villagers go to boar after its lured).
• 12th builds house and then a mill.
• 12, 13 and 14 on berries.
• 15th lures second boar.
• 16th builds house and farm.
• 17th builds second lumbercamp.
• 18, 19 and 20th go to wood (at the second lumbercamp).
• Boars food should be depeleted by now, send those villagers to sheep.
• 21, 22 and 23th go to sheep.
• Research loom in your Urban Center.
• Click to Feudal.
• Send 3 shepherd villagers to build a mining camp in your gold immediately after clicking to Feudal.
• Send 3 shepherd villagers to chop wood.
• While going to Feudal use 2 of your food or wood vills to build a house and a Barracks.
• Immediately after you are in Feudal build 2 Archery Ranges.
• Send your next 5 vills to gold.
• Build a Blacksmith, when it's done research Fletching.
• Send idle villagers to wood or to build houses and farms.
• Queue up Archers in your Archery Ranges.
• Send your Archers to attack.

Notes on Archer Rushing

• Don't get housed. Speed is crucial while rushing.
• 8 Archers with Fletching are enough to one shot a static Villager with Loom, althought you can send less to harass earlier.
• Hurt your opponent's economy while you keep growing your own.
• Amass enough Archers in order to not be threatened by Scouts or Skirmishers.
• If your opponent goes Scouts make some Lancers in order to protect your Archers and economy.

Best Civilizations for a Feudal Archer Rush

Not ranked or ordered in any way here are some of the best Civilizations for an Archer Rush, followed by some mid to late game analysis as in team play you will still have to deal with late game despite executing a good rush.

Britons: 

Britons have powerful Archer bonuses such as "+20% faster Archery Ranges" (Team bonus) and "Foot Archers +1/+2 range in the Castle/Imperial Age". These bonuses make Britons particularly good at going for Fast Feudal Archers into Castle, as archers receive an attack bonus the momentt they are in Castle Age.

As if a strong Feudal and Imperial wasn't enough Britons also have a good late game with mass Longbows and their incredible range

Mayans:

With an early economy bonus (+1 villager -50 food), cheaper Archers as the game progresses (10/20/30% in Feudal/Castle/Imperial) and Obsidian Arrows (Castle age tech: Archers have +6 attack vs buildings) Mayans are one of the strongest if not the strongest Archer Civilization.

Their Plummeted Archers are great too, despite having less attack than other archer units they make it up with their tankiness and mobility. They effectively replace Cavalry Archer but without the weakness against Camels or Halberdier. They are used for raiding and must be paired with Eagle Warriors for maximum effectiveness.

Vietnamese:

Vietnamesse have powerful advantages when it comes to rushing with archers. Archery Range units have +20% HP making them very cost effective, also enemy positions are revealed at the start making exploration way easier.

When it comes to range battles Vietnamesse unique unit, Rattan Archers, are the strongest. Their high pierce armor, attack and movement speed allows them to defeat all other archers units in the game and even Skirmishers and Scorpions. Their weakness are meele units as Rattan Archers have 0 armor. 

Huns:

Strangely Huns are a great Archer Rush Civilization despite not being an Archer Civilization themselves. What makes them great is their no houses bonus, they don't need to spend wood on houses and have good Feudal times.

For Castle Age they have a great transition into Cavalry Archers as they are a bit cheaper.