So You Got a Stable Economy and Sent Those Jealous Guys Packing?
Great, now you can start building a small military and upping your economy. You should also start shopping for an alliance, maybe even one that one of those farmers is in? Well, first save up and get 3 phalanxes for you need that many to successfully raid an undefended village. If you've been watching, you should know which of those other guys are inactive and safe to raid. If your not sure that you'll get anything just don't try to raid with phalanxes at all. But if you think you can, just slip in and try to get some resources before the big farmers do, simple as that, just sneak in and get some. As your building up get an embassy and leave it at level one; thats all you need for a alliance. Don't forget those fields, we're not Teutons, or even as good as Romans with negative wheat, so make sure to keep it positive. Now that your resource production is up, you can trade your excess on the market. The best trades are often 1:1, or even trades, but often you can get almost as much as twice the amount your selling with patience, but putting the trades pretty close in amounts is often the quickest to sell.
Now just keep upping your fields and getting other buildings as you go. As you start getting maybe 60/hour resources maybe start upping your barracks to lvl 3 for the academy so you can start on your way to the much better raider: Swordsman. You'll need a blacksmith, too, which you get at lvl 3 academy, so get it to lvl 3 and get the blacksmith. By now I'm guessing your fields are fairly improved, about lvl 4 or 5 for resources and 5+ wheat, and you can save up for the cost to research the swordsman. Also after you build swordsman send a few phalanx with them, it adds more carry capacity, which means quicker profit.
Note: This is one-time research cost, not the unit cost. It will allow you to forever more make the swordsman in this village.
So after you've got a few swordsman and are becoming competition for those other two give yourself a pat, you've gotten far. So from here I'll just give a basic outline of goals you could have.
Long-term Goals
You should get TT's as soon as is possible for you, since this allows for extended distance raiding due to the 19 field/hour pace. Also it is not suggested making your primary village a capital since you will want either a 9-cropper or better yet a 15-cropper as your capital for high level wheat fields and thus larger army support. In a 15-cropper with lvl 19 fields and lvl 5 bakery and mill you can have 45,000 wheat production, and with luck maybe have some oasis that can raise that even further. Also, think about what your first hero will be. Will it be a raiding hero like a TT, or a defensive one like Druidrider? Also, don't forget to get regen on first level. A good set up for first few levels is 3 attack/defense and 2 regen. As you may have figured out, getting more villages is also a very good goal. Gauls even have cheaper Settlers than the other tribes, although they are still very expensive.
