Remember that villager we had build our first house? Keep him (or her) busy with several key construction projects. First, make sure your builder makes enough homes to support your growing population. In between building houses, your builder should place a lumber camp near a large grove of trees and a barracks. The lumber camp will help your villagers to gather wood more quickly. Building a thriving economy is critical at this stage of the game - neglecting to do so will make it very difficult for your civilization to compete later in the game. Thus, you need to make sure you gather as many resources as quickly as possible. Researching the wheelbarrow early in the game will also help you towards this end. The barracks will help you advance to the next age and also in the defense of your village, which I will talk about later.

While all this construction is going on, put your scout to work to reveal the area surrounding your village. Set waypoints in a large circle around your village so that the cavalry will explore the area automatically and leave you free to concentrate on your village. Once the cavalry has completed its sweep, set it off to begin exploring the whole map. Knowing where your rivals are located and what they are up to is important to survival. Select a distant spot on the map and send your cavalry there. It will reveal the map as it makes its way to its destination.

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