27-pop Fast Castle Boom
Morley GamesCreator guide ↗An economic route for closed maps such as Arena: 26 villagers plus the Scout when advancing to Feudal, then two more villagers before Castle Age. The goal is three working Town Centers, not just three buildings.
If the plan goes wrong
Scout before adding both Town Centers. Against a castle drop, monks or siege, spend on the defence you need first. Do not sell the stone intended for your Town Centers.
What comes next
Place Town Centers on safe resources and add farms to support their production. Choose your army before the opponent forces the choice; 100–120 villagers is a later goal, not a reason to delay all defence.
Population includes military units; villager counts do not. Age timings are arrival times on the game clock unless a step says “click”. Timings are reference points from the linked guides.
Morley recommends this route mainly for Arena and Black Forest. On Arabia it needs early walls and is vulnerable to Feudal aggression.
Place both new Town Centers directly on useful resources so they protect villagers while replacing a Lumber or Mining Camp.
Your timings on this build
Benchmark: Feudal at 11:45 (26 villagers, no Town Center idle) · Castle at 15:15
Build timeline
The first row shows new villagers, transfers and task assignments; the figures below are the totals after the step.
Dark Age
1Build the 2 starting houses, then place the first 6 villagers on sheep
6
06
0
0
2Send villagers 7 through 10 to wood and build a Lumber Camp
104600
3Villager 11 lures the first boar
114700
4The next villager builds 2 houses and a Mill, then the next 4 join it for 5 on berries
16412005Send the next 2 villagers to food under the Town Center and lure the second boar before the first expires
18414006Send the next 5 villagers to a second woodline and build a second Lumber Camp
2391400
7Send the final 3 Dark Age villagers to gold and build a Mining Camp
2691430
8Research Loom, then click Feudal at 27 population. On a fully closed map, skip Loom to save roughly 25 seconds
2691430Transition to Feudal
9During the transition, turn 4 food villagers into farmers; the last 3 sheep villagers farm as the sheep expire
2691430Feudal Age
10Queue 2 Feudal villagers to wood. Build the Market with 2 lumberjacks and the Blacksmith with 1 so both complete together
28111430
11Click Castle Age immediately when both buildings and the 2 villagers complete
28111430Transition to Castle
12Wall vulnerable entrances during the Castle transition, especially on an open map
Castle Age13On reaching Castle Age, place 2 additional Town Centers immediately, one on a strong woodline and one covering gold, stone or another key resource
14Keep all 3 Town Centers producing and grow toward 100–120 villagers before committing to a large late-game army
100 villagers total