Micro Management by DEFAULT HOTKEYS

So, what the hell is the definition of "Micro Managing?" Well, it's a combination of hotkeys and little tricks that make your economy and military easier to handle. For example, you can easily pull off a Knight raid using 2 groups by using Way-points to avoid spearmen, hotkeying the groups for easy clicking, hotkeying mill for farm-expiration reduction (or manual restoration) and "H" as default key to scroll through Town Centers and click through villagers. With this, you can focus on both economy and military rather easily, and your opponent might be surprised how you managed your economy so well while micromanaging around his spearmen and using the "2-Group Raiding" tactic so efficiently.

Here are ways to use Micro Management.

Patrol-Attacking This basically uses patroling at your advantage. It makes your units auto-attack the enemy, and lock-up right away instead of targeting one unit then spreading out, which is lesser. Nothing to it really..

*Click unit(s)

*Click Patrol or Z (patrol hotkey)

*Click ground that's past your enemy

Now they automatically attack and sort-of scout around for any other enemy units/buildings as well. This tactic is very useful for knight rushing, archers, and practically any other unit. Definately recommended on the high seas with galleons. 

Way Pointing- This tactic involves using your mouse and shift button to make your units to multiple places, in order, by themselves. This is very useful at the beginning with scouting and later on for Knight rushing.

What you do is..

*Click the unit(s)

*Hold Shift

*Click the areas of land where you want it/them to go, in order.

*Click the last area you want it/them to go without holding shift.

Now they'll just walk around for you and you can do some relatively easy scouting. I use Way-Points in every game, especially at the beginning with Scout. I just make a circle of Flags (thats what appears when you click unit, hold shift, click ground) and my scout'll follow around the area easily so I can focus on Economy in beginning without worrying it much. The best civilization for Scout-Way-Pointing would be Mongols for the +2 Line-Of-Site capabilities. You can eventually learn to navigate with scout or units on mini-map as well and way-point the whole map with your scout in a matter of a few clicks. Now that Way-pointing is familiar to you, you should know a way to make it better..

Unit/Building HotKeying - This move allows you to 'hotkey,' or 'auto-select' a unit, building, et cetera. It's very useful for any gamer and if you don't know about it, you're missing out badly.

You use this tactic with Units/Buildings by:

*Clicking the Unit(s)/Buidling(s)

*Holding Ctrl

*Pressing 1-9 on the keyboard.

After you have it/them 'hotkeyed,' you can easily go back to them in a matter of seconds by pressing the number you used with Ctrl+# to hotkey them. This is especially useful for 2-group raiding, and scouting. 

Example: You have 2 groups of knights hitting your enemy, but you can't watch both them AND your economy efficiently. What you do is hotkey the 2 groups by selecting each group, pressing Ctrl+1 for first group, and Ctrl+2 for 2nd one. You continue raiding, and you press "1" and "2" to see how your knights are doing and you resume raiding, then you hit "H" to go back to managing economy, simple as that. As for scouting in the beginning, you click scout, press Ctrl+1 to hotkey it, then press "1" once to select, and "1" again or space bar to center it. You'll find yourself winning more games if you use hotkeying.

You may also hotkey buildings like the mill or your stables for easy rushing by clicking building and doing Ctrl+#, easy at that. 

Using Default Hotkeys -There's also default hotkeys in the game, such as easily building a house using 2 buttons: B+E. It's time-saving in the beginning and throughout the game. Automatically selecting TC by pressing "H" and using "C" to que a villager, those're hotkeys as well. There are also default hotkeys for making units or buildings or units, which makes clicking Build, then clicking building you want as a past thing.

Here are important hotkeys for easily making buildings and making you faster both in the beginning and throughout the game.

*Click a Villager, then press B for Build a Building and one of these buttons for easy-building.

B+E: Makes House

B+F: Makes Farm

B+Z: Makes Lumbercamp

B+G: Makes Mining Camp

B+D: Makes Dock

B+I: Makes Mill

B+N: Makes Town Center

B+V: Makes Castle

I'd say EVERY gamer should at least know the above hotkeys for easily building of their economy and a defensive structure, the Castle. If you want to go full-hotkeys to be even better, read more. 

B+B: Makes Barracks

B+L: Makes Stable

B+A: Makes Archery Range

B+K: Makes Siege Workshop

B+Y: Makes Monastery

B+U: Makes University

B+R: Makes Fish Trap with Fishing Ship

B+J: Makes Bombard Tower

B+T: Makes Basic Tower

B+W: Makes Stone Wall

B+/: Makes Gate

B+P: Makes Palisade Wall

B+M: Makes Market

B+S: Makes Blacksmith

B+O: Makes Wonder

If you were to memorize all of these, or at least the top 7, you will find yourself playing MUCH better, I garuntee you. Memorize hotkeys and use them, write them down and tape them above your monitor so you can refer to them, or just keep playing and memorizing. 

Now, there are other ways to hotkey, such as easily selecting a building. Say you want to select your Barracks, you can just press Ctrl+B and your barracks will show. You can use Ctrl+any of the above building hotkeys to select a buidling. Ctrl+V selects built castle, Ctrl+M selects built market, and so on. Ctrl+any building hotkey will select the building and definately speed you up.

Now then, there are also hotkeys for making Units. I'll give you the ones for all the die-hard AoC'ers out there. 

Town Center: (note, the default hotkey for T.C. is H to select it)

*Press C to create villager. Useful for the H-C-C-C-C at beginning. (Selects TC, ques 4 villagers)

Stable:

*Press N to create Knight

*Press C to create Camel

*Press T to create Scout

Archery Range:

A: Archer

C: Calvalry Archer

E: Hand Cannoneer

R: Skirmisher

Barracks:

E: Swordsman (Miltia-Champion)

S: Spearman

G: Eagle Warrior

R: Huskarl

Dock:

A: Galley

R: Fishship

C: Cannon Galleon

D: Demolition Ship

G: Viking Longboat

F: Fishing Ship

T: Trade Cog

P: Transport Ship

S: Turtle Ship

Siege WorkShop:

N: Scorpion

R: Batterng Ram

C: Bombard Cannon

A: Onager

Monastery

S: Missionary

T: Monk

Castle:

R: Trebuchet

T: Unique Unit

P: Petard

If you get all this memorized, the game of AoC will be both more interesting, challenging, and most of all, funner.

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SAMPLE HOTKEYS

Here are my hotkeys. I’ve put quite some thought on them to make them optimal. 

I not only give the hotkeys but the whole thinking behind them, so that you can 

accustom them to your needs. 

Note: I am right-handed, and I don’t know how this will work for left handed 

people 

The main ideas behind the designation of my new hotkeys were 

· An easy to reach idle villager hotkey · Easy farm placement 

· A better way of booming (axis of left hand fingertips forms an X with the H-C 

axis) 

· An organized outlay of them in a limited 3x3 area that include most of the 

functions 

I decided that this 3x3 should be: 

QWE 

ASD 

ZXC 

Since it is close to Ctrl as well. 

A couple of words abou this. Your middle 3 fingers when at rest the should be 

over ASD. 

There are the easiest keys to reach. After that it is QWE, and then ZXC. F is 

also extremely reachable, probably more than QWE, ZXC 

I’ll follow the same way as I followed when I designed them. 

Cycle through idle villager (A must, or the most obvious hotkey) 

Cycle through buildings Commands 

These are still Ctrl-#, and by using the 3x3 area mostly. 

Ctrl-A = Archery range 

Ctrl-S = Barracks 

Ctrl-D = Stable 

Over the easiest to reach hotkeys (ASD) I place the main military building, and 

these will serve the 90% of the Ctrl-# keystrokes. 

Ctrl-Z = Lumber Camp (for wood upgrades and repits) 

Ctrl-X = Mill (for farm auto-reseeds) 

Ctrl-C = Gathering Pit 

These are not that important, but quite useful nevertheless. 

Ctrl-Q = Blacksmith 

Ctrl-W = Castle 

Ctrl-E = Dock 

Misc important buildings here. Needles to say what each one is used for. 

Rest buildings 

Market, University and Monastery are left untouched. 

The main reason is that I didn’t wanted to create unneeded complexity since you 

won’t be needing them too much. However… 

Ctrl-F = Siege Workshop 

This important building is as reachable as the rest 

So on we go to… 

Building build commands 

Archery range 

A = Archer 

S = Skirmisher 

D = Horse archer 

W = Hand cannoner 

The main idea behind this is that I should use the ASD + W layout (more 

reachable keys), 

in a way that buildings main unit was the easiestone to create (archer). 

So I placed the “create archer” button over the Cycle trough buildings key. 

(Remember, it is Ctrl-A). 

So it is easy to create archers in all your ranges by going Ctrl-A, A, Ctrl-A, 

A, ect. 

Then I placed the “create second most important unit, aka skirmisher” button in 

the second easier to reach place, 

that is S (cause it is next to A). Getting skirmishers is almost as easy as 

getting archers. 

Then I placed the remaining 2 units in D and W. 

Barracks 

A = Huskarl 

S = Champion 

D = Pikeman 

W = Eagle Warrior 

It is easy to notice that the thinking behind this is exactly the same as with 

the range’s. 

Champion flooding is as easy as Ctrl-S, Shift-S, Ctr-S, Shift-S ect. D is easier 

reached than A, 

so I place pikeman there. 

The reason why I have Huskarl at A is that I play Goths much more than Mayans 

and Aztecs together. 

Although A and W are of the same accessibility, it may not be a bad idea for you 

to exchange them. 

Stable 

A = Camel 

S = Scout 

D = Knight 

This works exactly as the range. 

Siege workshop 

A = Onager 

S = Scorpion 

D = Ram 

I chose to use ASD again rather than include F, since F is really a minor 

journey for the index finger to take. 

Castle 

Q = Petard 

W = Unique Unit 

E = Trebuchet 

I chose QWE, since fingers should already be upward for pressing Ctrl-W. 

The Unique Unit is again the easier to get closely followed by Trebuchets, 

while the little used petard is left to Q 

Dock 

Q = Fishing ship 

W = Viking Longboat 

E = Galley 

A = Demolition ship 

.S = Cannon Galleon 

D = Fire ship 

I figured out that galley should be the easier to get (so it goes over E), 

followed by fire ship. 

I distributed the rest as it was convenient. Place Cogs and transports whre you 

like 

Market 

M = Create trade cart 

So that you can crate carts by Ctrl-M, M ect 

Mill 

X = Queue Farms 

Needless to say, you Ctrl-X, X, X, X, X… (or Ctrl-X, Shift-X, Shift-X, Shift-X… 

later) to have easy farm queuing. 

Farm queueing can’t get easier than that 

Build Commands 

And on we go to the juicer part of this post. I was troubled as what key to use 

as build, 

but ended up that the easier to reach key should be used. And that is , 

since your index finger should normally be there. I had some more problems. 

I had to fit farms, houses and Town centers in the 3x3 layout. 

The 2 to lose their position was the Blacksmith (you’ll only have 1 in most 

cases) and dock (weeeee I’m an Arabian whore!!!) 

As you can see in most cases I try to have the same hotkey as the cycly through 

option 

Q = House (It is really easy to reach) 

W = Castle 

E = Town Center 

D= FARM 

That is for easy farm placement. It is hell easy just to hit D-D to place a 

farm. 

I forgot my rule for this case, because it is far more important than stables. 

A = Archery range 

S = Barracks 

F = Stable 

Once again the military buildings are the easier to reach. 

Really helpful both early and late in the game! 

Z = Lumber Camp 

X = Mill 

C = Pit 

Rest Buildings 

R = Dock (I Just moved that 1 key right) 

V = Siege Workshop 

K = Blacksmith 

T = Tower 

H = Stone wall 

B = Paliside wall 

Gate and Bombard tower left intact. 

Military Commands 

ASD are already very well set here. I’d recommnd no change. However 

Q = Patrol (cough, cough, a little better than Z) 

W = Stand ground (Flush galore) 

Misc 

Tab = Goto previous view (much better than BS) 

~ = Flare (aka Fast flare) 

BackSpace = Go to selected unit 

G = Cycle through Town Centers (Honestly, the closest I could think of) 

D (when in TC) = Create Villager (G-D is a good booming hotkey combo. 

However when I start I select my TC with mouse, so it is Select TC, D, Select 2 

villagers, D, Q….. 

So I don’t have to move my fingers in the beginning! 

Alt-A = Minimap economic mode 

Alt-S = Minimap military mode 

Alt-D = Minimap normal mode 

Oh, and in case someone missed… 

Space bar = Cycle through idle villagers (Mother of all hotkeys) 

That’s it. I hope I didn’t forgot anything. I hope you find them useful, 

cause they helped me really a lot, more than you could possibly imagine. 

And then again these are my hotkeys, suited for my needs, 

take your time and if you think that something different or some changes would 

serve you better go on. 

Do give them a try. You may look silly in the first game (duh, I made a siege 

workshop every time I wanted to make a castle), 

but even after a couple of days you’ll start to get accustomed to it. 

It took even me (that I was thinking them over and over) quite some games to get 

used, 

but I everything but regret. If you forget anything place your mouse over the 

button for you to see the hotkey. 

If you have any questions or something isn’t clear feel free to ask. 

Honestly, I believe that this is probably the most powerful hotkey set you can 

find on the zone, 

and definitely the best you can get your hands on!!!! 

Why Use Hotkeys?

Why do I need to use hotkeys? I am *really* fast with a mouse, so that works just fine. Well the answer is that you could be even FASTER if you used your hotkeys. Here is a nice little passage from hardcore gamer Badguy001: 

?Learning how to play a new game like AoK is difficult enough. Which vil goes on food, building a house, cutting wood, when to start mining and farming, how many vils do I make before I click to go feudal? These are all decisions that must be made early in the game in order to facilitate the best start and a winning strategy. It all takes time. You play a game, get massacred, and play again; it?s a learning process. But first you need to start with the basics. What is the fastest way to move and make things around the map? The decisions you make here separate the bad from the good, and the great from the Gods.J The player that clicks the fastest most times will win. Out click the bad guys and you can conquer your enemy. If you cannot out click your enemy, you will lose. Speed will give you ability to make and master all. Out producing your opponent in economy and military is essential. If you can?t do these things, you will be conquered.? ? BadGuy001 

Still not convinced? Here is a little bit of math that BadGuy001 put together to give you an idea of just how many clicks are involved when you game: 

Lets take a second to add up how many times you will use these three fingers in a game. Lets assume you?re not attacked in any way for 40 mins. You will reach a 100 vil population with 40 vils on farming and 60 on woodcutting, gold and stone mining. 

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Math

=========================================

Make 100 villagers== 100 x 1== ==============100

Idle vil checking===7 (times a min) x 40 min====== 280

go to TC======== 100 x 1================ 100

40 farmers======= 40 x [ 1 (build) + 1 (farm) ]=== 80

16 houses======= 1 (build) + 1 (house) x 16==== 32

2 lumber camps=== 1 (build) + 1 (lumbercamp) x 2==4

2 mining camp=====1 (build) + 1 (camp) x 2======4

=========================================

TOTAL================================600

=========================================

Now you may think that?s a lot of finger clicking but just try doing all that with the mouse alone. For every building you assign a vil to make you have to click, once on the vil slide down to the button left and select what kind of building you want then what type. Then move the mouse back up and place the building where you have chosen. Yes, I recognize you?re good at this by now, but damn that?s a lot of work! ? BadGuy001 

To put it mildly, his math is on the conservative side. Don't forget, those are calculations JUST for your economy! Add in military maneuvers and you can see that you are doing a LOT of clicking in this game. Use your keyboard to get it all done faster.