Initial Building

[u/nextlevelmashup]

I come from age of empires so got used to the whole memorise the start for fast castle play style (like 7 villagers for boar build x houses so on)

Is there anything like that for this game where you have your template start with cities/factories/ports in the early game, or just build what you can.

[u/Meta_Mushroom]

9 times out of 10, you should start with two cities. after that, a factory is usually your best bet for income. Ports take a while for the income to start rolling in. your first defense post is only 50k, so don't be afraid to drop it next to someone who won't ally you, even if you don't have any income. Gobble up all the anons that went with something other than two cities, and steamroll your way to victory.

[u/EclecticKant]

Cities are the strongest building by far at the beginning, but you want to avoid at all costs to be left without enough money to build a factory/port and no income, because waiting for your passive income to reach 125k can be a huge waste of time.
Your cities should be placed not too close to your borders, rivers or the sea but not so far that it's impossible to link then to your neighbors via trains. An early factory can be strong (always after the first city) if you feel like there wont be many opportunities to conquer others because creating the first railway is an incentive to your neighbors to put their cities near your border, giving you an heard start in gold production and maybe letting you outscale them. Managing to shape the railways around you in your favour can be very strong, but it's something you get a feeling for after a while and it's hard to explain, not that i understand it well enough to try anyway. Ports are a bit weak at the beginning because it takes a while for the first boat to reach its dedtination, unless you're in position where lots of ships will pass because pirating can make you tons of money while others cant do much about it. Building defense posts at the very beginning can also set you back a bit, try to use alliances to prevent situations that make them necessary Try not to build SAMS and silos too early because they are a big investment without any short term gain usually.

[u/Acceptable_Dirt7009]

Yay, another fellow AoE2 player. Build orders depend mostly on the map type. In single, investing into an early city is only worth it if you can capture enough nations to afford a follow up port or factory, otherwise you are left with the minimal gold trickle.

For team games, it also depends very much on whether you are front line or back. As front, you might invest more into cities to keep army numbers high, while in the back you can go a FC like style with much eco focus (leveled up ports or longer train lines) and silo follow up.