Newer players entering the competitive field in Age of Empires 2 often get quite a shock. Learn to make military before castle age: Walling means it can be easier to kill those pesky scouts when they are in your economy as well, as they have less places to run! 2.
In the competitive field, this means that you will often have scouts or other feudal age military lurking in your base, ready to snipe off villagers of yours.
Most players who first play ranked Age of Empires 2 are used to playing against the AI or against friends who boom up and attack in Imperial Age. You shouldn’t use multiple villagers unless you are closer to clicking up to feudal, as it can hurt your economy. Instead, try for around 19 population when you palisade. I don’t mean to say that your walls need to be rushed up – DO NOT go to the effort of walling up before 12 villagers. It doesn’t have to be stone walls and it can include your buildings (houses, blacksmith, etc) but 9 times out of 10 you should be walling up your base.
