Strategies

2. FAST PUMPING - There are two stages of pumping, first and most obvious is being able to click ur ranges as soon as they are built and hitting C on them. If you can master the art of finding time to pump ur ranges as much and as early as possible u will have a very fast rush, i cant help u with that it depends on how quick witted u are and how fast u are with ur keyboard and mouse. The next stage of pumping is where u use CTRL+A to pump ur ranges. I do this once most/all my ranges are up, no other time. I combine all of this with a PUMP TIMING. A pump timing is where u time ur pumps so that u can take pauses to do other shit such as techs/mining. Also a big part of a timing is it gets u full pumps.

3. PUMP TIMINGS - A pump timing is a method of organized pumping that helps u to sort other things such as techs vills mining whatever but also helps me to be faster. It is basically where u pump until a certain time and once u stop u wait a certain time ( most common wait time is 40 secs ) until ur men come out which is when u start pumping again ( gives u full pumps ). Below are a list of good timings for u to use.

2:20-3:00 Pump - This is where u pump until 2:20, stop and then start again at 3:00.
2:30-3:10 Pump - This is where u pump until 2:30, stop and then start again at 3:10.
Pyramid Pump - Pump whatever ranges u have at whatever time u choose ( could be 1:30, 1:40 etc )and wait, once they pop out, pump all ranges that are up, repeat etc etc.

And so on. You can use these timings to create ur own timing that suits u best.

BASIC ARMY CONTROL
Army control (AC) is a very important element in NS. To be a good player you must have decent AC or else ur army is just gonna get raped. Ok for the basics, have ur army spread out in a line (in some cases u may need to tighten up into a ball, depends how ur being attacked, just be aware and careful that u dont get surrounded), if ur line is very thick then u should take the archers at the back and extend them to allow those archers to fire and make ur line longer and able to curve around and create a half circle. Sometimes ur gonna have idle archers which are lying about in the field and are at risk of being picked off, grab them and put them into ur main army fast and stick together. Always keep ur army tight so that all ur archers can fire as a tight wall. Keeping tight makes ur army stronger and its easy to tighten up just click ur archers into ur army and u should be tight. Pull back any part of ur army that is getting killed by ur opponent, regroup tighten up and counter them with ur reinforced army. One last important thing for the army control basics, always pull back when outnumbered or out flanked by the enemy, if he just had encirclement round u then pull back and spread out far and try to prevent another encirclement.

ADVANCED ARMY CONTROL TECHNIQUES
1. STORMING
When u have a larger army than ur enemy, u may wanna take him out quickly instead of shooting his archers from distance. Thats where this method comes in. Storming is where u send all ur archers at him, get into point blank range and blast his archers away. This is VERY USEFUL as it takes the enemy out fast and u can effectively kill his army in seconds before he has the chance to bring reinforcements. Most effective for hill taking. Example if u are fighting a hill and ur slightly bigger he can easily turn the tide by bringing reinforcements to the hill then killing u so wat u must do is run on top of the hill and then blast him right off it and by the time the reinforcements arrive u can just kill him with the advantage of the hill damage. ( This method DOES NOT work when ur equal or smaller than ur opponent )

2. FULL FORCE FLANK
This is where you pull all of ur archers back and then flank him from one side with ALL army. Do this quick enough and u will get alot of kills. It is not that hard to do.

3. PUSH IN
Also known storming but with smaller groups, this is where u push groups in and fire at point blank range. In a situation where a part of his army is strong and a part of his army is weak, u would charge a tightly packed group into the weak spot and secure some ground there and get nice kl. While doing push ins, keep a line of archers firing to support.

There are certain styles involved in AC and heres a few of them
IRON ARMY AC
Iron Army Style is where u move around and press D to keep tight, straight and unmovable. Its very useful for defence. Anybody who tries to attack a strong iron army defence head on will be totally destroyed.

IRON ARMY AC TECHNIQUES
1. TIGHT WALL
This is mainly for defence but can be used in offence if ur fast enough to set it up in the field of battle. Get groups of men, click into the middle of where they are standing and form up a wall, hit D as u do it. There will be stragglers at the front so pull them in or send em round to the sides or back and get them to strengthen the wall. Hit D all over the place and sit there.

2. IRON ARMY ADVANCE
Move forward with groups and hit D as soon as in the range of enemy archers. Keep pushing in other groups and hitting D, this will secure ground properly as ur moving in and hitting D so no archers will be running about.

FREEFLOWING AC
Free Flowing Style is where u attack without using D, allowing u to move around quicker and get archers firing earlier. This style involves alot of moving and attacking from multiple directions, firing at the closest archers ( right clicking technique ), being very lively with ur army and pulling around the field at a very fast pace. Only problem is if the enemy pulls back and ur not focusing, some of ur army will be pulled in and killed. This style is for people who choose to keep their lines thin for maximum angles of fire, long extending and surrounding. If mastered then this is a very deadly style, as it can smash people who have archers all over the place, or in 1 place as they can get surrounded by it. This is the best style of AC if ur quick enough.

FREEFLOWING AC TECHNIQUES
1. FAST PULL BACK
To gain important kills, use the fast pull back method. Pull back ALL ur army instantly while ur fighting and some of his army will follow, blast the idle archers away. He will be rushing around trying to grab his archers trying to pb and this will fuck him up. Continue doing this a few more times and if hes smart he will stand ground. This is a good thing because he wont be intending to move anywhere since hes on stand ground, his only goal at this moment is to keep his archers from running at u and getting killed. Use this to ur advantage, a counter attack, send a center group and attack his front then bring in two flanks and side attack from both sides while hes on stand ground, he will lose alot of men if done quickly and he will pull back. Thats alot of kills gained in so little time.

2. EXTENDING
This is actually a basic but the most important and used skill in this style and cant be ignored. Get the back lines of ur archers that aint shooting and use them to make a longer thin line, u can curve it too for maximum fire upon their archers.

3. SLIDING (INTO FORMATION)
Sliding is very important in this style. Since u dont stand ground ur line of men get drawn out alot. This is good because the opponent will be trying to rape these archers that are sticking out, so u take advantage of it like this. Get the group thats under fire and slide them to the left or right side of ur main line while bringing reinforcements or the back lines of ur army to extend the line or fill in games in sync with this group to form a perfect formation. If done quick enough the enemy will be chasing that group but will instantly be under fire by a perfect line. You know u have mastered it if the end result is a perfect line raping the enemy.

4. SNIPING
This is actually very basic but cant stress how important this is. The main goal of this AC is to keep ur army straight and perfect and never going too deep into the enemies army, its to stay back and pick off everything. So when u see some of his archers sticking out, pick them off by right clicking, but be careful that ur guys dont curve too much around that archer, cuz this can make u stick out and be exposed to fire.

5. 3 HIT OWNAGE
When you have 3 groups, usually theres always this situation... where one of them gets drawn out too much ( usually its the left or right group ). Instead of just a boring pull back, u can use some finesse to get kills out of it. Pull back that group so that its on line with ur other two groups, and heres if ur fast, while this group is pulling away, get the group on the other side to fire at his chasing archers and at the same time use ur retreated group to fight back. Also ur middle group will be firing. This is another great way to line up or encircle them.

Now u see wat makes my AC the way it is, if u want to learn it, try teaching urself and practice the methods. You may need actual training from me on some things and ill be happy to help with it.