lol that ' s spastic <| sep |> I hugely disagree . Shoddy booking ruined Aries . <| sep |> I love market upgrades and do them early and often . They ' re very very useful . Goons are mainly for protecting your organ guns , your cassadores , and your villagers from heavy cavalry . Without them you are highly vulnerable from even a small raiding party of three hussars . But don ' t get into fights with light infantry or they will suffer heavy losses , you want to be countering s kirmisherscrossbowsranged natives with your own heavy cav , or with towers and walls . Put goons into defensive posture so they don ' t chase the enemy everywhere and get themselves killed . I ' ll post a deck later , it ' s 1 am here , I ' m in bed not on my gaming computer . As for the cattle thing , the dividends they pay when they are fattened are so enormous that a small early setback is easily worth it . You ' ve just got to develop some good strats to hold them at bay . Walls are excellent because they ' re so damn cheap , 5 wood per segment . And with the 40 % building strength card Age I , likely the most underrated in the game , they stay up way longer . Ship 400 w getting to age II , making walls very available , and ship two towers by the ten minute mark , placing them within range of each other as a force multiplier . Surround the towers with walls so they are a lot harder to get to . Place the walls far enough from the tower that they can ' t throw torches at it , but close enough that the enemy can march right up close and get shot many times for their trouble . Use the advanced trading post card to not only make them cheaper 150 w but stronger , and they have their own attack . Place at least one tower near your forward trading post , again as a force multipler . Again , build walls early to protect them and establish a forward bulwark .