Ever tried the following slight variation on the two miners 2 crawlers start?
I am having some success with it.
2 starting miners on gold.
click to make 2 miners, and 1 crawler (not the usual 2 crawlers). First one on gold second on mana
reserve 100 gold.
Send crawler to claim tower and stand guard looking out for what opponent has coming at you.
Three income ticks from the tower gives 60 gold (which should be before the first miners return with 300 gold)
Make another miner (and get him on gold or mana as you wish)
Shortly the first 2 miners and first made miner will be back with 450 gold, there will be over 50 mana and you can start to pump out Jugger's wings or other units to secure dominance in the center tower against the swords, archers or spears the other guy is gonna be putting up as the mid section of the game starts.
Basically the start goal is to get 4 then 5 early miners up and working as soon as possible, plus early ownership of the tower to help this. The crawler should flee as soon as he brings up any unit.
My thinking is that this is slower than putting the start miners on pray for 50 mana and an early Jugger, but you have 5 miners up rather than 2, so your first jugg may be slower but the mass production economy is in action far faster. So you get early possession of tower and fast economic output to hold the tower.
I find that in short time I can have a powerbase economy up and running (with 8 miners on gold 3/4 on mana) and miner hustle, tower possession (i.e. I have the tower) and tower spawn 1 up.
I am not quite good at taking full advantage from here - I tend to sit and defend the tower till I have built a full population army and attack straight away to crush him. I think a skilled player would use the force to harass miners and do hit and runs on the statue. I used to sit at wait for tower spawn 2 and go in behind the giant, but I think this gives him time to build up a near full population defence force, and by attacking with the small ghost I can go in with much less resistance.
My thinking of how to develop my plan from this situation is to wait till the ghost comes, then run in behind it to kill a few miners or defending units or get a few strikes on the statue - rather than sitting in defence of the tower building units. Let the ghost take the arrows from castle guard to minimize damage on my building forces. By stopping his mining and killing his units, the end battle will be much easier, if he retreats to garison, a few runs hitting on the statue will avoid the end battle altogether.
Ideally I have 1-3 medusa in the attacking wave to help take down any strong units or put the pain on his statue. :)
Any comments?
Is my thinking the right development for mid-game into end game - hit and run with each ghost.
Should I strike miners or units on my hit-and-runs if he doesnt garison?
miners may die but he can rebuild for 150, or kill units so he has less resistance to my attacks.
