well i know you said your rank was around 1300, but that can easily be countered with a very wide range of other strategy's.SO let me give you some other starts and help you improve(hope you don't mind:P).so first off your start depends on the map size,small maps such as swamp lands,Halloween,and desert you want to go archer miner and then get a sword right after archer once you have the gold.and while your sword is loading try and go take the tower if he has swords then just kite them with your archer(kiting is when you fire an arrow then runaway until the next arrow is loaded and hit him again and so on and so on...). but if he has a sword+archer the just retreat and wait for your sword and attack his units with your archer in front of your sword ready to take the first hit,attack his sword and if he goes after your archer then just kite xD.Long and medium maps like grass hills,forest, and ice lands you want to go miner miner sword and take the center with the sword and retreat if he has 2 and get an archer.well thats all for now I gtg so i hope this helps.



p.s. the way the pro's kite is by waiting until the archer raises his bow and then push the garrison button for THAT UNIT ONLY and then right click on the ground in the direction your running and wait for the archer to reload then press garrison button again and keep repeating.I hope you understand:P

One Magikill can kill off a large majority of your army while castle archers kill off the rest of your attacking archers. One unit and an upgrade wipes out your whole army... You might want to consider that.

What if the person starts with a sword+archer on a short map?

Hey man, that might get you through 1300 but as you get better you'll find it won't work as well. Massing archers is great but instead of swords, I suggest speartons because its more effective as a tank and will take CA shots much better. Also, my suggestion is to start off with miner/sword/sword on medium/long maps, sword/archer on short maps.

These are solid openers that don't require too much micro and will protect you against cheese starts in your rank and are great at pro ratings.

Spearton start, sword/sword beats it - just make more swords, sword/archer will beat it if you make more swords.
CA start, you have a solid eco so you're good to go, and tower, which gives around 1.5 miners.
Shadow start, make a wall :)

And yeah. Good luck mate, I hope to see you ranking up into the 1500s soon.

I might not be a pro but I recommend you get a build where you wont be so vulnerable