Nomad Scouting

Last night I was playing a nomad game and I lost it because my team didn’t scout game changing rares. Even few ruins were missed. When I saw the replay I realized that so many players scout randomly in nomad. I know nomad doesn’t require that much micro-management compared to standard, but that doesn’t mean scouting should be done randomly.

Nomad scouting is little different compared to standard format scouting. This is because your position’s are not fixed and also not equidistant from other players. Even your scouting has to be efficient. Because with every extra villager you make, your aging time reduces by about 15-20 seconds. You wouldn’t like to scout with 4-5 villagers and get barely 50 ruins, do you?

How do I scout in Nomad?

Scouting in nomad mainly depends on your position and the map. It also depends on your opponent’s position as well. Especially when you have an opponent right next to you.

The biggest question here is to know how many villagers should I use for scouting? There is no fixed number. But you need to know few objectives for scouting in nomad. I’ve listed them below:

– Know your map. First thing to do is to guess your map in the first 10-15 seconds after city completion. For this you might need to send 1-2 villagers randomly in different directions. I prefer to send them in opposite directions.

Note that an advanced player always guesses his map in the first 5-10 seconds after city completion or even before he has created his city.

– Once you have identified your map, you should make a plan. Ask yourself! Where can I find rares on this map? For example, if its “Waterhole” then you should know that you’ll get all the rares in the center. Start looking for them.

– You scout mainly to get more ruins. Based on your map you should make a guess as to how many villagers should be put for scouting.

– Now this is a tricky objective. Sometimes you have your opponent just next to you. It’s mandatory to send one villager and explore your opponent’s territory. I constantly keep scouting my opponent’s territory with a villager. It gives you an idea about your opponent’s boom and future plans (Whether he/she is doing an ancient raid or not).

– Explore your map well. This eventually takes place when you start finding ruins, rares and your opponents.

How many villagers should be used for scouting ?

As I said before there is no fixed number. Just to have an approximate number you can say 2 (Scout Ruins) + 1 (Scout Rares) + 1 (Scout Opponents) = 4

Various maps and scouting styles:

Now based on the above 5 objectives, I’ll give you some examples of maps and the scouting styles used on them.

Water Hole:

– Water Hole map has rares in the center surrounding the pond and it has ruins randomly on the whole map.

– I have sent 1 villager to find rares in the center, 1 to explore opponents and 2 villagers to get ruins and further explore the map.

Great Lakes:

– Great Lakes usually has 4-5 ponds. The red dots indicate ponds.

– Always scout in the center with 2 villagers. Because the probability of getting more ruins and rares is more in the center.

Southwest Mesa:

– Red rectangles indicate mines. One of the toughest map to scout. It has mines in between which makes it very difficult to scout.

– Generally avoid sending too many villagers on this map. As you can see above, 1 of my villager explores my opponent while the other two are exploring the map and finding ruins/rares.

Sahara:

– Sahara has a big forest in between. It always has a rare and a ruin in the corner of the map.

– You can see that I have sent 1 villager to the corner, 1 towards the center and 2 are exploring the map.

Old World:

– Old World has rivers and irregular terrains which obstruct villagers while scouting.

– Unlike 4 I have scouted with 5 villagers here. 3 exploring the map while 2 exploring my opponents.

I’m sure you must have got an idea about scouting efficiently in nomad. Its very important to scout efficiently since resources are low in nomad. Note that there is no specific pattern for scouting. You can have your own style but do consider the objectives of scouting.

Exceptions:

Spanish: The whole map is visible. So, when your Spanish you should be running rares and scouting better. I generally have more villagers to scout when I’m Spanish.

Lakota: All these objectives do apply to Lakota as well. But unlike 4 or 5, I’ll suggest you to scout with 7-10 villagers when your Lakota. It becomes very helpful to find your best city location when your Lakota. Lakota Scouting Style

Some Important Tips:

– Always be the first one to scout. The moment you have build up your city, just build a farm and woodcutter then start sending villagers to scout.

– See to it that your villager’s path of scouting isn’t over lapping with your allies/opponent’s villager.

– If you feel that your opponent’s villager will scout a particular area before you, then don’t send your villager in that area.

– Perform “Outpost Scouting”.

– On Himalayas map, you’ll always get ruins and rares in the corner and between the trees. Do explore them.

– If you have got a slow start, then send less villagers to scout because your opponents must have got all the ruins at start.

– Use 5-6 villagers to scout when you are playing 1v1 games and be the first to scout.

I’ll try to have write another article on sea map scouting. If you have any unique style or strategy to share then please do comment below. I would like to know it.