Strategy:Boom

"" An army marches on its stomach. ""

- Napoleon Bonaparte

Boom or Fast Fortress (FF) refer to an economic boom, a strategy where the player focuses almost exclusively on their economy instead of investing resources for military purposes. It is commonly used to counter the Turtle strategy as a boom economy can very easily outperform a turtling economy in the late game. Due to their lack of focus on rapid military development, they are extremely suspectible to a Rush.

A booming player will typically have a weak military at first, using guerrilla tactics rather than brute force while aging up quite rapidly to field more advanced units. A specific type of boom may sometimes be referred to by its resource type or the location of resources. Fish Boom (maps with water, but only fish) and Water Boom (maps with water, fish and whales) are common usages.

Age of Empires III
The primary goal is almost always to Fast Fortress in order to train or send artillery and advanced cavalry units from the Home City. In Treaty games however it is almost always the option of choice as most armies are not trained until the timer is close to expiring (especially when using train time reduction cards).

Age of Empires

 * Palmyrans - Despite the expensive cost of villagers, they work 20% faster and have +1 armor to both melee and ranged attacks.
 * Assyrians - The fast villager speed makes them collect and gather resouces much faster than other civilizations in early games.
 * Shang - Shang civilization can produce villagers at a cheaper cost per unit, 35 food instead of the usual 50. This gives them an edge in resource collecting in the beginning of the game

Age of Empires II

 * Huns - Their ability to support a large population without building houses makes them a good choice for early games, though they start out with -100 wood. This allows them to produce villagers only if enough food is available.
 * Chinese - The Chinese can research technologies cheaper than other civilizations, making them able to research them earlier than other civilizations. This gives them an edge in technology. They also receive more villagers in the beginning of the game.
 * Mongols - Faster hunting speed allows villagers to gather food more efficiently, allowing them to produce more villagers at faster speed in early games.

Age of Empires III

 * British - A popular civilization to use through a strategy known as the Housing Boom focusing on rapid settler creation with their bonus of a free settler every time a Manor is built.
 * Dutch - Its weak start is compensated with their ability to contruct banks providing a large economic boost if harnessed correctly. On maps with whales, a Dutch player who monopolizes them can have unprecedented levels of gold.
 * French - With the help of Coureurs, the French can easily acquire resources far faster than other civilizations.
 * Russians - The ability of training settlers in blocks means they can produce settlers three times faster than others.
 * Germans - The production of Settler Wagons along with normal Settlers allows the Germans to have a very strong economy.