In this strategy, I have not shown where on the diamond map to build but instead have shown what I build and in what order. The game starts off with three people and a town center as you should hopefully know. I make about 20 villagers in the first town center.

Then I make one town center and one storage pit with two of the three villagers.

I send the third villager to build stables according to where the enemy is.

When the storage pit and town center are made , I upgrade the shield in storage and make another 18-22 villagers in the second town center.

The two villagers then make a granary followed by two other town centers. The tower upgrade is done in the granary.

Again 18-20 villagers are made in the new town center and by this time a new (idle) villager is available. He is sent to help with making stables around various places on the map.

When the two villagers making the town centers are done they are sent to make houses in a safe place to keep everything flowing.

By the time the houses are made other villagers come out of the town centers. They are sent to help making stables around the map. ( I also like to make towers around my stables and also like to make a temple or two to convert the few elephants sent by my opponent at the start). When enough villagers have been sent to build stables, the time for the annoying upgrades comes. First comes the upgrade in the siege market. This is to upgrade stone throwers – catapults.

Then comes the market in which the upgrade to enable the heavy catapult upgrade is done.

Then comes the government centers where the "green fire" and wheel upgrades are done. When the upgrade in the market is done the heavy catapult upgrade can be done in the siege workshop.

That concludes the beginning building up of the game now to focus a bit on the actual war. As soon as the  first few elephants had come out of the stables they had been sent to the opponents base ( even before they are armored ) and more and more elephants are sent as they come out. On the way the elephants are upgraded.

(NOTE)- Do not forget to upgrade the horse shoe in the storage pit once the elephants armor.

This is what your elephants should look like once they are fully upgraded.

Later on in the game once your elephants have conflicted as much damage as possible and eventually die out, Catapults made in siege workshops behind stables are used. These should already by now be upgraded to heavy catapults.

If the opponent is a decent player and has not gotten his ass kicked, then by now the economy is the decider.

Economy should be done throughout the game and not just at the end. This keeps the resources coming. I usually make town centers near forests to collect wood.

And make town centers near gold mines to collect gold.

Also fairly early on in the game I collect the berries near my town centers to keep the food flowing.

Hopefully all this has helped improve your game and has given you a basic idea of how I play the game.

Good luck.