Scout Rush is generally executed by going up to Feudal at 20-22p, and then immediately placing a Stable and producing scouts once in Feudal. Some civiliazations (e.g. Mongols, Lithuanians, Khmer) can pull off a faster Scout Rush, such as 17-18p.

The point of a Scout Rush is to disrupt opponent's economy by making use of the mobility of scouts. They can pick off lone or weak villagers, and if chased by enemy spearmen, they can run away and circle around the enemy town to keep up the pressure. You don't need to actually get villager kills to call it a success. Key milestones are causing idle time, denying resources, gaining map control, forcing enemy to build spearmen or defensive towers so that their economy is delayed, etc.

Scouts only require food, so Scout Rush has good synergy with food-heavy early economy. A good number of farms is key to fast Castle Age up time.

However, while being an exceptional raiding unit, scouts can only take you so far. Especially if the opponent is fully walled (or able to quick-wall), scouts can hardly do any damage. Therefore, one usually stops producing scouts after 6 to 8 of them, and switches to archers/skirmishers or goes up to Castle Age (with hopefully superior economy).

In 1v1, Scout Rush is a risky strategy, since it is slower than a Man-at-Arms rush, and scouts match up poorly against men-at-arms.

In team games, Scout Rush is usually done by pocket players, to make good use of the mobility to show military presence. The investments into cavalry techs also synergize well with the natrual transition to knights.

Franks, Huns, Lithuanians, Magyars, Mongols

Berbers, Indians, Khmer, Persians, Slavs