This was a post I found...

Alright, I've recently been playing with a build order that is extremely simple and fairly versatile. It is not entirely precise yet, but I'd like to hear what you guys think. Keep in mind that this is designed for 1v1 maps and players, with fairly modest rice paddies (think Ambush) that are close to water. -Clueful

Clueful Dragon Build
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1. 2 peasants make two huts:
   • a) 1 hut should be between water and rice, on water
   • b) 1 hut should be 2/3 down the paddy
2. 1st hut rally peasants to rice paddy at run.
3. 2nd hut turn off peasant production.
4. Send one peasant on water duty (always running). Increase to two or even three at your discretion.
5. Wait until you have enough rice to build an Alchemy Hut and Dojo; send 2 peasants to build these buildings in order:
   • Alchemy Hut
   • Dojo
   • Bathhouse
6. Once the Alchemy Hut and Dojo are built, start sending peasants to them, 1 to each at a time.
   NOTE: You may start running into resource shortages here. Just do this as well as you can.
7. Start making Geishas when the Bathhouse is complete.
8. You are shooting for a force grouped like this:
   • 3 Spearmen
   • 3 Chemists
   • 2 Geisha
9. Try to circle around your opponent's base to send these forces into the rice paddies. Try to kill peasants quickly, then hold out as long as you can as he tries to drive you off. The goals here are:
   • distupt the economy
   • get some Yang
   • put your opponent on the defensive

NOTE: Your priorities for Yang expenditure should be as follows (for a while):

• Phosphorous Powder (for Chemists)
• Massage (for Geisha)
• Tempered Steel (for Samurai, Kabuki and Dragon Warriors)
• Dragon's Fire (for Samurai, Kabuki and Dragon Warriors)
• Zen Accuracy (for Archers)
• Arrow Craftsmanship (for Archers)

1. Meanwhile, start building these buildings at home (in this order):
   • Fireworks Factory
   • Archery Range
   • Shrine
   • 2-3 more peasant huts (turn off peasant production at all but your centermost)
2. Establish the following rally chain (running) as the buildings become available:
   • Archery -> Dojo -> Alchemy Hut -> Fireworks Factory
   • Bathhouse -> Shrine
3. Build an attack force with groups something like this:
   • 3-4 Samurai with Dragon Skin BG + 3-4 Geisha with Sacrifice BG
   • 3-4 Kabuki with Flash Powder BG (what can I say?)
   • 6-8 Chemists with Starburst Rockets BG (it helps if you keep building Chemists when you send your first attack out)
   • 1 Archer with Zen Arrow BG *handcrafted!* (keep this one out of combat)
4. This attack force should be moved as one unit, the Samurai ahead of the Chemists and Kabuki. You want to attack your opponent, but you may end up meeting him halfway to his base. Because of this, you should keep an eye on these guys all the way till they hit the enemy.
5. If you meet your opponent halfway and defeat him soundly, rush into his base and slaughter anything on the rice fields. You should be able to hold the fields by sending continual forces to rally at the edge of the base if he has nothing left after your encounter. This is a win.
6. If you don't meet him halfway, you need to scout out his base before you attack. This is what the Archer with the Zen Arrow is for. You want to avoid Watchtowers if you can. If he clusters them at one end of the base, consider attacking the other end (aha). If they are spread out, send the Chemists with their BG to get rid of one quickly. You want to consider the following to be targets in order of priority:
   • Peasants
   • Training buildings
   • Peasant Huts
   • Unsuspecting troops (especially ranged troops with no melee cover, Geisha, Cannoneers, Kabuki, other valuable and vulnerable troops)
7. If you wipe out the defenders, this is probably a win. Making sure there are Geishas on hand is critical whenever you take a base and don't have lots of fire units (which you don't have). That way you can execute a choke hold on rice production. If he drives you off, you are entering the midgame and beyond.

Beyond
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After this point, I like to mix in Archers, especially with the Fire Arrows upgrade. If I can get Stables going, I will put Geisha and Samurai on horses first, then Archers but NEVER Kabuki. I will build an Archery Range ASAP, and later a Dojo that rallies at the Archery Range. This will let me make Dragon Warriors and Archers, which are quality troops and give me versatility. Both also have a nice fire BG, freeing you up to perform raids instead of all-out assaults. It is wise at this point to build a Town Square and one more Watchtower. It is not a good idea to rely on defense in this game, epsecially on the small maps where it is so safe to attack. I sometimes like to take a crew of three Archers and leave them in a corner of the map near the enemy, to bring them out when we are both busy with something else. Before they know what happened, I may light up four or five buildings, and if I win the primary battle it will hasten the end.

Units I don't use:
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• Cannoneers do a ranged explosive attack, which the Chemist does as a first tier unit. Chemists are a little more versatile, though not as powerful. I prefer versatility. Cannoneers are too slow.
• Spearmen have their virtues, but I don't want to overcomplicate the build or build more training buildings (five is already pushing it I admit).
  
  
  
  

Mad props to Clueful for this. And no, I didn't get permission to use this, but I figured he wouldn't mind. If its a problem just let me know.