Clearly hunting is the way to go in the early game, it is a fast, easy food source that requires no investment. The dogs upgrade is cheap and well worth getting, and the Spanish have the Furrier card that is very good as well. But long term, hunting cannot be your main source of food, leaving only sheep and farms. Farming is simple, safe and reliable, but slow. Sheep are much faster but need micro and preparation. Many players might skip sheep pens and just farm, or perhaps just use sheep pens as an extra food source. This is a good idea, as player time is the most valuable thing in the game, and it might not be worth the risk of losing an expensive army because your attention is on a sheep pen.
However, with the British it can be worth the effort to get the sheep farming technique working, as the fuller card gives a huge boost to the gathering rate. Properly done, the food will flow in very fast
First, some numbers gathered from testing food gathering, with rates given in units of food per second:
Berries .66
Berries w/furrier .76
Hunting .76
Hunting w/dogs .87
Hunting w/furrier .88
Hunting w/dogs and furrier .97
Farming .52
Farming w/seed drill .58
Farming w/fertillizer .74
Sheep 2.67
Furrier is the Spanish card that increases hunting and berry gather rates. There are other cards to increase farming and hunting gather rates, but they are not available in the demo. Farming is clearly the slowest way to gather food, it takes two upgrades just to get to the same rate as basic hunting.
Clearly sheep gathering is much faster than even upgraded hunting. However, since you must put 100 food into buying the sheep, and you get around 270 - 280 back (sheep rot), more than one-third of your gathered food is effectively lost. That means the sheep gather rate is effectively around 1.7 food/second, still an impressive rate.
The British fuller card changes things - the sheep gather rate shoots up:
Sheep w/fuller 6.6
Yes, 6.6 food per second! The food flies in - 3 vils gather almost 1200 food per minute! In fact, 3 vils gather faster than 30 vils farming with seed drill! That is an advantage well worth some micro - 3 vils on sheep will outgather 18 Spanish hunters with dogs and the furrier card. And the British sheep machine is available from the first age, all you need is the fuller card. Husbandry and the sheep fattening card are also available from the first age, so a British player will have no trouble getting the sheep machine ready.
Of course, the investment needed to get the sheep machine going means that it won't start until the second age at the earliest. Standard hunting will carry the British player into the Colonial age, and then the player can decide if going sheep heavy is worth it. The best thing is that since all you need can be obtained in the first age, you have the flexibility to go sheep heavy with just one or two cards.
Some sheep machine tips:
* Get the sheep fattening card, and husbandry. Your troops will probably be sick of mutton, but victory is sweet Little_Wing
* Choose free sheep/cattle options on aging up
* Don't get the fuller card until you are ready to harvest
* Make sure you have other food sources going (hunting, berries) so that you don't starve waiting for sheep
* If you need food, harvest unfattened sheep if needed, as long as they have 150+ food you will still be better than farming. Shift+click if needed to harvest unfattened sheep
* Hotkey a pen so that you can keep sheep queued up
* Build only one sheep pen at first. And 2-3 more later, in a triangle/box. Set the gather point for the pens in the center. That way sheep the are made will find an empty slot on a pen to fatten by themselves.
* Sheep build very fast, que up all need from one pen.
* You only need a few vils on hand to harvest the sheep, 4 vils will collect 1500 food/minute. I usually have them cutting a straggler tree, or on berries, when there are no sheep ready.
* If you use 2-3 vils, and have plenty of sheep fattening, you won't need to micro much at all. Fattened sheep will leave the pens in clumps, giving the harvesting vills lots of sheep to work on.
* Keep sheep queued at all times on the hotkeyed pen - you can run through them quickly with fuller'ed vils.
* Keep an eye on your food - if it isn't growing nicely double tap the pen hotkey to see what is happening.
Remember, the food gather rate is huge - way better than anything else - making the sheep machine worth trying. It has risks, and takes some planning and practice to transition from hunting to sheep smoothly, but being able to supply your food needs with a handfull of vils while your opponent needs 4-6 times the number of vils farming can be a big advantage.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.