Make sure you research hunting dogs asap on maps with lots of hunting. You could try poseidon, he's like hades but he has a food conducive GP, make sure you eventually get husbandry (if its a tamed animal crazy map get it early on, if not, make sure u have it when ur farming at least, sometimes i get it while advancing if i have sufficient gold.wood for my units and buildings). And make sure ure getting the farm upgrades, i always get them asap (given that i have farms).
Edit: Also a lot of people tend to start farming in classical as soon as their first granary has ran out of animals. Dont, keep hunting. For this very reason its important that your getting your scout to actually scout properly around your base so you can see your hunting. The exception to this rule is that if the middle of the map contains hunting and its clearly obvious and likely that your opponent could pick off these vills. If you think about it, a granary costs 50 wood, a farm costs 50 wood, but a granary will provide food for many vills as opposed to one. And in case you didnt know, villagers gather from hunted animals the fastest. Usually i restrain myself from simply throwing up a granary on my starting berries/chickens cuz theres usually some huntables nearby that will take my scout some seconds to find, and i save myself 50 wood.
I cant remember the order of food efficiency, someone refresh our memories of unupgraded farms/herdables/berries and chickens order.
S k y t h e
[This message has been edited by Skythe (edited 08-03-2006 @ 07:34 AM).]