Age of Empires Forums

Hi, i havent played Age of Empires 3 for many years, and im thinking about starting up again. I wasn't a top player before (2100 or something) but i have played a lot of Starcraft 2 since then, and i feel i can get much better now. My macro and micro is not so bad and i know how to improve in that way, but the problem is the strategies. Im really not sure of what strategies to use now, so i hope someone here can help me. Now i use French and i want to be good with them before i start using other civs. I've tried some strategies from a document written by i guy names gs i think (musk huss start, dual rax xbow/pike, semi-FF) , but i dont know if those strategies are still valid. I dont know if it has anything to say, but im playing on vanilla and im not planning on going over to TAD in the first place. I hope there's any help to get here. :)

The guide yoi are talking about is for a different patch, but still helpful. Most of the build orders dont change a ton so you can usually do something rather similar to whats in that guide

musk huss, 5 huss semi, musk semi, daul rax xbow - these are all the best strats for fre

13cbd age up daul rax musk or i like a 10 xbow start + 8 xbow card into daul rax musk also can be good sometimes

 most of the time you will be doing musk huss or huss semi though. fre should have trouble with otto and spain on nilla otherwise gl hf :P

A revolutionary strat that is relatively new (thought of by Samwise12 somewhere late 2009) and ended up to be the most used build order in FP 1.1. In 1.2, it is still quite solid and can be considered one of the strongest strats in the game. What's so special about it is sending the 700w first, not making any houses from the 400 age up wood, and waiting for the 700w for housing. It gets a minimum of 5 musks and 3 huss out in very early age2 and manages to keep up a solid musk spam. - Mind early market! Always go early market even with 100 wood start. With 100w start, chop wood with 3 vills from the start and put the first vill you produce on wood also. Get the market up before house! With a 200w start same thing, but chop wood with 2 vills. - 3 vills first card. - Gang saw is optional if you get a lot of food in age1 and feel like you can research it before you start to age and still not have idle TC time. Otherwise leave it for now. - When you start aging (400w) put about 6 or 7 vills on wood and research placer mines as soon as possible. Typically you'll switch all wood vills to gold when you have 125 wood, but sometimes if you had good gold treasures you can put 6 or even 5 on gold and get more units out with the first batch. - When you hit age2, send 700w, gather the crates as fast as you can and get both a stable and a rax up. And research steel traps! - Queue 1 musk and 1 huss in the military buildings and wait for the 700w for housing. Fill up the batches when you get houses. Generally get 5 musks always and fill it up with however many huss you can afford. Either mix in a second rax with 700w or get amalgamation (second gold market upgrade). - Next card is 4 vills. Card after that is generally 600w, sometimes 8 xbows when being aggressive. If you sent 8 xbows, chop some wood with 3 or 4 vills for 2 or 3 houses until the 600w arrives. If you hadn't already, mix in the second rax with the 600w.

I recognise the writing style of gs in that post.

Lol cam is taking credit of gs's work!

lol i even found where he copied it from:  http://rts-sanctuary.com/RTS-Sanctuary/act=Attach&type=post&id=141774 down at the french musk huss start

LordStefanIII:

Lol cam is taking credit of gs's work!

no mehn I just took it for granted the majority of guys would know where it came from ... I read that thing often ... (and still no pro but ... not the guides fault) ... thanks gs ...

GS WROTE THE GUIDE MEHN

jayve98:

lol i even found where he copied it from:  http://rts-sanctuary.com/RTS-Sanctuary/act=Attach&type=post&id=141774 down at the french musk huss start

tell me you jest sir ...

 they walk among us ...

that strat is great, but get the 2nd rax down with 700 wood asap in case transition into full musk is necessary (which it will be in a fre mirror, where you usually only make 4 or 5 cav to start, unless they going xbow pike) also i wouldn't bother with 600w until much later its really just going to be a waste cause you will be fighting with your units and some of them dying hence you won't need much more pop room. unless you want to mix in some xbow then 600w is fine.

600w does a variety of things:

- get 2nd rax up if you didn't already
- housing if you're near popped
- second gold upgrade if you didn't have that yet
- for whatever wood you have left after doing the above 3: xbows.

you're always gonna find xbows useful at this stage of the game, and there simply aren't any better cards to send. 3 huss is only viable to raid if you really can't find any room to make some huss because the musk wars are close and you have to invest every resource you have in more musks. but this is a rare situation.

spice trade is viable if the game is in somewhat of a stalemate, but this is risky to send so early because if he did send 600w he has map control in a crucial point in the game, and if he happened to have decided to age you're not really in that strong of a position to push him.

8 xbows is viable but you're gonna have to get agressive with it because you're gonna be popped pretty much as soon as it arrives, and chopping wood for housing is considerably less eco-efficient than sending the 600w. 

all in all 600w is generally the most solid and verstatile option. it's not always the best choice, but it's a good standard to go from. but with every civ, in every point in the game you can make such an argument for most cards. it's all situational in the end and the strategic depth is immense, which makes this game so awesome.

i should play it again sometime :( 

Thanks for the help guys, and thanks to you gs for an awesome strategy guide! :) I got crushed in french mirror today by someone going full musc when i went musc huss start, but maybe i should have done like you said nat0 and get my 2nd rax early up. Anyway, im gonna keep practising!

Oh just so you know you might want to use a different civ while yorue a noob because french is OP. you will be a better player overall if you use a civ that isnt OP

Well, I wouldn't say im a noob, but I dont know about how French are now compared to othe civs. For me they dont seem like a very much overpowered civ, but i haven't played much lately so i dont really know.

France isn't OP in rush. Its in treaty that you have a problem. Hard rushes i.e. Otto, Sioux will dispose of France easily.