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Last post 11-19-2009, 12:52 PM by Anonymous. 401 replies.
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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I stated in another thread that I was going to do this, so here it is. Actual, EFFECTIVE German strats. As we all know, Germans are probably one of the most UP'd civs currently and so most people avoid playing them. While they do have their drawbacks, they are definitely still a force to be reckoned with if played properly.
First, a little bit about the German civ, as well as myself, and why I am qualified to write this thread.
I am, by no means, the best German player out there. I am also by no means the best player in general, out there. My current PR in vanilla is 25, 22/23? in TWC. My highest rating is 1910 based on ELO, probably sitting somewhere in the high 1800's currently.
I am qualified to write these up because I have A LOT of experience with the German civ. I have been playing AOE3 since it was first released, and prior to that I played AOM (As Norse-Odin). For anybody not familiar with AOM, the Norse (And especially Odin) was quite similar to the AOE3 German civ.
That being said, the strategies posted here and their effectiveness is directly relative to the level of play and the individual players skill. I will include some tips and tricks and general knowledge that *I* have picked up along the way to maybe help you out, but beyond that you're on your own. I am of the mindset that if you REALLY want a civ to work for you, you can keep with it and make that civ work. Some people simply are not cut out for playing certain civs. I, personally, regardless of the nature of the game (and how UP'd Germans are), I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy the civ itself. It suits my style of play and that's what matters to me.
If you're the typical Ottoman 20jan rusher, or you are a French Cuir spammer, you probably will not be able to relate to the versitility and improvisation needed to play a civ like Germans, where it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to spam just 1 unit and win. It is also NOT advisable in most cases for Germany to advance before 4:30-4:45 without serious assistance from treasures, and even then, it takes that long just to get 17 pop out. (7 villies 5 sws).
Furthermore, you may find other German strats in other forums, such as AOE3Heaven, Gamereplays, etc. If you are interested in playing as German, I suggest checking those out as well and seeing what you can glean from them.
What I will be posting here is my personal build orders, strategies, and tactics, that *I* find effective. If you see anything which you believe may be improved upon, I encourage you to give advice without being overly critical.
So, without further adieu..
[Edited on 2/23/2007]
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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Age 1 Guide
Whenever I refer to villagers, I will not specify "Settler wagons". 1 Settlerwagon = 2 villagers. So if I say "7 villagers on food", that can be any combination of villagers/settler wagons that gives you a grand total of 7 population. (2 sw + 3 villies, 3 sw + 1 villie, etc). If you do this standard build properly you should end with 17 population. 5 Settler Wagons, 7 villagers. Only a total of 12 units, but 17 population all around. So you will have to be smart about dividing your villagers up going into age2, keeping in mind that just because it says there are only 2 villagers on a resource, there are actually 4 if both of those villagers are indeed settler wagons. :)
That being said, this Age 1 Guide applies to ALL strategies listed below unless stated specifically otherwise. This guide will cover you from the moment the game begins, to the point where you click the age button. What Politician you select and how you divide your villagers after that is covered in the specific strategies.
-Start with 3 Settler Wagons (6 pop), 1 Explorer.
-Immediately click 3 Settler Wagons to collect FOOD crates only.
-As soon as your SW's begin collecting food, begin clicking the villager button (or hitting V) until you have a villager queued up. Remember to place your TC Gatherpoint at the nearest huntables.
-Set a circle of waypoints immediately around your TC's Line of Site for your Explorer to scout out. He should locate the nearest huntables (if not already visible) as well as any treasures in the immediate vicinity.
-Set ONE settler wagon to move out beyond a herd of the closest huntables and fire towards the TC while the others continue collecting crates. Reset the TC waypoint as needed to send villagers to the nearest DEAD huntable now.
-Your 2 SW's should be about done collecting resources. Use the 2 of them along with your 3rd to kill up to 4 huntables as close to the TC as possible. Seperate your SW's so only 1 of them is on each huntable while fresh villagers are going to the nearest dead one. This ensures that your villagers do not have to stop and kill more huntables in the middle of your age1. This costs valuable time. If you notice that too many villagers are beginning to crowd around 1 animal, you may want to move them over 1 by 1 to an animal with more resources remaining in it.
-Queue up as many villagers as you can
-Use 1 SW to build a house and return to collecting food.
-Queue up villagers until you reach 13 pop
-During this time you should be checking in on your explorer, and using him to collect any treasures nearby. After he finishes with that, have him do a circle around the enemies base. Make sure you find the nearest food and wood sources to your enemy. Afterwards, use your explorer to fill in any 'black' spots on the map as well as check the parameter of the map as sometimes gold mines and even huntables hide here.
-As soon as you have a shipment available send 2 settler wagons (Or 300 food if you do not have the 2sw card yet).
-Check back in with explorer and continue to scout out area, and gather treasures. This is a time period where you do not need as much micro on your TC/Villies, so you have time to properly scout and gather treasures.
-About the time your SW shipment and last villagers arrive you should have between 650-750 food.. Start clicking your age button like a maniac to be sure you begin aging RIGHT when you have 800 food. You should age with 17 population. 5 SW's, 7 villies. You should be clicking the age button somewhere between 3:00-3:30, and actually hitting age2 between 4:30-5.
-As soon as you click the age button, move your villagers to designated resources listed in the strats below, and queue up 2 more villagers if possible, for a total pop of 19.
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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The Xbow/Pikeman strat
This strategy is for use against civs who mostly like to rush with infantry in the beginning of the game. This includes (But is not limited to) Ottoman and Spanish. Whenever you are playing an Ottoman or a Spaniard, you are likely to see a lot of Jans/Rodeleros early on. In the case of Spanish, you will probably see some Calvary backing them up. In the case of Ottoman, rather than Calvary you will likely see Abus.
The idea here is that you are going to be rushed by infantry early, as most ottoman/spanish age up to 30 seconds, or maybe even a minute faster than you. This makes it absolutely necessary that you respond with a massed amount of the counters required to stop them. Rodeleros and Jans are both countered (supposidly) by Xbows, so this strat focuses mostly on those. When facing a Spanish player be sure to mix in a few pikes as well, Rodeleros and Pikes are not as strong as Jans, and the Spanish player is more likely to mix in calvary (where as the ottoman is almost never going to send calvary first).
Since you need a rax, a lot of xbows, and houses to support your xbow army, you need a lot of wood.. so.. back to our build order:
-Use 400 Wood politician to age.
-As soon as you click age button, double click your SW's and put them to the wood immediately surrounding your TC. This should be 10 population total on Wood. The rest of your villies, stay on food (7). None on gold.
-Alternatively, if you have collected a treasure or started with 100 coin, you may also wish to put 1 SW on gold ONLY until you collect 150 total, then move him back to wood. This will allow you to call MinuteMen at the moment they rush you, which will improve your chances of fending them off.
-Place your TC gather point on Food (you have 2 villies queued up)
-Any time you see you have 300 Wood while aging, lay a house down with one of your SW's (should happen once, possibly twice if you got a wood treasure or two).
-As soon as you hit age2 you have a LOT of things you need to do.. In order of priority, they are:
1. Begin building a rax with SW
2. Click HC button and select your shipment (5 uhlans)
3. Queue up a SW to collect the 400 wood shipment
4. Build another house with a seperate SW (or 2 villies)
5. As soon as Barracks is built, begin producing Xbows. Set waypoint BEHIND your base/Racks/TC.
-Now, you have approximately 10 Xbows queued up with your Racks, 5 Uhlans coming from your HC shipment, 10 villagers on wood, and 9 on food, 3-4 houses, 1 Rax, No stable, and more villagers coming..
-A good rule of thumb: BEFORE producing a total of 5 of any unit (Xbows/Pikes), build 1 house and train 1 villager. This way, you never hit your pop limit and you never leave your TC idle.
-Alternate your villagers between food/wood.
-Keep pumping Xbows/Pikes
-While that is happening, your shipment should be arriving around the time you have 10 xbows.. Leave your 10 xbows IN YOUR BASE and run your Uhlans towards your enemies villager pile. Hit and run the villagers as much as possible. Try to keep them off of food. Use 2 uhlans to block their retreat while 3 uhlans whack away at them. Micro your uhlans so that you get max effeciency out of them. Do not wait to SEE military coming. Just kill as many as you can before they get too far away from you and then run away off into some obscure corner. Every 20-40 seconds, check back and start hitting villies again. If you see Minutemen, run away.
-Against Spanish, check and see if they have ALL of their villies on Food/Gold and check and see what shipments they got (if possible).. Using your explorer isn't a bad idea for this. What you're trying to determine is whether they are using a Fast Fortress strategy or not. If you see food/gold shipments and all their villies are on food/gold, you will be facing a FF most likely. I will get back to that shortly.
-Against Ottoman, keep your Xbows at your base and keep pumping them along with villagers. Sometime soon you should get your 3rd shipment, make sure you ship 9 Xbows and 2 uhlans. Add your 2 uhlans to your raiding party, as they are useless with the Xbows (they make horrible meatshield for jans, jans eat them up). They are much more valuable scouting out the area and killing villagers.
-Whatever you do, AVOID their forward base! Do not go near it! Attack villagers, attack houses, attack their ECO..
-About the time you start raiding your Ottoman opponent, he should come waltzing into your base. If you're lucky, you have between 15-25 Xbows massed up behind your TC, and you have a 9xbow shipment which is about to hit. DO NOT hit your TOWN BELL unless it's absolutely necessary. Instead, set your gather point to the TC so that your villagers immediately spawn there and KEEP spawning villies. This will give your Xbows cover fire. Use your Xbows to do circles around your TC while firing through it at the Jan. It takes approximately 16 xbows to kill 1 Jan. Keep this information in mind and focus fire on Jans with full HP.
If you have managed to hold off the initial rush, your job now is to switch production over to Pikes, and move your xbow army to their forward base. Kill any Jans which are en-route to your base as reinforcements, and kill any which spawn from the barracks. While doing this repeatedly have your newly produced Pikes run in and start knocking down the Barracks and FB..
While that is being accomplsihed, use your Uhlans (if they're still alive, which they should be), to run into the enemies base.. look for any new Barracks he's building, and kill villies.. IF all goes well, he should resign around 10-12 minutes after being pushed back into his base with pikes charging in. Focus on houses, villies, and barracks/Siege foundries. Do not bother with TC until last..
Also, in the case that he comes with a mix of jans/abus: Kill jans with scoot/shoot, and then run in with your uhlans to kill the abus.
..continued next post
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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The above is a "best case scenerio" for facing Ottoman. There are many things that can go wrong with that, but it is a "general" guide to how you should handle it. The only way you really learn how to beat them consistantly is by playing them enough to learn their strengths and weaknesses.. Everything said above pretty much goes for spanish as well, except Spanish are more dynamic.. they have the ability to FF on you as well, which can have bad results if you are not prepared for it and you're sitting there with a 90% Xbow army. IF they do not Fast Fortress, then the strategy pretty much remains the same except you are facing much weaker infantry than Jans. What Rodeleros lack in strength they make up for in speed.. this is why against Spanish you want to mix more pikes in with your Xbows from the beginning so you give your xbows a meatshield whcih allows them to tear the rodeleros apart. Fortunately you do not need to micro your xbows quite as much as you did against the ottoman.
Now, let's assume when you were doing your raiding against the spanish (watch out for pikes!), you noticed that they were mostly food/gold, and that they had sent shipments of food and/or gold and were collecting them vigorously... well, this can be potentially good for you, if you know what you're doing.. If however you are unprepared and you do not start putting pressure on them immediately then you may find yourself on the receiving end of Lancer Torture and cannon fire..
So, what do you do about it?
1. Do not panic.
2. DO NOT try to keep up with them and age yourself.
3. DO switch military production over to PIKES
4. Begin moving your Xbow army DIRECTLY towards their base.
5. Continue raiding and keep their villagers in the TC as long as possible. Even if it means losing your 5 uhlans.. Buy your Xbows and pikes time to cross the map and get to their TC.
Now, from here.. what you need to understand is how fragile a Fast Fortress eco is. They likely do not have a lot of houses. They are LIKELY relying on some super units (Cannons, Mercs, a strong military shipment) to pull them through the early game until they can get their eco back on line. If you sit back and let them bring these things to you, your chances of coming through victorious are 10x worse.
Instead, move your xbow army and your uhlans directly to their base and focus on killing villagers and HOUSES.. As soon as you have 5-10 pikes you should be focusing on houses. Use your uhlans to circle their TC and look for villagers trying to build more buildings. Their ECO is not strong enough to handle losing any villagers and they likely do not have enough military. Use Xbows to kill their Minutemen. They will use minutemen.. they have the gold/food for it and they will not have military to defend until after their first shipment arrives. Any military shipment that arrives, use your Xbows to scoot and shoot.
Xbows = Counter any military they ship (Unless it's Calvary or Cannons!)
Uhlans = Keep focusing on villagers and scouting. If you find their Explorer, kill him and leave a unit standing ontop of him
Pikes = Demolition crew. Keep dropping houses.
If they spawn calvary or cannons, focus all your military might on them as soon as possible and take them down. The best shipment available is (I believe) 1 cannon, MAYBE 2... Whatever you have in their base at the time should be able to handle 1 and even maybe 2 cannons if you get on top of them fast.
Back at home, keep pumping villagers, try to get another Rax down, and keep pumping pikes. Have your pikes constantly streaming into their base and flood them with pikes. Sometime during this period you should get a shipment or two.. what you send depends on how you wish to play it, but here are some suggestions:
Palatine settlements - you no longer have to worry about houses/pop, which means you can keep pumping xbows/pikes endlessly
3 Settler wagons - Better eco
Raw Resources (700 gold/food/wood)
At the very least, you should have severely disrupted their strategy. Make sure you keep the pressure on and keep pumping units. As long as you still have Line of Site in their base and units still standing, you should keep your reinforcements coming.
The important thing is to recognize a FF when it's happening and nip it off at the bud before it becomes a problem. If you let them hit fortress, get a shipment or two, and start laying down houses/barracks/etc, then you're pretty much in for a battle of attrition, and you're on the short end of the stick.
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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The Calvary Start
Whenever you play Dutch, or, especially Russia, you have to expect a lot of Anti-Infantry units such as skirmishers or Strelets. Most Dutch players start with skirmishers, and maybe 8-15 pikes, followed up by aging to 3 as quickly as possible for Cannons and Halberds.. Russians usually come first with Cossacks and Strelets, or possibly Muskets and Strelet combo. With this in mind your best bet is creating a lot of Calvary at first and making good use of it, but then quickly switching production over to Xbows to counter muskets/pikes, and then followed by pikes in order to drop buildings.
Against Russia specifically, you want to switch to pikes sooner than later as it comes in extremely handy to drop Russian houses, for many reasons..
1. Houses cost 100 wood. I believe strelets cost wood. 100 wood = less strelets.
2. Barracks/Blockhouses/Stables costs wood. They need to have houses more than they need another blockhouse.
3. Houses reduce population, which is what Russia thrives off of.
They cannot queue up military without a minimum of 10 population available.. if they are attempting to rush you chances are they haven't built an excess amount of houses, and barely sit under their population limit the majority of the time. Every house you lay to waste reduces their military migth significantly.
4. Villager seconds. It takes villagers time to build house replacements and it takes you just slightly more time to knock them down with 10 or so pikes. The less time their villagers spend collecting resources, the worse off their eco is.
Now, back to our age2 build order.
-Click age button, select the Quartermaster (400 wood) politician
-Switch 6 villagers over to gold, 6 to wood, 5 to food.
-Scout for a FB against Russians. Once you know where it is, AVOID it until it's necessary.
-Place your TC gather point on food
-As soon as you age, you have a lot of things to do VERY quickly
1. 1 SW builds stables
2. Send 5 Uhlan shipment from HC
3. 1 SW collects wood shipment from politician/aging
4. 1 SW builds 2 houses on and off as wood is available
5. Begin Uhlan production
6. As soon as you have enough gold to make 5 uhlans total, switch 2 villies from gold to wood.
7. Build a barracks with extra wood.
-As soon as all of this is done you should have 10 uhlans, 7 villies on food, 8 on wood, 4 on gold. 1 barracks, 1 stable, apprixmately 3 houses (40 pop). Build another house for 50 pop. Keep pumping villies to food/wood.
-Queue up as many Xbows/Pikes as you can. What you make depends on who you are playing and what you see from them. Against Dutch almost always go Xbows. Xbows are effective against pikes AND skirmishers (believe it or not!). Against Russia, I would make my 3rd shipment 9 Xbows + 2 uhlans, but produce strictly pikes from my barracks until my xbows are either dead, or I see he is going with mostly Muskets.
-You have 10 Uhlans and more units on the way. Split your uhlans into 2 groups, 5 and 5, and use both groups to raid. Sit one group on each side of the enemies area, and raid from one side, then the other. As soon as he garrissons his villies, run away and come back in 30-40 seconds.
-As soon as you see you have another 400-500 gold, pump out another 5 uhlans. Remember, you also get uhlans with every shipment. So you are at an advantage against Russians/Dutch most common units (Skirms/strelets)
-Against Russia, mass up about 20-30 pikes and split them into 2 groups, then start attacking his houses from both sides of his base, same thing you are doing with your Calvary except instead of hitting villies hit houses. This will inevitably draw his Strelets either into your base, or back to HIS base in order to defend. Most Russian players are not very good at defending so they will choose to go to your TC a lot of times. If this happens: DO NOT WORRY. Garrisson your villagers, (ring town bell), keep pumping villies into TC, and call minutemen. From there: Group your uhlans up from his TC and run them back to your TC to kill any strelets. Have your Minutemen/TC focus fire on cossacks/muskets, while your Uhlans take out strelets.
Whatever you do, AVOID his forward base and keep attacking houses with your Pikes. As soon as you have taken care of his 'rush', run any units left at your TC (newly produced pikes, uhlans, and minutemen if you have any left), and take out his forward with that group of units while your Pikes continue to pound back and fourth on his houses. As soon as you feel you have enough units to take down his TC and you have him on the defensive, move in for the finisher and take down his TC. Whatever you do, as above with the Ottoman/Spanish: KEEP THE PRESSURE ON, and keep your eco PUMPING.
Against Dutch, it's a little different.
Rather than a TC rush/house pounding, that I would use against Russia, for Dutch I would focus more on Map control, raiding, and achieving a respectable Age3 time. Remember, most Dutch focus mainly on food/wood, and less on gold because of their banks. The idea is to counter their initial military, take map control, keep them off the resources they need through raiding, and then hit Age3 at a respectable time and finish them off in a heads up battle. There is no sure-fire way to beat them, as dutch can be very versitile and quite slippery when they want to be.
Something to keep in mind though:
Dutch don't have any GOOD heavy infantry until age3! Pikes and Skirmishers are all they have, and therefor, an army of massed Xbows with 5-10 uhlans should be able to handle them. If they switch production over to Hussars, you are still at an advantage because Hussars are much more expensive than your units, (albiet stronger), and you already have the eco set up to produce a few pikes.
You want to try to beat Dutch in Age2 if possible, and not let them get halberds/cannons, becuase if they do that before you do chances are you're fighting a losing battle.
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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The German Fast Fortress (yes it's still viable!)
As has been discussed in countless previous threads since Age3 has been released, Germanys Age2 military has something to be desired, as they lack the standard "Musketeers", and Dopplesoldners are a bit expensive (not to mention, lack the range advantage the musketeers enjoy). On top of that, Germanys Eco simply can't keep up in early game (age2-early3) when compared to that of the Ports, British, or French.
For these reasons, I find it effective to use a Fast Fortress strategy versus British and Portugal, and *sometimes* French. Normally I like to put the pressure on French a little earlier and use something more along the lines of the Calvary start against them.. but definitely against British and Portugese, the Fast Fortress can be effective.. Here's the Build Order starting at Age2.
-Click AgeII button using 500 Food politician
-Move ALL of your SW's to Gold (10 gold)
-Leave 7 settlers on food
-Queue up 1 settler from TC
-As soon as you age, use 1 SW to collect 500 food, and as soon as your villager spawns from TC have him assist. When both are finished collecting Food, move SW back to Gold, Villager to Wood.
-Use 3 SW Shipment, when it arrives, send 3 SW's to Gold
-Use 2 Uhlans from shipment to raid and scout.
-Shortly after your 3SW shipment arrives you should hit 1200 food 1000 gold (at approx the same time).
-Click to AgeIII.. Here, you have a couple options:
1. Sacrifice super-fast age time for a stronger military in Age2, and use the 6 Skirmisher politician
2. Get a super-fast age time (6:00-6:30), which will give you access to Age3 cards more quickly.
3. You need to decide what card you are likely going to send once you hit age3.
I prefer to send the 10 Landsknecht card, because Lands pretty much dominate any Age2 military Brits or Portugal has, including crossbows/longbows, assuming you assist with your Free Uhlans. And, Lands can drop houses, outpost, and TC's with a quickness.
For super-raiding power, go for Black Riders.. If your opponant is massing Muskets, go with Jeagers..
You could also send 1000 wood card, build a second TC, a barracks, and some houses, followed up by a merc or something as your next card.
Assuming you want to go the Merc route, you have a couple problems..
You are going to need another 1000 gold, which requires you keep as many villagers/sw's as possible on Gold and less on wood, which means a bare minimum amount of buildings, including no barracks..
And you will need a shipment shortly after you age, which requires XP.. If you are raiding villies and you are still using your explorer to gather treasures, you may get your 3rd shipment rather rapidly.
One option here is to use 100 wood to build a market at any point during the game thus far, and sell excess food off in exchange for gold, which will get you to your 1000 mark quicker, which will effectively give you a very strong contingent of merc units quicker than most civs can handle them.
If you go with the Exiled Prince (fast age), and gather 1000 gold as quickly as possible, and rush with Lands. A lot of times Brits and Ports will make the mistake of trying to keep up with you rush themselves into Fortress Age without making much military in hopes of competing with whatever you throw at them. IF this is the case then you should still get Lands before they have any really decent military and you can dominate them before (or shortly after) they get to fortress..
The other thing that can happen is that they attempt to send whatever military they have at your doorstep and try to take you down before you get your shipments.. this can present a problem, but it is counterable. If this happens, you need to make sure you have 150f and 1150g for your Lands and Minutemen. Your minutemen and TC fire should hold them off for long enough so your Lands can arrive and wipe out their military, as well as give you enough XP and buy you some time for a 2nd shipment so you can go in and finish them off.
The other possibility here is that you chose to go the Marksman (6 Skirmishers route). This will ensure that you have 1000Gold, and the Experience necessary to send Mercenaries right when you hit age3. The only problem is that you will probably not get your mercenaries until 8-9 minutes into the game, where you are completely vulnerable to enemy attacks up until that point.. although, it also gives you Skirmishers which will counter any Muskets they have, which can be a problem for your 10 Landsknechts if your enemy uses them wisely. Skirmishers remove this advantage from your opponent.
That decision is your own to make and I usually make it mostly based on a sort of gut instinct.
Regardless of the route you choose, you are going to need wood as a priority going into Age3 because you will need to put houses and barracks down.
Assuming you send the 3sw and sw cards you currently have a 24 villager eco. Seeing as 12 villies (or 6SW in this case) should give you a sufficient gold income to hit your 1000g quota by the time you have a shipment, and we have 7 villies on food (which is a good number, for now), you can use the remaining 5 villagers (2 sw + 1 villager) for wood.. As you draw nearer to your 1000g quota, or, as you see you have enough villies queued up and excess food, you may move a villager or two from gold or food over to wood. The important thing is that you can put enough houses down for your shipments, a market for trading if it becomes necessary for defense, and eventually a barracks sometime after you send your first shipment (or right before).
I would also strongly recommend searching for wood treasures as this can make this FF strat really shine.
What you decide to do in early age3 is what makes or breaks the game for you, and every situation is different so unfortunately I cannot give you a "Cure all" solution. Only advise you based on my experience.
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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And last but not least..
The German uber-boom-o-doom
What would you say if I told you Germany could outboom French, Portugal, Dutch, and British?
You'd probably say I'm a "noob", call me "crazy".. Some of you may argue that Settler Wagons aren't really an effective "Boom" because they take twice the population, resources, and it takes too long to get them going.. Well.. while Germans may not be "meant" to boom, i want you to consider a few things..
1. Dutch can have 8 banks at max and it requires 3 cards to do this, each bank counts as 4.333 villagers unless you add another card, which increases the bank work rate by 15%. 15% 0f 4.333 = 4.98. Basically, the extra card makes each bank count as 5 villagers rather than 4.3. 5 x 8 = 40 + 50 villagers = 90. Dutch has a total eco of 90 villagers.
2. Brits get a max villager eco of 99. Portugese, the same. Ports and Brits will both find their villager max relatively quickly if they keep their TC's active and build a lot of houses. Brits pay a small price (manors are more expensive) for this, Ports do not. Although, ports are challenged by idle TC time and do not get villager cards, which Brits do not have to worry about since Brits not only get villager cards, but their units spawn directly from houses when they are built (which must inevitably be built!) .. This means Brits have a slightly better eco than Ports, at least earlier on.
3. French units (CdBs) gather at a rate of 1.25 (where 1 = 1 settler), and they costs 120 food. So already, there is an advantage. But they can only have 80 villagers. 80 x 1.25 = 100. They have a 100 villager eco, which is better than Dutch, French, or Portugese.. But their villagers come slightly slower. This translates to 'biggest' eco of the 4 main booming civs, but it is at a nice slow steady rate rather than rapidly climbing to max out.
4: Germans get a 99 Villager limit, and a 20 SW limit. 20 Settler Wagons ='s 40 villagers (each sw = 2.0 work rate). 99+40 = 139.
Germans, technically, can have the biggest late game eco. But that's not all.. There's a card which provides a 25% bonus to settler wagon work rates called Guild Artisans, which is Available in Age4. 25% of 2.0 is 2.5. 2.5 x 20 = 50. This brings Germans eco WAY UP to not 99, not 100, not 139, but the equivalent of 149 regular villagers!!!
Thus, with a combination of 2 cards, one in age3, one in age4, Germans can have the biggest eco in the game, BAR NONE. On top of this, Germans get a free raiding party with every shipment.
So, here's the basic idea, to put the odds of booming in your favor:
- Palatine Settlements.
Houses now provide 30 population instead of 10. You get 10 free for having a TC, to bring yourself up to max of 200 you only need 7 houses with this card. 7x30= 210+10 = 220. Of course, max pop is 200, but without the 7th house your pop would be 190 instead of 200 (unless you build a 2nd TC, which is an option). Each house costs you 100 Wood. 100 x 7 = 700. Without this card you need a whopping 19 houses. 19 x 100 = 1900, 1900 - 700 = 1200. You save yourself 1200 Wood by using Palatine Settlements.
- German Town Farmers
German Town Farmers, for those of you who are not aware, allows Germans to produce Settlerwagons (Max = 20) from their Mills at the cost of 100f 100w. The advantage of this is that 10 Settlerwagons can sit on 1 mill (Or plantation) and produce just as much resources as 20 villagers sitting on 2 mills/plantations. Subtract 400 wood and 800 wood. You just saved yourself having to make an extra mill and plantation.
Between GermanTown Farmers and Palatine settlements, you have saved yourself a total of 2400 Wood. 2000 of that wood will go towards Settler Wagons. The other 400? Probably another mill so you can pump SW's faster!
-Guild Artisans
Guild Artisons takes what is already a great deal and makes it even better. Your 20 Settler Wagons are now equal to 50 villagers. This means you only need 50 villagers to collect resources at the same rate as the best eco in the game, and you do it for 90 population.
Of course, technically the French do it for 80 pop. But that's not much of an advantage considering if you choose to you can produce even more villagers (say, 10 more), and have an untouchable eco compared to theres.
A few other cards that would be beneficial for a German "Uber-Boom-O-Doom" deck, would be: Advanced Plantation (Cheaper/Stronger Plantations) and "Advanced Mill" (Cheaper/Stronger Mills). These 2 cards would save you even more wood.
So, how do you make this work for you?
Step 1: Do a semi-Fast Fortress. In other words, build enough military to defend yourself early on and do some raiding.. this will set your enemy back and force them into making units to protect themselves. By the time your first goldmine runs out and you start reaching your 80 pop limit (you haven't sent Palatine houses yet most likely!), you should be aging to 3.
Step 2: Turtle into Age3 with a respectable time, and send the 1000 Wood Card. This will help you get started. Start by building a TC somewhere (near your 1st TC or not.. Doesn't matter), and then follow up with a Mill. Immediately put all of your current Settler Wagons on the mill (You should have about 8. That leaves you only 12 to make from mills).
Step 3: Build a plantation asap, and train your SW's directly onto it.
Step 4: Get your mill/plantation improvements. Send Palatine settlements.. Start really booming like crazy. With 10SW's on mills 10 on plantations you have 20f 20g, you should have about 50 villies by now for a total of 90. Split your villies between Food Gold and Wood respectively until raw resourses run out and then move them to mills/plantations.
Step 5: Age to Industrial, send guild artisans, then 2 factories.. You now have an unstoppable eco.
You can, of course, fill in any gaps in your eco with a few extra villies if needbe. And, you still have plenty of Pop for military.
[Edited on 2/23/2007]
"Between the velvet lies, there's a truth as hard as steel."
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Subject:
The (un)Official German Strategy Thread
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