Ok guys, I've started up a strategy and I would like to share it. I
will change it if I find better solutions and other things. Here it is
so far.
Note: I have a Land strat, a Mix strat (water/land) and have a Water Turtle strat (I don't use it as much anymore)
I have a 4-0 streak on 1v1's, and I recommend this strategy for solo playing only.
I'll edit this part out. Until I can prove it to these guys, I guess I can't do anything.
Portuguese Tower Turtle/Boom
Ok, 1st things first.
Gather
1st food crate, then send 5 vils onto hunts. 1 vil immediatly goes on
wood, while the other vil collects the other crates (Be sure NOT to
collect coin crates yet). Build a house with the wood crate you get,
and if you have an extra wood crate, save it for later. Use your
explorer spyglass to look for your 2nd huntable group. 2nd spyglass
should look for the opponents TC; 3rd for forward base.
EDIT: I now like to put the vil on the crates onto wood in addition to the other wood cutter.
Build 5 more vils onto food until you get 10, then build 2 more on wood. You should get 13 population worth of vils right now.
First card: 300 wood
Build 2 more vils on coin (tell one to collect coin crates if you have any), until you have 15 population worth of villagers.
Once
300 wood arrives, collect it with 2 of the wood cutters, and tell one
of them to build an outpost once you have enough wood (you should have
2 (3) wood miners then; 1 on crates, 1 on trees, the other building the
outpost).
If you can get XP treasures, that is good; you will need all the XP you can get early on.
Age up with the Quartermaster (400 wood)
While
doing this, you will want to heard back your 2nd huntable group (it
helps if you do it before you start aging as well), so that you will be
immune to raids. Also pre-que 4 vils so that you have 19 population.
You won't need to build another house right away, because your 2nd TC
gives you 10 population on its own. Have the gathering point for your
vils put onto gold.
EDIT: If you are facing India, or any other quick rush team on a map like carolina, then create a 2nd outpost before your 2nd card arrives.
Second card: TEAM cheap outposts
Now this is important: DO NOT build another outpost until you get this
card. This makes outposts 175 wood a piece. By the time this arrives,
tell your two coin miners to build an outpost, and 1 wood cutter + 1
food miner to build an outpost. If you worry that they won't get done
right away, and you are expecting a very fast rush, then tell 1 or 2
more food vils to go on each tower, so that it gets done very quickly.
Once you age: Put your 2nd Town Center by the nearest wooded area,
preferably in the range of your 1st Town Center. With the 400 wood you
get, build two more outposts with 2-3 vils each. This should get done
by 6:00 or less (Even I have to work on getting everything right).
Once your 2nd Town Center is up, que 5 vils (or equivalent to) from it
on wood. Build another tower where an area you feel is not protected. Remember
to put your towers close together so that you have maximum firepower on
a rush; keep them at least a Town Center distance from each other (The space a Town Center takes up). You
may need to build them a bit more compact, but you should be able to
select 6/7 towers when in the center of your base. Try to max out
towers by 7:00 or 7:30.
Third Card: Colonial militia OR 700 wood OR 8 Crossbows.
EDIT: I now prefer ordering 700 wood as my 3rd card, followed by CM, followed by 700 food.
If you know that they are rushing, ship colonial militia. It should
arrive at about 6:45, just the right amount of time for them to usually
come. The coin that you got from the two early gold miners will give
you just the right amount for a colonial militia. But don't call it
right away; let your opponent take a TC -33% HP, or -50% HP. If your
towers and TCs have not already slaughtered a lot of his army, you can
call these guys, so that when he sees the TC less than half HP, he
could easily be suckered in to take it down. If you have called
minutemen, and he is running away, chase him down and kill as many
soldiers as you can (if they are infantry; most people rush with HI). However,
most people, when they see your towers, will probably not attack right
away. IF they do, however, they are in for a pleasant surprise...
Note: It is best to ship this as 3rd card in 2v2 games (double rush).
If your opponent lightens up a bit, 700 wood
is a great card. It will give you all the wood you spent on outposts
back, plus you can build a mill and a market (be sure to place the mill
in between your Town Centers, leaving the towers a bit out of the way
for later mills/plantations). I also like to build a barracks (200
wood) after I build 1 mill (400 wood), and a market (100 wood). Train
some xbows to fend off his men. Upgrade market (Especially WOOD
UPGRADES+COIN MINING UPGRADES).
Note: It is best to ship this as 3rd card in 1v1 games, 4th card in 2v2 games.
If you are low on resources and cannot afford colonial militia, ship 8
Crossbowmen or 6 musketeers. If you use these guys right, you can hit
and run with the crossbows, using the "ring 'round the rosy"
tactic, where you run in circles, utilizing hit and run on his men
while your Town centers and outposts mow them down.
Now the one big advantage you probably have over your opponent is that you can out-produce him in villagers. Always keep a constant stream of villagers unless building military is more important at the moment. This will let you outproduce him, and you will be able to advance before him in everything.
Your vils should look like this when the opponent comes: 10 on food (12 or 9
sometimes), 9 or 10 on wood, 6-9 on coin. You may have 25 vils, or you may
have something like 31 vils. Once your 2nd huntable group runs out (if
you heard back 3rd then that's great!) build another mill (you probably
should have 1 mill by now) so that you have 2, and that you have a good
food gathering rate. Your 2nd Town Center should keep queing villagers
on wood, and once the 1st Town Center gets at least 9 people on coin,
que vils from it on food - on mills and berries mostly.
4th/5th card: 700 food
You will usually be a bit low on food after building so many vils, but
you will have 700-800 coin hopefully. Once this arrives you will gather
this, and go to age 3. Otherwise, it will give you sufficient money to
que 3 vils from each Town Center.
Next step - Go to age 3 with the Exiled Prince (ages up very fast) OR 6 cassadors, or on a water map, I prefer 1 caravel +400 wood. I usually am able to 'tech up' to fortress around 11 minutes.
Keep queing villagers and upgrades you mills. Once you reach age 3, put
your 3rd TC back a bit to protect future mills/plantations. You should
have about 15 wood cutters+ by now. Tell the 3rd TC to que some vils on
the nearest resource. Upgrade your Towers, I repeat, Upgrade your towers ASAP.
Your 6th/7th card can also be Improved buildings or Treaty of Tordesillas. If you are being rushed, then this card is great.
The Improved buildings card provides 40% more HP for all buildings. That means your TC's get 9100 HP, and Towers get 2800 HP; even your houses get 1680 HP! Just imagine how many soldiers you get to kill!
6th/7th card: Treaty of Tordesillas - Bestieros upgrade card + Church techs
This card is great. 1st thing to do is to build a church and upgrade
milling. You may want to buy wood with food and coin to upgrade
Bestieros. This is insane if you get this, and will push you far above
him; especially if you spam them with dragoons/mercenaries. You can
build 10 of these guys for just 400 wood and 400 food...It's just
great.
7th/8th card: Land Grab
This card is
what makes you fly. It makes your mills and plantations relatively
cheap, plus they train really fast. This combined with Royal mint (10th), Textile mills (11th) and Refrigeration (9th) makes a super team. Upgrade the rest of your market upgrades.
Military
- Build an artillery foundry and que a couple culverins (2 or 3) You
should be able to spam Bestierio+Dragoon with a couple culverins and
mercenaries. OR, you can go hussars/petards, a very effective combo(make sure that you make him ring his town bell by trying to attack his vils). It takes 4 petards to bring a TC to 100 HP, and your hussars should be able to burn it down and kill many villagers. In addition, you can come with powerful mercenary armies or a industrial aged army - both very good against a player with no eco.
I will try to post my current deck so that you
can see; You should know what to do from hear, upgrading plantations
and building mass villagers. I can usually max out vils in age 3, but I
like to go to age 4 relatively quickly, just to get my opponent
worried.
EDIT - Excess Cards - Real life savers
- 5 ronin (Passage to Nippon)
- 5 mameluke (Hire Egyptian Mamelukes)
- 1000 food
- 1000 wood
- 1000 coin (I don't use this as much, but can be useful if you are building Mercenaries or cannons)
- 5 dragoons OR 8 Cassadors OR 9 musks.
Here are my decks:
Land, Land Asia, Mix Land Water, Water TurtleWC
Just a note: The card order AFTER your 1st 4 cards is just approximate. You may need to ship other shipments in place of them, all depending on the situation (such as 5 mamelukes for example).
Extra Tip -This strategy is weak versus: Dopplesoldner spam, Samurai spam, cannon spam (build 2 culverins then you are fine), petard spam.
I am currently striving to improve this strategy.
Hope this helped some of you out there!
Past Couple win comments: "Lame game!" "Lame game!" "This is gay!"
from the hand of,
murdilator