AOE3 Forums

JRFoxe:

I was playing against Japan earlier. He had his first attack on me. He had like 26 jap musketeers, and 5 samurai. I had 18 of those Indian Skirms and 11 sepoys. His army crushed mine. How is that possible? Sepoy and Musketeers should be a close match, and the skirms should destroy them, and the samurai. What should I do next time to counter those units?

Learn to have better battle micro-management.

JRFoxe:

I was playing against Japan earlier. He had his first attack on me. He had like 26 jap musketeers, and 5 samurai. I had 18 of those Indian Skirms and 11 sepoys. His army crushed mine. How is that possible? Sepoy and Musketeers should be a close match, and the skirms should destroy them, and the samurai. What should I do next time to counter those units?

Just micro. And if you know unit stats well [like I do :-)] then quickly calculate or try it on the battlefield that how many fires does kill a musket. For example under normal circumstances Indian skirmisher kill Jap Musket in 6 hits. So you can select 6 of them to attack one. Then run for about 2-3 sec, then attack and so on. I know it would be hard for you if you are not a good observer or weak at maths. But still after some battles against Jap, you'll know how many skirmishers to use against 1 musket. Hit & run tactic works great for Skirmishers & Archers. :-) 

SunilD93:

probably best to attack/harass him early before his eco gets too strong.

It is really difficult to attack & harass Jap since their vills are near TC. And they have a very good economy early on so you can't just attack them effectively. :-(

Thats why most people consider them OP.

I think there is point said: Jap civ when managed properly has an edge over most civs - and especially India. I don't understand why some people start ranting about the micro management issue while in reality it is more about unbalanced civs than anything else. Sure theoretically they are balanced, but once the cap is reached, guess who comes faster to 130-150 after the battle takes over - India or the other civs? Yep, and the loss is never marginal. 

I think there is nothing good about India in this game. The gameplay simply down powers India to obsolete. The elephants cost too much population and the infantry/musketeers are inferior to enemy fighers at all level. Also the buildings are inferior to what the opponent has. In fact hitponts are anywhere near what the next guy has. I can't even think anything worse than have the enemy troops near my perimeter line (the walls) - at that point I can consider the game lost. Why? Because once the enemy enters the base the push back will likely cost India some of its wonders, which ends the so called edge(!) 

I have played India over and over again in order to discover their essence - it just isn't there. Lot of battles won, but that requires a handicap gameplay. Even with all the right cards deployed India is a bad choice. IMO India gets their butt kicked against a worthy player 100%. Enough said... it is not about micro management.

ChiefM  

India is like the number 2 civ behind japan, just learn to play :)

and the reason why you lost is you didnt micro at all. Another thing not mentioned is you want your skirm behind your musk because they have less hp higher attack and more range versus ashis.

Skirmisher type units are badly underpowered if you just leave them on the spot and hope they will win. But if you hit and run, they can kill a much expensive heavy infantry army.

Babri:

SunilD93:

probably best to attack/harass him early before his eco gets too strong.

It is really difficult to attack & harass Jap since their vills are near TC. And they have a very good economy early on so you can't just attack them effectively. :-(

Thats why most people consider them OP.

well most people consider india OP as well. if you can't get at his villagers go harass his shrines, those are part of his eco as well. You should also take map control as you will be faster.

ChiefMaister:

I think there is nothing good about India in this game. The gameplay simply down powers India to obsolete. The elephants cost too much population and the infantry/musketeers are inferior to enemy fighers at all level. Also the buildings are inferior to what the opponent has. In fact hitponts are anywhere near what the next guy has. I can't even think anything worse than have the enemy troops near my perimeter line (the walls) - at that point I can consider the game lost. Why? Because once the enemy enters the base the push back will likely cost India some of its wonders, which ends the so called edge(!) 

I have played India over and over again in order to discover their essence - it just isn't there. Lot of battles won, but that requires a handicap gameplay. Even with all the right cards deployed India is a bad choice. IMO India gets their butt kicked against a worthy player 100%. Enough said... it is not about micro management.

I disagree, india is definitely OP. Agra fort lets you immediately start training units when you age and also gives you phenomenal map control. Not to mention your units/unit shipments are also pretty strong. Eles are hard to build because as you said they cost a lot of pop, but the ele shipments and urumi shipments in age 3 are very nice.