AOE3 Forums

This strategy can definitely still work! You have to have a pretty tight execution of it, however, or a rush will likely crush you.

Including your 3 villager shipment, go up to the second age with 15 villagers, using the tower + 200g politician. If you haven't gathered 100g either through treasures or starting crates, get it while you age up to the second age. It's also a good idea to gather enough wood for a trading post, although if you do this, your execution must be very good, otherwise you'll be short food when you need to age up. Send everyone else to food.

As you reach the second age, immediately send 700g. Keep your tower close to your TC, placing it to cover resources (preferably hunt or a gold mine). Train two or three villagers in the second age. If you train two, you'll have some idle TC time, but you'll get up to the third age 15~ seconds faster. By the time 700g comes, you should have plenty of food. Place a bunch (5~) villagers on that shipment to gather it quickly.

Your two main politicians will be 8 pikes or 4 hussars. 400w + caravel is pretty awesome too, although it plays a bit more defensively. After 700g, send 700w and build a rax and some houses. After this, depending on whether you're being pressured, send 6 rods, 5 villagers, or keep your shipment for the third age. The best anti-rush is timing minutement, 6 rods, and 5 dogs all coming out and attacking at the same time with a TC filled with 10 vils (the timing can be tricky on this).

Once you're up, play agressively, shipping 2 falcs early, as that's far and away your best third age card. Protect those falcs well! I generally like to make skirms from the barracks, btw. =)

Here's a basic FF deck:

why don't you remove that fortification card from your deck, i don't see many uses for it, i'd rather have a card like that one that gives a +10 LOS for everything

BTW, it's my 999th post

ohyeah:

What is FF anyway?  I don't speek text message.  And, before I forget, loose one of those early troop shipments and get team inquisition.

FF means fast fortress, and the early military shipments are there in case the opponent rushes u beforehand and u need defense.

Zweihander:

I could see the uses of the Heavy Fortification card if it was an age 3 card,  but not when it's age 4. If it was age 3 you could send it after you FF and have a really strong defense. It being age 4 however seems like you'd have all that upgraded already if you were going for a defensive strat.

ES_MrMilo:

Zweihander:

I could see the uses of the Heavy Fortification card if it was an age 3 card,  but not when it's age 4. If it was age 3 you could send it after you FF and have a really strong defense. It being age 4 however seems like you'd have all that upgraded already if you were going for a defensive strat.

The idea is that you don't use towers particularly defensively. You use them to take map control when you have a fair amount of res (e.g. in age4). All of those upgrades are really expensive, which makes the card a great value.

Whatever a PR 40+ says... he's probably right xD