Age1
A
Create 6Cdb+ship 3Cdb (14CdB total). Age up with 500 food. During the age up, build a market and research the mining tech and hunting dogs. Queue 3 CdB.
B
Create 6Cdb+ship 3Cdb (14CdB total). Age up with 400 wood. During the age up, concentrate most of your CdB on gold and 7-8 CdB on food. Queue 4 CdB.
Age2
A
Ship 4CdB. When you have 700 food, gather 500 food crates and age up when you have 1000 gold gathered from mining. Go up to age3 with any poli you want, typically I'll go for 4 hussars since I like to raid and keep my enemy on his toes. If you suspect your enemy is massing heavy infantry or performing a delayed rush, 6 skirms may be a better idea.
Once you've clicked age up, gather at least 300 wood for a stable and a house. Then spread your economy so that you have 10 CdB on hunting, 3 on lumberjacking for future houses, and the rest on gold. Amazingly enough, you will hit age3 almost at the same time as you would if you used 700 gold to FF .. but with a 31 villager effective economy.
B
Ship 4CdB. When you've gathered 1200 food and 1000 gold, click age up with any poli you want. Typically I'll go for 4 hussars since I like to raid and keep my enemy on his toes. If you suspect your enemy is massing heavy infantry or performing a delayed rush, 6 skirms may be a better idea.
Once you've clicked age up, Gather the 400 wood and build a stable, a house, and a market. Gather the necessary resources for hunting dogs and the mining upgrade, and research them as soon as you can. Then spread your economy so that you have 10 CdB on hunting, 3 on lumberjacking for future houses, and the rest on gold. Amazingly enough, you will hit age3 almost at the same time as you would if you used 700 gold to FF .. but with a 31 villager effective economy.
Age3
A & B
Ship 8 skirms when ever you receive your first shipment, and queue as many cuirs as possible. You should be able to have a batch of 5 at first, followed by another. If you aged with 4 hussars, raid! If you aged with 6 skirms see if you can hit and run your enemy's units if he forward based, or assist in your explorer capturing a large treasure.
When your 8 skirms arrive, take your 8 or 14 skirms and 5 cuirs and go on the offensive. Continue shipping in skirms, and then 2 falcs, while continuing the pumping of cuirs.
When possible, either buy some wood from the market or move CdB to wood so that you can buy a barracks, and then pump skirms and cuirs continuously. Remember to keep pumping CdB from your TC as well however, economy takes highest priority.
I realize many of you will probably question the market and economic theory. The whole point is to have the economic capacity to get as many units as quickly. With market upgrades, economic theory, and France's slightly superior economy in general, you can attain a 25% economy advantage over your opponent and overwhelm him. I can't remember a game in which I've used this strategy and lost, but it's certainly not flawless.
Obviously this won't work against most hard rushes. However, CdB do have an edge against most infantry units compared to villagers. If you think that he's rushing but your too far into your strategy to stop, research the villager techs at the market and your CdB become much stronger vs. your enemies units, and should, combined with MM, allow you to last long enough to reach age3.
Cards required:
3 CdB
4 CdB
8 Skirms
Cards recommended:
Economic Theory
1000 Wood
7 Skirms
3 Cuirs
2 Falcs
Cav Combat
Infantry Hitpoints
Cav Hitpoints
AA
Fort
Pioneers
Thoroughbreds
Factory
Robber Barons