choose as many settler wagon cards as possible, then black riders and/or jaegers or factory... settler wagons are a must or else germany won't get the resources needed to get the mercs (unless they use resource cards which could lead to defeat once the german realizes he has no economy and all his mercs are dead :s)

TGE

You'll be too happy to see merc. army.
Gold shipment cards/ mining upgrade go very well with merc strat.

Thanks for the fast replies!

So, for example, I should choose:
1) The 2 settler wagons (age 1)
2) The 300 gold shipment (age 1)
3) The 600 gold + 2 Ulans shipment (age 2)
4) The mining upgrade (in the German game version is called "Silberschmied")
5) 14 Jaegers
6) 10 Black Riders

and with my necxt skill points perhaps:
7) The factory
8) The next settler card
9) Other Merc Cards

Or is this too much economy? ^^
Anyway - how many shipments will I get until Age 3?

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um, its 3am, its a holiday, and guests still havent left my house. and im wasted. anyway, ditch the 300g in age1, u'll only use one shipment pre-age2. anyway, what tge said. use your settler wagons. they're the bomb diggity, yo. im not sure what u're asking by "how many shipments will i get until age3" but you have a max of 10 cards in each age. anything more than that and it runs off the screen and u cant select them. so if in doubt, use as many age2 cards as u can (up to 10), that way u ensure you'll be using them instead of having to wait until u get to age3 to use cards.

Definitely go for all of the Settler Wagon cards, they can make a huge difference in your economy, also, when your level 25 you can get a card that lets you train Settler Wagons from mills, make sure to use that one.

Also, don't bother with the 300 food and 300 gold cards, sending in Settler Wagons and tasking them to those resources is far more effective in the long-run.

[This message has been edited by Dark_Jedi06 (edited 11-25-2005 @ 01:01 PM).]

Go for 8xbow+2uhlan (age2). It's seriously great, you can't survive vs good ottomans without it. Don't forget 3 settler wagons (age2) either, they're worth 6 regular villagers - more than other civs can mount at that time. Plus you get the 2 uhlans.

I would use Coin shipments to help pay for mercs.

i would def. get the 11 landsknects card over the Jaegers. The factory is also a must have

What are the Hackapells and the Black Riders good against ?

Everything.

Hackapells are heavy cavalry with a huge melee attack (so artillery, skirms, etc), Black Riders are basically souped up Dragoons (anti-cav).

Thank you all!

So, for example, I could "buy" the following cards by my 6 skill points:
- the 2 settler card (age 1)
- the 3 settler card (age 2)
- the 8 xbowmen + 2 ulans (age 2)
- the factory
- the 14 Jaegers
- the 11 Landsknecht

As I understood it, both Landsknecht and black riders are anti-cav - correct? so why not take Jaegers and Landsknecht instead of black riders?

Edit: Coin Shipments spoil too many skill points, as I havent the 300 gold shipment yet

[This message has been edited by GeneralLee07 (edited 11-26-2005 @ 03:53 AM).]

Landsknecht are also good building destroyers, while Black Riders aren't. Landsknecht are like souped-up Doppelsoldners.

Haven't played them yet but with this thread and the possibilities I'm definately gonna try them one these days

Cheers

Black riders are gods. 520 (540?) HP, 40 dmg x2.5 cav, 40% slash armor, 7.25 speed. They will rape any cavalry unit, except war wagons I guess. They can easily catch any cavalry unit, they have range, so they can hit and run, and they can raid villies due to their speed. Landsneckts are also good, they will rape any melee cav unit, and they have a good siege atk of 72. They are slow however, so ranged cav or ranged infantry will eat them. Jaegers kick ass, 250 hp, 27 dmg x2 (or x3 with counter infantry rifling) to infantry, 20 range, 5 speed. They're super skirms basically, and they'll rip through any infantry. I wouldn't recommend getting hackapells...while they have 121 atk, they only have 295 HP and die too easily.

You definitely NEED:

2 settler wagons (age1)
3 settler wagons (age2)
8 xbows (age2)

Instead of the factory I'd get black riders, and get the factory later.

Why would you pay for all of those mercenaries when you could get the unique church improvements card from the cathedral which allow you to get all of your mercenaries for free for a small fee of 3000 coin instead of paying all that coin for each shipment of mercenaries and wasting valuable card slots in your deck for resource cards and settler wagons?

Quote:

Because first you need to send the church hc card, and then get the 300 coin. But I usually get 1 group of mercs first, and then a second after for 2400 coin and thats it. So it saves me 600 coin and a hc shipment.

I was suggesting putting all of the level 10 mercenary cards in the deck because if you use the unique church improvements card you get all of them for free saving you...well,lets see 1200 coin per mercenary shipment times 4 level 10 mercenary shipments thats (if I can do my math right)1800 coin you save for kick ass army that is virtually unstoppable especially if coupled with the improved mercenaries card(which increases you mercenaries attack and hitpoints by 15% and which you will also save coin with the church improvement card). This works even better with the 3 level 25 mercenary army shipments each valued at a price of 2400 coin now yours for the incredibly low price of 0 coin. If you can manage to mass these mercenaries together your opponent doesn't stand the least bit of a chance against you.

...if they haven't already rushed you bad. Getting six HC shipments and 3,000 gold lined up (and teching to fortress) kinda takes a while. That army is very stoppable.

[This message has been edited by Cloudchaser_Eagle (edited 11-27-2005 @ 01:14 AM).]

Bah, your opinion.

...which is otherwise known as "fact."

3000 gold is much harder to get than 1200. Not to mention the church card needs another HC shipment. Also, "wasting cards" on settler wagons? No settler wagons = your eco sucks = you're dead. Let's say you somehow manage to get a bunch of mercs. What happens when they're all killed? Your eco will be terrible, theirs will be fine, and you're screwed. I saw a rec, some guy did the exact same thing you're talking about, FF, no eco, Wallenstein's Contracts, got all four merc shipments, his mercs died, and he got steamrolled.

Whats the point in the crate shipments of gold etc?

Do the settlers gather from them faster or something? Because I see no need for them, I never have resource problems.

I've just now reached lvl 10 as Germany, and the only card I got post 10 is hot air balloons, which I like.

THE overall most important LvL10 card is 2 Settler Wagons in age1, closely followed by 3 Wagons in age2.

After that the Jaegers are awesome.

However against Ottomans you will ALWAYS loose as a German if he knows what he is doing and you haven't got the 8 X-Bows card in age2 - sad but true.

Ottomans Jannisaries can only be stopped by skirms (which Germany doesn't have in age2 despite being the country that invented them...) or by X-Bows. And having 8 X-Bows is the key to defeat an expert Ottoman rusher.

Many make the mistake to get Uhlans first against Ottomans, which is terrible. Get X-Bows first, 3 Settlers second and Uhlans third to raid his economy when he wasted his Jannis against your turtle.

Ok, guys - now I'm at level 12 HC and have all four merc cards as well as the 2 settler cards and the 8 xbows

And I love the Hackappells against light Inf or villies... they are just crazy! On the other hand Landsknecht are really helpful to take down outposts and town centres... Usually in age 3 i get these towi shipments and combine them with xbows and ulans, then attack. It's really great.

I havent tried out the black riders yet, but I will (and then: raid, raid, raid...).

Thank u all!

Lee did u play RoN?

I played it for three hours or so (together with a friend - I never owned my own version)... I liked Age 2 more than RoN, so I did not buys it.

There is a card of highest HC level called Germantown Farmers, which let you train settler wagon at mills. If you can train wagons Germans economy will be greatly improved. About 100w +100F/ wagon

I think someone already mentioned that card in this thread.

Now as I have the most imortant cards (mercs, xbos, settlers), I will buy the gold shipment cards (200/600/700/1000), maybe the merc improvement... and then save my skill points for level 25. Be sure I'll get Germantown Farmers.