posted 03-08-06 01:44 PM EDT (US)
This strat or guide is built upon the following ideas and suppositions. Note that psychology plays a role as well.
-You donīt want the enemy to get the impression that you are turtling. Heavy turtling only discourages the enemy from attacking "lightly", so he will wait he has 5+ cannons to break through the fort, etc. While 2-3 culverins could remedy this, I am looking for a more dynamic, fun, and subtle approach.
-A turtle loses to a boom normally. To put in plainly, you get a fort for defense and the enemy gets a TC for vill production. Yes, we pretty much only see FFs and rushes, but that might change. I think with this strat you can boom well, too.
-An enemy that is ahead, with the game under control, is likely to ger more "relaxed" than a guy who is fighting for his life, trying to get back into the game. I dunno why, but it happens.
-On the same line, itīs hard to face an enemy that plays so erratic, and enemy from which you donīt know what to expect.
-One of a turtlerīs worst nightmare -at least non-dutch is having to build plantations while the enemy walks from gold mine to gold mine with the whole map for him. This is one of the reasons why I think Port arenīt the new cream of the crop some people want it to be. And also a point where the Russians have some say for this type of strat: oprichniki, blockhouses, cheaper halbs, Ransack card. The enemy might have map control, but make him sweat for it.
-The flow of the game and mmentum. A FF doesnīt look that good after the first waves of unit and merc shipments. This is also related to the point about map control. If you survive the first onslaughts you are in a good position to win the game. It just goes with the flow of the game. Some FFers go as far as to stop making vills for a few minutes after reaching fortress age. A bit too drastic IMO.
-Pioneers: an underrated card. Most times I donīt even bother to garrison the vills. All in all, it can save you some vill lives thoughout the game. I prefer this card to the colonial militia one, because itīs more subtle =) I find that they help me a lot more fighting than as simple resource gatherers who die to any weak threat. It also has a psychological aspect...how many times does one fight non-french vills?
-The livestock. This point is also related to the the prior point about upgraded vills. If you vills are fighting...well you lose villie seconds,and you need to make up for it with faster gathering -or more vills, duh. In this case, the livestock allows me to come back. What would be the alternative? Fight with vills and then task them to a mill?
-If your opponent attacks with 5+ cannons in early fortress you are in trouble. If I see 5+ cannons I think: 1-the opponent countered me well, 2-I deserve to lose, and 3-he knew I was turtling. The key is number 3, make sure you harass with the 5 cossack card or with 5 muskets in colonial to give the enemy something to think about. The supposition here is that a FFer will attack with asap, normally with the 2 falcs card. You can take care of 2 falcs, but not vs 5+ so early.
-You defend but you attack. The FFers have this strange habbit of not protecting their vills far way from home, namely hunters and gold miners. The idea is to harass when possible, with hackapells and/or opris.
-The goal beyond 15-20 minutes is to turn the game into a bunch of skirmishes and guerrilla warfare all over the map. Many times I donīt even go industrial.
-The unit combo of choice is muskets+oprichiniki, as weak as that sounds. They compliment each other well, and are efficient economically -they arenīt gold heavy.
I am not a fan of strict build orders, so you wonīt find one here. Instead Iīll go through the "overall" steps to get you going. -At first you gather food like normal. Go after treasures, etc. Most wanted are wood treasures. The first real decision comes when clicking to colinial. Check the enemyīs deck and scout his base at 3-4 minutes. If you donīt predict a rush, you can go lighter on wood during the transition to colonial: you need the market and the livestock pen. If you expect a rush, go a bit more heavy on wood: youīll want a blockhouse, market, and the pen -delay the pen a bit if necessary. -Look to age up with 17 vills. Sometimes itīs possible to go with 20, getting more woodies earlier. You are a bit vulnerable, but, most importantly, the cows will start to fatten later. Donīt bother grabbing a TP. You want the 4-cow politician. Get the pen upgrade asap. -In regards to your cards early game: donīt choose deck until halfway through colonial upgrade. This will make the enemy think. If you have a variation of the strat with the polar explorer card for treasure-heavy maps, by all means go that route and donīt follow the prior step. I find it just throws off my rythm, I am a simple mind, I am slow, and I mess up easily. -In case you are rushed, try to get the blockhouse up close to the TC, even better behind it, build a house, and send the 13-strelet card. Note that you normally have a shipment ready for when you reach colonial. -Else, you have a few choices. You can send the 5-cossack card, so the enemy canīt just gather safely without protection. Or you can send 700 gold and launch yourself to fortress age if you have lots of huntables around. Or you can also send the 700 food with the same purpose, on maps like sonora. Or you can send 700 wood for a more solid colonial, to get up 1-2 blockhouses, 1-2 houses, an ATP, etc. You can also send the 7 cows card. Again, this is very open for variations, I am just offering a guideline. Age up with the faster-aging politician. If you donīt like this, go for the cossacks. There you are, in the fortress age. 80% of the times early fortress is the key part of the game. The goal with this strat now? Survive. Do anything there is in your hands to survive at this point. Sacrifice vills to take out a falconet, suicide muskets so a TC doesnīt go down, focus fire with vills on pikes/landsknekts, etc. Everything that lets you stay in the game is valid. Iīll try to give some tips to make it happen: -You want 2 blockhousesat least when you reach fortress. Upgrade to veteran muskets, and pump some of them. Cows shoudl be ready by now. Put 6 vills on 1 cow, and pump 10 muskets asap. Donīt stop making villagers. Your vills should be distributed more or less evenly among all 3 resources, You want to have some wood ready, for another blockhouse or houses, but you also want to have some gold, so you donīt get caught with your pants down when you need a couple culverins or a set of mercs. And you also want to have some food, for vills/muskets: you do not rely solely on the livestock for food, you need another food source...5-6 vills on berries hunting, or a mill near the pen -so you just transfer the vills from one to another. -Try to spread out your base to cover 1 extra gold mine and/or a forest. The more spread out you are, the better. With this reasoning, my first card in fortress is normally 1000 wood, helps me a lot to build a TC and houses/blockhouses. -Worst case scenario: a FF has just taken out your main base. Resigning looks like an option. Donīt! Move your villagers, build another blockhouse, move the cows, flee to your second TC, and raid the enemy villagers. This is what you have prepared for, you can come back thanks to the livestock. Obviously, if the fortress attack was flawless and you are left in shambles and above all, with many vills lost, then just resign. However, most times you have an option. I have come back with this not 1-2 times, but more like 4-5, losing my main TC and a few times playing without TC for a a couple minutes. A FFer doesnīt have that strong of an eco! -The 6 opris shipment. Use it to take out artillery IF unprotected. Else just raid with them. Your buildings are going down? tough luck, but never fight with these 6 opris, use them to to make the enemy think about his own safety at home. You are now in late fortress, the moment you start to make an impact. Advanced arsenal card is sent, fencing school is sent: you can start puting the harm on your enemy. Some things you are sure of: he wonīt like 5 buffed up muskets creating in 10 seconds for 282 food and 94 gold, and neither will he like opris with 82 siege damage -cavalry combat card- with 1.3x damage to buildings. Be all around the map harassing. Remember AoC? this is closest you will ever get in Age3 to hussar spam. Get the ransack card that gives muskets an extra 6 siege damage and that just sucks for the enemy. Dragoons are the only thing that could counter this, but in reality they donīt, since you just move the opris behind some muskets, and focus fire with the latter. If the enemy reaches industrial age, so what? you can take out heavy cannons with opris. Ok, not if they are supported, but remember you are all over the map? The enemy army better be spread around the map also, if he wants to save his eco. Itīs easy to just focus heavy cannons with 5 opris as they walk. The good point about this start is that isnīt even perfected, you can vary it as you please and keep the general view intact. You could use colonial militia, or the improved buildings card. Also, I know this isnīt the end-all strat, but still an effective way -for me, at least- of playing the Russians, and thatīs saying something. I have gone up 150 points since the patch, hitting 2025 rating which was just unthinkable for me, using all sorts of livestock strats. This one is the best of them all, and muskets/opris the best unit combo for Russians. But most importantly, that strat is just hella fun, I invite you to try it out. Hope you enjoyed reading, Iīll post reps asap.
So, the first card...an important decision. You have 2 choices: pioneers and stockyards. If you expect a rush, then get pioneers. Else I would go with stockyards. Note: if you found 1-2 xp treasures, try to get both! Pioneers or not, you want both market upgrades for the vills. Some shots from vills to a falconet can mean a TC stays up.
Oh, if you found some sheep or llama, aging up with 400 wood politician instead of 4 cows is an option.
Usually though, what I end up doing is sending 5 cossacks and 7 cows as the first 2 cards in colonial, in no particular order. The third card is 700 gold to get me to fortress. 3 is the average number of cards I send in colonial.
Also I suggest not getting strelets, just vs heavy infantry, etc. My win% has gone up significantly since I stopped using strelets.
As far as maket upgrades, I am content with the first upgrades for wood and gold gathering. I get hunting dogs if there are lots of huntables. Anyway, I research the wood upgrade as soon as I get the market up during the disc-colonial transition, no matter what I am against.
My blog, for WC3 and AoE3 strats and articles:
http://unjugon.blogspot.com/
My stats:
http://ratings.myllclan.com/prt/SA/1/TkC/unjugon.jpg
but i will still ask..
