So theres 3 option for you.

1- Find a way to counter them.

2- Dont play agaisnt pro ports player.

3- 1950 is too hard for you.

[This message has been edited by ChowMein (edited 03-11-2006 @ 07:03 AM).]

early age2 rush does good vs ports
early FFrush does good vs ports

Ottos are exceptionally good vs Ports
but spanish is a very good choice vs Ports aswell (FFrush with pikes, falcs and lancers)

Quoted from Luckyass:

If they ship Ronin your rush is gone.

[This message has been edited by ChowMein (edited 03-11-2006 @ 07:14 AM).]

no
ronins beat all melee units, its very easy to kill them with ranged units or falcs.
microed skirms pwn ronins. ronins die quite fast from ranged units. they have 500 hp but you only get 5 off them.
just dont attack them with melee units since they have high melee resistance and high melee splash damage.

Yes

When you do a FF with a spanish pike rush you usualy have 10pike + 14pike + 2falconet + 5 skirmisher + one barack. When ronin are shiped it takes 1 sec to react and your pikemen who were rushing your tc are already dead and after your falconet is trying to escape but get killed by ronin. Now you have 5 to 10 skirmisher, than your rush is dead, now boom.

Watch this game if you want to be sure: http://agesanctuary.com/index.php?s=d6bf4c0b7f58cb051d7de5caf4989e9f&portal=AOE3&fview=2&showtopic=55826&#entry586459

spanish FF wont work well, since port can age up 7.30( while having 8 xbow/6 musketeer/2 outpost guarding strategical elements), have best skirm in game (cassadore) and can ship in 6 goon immeaditly, they can keep bumping vills all the time, and spanish dont really have anything to counter them exept fast pike rush of about 20, because 2 tc it comes even harder. If spanish ships highlanders, cassadores mow them up, they kill skirms, and if you go for cannons, ports will probaply have atleast 1 culverin ready, lancers get killed by those dragoons, which you dont have any good counter when port has cassadores.

ES made ports have ultimate unit combo, by A)making cassadores best skirmishers in game B) giving culverin 40 range.

Peoples think that lack of 3 age siege makes ports suck... well IMO it doesn´t matter and it makes the line between ports OP and ports are good.. you can use ronins, but they get easily killed. Usually i contain enemy in his base, put outposts to guard strategical objects like hunts, gold mine and wood, and start booming/ goin indrustial. The thing is, that they cant outboom me anymore, if hes not british. Every second they got left more and more behind my economy, and at the moment i hit indrustial, enemy has no change anymore.

If someone got bored and didnt read that messy post my conclusion is:

There are no unit combo that beats cassadore, dragoon, and culverin ( organ gun makes it even harder).

As I know from experience, Port got all the counter units in its arsenal, but the lack of siege early on. The fact they can't dominate with their own units makes it still hard to play with. (They always need to scout and use their counter units against it). When facing a rush, Port will get a hard time, especially when ya placed the 2nd TC forward near a gold mine or summik. This way the enemy can take out both little bases pretty easily. They can't be OP imo, but the patch made this civ definetely fun to play with.

ports are seriosly NOT op, there FF army is fragile and mostly composed of shipments, there eco does not take of until about 12 minutes. if you destroy there army before this time they usualy loose. you must play on the offensive at all times and make sure your army does nothing stupid (attack a fort)

they are balanced. they still fall to most rushes (1000+ hp doesnt do squat) and there army lacks any real punch in age3.

[This message has been edited by BloTo (edited 03-11-2006 @ 10:15 AM).]

What I don't like about the Ports is how every game I play against them are so long, and I get lazy.

if you say they are OP now, then they were OP before, the only bonus that the ports benefit drastically from is the culv upgrade and EVERY civ is given culvs.
it takes along time to figure out port strengths and to utilize them properly.

err.... they are certainly hard to beat

Quoted from argh_its_raa:

Every civ are hard to beat if its a pro.

there are many top players who started plating ports after the patch
that is wye they look to be op
they are a just well balanced civ now but they are definitly not op
+1 villie and a change of cassador cost cant make the most up civ overpowered

Sandman is correct,so much of the better players are now giving ports a try,and therefore people are often against people ratetd a few hudnred points higher than thm and are getting a whooping.
Im not sure about stonecold buta lot of the 1 trick ponies have been found as they are dropping down the points since the patch,and these same people are usually the ones that are claiming ports are OP.The trick to beating a port player is hunt depreivation,they need a lot of food to make settlers from 3 TCs and cassadors.
You mention culverins,you know you have them as well,if your a better player,you should be able to micro your culverins better...Falconets even do a nice bit of damage to culverins if they can get close enough,falconets slaughter organ guns and cassadors.
Mosasuaras also brings up a brilliant point.So much of these 1 trick pony players cant play past 15mins in a game,or even 10 when their mercs or jans/abuse guns have done their damage but since this isn't as easy to do,they can't handle it.These are usually players with inflated ratings as well because of this.
Also forts are VERY important against a portuegese player,they can not take them down very easily,and if they do,they were a beter player anyway.A much better player

[This message has been edited by Miain (edited 03-11-2006 @ 01:14 PM).]

Can i take back my post plz. I just beat a 1900 port lvl 34.

Ports are so not OP there just good

Just make sure you keep map control, make sure you are very aggressive and make sure you dont let him use his counter vs you when going vs a port. Ports are a counter unit civ that needs a bit of time to get off the ground. Make sure he doenst get either of those strategy paths. Also use tons of culvs and falcs vs em.

[This message has been edited by Mokon (edited 03-11-2006 @ 01:53 PM).]

Quote:

spanish have a way better early economy than ports. They also have faster shipments and the ability to gather more treasures.
Ports need time to set off, just like Mokon said.
So if u go real agressive early fortress they can be hurt very badly.
If they spread out their tcs u must kill those off firstly, then ports main bonus is gone.
If he chooses to place them together closely take mapcontrol with fort, tcs etc.
Meanwhile stay agressive with lots of pikes, rods and lancers. Goons have a hard time hitandrunning rods and cassas die like flies to lancers. Let him garisson much, so their main focus (booming) cant be accomplished

Its the end of the world!

Cassodores are extremely powerful post patch. They are easier to purchase and didn't get the skirm speed nerf. I've recently run into ports several times with my brits, and the port player massing cassadores and halberdiers with support from a pair of culverins is QUITE difficult to beat.

Massing hussars is great against ports. You keep map control, take away a lot of hunting (slowing down villie production), and you can tear up organ guns and cassadors. Also, they're faster than dragoons; just run away from them and hit the other side of the port's base.

You really have to raid ports in age2/age3.

I just watched a black ice spain rec and he did this:
When the other port guy was about to hit fortress he send hussars over to his tc to kill the tc wagon. You wouldnt expect that as a port player, 3 hussars coming in to kill your wagon. And its pretty effective as it takes away a bit of the port advantage: 2 tc in fortress instead of 3.

Out of interest how do you counter organ guns? my cav can't seem to get near them

Culverins,cavalry,towers

As a new Ports player, I can tell you that they are not OP. I have the hardest time with Spain, as others have pointed out.

Here's why:

1. They get 4 Hussars from Age 3 politician and if I am FFing along with them a smart Spain player send them to find and kill my 3rd TC.

2. Early falconets. As soon as Ports hit Age 3, they need to drop 300W to build a foundry, then 200W and 800G to build 2 culverins. A spainish player simply ships 2 falconets. Not only is is cheaper, they will be out before your foundry is even built. GG

I dont think Ports are as OP as everyone thinks, i mean they have gotten a bit beter but there anti infantry unit, the cassador is strong but the hp is very low which i hate because i played a portuguese person (this was before the patch)and i was spanish, the guy i played had beter eco, map control, army. but he was not as smart he had a few culvs i dont think he had any horses but all infantry i massed lancers and heavey cannons and slowy pushed him back. But what was funny was he mostly had muskets and cassadors and i had a hurt lancer so i decided to run him threw the map and scout so he ran into a few cassadors and one attack killed him so one lancer managed to kill like 5 of his cassadores, since the patch didnt change there hp they still die as fast. So the ports dont really have good anti infantry unless you use organ guns but they are only good agisnt infantry everything else is 0.5 damage and they also have low hp