posted 03-23-06 08:22 AM EDT (US)
I. Introduction
II. How to execute
III. Tips and Tricks
First off, let me give a little background about myself so you know that some random noob isn't writing this. My ESO2 name is Stophon4, I have almost 800 games played, I am 2.1k+ on the cuetech ladder and 35+ on the ES ladder. I have played russia recently, and found out that they are much better than I thought they were. I can compete at a 2k+ level with russia! And if I can do that I'm sure everyone else can compete near to their normal level and still have a great time playing a under-used civ! I hope that you enjoy reading this strategy and hopefully put it to good use. The goal of this strategy is to have their tc down before the opponent can get his first shipment out after he reaches fortress. In order to do this you need to have their tc down no later than 8:00, or 45 seconds after they reach fortress. However, there is another way. If you are confiedent of your scouting abilities, you can take down their houses first, and hopefully house them so that they cannot ship a shipment once they reach fortress. Doing this you probably won't have their tc down until around ~9 minutes, but you wont have to worry about that dreaded 1 shipment. Anyway, heres a general BO for executing it: 1. Put all 5 vils on food crates, get a vil cued up ASAP, after you have it cued up put 1-2 vils on a wood crate and make 1 house. All other vils go on hunting And thats the jist of it.
2. Continue to make vils, ship 300 wood as your first shipment.
3. Try to click up no later than 3:00 if possible. Once you click up gather you wood crates with a few vils and then send 2 forward, you need to have a blockhouse up by the time you hit t2, so you may want to adjust the time you send your 2 vils fwd depending on the map.
4. During advance put 3 vils on gold and all the rest on food.
5. Once you reach the Colonial Age, shift a few vils to collect the wood crates, build 1 house and create a artillery foundry. Depending on the map and starting crates, ship X number of vils to wood, just make sure you dont get housed, remember, greanders cost 2 population!
6. Remmber that blockhouse, well you were spost to have been making muskets from it since the moment you reached t2,depending on your artillery foundry time, around 10-15 is prefferably, once you get 5 you need to hit him, once you get 10 go in and take a house, try not to engage minutemen though if possible.
7. Ship in 700 food as first shipment, do this so you can keep constant production of vils and so that you can have that food for greanders.
8. Next shipment can change, I normall like shipping in 600 food to keep making vils and grenaders.
9. Once you get 10 musk and 5 grenaders go atttack him, like I said, here you can either go for houses or the tc first, your choice. The clock should be around 6:45 usually.
10. Get another 3-5 grenaders and have them target the tc. From this point forward create muskets and villagers, dont create more grenaders unless you have less than 8. If you are facing german you may want to make more greanders instead of muskets, however if he gets his first shipment out you'll be wishing you had made muskets.
11. Around this time your opponent should hitting t3, if heis german have your greanders target the skirms and musks on his tc. (Since he should have 7 skrima ge up, if he has 4 dopples then have muskets on them and grenaders on tc). If he is spanish he should have 10 pikes, just have musks kill pikes and then back on tc.
12. At this time you either win or lose (normally), if his tc went down before his first shipment, then you usually win. If his tc didn't go down, then you usually lose. Even if you went for his houses, youll be finding out whether you got them all or not around now too. If he does get his first shipment, you may be able to beat it, but you'll be low on army and wont' be able to finish up on his tc usually (unless you get a german 9 skirm shipment), but normally spain 6 lancers and german 9 uhlans will beat ya (unless you have a ton of muskets, but even then lancers can prlly take em).
-Always have your explorer scouting for stray vils and houses, killing 5+ vils can insure that even if he gets his first shipment out, you will still have a chance.
-A variation is only creating 5 grenaders and then going straight muskets, its better at lasting through his first shipment, but much worse at getting down his tc faster.
-If you are super late getting up sometimes you can ship in 300 food and then go straight artillery foundry, its much more risky but can sometimes save a game.
-Always create vils, its just imperative to winning, especially with russias lack of vil shipments
-Don't give up right after your rush fails, if you manged to do enough damage you may still have a chance (kill enough vils). If it fails, you have two options, you can keep creating military and hit him and kill his false sense of security, someitmes after a failed rush, he may take his two remaining lancers or uhlans and go raid while he ships in 1k wood to get his boom going because of a bad economy. If you can get like 5 greanders and 10 muskets out soon enough you may still have a chance. Your other option is to just ship in 700 gold and go to fortress, it isn't great though, but if you hurt his economy you may still have a good chance
-On the contrary, you could just stop after you have made 15 musk and 5 grenaders and go to fortress, while your rush is mor elikely to fail you are more likely to be in the third age with a better eco fast.
Well anyway, thats the strat, and I hope you enjoy it.
Originally posted at Gamerreplays.org
