im not sure what to criticize first...

The aim of this is to get you to third age fast, nothing more, nothing less, and it achieves, also i live in Perth aus too, wat suburb you in?

well if your aim is to get in fast then you shouldnt have to be mining gold at all really. Besides that, you talk about being tributed resources as though thats a viable strat. 99% of the strats on these forums are designed for use in 1v1 as regardless of the game those are undoubtedly the fastest available. 1: i dont see why what you described is a port ff in particular, this is what all HCs do. 2: the goal of an ff is not to just get there but to have viable military options when you get there, mostly from merc cards.

edit: and if your end objective is to, i believe the quote was "spam villagers from all tcs" thats not an FF, thats the lead up to a boom. (a defenseless boom at that)

[This message has been edited by Cptbuck (edited 06-03-2006 @ 00:28 AM).]

I stopped reading at "Your first shipment should be 300 gold".

firstly, the reason why i mentioned that u might need tributed resources is because usually a 200-300 gold treasure is good (u can find this on most maps), but otherwise u might need to borrow it from ur partner if its a 2v2.

The reason why the first shipment is 300 gold, is because it takes roughly 40 sec, and u spend under 40 seconds in the second age before you start advancing :S

try this before you judge it, if performed right, u can have a fort up by 6 minutes, and over 40 villagers by 8 minutes

Sorry to be harsh, but consider this:

I have arrived at fortress at 5:45 with 14 villagers with no army and 700 food. You are going to have to wait a while for your next shipment. 1:15 - 1:45 later (say I'm Spain) I fortress with 24 villagers, a barracks, a trading post and a shipment. I immediately queue 5 skirms to combine with my 8 age up pikes and ship in 2 falconets. This force will be in your base anywhere between 7:30 and 8:00. My shipments and units will keep flooding in while my 1 tc eco outstrips your 3 as you are forced to constantly garrison villagers and began the fortress age with a 10 vil lead.

If you do this strategy and your opponent is aggressive, you will die. Period

I want to see a rec game using this strat vs someone 1900+ who either rushes or goes for an agressive FF

for ur second shipment, 700 food is only if you want to boom, and you are in a team game and ur friend is rushing, but otherwise it is wise to save ur shipment, n ship in either 2 organ guns or fort, I have 100wp with ports, using this strat < It owns,

And yes gambler, I used this on a French Colonel, i think he's cuetech waas smthn like 1965, and he tried a aggressive FF< attacking me with musks and xbows, but my fort was to much for him.

I think the only way this could work is if your enemy is slow and you set up your base well so you can get tc fire when he comes to attack. That being said I dont know what this FF does for you besides getting to fortress fast and having to make villies so your economy isnt completely useless. Think of it like this: does this give you an significant advantage for a tradition FF? Can you get more villies using this strat rather than the other in the same amount of time?

lol... what if enemy rush? does 2 tc and 1 fort wagon or 2 organ guns cover you up? This probably works at 1750 level, but you cant really get anything better than 1950 whit that,because:

Russia: usually easy game for ports, because russian rush cant beat ports turtle... when he sees your deck or that you sended 300 crates, he goes for rush. You age up at 5.45 (on carolina and hispaniola (lol)) so in any regular map that would make i about 6.15 or later (which can be made whit 700 gold shipment also... (save first shipment, age 10 or 11 settler, 700 gold, and then some defensive shipment, fast age up.) At the time you reach the fortress you have 50-33 sterlets at your base depending on enemy skills. All shipments are doomed, because they get wasted right after they come up (mamelukes are only possible, but you cant get that much gold if you pull that kind of FF). Your enemy will just reinforce his/hers troops, and kill you off

Ottoman: No need for long post... abus and janissaries against 14 minuteman, and 2 tc. you get wasted.(ports)

germans (lol): enemy makes ff, he arrivesto your base between 8 and 9 minutes whit 1 or 2 group of mercs, uhlans and skirmishers. At same time he will be getting gold for some more mercs, or cannon spam. he will arrive at your base, which has fort, 2 tc, and like 35 settlers, and 1 military shipment, and other probably in the way. when enemy sees fort, he either ships landsknechts (not so good option)
or makes 5 falconet. when falconets arrive at about 10.30, you might have like 50 settlers 3 military shipments, and like 5 units made from fort. while your enemy has 1 or 2 pack of merc, 14 uhlans, +10 skirms, 5 falconet and 3 war wagons... no need to say who wins.

french: might actually work against them, bcz they are so slow, and therefore you can take map control.

Spanish: agressive FF as mentioned before

Port mirror match: regular FF will beat this one, because its capable for better booming, and can use cards like schooners, or other good cards.

British: when enemy sees it coming he can just go for full manor boom, and knowing that you cant attack really before 10 mins, lets him totally boom, which will alwasy beat your boom. His /Hers army will maybe be bit inferior when you attack, but he can reinforce lots faster, and units you have left from fight cant really do a shit to him.

Dutch: 3 banks and 7.30 tell you anything special?

Wow, i made this pretty long post Well the point of it is that peoples have tried it way before you, and the reason that you dont see peoples doing this, is because it is too easy to counter. and in +1900 leads almoust sure win for enemy.

One question: what is the point in this strat? To be able to use 3 tcs faster? To use age 3 units faster? I still dont get it, there are way better ways of playing the ports. If you do eco ff go for market ups instead and if you want to play afressive use another civ. Thats the boring thing about port, they can only do one single thing, ff-boom bla bla bla...how can it be fun to play them at all lol..

Portugese actually have a fair few different strategies. You can go aggressive, (age up really fast to age 2 and strangle them with nice tc placement) water boom, ff boom or even FI...

They are fun to play however if they do a defensive boom they are a bitch to play against