posted 06-16-06 04:57 AM EDT (US)
This is the strategy that have been using for the past few weeks with my Russian home city. It begins quite similar to ultimitsu's Russian fast fortress. I use the 20 settler colonial with 500 food age up combo that ultimitsu devised and then play aggressively from then on, using multiple military shipments and maintaining villager flow. I have had much success with it, often beating players ranked up to 10 power rating levels above me. The strengths of this strategy are the following: That last point is actually very important. Almost everyone expects a Russian player to rush. I've even shocked some higher level players with my fortress time. One (German) opponent simply said 'Umm...' when I reached fortress before he did. There are also some problems with this deck: On that last point, it's obviously a very tall order for having a level 60 home city. It is however needed for the 500 food. You I know what you're all wondering; can this strategy beat the German FF? I am pleased to say, 'Indeed it can!' I've won the last two games I've had against German. The first was 5 power ratings higher than me and did a standard fast fortress; I started by destroying his trade routes then locked him in his base using town centres. The second was only 1 level higher than me and tried a reasonably slow Nootka rush. I've included record games of both of these as they demonstrate the strategy well and everyone always likes to see the Germans lose! As I said earlier, this deck does not require any specific cards. The cards you choose is really up to you, however there are some strong recommendations I would make. The above cards are highly recommended. I don't think As for the other cards, choose cards that will aid your aggression. I suggest at least another 2 fortress age military-based shipments (eg. 17 strelets, 11 musketeers, Advanced Strelet Training). This is my current deck. I'm always changing it around so I wouldn't expect you to copy it card-for-card but instead just use it as a reference point for your own deck. Notice all my colonial age cards and the 300 wood card. Those are there to trick my opponent into thinking I'm going to rush. It also deters them from trying a rush themselves as it looks as if I am heavily prepared. That only works if you reveal your deck though so having these cards is up to you. You could leave them out of your deck and keep your deck hidden but like I said, it's your decision. Okay, so this is the actual strategy. I'll simply list the build order and then give some additional details at the end of each section. I cannot emphasise enough how much you need to herd. If your villagers are ever more than 3 seconds away from your town centre then a raid or rush Regarding treasures, I recommend getting wood treasures for houses first. You may have noticed that making 20 settlers completely fills your population meaning you can't ship units if you need them. And while advancing: Not really much to say here. Have your wood cutters cut at the single trees close to your town centre first as these are the most protected. Build your houses and church in front of your town centre to act as a sort of wall. Have them still in range of the town centre though: we don't want to lose them but I'd rather lose them than our settlers or TC. This is where build orders go out the window and the real strategy comes in. Our goals in this age are to: and to If you sent for upgraded church you will have 2 shipments when you hit fortress and another shipment arriving just after 9 minutes. The first card sent should always be 1000 wood so that you can afford the Kalmucks from the church. The second card depends on what your opponent will have. I usually send 17 more strelets since they seem to do well against everything and the Kalmucks can take care of everything that counters them (melee cav and falcs). The third card I usually send for one of the following: This army that you send for is going to be very population consuming. You really have to pay attention to what you queue first. Queue settlers first since they require 3 pop space. Then queue military shipments, they require just 1 pop space to ship. Once you have sent for all your military cards, send for the Kalmucks. The great thing about the church units is that you can be completely under-housed and still send for them. Keep in mind though that if you want to keep up settler production you're going to need to build more houses. Because of this it's important that you queue as many settlers as you can so that they keep coming while you get those houses up. You should be able to beat any other FF army with yours and still have some units left over. Depending on your casualties, try to get some more strelets out but DO NOT attack your opponents base. Your armys purpose now is to guard your explorer while he imprisons them with town centres. These are some of the different armies I like to have. Units are listed in the order I ship them (ship 1000 wood when it says Kalmucks, note that Kalmucks are listed first because I send for the 1000 wood first. You should actually call out the Kalmucks This army would also theoretically work against a Russian that doesn't rush, however I'm yet to encounter such a player. If you expect a fast Russian rush, just send for 300 wood early on and build a barracks. Strelets won't be able to take out the barracks before you get to fort and most of them will die anyway. Just continue with your shipping (you can skip the Kalmucks if you're low on shipments), take out the forwards base then overwhelm him with your superior army. For those of you playing at home, you may have noticed that I haven't written up anything for against the Portuguese. I've only played one Port with this strategy and unfortunately he was a Brigadier (I'm a Major) so it was a pointless game anyway. I honestly don't know what to do against Port as Russian. Dragoons, minutemen and town centres are a bit too much for your army to handle and you can't out boom them so I'm afraid you're on your own when it comes to Portuguese. Sorry This is often the turning-point in the game and also varies very dramatically. I will however try to share some of my experience with you. What you do depends a lot on how much of your army survived (I actually assume that it did, against another FF, you should If your army is still quite large and If it doesn't look like a good idea to attack then simply move your units close to his base (but not in it), preferably near some gold or at least hunts. This is your way of gaining map control and putting him on the defence. You should be getting close to 600 wood stockpiled. Have your explorer come down behind you troops and build a town centre next to some gold. Your army has to protect him while it goes up. I recommend also trying to get a barracks up nearby and then do the same on the other side of their base. You should be booming settlers and queuing strelets as much as possible. Your primary objectives are these: No gold => Watch the game against Fire_Dragon (British). The image below is of the mini-map once I had established map control. This is exactly what I expect to happen with this strategy. Two town centres, one either side of his base. He starts to build falconets and even manages to take out a town centre but I hold back and before long he is out of gold. Also notice how I put the second town centre right on the coast. This would have harassed any fishing boats if he made them. He can't build falconets and can't build cavalry. I soon overpower his massed long bows with strelets and a few falconets for siege and its game over. poita (Russia) versus h0xy (Germany) poita (Russia) versus MaceOfAlandris (Germany) poita (Russia) versus Fire_Dragon (British) First off I would like to thank ultimitsu for inspiring me to try a 20 settler Russian fast fortress. In the last 3 days I have gone up around 125 points on cuetech thanks to this strategy, beating German FF, British booms, a German rush, Ottoman FF, Russian rushes, Spanish FF, French FF and being torn apart by one Brigadier's Port FF. It's opened my eyes to the power of the town centre and map control and I've definitely become a better player since using it. I hope all the other Russian players out there at least give it a go, as long as you don't use it against me [This message has been edited by poita (edited 06-17-2006 @ 05:34 AM).]
Plan: Get 20 settlers and do a
Build order:
Plan: Collect 500 food and advance. Send no cards. Keep herding!
Build order:
Plan: Conjure up a huge army using shipments while continuously producing settlers and then start gaining map control.
And if your opponent is still in colonial booming
Fast Fortress versus Fast Fortress
Fast Fortress versus Nootka Rush
Fast Fortress versus Turtle/Manor Boom/Longbow spam
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- - Civ: Russia + Dutch - -
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