posted 08-20-06 09:58 PM EDT (US)
! In fact, it doesnt even use mills!Ok, enough will that then ^_^. I have been struggling to find a decent time to present this, seeing as when 1.08 was first released every..single...person rushed. So an anti-FF strat wasnt exactly feasable. Now, however, with the rise of Spain as a top tier civ, I now have reason to divulge the....
By now most of you know the concept of this strat. Get a crapload of canons out ASAP and provide a decent meatshield. AKA: Black Watch. In previous versions, I have managed to produce no less than 8 BW and 5 falconents by 9:30. The updated for 1.08 version knocks as much as 20 seconds off this time (depending on if there are sheep/cows/llamas on the map), giving an incredible 8 BW and 5 falconets in as little as 9:10! It also adds another twist: the aggressive FF smash. We'll get to that. But for now.... We spend the majority of our time here in discovery age. The goal here is to reach 24 vills and 800 food no later than 4:30. Here's how to do it: -3 starting vills to food crates, other three go to hunts. Immediately after clicking age up to Colonial, switch 15 vills to gold, keeping 9 on food. This will allow you to obtain the necessary resources for fortress by 6:15 if you didnt get any treasures. 6:05 if you found 150 resources worth. -Dont queue any vills -As soon as you click the age up button, move 15 vills to food and task the rest to gold. It is best if you use a second gold mine as quick as possible so you don't run out at an odd moment such as stalling at 100 wood and 396 gold when you try to crank out that last falc. Now here is where you make a deciscion... Do I want to go on the offense? Or shall I defend against my opponent's assault? I will give advice on how to choose later in the guide. Let's go with defense for now. -Build a Trade Post with your scout with another 250 wood out of the 700. You now have 200 wood left. -You are finally here! After 8 minutes of intense vill micro (believe me, its pretty rediculous), you now get to reap the benefits. Now here is where the real kicker comes in. You still get the effects of Virginia Company! Once you have created the aforementioned army, shift 5-6 gold vills to wood. This will allow you a heavy boom with manors and still bring in enough gold for 9 highlanders by the time your next shipment arrives. At which time, ship the highlanders and move all but 3 gold vills to food and wood. As soon as you get 200 wood, build a rax and research veteran longbows. You now have an excellent economy and can spam longbows all day long. It never hurts to ship 8 settlers in either Instead of building a Trade Post with your 700 wood, send 4 vills forward to build a tower instead. Set the waypoint to that tower and follow the defensive build order for fortress. But instead of using this army for defensive purposes, you can now unleash your mighty powers on your opponent's own base! You will receive shipments a tad slower than had you built a trade post, but this is more than made up for by the walking time. It takes forever to get falcs all the way to your opponent's base from your own TC. Don't forget to build the foundry forward too ^_^. Ah yes... There are two factors that contribute most to which version you wish to take: what civ your opponent is, and what strategy you have deduced he is using. It is not difficult to figure out the former, however, the latter takes some skill in scouting. Here are a few scenerios for you (all of them are different types of Fast Fortresses, seeing as that is the strat which this one is designed to defeat): Well, this is pretty much the only FF that Spain does. The defensive version is a much better choice here, as your forces will arrive in sync with your opponent's. Your Black Watch will take out his age up hussars/pikes and will handle the lancers he is no doubt to send as his first shipment. All other shipments he sends will be piece meal for your massive falconet squad, including his mercs. Watch out for Stradiots though, as your highlanders will not be able to prevent them from killing a few falcs. I suggest shipping either 9 muskets or 10 pikes against spain instead of 10 longbows to prevent the odd chance of stradiot ownage... This is the only strat portugal can do really. An aggressive FF that takes down their 3rd TC (and their second most likely. Goons + Cassas gets OWNED by falcs + BW) will cripple them into an easy victory. Aggressive FF all the way! I haven't played against many germans this patch, and I am not quite sure as to how they work nowadays. Any input would be highly appreciated. You will have to scout alot in this case. If you find a church go defensive. A stable is trouble: cuirs will go right past your highlanders and into your falcs. I would lean toward aggressive in this case. However, I advise sending in 10 pikes or 9 muskets instead of 2 falcs as the first shipment. That way you can take out the combination of skirms and cuirs or hussars or whatever with some decent micro, as well as being able to protect your artillery easily with your meatshield. Enjoy! __Sephiroth__ [This message has been edited by xMatt the Greatx (edited 08-21-2006 @ 09:37 AM).]
-Once you have collected 100 food, queue a vill and send two crate collectors to hunts. Set the TC waypoint to the nearest straggler tree.
-After collecting all food and wood crates, build a manor house. Set the waypoint to wood aswell. If you started with 300 wood, build another manor in addition to the first.
-Keeping 5 vills on food at all times, continue to create villagers, putting them all on wood.
-First card is
-As soon as it arrives, build as many houses as you can afford. Have all the waypoints go to wood. Every time you get another 88 wood, build another house.
-Once you have created 6 houses (70 population total) move the TC waypoint to food. Place all but 7-8 vills on food, keeping the rest on wood.
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-After you have collected wood for and built two more houses (waypoints going to food), move all vills to food.
-No later than 4:30, you should have collected the 800 food necessary for colonial. Kill a herdable if you have to, but you need to hit that button as soon as possible.
-Task 5-6 vills from a resource you already have enough of to reach fortress to collect the aging food. Remember that the crates will arrive wherever you set the TC waypoint to, so keep that in mind.
-Ship
-You should have the necessary reosources for fortress age by 6:15 at the latest. Click up ASAP.
-Collect food from all herdables you may have found at this time. If you have 500+ food in herdables, (ie. Texas, pampas, seguenay) you will only need 7-8 vills on food for the transition to fortress in order to collect the 1000 food for Black Watch.
-Immediately when the 700 wood arrives task 3-4 vills to it. Build a church with 250 of it as soon as it comes in.
-Once you have collected the necessary 1000 food for Black Watch, shift all but 6 vills to gold. Allocate those 6 remaining to 4 on food and 2 on wood.
-You should now have a shipment ready or 95% complete. Once the trade cart comes around a single time that shipment will be available.
-Call the Black Watch ASAP from the church. Now that they have arrived, you can start keeping constant vill production again.
-Ship
-Collect the 400 wood from age up with 3-4 vills and task the caravel (if the map has fish) to the nearest whale.
-Build an artillery foundry with the 400 age up wood. You now have at least 300 wood still in your stockpile (100 remaining from age up, 200 left over from 700 wood card)
-Queue as many falcs as you can with the gold you have. As soon as you reach 3, move 3 gold vills to wood so that you have a 4-5-15 vill allocation.
-All 5 Falconets and the 8 Black Watch highlanders must be on the field no later than 9:30. Anywhere between 9:10-9:20 is an excellent time.
-Make 2 more falconets when the resources come in.
-Ship
-You now have 7 Falconets, 8 Black Watch, and 10 Longbows. All before 11:00 (and as soon as 10:30 ^^).
Now...remember what I said earlier about an aggressive version? Well here it is:
So, there you have it! The British Fast Fortress Smash version 3.0 made for patch 1.08. Now, I remember something about advice on when to be aggressive or defensive....
Bah, I've run out of time. I'll just leave with this and add the rest later.
