Although I haven't played the Xpack yet, cant you try FFing? Sioux units doesn't seem to have a decent siege, so I suppose a good FF still works.

You should be able to FF since Germany can be hitting the age up button to age 3 before the Sioux player has anything near formidable to attack you with. That's the advantage against Russian players and Native civs (unless they use fast age up politician), since they advance rather late, you have a 30 second advantage or "safe-zone" which you can use to FF.

Spies and uhlans seem to do the trick coupled with crossbows.

Ya don't you get ulhans. I mean combined with a few other things you shouldnt do too bad.

The problem with uhlans is that they always get killed faster than they can kill. And that is without them using War Clubs or Axe Riders. Axe Riders are also a pain to your xbows.

I haven't really tried spies. They don't seem useful to me, as they mostly have their war chief nearby, and mostly, I lack the wood to build a church.

spies are warchief and explorer killers... damn do I hate them... and my warchief keeps trying to be macho and leading the battle... and I always have to keep him back behind the tomahawks and Aennas...

but remember... Souix warchief will probably be fighting in the front, so spies are great

But how much does getting his warchief down help? The Cetans are the problem, not the War Chief. Spending 250 wood and about 500 gold doesn't seem to be worth it just to kil their war chief.

i would agree with mediolanus germans colonial is just to weak against Cetan spams. They need a boost

just FF. German is probably the strongest civ in fortress besides spain (without shipment slowness they would be strongest) so a good FF will probably work, specially if you use TTC.

@Mediolanus. 5 spies shipment combined with the 9 crossbow gives germany an 18 unit army without training a single unit. Versus Sioux I usually use 9 crossbow, then 5 spies cards. Pikes are pretty good lversus warcubs(age 2 anyway); the combined 5 spies and 4 uhlans work well because they engage the cetan in melee while the crossbows pick them off. The spies seem to do pretty well versus the cetans on their own anyway. The largest problem I've run into is sioux raids; the 4 axe rider shipment combined with the outlaw shiment makes for a hard time attacking the sioux village. You're forced to use your already late rush to defend your settlers against raiders, and can't get the offense into his village to cause any damage to his econ. By the time you get up an army large enough to attack, or kill off his raiders, he's got a pretty good defense in his town from the renegado shipment.