-----The Idea-----
Spain seems to be a problem for many Dutch users. You may not have a hard time with Spain, but many do. So this little FF will help you out.

Now I am not claiming I invented this. No, I have seen many recordings to be inspired to make an Anti-Spain strategy. Groni recordings, an iamgrunt rec, and the general knowledge that a Dutch player must FF to have chance against Spain.

-----INTRO-----

Objective

The goal of this strategy is to age normally, get 2 banks up, make 10 skirms and ship 8 pikes to raid settlers and TPs or houses.
Then we get to age 3 ASAP and ship ruyters while making more.

Why ruyters? Well let's think about spain's shipments. They only have one shipment that can beat microed ruyters. That shipment is Highlanders, and it won't show up often in the spanish player's first few attacks.

Yes, they can and will make skirms, but there will only be a few at first to supplement their shipment army. Your skirms and shipments can kill those.

Cards Required

-3 settlers
-700 wood
-700 food
-8 pikemen
-9 ruyters

Very useful and recommended cards are:
-8 skirmishers
-8 halberdiers
-Military Reforms (halb speed boost)
-700 coin (just in case)
-1000 wood
-Bank of Amsterdam
-Bank of Rotterdam
-Tulip speculation
-Unique Church Card
-Fort
-Factories
-----Build Order-----

This is just a loose build order. This build order also does NOT take into account treasures. Getting a couple good wood treasure can open up a lot of options- go for an extra bank, an outpost, etc. Also it is possible to turn this from a semi-ff into a 3 bank straight up FF. You won't have 10 skirms and 8 pikes, however.

Remember to keep a near constant stream of settlers coming from your TC. I am sure everyone knows this but just in case.

Discovery Age
•Have 4 settlers mine gold and everything else on food as normal.
•CARD- 3 settlers.
•Age up when you have 17 villagers. USE THE 400 WOOD POLITICIAN.

Transition
•Split settlers up so that 7 are on food, 3 are on wood, and 7 are on gold. Queue a couple settlers.

Colonial Age
Set TC waypoint to your mine, as all created vills will go here in this age
•CARD- 700 wood, and
•Collect 400 wood, make a barracks and a few houses near TC(Use gold and wood villagers for most building jobs in age 2).
•Collect 700 wood and make 2 banks, as you
•Queue some skirmishers and add more until you have a batch
•CARD- 8 pikemen
•Make another batch of skirms.
•IMPORTANT: Once your banks are done shift 2 food settlers to coin. This leaves you with 3 wood gatherers, 5 food gatherers, and the rest on gold.
•Take your mini army of 10 skirms and 8 pikes to the enemy.
•CARD-700 food
•Use the 8 pikes to kill forward towers,TPs (but not ATPs-too strong) and/or houses, as your 10 skirms can one volley kill settlers.
•Collect the 700 food and advance ASAP. USE THE FAST AGE POLITICIAN

Note: If the enemy advances while your army is in his base, be ready for it, and kill the hussars/pikes. Retreat soon after he advances so his shipments don't destroy your small army. The skirms and pikes will help a LOT against his pikes/rods and falcs that'll come soon.

Transition
•Shift some gold gatherers to wood until you have enough wood for a stable, make one right away, then put the gold gatherers back on gold. It is a good idea to leave a couple of those vills on wood (for a total of ~5 on wood) so you can make enough houses or an outpost should you need it.
•You will likely run out of gold in your first mine (provided it is not a gold mine) during transition. Be ready to send your vills off to another mine.
•Make sure you have enough housing for your future shipments.

Fortress Age
•Queue 5 ruyters.
•CARD- 9 ruyters
Remember, you have a barracks and a stable, so use whatever units you need to use.
•Hide your skirms and pikemen from the falconets the spanish player has. Use TC to shoot falcs if they come too close.
•Use your freshly trained and shipped ruyters to kill the falcs, but don't let the pikes/rods get you. Once his falconets are dead, move in your skirms and kill his pikes or rods.
If the enemy is chasing your ruyters away from the falcs before you get too close, make sure you run the ruyters towards your skirms. Skirms will either kill or scare away the pikes so that they go back to falc guarding.
•Make sure you keep a ruyter to skirm ratio of 2 to 1 or so, to fight off enemy shipments. Attack him if you ever have the upper hand- your army is EASY to micro.
•Now it is up to you. Make a bank if you have extra resources, or go on the offensive and make an artillery foundry to make a cannon + ruyter army. It all depends on the situation.

The End

P.S. This strategy also works against other civs, especially in a mirror match where both players are going to FF or Semi-FF. You don't need to train ruyters.

Recordings :
On Andes, good example.

[This message has been edited by F1RE_FLY (edited 11-22-2006 @ 03:37 PM).]