Make cav to kill strets and musk to deal with coss, and micro good.

against russia i wouldnt do the double xbow since he has cav shipments to kill xbows and he can spam strelets like there is no tomorrow so pikes wouldnt help at all,

the best thing i would say to do if age normally, choose northwest territories cause its awesome

wall the crossings, age to fortress, build cuirs and shipp dragoons.

5 cuirs will take about 40 strelets, 5 dragoons will kill cossack hes shipped. might takes some practice and scouting to make sure he doesnt build really really close to you, but thats the best bet.

EDI:
okay so on nilla id say map could be new england, cause you can still wall two spots on there with a lot of land left to your self

[This message has been edited by iTech64 (edited 02-04-2009 @ 10:13 PM).]

choose northwest territories cause its awesome

'French vs. Russians (Vanilla)'

Hmmmm...

Anyway, I always found this matchup pretty hard as well. If he's only making strelets and cossacks though you can just go pure hussar. If he is rushing ship 3 hussars as well. Then if he goes musket you can use 8 xbow cards and cdbs to fight them off. I would also get a market as well, you will probably need the villager attack and hp upgrades anyway.

[This message has been edited by jonesk (edited 02-04-2009 @ 09:55 PM).]

definitely don't do double rax as russia will be able to out mass you and will have shipped cossacks to bring down your xbows really fast.

if i may let me show you one of my old strats
http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=15,36629,,all

do something like that at the beginning, just make about 5 hussars and then go fortress for curassiers+falconets. If he is massing muskets then add a rax and defensively use muskets to ward off his muskets/cossacks while getting his strelets with your hussars. A major key is to try and build an outpost or two in yhour base and use CdB hopping if needed. The idea is to play defensively(and raid, russia needs hunts really badly) until you get fortress.

Play defense, he will never get u, send 2 outposts and build near your TC, make a stable behind your TC and raid him and rape his strelets and cossacks with cav. Make some musk for the cossacks if u must. If he is trying to seige your TC, he is done. Your two outposts plus TC fire plus the un-garrison, shot, and garrison move plus CDB upgrades PLUS TC attack upgrade card (if you added this to your deck) plus minute men PLUS (finally) more minute men with the previously sent card (if you have the resources) will easily rape his strelets and cossacks and his eco will be raped. It was be a slow shift for you to take control, but do not go on the offensive unless your need map control. Being defensive will be the fall of him, remember to raid. Doing a double xbox spam is suicide.

Yeah Crazy's build looks pretty good, try that.

Also if the map is Great Plains (like 9/10 browser games on vanilla) you could try using lakota natives. I have no idea what your macro is like but if you can build a lakota TP before colonial you can get troops out before he does. Then when you hit the build limit you can either get a secon lakota TP up, or you can get a rax up for xbow/pike.

Lastly if you can scout his FB vills and he is cocky enough to send them almost by your TC, send some cdbs to where he is intending to build the BH. If you click them right next to his vills and then attack them in melee, they actually kill them pretty fast. If you can get to him quick enough his FB vills will die and his rush will be ruined.

Thanks for all the help guys.

as it stands, russian is one of the best civ and french is mid-core. so there is no sure way to beat it.

your best bet is to FF. get a market and great coat early, use TC to deter the cossack raid, fortress with 4 hussars, which should do dent to strelet army and can beat cossacks. depending on what he has at the time, choose your first shipment wisely - if all strelets, get 3 cuirs; if you see all 9 cossacks, get 5 draggons, if mix of strelets and muskts, get 8 skirms. build an offsite stable and build cuirs. they will beat cossack and strelets and do OK against russian muskts, as long as you have shipped skirms to back up.

if you want to fight colonial, ship 3 hussars, and do double rax xbows. vanilla crossbows still do 18 dmg, so they can kill cossack quite easily, as well as beat strelets on cost. the difficult thing about vanilla is that as french, you need a lot of cards for fortress and both factory cards for industrial, that leaves you only 8 cards for colonial and discovery, whereas russians tend to have 3~5 more cards at his disposal, making prolonged colonial warfare to his favor.

Play Spanish and FF versus Russians. Age with 4 Hussars for early Fortress raiding and for when he rushes, 4 Hussars + Minuteman should repel his rush. Ship 12 Pikes, 2 Canons, and 5 Lancers.

GG

Attack right away when you get those shipments. Don't let him contain you, be aggresive.

[This message has been edited by Droideka_11 (edited 02-05-2009 @ 00:48 AM).]

Yes just get those lancers and huss and you will own his strelets and the cannons will take care of the musk and the pike will deal with his coss.

Yes just get those lancers and huss and you will own his strelets and the cannons will take care of the musk and the pike will deal with his coss.

Yup, just make sure you can repel his initial rush though. As soon as you get those 4 Hussars, get your minutemen out with them. TC fire+Tower (from Colonial age up)+4 Hussars+Minutemen, should be able to beat whatever he rushes you with.

[This message has been edited by Droideka_11 (edited 02-05-2009 @ 03:56 PM).]

Yes try and repel his rush and then quickly turn on him and pressure him and take out his fb and push him back to his base.

It's a difficult matchup in vanilla. Personally I'd age up with 13-14 coureurs and train 5 hussars. From that point you can either raid while massing more hussars and crossbows or you can semi-ff. Russian muskets are actually pretty weak to hussars and it can be fun to get your tc to shoot each musket once before moving in with your hussars

All in all, france is maybe the best anti rush civ. Just play defensive and use hussars.

Since russia has weak early eco since they have spent most of their resources getting army, then all you need to do is repel their rush and come out of it all with better eco and you will be set.

If you play defensive and choose not to ff, then the game will probably be hard. However, I suggest a defensive semi-ff, a ff, or hussar+musket rush (as everyone else has said). A turtle will not be as effective, because you'll be low on resources (natural) eventually. He will have map control, and will control all the hunts, mines, trees, ect. Furthermore, eventually, the russian player can get the eco to get grens. That will put a serious dent in your defenses.

Also, he can match or even out-boom you, as well as going fortress. Your extra defenses mean more idle time, and more time chopping wood. Along with that, if you send turtle-related cards, that uses shipment which could've been used to boost your eco/military if you did another strategy. So unless your going fortress, I don't recommend prolonged turtling in colonial.

I think Texas would be a good map to play on as well due to the free rax/2 outposts you start with to negate his advantage of being able to build a blockhouse in Discovery. Lots of stuff about france on the forums recently.

Lots of stuff about france on the forums recently.

I know right?

yeah texas is great vs russian since 2 outposts rocks vs their weak infantry :P

There might be lots of stuff on france of late but none of it or at least some of it isn't the best way to stop russia.

Hehe, I've played Russians 3 times so far.

The first time I tried to Double Rax Xbow rush and realised that you shouldn't try to do that. Ever. Never Ever.

The next time I played a Russian I decided to get a few Hussars for defence against their overly weak infantry. Unless your opponent has pure Muskets Hussars will do lots of damage to them. I beat the other guy with Hussars and a few backup Cuirassiers.

Then I ended up playing him again and Semi FF with Hussar defence so I could spam Cuirassiers.

It's fun when you realise how bad Stretlet + Musket is against Hussar since the opponent will generally spam Stretlets more than Muskets because they can get more Stretlets and seem more intimidating.

cdb defence ftw, ship pioneers and get market tecs they will now take on strelets.

If i was you, scout him in the transition if he has got vills on gold he is going musk so duel rax, if he has them on wood he is going strlets in which case build a stable first send the 3 huss card and make 5. You should easy beable to take his initial force with this and then build a rax and use musks to push. Either that or ship 700 coin and age. Then spam curs and skirm. with some falk gg.

Quoted from adam:

he has got vills on gold he is going musk so duel rax

Not necessarily. He could be going strelet+cossack. Scout for a stable too.

he has got vills on gold he is going musk so duel rax

He can easily add strelets or/and cossacks with his shipments, 5 cossaks+13 Strelets...it's "dual" btw.

[This message has been edited by Droideka_11 (edited 02-06-2009 @ 10:25 AM).]

dual rax musks lol