Hey what's up, this is a Portuguese strat that I got from Challe (aka Emil) on FanPatch1.1a ( http://agesanctuary.com/index.php?portal=TAD&showtopic=127295). The goal of this strat is to start with Hussars and then add Musks, all while getting more villagers from 2 TC's. This strats works pretty damn well and it's effective in pretty much every scenario, except for perhaps a very strong HI rush, but for that you can easily change your econ real quick. I will get to that afterwards.

All right, let's get down to it:

Deck:

[PNG, (296.99 KB)]

The 600 and 700 coin are essential. You'll want the Infantry upgrades (which are now available in Age2), 8 bows and 6 musks I use quite a lot, the rest are useful cards that are always good to have in your deck. ^^

The Build:

Discovery & Transition:

Your first card: Econ theory. Yea you can save your shipment, but I generally do not, as your hunting is improved by 10% and 10% (10% because on teh FP you get free Hunting Dogs, and 10% with econ theory). It's just a good solid shipment that's fine to use.

-Age with 13 vills, and the 400w politician. Herd, treasures, etc.

-During the transition you're going to put more than half of your villagers on wood. You're going to put up a market and get the wood cutting upgrade asap. Then continue to chop wood until you get 200. Then put all vills on food except for 2 or 3 which you keep on wood. Also, make sure you have gathered at least 80 coin (from treasures or just mine it) before you age.

-Scout, etc.

Colonial:

-You have 200 wood which you're going to put into a stable asap. Asap. You take 3 or 4 vills and you build it fast. Then you queue up a hussar asap. ASAP you're also going to send 700 coin. Yea, this step means you're going to have to be fast. Gather your 400w and build three houses, save 100w for now. Put your second TC near your hunts which you should have herded. If there's a mine near your hunts it's all the better. However, try to keep both TC's close enough together so as they are both in each other's LOS, and both within range of their TC fire.

-If you have done everything quickly and efficiently, your 700 coin should arrive before the 5 hussars come out. Gather that coin real quick and spam the hussar button until 5 are queued. This isn't easy, you'll want to practice. With these 5 hussars go raid and harass. Be careful for HI and the sorts.

-With that 100w you saved you should have 125+ wood (since you have vills on wood), as well as some left over coin from the 700c shipment. You have a market up, get the second hunting upgrade. In the mean time, keep most of your vills on food and a handful on wood. Make sure you don't get housed. If you play well you can keep constant villager and hussar production from TC's and the stable.

-Keep making hussars, keep raiding, keep an eye on your opponents HI. Send 600 coin and use that coin to cover the coin cost of your hussars. Once your out of coin from the 700/600 shipment, put your TC way points on nearby coin mines.

-After that you'll want to switch some food vills to wood, and chop enough wood to get a barracks. Your economy is set up on food/coin, so you're going to start making musks as well. Musk/Hussar is an excellent colonial combo. 6 musks or 8 bows are both good shipments as of now. After those send what you feel you need.

That is the general build, but always be ready to adapt. Be very careful with musk civs (India/Otto/Brits, etc) and try to play your best.

Continue harassing with Hussars, add musks to the mix, when you get a decent number you can try to push. Use your army well, and try to get the advantage with that. If you have harassed well your army may be better than his.

Here is my rough guide, I will ofc edit it in the future so that it looks better and mention things that I might have forgotten, or answer good questions, etc.

Here are 2 recs of me using this strat. They are a bit one sided, however they showcase this strat really well:

http://s15.zetaboards.com/A414A_clan/topic/6695089/1/#new

If I can get a more competitive rec I will and link it in this thread. Thanks for reading.

If you scout your opponent and find an HI Rush:

For example: if you scout Agra (not hard to scout), or a Brit musket rush, perhaps a Spain Rod rush, you won't want to really cav start, you're better off going musk and using the 8 bows. You can just make a barracks instead of a stable and go musks instead of hussars, your economy is set up on coin/food anyway. In fact you could send 8 bows as soon as you age, pop a rax, make musk, and just switch some vills (around 3) to coin. MM will help, considering you have 2 TC's (hopefully you didn't lose your second one to his sepoy, but Ports age pretty early on the FP so I don't think that you would lose it) that should be placed into each others line of fire. You'll want to herd well and be alert (look at the minimap) to lose a minimum of villagers. If you're careful you shouldn't lose much (if anything at all), if he gets crazy and goes straight into your base, draw him in further with your musk/bow, and MM it. He'll lose a lot more than you, permitting you to get the advantage. You don't rush into someone's base like that.

I'd advise you do the same thing vs Brits, cav starts just don't work vs Brits, your best bet vs them is Musk/Xbow. If he rushes do what I just said vs Agra, if not, you'll want to carefully harass his villagers at range.

[This message has been edited by Incognoto (edited 07-09-2009 @ 07:33 AM).]