Iroquois BB Rush – TAD ^1.02 - By James246






Now that Trading Posts have been reduced to 200 Wood, it has indirectly boosted the Iroquois, and after this little boost, I thought that I would start to play the Iroquois. Yes, I may be a lamer. Hahaha. It is when I came across this strategy that I thought ‘Wow – I didn’t realise it was that fast!’ I hope that you enjoy my guide!

Introduction

The Iroquois BB Rush is a rush of the Iroquois that uses the power of strong, colonial military shipments along with the ability to press the ‘Big Button’ at the Town Centre early in the Colonial Age, providing you with an early military boost. The ‘Big Button’ is a special feature only available to the native civilisations in Age of Empires 3: The War Chiefs. They are great as they provide an extra boost to your military or economy.

In this guide I will try to show you the basics of the Iroquois BB Rush and other things such as what shipments to send first against what civilisation, and many other things.

Deck



Times

Click Age-Up Button – 3:10 – 3:40
Reach Age 2 – 3:40 – 4:10

Pressing the BB – 4:10 – 4:40
11 Tomahawks – 4:20 – 4:50

Build Order

Age 1
•Select 4 Villagers and assign them onto one food crate so you can get 100 Food ASAP. Put the other Villagers onto the nearest huntables (Deer, Bison etc.).
•Move your Travois around to scout around your base to find your 2nd and 3rd group of huntables.
•As soon as you see your 2nd and 3rd hunts, start herding them back to your Town Centre.
•Get your War Chief to collect any small treasures around the Town Centre, converting them as needed.
•Once you have 100 Food, queue up 1 Villager at the Town Centre and move 2 Villagers from the crates to the huntables.
•Collect all the food crates, but if you start with 300 Wood, only collect 200 of it. Leave the coin crate if you get one.
•When you get 200 Wood, build a Trading Post with your explorer.
•Build a Longhouse with your Travois.
•Now this is a really great feature that again only the native civilisations have. Your War Chief. He is great, as he can convert treasure guardians which make it a lot easier to get those treasures.
•Keep queuing Villagers at your Town Centre. We’ll be wanting to age with 15 Villagers in total.
•First Card: 3 Villagers
•Keep scouting and treasure hunting as needed.
•When you get 15 Villagers and 800 Food, it is time to age up. Age up with ‘The Messenger’ politician.




Transition Age 1 -> Age 2
•Queue up 1 Villager at the Town Centre.
•Move 3 to 5 Villagers to wood depending on if you started with an 100 Wood Crate or got any Wood treasures.
•Find a good Forward Base site.

Age 2
•Send your Colonial Travois to your Forward Base site.
•Ship 6 Tomahawks.
•Build your Forward War Hut.
•When you get 500 Food, click the ‘Iroquois Scouting Party Big Button’ at the Town Centre.
•Set your HC Drop off point at your War Hut.
•You should now have 11 Tomahawks, your WarChief and any converted Treasure Guardians.



•Head into your opponents base to harass. Aim to kill any villagers, houses or military buildings being built. If you see a small group of military, kill it if you can. Fall back if he calls Minutemen. If he does call Minutemen at any stage, fall back and wait about 10 seconds, then come back in and do the area crack shot with your War Chief. It will kill most if not all of the Minutemen.
•Remember to keep your War Chief with your army. He gives them a great boost.
•Build houses as needed, and adjust your villagers accordingly.
•Continue to produce Villagers nonstop.
•Keep making Tomahawks from your War Hut.
•You can now either ship 7 Aennas if he is going heavy on the Heavy Infantry, or ship 4 Kanya Horsemen if he is going heavy on the Ranged Infantry.
•Build more Tomahawks or Aennas depending on what he is building.
•When fighting, it is a great idea to mix in your Tomahawks with your Aennas as he will find it extremely hard to pick them from each other when trying to kill the Aennas with his cavalry.
•Remember to keep harassing as you really have the advantage early on.
•If the game goes on and you are finding it hard to siege his base, it is a great idea to send Town Destroyer as it really helps take down those buildings fast!
•From here on in you have a variation of shipments to send which include 6 Aennas , Infantry HP , Infantry Attack , 5 Villagers , 600 Wood , Town Destroyer and even 600 Coin if you want to head to the third age.

Variations

Against French

Ship 4 Kanyas first. It allows you to take out his Crossbows and CDB early on.

Against Ottoman

Ship 4 Kanyas first if you see an Artirelly Foundry for Abus Guns.

Against Japanese

Ship 7 Aenna first for fighting his Ashigaru Musketeers.

Against Indians

Ship 7 Aenna first for fighting his Sepoys

Does this work on Fan Patch 1.1a?

While the AgeSanctuary Fan Patch team nerfed this in the patch, it is still useful but is just not as fast. You can still use it, but it just isn’t as strong due to a) the ‘Iroquois Scouting Party Big Button’ being changed to 450 Food and 100 Wood, b) the 7 Aenna shipment being reduced to 6, meaning you have two 6 Aenna shipments, c) Tomahawks attacking being reduced to 13 from 14, d) War Chief HP being reduced from 500 to 450 and e) The ‘The Messenger’ fast age politician being slowed down by 10 seconds.

Recorded Games

[A-US] James246 (Iroquois) vs Queen Elizabeth (British) on Great Plains
Simple game showing the basics of the Iroquois BB Rush. Queen Elizabeth makes me run around the map looking for her explorer

[A-US]James246 (Iroquois) vs [A-US] Aizamk (Portuguese) on Araucania
Iroquois BB Rush against a Portuguese Colonial. Rush was a bit slow as the map is so large that it takes a while to move units around the map

Conclusion

Well I hope that you liked reading my guide and I’ll be happy to accept any constructive criticism.

[This message has been edited by A_US_James246 (edited 07-10-2009 @ 01:05 AM).]