Greetings!

The German Colonial is nothing special, Crossbowman are average, Uhlans just die to quickly, Dopplesoldners are too slow and expensive and Pikeman are only good when there's cavalry around, which in most cases during 1vs1, is Ranged Light Infantry Wars.

So in what age does the true power of Germans start to arise? In The Fortress Age. Why? Because of Good Mercenary Cards, Cannons, Skirmishers, and more. Though, reaching Fortress is another story, usually when the enemy has scouted a Fast Fortress (You'd want them to know you'll be going FF, you'll know why later), they will attempt to take your Town Center down before you reach your intended goal.

So, How do you reach fortress, without getting slaughtered by a good colonial assault and not having to train any military units at all?

Here, I bring you The Teutonic Fast Fortress:

Important Cards:
-700 Gold
-Teutonic Town Center
-Colonial Militia
-Hire Black Riders
-Hire Hessian Jaegars
-Hire Finnish Hackapells
-1000 Wood/Gold

The Rest are your preference, you could add Hire Landschnect(Spelling is probably incorrect), or Dance Hall and Improved Mercenaries, etc. Due to the fact that Mercenaries are part of Germany's bonus, and you should use your civilization's bonus to the best of its potential.

Now for a brief summary, this strategy focuses on getting a "German Version of The Iroquois Great House" and being able to summon Colonial Militia if the situation gets too rough, while sacrificing your economy. Thus, you should only use this if you know they are 100% going to rush you, you should provoke them into rushing you by starting to mine coin when they try to scout you. When they do attack you, their army is most likely going to die, due to your Town Center 1-shotting every unit they have(Except Janissaries, which take 2 shots).

You could also make a small box around your Town Center for added Survival Rate if they are going Grenadier Rushing/Pike/Puma Rush, though of the situation looks bad, you could call Colonial Militia to relieve the stress, though I suggest summoning them if your Town Center drops below 3,000 HP. When you have successfully defeated their attack(which you probably will, because I've beaten a Sioux Club Rush and a Aztec Puma/Janey Pet Rush by just relying on the Town Center and Colonial Militia), now for the Build Order.

Build Order:
-1 Settler Wagon Collect Crates, 2 go to Hunts
-Build a House, or Build 2 if you started with 200 wood
-All on hunts until you have 800 food and roughly 14 population worth of Settlers/Settler Wagons
-Age with the 500 Food Politician
-Your First Shipment is Colonial Militia
-Put 3 Settler Wagons on Mines, Settlers still on Hunts
-Collect the Food crates once it's here, with about 2 Settlers
-Your Second Card is Teutonic Town Center
-The Enemy should have scouted your FF and is preparing/initiating an attack.
-Your Third shipment is 700 Coin, or if you had already gathered enough coin, then save the shipment
-Age with the 3 Dopplesoldner Politician
-Put All your Settler/Settler Wagons on coin,except for 3 Settlers on Wood and 2 Settlers on Food
-Build a Market, and Trade Gold for Wood if you need, for an Artillery Foundry and quick Housing
-After you have completed aging, Send whatever Mercenaries Best Counters their Army(You should scout with your explorer before sending)
-Build an Artillery Foundry(usually from traded wood from the market)
-Train as many Falconets as possible, even if it means trading Food for Coin
-You should have your army of Mercenaries and Cannons, Proceed to attack
-Adapt if you must, from then on, do whatever suits the situation, such as sending a Fort for map control, Sending more Mercenaries, or the 9 Uhlan card to Raid/ Extra compliment to your military
-Most of all, Good luck and Have Fun


Now, this strategy might not fully meet minimum level of satisfaction, thus I would like to ask the community to give feedback, constructive criticism and best of all, suggestions on where to improve this, because I Know this strategy has many flaws, though I will not say the, because that would ruin the mood.

In Conclusion, I hope you have enjoyed reading this, I have grasped the concept of another Overpowered Civilization, and
possibly copying their Overpowered aspects, but in a lesser form (The German "Great House", Sacrificing a good economy for a tough defense). I would like to thank Mediolanus(Sjonnie) for working hard on saving Germany for Certain Declination, Ender_Ward, for possibly making an extraordinary post(no surprise usually), and I would like to thank you, the reader, for reading this.

*I also would like to apologize if you, the valued reader, didn't expect a fancy post with pictures, advanced BB codes, Perfect Spelling, etc. Due to having limited time, Though I am doing my best to make my posts legible and possibly appealing

Best Regards,
Watson

[This message has been edited by Watson Day (edited 07-04-2007 @ 05:44 PM).]