The Asian Dynasties

Units :

Falconets : The falconet is a cannon unit trained from the artillery foundry. Very powerful against infantry and structures. A powerful unit for this strategy, every varient has the player grabbing several of these early on with protection for the cannonry coming from military shipments. If your opponent trains a large amount of culverins, cease constructing these, and if you already have some, leave them in the very rear of your army, out of sight until the enemy culverins have been eliminated.

Ruyter : A cheap fast 1-pop dragoon type unit (anti-cav). Fast and good vs both cannons and enemy cavalry. If the enemy has light infantry, such as longbows, xbows, or skirmishers, putting the ruyters on melee can defeat them must better then in ranged mode. Ruyters also kill cannons faster in melee mode. A shipment of 9 of these to guard cannons is a great idea as well as countering any cavalry made by your opponent.

Halberdiers : Slow tough unit. Good anti cav unit used to guard cannons or tear down buildings. Very good when upgraded later game. Halbs + cannons is a good combo in many situations and the 8 halb shipment is recomended to defend your falconets when facing spain.

Skirmishers : Dutch can build skirmishers in age 2, this is good to counter rushes. The skirmisher is a good anti infantry unit, also good vs dragoon units. The 8 skirmisher shipment is recomended when facing the british.


Cards

300 Wood
Grants 300 wood in age 1. This may seem like very little wood, but this 300 wood allows you to get a second bank up in age1 and for this strategy, that is crucial.

Stadhouder
This gives your explorer +30% HP & Damage, gives you a powerful Dog, and causes your Town Centers to cost only 199 wood.

Colonial Militia
This card adds +50% to your town centers attack and allows you to call the minuteman army, which is very powerful defensively.

8 Halbs
One of the 3 standard military shipments of the Dutch.

8 Skirms
One of the 3 standard military shipments of the Dutch.

9 Ruyter
One of the 3 standard military shipments of the Dutch.

Religious Freedom
This card allows the Dutch unique church techs. Coffee trade will add +2 to the limit of banks, but slow the players military unit speed by 10%. It also allows the training of 5 mercenary cavalry similar to stradiots for 1000 gold, and 30 Stadhouders (guard musketeers) for 2000 gold. Those two mercenaries can help tremendously and the 2 banks also helps add to the Dutch economy.

- Factory and Robber Barons
These cards both grant a factory wagon. These cards are crucial if the player gets age4 to produce heavy cannons and/or resources.

- 2 Heavy cannons and 18 highland mercenaries
These two cards are for some extra firepower should the player make age4. Getting the power of two heavy cannons as soon as you hit age4, can be extremely powerful, and if the player has the extra 2000 gold, the mercenaries can be quite powerful as well.

- - - Bank of Amsterdam, Bank of Rotterdam, Tulip Speculation, and Textile Mill
These cards are to help maximize the Dutch late game economy. The first two add 1 to the limit of banks the player can construct, the Tulip card adds +15% to bank income, and the Textile Mill adds +25% plantation income.

Important Politicians :


The Quartermaster gives the player 400 wood
when aging to age2, this is crucial for this strategy.


The Exiled Prince allows you to age up in an amazingly
short period of time. You lose out on resources or units,
but in most cases, it is much more important to get to age3
sooner rather then later.


When aging to industrial, the Cavalry Marshall will give
you a nice boost of anticavalry. This politician is recomended
in most cases.


The Tycoon supplies you with 1000 gold upon aging to industrial.
This will have to be gathered by villagers of course, but can be
used to fund just about anything you need.


The King's Musketeer supplies 8 skirmishers. This is recomended
when your opponent has a large amount of light infantry, thus
rendering 9 ruyter useless as an age up unit. Good to use against
British.

The important cards for this strategy are 300 wood, stadhouder (in some variations), colonial militia, religious freedom, several age3 military shipments, fort, factories. I like to have swiss pikes and black riders in my deck as well, they can help immensely. I also prefer to include the two +1 bank cards, the +25% plantation card, and the tulips card, just to help maximize my economy later game if the game lasts long, but that is personal preference. Age2 cards are generally not needed as you are in age2 only for a few seconds.


Standard Deck:



This deck is used for the standard and stadhouder varients in which the player expects to get to age3, fight the enemy for a time, then age to industrial and finish it there, thus the extra age4 cards such as the mercenaries.

Anti-Spanish Deck:



This deck is used mainly for the anti-spanish varient, but can be used facing other civs as well. It contains many more age3 cards, espeacilly halbardier cards. This deck expects to see much more age3 fighting.

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Sep 5 2006, 22:06 PM

Standard Delay FF : (Use Standard Deck)

- 4 vills to gold, 3 to crates. Que vills and continue to que vills. Build 1 house.
- 3 crate gatherers to hunt. 1st vill out of TC to hunt. All new vills to chop wood.
- 1st card 300 wood. Gather and build first bank.
- Use explorer to look for wood treasure mainly.
- Once you have gathered another 350 wood all vills to hunts, build 2nd bank as soon as you have the resources.
- Play colonial militia.
- Age up with 400 wood and 18-20 vills. 2-3 vills on gold as you age, the rest on hunts. You will need to balance your villagers as you approach age2 to make sure you get the 1200 food and 1000 gold just about the moment you age to colonial. Harvesting sheep to help you get enough food to age to fort as soon as you get to colonial is well worth it.
- You should reach colonial at around 7:00 and hit the age up to fort with fast age politician as soon as you age. Switch vills to 10 on wood, 2 on hunts, and the rest on gold. Use gold villies to construct once you age.
- You should reach fort before 8:00. Upon aging build an artillery foundy and 1-2 houses. Que vills, que falconets asap.
- What your first card is in fortress really depends. It will most likely be one of the 3 dominant military cards. 8 skirmishers, 8 halbs, or 9 ruyter. Use 9 ruyter vs germany, 8 halbs vs spain, 8 skirmishers vs british.
- Your second card should arrive very shortly, play another military card.
- You should be able to have 2 falconets and 2 military shipments ready. Attack.

At this point, its up to you to continue the pressure, get a barracks or stable up and start producing units, continue making cannons as long as they do not mass culverins. Playing 1000 wood and gathering some food to get a couple more banks up is a good idea. This build order is to be used to counter civs you feel you have 8 minutes against. Civs like this are ports, british, spanish, germany, etc. Try not to use this when you expect a rush. This will most likely not succeed vs rush civs like ottoman or russia, although your second card is colonial militia, so even a rush can be fended off with minutes.


Stadhouder Delay FF : (Use Standard Deck)

- 4 vills to gold, 3 to crates. Que vills and continue to que vills. Build 1 house.
- 3 crate gatherers to hunt. 1st vill out of TC to hunt. All new vills to chop wood.
- 1st card 300 wood. Gather and build first bank.
- Use explorer to look for wood treasure mainly.
- Once you have gathered another 350 wood all vills to hunts, build 2nd bank as soon as you have the resources.
- Play stadhouder. You now have a super explorer and a dog, search for some really nice treasures. Try and kill his explorer.
- Age up with 400 wood and 18-20 vills. 2-3 vills on gold as you age, the rest on hunts. You will need to balance your villagers as you approach age2 to make sure you get the 1200 food and 1000 gold just about the moment you age to colonial. Harvesting sheep to help you get enough food to age to fort as soon as you get to colonial is well worth it.
- You should reach colonial at around 7:00 and hit the age up to fort with fast age politician as soon as you age. Switch vills to 10 on wood, 2 on hunts, and the rest on gold. Use gold villies to construct once you age.
- You should reach fort before 8:00. Upon aging to fort, use the 400 wood from colonial to build 2 TCs with your explorer. Get a foundry up soon and begin falconet production.
- What your first card is in fortress really depends. It will most likely be one of the 3 dominant military cards. 8 skirmishers, 8 halbs, or 9 ruyter. Use 9 ruyter vs germany, 8 halbs vs spain, 8 skirmishers vs british.
- Your second card should arrive very shortly, play another military card.
- You should be able to have 2 falconets and 2 military shipments ready, although a bit leter then a standard Delay FF. Attack.

This strategy is very similar to the standard Delay FF, with one major exception. This is more of an economic FF then an aggressive FF. You are using the stadhouder card to gain the ability to not only get great treasures, but 199 wood TCs, then booming up to 50 vills asap. Be sure to keep all 3 TC's making villagers. Use military shipments, the fort, and falconets to assault and defend whilst you boom. Getting 2 more banks soon as also a great idea. I recomend this version to counter heavilly economic civs sich as the british, ports, and maybe france. Getting age4 mildy fast is also an option with this version.

While aging to colonial, you should gain another shipment, this is normally used for a quick age3 shipment. Instead, this can be used for colonial militia and if the player gets 3 TCs up soon (199 wood TCs should make that easy), that allows the ability to use the minuteman army 3 times! That can be a great defensive ability.


Anti-Spain Delay FF : (Use Anti Spain Deck)

The same as the standard version, except you do not play a 2nd card in age1, you save it for age3 and this allows you to shipment spam. Play 7 and 8 halbadier cards first, then 8 skirmishers, meanwhile train 2+ falconets. This gives you a great anti spanish army.



Variations :

Above I give a couple build orders to some variations, but there are infinate amounts of ways to use this strategy. Once aged up, you could send a fort fast for a quick defensive move, or you could use the anti-spanish variation and send two skirmisher cards along with a ruyter card to adapt the build order to counter a british opponent, or you could go heavy economical and use the stadhouder version to quickly get 2 TC's up, quickly boom a large amount of settlers while putting just enough pressure on your opponent to get to age4 quickly and grab heavy cannons. There are many ways to use this strategy, be creative and try different ways to use it.

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Sep 5 2006, 22:40 PM