The Asian Dynasties

The Dutch




Bank Cards :



The +1 bank cards early on is mostly a waste, too many other useful cards are available and playing these just to be allowed to get another bank is not worth it until later. Build up to the 4 bank limit before even worrying about these cards and use the other useful colonial and fort cards you have available. Once you get into later game, the two +1 bank cards and the church card become much more valuable to increase your late game economy, focusing too much on banks earlier will kill you unless the game is staying in colonial for a long period of time.


Gold :



Gold mine control is important. The Dutch do not require gold mines as much as other civs do, though they are much more important to us after the 1.08 patch. Most other civs need to continue to gather gold mines to keep thier assault up, so if we can cut that supply off, we can gain an advantage. Germans is the big gold dependant civ, though others are as well. Many smart players think that by cutting us off from gold, they are crippling us, but they forget about the power of banks. My old partner Atrioc used to get frustrated when we would play 1v1 back when AOE3 first came out, and at the end of the game would be kicking himself... "I cut you off from gold, but forgot about those dang banks!" So don't forget to raid gold mines with any free units you may have, tower them off, wall them off (now theres an interesting idea!), something, don't let them have the gold!

15% Gold Mining Bonus : The new Duth bonus from vanilla patch 1.08. We gather 15% faster from gold mines. This does not not effect the gather rate of banks or plantations. With this gold mining bonus in mind, it is now advisable to mine as much gold from gold mines as possible before investing heavily into bank, unless a certain strategy requires the construction of banks.


Civ Unit Analysis :

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, but you should keepthema way from light infantry as much as possible as they are countered by them. Ruyters also kill cannons faster in melee mode.

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. The Fisticuffs card increases their speed by 30%, making these monesters extremely useful against all exept massed light infantry and a very large amount of cannons.

Skirmishers : Dutch can train skirmishers in age 2, this is good to counter rushes. The skirmisher is a good anti infantry unit, also good vs dragoon units.

A list of Dutch units


Dutch BO's


Standard Colonial Warfare :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 10 on gold, 5 on hunts.
-Build barracks and 2 houses. Keep constant villie production.
-Begin skirmisher spam
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy forwards if there are any.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts.


Aggressive Colonial Warfare :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 8 on gold, 5 on hunts, 2 on gold mine near enemy base.
-Build barracks at forward gold mine and 2 houses at your TC. Keep constant villie production.
-Begin skirmisher spam and go for enemy vilies ASAP.
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy military structures and housing if there are any.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts.


Turtle 3 bank FF :

(FFing is very dangerous if the enemy is very aggressive in colonial)

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 14 villies without 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-Play no cards in age 1.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 14 villies. 4 on gold, 10 on hunts.
-Build 1 bank, play 700 wood, then 600 wood. Produce 2-3 villies.
-Use wood cards to build 2 more banks and 2 towers.
-You now have another shipment, play 2 towers, colonial miltia, or save for fort if you don't need extra protection.
-Age up to fort with fast age up, move bulk of villies to wood. Build barracks or stable on the way up.
-Play 9 ruyter if enemy has cav, 8 skirms for other. Begin military production. Get fort out soon if you arent under too much pressure.

Straight 3 bank FFing without the towers is a mite dangerous as most players are coming with early light infantry/heavy cav, so the 2 towers are what is supposed to get you to fort.


(Standard FF's - not as strong after 1.08)

Standard 3 bank FF :

-Put 4 vills on gold to start, rest to crates, then hunt. Herd towards TC.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Play 3 villager card
-Make 16-17 villagers. 17 is ideal, but make 16 if you can age up faster.
-Age up with 400 wood.
-Build a bank upon age up with 400 wood. Play 700 wood asap. Build 2 more banks. Normally about 5 on gold. Make 2-3 vills in colonial.
-Age up to fort with fast age up politicion
-Half of your villies on wood for housing and military structures

-----Up to you from there... You have about 2 shipments. Play fort for protection and a quick barracks/stable combo, play 1000 wood for TC's and military structures, 9 ruyter for quick military then build a barracks or stables and begin military production... all up to you.


3 Bank FF + Stables - Fast Ruyter :

-Put 4 vills on gold to start, rest to crates, then hunt. Herd towards TC.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Play 3 villager card
-Make 16-17 villagers. 17 is ideal, but make 16 if you can age up faster.
-Age up with 400 wood.
-Build a bank upon age up with 400 wood. Play 700 wood asap. Build 2 more banks. Normally about 5 on gold. Make 2-3 vills in colonial.
-Play 600 wood - Build 2 stables.
-Age up to fort with fast age up politicion
-Half of your villies on wood for housing and military structures
-Build houses
-Que one ruyter in each stable, adding more as you gain recs. Play 9 ruyter.

From there, continue spamming ruyter, then build barracks and artillery foundy soon after. this strategy works the same way if you just replace the stables with barracks and spam skirmishers, or just replace one stable with a rax, and make a more balanced force.


Standard 4 bank FF :

-Put 4 vills on gold to start, rest to crates, then hunt. Herd towards TC.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Play 3 villager card
-Make 16-17 villagers. 17 is ideal, but make 16 if you can age up faster.
-Build another bank upon age up with 400 wood. Play 700 wood asap. Build 2 more banks. Normally about 5 on gold. Make as many vills in colonial as possible.
-Ship your Bank Wagon
-Age up to fort with fast age up politicion
-At least half of your villies on wood for housing and military structures

-----Up to you after that. You can also play 600 wood as soon as you get your third shipment and get a quick military structure or two up.



Delay FF Guide

This post has been edited by Hellblazer: Jun 7 2007, 02:24 AM

Vs Germans



When fighting a German we have to expect uhlans, so gathering out of range of our TC early on is impossible if your playing anyone who knows how to use uhlans. Thus we MUST be sure to herd our hunts to our TC. At least 2 herds early on. If we must go elsewhere for resources later, building an outpost/fort/tc nearby is a must. Most Germans are going to do some sort of FF or early xbow mass. In the FF list, among the most dangerous are the merc-fest or uhlan/skirm combo. Very rarely do you see a german player use cannons early on, quite rarely, so mostly we don't have to worry about anti cannon units unless we scout a foundry or falconets. On a few occasions the German may do an FI, and use his amazing Indy cards, such as polish winged hussars, heavies, etc.

Now remember, FF is much tougher now then it used to be. This does not mean that FF is no longer used. What it does mean is they must "turtle" to get to fort age. What this means is they will tower up, use minutemen, or even build a small defensive force before going up, but FF is still possible, watch out for it. An FF vs a colonial army can still lose, so if they go FF, do not panic, keep the pressure up, take map control.

To counter germany we know a few things. First off, he probably wont rush, I mean, it can happen, and they can native rush, but mostly they dont. We also know they are a cavalry heavy civ, normally using alot of uhlans and war wagons in their armies as well as 2 cavalry merc cards, though they do use skirms quite alot and the jeager and lans card are infantry. The fact that much of the german army is not infantry and that that those cav are a very good counter to artillery (esp with the ranged cav arty bonus), means that building cannons vs germans isnt such a good idea, unless you have scouted a large infantry based army (most likely skirms).

So mostly building cannons is out for now. Dont get me wrong, I love cannons, but against germany, cannons arent helping a whole lot. So what to build?

Skirms is our main unit, esp since we dont get a musketeer. Skirms can meet his skirms and are great vs war wagons with the x1.5 bonus attack against ranged cav and unless theres alooot of uhlans in the charge, skirms in mass arent too bad at taking out a uhlan charge.

Ruyter, a very good unit to use against Germany. Rips apart uhlans and can meet War Wagons (remember war wagons take up 3 pop, so your going to want 3 ruyter to a WW, but I do not suggest using ruyter too much against WW, skirmishers are the proper counter) Keeping a good reserve of ruyter vs a german opponent is also great, because if he does make some cannonry unexpectedly and you cant get culvs on the scene in time, a flanking party of ruyter can handle them (putting ruyer on melee against cannons is a good idea if theres no nearby units guarding).

Halberdiers, a decent unit, many say pikes are better, but I disagree, though more expensive, they are tougher per unit then pikes and are your ultimate weapon vs war wagons (Skirms have a great bonus vs WW, but halbs are just amazing if they can get close). If my opponent is WW massing, its time to spam halbs (and grab the Fisticufs card). Against a german WW based army, skirms and halbs works wonders becase the war wagons can NOT stick around, they HAVE to run and your skirms can fire on them as they do (a falconet or two for his skirms doesnt hurt, cannons with halbs to chase away ww does work, but make sure you leave some halb or ruyter to guard those, or else those extra uhlan are going to kill those expensive cannons).

To fight germans, we no longer MUST get to at least fort age. An aggressive colonial age warfare build can strangle them now. But you must keep up the pressure. The idea is they will still get to fort, but they will get there with a BAD eco and no map control. If you keep the pressure and continue to spam skirms and pikes and eventually alot of pikes to tear down the TC, you can claim victory. FFing generally means better quality military, better shipments, but weaker eco and no map control. We may FF as well if we feel they are FFing, in fort we have access to the ruyter, a great counter german unit, and better shipments.

If we do go with the FF, we have several ways of FFing, but a 3 bank FF seems to be the best option. It gives us a decent eco and still gets us to fort with a decent time (almost always using fast age up politician). Once we have fort, we need military very soon, getting a fort up is a more defensive way to play, but suggested to guard your banks and villagers, mostly after you ahve expended several military shipments. We need ruyters asap, and from there it depends what he is doing. If he goes WW, we need halbs or skirms, if he goes skirms, we need skirms also and possibly a cannon or two (hussars are great now after the patch for flanking an army of skirms as long as no WW are around). If he goes for cannons, we want some culvs as well as ruyter and halbs.

4 bank FF gets you up a little later, but with a powerful economy. Remember, if you FF and he goes army heavily in colonial, your in trouble.

Delay FF Guide
Sepha's FF Guide

Thats if we go for FF. We have another option. FI (Fast Industrial). This powerful (but risky) strategy gives a Dutch player industrial in 11 minutes, with a fort and 18 ruyter, plus anything he built on the way to indy. Once in indy, theres alot of cards to be used here, such as 13 ruyter, 14 skirms, 2 heavies, etc. The two factory cards are invaluable, but should not be played until you know you are stable. If you FI, then play the two factory cards, most likely, your opponant will have an army at your base whilst you have none or very little. The key is to age up and play the powerful industrial military cards along with making units of your own, then playing the factories after.

(FI after vanilla 1.08 is less viable, but still a good counter to any FF.)

Most FI's use the following vague Build Order...

Age up to colonial with 17 villies and 400 wood politicion (play 3 villy card). Play 700 wood (all villies are on food except around 5 or so on gold) Build 3 banks. Age up to fort with fast age up politition if you expect an early attack or age up with 5 halbs if you think you have time, the key of this is how early do you believe you need your fort up. Play fort card and 9 ruyter card for defense, place fort near your base, its going to anchor down your whole eco and factories if you get them later. Almost all villies are on food, perhaps some on gold if your food production is really good. Age up to indy with 9 ruyter. Make 10 more ruyter on the way, play 2 heavies as soon as you age, play 13 ruyter, etc, etc. Now be aggressive, if you think you have time, lay down factories, try and get the 4th bank up later, also try to have the church tech card, as stadhouders is a great tech, waards are also good, but it also allows you to get the +2 banks, which is great if the battle is going to be prolonged. Once you are in indy, your villager spread depends on what you want to do. Definately a good few on wood, because you will need lots of pop space (houses), normally gold mining isnt needed due to banks, so most of the other units will be on food, but it all depends on what units you plan on building.


If the german FIs also, that can be tough as he has some nice cards in age4. Polish winged hussars is one of them. 10 hussars can be pretty damaging, but not if you have plenty of ruyter/halbs. Although that card is much complained about, their other age4 military cards do not compare to the Dutch's age 4 mili shipments. What the germans do have is 3 age4 mercenary armies, which can be devastating, so even in this age4 context, keep the german off gold!

FI Links
http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...showtopic=78001
http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...howtopic=105795

Civ Unit Analysis :

Uhlan : Uhlans are given to the German player free with 95% of their shipments, they will always have uhlans in heir army. They will use these to raid your villagers mostly, but will also try to flank your cannons and skirms with them in battle. Very low HP, high attack.
Counters : Ruyter/Halb. Even skirms in mass can really kill these low HP units

Doppels : These expensive, super gold heavy units are slow, but have a great area attack and can rip into any units they get close to. DO NOT get any cavalry unit near these, they will crush them like they are toys. They also have a decent siege attack and are sometimes used to guard cannons.
Counters : Skirmishers/Cannons work well, but if the doppels get close.. ouch!

War Wagon : Very expensive unit that replaces the dragoon in the german army. Takes up 3 population slots, moves slower then a dragoon, but still moves fast enough to hit and run units such as pikes if need be. Very good vs cavalry and cannons and is a great meatshield. Has lots of HP. War wagons and cannons/skirms combos can be very dangerous. Some German players like to "bury" their cannons under a mass of WW. If they do this, it can be very difficult to get to the cannons underneath.
Counters : Ruyers meet them. Skirmishers are great vs them. Halbs crush them!

Mercs : The german mercs are better then the other civs mercs due to the fact they get some extra ones. They have jeagers, which are basically super skirms, they get black riders, which are super dragoons, they get landsnecks, which are super halbs, and they get hackapell, super hussar. These units can be counter with the same units that you would counter normal units with.
Counter : Varies from merc to merc, but overall if a german is spamming mercs, a skirm spam normally works wonders, except for hackapells of course. Spies are a perfect counter to any mercenary, but lose to most regular units

Summery :

-Germans are a cavalry/mercenary oriented civ
-Germans are very gold dependant (keep them off mines to cripple them)
-Cannons vs Germans is not normally very useful early
-FI is a great option to counter a German with (colonial warfare and Delay FF is also a good idea)
-German mercs are better and come in greater numbers - counter mercing isnt a good idea
-Spies are a good unit to use in fortress age against Germany's many mercenaries
-Dutch's age 4 mili cards are superior
-Halbs are one of the best counters to War Wagons, esp with the Fisticuffs card (skirmishers are great counters as well)
-Ruyter counter uhlans very well

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:48 PM

Vs Ottoman



When playing an Ottoman we really don't know whats coming, we have to be sure to scout and check their decks and try to guess whats coming. Ottomans can rush very well, but they can just as easilly FF or FI and you must be wary of this, because if you pull off an anti rush and they FF, you are dead. Most of the times we can expect the rush though.

Ottomans are one of the most dangerous early game opponents, and most times all we worry about is surviving the colonial age. They have many options.

Their native rush is very powerful due to lots of starting wood plus the age up wood. They will most likely grab one TP of each native type, play the native treaties card, then spam natives. This can really be overwhelming while the otto eco self spawns (auto villy production). There is also the straight jannisary rush, this is easier to counter with our skirms, but can still be dangerous as it will come early, and not stop coming in wave after wave and we must have constant skirms. Then you have the abus/jan rush which is tougher as abus are simply heavy duty skirms (with the added bonus of being anti arty) and that will help kill your defenders, then his jans will kill buildings. Another possible attack is a grenadier/abus rush, this can take your TC down very fast, so be ready to micro on those grens. All these rushes will make mincemeat of a barracks or saloon, it is recommeded you build your military structure out of sight.

The ottoman biggest weakness is that the longer the game goes, the weaker they become (not true if they went to fort and are multiple TC booming, also not true if they are water booming), this mostly applies to when they rush, so just surviving means you are beating them down.

If they rush, our biggest concern is picking one of several fast aging BO's and pumping skirms asap. Theres a few ways to do this. first off we need to look at his deck and scout. Ways to know he is rushing is to see forward villies, see him building a native TP, and seeing his deck have a lot of age 1 and age 2 cards with few age 3, age 4 cards. If he has lots of age 3 and age 4, he is most likely going for FF or FI, but many times you will come across a deck with lots of age 2 and lots of age 3 and no age 1 or age 4 cards, now its all up to scouting to know what he is doing.


Possible BO's :


Standard Colonial Warfare :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 10 on gold, 5 on hunts.
-Build barracks and 2 houses. Keep constant villie production.
-Begin skirmisher spam
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy forwards if there are any OR play 3 hussar to cunter abus.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts. 700 gold helps with skirmisher production.


Fast Colonial :

-4 villies to hunt... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood. All villies on food still.
-Build barracks and 2 houses. Keep constant villie production.
-Play 700 gold. Begin skirmisher spam.
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy forwards if there are any OR play 3 hussar to cunter abus.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts.


Another way to do fast colonial is to build a bank with the 400 age up wood then play 700 wood as first card, then building a barracks and another bank with that. The next card is then 700 gold for skirms. This is a bit slower, but gives you a MUCH better economy and the banks give you the build xp, giving you your shipments faster. This build is slower, but much stronger if you can manage it.

(Building your defensive barracks on the far side of your base away from where he will come from is a good idea, you dont want him to kill it, if he does, you are dead)


Once the enemy hits you, you will probably have another shipment, theres a few choices, he is in your base, so no need for crates...if he has melee natives rushing me, I will send for 8 pikes, if he has abus or grens, I use the 3 hussar, if its jans, then colonial militia for 50%+ TC attack. You will have enough resources to spam skirms as well as use the 1st militia. If you played colonial militia, then theres the possibility of using them too.

The fast colonial isnt the only build, you can do a more normal build of making 12 or 13 villies, then playing 3 villy card, thus aging up with 15 or 16 villies. Then making a barracks and shipping 700 gold to bolster your skirm production. I find the fast colonial better, due to the extra time you gain by aging fast, but the normal build is less economically damaging. Aging up this way and playing colonial miltia, then getting 400 gold and 400 food asap is also viable, but I'd suggest going for a skirm spam instead.

Most times you will want to spam skirmisher. Now, if you find through scouting, that he built only an artillery foundry and is spamming only units from it, such as abus and grens, then I suggest building a stable and spam hussars instead, then swapping to skirmisher production soon after, because ottos have a 5 jan card as well as will most likely build a barracks and make some once he sees your hussars. Hussars will do some serious damage to his abus and grens. I suggest building the stable out of sight of his scouting, so as not to discourage his gren/abus assault, you want him to send it in, so you can pick them off while they have no anti cav support.

If he does came at you with abus and jans, you will be in trouble. Abus really hurts skirm armies while jans batter away at your structures. Minute men are a gooood counter to abus as they get a bonus against artillery units. Making minute men is a good idea if he rushing with anything but even more so vs abus, so is playing the colonial militia card and then making the 400gold/400food minutes to come out and crush any army of abus in your base.

What I would advise against is "towering up". It just doesnt work in most instances. Aging up to colonial and playing 2 tower card (only worth 500 wood, compare to 700 wood card) isnt worth it. Towering up just pins you in your base, he can still enter it and force you to garrison, and jans and grens can tear down towers pretty well. Not only that, but it gives you zero attack ability. You cannot counter attack and you cant chase his armies out of your town, you cant raid. Towering up is ok, but it normally will not stop a rush, building counter units of your own is the best bet.

Otto villies can only spawn from the TC. They cannot build them, they come free out of the TC every so often, and theres a limit on them of 25 early on, unless the otto builds a mosque and upgrades his limit. They also come pretty slow. We can use this to our advantage. They can't go and build a mosqe and pay for upgrades while spamming units to attack you, so if you hold them off long enough, they can't make villies and/or will have to let up on the assualt to pay for the upgrades. Your economy, if it contains banks will outstrip his, and even if it doesnt, you can constant produce villagers, even while under attack to attempt to out produce his economy, while spamming skirmishers as much as possible. Our best strategy is to slowly improve our economy as we hold them off. Slowly building banks and villies as we hold them off. I have found aging up to fort while the otto is still in age2 doesnt help as much as improving your eco in age 2 and finishing them off in age 2, because age 2 otto can compete with age 3 other civs easily, mainly due to abus guns being a counter to falconets, so I suggest staying age 2, spamming banks and villies, and lots of skirms (pikes to back up if he goes hussar). If he goes fort, then its time you do as well.

A big thing is once you kill his rush, you need to not be idle, use your skirms to go raid him, kill his villies and dont leave him alone. Keep making an army and bolstering your eco by building banks and villies.


If the Ottoman goes FF, you can expect mamalukes, cannons, jans, abus. An otto FF can reach fort very early, then begin playing fort cards and spamming age 3 units, although there isnt really alot of units for otto in age 3 that make a huge difference. The jan and abus are both age 2 units which is the reason most ottos stay age 2, but going age 3 gives them access to some nice cards, cannons, cav archers, and mercs.

You will want to FF as well if he goes FF, either that or attempt to shut him down with heavy colonial pressure, his FF is too fast to counter with FI like against germans. Once you do, it all depends on what he builds, you will want to attempt to keep a better eco then him as the otto economy is limited compared to the Dutch. As war rages, build banks and keep TC idle time at a minimal, the otto will most likely go for multiple TCs, try to take those down if you spot them. If he has mamalukes, you will want some serious anti cavalry because of the mamaluke's HP. They can completely destroy skirms and cannons. Ruyter is not a good choice to guard cannonry from mamalukes as they just do not have enough stopping power. Halbs are a better choice here.

Delay FF Guide
Sepha's FF Guide

If he has mamalukes, grab anti cav such as halbs or ruyter, if he has cannons, grab a couple culvs, if he has jans in his army, build skirms and maybe some falconets. If he has abus, DO NOT build cannons (Although having a couple in reserve, out of sight ready to come into battle once the abus are gone is a good idea). Abus are like mini culverins and destroy cannons horribly. Use cavalry or skirms again them. Melee units like halbs arent too bad if you can get close (fisticuff halbs are great for this!), and if you have ruyter, send them in melee on the abus, ruyter in melee on abus will force them into melee, then cover fire from skirms can crush them.

If the ottoman goes FI, do the same. Great Bombards are a dangerous unit, beware of them. Spahi is also a very dangerous unit, compared to French curriasers. Ruyter can go for the GB's (Great Bombards) and culvs arent bad if you set 3 culvs to attack each GB. Countering with heavies of your own works as well. In an industrial age battle, your biggest priority is to get rid of his Great Bombards, then deal with his army.

A fight against an ottoman is always about a better economy. Yours has the potential to be much better. The dutch was built to be an eco civ, the ottomans were not. In a rush, you just need to survive, micro your skirms and keep them coming, eventually you will out produce him if your eco isnt too bad. In an FF or FI you, its the same thing, but he will have less of an eco hindrance due to multiple TC's and mosque upgrades. On a water map, beware the otto water boom.


Civ Unit Analysis :

Jannisary : A super musket unit. Decent ranged attack, good meatshield, good anti cav unit. Used as a counter to cav units and as a meatshield for cannons. Decent siege and good melee attack.
Counters : skirmishers/cannons

Abus Gun : A powerful siege unit. Built from the artillery foundry. Good speed and decent range. Acts as a super skirm unit as well as a mini culverin. Fights well vs infantry and is amazing vs cannons, renders them almost useless if they are microed well. Bad siege attack. Depending on the amount of cannons vs abus, cannons can still be useful if microed well and if they fire first.
Counters : Cavalry. Massed skirmishers can also defeat them. Cannons can also work if you can fire first and target each cannon on a different abus in the group.

Cav Archer : Simply a clone of the dragoon.
Counters : Same as a dragoon, any anti cav unit works well. Skirmishers work well.

Great Bombard : Just a souped up version of the heavy cannon.
Counters : Any anti cannon unit. Try ruyter, in melee if posible, getting halbs up close is decent, and culvs, but your going to need around 3 culv blasts to kill it.


Note : The Ottomans have no light infantry, so they do not have the ability to take advantage of the x1.5 against ranged cavalry.


Summery :

-Ottomans are great in age 2 and can compete with other civs in age 3 already due to abus as an anti arty
-Cannons are not effective if the Ottoman has a good amount of abus in his army (good micro can make them effective anyway)
-Dutch early skirms are our most powerful weapon vs the ottomans
-Ottomans can rush, FF, or FI. Be careful not to guess wrong, if you try to counter one and he does something else, your gone.
-Against a rush, try not to build your barracks where they will see it and have easy access to it, you CANT lose it!

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:48 PM

Vs Spanish



When playing spain, we are going to face an FF most times, Spain can FF very well. The old spanish pike rush is not even close to as powerful as it used to be ever since the cover mode "fix". Spain can rush, and will sometimes, but lately its been all about the spanish FF or the rodelero rush. It's most likely going to either be a battle of colonial warfare against his rods and xbow, or they will be going for fort age pre-8 minutes.

We must remember that whatever spain does, it will be done fast due to the faster shipments (even faster sincethe vanilla 1.08 patch). When they get to fort, they will have more shipments available then other FFs, esp if they grab a trade post or two.

Check their deck, this is important vs any civ. Seeing few age 2 cards means FF or FI depending on how many age 4 cards you see. If the deck looks like a rush deck (lots of age 2 cards) then we need to do a standard colonial warfare build... (same build as for otto rush)



Possible BO's :


Standard Colonial Warfare :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 10 on gold, 5 on hunts.
-Build barracks and 2 houses. Keep constant villie production.
-Begin skirmisher spam
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy forwards if there are any OR play 3 hussar to cunter abus.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts. 700 gold helps with skirmisher production.


Fast Colonial :

-4 villies to hunt... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood. All villies on food still.
-Build barracks and 2 houses. Keep constant villie production.
-Play 700 gold. Begin skirmisher spam.
-Play 8 pike card to guard against hussar and to help tear down enemy forwards if there are any OR play 3 hussar to cunter abus.
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms and keep pikes in rear, ready to get hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts.


Another way to do fast colonial is to build a bank with the 400 age up wood then play 700 wood as first card, then building a barracks and another bank with that. The next card is then 700 gold for skirms. This is a bit slower, but gives you a MUCH better economy and the banks give you the build xp, giving you your shipments faster. This build is slower, but much stronger if you can manage it.

(Building your defensive barracks on the far side of your base away from where he will come from is a good idea, you dont want him to kill it, if he does, you are dead)


Now if they are FFing (more likely), then we need to FF along with them or put heavy colonial pressure on them. It doesnt matter which FF strategy you choose, there are many out there, 3-4 bank FF, 2 bank+1tp, no bank, 5:30 FF, etc, etc. Whichever you choose, get to fort soon and get ruyter asap. The Delay FF is a GREAT anti spanish strategy. Check the guide below to see how its done.

Delay FF Guide
Sepha's FF Guide

Most games vs spain, you are going to see lancers (they have two good age3 cards, 5 lancers and 4 lancers), and we want to counter that, if we build skirms first, we are just begging to lose. Spain's lancer makes it argueably the best anti infantry civ in the game. The lancer is not as versital is the French curriaser, but it has a huge bonus vs infantry and that bonus can be greatly increased by a card. Lancers can even make good work out of anti cav infantry units, but die horribly to ranged cavalry, so ruyters are key against spain. The other units we are going to see from spain are pikes and cannons. Spain always has cannons early, due to the 2 cannon card. They have an age up pike politicion and several good pike shipments in age3 (10 pike, 12 pike). Spain also has skirms often, even though they have no skirm cards.

Our biggest worries though are pikes, lancers, and cannons. There is a spanish strategy that ages up with 8 pike, plays 2 cannon card and 12 pike card, and then makes some pikes... this assaults while he plays 5 lancer card that comes in soon to finish off the skirms you made to counter his pikes. This is very tough to kill. Other spanish FF builds come at you with cannons, pikes, lancers, skirms all in various mixes.

Ruyters against spain. These are very important to counter his lancers as well as artillery and hussar as 1.08 spain age ups are using 4 hussar age up more often. Ruyter can also hit and run pikes, though once the pikes are massed, this gets tough.

Skirmishers against spain is a bad idea early on, but later on, a good choice. Do not use skirmishers against spain unless you have some cover from halbs or ruyter. Once they are protected, they are a good counter to the masses of pikes spain likes to use. I feel skirmishers are less useful against spain then against most other civs due to the lancer threat, though if you can nuetralize the lancer threat, they can be very useful.

Halbs are decent, but I don't find myself using them all that much vs spain. Lancers have a bonus vs them, so ruyter are a better counter to lancer.

Cannons. Cannons vs spain is a good idea. Be sure to grab a culv or two to counter the sure cannons they will have, but falconets are good vs spain as long as you have some ruyter and skirms around the cannonry. Lancers are ok vs cannons as long as they get close, but if you have ruyter nearby the cannons, byebye lancers, and the cannons take care of the rest of the spanish threat. (their cannons, pikes, skirms)

If you can do a fast 3 bank FF, get the ruyter card out, then begin creating ruyters/skirms/cannons soon, you can beat spain, but remember, never leave skirms alone, lancers will decimate them. Getting a fort up soon along with a foundry is a good idea, that can bring a couple cannons, ruyter from a card, and some ruyter/skirms built from the fort to counter the spanish attack.

Always try to raid him, ruyters can be a good raiding unit and since we are using lots of ruyter vs spain we should have some extra. Explore, searching for his villies. Spain also needs a good gold supply like germany to create its gold heavy units (cannons, lancers, skirms), so try to cut it off. We get our gold from banks mostly, so we are less tied to mines.

Getting to industrial age helps vs a spanish player due to the fact they have only 1 factory. Due to his only 1 factory, your late game will be better then his.


Civ Unit Analysis :

Lancer : A hussar-like unit with one difference, not as good vs cannons, but excellent vs infantry. Can be upgraded to have +100% attack vs infantry from a card. Excellent age3 unit that renders units such as skirms and longbows useless. Can even kill anti cav infantry units decently.
Counters : Lancers die horribly to ruyter. You can also use halbs decently.

Rodelero : This unit is a spanish special unit. Basically, it is a fast pikeman with good hand to hand attack, but less siege. A Very good counter to cavalry and will chase your ruyter down. Also beware these guys getting up close to your cannonsand light infantry.
Counters : Skirmishers/Cannons

Pike : Not a special unit, but the spanish use loooooooooots of these units. Expect them to be seiging your buildings, killing your cav, and guarding cannonry.
Counters : Skirms/Cannons


Summery

-Skirms early on is a bad idea vs spain because of lancers
-Ruyter is a good idea early on to counter lancers and to give protection for later production of skirmishers and cannons
-Cannons are a good idea vs spain as long as you protect them with ruyter
-Spain is fast in whatever it does due to fast shipments
-Spain can rush and FF, but FF is currently more popular
-Spain only has 1 factory, so is weaker in Indy then we are as we have 2 of these cards for double heavy cannon production or just extra resource production.

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 17 2006, 15:18 PM

Vs British



The british are a very economic civ. Their longbows are a cheaper version of the skirmisher, but have a longer range. Overall, longbows can be more dangerous then skirms because of a larger base damage as well as a faster fire rate, coupled with a longer range. The British do not have any super units, and nothing special in age 3. Their one sole special unit is the longbow and most british opponents will be using this unit against you.

The British have a few different strategies.

They can native rush just as well as anyone, but their standard rush is nothing special and you will rarely see it, though an early longbow harass is not unusual.

What you will see most of the time is some sort of colonial boom, most of the times including some sort of manor boom (the british houses cost 135 wood (88 after virgina card), but give a free villager). Check their deck, if it has the cheaper manor card (virginia) then expect a colonial boom, that will bring out a large amount of longbows once it is completed, then age3 soon after.

The other strategy you can expect is a regular FF. The British FF is nothing special, but they do have a 2 cannon card, 10 lbow card, 5 dragoon card and access to two batches of highlanders and 2 batches of jeagers.

No matter how the British come at you, their army is almost always infantry based, so heres where we are really going to want our skirmishers and cannons with maybe a few ruyter in reserve for any cav that they decide to throw at you. If they mass mainly only longbows, you will want to spam hussars.

We have a few choices if they colonial boom. We can do a normal skirm spam, but their eco will be great. This can work if we get our skirms in their base before thier boom is done, this depends on how heavy of a boom they are doing, sometimes they boom until the 7th minute before building a barracks, other times they do a boom whilst making longbows and still other times they do a villie spam where they research all the villager upgrades (hp, attack, and hp card) and simply spam villagers until the 10th minute and then go up. That strategy is normally used to counter rushes as the villager HP is 300 and the attack is not bad, then they garrison 10 villies, while using the other 40 or so villagers to fire on your attackers. I doubt this strategy will be used vs a dutch, but its possible they will as it gives them a good economy, while allowing his villagers to defend themselves.

We can do a bank boom skirm spam where we try to get our economy going just as good or better then theirs by getting bunches of banks up and continually making villies, then spamming skirms and maybe hussars. We could also go straight for an FF, thus getting to fort long before them and grabbing cannons and skirms to counter his age2, infantry based army. Remember to micro your cannons to cause as much damage to his massed longbows as possible, because microed longbows can and will kill cannons.

Delay FF Guide
Sepha's FF Guide

If they go FF, they will usually have longbows, cannons, and dragoons. Different FFs will have highlanders and jeagers mixed with those, highlanders are a popular unit to have guarding the cannons and many times British players will try to be very aggressive and forward build a tower, then ship 2 cannons and the 8 highlanders from the church tech they have. Watch out for that.

After patch 1.08, do not expect alot of brits to be FFing.

To counter an FF, we will most definately want to be in fort ourselves, a normal or 3 bank FF build is fine. We will not find much use for ruyter vs the British except to go after cannons or the hussars they may decide to use. Mainly we are going to want skirmishers, falconets, and culvs to counter their culvs.

The British FI (Fast Indy) is also an option for your opponent. A British FI pulled off fast can have industrial in 10 minutes and an army of 10 muskets, 10 lbow, and 3 rockets by 11. The 10 muskets may be replaced by 2 falcs depending on the age up politician used. By the time this army arrives, and if you can manage to destroy it, the British player has played another of thier mighty age4 cards as well as built at least 20 more longbows.

To counter the British FI, I suggest a dutch FI strategy, a pressure strategy, or an economicaly heavy FF to get lots of anti infantry units and possibly some culvs for his rockets, hussar are good to kill rockets and longbows, but if he gets muskets, bye bye hussar, but remember, if you are in fort and he is in indy, all his shipments are way better then yours. A heavy pressure strategy is aimed at keeping his villagers garrisoned as much as possible. You can do a fast FF or simply stay in colonial and spam skirmishers. By the 10 minute mark you can inflict lots of damage with just skirms by forcing his villagers inside and forcing him to build military to defend.

The British have some serious age4 cards, one of which is the 3 rocket card. Not only does it deliver 3 units of the heavy cannon caliber, but they also get the regular 2 rocket card as well, not to mention the other regular good military cards for age4. They also have the Estate card which allows manors to slowly make villagers. If that is played, the brit will spam villagers like nuts.

When vsing the British a less defensive strategy should be used then against other civs like spain and germany. I would not worry about getting a fort up as soon, instead more worried about getting cannons and skirms out asap.

Any battle vs a British opponant is going to require you to really worry about keeping your eco expanding, because a British opponant can keep his economy running very well due to manors and nice villager cards. While continuing warfare with a British opponant, constantly build villagers like always, and attempt to get as many banks up as possible. Its going to be an eco war many times vs a british opponant if you cant kill him early. Cutting off a Brt's gold supply isnt as effect as vs other civs, because his main unit (longbows) does not require gold. The longer a game rages against a Brit, the worse off you are going to be due to their great economy.


Civ Unit Analysis :

Longbow : Basically a skirmisher unit. Has a slow first shot, but additional shots are pretty fast. Can't hit and run effectively, but has a very long range, espeacily if the yoeman card is played. Effective vs cavalry en mass, and can even kill cannons if microed en mass. Very good vs muskets, pikes, dragoons, war wagons, halbs, etc. Cant be upgraded past veteran without yoeman card. Overall, longbows can be more dangerous then skirms because of a larger base damage as well as a faster fire rate, coupled with a longer range.
Counters : Use skirms to meet them, cannons to decimate them, and hussars to run them down.

Manor : The British houses cost 135 wood, but give 1 free settler, many british players manor boom, which means to build lots of manors to get free settlers. One such strategy is to boom until the 7th or 8th minute and have nearly 50 villagers by that time, then beginning to spam lbow. This strat is very effective vs the FF, specifically vs the german FF. Beware of this, and if you are playing vs a player that is manor booming, he will have plenty of population space, so do NOT waste time killing his manors. It is a waste, you won't house him, and all you will be doing is helping him. Once a british player reaches 20 manors he cannot build any more, so he cant get anymore free settlers, but if you kill 5 manors, he can build 5 more and get 5 more free settlers. So as you can see, it only helps a brit to kill his manors when he is manor booming and has a massive amount of wood


Summery :

-The British economy is going to be good, you will need to keep up
-The British are an infantry heavy civ, thus cannons are good vs them
-The British alot of times like to hang out in age2, this can help you
-The British do not have alot of cavalry normally, so ruyter are less important and skirmishers are more important
-The British will normally either do a manor boom or an FF

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:53 PM

Vs Russains



The Russains are a unique civ. They have access to 3 types of infantry. Their special unit the strelet (a mini skirm), muskets, and halbs. Only the musket and the strelet is available in age2. Their infantry trains in batches from their barracks. The strelets train in batches of 10, the halbs in batches of 4, and the muskets in batches of 5. The strelet mass (rush/pressure strat) is one of the most feared strategies from a russain, many players feel there is no way to counter this attack and feel hopeless.

When facing a Russain, theres two main strategies we have to worry about.

Rush/Pressure and FF.

If they use a rush/pressure strategy, they will most likely have a combination of strelets built from a forward blockhouse and cossacks from their 4 and 5 cossack age2 cards. What they will do is attempt to "choke" you to death, by forcing you to keep all of your villagers garrisoned and slwly beating your structures to death with their mass of strelets.

Heres a build order of a good rush/pressure strategy a Russain may use on you. He will age up to colonial at 4:30-4:50 with 14 villagers. During the colonial advance, he will build a forward blockhouse before he finishes aging (when done well, he will use 300 wood shipment to fund this, use your envoy to check and see if he ships this, if you do see the shipment pop out, you know what he is doing). He will most likely age up with 400 wood politition to fund strelets and housing. He will then que 10 strelets in his blockhouse whilst shipping the 13 strelet card. The blockhouse will be set to receive shipments, so when the 13 strelets card arrives, there will be 23 strelets heading for your base, soon after 10 more will be in your base as well. the 5 and 4 cossack cards will be shipped soon and will be helping assault. He will then continue to pump 10 strelets at a time, keeping a steady flow into your base.

First off, we want to make sure this is what he is doing, so we scout, looking for the 300 wood shipment and forward villagers. We also can check his deck, looking for a deck with alot of age 2 cards. Seeing the 300 wood card in the deck along with the 4 and 5 cossack cards as well as the 13 strelet card normally means something.

Once we do know he is rushing/pressuring us, we need to decide on a course of action. We could do what we do vs the ottomans. Age up at 4 or so, and spam skirms. This works ok, but strelets are just cheap skirms, so wheres the countering here? His masses of strelets are going to overwhelm you and most likely, if he microes well, a quarter of his strelets are going to be meleeing you whilst the rest fire on you. So countering this mass with skirms isnt the best choice. Its not hopeless, but its not the best choice either.

What I do suggest is the following BO :

Counter Strelet Hoarde BO :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 8 on gold, 5 on hunts, 2 on gold mine off to the side, out of sight of your base and anywhere you renemy might be lurking.
-Build stable with 2 villies off ot the side of the map and 2 houses at your TC. Keep constant villie production. (sometimes I build it at the edge of the middle of the map, esp on bayou)
-Begin hussar spam and save up your hussar at your stable until he assaults your base.
-Play 3 hussar card and add that your your growing hussar army. Try to pump out 10 hussars asap.
-When he attacks your TC with his strelets, garrison villies and flank the strelet hoarde with your hussars.
-Play 700 wood, build barracks and housing, begin making skirms to counter the muskets that are sure to be protecting the strelets now.
-Raid with hussar and attack with combine
d hussar/skirm army.
-Pump 10-15 pikes and go for the kill.

Get him off his hunts and off gold. DONT let him get GOLD! He is trying to mine gold for muskets now! he will have 10 muskets and 10 strelets at his forward pretty soon. You will want to assault that army with your 10-15 skirmisher army, keeping your hussars ready to flank and kill his strelets. If you played the 8 pike card, you can make good use of it now to help kill his forward. Now go kill him. Should be an easy matter of forcing him off hunts and garrison, then destroy his base. You may need to build 10 or so pikes to rip down structures.


Sometimes the Russain will do an FF though. If they do FF, and you are preparing to counter a rush, you are in trouble. there are various Russain FFs. One is an FF+fast ophrinicks. The ophrinick is the Russain special cav unit. A low hp, fast cavalry unit with a HUGE bonus vs villagers and a GREAT siege attack. It also has a GREAT bonus vs artillery. He will age up to fort and try to catch unprotected villies with his ophs as well as kill structures before you can guard them. He wont always try to fast ophrinick you, other times he will simply get a fortress army. The age up to fort gives the Russain 17 free strelets. He now has some pretty good fort cards available. 17 strelet card, 9 halb card, 11 muskets card, 2 falconet card (Someone must really have hated Dutch to not give us this dang card), 5 cav archers, 5 and 6 ophrinick. They also have Manchu cav archer mercenary, highlander merc, and hackapells.

To counter the quick ophs we will need to do an FF (no slow 4 bank FFs, need a faster one), play 9 ruyter card, build a stable and get some more ruyter out. After this we will want a fort up (make skirms out of it) and an artillery foundry for some falconets. The quick ruyter will destroy his ophs and from there you can take over. Put ruyter in melee on strelets, dont try to fight strelets with ruyter in ranged mode, in melee mode they do alot more damage to them.

A regular FF will give the russain the 17 strelets for aging up, at least 10 or so he built himself, and an unknown combination of units from there. You will want to check his deck to see which age3 cards he has. He will most likely use 2 fort age cards by the time he assaults. If he plays 2 falconet and 11 muskets, that means he will have 27 strelets, 2 falconets, and 11 muskets coming at you. We will want an FF as well to counter this.

Watch out for Suvorov Reforms. This age3 card for the russains instantly converts all strelets into muskets. If he seems to be oddly massing strelets only, and not attacking, then goes fort, you know whats coming... mass muskets!

Ruyter against russia is very important, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have ruyter in reserve against a russain. And keep 5-10 sitting near your economy. A Russain will swoop in with 10-15 ophs and try to kill as many villagers as possible as well as attempting to destroy any farms/banks/military buildings as he can before you push them back out. If you have ruyter waiting, he cant do anything. Keeping ruyter to back up your main army is also good to counter an cossacks he sends. They are also good to counter enemy artillery and ruyter can swarm strelets if put on melee mode.

Skirmishers are not a bad idea against russia. Since skirmishers are simply the larger version of the strelet, they can meet a strelet army well, they will also kill ophs and cav archers, just don't let his cheap cossacks get to them unprotected (have ruyter to back them up). Watch out for cannons, use culvs or ruyter to get those cannons before they get your skirms.

Hussar become alot more useful vs russains then anyone else as hussar counters strelets and can fight cossacks fine as well as killing any cannons they come across. Hussar will also kill ophs in combat.

Cannons. Cannons are a VERY good choice vs russia. Their strelets have very low HP and a cannon blast will send many strelets flying. 4 falconets when microed to each fire on a different section of an enemy group of strelets will devestate a large army. If the first volley doesnt send him packing, the second volley wont leave anything left to pack. Cannons are VERY VERY good vs strelets and other infantry. Now with that said that russia's infantry is weak to falconets, also note that russia's cavalry is the best anti artillery cavalry in the game. Ophrinicks have a huge artillry damage bonus and will crush cannons if they arent protected. Always keep cannons heavilly guarded. At least 3 halbs per cannon is a good idea, keeping them all around your cannons to ward off those pesky ophs, if you have a group of 5 cannons, then guard it with 15 halbs AT LEAST. You can guard them with ruyter too.

Halbs vs russia is alright, but they arent a huge cav oriented civ, except for thier cheap cossacks, but ruyter do a better job against them them halbs due to the speed issue. The only thing I use halbs for against russia is to protect cannons or to seige down buildings.

The Russians also have a powerful FI. Their FI cards include TWO heavy cannon cards! Other good indy age cards for the Russains are : 24 and 28 strelets, 9 grenadiers, 15 halbs, 16 muskets, 9 ophrinicks, 9 cav archers, 9 cossacks. They only have 1 factory card in indy, so that works to your advantage. Their FI is 11 minutes and comes along with ALOT of strelets. Aging up to fort gives 17, and on the way to indy, 20-30 more are built, then theres the age up to industrial military (normally 10 muskets) and then the 2 heavies card along with another age4 card (possibly another 2 heavies or some other great age4 shipment). Counter with FI of your own. You are going to want heavies of your own, skirms, and ruyter. I also suggest some hussar as alot of his army will be counterable by hussar.


Civ Unit Analysis :


TC : The Russains build their villies in batches of 3. This only costs 270 food, which means each villagers only costs 90 food! Russains can therefore get more villagers then most. If they do a 3 TC boom, you are in trouble, don't let that happen. Kill TC's at every chance. Each one is capable of building 3 gatherers at a time, so get those down!
Counters : Pikes, halbs, cannons!

Blockhouse : The Russains do not build outposts (towers) and they do not build barracks. What they do build is a blockhouse. Blockhouses cost the same 250 wood, but combines an outpost with a barracks and half a house. What they have now is a barracks that can shoot enemies and provides 5 population. Blockhouses train units in batches. These units are cheaper then normal, but slightly weaker.
Counters : Pikes, halbs, cannons!

Strelet : The strelet trains in batches of 10 in the blockhouse. They are heavily dependant on food and cost some wood. Each batch of strelets is going to require another house, so strelet spammers are going to need lots of housing fast. Strelets are mini skirmishers and are going to come in great numbers.
Counters : Hussar counter them well. Cannons crush them. Strelets meet them. Ruyter on melee dont do too badly.

Ophrinick : A fast cavalry unit. Huge seige attack, can rip down buildings fast. Great bonus vs villagers, so will be after your villies. Great bonus vs artillery, so keep anti cav near your cannons at ALL times. Good russain players will build 20-25 ophs and during a major battle elsewhere will send these around back to your base, if you dont see them in time, they can VERY quickly burn down your entire base. ALWAYS expect ophrinicks when there is any kind of conflict. Anytime there is a battle, check the minimap for enemy units near your base.
Counters : Ruyter, pikes, halbs. Hussar even kill them in a fight. Towers kill most cav due to cav bonus, but ophs will rip up towers.

Cossack : Cossacks are a 1-pop cheap raider unit. Cossacks are simply cheap hussars.
Counters : Any anti cav unit. Ruyters work well.


Summery :

-Russains use quantity over quality. They have lots and lots of cheap units. Strelets are everywhere.
-Russain early game is very good, but their late game is a bit weaker then others. They only have 1 factory card.
-Russains are masters of siege and raiding with their ophrinicks, keep ruyters in the back to protect your base from this
-Russains will try to pin you down early most times, if you can stop that, you are in good shape
-Russains have blockhouses, which combine half a house with a barracks and a tower

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:32 PM

Vs France




Ahhh, good old France. Hasn't been the same since the 1 vill nerf, but still a good solid civilization. Vanilla patch 1.08 helped them a good bit with the extra food crate. They will very rarely rush you, and if they do, watch for it to be a native rush with units such as Nootka clubmen. France has extra native cards. The French are weaker early game, decent mid-game, awesome late game. DO NOT let it go into late game, the French late game eco will be better, and their special cavalry unit the cuirassier becomes a dominant unit late game once upgraded.

If France does come after you in colonial it will probably be with skirmishers or xbow. SKIRMISHERS?! Yes, thats what I said. No, Dutch are not the only ones with age2 skirms, France can play a card and have skirms and age2! Check their deck, if they have TEAM Early Skirmishers in their deck, be ready for an early attack. Simply build skirms and/or hussars of your own and counter it, remember, he had to use a card to get those skirms this early, you didnt, you have the advantage! If they do not use skirmishers, they will use xbows.

The dominant strategy for the French is the FF. You can mostly just FF to counter without worrying about a rush. A faster FF means you have a faster military and a slower one like a 4 bank FF can give you a stronger economy, either one is viable against France as they arent too too fast. They are a skirm heavy civ and have an age up politician for skirms as well. France will normally have skirms, cuirassiers, and cannons. Dragoons are not uncommon and neither are muskets. France is sort of the jack of all trades, they are very versital and have many units to choose from.

Against a French player, if he is FFing, we will FF as well, age up and get a batch of ruyter out, then skirms. His age3 cuirassiers are VERY good vs skirms, but ruyter will make short work of them, be sure to hit and run with the ruyter, the cuirassiers can still damage them if they get too close. The cuirassier is normally the unit everyone worries about, but as long as the French player doesn't hit indy, his cuirassiers arent that strong. An army of skirms and ruyter will do well vs france with a couple culvs to back up.

Skirms are good as a main unit and counter muskets and dragoons, and ruyter can counter cannons and cuirassiers. Cannons are decent vs France as they like to create lots of skirms, you will want to scout and see, some french players build masses of skirms, so cannons will be great then, but other times they don't have so many, but normally cannons are a good idea. Halbs are the best counter to cuirassiers if you can get them to stand still. If cuirassiers get close to ruyter they can do some damage, but not to halbs.

France's selection of age3 cards are pretty good. 2 falconet card (why oh why can't we have this?), 2 and 3 cuirassiers, 7 and 8 skirmishers, 5 dragoons, and 4 hussars. The skirmisher cards are nice and they can really bolster his army quickly, but if he plays the cuirassier cards, he will have a very nice anti infantry force ready for flanking your skirms and cannons. Also note that the cuirassier will rip into groups of villagers horribly. France has a good selection of mercs as well, so expect Swiss Pike, Jeagers, Landsneck, and Black Riders. All very powerful units. The favourite seeming to be the Black Riders.

Watch out for the age3 grenadier "rush". You will know he is doing it if you see him build a church early on. In this build, he does an FF, builds a church, plays his church card, plays skirm card, ages up with skirm politician, and then uses the special church tech to get 12 upgraded grenadiers. This force can really really hurt and comes fast. If he uses it you will want hussar and cannons. Do an FF, build a stable, spam hussar, play ruyter card, build arty foundry, build 2 cannons. He will probably hit you before you get your 2 cannons, but hussar combined with the ruyter on melee should stop this attack, or at least push it back, then you can counter attack with your cannons and ruyter/hussar combo.

France in age3 isnt a big problem for the Dutch, but France in age4 can become a big problem. If he goes age4, be sure to get there fast. In age4, France has 2 factory cards, the normal age4 military cards including heavies, 6 cuirassier card, 2 hussar + 6 cuirassier card, etc. France also has a 2 fort cards in age4, this can really bolster his defenses, so keep in mind you might want to look for a fort wagon after he advances to indy. The other big thing in age4 is the cuirassier upgrade. The cuirassier finally becomes dangerous and begins to start to ignore its counters a little bit more. It is absolutely imperative that you upgrade along with him. Choose a counter unit, halb or ruyter and upgrade it to guard status. You must choose on and keep it upgraded to the level which his is upgraded. Ruyter are more mobile and have a range, but halbs are a harder counter and do more damage, but are slow and cuirassiers can run from them. Cannons behind upgraded halbs are very effective. If France goes to Imperial, you are in some serious crap... France has a great late-game and imperial allows imperial cuirassiers.. these units are amazing and have a HUGE amount of HP and attack. DO NOT let him get to imperial and if he does, GET imperial upgrades for your halbs NOW! Otherwise your dead. Masses of imperial cuirassiers can crush regular armies of just about anything. Be warned!

Age 2 colonial warfare vs France is very viable, pin them down and make them pay for going FF. If they fight back in colonial, you are ready. I suggest you go for a aggressive colonial warfare build against the French.

Watch out for those xbows. The French have the ability to instantly convert all xbow into skirmishers with an age3 card. Keep an eye out for that.

Civ Unit Analysis :


Cuirassier : Ah, the good old cuirassier. Very expensive, but very strong. Good against almost everything. Even anti cav has a little bit of trouble with them. They have an area attack, so they do damage to 3 enemies at once. These guys are the ultimate villie killers, groups of vilies go bye bye in seconds. These guys are ok in age3, and get stronger and stronger as they get upgraded. Age5 cuirassiers are amazing. Be sure to use the arsenal to upgrade your halbs and ruyter.
Counters : The best counter to them is halbs, but they can run from halbs. The next best is ruyter, but if the cuirassiers get too close... ouch.

Coureur de Bois : A strong villager, good HP and faster gather rate them normal villagers. Costs more. Harder to raid these guys.

Summery :

-Weak early game
-STRONG late game, DO NOT let them get to age 5
-Cuirassiers are ok in age3, strong in age4, and VERY strong in age5
-Use halbs or ruyter to counter cuirassiers, preferably a mix of both. Keep your anti cav upgraded as far as his cuirassiers are
-Skirmisher heavy civ for the most part
-Watch out for the aggressive gren "rush" in age3, its one of the popular aggressive builds

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:40 PM

Vs Ports



The ports. A very interesting civilization. When AOE3 first came out, you only used the ports if you wanted to lose. Now they are very powerful, even if underused and under estimated. They may feel a bit bland, but they are a tough opponant to play against.

The biggest thing we must consider is that the ports get a free TC with every age-up. That's a HUGE bonus. In colonial this means thay have twice the possible villager production, in fort, triple the villager production, and in indy, thats quadruple villager production over our Dutch! A very dangerous thing, the port economy can be.

The free TC in age2 basically means they can resist any sort of colonial age rush, from basically any civ, and if there is colonial age fighting, they still have two TC's from which to boom from. These free TC's is what makes the ports so good. No matter what they do, they can do it while under an incredible amount of protection. You want to tell me the Dutch are natural turtlers, I tell you, the port are the natural turtlers of AOE3, even if they don't want to, they have the free fortification of a TC per age which protects them tremendously. And as if the defensive power of these TC's werent enough to ward us off, the colonial miltia card grants the ports minutemen armies out of each TC. Be warned, when facing a port, the biggest thing you have to contend with, is fighting the bonus these free TC's give.

There are two different ways the ports like to set up their TCs. Defensive and Aggressive. Defensive will see them placing all their TC's close together, making it VERY tough to attack that localized piece of territory. In this way, they can call multiple minutement out to defend a single location. If they do this... run, minutemen armies can CRUSH whole armies of attackers. Aggressive will see them place their TC's very far apart, near hunts and gold, claiming map control with their TC's. Watch for both. In aggressive, if you can cut off a TC and destroy it, there will be most likely a number of villagers inside to kill, thus when the TCs are spread out, make sure to target them.

Due to the TC bonus, our fight with the ports is all about eco. We have to fight their eco.

The ports generally use two strategies. FF and FI. They will sometimes engage in colonial warefare, but they begin shining in age3, and really shine in age4, so they will attempt to get to those ages as fast as possible.

If they FF, they will have a decent age up time around the 7 minute mark. Our 3 bank FF can get us there around the same time, with a pretty decent eco. Unfortunately, the ports now have the ability to pump 3 villies at a time with their 3 TC's. Now since we can assume they will not come after us in the early stages, a 4 bank economic FF is going to be a much better option, as our battle against the ports is all about eco, and this gives us a few more villies and an extra bank.

As soon as the ports age to 3, they will have a free TC they will want to place, be on the look out for this TC being constructed, if possible, destroy it. The ports in age 3 have several options. They age up with 6 cassador normally and have some good selections of cards early in age3, they have 5 goon card, 7 and 8 cassador card, 8 musket card, 2 organ gun card (this card will make mincemeat of infantry), 8 halb card, fort card, and 4 good mercenary cards.

The port mercenary cards are excellent cards indeed.

5 ronin. These little buggers are NASTY. I have seen them run into a full scale battle, out the other side, kill 2 factories while the battle is still raging, and then get away.... Ronin are fast, ronin have a powerful area attack, and decent HP. They have a bonus vs cavalry and if they get near any sort of cav, its dead. Ronin also have a very powerful siege attack and are great for tearing down structures. Watch out for this merc and do not let them get near your ruyter. Focus fire skirms on them. Hit and running with your ruyter can be effective vs ronin if done well.

9 barbary corsiars and 5 hackapells. Standard mercs, lots of civs have these two. The corsairs are argueably one of the worst mercs avalable, but are great anti cav if the cav gets close. Good for guarding the port organ guns. The hackapells are beefed up hand cav, effective for raiding, killing skirms, and taking down cannons.

5 Mamelukes. In my opinion, the best mercenary available. These guys have HP out the wazoo. VERY tough to kill, even worse when they run from battle to be healed by monks from a church. Their attack isnt bad either, but their main advantage is their massive HP. They will crush fields of skirmishers, and are amazingly good for taking down cannons as they can soak up a massive amount of damage while still getting to your cannons. Watch out for this mercenary, its a favourite shipment of the ports and can rip into your army. Having ruyter available at all time is a wise course of action, and halbs to guard cannons is even better as the mameluke HP is so great, it may take the heavy infantry to stop them from taking out your cannons. WATCH for the mams.

If the port plays the fort card, leave the fort alone, try and avoid it at all costs, they are now extremely fortified, 3 TC and a fort. You cannot afford to assault that. If you can't stop them from getting their fort up, avoid it. Raid, Raid, Raid. Kill as much as you can out of range of that fort, you just cannot afford to siege it at the moment.

The port church tech gives them better farming at the expense of a weaker eco everywhere else. The military church tech gives a number of crossbowmen AND gives all crossbow from then on an HP bonus. If you see a port church and the port church card in their deck, expect crossbows soon. You may laugh... you may think the xbow units stinks, you may think it is an age2 unit that cant compete. DO NOT under-estimate the xbow unit for port. With the church upgrade, they are powerful, and they are very cheap. I have played games where I thought I had a port player beaten, I had ruined his eco, crushed his armies, he was out of gold, but he had the church tech and he had lots of food and wood, and he began making xbow en masse... all I can say is do not underestimate xbows. They are good and do not get lax when you see them. Just think of them as a skirmisher and act accordingly, cannons and hussars. Ruyter in melee works too.


Now if the port player does not FF, he will FI. You can tell if a port is going Fast Industrial by his deck. If he has lots of age4 cards, he is going for an FI. A port FI is basically an FF with defensive TC arrangement, a fort as soon as he hits age3, then going to age4 soon after. They have the option of saving their first card for 1000 gold and going to age4 faster, or using it for colonial miltia, which with 3 TC and another on the way, means HEAVY DUTY defense. Port FI is usually done around 11 minutes, about the same as a Dutch FI. The Port FI is extremely protected, VERY hard to take down.

I suggest one of two counters to FI.

FF + fast ruyters. Need them fast to try and take out his fort wagon and possibly his age3 TC wagon if you get fort fast enough (straight FF, 3 bank FF, even 5:30 FF), you will also be getting his age 4 TC when it comes out. You then attempt to strangle his economy, forcing his villagers to stay within his small protected area with ruyters, skirmishers, and towers. Cut him off from gold mines and hunts. This works best when they place all TC's pretty close together and are defending them with a fort.

3 or 4 bank FI. The dutch FI can be a potent thing. Getting to industrial just as fast or possibly faster can really make it a good fight. If you do go FI, get pressure on him fast and on the way to indy, I suggest not putting up a fort, but getting military shipments to raid and attempt to take down fort and TC wagons. Once you hit industrial, I suggest shipping 2 heavies and making skirmishers. Then ship 13 ruyter. After those 2, if you are secure, get the factories out, if not, play more military cards. The port industrial age strategy is normally to get to age4, get factories, pump heavies and muskets. Getting your own heavies and skirmishers to counter his muskets, will put you in a good position. Skirmishers also don't do too badly vs dragoons either, which is a favourite unit of ports as well. Keeping up with the port economy will be tough, and you must take every opportunity you can get to raid and kill his eco. Try to contain him to his fortified area and make any lone TC's targets. Use groups of ruyter to look for villagers constantly.

Your FI deck will need to contain 8 skirmishers, 9 ruyter, fort, 3 villagers, 1000 wood, 700 wood, 13 ruyter, 2 heavies, 14 skirmishers, 13 halbs, Dutch counter cavalry force, both factory cards, both +1 bank cards (if the game goes on long enough, you will use these), religious freedom card (very good card, not only +2 banks, but stadhouders is a huge age4 possiblilty). Those are musts, after those, its up to you, but I tend to like 1600 wood and tulip card as well. Add fishing cards if you plan to fish boom. Fish booming is a way to make up for the Dutch lack of a late game eco, and on water maps can make the Dutch late game eco great. We have 50 pop extra due to our lower villager pop, this can all go towards fishing boats on water maps.

FI Links :

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...showtopic=78001
http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...howtopic=105795

FF Guide :

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...howtopic=117987
Delay FF Guide

Port has a notable lack of siege until age 4. Keep that in mind when playing them. Until age 4 they really can't do alot of damage vs structures as they do not have access to the falconet. Once they get age4, they have the mortar. Until then they only have the pike and the halb.

Against a port player, ruyter is a good choice of unit all around. The ports main units will be the cassador, dragoon, organ gun, mamelukes, ronin, muskets, heavies. Ruyter do well vs all of those except muskets and now in 1.08 cassador have a bonus vs ruyter. Ruyter in melee on cassador does ok if there arent too many cassadors and against ronin, hit and run. Organ gun HP is so low, ruyter take them out very fast, either in ranged mode or melee.

Skirmishers are a good main unit vs port, just keep them away from organ guns and mamelukes.

Halbs. I would generally forget halbs against port, except as a possible protector for cannons, and some support siege if you wish.

Cannons. Culvs vs port can work wonders. They take organ guns out very quickly and can be used to take out heavies effectively. without organs and heavies, the port army can be handled normally quite nicely. Falconets are also a good choice, but keep them protected from enemy culvs, dragoons, and mamelukes.


In 1.08 it has become more viable to engage the ports in colonial warfare. We can now age up faster and get skirms out faster. I would suggest using the aggressive colonial warfare BO. The Ports may have an extra TC, but we do not need to kill the TC, just any gathering villagers. If you can force him to garrison most of his villies, whilst killing any others he dares send out to gather, and you keep your eco cranking, you can defeat him, even if he does make it to fort. A colonial assault is not out of the question, it just must be done right..

Anti Port Aggressive Colonial Warfare :

-4 villies to gold until you have gathered enough gold to have 15 villies with 3 villie card... Others on crates.
-When crates are done, 1 villie builds house, rest on hunt, when house is done, go hunt.
-All new vills on hunt.
-Age up with 400 wood and 15 villies. 8 on gold, 5 on hunts, 2 on gold mine near enemy base.
-Build barracks at forward gold mine and 2 houses at your TC. Keep constant villie production.
-Begin skirmisher spam and go for enemy vilies ASAP.
-Play 3 hussar card for heavy raiding
-Continue skirm spam and constant villie production. Keep pressure on enemy with skirms
-Produce and keep pikes in rear, ready to get any hussar.
-3rd card depends... I prefer 700 wood so I dont need to gather any for housing and I also like to place a couple strategic towers to block him off of his hunts. 8 pikes is not a bad idea for taking out enemy structures and housing.

Circle the enemy TC. Keep your skirms in groups of 10, and keep the hussars seperate as well, you want to cover as much ground as possible, effectively blocking the enemy off of all resources. since he has two TCs, we need to stay away from direct TC fire, but also force his villies to stay inside of the TCs and not outside gathering. Once you can afford it, build 10-15 pikes and assault the first TC. Repeat. If he sends minutes, fall back and come back 20 seconds later, but still look for villies.


Civ Unit Analisys :

Cassador : A light infantry unit similar to the skirmisher, but with less HP, longer range, more attack, more speed, and longer reload time. Weak to any melee unit and vulnerable to cannon fire. Ports age up to fort with 6 of these guys. Just treat them as you would any other skirmisher unit. Hussars and cannons, even ruyter on melee (not as good since 1.08).

Organ Gun : The organ gun replaces the falconet for the ports. It is a rapid fire multibarreled cannon. Its a machine gun basically. It rips into infantry horribly, but has very low hp and is bad vs buildings. Keep infantry far away from these devices. Ruyter can handle these very well, even on ranged mode due to the low organ gun HP. Culverins are your best counter unit, but falconets do very well vs these as well. Due to the fact that these replace falconets, remember that ports have very little sige ability until age 4.



Summery :

-Ports are natural turtle civ, by far beating the Dutch to the title, due to the free TCs and huge booming abilty from them.
-Ports TC's can either be placed close together to form a super defensive base, or spread out for map control
-Ports will generally FF or FI. Ports really shine in age 4.
-Organ guns may seem nasty, but have low hp, hit them fast and they will drop like flies.
-Ports strength in age 4 are its heavies and its eco. You will need to take those down. Culvs/heavies for the first and raiding for the second.
-Overall, what the ports have over you is their eco, DO NOT forget to raid, raid raid. NEVER stop upping your eco, continue making vills until your at your limit, then banks, then fishing boats, then market upgrades, etc.

This post has been edited by DanaEileithyia: Jun 21 2007, 17:42 PM

Vs Dutch




A game in which both players use the same civ is called a "mirror" game. All mirror games play very differently then vs any other civs because neither side has any distinct advantage over the other, no special abilities to wield, no special units to throw at the other, no surprise shipments, its a level playing field and sometimes playing a Dutch mirror can be more challenging then vs other civs.

First off you need to realize both civs have access to the early skirmisher. Both civs have access to banks, and both civs have access to the exact same economy and cards. They also both share the +15% gold gather rate.

When playing a Dutch mirror game, most likely it will be a colonial fight. FFing takes about 7 minutes, possibly 8, and in that time the Dutch can field quite a large amount of early skirmishers and the Dutch do not have super anti rush cards like other civs, such as the 8 xbows, etc. Expect an early skirmisher assault, an FF, or an FI. Those are the 3 strategies a dutch will attempt. If they FF or FI and you hit them with a heavy colonial attack, you should dominate, if they go colonial warfare, you are ready, so normally an aggressive colonial warfare strategy works best.

The early dutch miltary cards are more aggressively minded. The 8 pikes and the 3 hussar.

The 8 pike card has a couple uses. First off it is a very great anti cavalry support card to guard your early skirmisher army in case of hussars from your enemy, and second it can come in handy to take down enemy forward barracks and other structures. Very important card to have in a mirror game.

The 3 hussar card becomes very powerful in a Dutch mirror game and I stress that it is always included in your deck when facing a Dutch with Dutch. The main unit of the Dutch in a mirror game will always be the skirmisher early on and the best counter to the skirmisher in colonial is the hussar. In a battle of skirmisher vs skirmisher, 3 hussars can turn the tide easily. The hussar can also be used effectively to raid your opponent.

When choosing your deck vs another Dutch player, keep in mind that you will want good colonial cards, but you do not want to neglect age 3 cards in case the game goes on into fort. Also keep in mind that if the game really goes on long, you do not want to let his eco have the ability to become better then yours, thus I recomend having both bank cards, both factories, tulip card, and the religious freedom card in your deck when versing a Dutch in a mirror game. If you do not and he does, then his economy has the ability to outstrip you late game if the game goes on that long. In most of my standard decks I do not have both bank cards, but vs a Dutch I always want those cards.

A Dutch mirror deck should always have 3 villie card, 700 wood, 700 gold, 600 wood, +1 bank cards, religious freedom, 8 pike, 3 hussar, both factory cards, possibly the tulip card, 4 villie, 9 ruyter, fort, 1000 wood. Those are the important ones. 4 villagers can help you get that edge when your economies are mirrored and 9 ruyter shipment is one of the best shipments the Dutch has. 1000 wood is a great boost to get a couple TCs up or to help in bank production.

Having a couple mercs is also a good idea, black riders are good to counter any cavalry or to meet mass ruyter, hackapells are great to counter skirms, esp if you get to fort first and get hackapells out while he still has a colonial army of mainly skirms, and swiss pike and lands are very good to siege or to protect cannons. I would choose just 2 mercs for this mirror deck.

Later game, ruyters normally rule as they are great vs any cavalry and can effectively counter cannons, in melee mode they also can kill skirmishers if htere arent that many skirmishers, so keep in mind that the ruyter is going to be an important unit, so I suggest the cav +10% upgrade card. Now that 1.08 has given the skirms a 50% bonus vs ruyter, this card is less important.

For age 4, I suggest the 2 factory cards, possibly the tulip as every eco card helps in a late game mirror, and two good age 4 shipments. My favourite are 13 ruyter and 2 heavies.


Early banks in a Dutch mirror is not suggested unless you are attempting a 3 bank FF, which is not advisable in a mirror. If you believe the enemy will not be aggressive, doing an FF or FI is possible, but most mirror games are heavy colonial fighting and if you get caught with no military and he has skirms all over you, you can be in trouble.

Skirmishers in a Dutch mirror game are a given. They are a great unit and can be built in age 2. some civs go FF just to have access to this great unit. Use it and use it well. Since mirror games for Dutch involve alot of age 2 warfare, skirmishers will see alot of action. Remember that groups of 10 skirms will kill 1 villie in one volley, so be sure to use groups of 10 to raid. Watch out for hussars early game and watch out for ruyter on melee later on. Some halbs mixed with your skirms will keep his ruyter off melee. Also keep an eye out for cannons. Dutch are a gold heavy civ, so cannons will be coming and they can rip up skirms.

Ruyter in a mirror is a very very good idea. The ruyter has been the dominant unit as of late in mirror games and most games as it can counter nearly any unit thrown at it. It can melee skirms (Not very well anymore due to x1.5 vs ranged cav in 1.08), kill hussar easily, kill artillery at a range and even better close up in melee, and it can hit and run halbs/pikes. A very versital unit and many age 3 battles come down to who has more and better ruyter. Researching caracol in the arsenal makes the ruyters that much more powerful, and so does the +10% cav card. You will still want a decently balanced army, esp with the new patch, skirms are even better. Skirms, ruyter and falconets work well. Constantly raid, trying to cut his villy count down. Groups of 10 ruyter can raid villies nicely, even if only to force the villies to cease working and flee. Raiding with hussars does not work very well as enemy ruyter will most likely arrive soon to rip through your raiders.

Cannons vs a dutch mirror are good, but not excellent due to ruyter. If you do use cannons be sure to have your own ruyter guarding them as well as a few halbs to keep the ruyter from meleeing the cannons. Cannons are basically only good vs buildings and enemy skirms.

Halbs. Well, in a mirror game I find halbs alot less useful then against some other civs. I will only use them in small numbers to help protect cannons and later game to tear down buildings. I have found that sometimes throwing halbs in with your ruyter/skirm army is better then cannons when all you want is some siege.


Dutch Mirror BO.

One of the best starts in a Dutch mirror is the 15 villy "faster" age up. Put 4 villes on gold and the rest on food, then gather only enough gold to have 15 villagers after you play the 3 villy card, then all on food. This is normally 200 gold, but on some maps you only need to gather 100. If you have nearby gold treasures you can speed this up even more. Age up asap with 400 wood, then put 9 villies on gold mine and 6 on hunts. Theres two options at this point, aggressive and defensive. If you want to be aggressive, send 2 gold miners to a gold mine close to his base, if you want to be defensive, leave them at your close mine. As soon as you age, gather the wood crates asap with 2-3 villies. If you are being aggressive, build a barracks close to his base with your forward villies, if you are being defensive, build the barracks near your base. Build a house. Begin making skirmishers asap and send them towards your enemy's base looking for villagers to prey upon. Continue spamming skirms. Try to keep TC idle time to a minimum, this is very important, if you can keep making villagers while keeping him fighting and possibly killing some of his villies or forcing them to garrison, you will slowly gain an advantage in economy. I suggest the 3 hussar card as your second card. The hussar are great for raiding and even better for crushing an enemy early skirm group in conjunction with your skirms. Continue making skirms and villies, constantly attempting to raid his economy and destroy his army. The third card to play depends. If you find he has a forward barracks and you have won the early combat, playing 8 pikes to help tear down the barracks is a good idea, 8 pikes is also a good idea if he has hussars out and about. If you dont play 8 pikes as the next shipment, 700 wood is a great shipment. This allows you to get up some housing, possibly a stable if you feel some hussars are needed, and lastly to possibly get a bank or two up depending on the situation. The 700 gold shipment is also a viable early shipment, allowing you to make skirmishers and villagers with less idle time. you will want to attempt to finish off your opponent in colonial, but if this just is not happening, you should go for fortress while still attempting to keep a military pressure on him. Once you are in fort, you have access to many great cards and units. The ruyter card should be a quick card to play, and I suggest getting a foundry up and a few cannons. Then go finish him off if he is still in age3.

If you go for the above strategy and your opponent tries to go early banks or some sort of 3 bank FF, you can really make them pay. Force them to garrison and then concentrate on getting those banks down. Play the 8 pike card as your 2nd card and possible make 5-10 more while still producing skirms. Get those banks down and then turn your attention to his TC. All the while make sure he does not sneak villies out to build a barracks elsewhere.

In a dutch mirror game that goes on long, you will need to really watch your economy and keep it up as much as possible. Getting banks up later on is a must due to the 50 villager limit and getting stuck at a bank limit while he continues to build banks can really hurt. If you can build 8 banks, but he didnt have the +1 bank cards, your eco is better. Using mortars and/or cannons to take down enemy banks/factories can really break stalemates, esp if you get a factory down. Getting map control and forcing him to go to mills early can really help if you can continue to hunt.

If you hit age 4 in a game, always assess the situation. If you are ahead and in no danger of recieving a heavy attack that may kill you, go for getting your factories out asap and getting heavies out. Heavies and ruyters are a deadly combo. If it is a tough match, play the powerful military shipments as soon as you age, 2 heavies and 13 ruyters soon after you age can be powerful.

Remember the +15% gold mining. If you control the gold mines of the map, you will have the advantage as he will lose the +15% bonus if he can't get his villies to gold mines.


Summery :

-Colonial warfare rules in most Dutch mirror games
-3 hussar card is a great 2nd card in skirmisher vs skirmisher early warfare
-8 pike card is a great counter to any enemy early cav and is the best early siege for taking down FFers banks and enemy barracks
-Early banks not such a good idea as it slows you down and you need to be very aggressive in a mirror, getting banks slowly later is better
-Ruyter are one of your most powerful units, use them and use them right. Melee on skirms, melee on unprotected cannons, hit and run pikes/halbs, etc.
-Having a limited eco (not having the +1 bank cards, factory cards, tulip card) can kill you if he does have them and the game goes into late game
-Take of advantage of the +15% gold mining bonus


Civ Unit Analysis :

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.

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.

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.

A list of Dutch units
Delay FF Guide


Dutch Mirror Games :

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...159559&st=0

This post has been edited by Scenario Josh: Nov 16 2006, 20:56 PM

Vs Aztec



The Aztecs are a very unique civilization in the fact that they have no cavalry! During the first few patches of AoE3:TWC the Aztecs were weak, but that has all changed. The Aztecs wield the best unit in the game itself: the Eagle Runner Knight, available in the Fortress Age. The Aztecs are also able to have their Warrior Priests dance at the firepit, so their Economy is generally stronger than any of the other native civilizations.

The Aztecs are somewhat unpredictable in what they might do. With an infinite 600 Coin card in Colonial, they can easily spam gold heavy units such as Puma Spearmen, or even do a Fast Fortress. The Aztec Big Button rush can also be deadly, and you may not expect it because the BB Tech unit, Jaguar Knights, can stealth.

However, the dominate strat for the Aztecs is a Macehulin/Coyote Rush. Although these guys cant siege, they are cheap and can easily choke you to death in a similar fashion like the Russian Strelet rush. Macehulin are an extremely weak, yet cheap Skirmisher, and Coyote Runners are the Aztec equivalent of a Hussar. When facing this type of a rush, your best weapon will be Walls. Since Macehulin and Coyote Runners cannot siege buildings well, it gives your Skirmishers time to fiddle away at their target’s HP. This rush generally comes a bit late, as the Aztec player will try to send both their Macehulin cards before attacking. Hussars also work well against this rush, but make sure you are ready with a batch or two of Skirmishers.

If the Aztec player decides to do a fast, quick Puma Spearmen rush you’d better be ready for it. These guys deal more damage to buildings than a Falconet does. Pumas are Siege Troopers – an EXCELLENT thing. Upon your first sighting of a few Pumas early in the game, send Colonial Militia and build a Barracks ASAP and pump a few Skirmishers. Although you can take care of the first rush of the Pumas with Minute Men and Town Center fire, it is highly recommended to build a barracks and build Skirmishers. I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to repair your buildings after this initial rush. Shipping a few Pikemen will help for the second onslaught of Pumas, Coyotes and their 4 Janey the Pet Jaguar shipment.

Aztecs also have a powerful Fast Fortress. This is generally spotted by seeing 4 War Priests dancing at the firepit and the shipment of 600 gold. You will rarely see villagers on wood. To counter their FF, I recommend doing a 4 bank FF yourself. Build 2 Barracks, you will need them. Age up and build your barracks and start pumping Skirmishers. The main unit an Aztec player will build will be Eagle Runner Knights. ERK as they are commonly known are the Aztec equivalent of the Dragoon, countered by Skirmishers. It is recommended to build a few Halberdiers to counter the Janey the Pet Jaguars and Coyote Runners you will encounter.

The Aztec Economy is amazing. They can pump out villagers with 10 Warrior Priests on the firepit faster than a Portuguese player can in Industrial. If they start to do a villager spam, go on the offence and pin them down. Letting an Aztec player get past the 30:00 mark is near suicide, as their amazing Farm shipments and technologies will outproduce you and your banks. Also, nearly all of the Aztec’s Big Button Technologies are units. At he 30:00 mark, they can research all their Big Button technologies and have an extra 50-100 troops in their army. You’d better be ready with as many troops as you can conjure up.

Civ unit analysis:
Macehulin
This unit is the equivilant of a Strelet. Although weak, they prove to be effective fighters in mass. They are easily dispached by a Skirmisher mass of your own, Hussars, or Falconets.
Coyote Runner
The Aztec Equivalent of Hussar. I recommend Halberdiers when facing Coyote Runners, Ruyters don’t kill them fast enough. Coyote Runners can stealth with a card, so try to keep your explorer near at all times.
Puma Spearman
These units are amazing versus buildings, however they are weak vs Ranged units, like Skirmishers. Keep in mind that 5 Skirmishers one-shot-kill a Puma Spearman.
Jaguar Prowl Knight
Aztecs dont generally use this unit as much. What makes this unit unique is the fact that it gets a bonus vs Cavalry and Heavy Infantry. Watch out if you want to mass Halberdiers, a few of these guys will eat them alive. Aztecs can get these guys in Colonial, but are easily dispatched of with Skirmishers. Keep your explorer with your Skirmishers to spot the Stealth these guys can use.
Eagle Runner Knight
This unit is the most powerful in the game. It has a range of 18 after being upgraded from a card and also has the ability to get a bonus versus villagers from a card as well. After playing a game versus an Aztec player, this will be the unit you hate the most. You will need A LOT of Skirmishers to kill it.
Arrow Knight
This is the equivalent of the Culverin. Although it takes them a bit longer to kill artillery, these buggers don’t die to Ruyters, Skirmishers, or Halberdiers. You will need Hussars to kill them once the Aztec player has more than 15 of them.
Warrior Priest
You will rarely see these guys in combat because they can dance at the firepit. Attempt to raid them if you get the chance but DO NOT raid them after Industrial, when they have an attack of 45.

Note: The Aztec Skull Knight is only available from the firepit in age 4 and is rarely seen in combat other than the 3 age up Knights the Aztec player gets from going to Fortress.

Summary:
-Fast Heavy Infantry Rush
-Powerful Dragoon-like unit
-Become extremely powerful in Age 4 and 5
-Unit Equivalencies: Coyote Runners = Hussars, Macehulin = Strelets, Puma Spearmen = Pikemen, Jaguar Prowl Knights = Halberdiers, Eagle Runner Knight = Dragoon, Arrow Knight = Culverin
-Powerful FirePit

Vs Sioux



The Sioux are a very versatile civilization, but their late game is very subpar. The Sioux field no less than 5 different types of cavalry – from Dog Soldiers (Lancers) to Tashunuke Prowlers (stealthy Cuirassiers). The Sioux generally start out slowly, but can quickly field a large cavalry army once they arrive in Colonial. The Sioux do not have any kind of artillery, but instead the Sioux can perform the Siege dance at their firepit. The Sioux player will always try to raid you with their extremely fast cavalry.

The dominate strat for a Sioux player is getting 9 Axe Riders out in Colonial then going to Fortress right away after that for a Wanaka Rifle mass. Sioux players will try to choke you off of your food with their lightining fast raids. You have to keep an eye out on your villagers. Herding is a must when facing a Sioux player, as well as Colbertism (food trickle card). To counter this strat, you are going to want to attempt to ship 8 Pikemen or build a barracks and build a few Pikemen. This will keep his cavalry away, but don’t build too many or your fortress time will be delayed. If you do not want to build Pikemen, prepare to loose a few villagers. When you reach fortress, build a Stable or two and make Hussars. The Sioux player will generally always build Wanaka Rifles after reaching Fortress because they are cheap and train fast. Ship 9 Ruyters and make at least 20 to counter his Rifle Riders that he may make.

The deadliest thing a Sioux player can do to you is do a lightning fast raid on your villagers, forcing you to build Pikemen and not Skirmishers. He will then walk into your base with 15-20 War Clubs and house you and eventually take your TC down. Colonial Militia helps versus this kind of rush, as well as Walls (more details later).

Walls will be your best weapon when facing a Sioux player. When you wall up your base, try to get at least one set of Huntables in your walls so you won’t run out of food too quickly. Pump at least 10 Skirmishers if you plan to do this so you can fight his War Clubs that may come to siege. 5 Skirmishers one-shot a War Club. If he does breach your walls, build a gate if you have Skirmishers and do the gate-trick to prevent from loosing tons of Skirmishers. Because the Sioux have a hard time sieging, you can often kill or injure his army before they breach the wall. Slowly creep your walls forward a few tiles in front each time, if you are able to do this you can easily acquire trade posts in order to get Trade Monopoly if the game becomes a stalemate.

One thing you need to be very careful of is the usage of Artillery. While it may be a great weapon to fight the Wanaka Masses with, be very careful of the Sioux War Chief. He can one-hit kill artillery with the Big Button tech. Fire all your units on him in focus fire if you encounter this (easily spotable because the Sioux player with most likely be doing the War Chief dance for the extra hit points) to save your artillery. If it becomes a major nascence, build a few Spies. They’ll kill him quickly.

Unit Choice – your main units when facing a Sioux player will be Ruyters, Hussars and Falconets. It is wise to build a few falconets, but keep an eye out for what I mentioned above. The Hussar/Ruyter Combo is deadly versus Sioux. Hussars easily kill anything that tries to kill the Ruyters while the Ruyters slaughter everything else the Sioux player can build besides Wanaka Rifles and Cetan Bows. Be sure to attempt to split your Hussars into 2 groups to flank with.

Civ unit analysis:
War Club
A simple Pikemen-like unit
Cetan Bow
This guy is like a Longbowman but without the range
Wanaka Rifle
You will learn to hate these units after playing versus a Wanaka masser. These guys are just like a Skirmisher but are much cheaper and easily massable, counter like you would a Skirmisher
Axe Rider
The Axe Rider is comparable to the Hussar, but it has less hitpoints but more attack and speed
Bow Rider
Bow Riders are rarely used in combat, but Skirmishers or Ruyters take care of them
Rifle Rider
Be careful when facing this unit: it can slaughter Halberdiers, Hussars, Falconets, and Pikemen with ease. Because it is both Heavy Cavalry and Light Cavalry, it is countered by Skirmishers and Ruyters.
Tashunuke Prowler
This is a very expensive unit that can be spotted with your Explorer, Spy or Envoys. It can become invisible and when there are a lot of them, they act like Cuirassiers with their Area Attack. Ruyters or Halberdiers easily dispatch of them.
Dog Soldier
Available only from the Firepit, Big Button Techs or Shipments, Dog Soldiers are like super-Lancers. Halberdiers and Ruyters easily kill them.

Summary:
- Expect lots of Wanaka Rifles and Cavalry units
- Rifle Riders are countered by Ruyters and Skirmishers
- Walls will be your best weapon
- Lightning-fast Raiding
- Weak economy
- Ruyters and Hussars are the best combo

Vs Iroquois



Currently the top civilization in AoE3: TWC, the Iroquois are a very tough opponent even for the Dutch to counter. Although the Iroquois economy may not be great, nearly every single one of their units are better than the European counterpart. The Iroquois bonus is the Travois. A Travois can build all buildings except a Town Center and Trade Post, and the Iroquois can dance for more of them if they want. This allows them to easily be able to turtle and build farms and plantations without having to chop wood!

When facing Iroquois, always expect a War Hut right on top of your second set of huntables within the first two minutes of the game. The Iroquois start out with a Travois and can build a War Hut with it. This can be painful for the Dutch as that War Hut will normally force you onto berries or a mill because that second set of huntables is pinned down. As you should know by now, no food means no banks or skirms.

The Iroquois are amazing at Turtling and can easily stop a rush with their card “Great House.” This card doubles the attack of the Town Center and makes them half price. Their town centers can now one-shot Pikemen and Skirms and can two-shot hussars, making rushes nearly pointless. You’d wish you could rush too, as a majority of Iroquois players Fast Fortress.

Fast Fortress is the primary strategy used by the Iroquois so they can get Forest Prowlers. Forest Prowlers are the Iroquois equivalent of the Skirmisher, but they are nearly 1.25 times better than your skirmishers, can stealth, and are the same price. Expect a lot of these. As Dutch, you don’t have any good cavalry counters besides your shipments of Hackapell and Waardegelder mercenaries. It is highly recommended that you build a few Hussars and send cavalry combat to beef up this so your merc cavalry lasts longer. Once you run out, you’ll need to rely on Falconets to take them out. Always always always keep your explorer or a few envoys in your army to spot his Forest Prowlers in stealth. If you don’t, you may find your falconets suddenly being attacked in melee. A 4 bank FF works charms versus the Iroquois FF. Ship 600 wood and build an artillery foundry ASAP and pump falconets. Ship some kind of cavalry or Skirmisher unit as your first shipment in Fortress, then it is recommended that you ship either Swiss Pikemen, Lands, or Ruyters to kill his few Kanya Horsemen or renegade Cuirassiers that may posess a threat to your cavalry or artillery.

Once you go on the offence, chances are he will turtle his base up with tons of War Huts and Great Houses. If he walls himself in, immediately switch your strategy and go for a Fast Industrial so you can get Mortars to kill his Town Centers. If you are able to keep him under pressure, ship Swiss Pikemen or Petards and make more Petards to effortlessly kill his Town Centers. Be sure to watch out for Attack Dance as that is a sure sign he will start to go on the offence.

On maps where your town centers are close to each other or on maps with lots of starting crates, it is not uncommon to see an Iroquois player rush you. Their rush will come quickly, violently and hard. The Iroquois rush is composed of Tomahawk warriors, generally 21 of them at the 5:00 mark. If you spot this rush coming, and it is hard to, because it looks much like an FF, build a barracks and make a few Skirmishers. Garrison 10 villagers into your town center and have your town center and any units you have focus fire on his War Chief (this applies to ALL battles, because their War Chief gives a 20% Hitpoint bonus to the troops. Once he is dead, you have 20% less hitpoints to deal with. He also sports a shotugun-like attack (similar to European crackshot), which often kills several skirmishers in one shot) until he is dead (try to hit and run, of course, when all possible). Then focus on the Tomahawk warriors. Once he retreats, he has a lot of rebuilding to do, so this gives you some time to make more skirmishers and repair and rebuild anything that you have lost.

The Iroquois are very similar to European civilizations. The Aenna is no more than a simple archer, the Tomahawk is nothing more than Musketeer. Musket Riders are simple dragoons, and Forest Prowlers, as mentioned above, are just like Skirmishers. Iroquois have the ability to build a Siege Workshop, where they can train Rams, a melee-siege unit that deals out as much damage as a Mortar can, Manlets, a tough unit that absorbs fire from your troops, and Light Cannons. The Light Cannon is a combined Culverin and Falconet for the price of a Organ Gun. You can be sure if an Iroquois player reaches Industrial there will be plenty of Light Cannons. Culverins don’t fight well versus Light Cannons so Hussars or Ruyters are your best option for taking them down.

Civ unit analysis:
Forest Prowler
A Skirmisher unit that is amazing in combat and can stealth. Counter with Hackapells or Waardegelders combined with Hussars or Falconets.
Tomahawk Warrior
A Musketeer-like warrior
Aenna
Similar to the longbowman (but has less range). These guys cost only food so if an Iroquois player starts making them expect alot. They are countered by Hussars or Falconets, but in small numbers Skirmishers work too
Kanya Horsemen
An extremely weak melee cavalry unit. Even Skirmishers can dispatch of them unless they are in-mass
Musket Rider
A strong Dragoon-like unit. Skirmishers kill them with ease
Light Cannon
A Falcoent-Culverin combo unit. Culverins dont do alot of damage to them so Hussars or Ruyters are your best option for taking them down
Mantlet
These guys absorb your fire during a battle. It is generally best to ignore them and concentrate your fire on other units such as his Forest Prowlers
Ram
Rams are rarely used, but they are a melee-siege unit that deals a good amount of damage to buildings. Hussars, Halberdiers and Minute Men counter them

Summary:
- Fast Fortress is their primary strategy
- Forest Prowlers are Skirmishers that can stealth
- Great Turtlers
- Travois can build a War Hut in Discovery by your base
- Fight Iroqouis with Hussars, Mercenaries, Skirmishers, and Falconets
- Focus fire on their War Chief so his HP aura is cancelled out

This post has been edited by Hellblazer: Jun 7 2007, 02:25 AM

Replay Pack!

Extract the files and they are organized by civilization. Includes over 20 replays with at least 1 per civ!