Post by Neuron on Sept 6, 2012 16:22:50 GMT 1
Water rush
Maps which separate the opponents' territories by water (Carribean, Amazon, Ceylon) haven't been played much or considered in AoE3/TWC/TAD competitions, and people thought that playing all-water maps is for noobs who need time to wall up the shores and spam outposts and boom.
Not so. I think there is room to change this mindset. Water maps are playable in 1v1 games without lag and they put some interesting strategic problems. Surely, you haven't heard much about someone rushing on a map like Carribean. Usually, on all-water maps players just build a dock in transition from age 1 to 2 and build a caravel and send vills on the opponent's land to put up a military building as soon as possible and force the opponent to be the one in defensive. This strategy is not the best way to play such a map. I will give a description of a building order start with Ottomans which shows another way of playing an all-water map, which doesn't sacrifice the rush to make it a viable strat on a water map. This start was conceived for nilla, so on TAD things might get more complex, with more cards and civs with different strengths and weaknesses in early game. Even so, it could serve as a template for a variety of strats on TAD with Ottomans on all-water maps.
Cards needed (nilla):
galleon, 5 jans, resource crates (700 g, 600 g, 700 f, 700w, 600 w), 3/4 vills (which one you want, but at least one), schooners, water boom cards
warship upgrades, 2 privateer ships (optional)
Micro all vills on the closest hunt. Don't gather any crate, except for food crates. Since you're not going to build a TP and the 3 vills shipment will arrive later, don't bother building the house. Just keep all vills on food and gather any treasures which can help speed up aging. You should start aging by or before 2.30. Age with the tower and 200 gold politician.
During transition to age 2, allocate vills on the resources according to which troops you will make (like vs Russia, a jan/grens or jan/huss start could be viable to counter their early light infantry spam and cavs shipment, so a 8vills on food/4vills on gold would be a good ratio for a start with jan grens, for example). Build houses from the starting wood crates. Send vill to start herding the second hunt. Change the water flag shipping point close to your town center. Make sure your explorer is there when you hit age 2.
When you hit age 2 ship the galleon and send the explorer and outpost cart where the ship will be shipped. By 4.40 the ship should be there, so put the explo and outpost in the galleon and send them to the opponent's island. The second you reached the land, queue a unit on the galleon (grenadier, abus or huss, depending on your start). Start shipping the 5 jans. Ungarrison the outpost cart and start building it. Send the explorer to scout the enemy's territory to know where your attack will start, while the outpost builds. Once the outpost finished building change the shipping point from the TC to the outpost, to get the 5 jans there. Finish the batch from the galleon. You should have 5 jans and 5 other units from the galleon before minute 6 on your enemy's territory. Go into their base and start attacking. Keep making units from the galleon according to which type of units you need to counter.
At some point you can ship the 3/4 vills on the enemy's territory and start building military building(s) there, so you can train unit combos faster. Start waterbooming when the hunts on your island are over. At some point you will have to make sure you control the sea, either by shipping warships or building some. Don't let your opponent kill your galleon early or start booming on the sea before you make warships. That's why you should build the age-up outpost close to the shore to provide some protection to the galleon until you start dominating the sea too.
Proof of concept (nilla rec):
www.mediafire.com/?6kcis8apycs9dny
Maps which separate the opponents' territories by water (Carribean, Amazon, Ceylon) haven't been played much or considered in AoE3/TWC/TAD competitions, and people thought that playing all-water maps is for noobs who need time to wall up the shores and spam outposts and boom.
Not so. I think there is room to change this mindset. Water maps are playable in 1v1 games without lag and they put some interesting strategic problems. Surely, you haven't heard much about someone rushing on a map like Carribean. Usually, on all-water maps players just build a dock in transition from age 1 to 2 and build a caravel and send vills on the opponent's land to put up a military building as soon as possible and force the opponent to be the one in defensive. This strategy is not the best way to play such a map. I will give a description of a building order start with Ottomans which shows another way of playing an all-water map, which doesn't sacrifice the rush to make it a viable strat on a water map. This start was conceived for nilla, so on TAD things might get more complex, with more cards and civs with different strengths and weaknesses in early game. Even so, it could serve as a template for a variety of strats on TAD with Ottomans on all-water maps.
Cards needed (nilla):
galleon, 5 jans, resource crates (700 g, 600 g, 700 f, 700w, 600 w), 3/4 vills (which one you want, but at least one), schooners, water boom cards
warship upgrades, 2 privateer ships (optional)
Micro all vills on the closest hunt. Don't gather any crate, except for food crates. Since you're not going to build a TP and the 3 vills shipment will arrive later, don't bother building the house. Just keep all vills on food and gather any treasures which can help speed up aging. You should start aging by or before 2.30. Age with the tower and 200 gold politician.
During transition to age 2, allocate vills on the resources according to which troops you will make (like vs Russia, a jan/grens or jan/huss start could be viable to counter their early light infantry spam and cavs shipment, so a 8vills on food/4vills on gold would be a good ratio for a start with jan grens, for example). Build houses from the starting wood crates. Send vill to start herding the second hunt. Change the water flag shipping point close to your town center. Make sure your explorer is there when you hit age 2.
When you hit age 2 ship the galleon and send the explorer and outpost cart where the ship will be shipped. By 4.40 the ship should be there, so put the explo and outpost in the galleon and send them to the opponent's island. The second you reached the land, queue a unit on the galleon (grenadier, abus or huss, depending on your start). Start shipping the 5 jans. Ungarrison the outpost cart and start building it. Send the explorer to scout the enemy's territory to know where your attack will start, while the outpost builds. Once the outpost finished building change the shipping point from the TC to the outpost, to get the 5 jans there. Finish the batch from the galleon. You should have 5 jans and 5 other units from the galleon before minute 6 on your enemy's territory. Go into their base and start attacking. Keep making units from the galleon according to which type of units you need to counter.
At some point you can ship the 3/4 vills on the enemy's territory and start building military building(s) there, so you can train unit combos faster. Start waterbooming when the hunts on your island are over. At some point you will have to make sure you control the sea, either by shipping warships or building some. Don't let your opponent kill your galleon early or start booming on the sea before you make warships. That's why you should build the age-up outpost close to the shore to provide some protection to the galleon until you start dominating the sea too.
Proof of concept (nilla rec):
www.mediafire.com/?6kcis8apycs9dny