Post by {PHX} El_Pistolero on Aug 29, 2012 16:46:23 GMT 1
This strategy is China's top strategy in 1v1 games, as well as one of the top strategies on FP 1.2a. It's very hard to counter, as it's not only fast, but China's units are extremely cost effective, and are cheap to produce. What makes this strategy so powerful, is the fact you get a decent economy, as well as some very powerful unit shipments once you do advance. The build order is versatile as far as the wonder age up goes, but in most cases you'll find the Confucian Academy which provides 8 arquebusiers to be the most useful.
Required Cards:
Discovery Age: Northern Refugees
Colonial Age: 700 gold, 700 wood, 8 Chu Kuo Nu, 300 export
Fortress Age: 13 Chu Ko Nu, 10 Arquebusiers, 10 Changdao, Intervention, 9 Manchu, Double Faced Armor, 7 Hand Mortars
Industrial Age: Old Han Reforms
Build Order:
Discovery Age: With your 5 starting villagers, 2 start hunting, while 3 gather food crates. As soon as you have exactly 100 food, move 2 crate villagers to hunting, while 1 gathers your 3 wood crates. TC waypoint will be set to wood, as you'll be chopping exactly 100 wood to get two villages constructed. Explore the map, and do not let your explorer die, as he is one of if not the strongest explorer in the game. He has a ton of health, and can train disciples which are nearly identical to Spain's war dogs. When you find your second and third hunt begin to herd them back immediately as they are essential for the success of this strategy. As soon as your first village is constructed, move your goat immediately to start fattening from it. Once you've got the wood for a second village, construct it and all villagers are to go to food. Your first shipment is going to be northern refugees, just be sure to have both villages built before it arrives, otherwise you will be short a villager. You'll be making villagers till you have 17, and begin aging with the Summer Palace (banner armies+400 food) with 5 villagers. Try to start aging by 3:30 minutes. While in transition move 3 villagers to gold, keep the 5 building the wonder there, while the rest remains on food. Try and keep villager production constant as you can continue to train them even while aging.
Colonial Age: Once you age, quickly send 700 gold, and move your 5 wonder villagers to food. Be sure to switch the summer palace production to either to the Old Han banner army (if opponent goes infantry) or the Ming banner army (if opponent goes cavalry). Quickly start to collect the 700 gold as it comes in and build the Confucian Academy (Flying Crows+8 Arquebusiers) to begin aging. Try to construct it very close to your town center. Your next shipment will be 700 wood, and send it as soon as possible. Try to keep 6-8 villagers on it while it's being constructed, as this will give you a 7-8 minute age up time. When the 700 wood comes in, build a barracks, 2 villages, and a consulate. As soon as the consulate is up, immediately ally with the British, as they provide all units with an additional 5% hit points. Try to split villager evenly on resources as you'll be making either the Imperial banner army or the Territorial army as soon as you've aged, while construction additional housing. You should have about 24 villagers while aging, so you'll have 6 building the wonder and 5-7 split evenly between food, gold, and wood. Use your explorer to train disciples.
Fortress Age: Use your Summer Palace army, your 8 arquebusiers, minute men, and disciples to beat back any potential push on your town. Ship in the unit that will best help defend against the opponents units he has. If he's gone cavalry use the Intervention card to send 9 veteran muskets, which will preform overall better than the changdaos as muskets are far more versatile, or if you're facing an infantry push, ship in 10 arquebusiers. After you've defeated what ever army has pushed onto your base, ship in either the 10 changdaos, or the 13 chu ko nu, and be sure to upgrade them to veteran. Once you have a large mass of units, and your first flying crow, start to aggressively push out of your town. After this, you'll be shipping in the 7 hand mortars and pushing on your opponent with the mortars and flying crow army. From here on out, you'll need to continue to adapt to your opponent which is fairly easy since China's units can all be trained from one building. Be sure to make use of the market upgrades as soon as it's safe to focus a bit more on your economy.
Industrial Age: If you make it here, ship in Old Han reforms. It makes the Old Han banner army extremely powerful, to the point where you can spam the units along with hand mortars, and your opponent will have very little to counter it. It may be useful to have Repelling Volley in your deck, as it boosts chu ko nu's attack even more.
Variations:
• If you face an opposing FF, you can go for a Old Han banner army combo in Fortress so long as you upgrade them. They will out perform the territorial army, so long as they are veteran. Don't do this if you're facing early pressure though as chu ko nu are much harder to micro.
• If facing a Ottoman or Spain FF/FI/FR try and go for the Manchu mercenary, and play very defensive. They'll beat any Spahi/Hussars they have.
• If facing an opposing FF such as Dutch, which will contain cannon, be sure to make use of hand mortars, as 7 can one shot kill any cannon.
• If facing a heavy hand infantry rush, such as a pikeman rush, you may want to send the 8 cho ku no to help fend them off as opposed to the 700 wood. If you do this, they will lose nearly automatically as they will be too far behind economically and tech wise to catch up.
• When facing a civilization such as Russia, it may be beneficial to have either the 4 iron flails or 4 meteor hammers in your deck.
• If not expecting a rush, you can age to fortress with the White Pagoda to get insanely strong disciples, or the Porcelain Tower, which is similar to aging with the 5 or so villagers that are always on a resource.
Required Cards:
Discovery Age: Northern Refugees
Colonial Age: 700 gold, 700 wood, 8 Chu Kuo Nu, 300 export
Fortress Age: 13 Chu Ko Nu, 10 Arquebusiers, 10 Changdao, Intervention, 9 Manchu, Double Faced Armor, 7 Hand Mortars
Industrial Age: Old Han Reforms
Build Order:
Discovery Age: With your 5 starting villagers, 2 start hunting, while 3 gather food crates. As soon as you have exactly 100 food, move 2 crate villagers to hunting, while 1 gathers your 3 wood crates. TC waypoint will be set to wood, as you'll be chopping exactly 100 wood to get two villages constructed. Explore the map, and do not let your explorer die, as he is one of if not the strongest explorer in the game. He has a ton of health, and can train disciples which are nearly identical to Spain's war dogs. When you find your second and third hunt begin to herd them back immediately as they are essential for the success of this strategy. As soon as your first village is constructed, move your goat immediately to start fattening from it. Once you've got the wood for a second village, construct it and all villagers are to go to food. Your first shipment is going to be northern refugees, just be sure to have both villages built before it arrives, otherwise you will be short a villager. You'll be making villagers till you have 17, and begin aging with the Summer Palace (banner armies+400 food) with 5 villagers. Try to start aging by 3:30 minutes. While in transition move 3 villagers to gold, keep the 5 building the wonder there, while the rest remains on food. Try and keep villager production constant as you can continue to train them even while aging.
Colonial Age: Once you age, quickly send 700 gold, and move your 5 wonder villagers to food. Be sure to switch the summer palace production to either to the Old Han banner army (if opponent goes infantry) or the Ming banner army (if opponent goes cavalry). Quickly start to collect the 700 gold as it comes in and build the Confucian Academy (Flying Crows+8 Arquebusiers) to begin aging. Try to construct it very close to your town center. Your next shipment will be 700 wood, and send it as soon as possible. Try to keep 6-8 villagers on it while it's being constructed, as this will give you a 7-8 minute age up time. When the 700 wood comes in, build a barracks, 2 villages, and a consulate. As soon as the consulate is up, immediately ally with the British, as they provide all units with an additional 5% hit points. Try to split villager evenly on resources as you'll be making either the Imperial banner army or the Territorial army as soon as you've aged, while construction additional housing. You should have about 24 villagers while aging, so you'll have 6 building the wonder and 5-7 split evenly between food, gold, and wood. Use your explorer to train disciples.
Fortress Age: Use your Summer Palace army, your 8 arquebusiers, minute men, and disciples to beat back any potential push on your town. Ship in the unit that will best help defend against the opponents units he has. If he's gone cavalry use the Intervention card to send 9 veteran muskets, which will preform overall better than the changdaos as muskets are far more versatile, or if you're facing an infantry push, ship in 10 arquebusiers. After you've defeated what ever army has pushed onto your base, ship in either the 10 changdaos, or the 13 chu ko nu, and be sure to upgrade them to veteran. Once you have a large mass of units, and your first flying crow, start to aggressively push out of your town. After this, you'll be shipping in the 7 hand mortars and pushing on your opponent with the mortars and flying crow army. From here on out, you'll need to continue to adapt to your opponent which is fairly easy since China's units can all be trained from one building. Be sure to make use of the market upgrades as soon as it's safe to focus a bit more on your economy.
Industrial Age: If you make it here, ship in Old Han reforms. It makes the Old Han banner army extremely powerful, to the point where you can spam the units along with hand mortars, and your opponent will have very little to counter it. It may be useful to have Repelling Volley in your deck, as it boosts chu ko nu's attack even more.
Variations:
• If you face an opposing FF, you can go for a Old Han banner army combo in Fortress so long as you upgrade them. They will out perform the territorial army, so long as they are veteran. Don't do this if you're facing early pressure though as chu ko nu are much harder to micro.
• If facing a Ottoman or Spain FF/FI/FR try and go for the Manchu mercenary, and play very defensive. They'll beat any Spahi/Hussars they have.
• If facing an opposing FF such as Dutch, which will contain cannon, be sure to make use of hand mortars, as 7 can one shot kill any cannon.
• If facing a heavy hand infantry rush, such as a pikeman rush, you may want to send the 8 cho ku no to help fend them off as opposed to the 700 wood. If you do this, they will lose nearly automatically as they will be too far behind economically and tech wise to catch up.
• When facing a civilization such as Russia, it may be beneficial to have either the 4 iron flails or 4 meteor hammers in your deck.
• If not expecting a rush, you can age to fortress with the White Pagoda to get insanely strong disciples, or the Porcelain Tower, which is similar to aging with the 5 or so villagers that are always on a resource.