German Fast Revolution- Sourced from Hg- TWC Patch 1.00

The Argentine Rush is definitely the most powerful rush in the game. You can be at the enemy base within less than a minute with an impressive force of artillery and ranged infantry. The only problem is you have to survive almost 12 minutes playing Germany before you even get to play Argentina...
This is a non-too-serious strategy I came up with after I declared the revolution feature in TWC to be completely useless. I've used it a few times on the LAN, winning some games gloriously and losing others horribly. It's a complete gamble; I don't recommend it for people who care about their ratings. You have been warned!

The idea of this strategy is to advance to industrial as quickly as possible, revolt immediately, and go after the enemy base at with an army of

- about 25 Colonial Militia
- up to 14 Veteran Skirmishers
- 2 Falconets
- 6 Imperial Howitzers

I can do that in less than 12 minutes, better players would probably be quicker. Though I think, provided they would also face better opponents than I do, they wouldn't be able to get there under normal circumstances, as TWC seems to be all about colonial warfare these days. I devised this strategy as a little surprise for an opponent I knew I could expect to turtle. That's one of the reasons I prefer LAN games – you get to know your opponents better, learn about their style and try to adapt, bringing a new "meta-counter" concept into the game. But I digress.

Anyway, here's what I do:

- start out with the usual stuff, collecting food, creating settlers, gathering treasures
- age up with the Quartermaster (400 wood)
- build houses as necessary, nothing else
- age up with the Marksman (6 Veteran Skirmishers)
- age up immediately afterwards with the Engineer (2 Falconets)
- revolt immediately with San Martin (6 Imperial Howitzers)
- go after the enemy base
- win quickly, or lose just a little bit later

The only cards I play are

- 2 Settler Wagons (Age 1)
- 3 Settler Wagons (Age 2)
- 2 Settler Wagons (Age 2)
- 8 Skirmishers (Age 3)

The Skirmishers can be replaced by any other Age 3 military card, depending on what kind of opposition I expect. One of the fun things about this strategy is that the cards are completely nondescript, so I can "hide" them in any deck, luring my opponent into expecting something completely different. This also means that in principle I can switch to another strategy if I think I won't be able to make it in time. Chances are though that my weak economy will lose me the game in this case, so I'd sooner stick to the plan.

I don't build anything except houses, I don't research any upgrades either. All I'm interested in is gathering the necessary resources I need to revolt as quickly as possible (some 6500 food, 1500 wood and 3200 coin). Depending on what the opponent is doing I use the few Uhlans I get as raiders, for protection against enemy raids or as support for my explorer on a treasure-rich map.

If, by some kind of miracle, I make it far enough to actually get to play Argentina, the idea is to strike hard and fast. The Imperial Howitzers are the key, their long range and line of sight being superior to just about anything the opponent can field at this point. With appropriate protection from infantry plus falconets they can hammer any building into dust within seconds, including forts or town centers. Destroying enemy buildings at a high rate grants a lot of XP I can use to send reinforcements. As I have only used four shipments up to this point, I can quickly get more troops shipped in – Gatling Guns if I'm dealing with lots of infantry, Colonial Militia for everything else. And of course, Ironclads if I can drop them close enough to the enemy base for some offshore support. The revolutionary units are not great, especially completely unupgraded, so the key is to throw them at the enemy faster than he can kill them. Either way, the game will be over very quickly.

Try it, and have fun! Or at least enjoy that warm holiday season feeling inside you get for giving your opponent an easy win...