Longbow Crate Rush- Sourced from HG- AoE Patch 1.06

Ok, i'm back again with my longbow rushingness in full gear, but this time I have a recording and more to come soon!
Be advised: dont try this vs russia or ottoman (unless you know they arent rushing). They have powerful ageII units like yourself, and can counter your rush effectively!

This recording is just to show at what times you should try to get stuff out and when to age, etc. Its me vs. a german comp on hard (couldnt beat the stupid expert lol, dumb cheating n00b). So here it is, enjoy!:http://www.savefile.com/files/1984226

Heres the build order for those impatient folks out there (or the ones who are just too lazy to watch the rec.)

Discovery Age:
this section is divided into three parts according to starting crates: 200 food, 300 wood; 300 food, 200 wood; and 200 food, 200 wood, 100 gold!!

300 food, 200 wood
-3 vills unpack crates, food first, rest on hunts
-once you have 150 wood, take 2 vills off crates and build a manor house. set waypoint to food.
-first card is 3 settlers.
-all future vill go to hunts until age up
-click the button at around 2:20-30ish depending on treasures with 16 vills total.

200 food, 300 wood
-3 vills unpack crates, food first, rest on hunts
-once you have 150 wood, take 2 vills off crates and build a manor house.
-after the rest of the wood is gathered, put another 2 vills on another manor house and set waypoint to food again.
-3 settlers is first card.
-age up at around 2:40-3:00, depending on treasures, with 17 vills total. This is the best combination of crates to start with.

200 food, 200 wood, 100 gold
-same build order as 300 food, 200 wood, but you will age with 16 vills about 20 seconds later because of the 100 less food. look for food treasures to speed ur time.

Age up with the Philosipher Prince (500 food) regardless of crates

Transition between Ages
-right after clicking up to colonial, send 8-9 vills to chop wood, and 2 forward. this should leave you with ~6 on hunts, and ~8 on wood.
-if you dont have 2 houses up yet, spend the first 150 wood on one to get to 30 pop ASAP.
-queue up 3 vills at the TC before aging for faster time (unless you really trust ur micro)
-when ur forward 2 vills get to their destination, have them chop wood.

Colonial Age
-you should arrive at colonial anywhere between 4:00-4:30. As soon as you hit colonial, build a rax with ur two forward vills. Do this even before sending ur first colonial shipment. Speed is key!!
-send 700 wood as first shipment.
-after sending the wood, have 2-3 of ur closest vills collect the 500 food, and make sure you have a constant stream of villies comin from the TC.
-as soon as the rax is up, queue 5 lbows (you may not have enough wood for all 5 yet, but queue at least one and add the rest later)
-once the wood is collected, build 2-3 manors and queue up 5 more lbows. Send vills to food until you have 10-11 on food and ~12 on wood.
-keep putting all vills on wood! whenever you have extra, spend it on houses. You need to aim for at least 60 pop space by 6:00.

The Attack
-you should have 10 lbows by about 5:30. send them to ur opponents hunting vills. 10 lbows kills a vill in one volley, so keep that in mind and dont forget to shiftclick the vills.
-If your opponent has no barracks or military yet, start makin pikes. If you have spare wood, make another barracks too. Aim for houses first, especially if he's german (even if he has palentine; oh, how i hate that card with a passion....).
-remember COVER MODE!! It pwns with pikes and stuff, so make sure all ur pikes are in cover.
-have ur lbows scout around his base for any vills. as long as he isnt collecting resources, ur doin ur job right.
-ur second shipment should be 600 wood. Build a second rax and a house. Remember to keep makin vills.

Special Note: if you started with 100 gold, its never a bad idea to make a few musketes instead of the first batch of pikes. Might as well spend it sometime...

Third shipment is 700 food.

Possible Scenarios

1)Your opponent hits fortress:
this is inevitable, seeing as he will click the button about 30 seconds after you attack regardless of what you do. Your best chance is to keep spamming lbows at a higher rate than pikes and keep smashin houses with all you got. About 30 seconds after you see that he has advanced, surround his town center with all ur units. If he shipped 2 falcs, say goodbye to them and wave as they get pwnd by 20+ lbows and pikes running in at them. Dont bother puttin the bows in melee as their ranged attack will usually kill them in a couple volleys. If uhlans come out, well, u better hope you have some pikes there to clean em up. Otherwise, ur screwed beyond belief. 9 uhlans really does a number on even 30 lbows, so always have about a 1:1, or even 1:2 ratio of lbows : pikes.

Any age-up units should be dealt with before resuming ur attack on the TC! And remember to keep scouting for escaped vills who might build an outpost somewhere. Have a patrol of lbows wandering the map to find any stray vills.

2)Opponent decides to stick it out in colonial:
this happens occasionally, so i felt i should discuss it a bit. When ur opponent stays in colonial, or he somehow saw ur rush comin, change ur ratio of lbows : pikes at 2:1 instead of 1:1. lbows destroy any colonial unit except for hussars, which get torn up by pikes, so this shouldnt be too difficult.

3)The rush fails:
if your rush is somehow beaten back, just turtle up, send 700 gold, and get to fortress age as quick as possible. Since you have been spamming manors and constantly producing vills, ur economy is miles ahead of that of ur opponent. Just get to age3, mass lbows and build falcs like a crazy person. It shouldnt be difficult to counter his weak econ with your 30+ vills.


In summary, attack houses first, then military buildings, then TC. I hope you will enjoy this guide, and please feel free to comment! More recordings coming soon!

Signing out,
xMatt the Greatx