British FF- Sourced from Age Comm- AoE Patch 1.07

Hey everyone, it's me again with another crazy strat for your enjoyment. I was planning on only sharing this with my clan, but I cracked and decided to put it here too. The goal here is similar to v1.0, however v2.0 is much more efficient at it and yields better results. So enough introduction, here's the strat!
Btw: Don't do this vs. Russia and Otto, as their rushes are too powerful to counter with "The Rush Counter." I'll get to that.


The British Ultimate Fast Fortress

The goal of this strat is to get 8 highlanders (called from the Black Watch), a fortress unit shipment, and 3 falconets by 9:30. This force is normally used as a defense against your opponents inevitable fortress attack and then as a defense while you boom to industrial. I created this strat in response to the new delayed FF fad that's going around where players (mainly spanish) send falcs and mercs then rush into your base with a combination consisting mainly of HI and some artillery.

So here it is, enjoy!

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DECK CONSTRUCTION

Ok, this is actually one of my favorite things about this strat. Here is my deck.

Tier 1: 3 vills - Virginia -Company - Pioneers - Colonial Militia

Tier 2: Glorious Revolution - Advanced Arsenal

Tier 3: 8 villagers - 1000 wood - Yeomen - Cavalry Combat - 5 Hussars - 10 Lonbowmen - 9 Musketeers - 2 Falconets - 9 Highlanders - 10 Jaegers

Tier 4: 16 Musketeers - 3 Rockets - Factory - Robber Barons


Yep, thats it. No 700 gold card, or even Tier 2 cards in general (except Gl.Rev. and AA). Thats because this strat skips age 2 all together. We'll get to that in a bit. Here's the Build Order.

Discovery Age

This is by far the most difficult age in this strat. It requires rediculous economy management paralleled by no other strat, so be warned, it takes practice. It took me at least 10 games of simply tinkering around with vill distribution to get it down right. So don't fret if it takes a few games to get it perfect.

-Send the first 3 vills to hunt and the rest to unpack food crate. You should make your first vill between 8 and 9 seconds.
-Once your finished unpacking crates (should be just before your first vill comes out) put two of the vills on hunts aswell and put the other one on wood. Set the TC gather point on wood also.
-build a single house (even if you start with 300 wood) and set the gather point to wood.
-keep sending new vills to wood.
-first card is Virginia Company
-once it arrives, build as many manors as your wood allows and set the gather points to the nearest trees.
-at this point set the TC gather point back to hunts. You should have 2 groups right near your TC at this time if you herded well (unless you got screwed, in which case, HAHAHAHA).
-second card is 3 Settlers.
-continue building manors until you have 70 Population Cap.
-at this time send every single vill to food. You need 800 by 4:45 (not that hard, but whatever).
-Click the ageup button with 26 vills and 70 pop at no later than 4:50. We are aiming for slightly shy of an 8 minute fortress time.

Use the Philosipher Prince (500 Food) Politican

Transition: Dicovery/Colonial

Our goal here is to earn the 700 food and 1000 gold necessary for a near instant transition to fortress. To do this, shift 18-20 vills to gold and leave the rest on food. Don't be shy about leaving hunts dead and unattended as I was when I first tested this as you will find you are too low on gold to age in time.

Colonial Age

-Even before you age up send 7-8 vills over from the nearest resource to be ready to collect the 500 food crate. When it arrives, immediately collect it and click the ageup button ASAP. Aim for less than 6:30
-Send the Glorious Revolution as your third card.

Age with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea (400 wood/caravel) Politician

Transition: Colonial/Fortress

This is the second hardest part in the Build Order. We need 1000 food for calling the Black Watch and 250 wood for a church by ageup. We also want enough gold to make a falc aswell. Here's how to do it:

-keep 16-18 vills on food and put the rest on wood. If you have found sheep, eat them now to speed the collection. Once you have it, switch all but 4 to gold immediately.
-once your wood vills have collected 250 wood, build a church. Then switch all but 4 to gold.
-now you have 18 vills on gold and 4 each on food and wood. you are well on your way now to our original goal of 5 falcs and 8 Black Watch Highlanders!

Fortress Age

The beginning of Fortress Age is usually quite hectic, as you now have many things to do all at once.

-research the Black Watch at the church ASAP. They are necessary for countering early fortress attacks that might slow you down. They should be out no later than 8:15.
-send 4 vills to collect the ageup wood and then build a foundry. If there was a water flag, have your caravel mine a whale.
-queue a falconet at the foundry.
-don't forget about vill production! It's easy to forget to make these OP little units when juggling defense, economy management, and unit creation at the same time. With practice you shall succeed!
-about 30 seconds into fortress you will receive your fourth shipment. Send the unit that you most need, usually muskets or longbows. Sometimes you will get lucky and get a 100 xp treasure, in which case your force will arrive 15 or so seconds quicker.
-you should now have the resources for your next two falconets. Normally the third one cuts it close, so really smash that button and make sure it comes out.
-you have now achieved our goal. 3 falconets, a fortress shipment, and 8 Black Watch are ready in your base for whatever goal you intend for them. Dont believe me? BEHOLD!

http://www.savefile.com/files/7574587

So there you have it. They key to achieving 3 falconets, a fortress shipment, and 8 Highlanders in under 9:30. Now what can you do with them you ask? Why, this!

http://www.savefile.com/files/3458517

Or you can boom your way to industrial, shipping 1000 wood and setting up a triple TC boom + manor boom or modifying my deck and adding 1000 food or gold and going for a FI. In this case it might be a good idea to build a couple culvs to deal with falcs your opponent might throw at you. Dont forget to ship your normal Highlanders. Not many things is more fear-instilling than 17 highlanders and 7 falcs in your base at 13 minutes.


So, you've heard me throw around the term fortress age unit shipment quit a bit. Just what unit should you pick? Let's take a quick look.

Portuguese- These guys will be in your base raiding with cassas/goons, so you want some LI to compliment your arty and HI. Send the 10 Lonbows, as they deal with both cassas and goons well. You musnt get too comfortable though, as Mamelukes will almost always come soon after. Make sure you guard your artillery well, and perhaps make some pikes locally to help your Black Watch.

Germans- You will most likely be fighting a combination of WW, jaegers, and uhlans. I think muskets would be the way to go here, as they will most likey have shipped 9 uhlans as their first fortress shipment and you will have a hard time fending them off with 8 BW alone. Falcs can handle the jaegers, and the remainging WW can be dealt with by.....crap. Maybe longbows would be better. I'll have to think about that one.

Spanish- These guys will usually come in with age up pikes/hussars, a few lancers, highlanders, perhaps some locally made skirms, and 2 falconets. Your 3 falcs deal with most of their army very well, and i would suggest sending 2 more for a total of 5. Your highlanders and MM should easily fight off his lancers, and even if he shipped in some rods, the falcs will obliterate them before they get close. You might lose one falconet max, but the remaining 4 can totally anihillate 9 Highlanders, 8 pikes, and 5-10 skirms.

British- Again, sending additional falconets is better here as he will most likey have lonbows and pikes or 8 BW 2 falcs and 10 lbows if he did the BWKiC. 5 falconets take care of these forces nicely.

France- French are tricky because they have a variety of things they like to do. Scouting is key here. If you see them putting up a church, send 5 hussars or 2 more falcs to take care of grens. If you see a stable, send 9 muskets to counter the cuirs that will shortly arrive from it. Ship 10 lonbows next to take care of goons.


And I don't think dutch need to be mentioned here, because who knows what they are doing. They could still be in discovery right now. Yeah, I'm just not gonna talk about them....


You may remember I mentioned "The Rush Counter" above. Or you don't, but now I am reminding you. So what is this supposed counter? The 40 vill colonial. What? I thought that was a boom strat. Well, with 300 HP vills weilding a hefty 13 melee damage, 40 vills doesnt do half bad vs. rushers. Combine this with colonial militia and your golden. Fully upgraded villagers can handle anything but janissaries and strelets quite well. Normally your opponent will rush in with mostly pikes expecting little resistance because you arent even in colonial yet, but they are dead wrong. Pikes drop like flies to FU vills, and soon their few xbows/muskets backup get torn apart by these monsters. Try it and be amazed!

Well, there you have it. That's alot of writing so i'm gonna take a break for now. Tell me what you think. I hope you enjoy it.


Signing off yet again,

__Sephiroth__