Russians biggest weakness is generally weak early economy due to less starting villager and lacking of villager shipments, which contributes to Russian's slowness in advancing and become powerful enough to compete in 9 minutes or so.
Colonial Age rushing works from time to time, but it is more of an win-or-lose gamble, having only 14 villagers and hitting Colonial Age no sooner than 4:30, the Colonial Age rush generally loses to a well executed Fast Fortress (FF), mainly because Russian Colonial Age units can not beat powerful melee cavalries like Lancers and Cuirassiers, Artilleries such as Falconets, or any age3 mercenaries.
The only way to keep up with a Fast Fortress is do the same yourself.
Russian has two unique advantages, first one is one instant village with every two villagers made; and second one is the Russian's explorer benefits from explorer card more than everyone else in early game due to the x 5 VS guard attack.
What differs Russian FF to normal FF is that you don’t use villager shipments, it is both a bliss and a curse, while you have to make villagers to make up for this lacking, you will have more spare shipments than a normal FF. Also note because you will make 15 villagers in Discovery Age, compared to 7 or 8 others would make, you get more XP from them too, which again accelerates shipments.
The plan here is to stay longer in Discovery Age to catch up on villager count, go to Fortress Age within reasonable time frame and more spare shipments than opponent; defend the initial attack with mostly shipped units and finally win the game with a force backed by superior economy.
All villagers on food crate, one villager per crate, this gives you the faster gather rate to get 270 food, you should get it inside 13 seconds with practice, queue villagers ASAP, put 2 on to hunt towards TC, 2 keep gather food, one to wood, leave gold alone. As soon as you finish gather 100 wood, build a house, if you have another 100 wood left, leave it alone. In the meantime explorer will be treasure hunting, it doesn’t matter what you hunt, just hunt easy ones in the start, keep explorer HP as high as you can. send Polar Explorer as first card, this card will give him +50 hp, a dog with + 50% that never dies, and x5 attack to treasure guardian, use it to your advantage, you can now beat some powerful guardian with it, like 3 pirates ( 245 food/235 gold/220 wood). Your last 2 batches should be way pointed gold mine, that will still leave you with over 800 food by the time last batch comes out. You should be ready to advance at During aging you should balance your villagers between gold and food. you should aim at arrive in age2 with 900~920 gold + 650~700 food. An optimal balance is normally 13 on gold / 7 on food. Upon arriving at Colonial Age, adjust villagers again to put some on crates. Generally aim to advance by That is about the fastest you can do as Russian with a good eco. 1. Down side is you will not end up with as much hunted treasures because you don’t have polar explorer, this option suits maps with little treasure, such as Taxes. the point of setup is to get the 400 wood by 5:15 instead 700 w around 6:40, and you can build one or two TP 90 seconds earlier and still get enough shipment for 700 wood later. It is a must when you match against German, because you need to use the 400 aging wood towards a Blockhouse to cover yourself from Raiding Uhlans. 2. I am still experiementing with Advanced Trading Post (ATP) approach, because it takes a long time to chop required wood and we often cant hit Fortress Age on time with it. 3. But it does require good Treasures and available Trade Posts to maximise its benefit. And it uses one more shipment than other options. Sometimes your opponent will rush you in Colonial Age. A good Rush normally starts around 5:30. Ideally we do not want to waste shipments and resources and alter our plan unless the rush will actually happen, so it is vital that you scout properly, the dog makes a good scout. If it looks like the rush will happen, you have some options here: Go Colonial Age early with 17 Villager build, it allows you to prepare yourself 50 seconds earlier. Ship in Colonial Militia, This allows your TC to fire with 50% more power, and you can call Minute Man for second time, this is a very powerful army. Ship in 13 Strelets and 5+4 Cossacks, all 3 shipments are quite powerful. 2 Falconets - very good 9 Highlanders - high damage powerhouse, best merc in the game. 9 Manchurian Cavalry Archers - very good, last longer than highlanders most of the time, can beat Artilleries due to x2 multiplier, not as powerful against infantry, do very well against cavalry. Royal Decree Russian (Unique Church) + 9 Kalmuks (Guard Dragoons) - very good against cavalry, but a bit expensive at 250 + 1000 wood, but Unique Church can be sent in age2, therefore it doesn’t take Fortress Age time shipping time, allows you to use your time to ship other things, this is particularly important if you are anticipating an attack around 9:00~10:00. 6 Oprichniks - a worthy shipment, good for raiding and killing Artilleries, Abus guns and Grenadiers. 6 Cossacks - a worthy shipment, ship it after getting the Veteran Upgrade for Cossacks, before then, 6 Oprichniks is slightly better. 11 Musketeers, 9 Halberdiers, 5 Grenadiers, and 17 Strelets - these shipments are mid-core, you may include a few of them, but they are not of exceptional value or anything. I feel 1000 food or 20 sheep are both better. Aging to 17 Strelets is generally better than 5 Cossacks. 1. 2. 3. the deck: colonial militia, both cossack, 13 strelets. use TC + BH to kill cossacks, strelets + MM on his nadiers, strelets on his muskts, ship in cossacks if he gets too many strelets. once in fortress, your 17 strelets should be able to beat everything he has, then ship in 6 opris/cossacks + 2 falcs, it is over. it is these german players who have a lot of age2 cards AND a lot of age3 cards that really worries me, because you dont know what he is going to do, on top of that I have not yet found a effective counter to the age2 uhlan rading problem, because russian doesnt get muskts shipment, and russian FF requries a slow colonial time. the plan: get enough age2 defense and counters to his age3 army, focus on his unlans. the deck: the deck: colonial militia, both cossack, 13 strelets, manchus. defintely do 17 vils age1, i.e. dont ever do 20 vil version. use aging wood on 1 house + 1 BH, depends on the raiding, if it is not so bad, get 700 gold and proceed as normal, if he is raiding hard, get 5 cossacks. 5 cossacks can kill several lot of 2 uhlan raiding parties. get fortress asap. 5 cossacks should be constantly running around all gold mines the map, he is german, he needs every last gold he can find. once in fortress, look for his art foundry, if he has one, you must build one and make 2 culverins, if he doesnt, dont bother, do your normal fortress, if he has hackapell card, get manchus, this is the most effective way to beat 20+ uhlans and 7 hackapells. if he does the age2 dopps + landsk rush, you should still have enough time to build strelets + send 13 strelets, there is no tricks here, just brutal force against brutal force. colonial militia + strelets should generally be good enough. [This message has been edited by ultimitsu (edited 06-15-2006 @ 08:15 PM).]
Put all villagers on hunt, queue new villagers all the time. We want to have total of 20 villagers by the time we advance.
instead of sending polar explorer and age at 20 villagers, do 17 and send no card in Discovery Age, this way you will get into age2 50 seconds faster, you can use that shipment towards 700 gold, which should give you same fortress time, if not faster, and remember to make a batch of villagers during age2 as well, you can afford it time wise and food wise.
Send in the 300wood card as first card, build Trading Posts early. This is a good substitute for Polar Explorer on maps without good treasure.
Mixing them together! Send polar explorer / 300wood as well as aging with 17 villagers. With right XP treasure hunting / early TP you should get 2nd shipment by hitting age2 thus gives you chance to ship in the gold. You could end up with lots of resources from treasures + good Fortress Age time + Trade Post 50 sec earlier.
Below are three strategies of mine. There are many more possibilities you can explore.
During aging to Fortress Age, ship 700 wood, put most villagers on gold and start build houses as soon as you get the 700 wood, build as many as you can. Upon arriving Age3, ship 2 falconet if you don’t have 1000 gold ready, ship Highlanders or Manchurians if you do, ship Cossacks or Oprichniks next.
You can attack with 17 Strelets + 2 Falconets + 9 Highlanders or 9 Manchurians + 6 cavalry, costing 1 Colonial + 3 Fortress shipments and 1000 gold.
This can be used against Civilisations either with a weaker Fast Fortress strategy and these who attack very quickly after doing a Fast Fortress. Downside is if you lost all your troops, you don’t have a strong comeback.
During aging to Fortress Age, ship 700wood, and build a market + church, then research +10% wood chopping. put all villagers on wood, send unique church next, up on arriving age3, send 2 Falconets first, save wood for 9 Kalmuks then send 1000wood, and build Blockhouse Then research Westernization (upgrades all units to Veteran). Ship 6 Cossacks and build Musketeers and Strelets.
You will have 17 Veteran Strelets + 6 Veteran Cossack + 9 Kalmuks + 2 Falconets, and more Veteran units to come, costing 2 Colonial + 3 Fortress shipments + 1000wood or so. This strategy doesn’t actually take longer, but it takes a lot more management to produce the needed resources on time. It gives you a longer lasting edge, as your main units are now veteran.
As a small bonus, you can now use veteran grenadiers for siege if your opponent has made too many culverins. Without upgrade Grenadiers are not really worth making.
Ship in Fort, place it 1/3 way between you and your opponent, ship in 1000 wood, build a second Town Centre and boom away. Defend with shipped troops and the fort. You can make some more if you like, but the goal is to get into industrial with a good eco. If you don’t get attacked, raid with Oprichniks. Once you hit industrial, there are many things you can do with Russian, Petrine Reforms upgrades everything to Guard level but only cost 2500 gold, buy 17 Bashkirs (Guard Hussars) for only 2000 gold and 2 Heavy cannons can be shipped twice.
the plan: over 50% russian player WILL attempt a rush, so it is a must that we are prepared.
do either 20 vil or 17 vils start, immidiantly most vils on wood once hit aging, build a BH where you hunt, use aging up wood on another BH, build enough houses too, depends on when he starts to attack, you may send in 13 strelets first or 700 gold first, you want to click age asap so you can get fortress shipment on him, but you have to do it safely.
Strategy by Ultimitsu
Guns and Biers
British Anti-FF explosion
For TWC only Ottoman FF on non-water non-TP maps
For Vanilla only Dutch Fast Colonial Uber Bank