Seeing the meteoric rise of many "no rush" games around (and the lack of strategies for them), I decided to create a no rush strategy for the french. This is my first strategy, and I do apologise if it isn't as good as some of you may hope.
One of the most important facets for no rush games is economy. It is important to have the strongest economy possible, therefore you may be able to spam many units with ease, allowing you to continually attack/defend the enemy. The second thing is that the civilisation that you use has to have a wide range of strong units, that are flexible when you need to suddenly change tactics when faced with differing situations. The main reason why I believe that the French are one of the best no rush civilisations, is that it has an extremely strong economy, and it has a possible 120 population spaces to dedicate to the army (normal civilisations only have 100). Some of you may ask why not use the Dutch, because they have a possible 150 population spaces to dedicate to the army. The answer is, the Dutch does not have a wide variety of strong units. The only units that you may think of spamming are halbediers, skirmishers, ruyters (and maybe hussars), all of which can be easily countered. However, the French can spam cuirassiers, dragoons, musketeers, halbediers and skirmishers, which provide more flexibility. Now, onto the strategy. The most important thing for no rush games is to get your economy to maximum potential as soon as possible. In other words, build to the CdB limit as soon as possible. There are two ways to do this, but I'm not sure which one may be better. Refer to other French Fast Fortress strategies, and when in Fortress, build up the other two Town Centres as soon as possible, and continuously pump out CdBs. This is what I refer to as the Economical Advance, and is my preferred tactic. Although you only advance into Colonial at around 5-6 minutes and Fortress at around 10-12 minutes, I believe that this is a more effective strategy since it provides a strong economic foundation. -Send 5 of the 6 CdBs to hunt for food. -Build a market, and research all possible upgrades to gathering rates. Do NOT research blunderbuss and great coat until Fortress when you have food to spare. (Keep researching the upgrades as your resources allow.) -Send the 4 CdB shipment card. (Put them on coin) -Make sure your explorer is still building trading posts (if there are any left). Continue to scout with your native scout. (If you have explored everywhere, leave the native scout in the enemy's base, and keep an eye there.) -Build another 2 Town Centres in your base. -Build factories. Start pumping out heavy cannons if you wish to include them in your army. -Change CdB distribution, 30 on Food, 30 on Coin, 20 on Wood. Late in the game, if you do not need any wood, 40 on Food and 40 on Coin. Be flexible, if you need more coin, change the distribution to 30 Food, 50 coin. It is your game from here. Keep spamming units that counter what the enemy is producing. Do not allow the enemy to break through your walls. If you have the resources, wall off your CdBs so they don't all get killed in case the enemy does break through. Build towers along the trade route to prevent possible attacks from there. Protect your economy at all costs!! Also, HELP YOUR ALLY/ALLIES! Don't let them be attacked by multiple enemies at once, or else you will end up one player down, which means you will probably lose. By the same token, do not help your ally so much that your base gets invaded and trashed. Against Noobs: Against Infantry based armies: Against Cavalry based armies: Running down trade routes / finishing off an enemy who has limited military left: Well, I thank you people for reading this guide, even though you probably won't want to play no rush games anyway. You may have already fallen asleep by now. I know no rush games are not as appealling to some people who prefer the excitement of the unknown and the unexpected. This guide is just intended to help the minority people who do wish to play no rush games. -ChenKenichi
-Send the remaining CdB on the food crate. (After he has finished collecting the crates, build a house and put him on wood)
-Use your explorer and native scout to explore in different directions, picking up treasures as you wish (make sure explorer does not die).
-Start building the first CdB as soon as possible. Put the first three CdBs you produce onto food (hunting). Continue to produce CdBs unless advancing.
-Checkpoint: 8 CdBs on food and 1 on wood
-Now that you have 8 CdBs hunting, start producing CdBs and put them on wood.
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-Send the 3 CdB shipment card only.
-At the stage where you have 800 food, advance with 400 wood politician! (Should be around 5 minutes)
-Checkpoint just before advancing: 8 CdBs on food, 6-8 CdBs on wood.
-Build additional houses when your amount of population demands it. (Don't forget)
-You should have an abundant supply of wood, so with your explorer, go out and claim all availalbe trading posts (especially the native settlements!). Even if your explorer hasn't finished building the first one yet, lay the foundations for the all of them, so that other people may not take them.
-Start pumping out CdBs again. Put the next 2 CdBs you produce on wood, and all the ones after that on coin.
-Checkpoint: 8 on food, 10 on wood, 4+ on coin.
-Send the 2 CdB shipment card as soon as possible. After sending all the villager shipment cards, concentrate on increased food production rate cards, then coin.)
-Keep upgrading the market upgrades where possible.
-When you have enough food and coin, advance with natives politician! You really don't need the skirmishers. (10-12 minutes)
-Checkpoint just before advancing: 8 on Food, 10 on Wood, 10-12 on coin.
-Take a CdB from wood, and build a wall running across the middle of the map. (Put the guy back on wood when he's done)
-Your explorer HAS to be back at your base before you finish advancing into Fortress, even though a TP may only be half built.
-If the 10-12 CdBs on coin have exhausted all mines, build plantations. If the 10 CdBs hunting have exhausted all huntables, build a mill. Quite obvious, really.
-Send Fort card. Place fort somehwere strategic in the middle of the map on your side of the wall...)
-Continue creating CdBs, focusing on food production. Put more 2 CdBs on hunting, so you have 10 CdBs hunting. Put the rest of the CdBs you build on mills.
-Aim for 20 CdBs on mills and 10 CdBs on hunting, to ensure smooth CdB building.
-Now, just spread the rest of the CdBs you build onto coin and wood.
-(20 minutes appox.) Take one CdB from wood and build another couple of layers of walls. (preferably at least 3 layers all the way around, and dont forget to put a wall around the trade route!) Put him back when done.
-All market upgrades
-At least by 24 minutes, your entire economy should be running at maximum potential (maximum CdBs). This is one possible placement of CdBs: 20 on Food (Mills), 40 on Coin (Plantations), 20 on Wood. You want to maximize coin production, so that you can put a blocakde on the enemy later. If somebody in your team is already in Imperial, tell everybody to tribute all coin to that person, and tell that person to research "Blockade". This works best if done as early as possible, so that the enemy doesn't get their factories up.
-Important! Leave 2 shipments for when you reach Industrial, so that you can get your factories as soon as possible.
-You should be able to advance to Industrial about now. Use the 2 falconets politician. (before 25 minutes)
-Build other buildings that need to be built (eg church etc, but not military ones eg artillery foundry etc.)
-(25 minutes approx.) Take another CdB from wood, and build 6 barracks, 6 stables and 2 artillery foundries near your fort, for fast unit production when the need arises. (do not build them joined together, put spacing in between each building for easier unit movement.) Put him back when done.
-Advance to Imperial as soon as possible with 2000 coin politician.
-Upgrade all economical advances from capitol, and anything else like church (edict of nances card)
-Be smart, research spies if you can afford it without making your economy collapse.
-Upgrade military units to Imperial (only the ones you plan on building).
-Important! Only start building your army 5 or less minutes prior to when the no rush time is up, so that the enemy doesn't not know what you are building.
2 Field Guns (10 pop)from the shipment. You don't even need cannons against noobs... they only have one army and don't rebuild.
36 Cuirassiers (108 pop)
10 Imperial Cannons (50 population)
35 Dragoons (70 population) for taking out their cannons
60 Dragoons (120 population)
40 cuirassiers (120 pop) very quick at destorying buildings and killing villagers, very hard to stop when inside someone's base.
-27 Old Guard (Grenadiers) from the Garde Imperial technologies from the church (needs church card). The grenadiers are good partnered with dragoons, since dragoons cannot destory buildings/walls.
-Mercenary Army: Make sure you send this card BEFORE sending the Old Guards from the church, when you have 199 population or something. Even if you do not have enough population to support the Old Guards, they will appear anyway, but mercenaries can only be sent if there is at least one spare population space.
-Natives. They are very useful at bolstering your army, especially if you have the Lakota Dog Warriors. Don't forget to do all upgrades at the trading post.