Now as many of you know I play as Russia mainly, I have a level 12 HC call newb pwning capitol. I am by no means an expert level player in AoE3, that honor as of now goes to Swinger and Jay... those guys have some true skill in this game.
Now 1st Game was a 2v2 FPH vs HG teams were me and Kumar vs SoggyFrog and Elpea.
Soggy is a dutch player, pretty decent boomer and does ok with military.
Elpea is a good boomer but his troop handling skills are far from ideal Kumar is a boom machine... the guy always outbooms me, he also has a great military with the Germans. I am a mediocre boomer but I have above average military handling and with Russia the better you can handle your troops the better you will do. as the 1st game start me and kumar kinda just play our own way until about 4 1/2 minutes into the game where I hit colonial and build a blockhouse on the outskirts of Soggy's base but enough that it will take focus from both of them and that was my plan. I wanted them to see that blockhouse and make a plan to attack it so I wouldn't have to worry about being raided at first. It also helped that it was possitioned near 2 huge herds of bison which helped us out a lot and it was also right near a native tribe which I later used to help siege Soggy. When the first assaults came in Kumar made a stellar showing with his German uhlans protecting my strelets and blockhouse long enough to allow me more time to get my boom going and get my army up and functional. The result of the first battle was Soggy and Elpea's armies being wiped off the map. I then made that space my forward base building a market and houses as well as an outpost on the native site. As time went on a massive concentration of forces started to take place near my forward base, kumar and myself both sent our forts there and Soggy and Elpea did too! This was going to be a rough fight! With the forces of Soggy building I knew the shit was about to hit the fan but I waited until he attacked, I wanted his 5 falconets to start firing on a building before I sent in my army to attack. I didn't realize just how much military both Soggy and Elpea built up and I am sorry to say I wasn't prepared for it... but luckily I did have my strelets almost completely upgraded with the card to improve them as well as the blockhouse upgrade and the ranged combat tech at the armory. My strelets were cheap and just about as powerful as Soggy's Dutch Skirmishers... except I could produce them 10 at a time and did so to great effect Once soggy killed my defensive army he had another block of Strelets to fight... it was a constant stream of upgraded strelets that eventually broke Soggy and Elpea forcing them to retreat, but not in time! Kumar came in with his Uhlans and war carts and laid waste to the remains of their forces. At the end me and Kumar were left with no forts but a nice sized army of strelets and falconets which I sent in to kill Elpea... I did. After that the game was a downward spiral for Elpea and Soggy who eventually took shelter in a make shift fort made of wooden walls and houses. Kumar was the best ally to have in this game, his uhlans laid waste to many of the FPH forces and kept a solid boom as well as pressuring at the right times. With some practice I think Kumar and myself would make a deadly 2 man team. This was the biggest game I've played so far, it was a 3v3 and the teams weren't really what I would consider "fair" being that Elpea, Soggy, and myself were on 1 team and Kumar was on a team of inexperienced players Now I won't speak much for the others because I have a lot to digest in this game and didn't care as long as my team was doing something to back me up On the map we were on there are 2 high ground areas where each team starts out. there are only 2 ways onto these high grounds and if you aren't fast it will become a turtle fest fast. I took the initiative and sent my explorer out to the enemy base, it just so happens that each base has a native tribe near it, I sought it out fast. I used my 500 wood bonus shipment from aging to quickly get enough wood to take the enemy natives. Since I went for a VERY fast early colonial I was behind the rest of the game but what happened next is just funny. While I built the trade post they started to atatck me with vils, it's all they had since I was in age 2 and they were in age 1, I knew they wouldn't do enough damage to really hurt my explorer so i just let him keep building. while everyone was preoccupied on my natives I sent a loan vil onto their high ground and set him gathering wood until I had enough wood for a blockhouse which I built there and used it as my gather point for shipments. I used the natives to raid the hell out of one poor fellow... I killed at least 10 of his vils before he had a chance to garrison, which at the 5-7 minute mark is simply game ending. Kumar tried to help out by sending cavalry but it was too little too late and all his cav got killed and then he had no choice but to resign. Once they started getting into the swing of the game they did exactly what I knew they would do... the towered up one of the entrances. sadly for them I had a vil and a blockhouse already there and there was nothing they could do to stop it. The one player that didn't get attacked by me had a pretty decent sized force of Musketeers but once I started pushing out Strelets he had no chance. From there it was GG... I hope this helps to wet your appitite for online play... it's amazing how many option and startegic variety you have to choose from... daddy likes "I've kicked more ass on accident than most people have on purpose" [This message has been edited by TheGoodEvil (edited 10-15-2005 @ 08:20 PM).]
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