Dutch have a hard time these days with FF being the norm. It seems impossible to compete. Despair no more, Dutch's answer to the FF is in this very post. If you want to actually look forward to playing your next Spanish opponent, read on.
It's strengths: It's weaknesses: By 9:45 you will have: This is where things start getting fun. If he attacks, rejoice. You have the ideal defenses and will wipe out anything, yes ANYTHING he could possibly throw at you this early. If he booms instead, don't worry, you're about to build 6 banks. In my experience, about half of my opponents see the skirms and culverins, and assume that there will be even more skirms/culverins when they come back. This "implied army" is what will allow you boom. If you're up against a boom civ (Ports, French, Dutch), you can be almost certain that they will boom vs your turtle, so you Once your banks are up, you have created a monsterous eco and can spam any unit you want. Your goal then is to get to 200 pop. That's not to say you shouldn't attack before then, since some situations will call for that. I like to make culv/falc/skirm/pike. Some prefer Ruyter/Falc. Do whatever suits you and best counters the enemy. Once you have an army that you think will beat theirs, move on out! [This message has been edited by jaafit (edited 05-11-2006 @ 03:39 AM).]
* Kick-ass economy
* Good colonial defense
* A fast Age III time
* Good use of banks
* Beats any attack before 10 min (with proper scouting of course)
* Britain (they will out-boom you every time)
* Grenadiers
3 vils
Colonial Militia
1000G
9 skirms
4 towers
1000W
Religous Freedom
1000F
10 Ruyters
9 Halbs
Mercenaries
-40% inf/cav train time
Advanced Arsenal
* Build 10 vils from the TC
* Play 3 vil card
* Get the tower up
* Build a house
* Collect the 2 gold crates
* Play 1000 gold card
* Play 9 skirm card
* Build a house
* Build an artillery range and train 2 culverins
* Play 4 Towers
* walls surrounding your base
* 9 skirms
* 2 culverins
* ~25 vils
* Play 1000W card
* Build 4 banks
* Build a church
* Play Religious Freedom card
* Reserach Coffee Trade
* Use the market to buy wood if you are low.
* Build 2 banks
* Build a market and research gang saws + great coat.
* The rest is up to you! Just know that you're gonna need 15 houses within 5 min because that's how fast the resources are going to come in.
Ideally, you will be left alone and will have nothing to make but those 6 banks. However, if it looks as though your opponent is ramping up for an attack soon, you will have to hold off on the banks, build a barraks instead and make more skirms/culvs. This is something you have to watch for yourself and judge accurately. If you make too many banks, you could end up with a gaping hole in your wall. If you make too much military, it's very easy for the opponent to out-boom you.
When constructing your wall, keep in mind 3 things: food, wood, and space. Don't worry about gold. Your first gold mine is 2000g, which is enough to get you to fortress. The 1000g card will get you culvs and 2 vils. The banks will take it from there.
Shipped towers give you 35 XP each when built.
6 banks are 840 XP.
A smart opponent will always attack your weakest side, so careful with those towers.
Your opponent will out-boom you if you let him take the water, so after banks are up make this your next economic priority. The 3 fluyt card helps.
Raiding is always a good thing. Don't let the above build order prevent you from a timely vil massacre.
"I've never seen that before!" ~ treebeardIII
"You did me a surprise." ~ a 2k player
"It'd hurt pretty bad to get spanked by a bank" ~EmpireDoja
agecommunity quote of the month Ok i have payed for this game for al my moneythat i get in a month so when i go online isee these 9 year old kids that beat me that have played for 2 weeks and i have played since release of vanilla so im pretty pissed of that es dosent want to do anything about the balance of the game.