Age of empires, may be an old game, but still it is fun to play! I play all age of empires series games, from Rise of the Rome to Asian Dynasties. I usually play a few multiplayer games in game ranger, because I don't have that much time.
Though I'm not a pro/game god, I think I'm quite good at it. I can beat expert level Dragur's AI
(Felix Hermansson's Draugur AI. Although it is old it is quite good. Try it here
I also won a few multiplayer games.
Treaty game mode is my specialty, particularly 20 min treaty and 40 min treaty.
In Age of empires III, though I like all civilizations, Sioux, Aztecs and Indians are my favourties.
Well, enough about me, lets get to strategy...
No! Don't think for a second that 40 min treaty is easy. It is
It "seems" easy, because you'll have 40 minutes to get to imperial age, where as usually experts take less than 20 minutes. So experts cannot beat noobs until the treaty time is over because he cannot rush.
But 40 minutes treaty is not about timing. Its about speed, micromanagement and tactics. Its like a test cricket match. But of course speed plays major role, how fast can you spam units is always important in late games.
You must have a solid and well defended economy along with a good managed army.
Well defended means not building layers and layers of walls like crazy. Its about putting right buildings at right places.
For example Farms,plantations and villagers must be surrounded by military buildings and outposts(warhuts) in such a way that enemy units find it very difficult to reach villagers. Some ranged units(preferably native units as your main army is at your forward base) and few culverins(rifle riders for Sioux) on farms/plantations to withstand enemy's onslaught for sometime and that time is enough for your main army or your ally to reach the town.
You can use building rotator mod. Fences on one side of farms act as walls.
Remember, your enemy(unless it is an AI) always attacks two or more places at once. Identify which of his army is a decoy and which is actual army intended to crush your empire. Prepare counters for actual army, not decoy.
Most of players complain that civilizations like Aztecs/Sioux have worst late game economy. That's because they have one of the best late game military (If used properly). So ES balanced it by disabling factories for those civilizations.
And....40 min treaty is different from 40 min No rush...
In treaty mode, you can't build buildings far away from your first town center, until the treaty ends. Outposts/war huts/castles/town centers CAN attack enemy units/ships in treaty mode. But military units/ships cannot attack.
In No rush, there are no restrictions except that you cannot attack until NR time ends.
Here in this topic, I'll show you how to play 40 min treaty with sioux.
I don't believe in build orders, each and every player has his own play style and strategy. Who am I to force some new play style on him?
Rather than that, in this guide, I'm going to give some pointers on Sioux special features.
In 40 min treaty, the cards you choose should be such that, it's effect is permanent. So don't choose one time usable cards like 8 axe riders, 3 villagers etc., Say no to cards that ship military units, even if is infinite times usable card.
BUT...there are some military unit shipment cards, for example, there is one card called "Two Kettle Support"
which ships 14 Wakina rifles...costs 1000 coin.....can be used only once....but there is a catch....wakina rifles +20% HP...permanent effect....so it is one of the must cards!!!!
Some resource gathering cards are also necessary. Since Sioux doesn't have factories, you must collect resources faster than your enemies.
Use resource trickle cards only if you're playing on a map where wood becomes exhausted very soon. It'll be useful. For example don’t use resource trickle card on Yucatan map.
THESE CARDS ARE MUST:
->
ships 6 Axe Riders, Axe Riders get +20% Hit Points (costs 1000 Coin)
->
ships 6 Rifle Riders, Rifle Riders get +20% Damage (costs 1000 Coin)
->
ships 14 Wakina Rifles, Wakina Rifles get +20% Hit Points (costs 1000 Coin)
->
ships 4 Dog Soldiers, Dog Soldiers get +15% speed (costs 1000 Coin)
->
War Chief gets Stealth
->
War Chief gets damage-boosting aura
->
War Hut gets +6 Build Limit, +25% Hit Points
->
Villagers get +65% Hit Points
->
Villager gets +200% damage
The above two cards are important. As sioux does not have walls, you've to defend your town with native units and few rifle riders, when your main army is at your fb. Villagers having extra HP and attack really helps.
->
Teepees cost -30% Wood, have +50% Hit Points and +10 Build Limit
->
Teepees get a Damage Aura (in addition to the Hit Points Aura they already have)
->
Some European Arsenal improvements are available at the Teepee (Ranged Cavalry Caracole, Infantry Breastplate, Pillage, Counter Infantry Rifling, Cavalry Cuirass)
->
Cavalry get +15% Damage
->
Cavalry get +15% Hit Points
->
Cavalry get +15% Hit Points and Damage
These cards are optional:
->
Infantry get +10% speed.
->
Tashunke Prowler get +50% Build Limit (from 12 to 18).
->
ships 5 Tashunke Prowlers, Tashunke Prowlers get +25% Hit Points (costs 1000 Coin)
Use the last two cards only if you use tashunke prowlers. If not then they are not needed.
Tepee...although it looks small, fragile......it plays vital role in Sioux military.
By default, sioux only boosts HP of friendly units near it.
But with right cards, it boosts attack along with HP.
Your soldiers will become super soldiers when place near tepee.
Let me show you an example.
I'll compare the hp,attack of rifle rider, axe rider and wakina rifle both without and with tepees.
Note that the units are fully upgraded and the cards I mentioned above are used.
Without tepee:
Rifle Rider
hp:512
ranged attack:37
resists: 0.3 vs melee
Axe Rider
hp:675
melee attack:80
resists:0.2 vs ranged
Wakina Rifle
hp:187
ranged attack:36
resists:0.3 vs ranged
With tepee:
I used 12 tepees, I built them in U shaped pattern and put units inside that U. Like this:
(T means tepee and X means any unit)
T T T T T T T T
TX X X X X X XT
TX X X X X X XT
The result is....let me warn you....you wont believe the stats!!
So its better if I showed them instead.
Shocked beyond belief? And no, the image is real and not photo shopped. I screen shot it while playing the game.
The map is Indo-China.
By the way! Looks like I have 19 idle villagers. Oops, While I was screen shot-ing it the wood was almost over, So there were 19 idle wood cutters. Of course I re tasked them later. NEVER keep your villagers idle like I've done.
So, now I think you understand the importance of tepee.
I stress you, always and I mean ALWAYS use tepees at choke points.Sioux are BEST at choke point battling.
Use versatile ranged units near tepee along with some melee units. Preferably use Rifle riders and Wakina rifles.
Rifle riders have 3x damage vs melee cavalry; 3x vs heavy infantry; 6x vs artillery.
Wakina rifles have 2x vs heavy infantry and 2x vs ranged cavalry.
So the combo of these two counters almost EVERYTHING...except light infantry...but who bothers about multipliers!!!!.....with tepees they have such OUTRAGEOUS attacks and HP. Light infantry won't be that much of problem.
For safety keep few Axe riders/Tashunke prowlers near tepee.
And most important.......
->
->
->
You may argue that by using artillery(particularly mortars) we can destroy tepees without falling in the range of rifle riders. And when rifle riders come near artillery send artillery back and use skirmishers to beat them.
You're right. That's a good move. But any moves has it counters.
The solution is.....use war chief in stealth mode.
Lure enemy towards your tepee. Counters doesn't matter. As long as your units are near tepee, they have outrageous attack and HP as you seen. Almost all enemy units will fall before they even reach you!!
Separate his artillery from army. Your enemy might place his artillery at a safe distance to destroy your tepees and yet to avoid rifle riders. So...put your war chief in stealth...right at that point. just when his artillery starts unpacking attack him.
Sioux war chief has +900% attack bonus against artillery. On top of that he has damage area.
So one shot is enough... Warchief will slaughter artillery.
After you destroy his artillery bring his back to tepee.
Its better if you have 3 to 5 medicine men to heal damaged units near tepees.
If there are too much LI then add tashunke prowlers in stealth. They'll have slaughter fest with LI.
But don't use tashunkes except for surprise attacks. They will become weaker as their numbers are reduced.
In a bottom line your attack with Sioux should be like this.
->
->
->
->
At most you'll lose ten units. But you can decimate any army with this strategy.
Even the so called most powerful gendarmes are no exception to this. They'll be fodder to rifle riders!!
I've won many 40 min treaty games with Sioux against expert AI, thanks to this strategy. In each game units killed will be at least 5000.
I've won some multi player games too, because of this strategy.
Well, I've to admit, Sioux does have weak late game economy. But you can compensate the problem.
First, keep some resource gathering bonus cards in your deck. You need to collect resources faster than your enemy.
Use 300 wood(infinite times usable) card, if you play the maps where wood gets exhausted pretty quickly.
With the kills you do, you gets tonnes of XP in late game. Use it to send this infinite times usable cards.
Even though you'll gather much less wood when compared to factories, it is still appreciable.
Avoid wood consuming units like Cetan bow in late game.
Tepee costs only 30 wood, so it doesn't have that much impact on wood.
Use the villagers you get from natives like cree or luckily in the map if you have sufi natives then immediately ally with them. You can then research Sharia(225 food, 225 coin) which increases villager limit by 10%, i.e, from 99 to 108.
Task approximately 15-20 villagers on firepits and remaining on farms/plantations in late game. The extra 9 villagers will sure help!!
Don't try to drag the game! Try to finish the game quick.
Usually it takes 1 to 1.5 hrs for me to finish a 40 min 3vs3 treaty game. I'm trying to reduce it.
Your enemy will surely have layers of walls to prevent you from attacking. Besides he'll have cannons/organ guns behind the walls.
Unfortunately rifle riders cannot attack cannons behind walls. You need to break the walls first. But he'll slaughter your cavalry before you break the walls.
You HAVE to bring his cannons/army out. There is no other way.
So always attack along with your ally when you're playing sioux. Don't launch an attack alone(preferably)
Sioux military are ideal at choke point battling and defending, but at attacking a well fortified town? You'll need the help of your allies.
Sometimes, dog soldiers with fire dance MAY work.
Well, this is my sioux strategy, don't hesitate to point out mistakes, but no flames.
Enjoy playing sioux!Ciao!!
[This message has been edited by The Lost Elixir (edited 02-13-2017 @ 03:37 AM).]