Wallenstein's Contracts

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Kaiser_von_Nuben
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Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Kaiser_von_Nuben »

Now that I'm free to get on ESO once in a while again, I've naturally taken a big interest in 1.2's German changes. The biggest one, of course, is the Wallenstein's Contracts overhaul. For those who don't know, Wallenstein's Contracts is an option at the Advanced Church after you send the Treaty of Westphalia card. In the past, it was pretty useless: For 2000 gold "mercenary shipments" no longer cost additional coin.

Now, however, it is a much more viable option. If you research Wallenstein's contracts now, it only costs 1000 gold. In return, it makes mercenary shipments 40% cheaper and arrive 50% faster. As a guy who used to LIVE for mercenary shipments, this is a big deal.

Germany has devastating Age 3 merc options. In 1v1, they can be game-enders: (1) 13 Jaegers; (2) 9 Black Riders; (3) 10 Landsknechts; and (4) 8 Hackapells. They each cost 1000 gold. But in the past, the big problem was that they take an ETERNITY to arrive (90 or 100 seconds, someone please correct me). I can't tell you how many times I've been waiting on a merc shipment and my TC gets sieged. It's heartbreaking.

But with the new Wallenstein's Contract option, you can get those mercs on the field CHEAPER and FASTER. I am very excited about this. I have even experimented with a few prototype semi-FFs to accommodate it. To make it work, you need a lot of coin and available shipments. You need to get to Age 3 (1000 coin), then you need 1000 for Wallenstein's Contracts. After that, you need 600 per merc shipment. Finally, you need to make sure you have a shipment to send as soon as you get the required amount. A Trade Post would help with that.

What does everyone else think about this new German option? Has anyone used it in a game yet? I'm going to keep tweaking details and come up with an airtight build. Naked FF is tough because you generally won't have a shipment to spare once you get all the coin. Remember: You need to send the advanced church card sometime in Age 2, which takes away a shipment. That's why TPs will be essential.

I think an old-school 7-10 uhlan semi-FF could really be nasty with Wallenstein thrown in 8)
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Aaryn_GenD
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Aaryn_GenD »

i think it could be an option in team games in 1v1 it would be tough to pull that off.
600coin per merc shipment is still a lot of coin and you gotta pay 1000coin for that.
before, Wallenstein's Verträge(original name ;-)) costed 4000 coin (3000 coin with Mercenary Loyalty card) and provided no cost for all the merc shipments, free merc shipments but no reduction on arrival time.

what really makes it interesting is the decreased arrival time in FP 1.2, that's a pretty big factor to consider:-P
hope to see some merc lamage from ya kaiser ;-)
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36drew
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by 36drew »

I actually lost a 1v1 to a W-Contract strategy. A brig pulled off an uhlan semi-ff and sent it along with mercantilism. I was ottoman and I got ran over. LOL. Not sure of his exact build but it left me saying... oh my...
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ckei
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by ckei »

thats sounds cool.Doesnt the Zen natives have a tech that gives you 1000 xp ?
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Bart331 »

hmm, interesting idea. But u need to reach age3, send uc, collect 1000 coin and then u can spam cheap mercs. It takes a really lazy opponent to pull this off :) Btw does it also makes mercs from saloon cheaper?
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Jero12345 »

If they look to your deck and notice all merc cards and just pull an amount of spies up your screwed. and when your out of merc shipments too. you gonna need a back up or its all or nothing
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Aaryn_GenD
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Aaryn_GenD »

[quote=""Bart331""]Btw does it also makes mercs from saloon cheaper?[/quote]

nope, but the Mercenary Loyalty card does though!! but only 10%

i tested this, here are the results:

merc shipments take only 30 seconds to arrive after wallensteins is researched
researching wallenstein's at the church takes 15 seconds

not bad 8)
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Bart331
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Bart331 »

i tried it out:

http://www.aoe3clan.com/index.php?name= ... 9630#59630

should it work like that?
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by GeneralMichael »

Yeah I need to get back on working on finding out what outlaws are on what maps. Once I get a whole list of them then I can finally know when I want to rush the enemy with the german saloon. So far, I only have managed to get 2 maps done. Andes = Pistolero + renegado. Also Araucania = Pistolero + comachero.
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Kaiser_von_Nuben
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Kaiser_von_Nuben »

Wallenstein never applied to the saloon mercs. I doubt it does now, either!

But Aaryn, 30 seconds for Jaegers is still pretty encouraging!

@ Bart: I agree that you need a pretty passive opponent for this to work in a 1v1. But I think it would be pretty decent against boomy civs who don't put on much early pressure. Add in some early uhlan harassment and you could be a good position to nail them early Age 3.
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Sporting_Lisbon »

Wallenstein's contracts are definitely worth a shot!

Also check this thread from a while ago Kaiser, also posted there about mercs as well:

http://www.aoe3clan.com/index.php?name= ... pic&t=4292
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Re: Wallenstein's Contracts

Post by Bart331 »

[quote=""Kaiser_von_Nuben""]@ Bart: I agree that you need a pretty passive opponent for this to work in a 1v1. But I think it would be pretty decent against boomy civs who don't put on much early pressure. Add in some early uhlan harassment and you could be a good position to nail them early Age 3.[/quote]

i tried it in the rec vs dutch, and i think dutch is perfect opponent for this strat. I know back when i played vanilla some dude named meshteru always own my dutch with a german merc ff strat, mercs + falc spam is hard to beat :)
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