Well I have been getting back into Age of Empires 3 The Asian Dynasties latley and have been using the british quite a bit, and have decided to use them as my main civ instead of russia. The only problem is at my PR I cannot beat FFs and booms with the brits.
Rushes are quite easy to repel in colonial becaue of Longbows range + great early eco to spam other units. But when someone FF's I cannot seem to get TC down fast enough, one idea i have had is to sacrifice boom and go double rax right out of age up, but I have not tested it out yet(against a FF )
Also other booming civs like ports and a british mirror I cannot seem to win either. I try raiding while keeping a defencive army in my base, or keeping army at base and going 100 percent for a boom, either way I get creamed, although this may have more to do with my micro than my problem with FF's.
Any help would be appreciated because when I can actually get them right the odd match, the Britsh seem to be a unstoppable civ.
There are not too many experts on Ages any more, so you may be stuck with me. You should not lose to someone of regular skill in a boom fest with the brits. You are doing too much raiding and army placement, and not enough booming.
Your best bets against an FF are to get a large eco and army in age II and hit them hard as soon as you know the size and composition of their army and that you have a numbers advantage. A british musket/hussar age 2 with superior numbers matches up favorably to any early age 3 army (maybe not well-microed goons). Your biggest challenges are skirms and cannons - and the solution to both is hussar so make sure you have those.
If you are sure your opponent is booming, a double rax is perfectly viable. It sounds like you use longbows often, make sure you bring pikes or at least muskets to siege. Make sure you are getting the eco to use those barracks (use 700 W and 600 W cards, and boom manors). No point in building 2 rax that sit there idle. Consider a shipment to your outpost at your FB for 6 muskets or lbows to get an early advantage.
You have the option to just out-boom your opponent as well. If you are scouting, a couple of outposts and maybe colonial militia can serve well instead of an army early. You should have rax ready, but pump out the manors for a bit before committing to an army. If you can delay troops for even a minute or two you can get an eco edge that almost any other civ will have a tough time coming back from. Great coats, an outpost near a couple of hunts, and a vigilant eye are necessary so you can deal with situations that arise before you lose a gaggle of peasants and give back that eco advantage. Lbow/pike is a nice army in this situation because they use the same resources you are booming with.
Raiding is tough with the Brits because they have no 3 hussar card and their early eco takes a lot of management. If you are going to raid at all, consider building your stable first and pump out 5 hussar right off. Keeping them alive while harrassing is the key. Don't get tangled with pikes or towers, and remember that running peasants are almost as good as dead peasants. Practice running past peasants that are fleeing and attacking from a position between them and their safe zone.
Finally, remember when booming that your eco advantage is the manors. If you have built them all, your advantage is now spent and is on the field, so you need to use it. You should, often, be able to quickly jump to age iv right after age 3. You should consider that, because you should have a relatively larger economy at the end of age 2, but if you sit around in age 3 everyone is almost equal since they are cranking out with 3 TCs. Whether you use that extra eco to age to iv, or to get additional upgrades in age 3, remember to use that extra eco sooner rather than later as the advantage fades over time.
Indy in decent with Brits and offers some good advice here. What PR level are you? I'm not too bad with Brits and don't mind getting some games with you. Do you have set build orders? This can help getting your eco in order regardless of what units you are going to need, there are several ways of booming with Brits, they are a pretty efficient civ if used correctly.
Also, remember that There isn't an awful lot in fortress for Brits, so be sure you are boomed up a bit before aging, and as Indy has said, industrial is an easy step for Brits pretty much as soon as you are in fortress. I love the jump from colonial to industrial with Brits, it's a great move IMO and the upgrades give you a huge advantage.
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