First Cards

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

I am getting more and more comfortable playing as the Brits, both in team games and 1v1 rush and short treaties. I really like all their units and I LOVE the solid econ backing. Just ship some wood and you have both an army of soldiers and villagers.

As we all know, the discovery "drill" is essential to a good game. It needs to be instinctive. Part of that "drill" is the all-important first card. Until recently, I never gave this much thought; I just sent 3 villies, aged with 17 and that was the end of it. Lately, though, I have been experimenting with sending the DISTRIBUTIVISM card and aging with 14 vils, keeping 10-11 on wood during the age-up period. Normally you can get at least a manor and market up during that time, and usually up to 2 manors. Meanwhile, you have some very handy extra wood flowing into your reserves, which allows you to build a rax immediately upon reaching colonial. That also allows you to switch over to an almost exclusively food/coin econ for muskets/hussars. My second card is ALWAYS 700 wood. Like no other civ other than India, wood transmits into economic power for the Brits.

Obviously the downside to distributivism is that you don't have a 17-vil econ to start things off. But many other civs do very well in rushes without 17 vils, and the Brits have the unique power (among the Euros) to get some extra vils during the age-up. With distributivism and wood-gathering, you can easily crank out more economic support. In test games, I have been very happy to see that--while pumping out muskets--distributivism allows me to build manors for continually increasing my villie count. That is the beauty of the British: you can boom and fight at the same time!

If anyone has any tips or insights about early Brit play, I'd love to hear them. I have a different setup for early cav, but that's for a different thread

[StrokeyBlofeld]

I've pretty much played Brits exclusively for a year and a half, there isn't much I don't know about them, build orders, eco management, cards, card orders, pros and cons of each card and when you send it, seriously, if there's anything you want to know about I can probably help you out. I'm only a 2nd lt, but Brits are one thing I know a bit about.

Distributivism is a nice card, but not that great for Brits, you run at a loss by sending it instead of 3 vills. To be honest, in any normal game the only real debate is 3 vills or 300 wood. 3 vills wins this about 75% of the time. The only times it doesn't win is if you need the XP from building 2 manors, or the pop space of 2 manors is needed for an early grenadier rush or similar.

I tend to age with 17 vills (1 manor) or 18 vills (2 manors) unless I'm going for a super fast rush or a big eco boom when I know aging late won't lose the game. If I age with 500 food, I leave 2 on food and the rest to wood. Market ASAP, log saw then hunting dogs. I hit age 2 with enough for 2 barracks (send 700 wood), shift all vills back to food with 2 collecting the food crates, they will collect the 700 wood too. By the time you have 2 barracks up, you will have enough wood to queue your first l-bow at each barrack and get 2 manors up then complete your 1st to batches of 5 l-bow from each rack. You should be able to get close to 30 l-bow a little after 7 mins this way on a normal map.

If I go musk/hussar, aging with tower/gold I leave 5 on food rest to wood. Market up, hunting dogs. when I have 135 wood I make a manor then get 200 for barracks, I switch back to food. Hitting age 2 (ship 700 wood) I put 3 on gold and get placer mines (gold upgrade?). I should have 13 on food, 3 on gold and 2 getting crates. I use 700 and 600 wood for manors before putting vills onto wood.

I've not prepared this reply, only typed it as I went so may be a few mistakes, but it gives you a general idea of my standard early game. I have many variations for different maps or builds, I'd be happy to answer if you have any questions.

[Soccerman771]

What's fun is doing 3 vils, 700 wood then gren-boost card. Split vils for musk/gren and go to housing/sieging your opponent.

[I__CHAOS__I]

I tested a lot with the Brits, and distributivism is just not good enough.

overall, 3 vills is the best card, but there are 2 exceptions:

Virginia company: excellent if you like to boom hard and can defend well with minimum of units (can have 50 vils around 6.45!)

300 wood: only use if you plan a fast gren rush

[IndyBrit]

I've played Brits once or twice. I can see that card being useful in specific circumstances, such as a very low wood map or with an OP raiding opponent because the wood collection is better than the dead villies. However, in virtually all other circumstances the 3 villies are better at all times. Cards typically provide either a sudden benefit or a longer term benefit, but in this case that card loses to 3 villies on both counts.

Some things to think about it you're trying to mix it up a bit: a 300-wood with trading post can actually pay off quite well for an early or medium raid. An extra age 2 card just before you raid can net you about 950 VS plus build time/rax capacity (the 6 longbows) or 1400 VS (the 700 wood). By comparison, if you play the 3 villie card arriving at 2:40 they will collect 1000 VS by 8:10, where the trading post can net you that extra age 2 card much more quickly. The trading post will fall behind longer term as more and more XP are required for cards, but it all depends on the time horizon you are interested in. Also sometimes the extra 50-wood with a treasure or so can net you a bonus house.

When I'm doing hussars, I go with the 500 Food poli in most cases. It depends upon whether the tower is useful to my strategy or not, but you will have more hussars more quickly with the food than with the gold (500 F = 595 VS versus 200 G = 333 VS)

[StrokeyBlofeld]

[quote=""IndyBrit""]I've played Brits once or twice. I can see that card being useful in specific circumstances, such as a very low wood map or with an OP raiding opponent because the wood collection is better than the dead villies. However, in virtually all other circumstances the 3 villies are better at all times. Cards typically provide either a sudden benefit or a longer term benefit, but in this case that card loses to 3 villies on both counts.

Some things to think about it you're trying to mix it up a bit: a 300-wood with trading post can actually pay off quite well for an early or medium raid. An extra age 2 card just before you raid can net you about 950 VS plus build time/rax capacity (the 6 longbows) or 1400 VS (the 700 wood). By comparison, if you play the 3 villie card arriving at 2:40 they will collect 1000 VS by 8:10, where the trading post can net you that extra age 2 card much more quickly. The trading post will fall behind longer term as more and more XP are required for cards, but it all depends on the time horizon you are interested in. Also sometimes the extra 50-wood with a treasure or so can net you a bonus house.

When I'm doing hussars, I go with the 500 Food poli in most cases. It depends upon whether the tower is useful to my strategy or not, but you will have more hussars more quickly with the food than with the gold (500 F = 595 VS versus 200 G = 333 VS)[/quote]

An extra age 2 card

At this stage of the game your building and military production should keep you rich enough in XP to spam your first 2 shipments imeadiately, and almost your 3rd too. The trading posts XP does come into play around the time of your 2nd shipment though. I love the extra XP from TP's as Brits.

The trading post will fall behind longer term as more and more XP are required

This is also a factor, but it is this point at which you can switch to gather wood/gold from your TP, it can come in very handy.


but you will have more hussars more quickly with the food than with the gold (500 F = 595 VS versus 200 G = 333 VS)

This isn't strictly true, I never normaly have a problem getting 5 hussar out in the first batch, and it is only the first batch that the age up shipment is really going to effect. If you divide your vills correctly you shouldn't have a problem. Although, I do often favour the 500 food age up as I can shift more vills to wood during the transition, this means an extra manor or 2 and more XP.

This is also a factor, but it is this point at which you can switch to gather wood/gold from your TP, it can come in very handy.

[IndyBrit]

Strokey:
Some good thoughts in there. As a fellow Brit connoisseur, I would love to discuss some in-depth British strats with you some time.

[StrokeyBlofeld]

[quote=""IndyBrit""]Strokey:
Some good thoughts in there. As a fellow Brit connoisseur, I would love to discuss some in-depth British strats with you some time.[/quote]

Sure thing.


I've made tonnes of in-depth analyisis of the Brit eco and military builds. Something Lazy commented on recently is building architecture.

I have worked very hard on this over time as I think with Brits being slower than most to start military-wise, building placement is very important.

I think it is one of the most important factors of the early game for Brits. I think that without very good building placement Brits tend to struggle a little.

I'd love to write up a guide on building placement sometime, but I'd have to work out how to describe it all as I just kind of do it instictively.

[joe4holly]

make a vod ?

[huGGy]

I'm good with Brits. Only my Cav-Micro is poopie (right Sporting? ). I always send 3 Vills first. Second card is 700 wood, 3rd card 600 wood. While do a manor boom you have enough ressources for building an army. (Grens and Muskets, Hussars and Muskets, Lbows and Hussars and so on). Only a real fast rush is tough to beat.

[36drew]

3 vills first for this pirate.

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

Nice insights, gentlemen; this was just what I needed. I especially liked the statistical analysis about why 3 vils beats distributivism. Until now, I always had the intuitive sense that 3 vils was the best, but now I have numbers to back me up. Also, nice idea about the 300 wood for grens. That would help get the foundry up faster.

And the Va. Company card is my first card when I play 20nr. You can manor boom like crazy with that baby.

[36drew]

Something to think about -- distributism doesn't take pop space and you can send 5 musket as 2nd card w/ right build... not a very popular choice but when you can make 2 houses in colonial it can be done nicely.

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

[quote=""36drew""]Something to think about -- distributism doesn't take pop space and you can send 5 musket as 2nd card w/ right build... not a very popular choice but when you can make 2 houses in colonial it can be done nicely.[/quote]

Not a bad idea. I always liked the distributvism card from my Russian days. It supplies a surprisingly handy amount of wood early game, and you can really put it to strong use at the right time.

You brought up another good point: British colonial military shipments. Currently I barely use them. I find the 700 wood card solves all your early game worries and lets you get an army real fast. When I know I'll be rushed, of course, I do like the 6 LB card, especially if I have some nice little "urban" wall segments up to make life difficult on those annoying little coyote runners!! (British v. Aztec is not fun).

[I__CHAOS__I]

very often those 3 vils will gather some food before reaching the 800 u need to age up, distributivism (pff what a name) can't do that, so 3 vills speeds up you age up time a bit as well