How to beat 2 Russia and 1 France on FFA

[murdilator]

These are some cool pics I remember from one of those great victories I had. Long, hard fought, no rules on FFA, man, those were the days!

Here is me beating a triple-team up of 1 France and two Russian lategame with 1 Dutch. Its screenshots, but you will have to understand the story. The Ottoman man (teal) was destoyed very quickly.

I immediately seized map control in the beginning to avoid contact so long as possible, but always extending my walls, taking about a third of the map. I got to Imperial around 18 minutes. I do a different boom; 5 Banks early, 3 TCs in Fortress, 7 Banks Industrial, 2 Factories, 54 vils, etc. I began my attack at around 25 minutes against the northern Russian with 35 Ruyters, 15 Hussars + 5 Waardaleger, 20 Skirmishers + 30 Stadhouder, 15 Grenadiers + 20 Halberdiers, and 4 Howitzers. I came through his base (blue base) and thoroughly mame all his plantations, mills and get his factory. But the other Russia begins attacking my eco on the side and takes out both of my factories, so I send the Ruyters to deal with the problem. One gets spies and the other's ask him where Orange's (me) Eco is. He replied, "I don't think you will ever get to his eco its so spread out and he has so many walls." They agreed to team up on me; I had a higher score than any of them. So I prepared for the worst.

France began attacking me and I had to fight on three fronts. My first attack had gone well and crippled the blue player, but he had begun to recover. My attack was so powerful that it left him reeling for five minutes trying to destroy the remnants of my army. That was 35 minutes or so, but France began perhaps at 45 minute or a bit later. I used trickery with walls, putting my troops in front and pulling them back when he brought his cuirassiers close. I knew how to beat them: let them burn the wall while I shoot at them. Since I was the Dutch, I used a combination of Halbs, Hussars, Skirmisher and Ruyters to beat the French, often giving ground and taking it back again by destroying his forward bases from the side with Halberdiers. I also had a south base by which I harassed red and France. Often he (France) would build up decent numbers, at one point he built 15 Howitzers to counter my buildings, but I flanked him and outwitted him. After 30 minutes of inconclusive fighting, he and the others conferred that they didn't understand why he wasn't winning (I systematically drained him somewhat, and I didn't have the Lakota Horse Training upgrade, which made his instant training cavalry worse. Nevertheless this proved to be a blessing because I wouldn't spam too much).

So Red got tired of attacking me and careless, while both the Russians used basically Oprichniks. So since I had the trade route and every place watched, I had an impenetrable defense. I kept harassing him down beneath at his base and eventually he couldn't use Oprichniks. France let off and held the other two in check, and I quickly seized the territory I could in the middle. I attacked red hard, I expected from Blue; France attacked both. I got into Red's base, destroyed his factory, he was reeling, then he felt double-teamed. He quit. It took me about 3 minutes to get through his remaining buildings. Both Blue and I teamed on France. He went out quickly. I tried to get the Lakota post with my explorer. I did eventually after destroying the starting town center of Red (DaOooF). Then blue and I agreed to wait 3 or four minutes to build up again. But I went immediately after those minutes were up in full strength into his base to crush him. He quit before I made it.

Ah, glorious victory! Over 3000 units created, and an excellent kill/loss ratio. A true teaching in strategy!

Reason I won: I realized that I had to seize the map and use great amounts of space for defense to prevent Oprichniks from getting inside my economy. Also, I spaced out my villager economy so that he could only max get 8 at a time. My main base had all my banks and never was fully breached, plus it had 20 villagers. Also I lead the French troops into a trap, and coordinated my troops to and fro my main base, often sending support, never deleting any units, and constant flanking with map control. I did not give up, because I knew how to beat France. Hussars > Cuirassiers, when they have Ruyter support.

Ahh, how fun!


Let this be another thread for the histories! Let everyone share their warstories and great victories of Age of Empires here, and if possible, with screenshots!


regards,


murdilator

[Soccerman771]

when they have Ruyter support

here's the key to your victory.  Dutch will always (or should always) out-eco French because late-game spammed Ruyters beat spammed Cuirs and no French unit is greater than any Dutch unit otherwise.  That plus the added pop-space is OP.

[murdilator]

But good French players don't build more than 10-15 Cuirassiers, and this player was good, using Halberdiers, Skirmishers, Dragoons and Cuirassiers not to mention artillery. However, he didn't seem as keen on musketeers for some reason. I won because I balanced my military, though I often had a fourth to a third of it consisting of ruyters. I use more skirmishers and Hussars because they are better (indirectly) on vanilla, and France does not have an uber eco on vanilla either.

Vanilla is the only version where Dutch get +50% bank gathering from excessive taxation.

I agree with the pop space, but you must know how to use it. The noobs who play the Dutch really suck, but those people who can manipulate this make them the best easily in the game (but still they have problems fighting Britain and Germany head-up; Britain idk why, perhaps longbowds, and Germany because they have Dopples, something which counters Ruyters very hard).

I will say again that a balanced military beats ruyter spam which is used only on lategame supremacy or against civs with slow training or against the Sioux, who rely heavily on units that are easily countered by Ruyters. The same goes for Cuirassiers in this instance.