Good German Strat?

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dragonshinobi_old
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Good German Strat?

Post by dragonshinobi_old »

anyone have a good basic german strat. i kinda just try to raid and FF but is there something better than that?
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I__CHAOS__I
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by I__CHAOS__I »

xbow/pike/uhlans is prob the most common strat used

full uhlans vs russia
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by Kaiser_von_Nuben »

Hmmm, where do I start? I think the Germans are fantastically versatile and can fight great in colonial or fortress. I learned them in the dark days of the War Chiefs, so I have a natural preference for fortress-oriented strats (I have lots of em... one of these days I will do a guide). After 1.1 TAD, though, German colonial became a lot more viable with the durable--and free!--uhlans, as well as xbows that do 20 damage to muskets instead of 18.

For a basic colonial strat I would say age up with 17 vils and Q-master. Put 3 SWs and 3 vils on wood, rest on food for transition to Age II (unless you have 0 coin, in which case you need 50 coin for hunting dogs, then put the vil(s) immediately back on wood). Build a house and a market before you age and get hunting dogs and gang saw immediately. I would also get Great Coat just in case... it's only 75 food and boosts SWs to 405 HP... a small price for saving your vils from axe riders :-P New vils should go onto wood to support xbow production. Once you hit colonial, immediately build a barracks and send 9 xbows. It's up to you whether to build the rax forward or at your base; your scouting will tell you what's smartest. Put up 2 or 3 more houses and immediately start training xbows. When your 9 xbows arrive, you will have 14 xbows and 2 uhlans: a nice starting force. You can bother your enemy with them or defend. Next I would build 5 pikes to balance your army and get going. See what kind of resistance you encounter. Keep building xbows and harass like hell with your FREE uhlans! Send 3 SWs to massively boost your early colonial econ. At that point, you should know what your enemy is building. If he goes cav, build more pikes. If he goes LB or lite inf, switch your econ to more gold gathering, build a stable and start cranking out uhlans. That's when it really gets fun. Normally I start the switch-over at around 8-8:30. At this stage, you can either win in colonial or decide if you need to go to fortress. If you opt for fortress, send 700 coin. If you want to beat him now, send your cav upgrade cards and mass tons of uhlans and xbows.

True to CHAOS' comment about Russia. You need uhlans right away. Send 9 xbows to deal with muskets, if he makes em :D I will go into the build order for that later. :)

An afterthought: If you're dealing with a musket spammer (especially Japanese, Indian or Ottoman), I would suggest a TP FF supported by xbows. Nothing is sweeter than dumping 13 Jaegers on 20 ashis!!! :evil:
Last edited by Kaiser_von_Nuben on Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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deaconferal
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by deaconferal »

The only real named strat I know of is Parfaits "Crossbow Contain". The VOD is on rtsprofessional.com. Other than that its basicly as CHAOS put it, xbow and pikes with free uhlans.

Against russia keep in mind that your second card should still probably be 9 xbow + 2 uhlan as opposed to 5 uhlan. 9 xbow > 3 uhlans, thats just fact. And having a few crossbows to deal with a batch or two of musks is a good thing.
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petevas
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by petevas »

Nice tips Kaiser! I really want to play some games with the Germans they look pretty good, looking forward to reading those strats ;)
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by Navarone_Guy »

Here's a link to my guide for the German xbow/uhlan spam. :)

http://www.aoe3clan.com/index.php?name= ... opic&t=115
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by Kaiser_von_Nuben »

Nice guide, Nav. I think early pikes are a little more important than pure xbow spam in the first key minute with your barracks now that xbows don't do the same damage to cav as they used to. But back pre-1.1, I almost never built early pikes and just did xbow semi-FF.

I think it's interesting that Nav continues to use xbows in Fortress. I have seen some German players do this; personally I switch over completely to skirms and don't even bother upgrading my xbows. If I have a lot of them left over from colonial, I just mix them in with the skirms.

Landsknechts do kick butt. I had a nice unrated game against an Aztec Major recently and beat him with the alternation between skirm (to kill pumas) and landsknecht (which pwn coyotes in short order). When the pumas were down, in came the uhlans and massacred the maces. You are absolutely right that Germany requires more micro than most other civs. Their troops are small in number, but high in quality, so it's important to manage them carefully. That was the last piece in the puzzle for me. It really takes a long time (I mean, months or years) to get good at micro. But it pays serious dividends with the Germans! 8)

One last point: Do you still think the Germans are the most "terrible civ in the game?" They certainly were in November 2007. I am glad I learned to play them when they were weak. In fact, I still do lots of practice games with them on TWC, just to keep myself sharp. Try some German v. Dutch in TWC for a challenging match.
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ruminator
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by ruminator »

Germans are one of the strongest civs in TAD. With boost to uhlans the xbow/uhlan mix is almost unbeatable in colonial if you have decent micro.

Try dropping a stable and just spamming uhlans vs a Russian player with a 9 xbow shipment. There is almost nothing they can do about it!
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by Navarone_Guy »

Well, a good ole ashi/sepoy/musket spam will stop uhlan/xbow in its tracks. Other than that, it's near unbeatable, cause uhlans have such high attack for their cost that they are easily capable of mauling other cavalry.
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Re: Good German Strat?

Post by dragonshinobi_old »

lol this is funny, i used to be terrible at russians and my friend teased me for it. (hes not in this clan) now i find them really easy....weird
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