N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

After a game tonight, I was reminded of my short lived twc experiences as a dutch player. Playing dutch, now more than ever, ensures difficult early game as ur opponent takes map control and may even go straight for the throat. One viable strategy which just might have some zing to it is to build your banks without worrying about getting silly skirmishers or what not out early, and making a saloon instead. no matter waht, you will always be able to make strong units as long as u have pop space, and for me, at that very low skill level, i found it to be very cost beneficial in my favor.

i imagine the strat involves cutting lots of wood seeing as you are planning on having your vills in ur tc neways, so you can build houses, banks of course, and maybe even towers if ur lucky. the tower card may be useful. but basically all u need to do is collect a total of 1850 food to age and get 3 banks and a wagon. also make a market, u could buy the food if needed to play cm, or even using the church card to get even more banks.

give it a try, might be fun

Not sure, but if they see it, is this vulnerable to spies? Seems like a good strat to throw in the mix. I sux at Dutch, always tempted to play them but it doesn't turn out well for me.

i dont think spies get a bonus vs outlaws

Thats a good strat I might have to try, I love playing my dutch, I normally manage to defend properly and get my 4 banks out, the only flaw I see is that outlaws take so long to produce!
Last time I checked, wasn't it 350 food for banks and 1200 to age, so 1200 + 1050 = 2250 food needed, and by the time you have enough food to age, you would have the gold anyway?

not talking about going to age 3

not sure about the spies, but by the time they react by making spies u should be able to mix in some skirms

production speed may be a problem

any solutions? i wonder if fencing school works.

fencing school works, but i doubt it's worth a shipment so early.

you might wanna check out the asian outlaws, they train (much) faster than their european counterparts.

Spies do get a bonus against outlaws, but I don't think they'd counter them that way. Going for outlaws can work, there are some asian version pistoleros that are said to be good

I looked it up, spies have:

MeleeHandAttack Damage: 5 (Hand), ROF: 1.5, Bonuses: Mercenary x 20.0, Hero x 40.0, NativeWarrior x 4.0

outlaws are not classified as mercs, natives or heroes.

Outlaws are mercs, I'm pretty sure of it :\ arent they?

^ I don't think so, but can someone test?

they don't have the merc-tag, so I see no reason why they should be affected

Ok, I thought they had

i think they are classified treasure guardian not sure...

I remember seeing some recs with Damnit using renegado mercs from a saloon. But he always built 5 hussars first, and sent 8 pikes just in case. I think I deleted the recs, but I bet you can still find them on Age Sanc.

As far as early Dutch, there are a few possibilities. If you don't expect to be attacked early, I have the so-called "lay back bank" strat where I basically get 4 banks up before building any military at all. Surprisingly, this can be done safely against a Japan shrine boom. Afterward, mass skrims, go to fort and have your way with your opponent.

In most cases, I build 5 hussars first to keep my enemy occupied. Consider using the food trickle instead of 3 vils in some situations; it can be real handy if your vils are garrisoned often. CM is also a must in a Dutch 1v1 deck. Basically, you need to survive until you have the 3rd bank or so. Once I do that, I commonly just hit cruise control, mass falcs, ruyters and roll.

I agree with Kaiser, except for the trickle card, that thing is so bad. And now that their eco got nerfed, 3 vills is a must.
Up until some level, dutch are good if you know how to get the banks up while staying alive with a minimum of units, but those who know how to presure or rush hard the dutch defense will have an easy time.