FLAMETHROWER BLITZKRIEG!!!
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:35 pm
Hi guys. I played a game with Lazy, Huggy, Holly and Ghosteh and a friend of the clan a couple days ago. This "friend of the clan" (I think his name was Pharaoh) used China, but not in the manner you might expect. Instead of just your usual Old Han business, he built a castle and spammed flamethrowers! It didn't work for him, but I immediately saw some great potential here.
There is nothing like having early infantry-killing siege... just ask any Otto player who can spam abus. Flamethrowers are a forgotten unit and they are quite deadly when massed. Plus, unlike abus, they can burn up barracks, stables and houses in short order. They do 1 area damage, 30 damage (base) to infantry, and they don't have a reload animation--they just keep on pouring on the heat (literally). They have 65% ranged resistance and 210 BASE HP (more than a falc). Plus you can upgrade their HP and damage by 20% in colonial. Later on they have disciplined, honored and exalted upgrades, too. Their main weakness--like all artillery--is against cavalry. But that's where your teammate comes in!
I have started doing some tests to manufacture flamethrowers quickly. It is a tough venture to get them out by the 6:00 mark, but it can be done. The problem is that they put a big strain on the early Chinese econ (they cost 170 wood/170 coin each). Thankfully, spamming flamethrowers only involves coin and wood, so you only need to keep a few vils on food to assure a constant vil production. The rest can go on wood and coin. I've found 700/600 wood shipments, plus a 700 coin shipment, help get the job done. Ideally, you'll want about 8-9 vils on coin and 12-13 on wood for a constant spam. Also, market upgrades for coin and wood are helpful. As far as the consulate goes, I would say go British for more HP (flamethrowers already have lots of HP, so this is a good one), plus you can always call in some redcoats for anti-cav. When I age, I always use the Summer Palace and use the food for 4 vils. I set the Wonder to produce a Ming Army, since I want nothing but anticav to protect my flamethrowers.
I will keep tweaking this build order. In our coming clan games, I will try to test it out under actual game conditions. Let me just say this: Once you have 5 or 6 flamethrowers belching fire, infantry and FBs just go up in smoke! As long as they are covered from cav (cough, sepoys would be nice!) they could burn through the opposition!
There is nothing like having early infantry-killing siege... just ask any Otto player who can spam abus. Flamethrowers are a forgotten unit and they are quite deadly when massed. Plus, unlike abus, they can burn up barracks, stables and houses in short order. They do 1 area damage, 30 damage (base) to infantry, and they don't have a reload animation--they just keep on pouring on the heat (literally). They have 65% ranged resistance and 210 BASE HP (more than a falc). Plus you can upgrade their HP and damage by 20% in colonial. Later on they have disciplined, honored and exalted upgrades, too. Their main weakness--like all artillery--is against cavalry. But that's where your teammate comes in!
I have started doing some tests to manufacture flamethrowers quickly. It is a tough venture to get them out by the 6:00 mark, but it can be done. The problem is that they put a big strain on the early Chinese econ (they cost 170 wood/170 coin each). Thankfully, spamming flamethrowers only involves coin and wood, so you only need to keep a few vils on food to assure a constant vil production. The rest can go on wood and coin. I've found 700/600 wood shipments, plus a 700 coin shipment, help get the job done. Ideally, you'll want about 8-9 vils on coin and 12-13 on wood for a constant spam. Also, market upgrades for coin and wood are helpful. As far as the consulate goes, I would say go British for more HP (flamethrowers already have lots of HP, so this is a good one), plus you can always call in some redcoats for anti-cav. When I age, I always use the Summer Palace and use the food for 4 vils. I set the Wonder to produce a Ming Army, since I want nothing but anticav to protect my flamethrowers.
I will keep tweaking this build order. In our coming clan games, I will try to test it out under actual game conditions. Let me just say this: Once you have 5 or 6 flamethrowers belching fire, infantry and FBs just go up in smoke! As long as they are covered from cav (cough, sepoys would be nice!) they could burn through the opposition!