The Mahout-Gurkha Crunch
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:59 am
Sounds like some kind of dance or some sort of cereal...
Anyway, here's my guide for my Indian 50% turtle, 50% FF, but 100% funky Indian strategy!
Sorry, that intro was... bad. Anyway, here goes.
General strategy: To make one layer of walls and use gurkhas to pick off guys who are trying to attack you, to semi-FF and spam mahouts, using gurkhas to take care of heavy inf/ranged cavalry.
Crucial cards:
Age 1:
Distributivism + 1 villager
Explorer combat + 1 villager (for very treasure-heavy maps)
Age 2:
700 food + 1 villager
600 gold + 1 villager
5 sepoys + 1 villager
+15% melee attack + 1 villager
Age 3:
350 food for 2 mahouts + 1 villager
1000 food for 3 mahouts + 1 villager
500 food for 7 urumi swordmen + 1 villager
1000 wood + 1 villager
1000 gold + 1 villager
British East India Company + 1 villager
Elephant combat + 1 villager
-10% elephant cost + 1 villager
Age 4:
Team shijavi's tactics
Elephant pop-cost reduction
Other than that, nothing too important, just whatever you have left over.
Age-by-age thingy:
Age 1:
Gather crates, put first 5 vils on wood, put 2 more on wood for a total of 7. Don't make a house yet! Wait till you're at 10 pop and then make a house, but try not to have any idle TC time. It's tricky, but it's possible to pay for all that with 7 vils on wood. Anyway, once you send distributivism, take 2 vils off of wood and put them on food to boost your age time. As soon as you have about 750 food, take 4 vils and send them a little bit forward and start building the agra fort. While you age up, send another vil to make a single wall that mostly encloses your area. You may want to fully enclose it later as you accumulate wood. While aging up, put some vils on gold depending on how many gold treasures you got. Managing your eco is very tricky, but it's not that hard once you get some practice.
Age 2:
Send 700 food and then 600 gold once you get your 3rd shipment, que up 5 gurkhas, and use them and your 2 sepoys from aging up to defend your base. If he attacks more than a little bit, make more gurkhas and delay your fortress a bit more. Keep making vils/houses/blah blah, age up with, I'd recommend the gathering rate + resources wonder. Karni Mata, is it? While aging, put most vils on food, but keep enough on wood to keep making vils and houses and enough on gold to keep making gurkhas.
Age 3:
Now you get rolling. At this point, if you have nearly 1000 food, send 3 mahouts. If you don't, send 2. Use the resources you got from aging up to make houses/a stable/barracks/consulate/gurkhas. Not all of this has to come as once, and I'd recommend getting a consulate first for the British 10% hp bonus. That helps mahouts survive to be healed by your monks. Anyway, with your shipped mahouts and existing infantry, you will want to go on the offensive. Build up a barracks to make your gurkhas elite,, or make a market and some houses, or possibly a stable for more mahouts. (The five from shipments should last quite a while if you pull them back and heal them well.) Your choice. Anyway, Ship 2/3 mahouts again, whichever you haven't sent so far, and attack with your mahouts/gurkhas. Use mahouts to tank, gurkhas to snipe heavy infantry, and pull your mahouts away to be healed when they're below half health or so. Remember, they take damage while escaping too, so don't wait too long. Anyway, if this initial assault of 5 mahouts and a bunch of gurkhas/consulate muskets doesn't work, start booming, setting up a stable/barracks, and start really cranking out mahouts and gurkhas. Maybe send British East India Company to boost your gurkhas/sepoys or elephant combat/cost reduction. It's all you from there.
Age 4:
Completely up to you. Maybe shijavi's tactics to boost your guys some more or the elephant pop-cost reduction card.
I don't have any recs so far, but I've tried this strategy in 1v1 with great success. I've beaten an almost colonel Japanese player and a Dutch major with this, both without much resistance. It seems to be very effective so far.
Tips:
Use your gurkhas to take a few shots at the enemy and draw them to you. If he's not looking, your mahouts can smash him and take out a few guys before he realizes. Just heal your mahouts and you haven't lost anything from that skirmish.
NEVER LEAVE YOUR GURKHAS ALONE! I've had them completely mauled on several occasions cause I sent them out to pick off vils without mahout protection. Without gurkhas, his heavy inf/light cav are free to completely slaughter your mahouts, and gurkhas are far too expensive to replace with the pitiful Indian economy.
Try to place your agra fort near hunts or something up front. Remember, vils can hop into the fort at any time, so it gives you free map control over a potential hunting area. When you're turtling till age 3, this is HUGE.
NEVER DO THIS IN TEAM GAMES! I learned this the hard way. If you turtle and rely on defending yourself to survive, your buddy WILL get killed cause you're too busy protecting yourself.
Hope this guide helped, and enjoy!
Anyway, here's my guide for my Indian 50% turtle, 50% FF, but 100% funky Indian strategy!
Sorry, that intro was... bad. Anyway, here goes.
General strategy: To make one layer of walls and use gurkhas to pick off guys who are trying to attack you, to semi-FF and spam mahouts, using gurkhas to take care of heavy inf/ranged cavalry.
Crucial cards:
Age 1:
Distributivism + 1 villager
Explorer combat + 1 villager (for very treasure-heavy maps)
Age 2:
700 food + 1 villager
600 gold + 1 villager
5 sepoys + 1 villager
+15% melee attack + 1 villager
Age 3:
350 food for 2 mahouts + 1 villager
1000 food for 3 mahouts + 1 villager
500 food for 7 urumi swordmen + 1 villager
1000 wood + 1 villager
1000 gold + 1 villager
British East India Company + 1 villager
Elephant combat + 1 villager
-10% elephant cost + 1 villager
Age 4:
Team shijavi's tactics
Elephant pop-cost reduction
Other than that, nothing too important, just whatever you have left over.
Age-by-age thingy:
Age 1:
Gather crates, put first 5 vils on wood, put 2 more on wood for a total of 7. Don't make a house yet! Wait till you're at 10 pop and then make a house, but try not to have any idle TC time. It's tricky, but it's possible to pay for all that with 7 vils on wood. Anyway, once you send distributivism, take 2 vils off of wood and put them on food to boost your age time. As soon as you have about 750 food, take 4 vils and send them a little bit forward and start building the agra fort. While you age up, send another vil to make a single wall that mostly encloses your area. You may want to fully enclose it later as you accumulate wood. While aging up, put some vils on gold depending on how many gold treasures you got. Managing your eco is very tricky, but it's not that hard once you get some practice.
Age 2:
Send 700 food and then 600 gold once you get your 3rd shipment, que up 5 gurkhas, and use them and your 2 sepoys from aging up to defend your base. If he attacks more than a little bit, make more gurkhas and delay your fortress a bit more. Keep making vils/houses/blah blah, age up with, I'd recommend the gathering rate + resources wonder. Karni Mata, is it? While aging, put most vils on food, but keep enough on wood to keep making vils and houses and enough on gold to keep making gurkhas.
Age 3:
Now you get rolling. At this point, if you have nearly 1000 food, send 3 mahouts. If you don't, send 2. Use the resources you got from aging up to make houses/a stable/barracks/consulate/gurkhas. Not all of this has to come as once, and I'd recommend getting a consulate first for the British 10% hp bonus. That helps mahouts survive to be healed by your monks. Anyway, with your shipped mahouts and existing infantry, you will want to go on the offensive. Build up a barracks to make your gurkhas elite,, or make a market and some houses, or possibly a stable for more mahouts. (The five from shipments should last quite a while if you pull them back and heal them well.) Your choice. Anyway, Ship 2/3 mahouts again, whichever you haven't sent so far, and attack with your mahouts/gurkhas. Use mahouts to tank, gurkhas to snipe heavy infantry, and pull your mahouts away to be healed when they're below half health or so. Remember, they take damage while escaping too, so don't wait too long. Anyway, if this initial assault of 5 mahouts and a bunch of gurkhas/consulate muskets doesn't work, start booming, setting up a stable/barracks, and start really cranking out mahouts and gurkhas. Maybe send British East India Company to boost your gurkhas/sepoys or elephant combat/cost reduction. It's all you from there.
Age 4:
Completely up to you. Maybe shijavi's tactics to boost your guys some more or the elephant pop-cost reduction card.
I don't have any recs so far, but I've tried this strategy in 1v1 with great success. I've beaten an almost colonel Japanese player and a Dutch major with this, both without much resistance. It seems to be very effective so far.
Tips:
Use your gurkhas to take a few shots at the enemy and draw them to you. If he's not looking, your mahouts can smash him and take out a few guys before he realizes. Just heal your mahouts and you haven't lost anything from that skirmish.
NEVER LEAVE YOUR GURKHAS ALONE! I've had them completely mauled on several occasions cause I sent them out to pick off vils without mahout protection. Without gurkhas, his heavy inf/light cav are free to completely slaughter your mahouts, and gurkhas are far too expensive to replace with the pitiful Indian economy.
Try to place your agra fort near hunts or something up front. Remember, vils can hop into the fort at any time, so it gives you free map control over a potential hunting area. When you're turtling till age 3, this is HUGE.
NEVER DO THIS IN TEAM GAMES! I learned this the hard way. If you turtle and rely on defending yourself to survive, your buddy WILL get killed cause you're too busy protecting yourself.
Hope this guide helped, and enjoy!