ports

[kingchrisII]

well the other day i played severe beating and his ports FI, and decided to try and do an FI myself....this is my BO so far...

age 1
all on food as usual
dont send a card
age up with 500f
age with 14 vills

transition
leave all vills on food, except put 2 on coin

age 2
you should have 2 shipments send 700 + 600coin
leave all vills on food and make some vills
set the 2 coin vills + one more to gather any res that you receive
age up with fast age

transition
most on food some on coin

age 3
send 1000food
and gather away until you got enough to age again
age with 1000coin

transition
if u get another shipment you can either save for a factory/2heavy cannons or send some troops depending on situation

age 4
make a stable spam goons
send 2 factories and get Heavy cannons



what do you think??
whats the best way to FI as ports??
help needed!

[severebeating]

[quote=""kingchrisII""]
age 4
make a stable spam goons
send 2 factories and get Heavy cannons[/quote]

There is no question, if you accomplish this, you have a high probability of winning. It is a big if however. The problem with Ports is surviving until that point. You have to be able to survive attacks.

I play Economic Theory as my first card to support the boom. However, I play 2 other AgeI cards as play progresses, Colonial Militia & Improved Buildings, to manage the survival process. This is an absolute turtle strategy.

You might consider the Politican that generates 6 Cassadores (vs Fast age) depending on your opponents civ. & strategy. i.e. Ottos???

These are just my thoughts & would also be interested in input from others.
I am also interested in Market upgrades. I never have heard a consistent approach from a player as to when, or even if these should be utilized. I have a recording by Nav playing Japs where he hits all 4 upgrades while aging to Colonial. Others have told me that they don't normally bother. Comments???

[36drew]

This strat will work well at lower levels. A higher level player will do a FI with some sort of harass -- hussar, muskets, or possibly x-bows. Or the may play CM and possibly a fort to turtle.

I like the strat quite a bit, but here is one suggestion. Age up to indy with the gold politician and research mercantilism -- you'll have constant indy shipments for a little while and can heavy cannon spam while making units from a rax or stables. Ports age iv shipments are quite good.

[severebeating]

BTW, I played Craz3n with this strategy last night against his Dutch & got owned. I don't believe it will work against Dutch. (Not to take anything away from Craz as he had already owned me a couple of times playing against his Sioux with other civs) The early banks are just to much of an economic contributor to overcome. He produced 5 Falcs in Fortress & it was gg.

[36drew]

^There was mention of creating a 2 culverin card for ports to boost them. It would be intersting to see how that card could have affected that scenario.

[kingchrisII]

drew..i said to age up with the 1000 coin hehe, mercantilism, thats an idea, because i find myself in indy a little short of shipments, and can take a while for 2 factories to be up an running


and yeah severe, i was thinkinh of your idea with the economic theory, but i feel i need the other coin shipment so i can age fast and make more vills

and i will have to practice it, so that i can then bring in not a straight FI, but the harrasing with hussar i think..thanks drew

[NEO_CrAz3n]

[quote=""36drew""]^There was mention of creating a 2 culverin card for ports to boost them. It would be intersting to see how that card could have affected that scenario.[/quote]

I've been saying something similar to that forever. I played Port a lot in AOE3. I think a civ with no Falcs should have the best Culvs in the game. Either increase range, HP or attack. I think I mentioned it when responding to MNBob's "Identify The Crappy Cards".

[kingchrisII]

yeah i dont mind having no falcs tho
organs do a good job, when up against infantry, but rubbish hp, and attack on biuldings

yeah better culvs would be a good idea
but personally i think that the ports are a fun civ to play, and i odn tmind them being up!!
have they ever had a period of being op????

[ZoRPrimE]

I think I recall a period where cassadore's were considered OP. But I only played Ports as my very first civ and wasn't even online gaming with anyone other than my co-workers at that point. I do remember chat and hubub about it though. I'm sure some other Vanilla veteran will remember!

[NEO_CrAz3n]

[quote=""ZoRPrimE""]I think I recall a period where cassadore's were considered OP. But I only played Ports as my very first civ and wasn't even online gaming with anyone other than my co-workers at that point. I do remember chat and hubub about it though. I'm sure some other Vanilla veteran will remember![/quote]

They're a solid unit vs HI but I don't remember them ever being OP. I could be wrong but I don't remember that.

I may try them again occasionally for fun. MNBob or Cyc would know if Cass were OP. I kinda doubt it.

[kingchrisII]

drew/harley wud know too lol

[Cyclohexane]

I believe it was 1.7 and it was a combination of things that made Ports competitive but can’t remember what they were (think is was Dragoons).

As far as the strategy goes, it will never work in a 1v1 unless it is a treaty game. I just cannot see myself not rushing or at least raiding. Once I figured out what you were doing, I would send everything I had to cripple you. Colonial Militia and Improved buildings only lasts for awhile, then you better have some counters.

Ports have an all counter army and naturally defensive civ. That is what makes them hard to play. If you scout, play defensive, and build the right units, you can be successful as Ports. They have many advantages but their biggest disadvantage is their selection of shipments (probably have the most useless unique shipments compared to any other civ). They really do not have anything special until Age 4, then they get super Dragoons.

I played Ports for a brief period of time and was fairly successful in 1v1 by sending 300 wood as first shipment and building a trading post. Aging up with 500 food, setting up TC's defensively and herding early, sending 700 gold in Colonial and jumping to Age 3 as soon as it was safe with 6 cassadores while saving up for Marmalukes, Ronin, or Mercantilism depending on needs. Play Colonial Militia only when it’s needed and keep all your villagers alive (great coat helps a lot here).

Once you are established in Age 3, the game is yours. You'll have 1 to 2 TPs, a nice defended town and ready to expand.

Scouting is so important for the Ports in order to make the correct counter. Their counter units are amazing at what they counter, but not against much else. Don't forget that spyglass!

[ZoRPrimE]

Don't they get multiple explorers too? I forget how, I'd be curiuous if anyone put that to good advantage in a game.

[lordandcount]

I can remember a few things that made them stronger, TC were stronger so easier to reach fortress, I believe the mercenairy cards were a bit stronger so more advantage of the 5 mam and 5 ronin cards and the age up time has been nerved. There was also some things done to their units but can't remember what it was.

[Navarone_Guy]

I actually make very good use of the 2 explorer card in age 4. If you keep em alive, you can crackshot 3 units every minute or so. Very micro-intensive, but killing 3 cuirs/mamelukes/elephants per minute is HUGE.