N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

I'm sure most of you have heard that Samwise12 has recently taken over the top spot in the AOE3 ladders. He is a great player. Let's examine what makes him great: FRENCH SEMI-FF!

After watching Samwise's recs I have concluded that the the 5-8-hussar French semi-FF--particularly with trade posts--is simply OP. It's hard to raid the French with RI since the coureurs have so much RR, and if you try to press their base, the 5-8 hussars appear in your rear and kill your econ. I have written about the power of hussars before. With good micro and in several control groups, they can outfight and outmaneuver anything on the field early game--320 HP is just a ton at that stage. Samwise takes full advantage of that. I have seen many games in which his raiders all get down to about 5 HP, yet they keep on doing damage, hiding, reappearing, doing more damage, etc.

Then he goes fort on you. For the record, skirms, dragoons and the 2 falc shipment--plus cuirs and left over hussars--are just an insane combo. You can't touch it. Especially if you're British and you can't age quickly to fortress to keep up. If you have pikes or muskets, the skirms (and even the dragoons) get them. If you try to charge the skirms with cav, the dragoons murder them. Then once the anticav goes down, in come the cuirs and hussars... massacre. On top of that, you have 2 falcs shooting at you. If things get quiet for a while, the French put up 3 TCs and boom you to death.

What a formidable way to play. How does anyone deal with this? With micro, I can't think of any real way to stop skirm/dragoon/cuir + 2 falcs. Maybe the 1.1a Dutch stand a decent chance, but it takes godly micro, and in most cases, you can't put any early pressure on the French with the Dutch.

What about HI rushes? At the higher levels, no one dares to do them. But what about among mortals under PR 36? I used to do well with muskets against the French, but that was before xbows got boosted in 1.1 and 1.1a. Now I think I would be doomed if I tried it.

What does everyone else think about the French these days? Are you surprised that the No. 1 player uses them?

The French semi-FF is either the best or 2nd best strategy in the game right now. The Dutch semi-ff (or its variations) are pretty much the only thing that can compete with it. Brits have a chance with dual rax pikes and early pressure if you can contain the player enough, but not many civs have too great a chance.

The simple fact is that in too many cases against a French semi-FF you are fighting age 3 units with age 2 units. This just doesn't work. It never has and it never will (baring huge mass differences). It's not only the quality of units that makes the difference, but the availibility of units that makes the difference. Aging up for veteran hussars isn't necessarily that great -- but aging up for ranged cav and 20 range LI is.

You are pretty much bang-on in your description of how French games shake out. Raid with multiple cav groups, use CDB's to fend off the rush, and go age iii for shipments that now arrive 5% faster. To those of you who don't think thats huge, that means your first shipment is 6 seconds sooner, second 18 seconds sooner, third 24 seconds, fourth 30 seconds... etc. And when you hit age iii this adds up 6 + 12 + 18 + 24 + 30 = 1 minute and 30 seconds... that means he is that much ahead of you on shipments already. That basically means an extra 2 falc, 3 curr, 5 goon, or 8 skirm. That is HUGE. And the bonus keeps on gaining on itself too -- like a parabola approaching infinity (or like a perpetual motion machine going faster and faster).

And then of course you are right about HI. France OWNS it. Skirms, goons, falcs, and even villagers?

It's kind of a weird scenario since all of this is really very micro heavy, but it rewards the micro very well... possibly too well. And my God are you ever right that things get scary when things go quiet... 3 Tc's... heavy breating... solitary confinement... GG no RE.

The longer things go the harder it gets. Take that 5% shipment speed back and things are livable again.

Time for a prayer...

In the name of the hussar, the curr, and the skirmisher...
Our CDB's who art in heaven, hallowed be thy range resistance...
Forgive us this day, our daily market ups...
And lead us not into two falcs... and deliver us from currs....
Amen.

French are damn good on FP 1.1. I think a strong Pike/Xbow rush can beat that semi-FF tho. Get the houses down. If the french player does a semi-FF he won't have to much spare wood. And i don't know if it's lame. Samwise is just a damn good player. I watched a game where he played India and he has just a great timing and micro. If Nature Phoenix would stick to Ports and beat everyone, would it be lame? On FP French are doing pretty well. They got indirect boosts from other Civ nerfs.

ROFL Drew at the French prayer!

@ Huggy: I don't know if it's lame, either. I just see a lot of top 1v1 players doing French and Dutch hussar semi-FFs these days.

Drew, you had me standing up and saluting and putting my hand on my chest singing something inspirational at different points during that. I wanna go play the French now - how come it never works out for me that way? And in un-related news, what's this "micro" thing you keep mentioning?

hehe very nice writeup kaiser and drew! i agree with everything you guys say
french are definitly effing strong in 1v1 on FP1.1a, as you and drew already pointed out beatuifully.

@kaiser: your description about the matchup against brits is 100% true, the 5(+) huss semi-ff is kinda predestined to finish off the mighty brits(practically anything else also).
you get 3 auto-veteran units as french (skirms, goons, cuirs) whereas the british player only gets his goons.
his lbs, musks, huss, pikes are all still colonial units, okay the french muskets, pikes and hussars too, but who cares if you can have skirms goons and cuirs?
with no exiled prince, the british cannot get to fortress in an emergency situation... gg no re :-P
the thing is units, which are not available in age2 but become available in age3 are automatically upgraded to veteran. (figures)

@your mentioning about the top using it, well even though the top right now is nothing compared to the old top and its more active members, i think things wouldn't look too different from as they are now.
what keeps me away from using it in 1v1s is the rather high skill one needs to pull this off, but if you succeed, the results are rewarding

[quote=""36drew""]
[...]and go age iii for shipments that now arrive 5% faster. To those of you who don't think thats huge, that means your first shipment is 6 seconds sooner, second 18 seconds sooner, third 24 seconds, fourth 30 seconds... etc. And when you hit age iii this adds up 6 + 12 + 18 + 24 + 30 = 1 minute and 30 seconds... that means he is that much ahead of you on shipments already. That basically means an extra 2 falc, 3 curr, 5 goon, or 8 skirm. That is HUGE. And the bonus keeps on gaining on itself too -- like a parabola approaching infinity (or like a perpetual motion machine going faster and faster).[/quote]

so true, when i first saw the 5% faster shipment arrivement i thought "little boost" but in a semi-ff where, at the point when you reach fortress and a few mins later onwards, the gain is actually huge, especially if the armies are small (that's where the age 3 military shipments work like a charm and would be usually wastes later on). also amen to your prayer :-P