French Musket Rush (1.01 compatible!)

[I__CHAOS__I]

Hey Folks,

I've been having some fun with this little strat lately.
Looking fwd to the new patch 1.01, I think it's potential will only grow.

Musket Powah :twisted:

Target?

20 musketeers + 8 xbows or 3 hussars around 6'20" - 6'30" in enemy base, while maintaining a solid eco.

Age I
The usual, pick up crates, gather 800 food while exploring as much as possible. Find a good fwd location (hunt or gold mine) and explore the enemy base. Ship 3 cdb as first shipment.
Age up with the 400 wood politician when you have 14 cdb

Transition
Foward 2 cdb and try not to get spotted.
You will need to gather 200 wood by the time you age up, so I usually put 5 on wood. As soon as I have the 200 wood I change them to gold, except for 2, leave those on wood, they will help getting the wood for houses later on.
You need 4-5 on gold and the rest on hunt.
Queue already 2-3 cdb, so you won't forget it

Age II
This is where you need to pay attention and act fast.
Build rax 1 at the foward location
Use the wood choppers to pick up the 400 wood (because they should be close to your TC)
Ship 700 food
Build rax 2 at the foward location
Build 2 houses

Once your second rax is build, queue musks (from both raxes)
The food shipment should help you to get 2x 10 musks out - if not, practise harder.

You should have enough wood for another house, and a 3rd shipment should be ready soon.
I often go for 8 xbows, so that my early mass is bigger, but there are good alternatives:

- 4cdb: if you plan on harassing and building up more eco
- 3 hussars: if facing infantry (skirms, xbows...)
- 700 wood: grab a TP, build a market (+ upgrades) and get a stable up

some key cards:
age I: 3 cdb, eco theory
AgeII: 700 food/wood/gold, 4 cdb, 8 xbow, 3 hussars, wilderness warefare
Age III: tirailleurs, 1k wood, 8 skirms, 2 falc, 5 goons, royal mint, refridgeration
Age IV: both factories, thoroughbreds

The reason I leave Tirailleurs in the deck is because it can mislead you opponent (thinking you will xbow rush).

Don't forget to keep making cdb and you should be fine.
Overall, a very solid strat that is easy to perform.

Have fun with it!

[RascalJones]

what are "2 ***"?

[I__CHAOS__I]

f a l c s
still dunno why it's filtered

[rambo098]

This is my very basic french rush strat.

also (if the map is great plains) i use to take one villager during the transition to 2nd age to push my enemys 2nd and 3rd hunt away from his tc. And insted of 8xbows i send 3 hussars to keep his eco under preasure.

[Soccerman771]

[quote=""rambo098""]This is my very basic french rush strat.

also (if the map is great plains) i use to take one villager during the transition to 2nd age to push my enemys 2nd and 3rd hunt away from his tc. And insted of 8xbows i send 3 hussars to keep his eco under preasure.

[/quote]

I like the idea of pushing hunts away from the enemy tc. Also if your opponent is Japan, you could use the one villager to kill the hunts and eliminate bonuses from shrines, I've had good success against Japan doing this..

[kingchrisII]

thanks chaos!!!!
I watched ur rec vs caesar and was eager to get a B.O

[Roger_The_Rogue]

[quote=""Soccerman771""][quote=""rambo098""]This is my very basic french rush strat.

also (if the map is great plains) i use to take one villager during the transition to 2nd age to push my enemys 2nd and 3rd hunt away from his tc. And insted of 8xbows i send 3 hussars to keep his eco under preasure.

[/quote]

I like the idea of pushing hunts away from the enemy tc. Also if your opponent is Japan, you could use the one villager to kill the hunts and eliminate bonuses from shrines, I've had good success against Japan doing this..[/quote]

That is very evil. 8O Poor Japs.

[Sporting_Lisbon]

Against what civs would you use it?

[I__CHAOS__I]

since you have a decent force out early on, it can work against most civs

I would avoid aztec (age up faster + 19 maces) and dutch (skirms)
against some civs like otto, you can use it but build the raxes in base and when he rushes you, push him back really hard