[quote=""Sporting_Lisbon""]
Against non-rushing civs I usually play eco-theory as first card. Is it better to save it and play 2 colonial shipments like 700 gold then choose one of the following 8-xbow or 6 musks or 2-towers back to back?
No way. For eco theory to be worth it you cannot have your vills garrisoned. But if you're being rushed, that's not possible. Trust me, one-shot kills are very very important when dealing with rushes. And the 400f 400c mm army is awesome when you have to kill all the pikes sieging you.
I am still working on how to hit the water best. Currently I send schooners in age 1, age up with 400 wood poli and then send 700 wood. Crucially this allows for you to build a house, barracks, first 2 fishing boats and queue up some xbows in addition to building the dock. Then send 8 xbow as next shipment. At this point I struggle with a mass 2 dock/2 tc boom or trying to hit fortress asap as it all gets a bit busy for me. I think this is a lack of skill rather than a bad BO!
I disagree. 400w + 700w is 1100w. That's too much wood for you to spend on fishing boats unless you make some crazy 4 dock boom while having your tcs razed. Age with 500f and ship 700w. That will give you food for vills and it helps you aging up. If you go with 400w+700w you'll have a lot of wood waiting to be used, that's not good against rushes imo.
On imperial I use the 4 settlers + 3 goons politician, but agree that there is plenty of choice here.
Heh I thought it would be easy to pick

1000 coin of course! You gather 1000w and you upgrade your musks into guerreiros. With gunpowder combat card these beasts have 40 attack with a strong eco to back them up.[/quote]
I like to use the 1000 coin towards mercantilism. If you can make it to indy using only CM, 700 gold, and 1000 gold, when you play mercantilism you can shipment spam for 5-6 shipments with no down time in between.