XBow-Pike army
French
With DE introducing the new papal guard politician, some high profile players like Garja on ESOC made build centered around archaic armies synergizing with this politician, leading to fast industrial with bow-pike. On the other hand, the crossbow rush is as old as the vanilla game. How about we combine the two build since they use the same units ?
Game plan :
The build supports two variants with the same opener :
- A crossbow rush into a long age 2 or a transition to skirm-halb composition in age 3
- A fast industrial into papal guard to leverage the high value shipments of crossbows and pikemen
Age I :
For both variants, perform a house+market start. Coin treasure is critical to achieve good age up times. Wood treasures can help to an extent but are not mandatory. Food treasures are always helpful.
Your first shipment is 3 cdb. You aim to age up at 3min with 14 cdb. From this point the builds diverge.
Variant 1 : Crossbow rush
Shipment order : 1=>2=>3=>4
Age up with the quartermaster. In transition, keep cdb on food to research gangsaw and queue one cdb at the town centre. Then, move half your cdbs to coin and the other half to wood. You may want to keep herding with one cdb. Keep gathering coin until you have 125 in the bank. Then, take two fo the coin cdb and send them forward, while the others are put on wood. Keep gathering wood until you have 325 in the bank. Once you have the proper amount of wood collected, put all your cdb back to food with the exception of the two forward ones who will keep gathering wood. Use the native scout to check what military building your opponent is starting.
Your explorer should focus on XP treasure in transition to make shipment arrive faster, which will simplify your macro.
When you reach age 2, ship 700w immediately. Then, collect the crates with 2 food cdb. Rally the TC to wood. Build a barrack with the two forward cdb and start training either crossbows (if you see a rax) or pikemen (if you see a stable).
Once the 700w crates arrive, collect them with 3 cdb, build a 2nd barrack forward then a house. It is time to pump crossbows and ship 600w. Whenever you start two batches of unit, build a house. You can start poking with your units, but you can wait until your 4th shipment to push. Wait for an opening. Speaking of 4th shipment, you have choice here : 8 crossbows or 3 huss or the explorer upgrade.
Notes :
Use the 700c to go to age 3 (re macro away from wood). In age 3, you can convert your mass of crossbows into veteran skirmishers with the card tirailleurs. Replace your pikemen with halberdiers as their die. Remacro to gather coin instead of wood. If you find yourself doing this a lot, replace some age 4 cards with some age 3 (e.g 3 cuirassiers).
Variant 2 : Fast industrial into archaic units
Shipment order : A=>B=>C=>D=>E=>F
Age up with the governor. In transition, chop for a TP or a church and herd agressively. You want 3 herds in base to be safe. Gather 100c in transition then put all the cdb on food. In age 2, send 700c gather the coin, build the tower and a church in base then macro for age 3. Age up with the exiled prince.
In transition, gather for a house and start macroing for age 4. In age 3 ship the fort, followed by 1000c. Age up with the papal guard.
In transition ship 1000w and build a barrack, houses, and research steel traps, veteran pikeman, and veteran crossbow. Start training archaic units at the fort to accelerate your next shipment.
In age 4, research guard pikeman and guard crossbow at the barrack (the upgrades are now free) and either ship a massive contingent of archaic units or some artillery support.
Note :
You can replace the cards marked with "W" with the 2 caravels and one frigate for maps with water.