Age1, what do I do? Online tip No.2

Tip No.2

It may seem basic but starting off in the discovery age you normally only want to be gathering food (there are a few exceptions) with the aim of training a certain number of villagers before advancing to the colonial age. Obviously certain civilizations: France, Britain, Germany Russia etc start with random crates either and therefore your age 1 play will vary each game. The rest of the civilizations have the same crate spawn each time or the crate spawn will not affect your age 1 play. Below I have posted a list of the general number of villagers you want to train age 1, the buildings you need to build and the 1st card you should send in general for each civilization:

British: 200 wood 100 coin start: 17 villagers, build 2 manors, send 3 villagers - put 3 villagers onto wood from the start to gather enough for the 2nd manor 

300 wood start: 17 villagers, build 2 manors, send 3 villagers

French: 200 wood 100 coin start: 14 villagers, build 1 house and market (gather 50 coin for hunting dogs), send 3 villagers - build tradepost and chop 100 wood for a house if you want to do an ff or semi ff 

100 wood 200 coin start: 14 villagers, build 1 house, send 3 villagers - build tradepost whilst aging if you want to do an ff or semi ff


Germany: 200 wood 100 coin start: 17 villager population (5 settler wagons) send 2 settler wagons, build trade post and chop for house or vice-versa


200 coin 100 wood start: 17 villager population (5 settler wagons) send 2 settler wagons - build trade post whilst aging

Russia: 500 food 100 wood start: 14 villagers, send distributivism (wood trickle) build a house - chop 250 wood and build blockhouse whilst aging

400 food 100 wood and 100 coin start: 14 villagers, send distributivism (wood trickle) build a house - chop 250 wood for blockhouse whilst aging and possibly market + hunting dogs

400 food 200 wood start: 14 villagers, send distributivism (wood trickle) build a house - Possibly chop 100 extra wood for a trading post or save the 100 and chop 150 for a blockhouse whilst aging

Portuguese: coming soon

Ottoman: 400 wood start: 14/15 villagers depending on tc and treasurers. Send 3 villagers, build tradepost and house + market and hunting dogs whilst aging (again this depends on treasures too) 

300 wood 100 coin start: 14/15 villagers depending on tc and treasurers. Send 3 villagers build tp and a house - possibly build market whilst aging  

Dutch: coming soon

Spain: coming soon

Iroquois: coming soon

Sioux: coming soon

Aztecs: coming soon

China: coming soon

Japan: coming soon

India: coming soon

These are just general guides. They are especially useful if you are a new player and don't know where to start, or of you just want a solid build order. obviously, there are variations on theses builds and entirely different builds that you can use. 

Tips for becoming a boss at online play - No.1

Ok so from now on I'll be posting some tips and builds for online play - probably around 1 post a week (most likely on a Sunday but this is an exception). I'll start off with some basic tips and then move onto more advanced game play and try to include some of the advanced strategies and micro the high level players use. 

Tip No.1

Starting off for tip number 1 I'll post some of the terminology and abbreviations used in AOE 3. Some of these may seem basic but hey I still come across some people that feel the need to post a question mark in the chat whenever I use them :D

TC = Town Center

TP = Trading Post 

FF = Fast Fortress - advancing to the fortress age as quickly as possible normally without training any soldiers. It makes use of the powerful fortress age shipments and is popular for civilizations like Spain and Portugal that have weak colonial play

Semi FF = Semi Fast Fortress - advancing to the fortress age as quickly possible but this time training a small number of soldiers eg 5 Hussar/Uhlan or 10 Musketeers. Although you still want to make use of the fortress age shipments and units, training soldiers in the colonial age allows you to harass and raid the enemy and is popular for civilizations such as France and Germany that get powerful cavalry and/or cavalry from cards etc

FI = Fast Industrial - Similar to the Fast Fortress this time you are trying to hit the Industrial age as quickly as possible. Here, you are trying to make use of the powerful heavy cannons, military upgrades, factories and in some cases church improvements (after sending the card). This is a very risky strategy as it allows your opponent to mass and army and time a push into your base often taking you out before you manage to pull it off. Because of this it is useful of defensive maps or in cases where your opponent is not expecting it and is popular for Spain (extra shipments sometimes combined with revolution), Portugal (Genitors for dragoons and heavy cannons) and Dutch (Church improvements and heavy cannons) 

B/back etc = Basically means retreat and pull your soldiers out of the fight

Most of the other stuff you'll learn once you start playing the game if you haven't already learned