paul wrote:its not a "slow down" cuz you can never be as fast as spain. sometimes you HAVE to change: if your opponent is using a abnormal strategy, why should i use the normal one to get countered by him?
Im just saying that I dont think the 9 pikes will kill the tower, and then you just end up in fortress way later.
piro ff has few vills to maintain units training. so age 2 vs age 3 is somehow available. kill his cannon with vills and then try to age up.
I played this MU 5 times vs jsm this morning, he tried pike semi, he didn't even killed my tower (5dogs+8pikes held it), and ff just doesn't work, he can kill my falcs but after I've skirms, dogs and cav shipments with the same eco as him.
It is an interesting and a quite close MU. I play both civilizations a lot so I know how it usually goes. Spain has a small window where they can beat China, China needs to survive and then they win by default.
To survive as China you should start with a tp+village, because with 2 village start you will not have a shipment ready upon hitting age 3 to send meteor hammers and will have a hard time. If it is a no-tp map I just skip 700 w, sounds crazy, but if you dont have a shipment after you age you will straight up lose against a good spanish player. Dont build a market and age up with the Confucian academy, otherwise you will die. Dont forget to gather for minutemen.
As Spain the best idea is to go 15 ->' 16 v (may be piro ff if 200 w start and good treasures) agressive ff. Dont wait too much, use pikemen to siege and cannons to keep arqubuesiers at bay, you need to win the game fast.