Favorite Deccan Strategies

[cblack]

I have recently enjoyed playing 3v3's on Deccan. The starting resources give a lot of room for flexibility. I am wondering what your favorite civs are to play in this scenario, and the general strategy you use to make a nice eco or in general just to win.

[j_t_kirk]

Otto rush

[P i k i l i c]

I try to avoid 3v3 on Deccan because many people just build 58 layers of walls and you win or not depending on your patience
My favorite strategy is to side rush

[Kazamkikaz]

russia 11 vill rush

[yemshi]

You can 8v and skip colonial shipment.

[wardyb1]

Similarly you can 5v with Russia, age immediately on crate collection, send 5 coss and presuming you are playing against players who aren't really expecting it or know whats going on, your team will then proceed to auto own the entire map.

[yemshi]

Thing is: the time it takes to gather those 800f (trade market etc... ) is so long with the pathing and such that you can idleless 8v instead of very idled (but little faster) 5v.
8v just seems superior since getting market ups/a TP/ BH alongside constant vill production is ten times as easy.

[_H2O]

Plus the entire time you are aging you are gathering with less villagers. Basically you will run out of steam pretty fast for little gain.

[edeholland]

I have played hundreds of 3v3 Deccan games. It's my favorite matchup to play with lieutenants. There are not always captain+ team games available, so it's a great map to waste your time with.

My standard strategy is to go Brits make 3 manors + hunting dogs in age 1. This is always possible if you sell gold, you may have to gather like 30 wood or gold, but that's nothing. This basically means you have 3 extra villagers right from the start.
Another strategy with Brits I like is to send VC first. It's a stronger card on Deccan because you start with hunderds of wood and because it's easier to defend until you made 20 manors.

Asian civs are extra strong on Deccan because you can fully utilize your extra resources to age up earlier. Because you can keep training villagers during age-up, you don't lose any villager seconds by aging with less villagers. Also, the map has like 20 cows on it, making asian civs even more overpowered.
Japan can start aging after like 2 minutes. Don't forget to make a market, you have to sell you gold for more wood (and also do the tier 1 resource upgrades).

Iro and Otto are just as OP as normally. You can choose to build 2 trade posts instead of 1. With otto you can add a market, with Iro you can make a farm with your travois because you have enough resources to build a house with wood. Combine this with fast aging to rush with abus and toms before the enemy has set up their walls.

However, my favorite strategy by far is to kill noobs who only wall, like mentioned above. There are Brit/Japan/French/Dutch/Portugese players that start walling during age-up and think they can just boom and win while staying in base. To counter that, you just claim 5 trade posts, secure all resource locations (should make walls/buildings/towers at the sides), age-up, make town centers in the center and laugh when they start making mills at 15 minutes.

[Kaiserklein]

French grenadiers FI is pretty funny to do on that map.

Age 1: take a TP and make a market with hunt dogs asap. Then get a house and placer mines (you will need to chop some wood for that). Ship 3 cdbs and age up with 16 cdbs with the 400w politician. Split your cdbs to food and coin so that you can age directly to fortress upon colonial.
Optional: can be greedy and ship eco theory after 3 cdbs. But it's usually better to keep that shipment until industrial. You can also build a pen and age up with 1 more cdb if your team had a lot of cows, or ask your team mates to make a pen. The extra food will be super valuable later.

Age 2: Age up directly to fortress with the fast age up. Ship 4 cdbs directly as well. Get steel traps and a house, and build a hidden church somewhere in the back of your base. Don't get more than 200g after steel traps!

Age 3: ship directly 1000g. All your cdbs should be on food with 200g banked. Never stop making cdbs, it won't delay your age up. Age up to industrial with 1000g when you can. Keep all cdbs on food and ship the church card. You need to gather 3500f to call all the grenadiers in your church, but first queue a lot of cdbs, because getting those grenadiers will get you housed.

Age 4: now you have the choice of your shipments. You can for example be aggressive with 2 heavies first, greedy with factories, or ship 1600w for your infrastructures. Either way, push when you have your 27 royal guard grenadiers. Set your factories to wood and/or switch vils to wood if you didn't ship wood crates.
Optional: mine an extra 500g for the church xp upgrade. This will let you ship 10 cdbs, factories, thoroughbreds, etc.

You should try to bring some tcs and buildings down before your opponents can react. If they fight, target infantry and cannons first, but don't be afraid to shoot at goons or even hand cav if you don't have choice. Royal guard grenadiers in mass actually deal good damage to most fortress units.
Meanwhile, transition slowly to gendarmes: thoroughbreds and cav combat (usually after both factories and 10 cdbs), 2 stables and amalgamation, guard upgrade for your cuirs, and a lot of houses. You can even get the arsenal cav hp and the church cav training upgrades.