ESOCommunity

British Colonial Musketeers
When the game starts, send 3 vills to food crates and the rest to hunts.
Train villagers until you have 16, at which point you click up with the Governor at 2:45.
-If you have 200w start, build 1 house and get your market in transition.
-If you have 200w and 100c start, get a market and then gather 25c so you can buy wood for a house. Also gather for hunting dogs. (50w 50c)
-If you have 300w start, build a market, house, and gather for hunting dogs. (treasures are fantastic here)
Ship 3v as your first card.
Age with 16 vills using The Governor (200c + Tower) at 2:45. While aging, place 13 vills on wood and research gang saw.
Continue to herd.
Gather enough wood while in transition to have placed a second house and have 200w extra.
Ship 700w as soon as you age, and build a barracks and defensively place the tower.
When you hit up, send 1 villager to gold crates, 2 to coin, 16 to food.
Queue musketeers at 4:40
This will give you 5 muskets at 5:10
When 700w arrives, research steel traps and placer mines.
Ship 5v.
This is a colonial strategy with a strong boom. It is weak to a strong fortress timing.
Continue to make military units.
Additional cards in order: 600w, 4v, Team Musketeer Hitpoints, Musketeer Attack
With 600w, drop a stable.
General rule of thumb for card shipments is send villagers if you need resources in 5+ mins, crates if you need them in 1+ min, units if you need in 0 mins.

Deck

Very nice guide Durokan.
However I think man should build 2 manors if 300 wood start. Thus, man starts to age up with 17 vills but still at 2:45. There are 2 schools of thought anyway

This is indeed a simple and good way to train musks. I would just add that you can also age 1 vil later and research gang saw before ageing up if you feel like the 16th vil will get out too early for ageing up (if I have less than 650f when the 16th vil is out, I would definitely make another vil and gang saw). Also you need to make as many houses as possible while ageing if you boom like this, which is probs more like 3 houses or even 4 with good treasures, and then keep 200w for a rax. You might also switch 600w and 5 vils ; obviously for a boom 5 vils is better, but if you want to add cav or just mass a bit more, 600w is better. Maybe also ship musks upgrades before 4 vils, because they're so good, and you will already have approx 40 vils at that time anyway so 4 vils isn't that much of a buff

You can also get steel traps after being aged up which is better. Simply put 5 vills from wood to coin and put the rest of your vills on food. You'll have 5 musks + steel traps barely.

Just don't make lb because they suck vs Hi, damn I'm learning so much.

Mr_Bramboy wrote:You can also get steel traps after being aged up which is better. Simply put 5 vills from wood to coin and put the rest of your vills on food. You'll have 5 musks + steel traps barely.

This. 2016 and not getting steel traps upon age up

Method_man714 wrote:Just don't make lb because they suck vs Hi, damn I'm learning so much.

lbs is the only way you can come back after losing your forward rax in a british mirror

in my opinion esotic woods are useless if u have all that wood's cards . i'd use (sorry if it isn't the correct translation but i play in an other language ) land's appropriation instead

it's an OK card to send in industrial age or something when you want to spam longbows, probably

I send it when I go greedy with VC build when going to spam lb+pike

arcangelusregis wrote:in my opinion esotic woods are useless if u have all that wood's cards . i'd use (sorry if it isn't the correct translation but i play in an other language ) land's appropriation instead

Land grab isn't really a useful card imo. In a 1v1 deck you have to put a lot of crates/units/vils shipments, so you already don't have a lot of space for upgrades (cav/musks upgrades, yeomen, and eco cards). So I don't think you can afford a slot for land grab, instead of a useful upgrade. This card is only interesting when you need to spam plantations anyway, if you just need mills it will mean -160w per mill, so even if you build 5 mills (doesn't happen very often) it will mean a 800w card, which isn't incredible.

I was referring to exotic wood. In my opinion that card is useless 'cause if u have all that w cards u are supposed to put very little vills on wood, in favour of food and gold. Of course it s better to use a slot for an other shipment like u said and like i meant

I think landgrab might be slightly underrated tbh. It's like Virginia company, probably not a default card to send but not as nooby as people think it is.

Exoctic hardwoods is more useful than land grab

I personally don't really like exotic hardwoods. I never feel like its any decent when I ship it tbh.

Jerom wrote:I personally don't really like exotic hardwoods. I never feel like its any decent when I ship it tbh.

Exotic Hardwoods is a decent shipment that just generally gels well with the British agenda. I would realistically send it in a team game if I stared longbows, and even then only after wood cards and vills. I think it does have a good affect, but you is not that noticeable since you aren't gathering that much wood by the time you are in a position where you would be sending the card, especially in a 1v1.

Mimsy for President wrote:Very nice guide Durokan.
However I think man should build 2 manors if 300 wood start. Thus, man starts to age up with 17 vills but still at 2:45. There are 2 schools of thought anyway

Market better because you get gang saw faster while aging up and it seems to steam roll into a better and faster eco because it also means you'll have hunting dogs as well =]

If you're planning to boom, shouldn't 600w be sent before 5 vills? With the wood crates you can mass more manors and get enough XP to get your third Colonial shipment sooner.
Also, isn't it better to send musketeers' attack upgrade first rather than their HP? Theoretically, they are not meant to tank, but to deal good damage. Cavalry, on the other hand, receives more damage and that's its main strength, apart from snaring and dealing melee attack (not always the best). If I don't have enough space for all the units upgrades in age 2 as Brits then, I always choose musks attack and cav HP.

If you have just enough villagers on food and wood to produce some musketeers and the rest on wood to continue building manors I think the 5 villagers first and only then 600w means more resources in total, since the 5 villagers can start gathering resources right away, where 600w doesn't equal 5 manors, takes time to gather up and the manors take time to build which all adds up. If you continue and build manors in colonial I think the experience from building them is enough to send 700w 5v 600w rather quickly.

A couple of further notes: with a 300-w start I think just 2 manors is better, gives you a nice boost to your age-up time. I'd get rid of the 4v card and put in 600c for greater mass or age-up, AA I'd replace with cav attack, instead of musk HP I'd choose 6 lb — fits nicely to your composition, is great against early aggression as another military-units shipment. I think it's agreed on that musk att > musk HP, as the former also increases the damage vs. vills and buildings — at least in a Brit mirror, that is — both cards have an identical effect in terms of musks vs musks wars, but like I said musk att seems to be better.

pecelot wrote:A couple of further notes: with a 300-w start I think just 2 manors is better, gives you a nice boost to your age-up time. I'd get rid of the 4v card and put in 600c for greater mass or age-up, AA I'd replace with cav attack, instead of musk HP I'd choose 6 lb — fits nicely to your composition, is great against early aggression as another military-units shipment. I think it's agreed on that musk att > musk HP, as the former also increases the damage vs. vills and buildings — at least in a Brit mirror, that is — both cards have an identical effect in terms of musks vs musks wars, but like I said musk att seems to be better.

If you can drop a to (EDIT: TP) in age 1 with the 300w it's the best option. It's gets u ur shipments faster and also helps u contest tp line.
And I think musk hp is more useful than attack when u have a musk longbow comp and ur muskets are ur tank line vs cav and ri like if u go up against colonial Dutch.
Honestly I don't like 600c over musk hp especially in musk wars. @deleted_user4 could add some pointers here

Do you mean a TP in your first sentence?
Most of the time you don't go musk & lb, you go musk & huss, where huss are meant to tank and musks to deal damage. I know Callen's opinion on it, though I'm fairly convinced 600 coin is just better — I'm working on proper justification. For musk-only wars ofc both musk cards are required, though I'd rather have 2 upgrades for huss, as later on longbowmen become more and more viable and gradually replace musks, who basically disappear in the Fortress Age, too.

Brits actually have so many viable opening lines it's not even funny. They are entirely situational too depending on civ and opponent MU and strategy.

Off 300w you can do market, 2 manor, or TP. Off 200w 100c you can market or just 1 manor, depends on MU and nearby treasures. And you can age up with two different viable age up politicians as well.

And in transition you can forgo the market and just make manors for certain builds or you can just manor boom a whole lot or very little. It's crazy man. Compare that to a civ like France who early markets or early tps every game and that's the extent of their build variation.

Can always make one extra manor no matter what if the crates are
200w or 300w

so 2 manors and 3 manors.

If you start with 300w, the best option here is build a TP, because then you'll have an extra shipment and you can even send VC as second shipment and when you reach colonial age you'll have your next shipment ready to use. But if you're playing in a non-tp map then go for 2-3 manors, depending in how fast do you want to age up. If you start with Food, Wood and gold (even from treasures) the best option here is a market no matter what. If you only start with food and wood, just create 1-2 depenging how fast do you want to age up .