German Cav Semi FF

[aligator92]

This is a guide for low-medium level players about the standard German Cav Semi FF aka the 9 Uhlan Semi FF
I will also present two slight variations that I like to use depending on what I think my opponent will do

Some general tips regarding settler wagons:
-use SW on crates because they gather them faster than 2 vills would
-don't walk too much with SW/ use vills for herding
-if your tc is pressured, try to have SW outside gathering, they only count as one in your tc

Discovery Age:
Your start strongly depends on the crates you get:
If you start with 200w, build a tp and chop wood for a house
If you start with 100w and 100g, build a market, gather 75c and 50w, get hunting dogs and buy 100w for a house
If you start with only 100w, build a house (If you find something like 80w or 80c very early you can go for one of the above options if you havent already built your house)
If you start wih 300f, you can use 2 SW to gather wood/coin and put new vills on food
If you start with only 200f, put 2 SW on food and use 1 SW and new vills for wood/coin
Send 2 SW as your first card
Age up with 17 vill pop, you might be below 650 food when your last vill pops out because of a low crate start/bad treasures then go for 18 vill pop age up
Age up with quartermaster(400w)
Do not lose your scout before you have a trading post!

Transition to Colonial:
Put all SW on Wood plus a few vills if you don't already have a tp
Get the following things in this order if you don't already have them:
1. first tp
2. market
3. research placer mines
4. research hunting dogs
5. 2nd house
6. 125w for steel traps (this is optional and will slow you down)
After that put all SW on coin and vills on food

Colonial Age:
Send 3SW and after that 700g
Gather 400w with a SW
Make 2 more houses and a stable from 400w
Make 5 Uhlan
(research steel traps if you gathered wood for it)
Distribute your vills in way that you have 300c when 700c shipment arrives
Age up with the Exiled Prince (fast age up)
Use your Uhlans to raid (If your opponent has cav aswell keep them in one group, if he doesn't split them up)
Keep as many Uhlans alive as possible, they will be a part of your push later on

Transition to Fortress:
Research gangsaw
Put a lot of vills/SW on coin, only a few on food
You can send 700w for infrastructure or use it on a Fortress shipment later on
If you don't send it, put a lot of vills/SW on wood
Start another Uhlan batch

Fortress Age (You should get up before 8:00):
Send military shipments in desired order
Research Veteran Uhlans as soon as possible
Make more houses and a barracks
Train Skirms, Uhlans (and Warwagons)
From here on it's up to you, my tip:
Send 8 and 7 Skirms first, so you don't have to get your barracks up immediately and have enough houses to not get popped by your shipments
Only make Warwagons early if your opponent has either a lot of cav or a large amount of musks (Uhlans do pretty well as anticav and Warwagons are too expensive while you need to chop a lot of wood)
Push when you feel good about your army size. SHould be between 10:00 and 12:00
Win game

40 pop build variation:
The goal of this build is to get steel traps without getting slowed down
Skip the 2nd house in transition to Colonial and gather 125w for steel traps instead
instead of 5, only train 3 Uhlans and research steel traps
Queue up vills to reach 39 pop before you send 700 coin to overpop to 43
You might wanna cancel one of those if you realize that you have the resources to age
Don't use this against opponents who also train cav because you are likely to lose Uhlans to 5 Huss
Can be useful against China, Japan, Brits, Spain, Ports

16 Uhlan variation:
The goal of this build is to be more flexible
Don't gather wood for steel traps in transition
Send 700w before 700g
Use it for steel traps, 1 or 2 more houses and a barracks or a 2nd tp or keep it for Veteran Uhlan or Fortress houses
Make 10 instead of 5 Uhlan
Transition vills/SW from coin to food after your second Uhlan batch has finished because otherwise you will quickly oergather on coin (You are still sending 700g to age up)
This gives you a lot more flexibility. You won't lose your Uhlans to 8-10 Huss. You have a barracks if you get pushed. You have the chance to smoothly switch to colonial play if you really need to.
You should be aged up before 9:00
Can be useful against French, Dutch, Mirror, Russia, Aztec, India

[Mr_Bramboy]

Is this thread bugged or does it seriously have 0 replies? This is the kind of content ESOC needs.

[Aizamk]

It has two replies though?

Or possibly people were put off by an alligator posing as an orangutan >:(

[Mr_Bramboy]

Two? I count three.

[iNcog]

another alligator! zounds!

[noissance]

Thank you, i was always doing naked ff as germany (2SW 3SW 700g) at 6:30, but a semi seems like it's worth it.

[forgrin]

It's a pretty standard build, not much to discuss I think.

[Kaiserklein]

That's a pretty neat build, well done. I'll just throw in a few extra random remarks :

- Early on, SW on gold / vils on food is both good for resources balance (roughly what you need to constantly prod vils and uhlans) and a clever tasking of your vils : sw are bad at herding because they have a shite shooting animation, and everytime they walk it's twice the waste it would be with a normal vil. I'll add that you usually get raided more on food, and SW are more vulnerable to raids, so better keep them at the mine.

- Try to always build stuff with your SW, it's faster. Also, building houses with SW from the gold mine is nice because you can protect your gold mine with houses (you basically turtle).

- You actually should task all 3 SW to wood/coin when you have a 300f start. 2 reasons :
1) You won't lack food anyway, so better get your infrastructures up asap : having hunt dogs earlier means more food income earlier, having house earlier when you TP means you can ship 2 sw earlier. Also you want to build your stuff before you get your first shipment because you will get xp from them, which means 2 SW shipment even faster.
2) As I said, vils are better at herding, so if you can avoid herding with a SW and instead wait patiently for your vil to pop ouf tc, do it.
On 200f start though, I agree, you have to task 2 SW on food immediately.

- About 200f 200w start : this one is a bit weird. On maps where you get a good TP (like great plains) you will have your 2 SW shipment before your house is up (because you have to gather food for vils, so you get house later). DO NOT train vils until you reach 10/10 population. I know it sounds safer, but it's bad. The best way to do this is to send 2 SW asap and overpop at 13/10 population. With a good macro, you will get your house up in time or almost, which means you almost won't have any TC idle time BUT you will have 2 SW much earlier, which means you will age up earlier.

- If you have 100 gold start but you don't have any gold treasure, I advise you to sell 100 food for 75 gold instead of actually mining the gold. This is actually true for any other civ. Why ? Because with hunt dogs, 75 gold is worth 115 food. So basically, you pay 100f for something worth 115f, so you get 15f for free. I'll also add that it will be easier to macro since you get 75g instantly (the exact amount of gold you need !) and you also won't have to move vils between gold and food, which means even more resources saved.
Do it as late as possible though : try to scout the map for gold treasures, and only if you didn't find any of those when you're going to need a house, sell food - buy wood - build the house.

- I personally almost always do something on 100w 300f start. I consider you will almost always get a treasure to help you anyway. In some match ups you can go early TP on 300f 100w start, like vs japan, but it means 18 age up, so I usually go market on that start. For example, if you find 50 gold, you will have 700+ food after the 17th vil comes out, which is very decent. Without treasure you're most likely to age up with 18 vils, so in that case it's probs better to not make a market.

- You shouldn't build a house during transition. You usually chop 125w and keep them, then build a stable asap with 125w + 400w age up, then build 3 houses, and you have 25w left for when 700w comes. If you don't plan on sending 700w, then you can chop only 100w, but keep it to get the stable up faster.

- Which brings us to my other point : 3 sw 700w 700g semi-ff is almost always better than 3 sw 700g. It's just more versatile : you can get barracks up in colonial, which means you can get bows or dops out if you need to ; you get more houses, which means you can also prod more uhlans and/or ship 8 bows if you need to, for a good defense (with 3 sw 700g semi, you would be housed) ; you can even use 200w from those 700w to prod 5 bows ; and, finally, you will be able to get steel traps easily. You will age up around 8:30 instead of 7:40, but honestly it's worth it, especially since your semi is much safer that way.

- In case you still want to do a 3 sw 700g semi : don't send 700w after 700g ! It means you won't have a shipment ready when you hit fortress, which is very dangerous, especially as germany, a civ that relies so much on units shipments. it's also a bit sad because you would be able to ship 1000w not long after anyway. If you feel like it sucks to chop all that wood instead of having a neat 700w, well then, go 3 sw 700w 700g semi.

- You should probs have researched gang saw while aging to colonial. But it doesn't matter much anyway.

- Vet uhlans are not always a priority. You do need ot get them vet early enough, but in some match ups (those where you don't mass a lot of uhlans, for example against spain or france) I'd rather mass more skirms instead.
About what shipments you should send, I'd say 1000w first when your opponent also aged to 3 (unless it's a very aggressive age 3 civ like spain), then blackriders, because those 2 shipments are the best you have (blackriders are your best anti-cav). If your opponent is pressuring you when you age up, I often ship 3 WW, because he's likely to have a lot of cav (germany is weak against cav) and overall WW is super good against musk cav. 8 skirms are risky, especially if you already called mm, which is likely if your opponent has been pressuring you. If your opponent is staying colonial but isn't too aggressive (so he's probably booming), I guess 8 skirms is your best bet.

- I like the 3 cav semi with steel traps, it can indeed work against japan, brits and spain. Also consider 3 sw / 700w naked FF against those civs.
I'd advise more cav against China and ports though, you want to abuse their early weakness.

- 3 sw 700w 700g indeed. Actually can be used in almost all match ups. I'm usually not a fan of the 2nd TP though, you will build it just before you age up, which is when you're weakest, so you're likely to lose that TP really fast. But it's still an option against boomy civs, can even be a stagecoach on some maps.


But 3 sw 700g is still a very decent build, and you wrote it nicely anyway, I'm just nitpicking.

Thank you, i was always doing naked ff as germany (2SW 3SW 700g) at 6:30, but a semi seems like it's worth it.

Against civs that you might not be able to raid, like spain brits japan, you might want to do naked ff. 3 sw 700g naked ff only works with an early TP though : without early TP, 700g will come too late and your age up will be delayed.

[pecelot]

- If you have 100 gold start but you don't have any gold treasure, I advise you to sell 100 food for 75 gold instead of actually mining the gold. This is actually true for any other civ. Why ? Because with hunt dogs, 75 gold is worth 115 food. So basically, you pay 100f for something worth 115f, so you get 15f for free. I'll also add that it will be easier to macro since you get 75g instantly (the exact amount of gold you need !) and you also won't have to move vils between gold and food, which means even more resources saved.

That's actually very useful, thanks!

[jamesmp98]

What would a good deck for this look like?

[aligator92]

Advanced Arsenal, 5 Uhlan, 600w, 1000g and 13 Jaegers are replacable i guess but the rest is pretty much a must

Possible replacements would be Uhlan attack (doesn't give you 2 Uhlan because it's a team card), 600g, 5 dopps, refrigeration, royal mint, 10 hussars

[Kaiserklein]

Yeah I'd rather have 600g instead of AA, and an upgrade instead of 5 uhlans (I personally like palatinate settlements but it can also be a dop/cav upgrade or eco upgrade).
Other than that, it's the right deck. You can just have the same deck with 5 dops instead of 3 ww in some match ups but it doesn't matter a lot

[jamesmp98]

I'm surprised Germantown Farmers has not ben mentioned. I was always told that was the German card to have.

[aligator92]

Thats the card that allows you to train SW in mills? I think there is absolutely no place for this in supremacy while it seems to be a big thing in treaty. I see no value in an age3 card that also requires a mill to train wood costing settlers. I cannot remember the last time i actually build a mill in a german game. You need to secure mines anyways so usually this also gives you enough hunts since germany does not need that much food.

[Kaiserklein]

I'm surprised Germantown Farmers has not ben mentioned. I was always told that was the German card to have.

In team you can use it, in 1v1 certainly not. It could be useful 1 game out of 1000, but you really need age 3 slots badly. That's the core of your build as germany, since you almost always age to fortress quite early.
If you could afford eco cards in age 3 anyway, you would put royal mint first, then refrigeration. German townfarmers would come very far behind that.

Even in 2v2 I wouldn't use it. Though in 3v3, you can use it sometimes.

[_venox_]

Is the 8 uhlan shipment a must-have? It's essentially 5 uhlans plus the civ bonus and in fortress you're massing uhlan / skirm anyways is my reasoning. :/

[Kaiserklein]

8 uhlans isn't a very good shipment and I wouldn't ship it in a lot of games (at least not until I have nothing else left to ship). But sometimes it's useful, for example if you already shipped 9 uhlans (which happens quite often) and you need uhlans badly for whatever reason, like your opponeny being close to your tc, etc.
In some match ups, germany just spams military shipments, and there you will need 8 uhlans. I would definitely have this card in every deck, you can't play without it, it's too risky.

[hayasaka]

What about making a second tp during the transition Age1 - Age2 replacing the market and the upgrades ?

[sirmusket]

this isn't really iamgrunt tho..

[aligator92]

What about making a second tp during the transition Age1 - Age2 replacing the market and the upgrades ?

I have never really experimented with that but I guess you can try that but then you really have to add the market and the upgrades with 700w because otherwise your eco will just not allow you to add much to your shipments. And It will not allow your Age 3 mass to be much larger since you will be housed constantly and unable to make use of all the shipments you could send if you had pop space.

[aligator92]

this isn't really iamgrunt tho..

Why would you think that?

[sirmusket]

this isn't really iamgrunt tho..

Why would you think that?

'ESO NAME' 'iamgrunt'

[hayasaka]

ik i usually goes for it with 700w: 1 barracks 2 houses and the market...
Another question is the age2 card that gives more pop for german houses, is it viable ?

[aligator92]

Something I forgot to mention is that getting a 2nd TP is only an option if it is somewhat defendable. If it is in the middle of the map and your opponent goes for some sort of musk timing you will probably lose it quickly making it a trade of 200w for like 200xp

About the house card, it depends on who you ask. Most players will say no but some players, namely Kasierklein have had a fair share of success with it. I never use it

[sirmusket]

ik i usually goes for it with 700w: 1 barracks 2 houses and the market...
Another question is the age2 card that gives more pop for german houses, is it viable ?

It is but only if your going to do a mercenary agenda:
2sw,palantine settlements, 3sw, 2sw = greedy longer age II
2sw, PS, 3sw, 700g age for better mercs
get out usually 5 comanchero, but if its vs eg india sepoy pressure start 5-10 ren and age behind it with MM and enough uhlan to counter the sowar.