Garja's Spain Guide
Posted: 23 Jan 2016, 16:27
Guide copied from rts-sanctuary. All credit to Garja.
Source: http://www.rts-sanctuary.com/Age-Of-Emp ... pic=229058
Spain 1vs1 guide for TAD 1.03 patch
written by Garja (PR ~40 - ELO 2600+)
Overview
Spain in TAD 1.03 is quite a weak civilization compared to the others. Sometimes it is because Spain has just less powerful features overall, sometimes it is because of one or more specific build orders.
Spain strenghts and weaknesses can be summarized as follows.
Strenghts:
- faster shipment rate (requires less xp for each shipment);
- many possible strategies;
- some unique units useful in specific situations;
- few abusable mechanics such as unction, inqusition or caballeros card;
- relatively strong FF.
Weaknesses:
- no ranged unit shipments.
- no card upgrades for the most used units (ranged infantry and dragoons);
- no direct eco boom;
- no exiled prince (fast age up) politician; no 400w politician either;
Unfortunately negative aspects tend to prevail over the positive ones and that's why Spain is relatively weak. Usually the main concern is to overcome the negative aspects rather than exploiting the positive ones. Successfully removing one or more weak spot may lead Spain to be somehow competitive. The good thing is that Spain allows for many different possibilities, so with good game knowledge and smart decisions it is possible to be on par with (some of) the other civs.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Strategies
Straight FF
The Fast Fortress is the most common Spanish strategy as it makes sense to quickly jump to the 3rd age and spam powerful shipments. It used to be very strong if not just OP, but in this patch, depending on the MU, I'd rank it from decent-to-good strategy only.
The deck
Spain has quite some useful age3 cards so that you may have a hard time deciding which cards include in your age3 grid. Well, there isn't one single best setup so it is in part up to you but I like a deck like this
Essentially I include only the best unit cards and get rid of the duplicates. I think once you send 3-4 unit cards it is enough to support your army and allows you to make damage. After that it is probably better to start planning your macro development so different cads becomes more useful.
I also put 2 eco up cards in colo because the third age grid is already full. You may consider changing the 1000f card or the 10 pikes cards but I like them.
As for maps with water you generally are fine including 2 caravels, 1 frigate and schooners cards. In case you plan to fight on the water against a sea civ you may consider adding the card that boost hp and damage of your military ships.
The BO
There are many ways to FF, but they all pretty much revolve around the 3 cards you decide to send in colonial. Perhaps the most common one is 700g 700w 5v, so I'll take that as the basic to describe the build more in depth.
- Discovery age
At start put 3 vills on crates and 3 on hunts. With 200w build house+market and hunting dogs, otherwise just a house. Place it defensively as houses are usually targeted by an opponent who rushes you.
First shipment is 3 villagers. Gather 800f and age up with tower+200g.
- Transition to colonial
Gather 200w and build a TP (always unless you're doing the sea FF). Then put all vills on food but mind gathering 100g if you didn't collect it yet. If it is likely that you will get rushed fast leave 1-2 vills on gold to gather enough for the MM. Only do this if you're confident you will have enough food to age up once the 700g card arrives, otherwise it is counterproductive. Normally queue up to 19/20 pop so that queuing the 5v card won't get you housed.
- Colonial age and transition to fortress age
Send 700g asap and start collecting the 200g from the age up with 1 vill. Decide where to place your tower. Generally you want it in your base for defense but if you plan to be the offender and you know you can hold it, it makes sense to place it forward. If controlling water is important, mind placing the tower near that body of water (but not too close to the edge so that you outrange caravels).
Once 1200f 1000g is collected click on the age up. The usual option is 4 hussars but sometimes it makes sense to use 8 pikes instead (see the variations paragraph below).
Send 700w card and once it arrives use that for a barracks, a market (if you didn't build it yet), and atleast 3 houses. Since your aim is to produce 10 musketeers while researching market upgrades, the vill allocation should be like 5-6 vills on gold, 5-6 on wood (you will soon need more houses), and the rest on food.
The 3rd card in colonial is 5 vills. Distribute them among the 3 resources as best as you think (generally most if not all on gold).
- Fortress age
Assuming you reached this stage relatively unharmed it's now time to get on the offensive. To do that you will spam age3 unit cards, starting from the most powerful ones until you're out of bullets or you decide to send a different card instead (1000w, unit upgrade, etc.). The barracks is meant to produce skirms only (since you lack cards that provide such unit) but later in the game you will probably need more anticav and hence more rods from the barracks.
Generally the best cards to start with are 2 cannons, 4 lancers, 12 pikemen. With this specific BO however it makes little sense to send the latter one as first.
From here you just attack and deal as much damage as possible. Your opponent will be forced to deal with your powerful army so you'll try get the most value out of it (killing as many opponent unit as possible). If you succeed in crushing the opponent's army without much losses you can try ending the game by destroying his base, otherwise it's better to regroup yourself and send 1000w for a 2nd TC, upgrades, etc. A solid combo in mid fotress is skirms/rods/lancers but you can also add goons or do something less usual like rods/cannons.
Variations
The 700g 700w 5v build is basically the in between option in terms of eco, age up time and units produced in the transition. With that in mind it is possible to work on the card order to either increase the eco or to reduce the age up time. In that sense a list of other viable builds is:
- 5v 4v 700w: 8.00-8.30 age up, 10 musks, great eco.
- 700g 5v 700w: 7.30-7.50 age up, 5 dogs, good eco.
- 700g 700w 8 pikes: 7.30-7.50 age up, 10 musks dogs, poor eco.
The first one aims to get the best long term eco. Realistically it is only viable on Texas, or when you are 100% sure the opponent won't harass you.
The second one, is just a more greedy version of the usual build. Basically you assume 10 musks won't be that useful either for defending or even later in the game so you just skip them and make 5 dogs instead (they're very cost efficient units in defending a rush or simply protecting your cannons). You skip 700w as well and send 5v instead in order to get a bit of extra gathering time. I like this one.
The last one is what people do the most nowadays. You sacrifice the 5 vill cards (and perhaps 1 or more vills in the production queue) to get few more units out in the early stage and a little buff in your age up time. It goes without saying that this is an all-in approach since the eco behind the initial push will be way inferior to pretty much every strategy the opponent adopts. I personally don't like this one, but it makes sense sometimes when the opponent is the one who all-in rushes you.
Also, there are atleast 2 more builds that include an extra card in the discovery age. One is the fish booming FF which obviously involves the use of schooners card and the other one is the TP boom FF which instead implies the ATP card. Those cards replace the third card in the colonial age so that the build becomes something like ATP 700g 700w.
Other variables to consider are the number of villagers to produce before clicking on the age3 button and which politician to chose.
Regarding the first point I'd suggest to never cut the vill production unless by doing that you manage to defeat an otherwise unstoppable rush.
In reference to the second point, it is completely situational. With 10 musks it makes more sense to add 4 huss to the composition. Without them it is definitely better to choose the 8 pikemen as extra cover for your cannons. 400w+caravel politician only makes sense when there is no point in having an army boost early on, but this questions the usefulness of the FF in the first place.
______________________________________________________________________________
Musk/huss start
This is a very standard colonial build. You probably heard of this already so I'll be brief. Let me just say that whilst musk/huss is a valid option it also shows why Spain is a weak civ in TAD. Simply put, it is just suboptimal compared to the French or British counterpart. That's why you want to turn this build into a semi FF whenever it is possible (the gap with other civs tend to be closer in fortress rather than colonial).
The deck
Very standard deck with all the common cards in it. As opposed to the FF deck there are less unit shipments in the third age and more focus on long term cards.
The BO
- Discovery age
The start is the same as the previous strategy so just refer to it.
- Transition to colonial
You need quite some wood because of no 400w politician available so put not less than 10 vills on wood (often 12 to 16). Research gang saw and hunting dogs up from the market if you didn't yet. Ignore gold up for the moment.
From here I assume you start with a stable. Build one house and collect additional 200w . Then move 5 vills on gold and the rest on food.
- Colonial age
Send 700w. Build the stable with 2 food vills and use 1 gold vill to collect the 200g. Place the tower so that it covers 2nd hunt/mine (or in TC range if you're rushed).
Once 700w card arrives send 5 vills, make more houses and a barracks. Consider moving more vills to gold and researching placer mines and steel traps.
From here you can chose to semi FF or to stay in colonial and mass musketeers and hussars. In the first case send 700g and consider building a TP with the 700w (age up with 4 hussars). In the second case either send 4 vills, 600w or 700g. 8 pikemen or 6 rods are viable cards too but use them only if you really need to immediately boost your army count.
______________________________________________________________________________
Dual rax xbow/pike rush
Classic rush with archaic infantry. Once again if compared to the French one it may seems suboptimal. However in this case the Spanish archaic rush isn't that inferior to other civs' counterpart. That's because the rush is fueled mostly by the shipments so that Spain bonus proves to be quite useful. Also this strat makes good use of both the 500f politician and 8pikes/6rods cards.
The build I'll describe is meant for rush. To defend rushes there are better builds.
The deck
The deck is the same as the previous strategy but with few changes , namely the 700f card, the HI hp upgrade and the archaic infantry card in age1.
The BO
- Discovery age
Usual stuff again. Build an early market with 200w. This time age up with 500f politician.
- Transition to colonial
This strat requires tons of wood so put all vills on trees. Gather 100f for gang saw upgrade anyway. Build 1 house and be sure to have close to 400w and close to 100f. Send 2 vills for the forward base and switch 4-5 vills back to food. TC rally point is on food.
- Colonial age
Send 700w and 600w. Gather the food crates from the age up and queue a vill. Build the 2 raxes with forward vills.
Once 700w arrives build 1 house, queue 2 bows and build another house. Complete the batches when the units are about to pop out. Repeat with 600w.
Now you can chose from 700f or 8 pikes. 700f makes you spam more consistently for a while. 8 pikes let you siege earlier. I generally prefer the first one even though it's a weak card overall (but you can afford it because by this time Spain got an extra shipment).
From here usual cards are 5 vills, 4 vills and then 700g to switch on cav or economic theory to reinforce your eco. Once your eco starts kicking in you may want to switch to a more solid xbow/musks combo to fight musk/cav (generally Brits or Japan). Since you don't have upgrades for such units it's crucial to stay on top for the whole game. Sometimes it makes sense to capitalize your advantage by aging. Just be sure that by relieving the pressure you don't lose the game.
(to be continued)
Source: http://www.rts-sanctuary.com/Age-Of-Emp ... pic=229058
Spain 1vs1 guide for TAD 1.03 patch
written by Garja (PR ~40 - ELO 2600+)
Overview
Spain in TAD 1.03 is quite a weak civilization compared to the others. Sometimes it is because Spain has just less powerful features overall, sometimes it is because of one or more specific build orders.
Spain strenghts and weaknesses can be summarized as follows.
Strenghts:
- faster shipment rate (requires less xp for each shipment);
- many possible strategies;
- some unique units useful in specific situations;
- few abusable mechanics such as unction, inqusition or caballeros card;
- relatively strong FF.
Weaknesses:
- no ranged unit shipments.
- no card upgrades for the most used units (ranged infantry and dragoons);
- no direct eco boom;
- no exiled prince (fast age up) politician; no 400w politician either;
Unfortunately negative aspects tend to prevail over the positive ones and that's why Spain is relatively weak. Usually the main concern is to overcome the negative aspects rather than exploiting the positive ones. Successfully removing one or more weak spot may lead Spain to be somehow competitive. The good thing is that Spain allows for many different possibilities, so with good game knowledge and smart decisions it is possible to be on par with (some of) the other civs.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Strategies
Straight FF
The Fast Fortress is the most common Spanish strategy as it makes sense to quickly jump to the 3rd age and spam powerful shipments. It used to be very strong if not just OP, but in this patch, depending on the MU, I'd rank it from decent-to-good strategy only.
The deck
Spain has quite some useful age3 cards so that you may have a hard time deciding which cards include in your age3 grid. Well, there isn't one single best setup so it is in part up to you but I like a deck like this
Essentially I include only the best unit cards and get rid of the duplicates. I think once you send 3-4 unit cards it is enough to support your army and allows you to make damage. After that it is probably better to start planning your macro development so different cads becomes more useful.
I also put 2 eco up cards in colo because the third age grid is already full. You may consider changing the 1000f card or the 10 pikes cards but I like them.
As for maps with water you generally are fine including 2 caravels, 1 frigate and schooners cards. In case you plan to fight on the water against a sea civ you may consider adding the card that boost hp and damage of your military ships.
The BO
There are many ways to FF, but they all pretty much revolve around the 3 cards you decide to send in colonial. Perhaps the most common one is 700g 700w 5v, so I'll take that as the basic to describe the build more in depth.
- Discovery age
At start put 3 vills on crates and 3 on hunts. With 200w build house+market and hunting dogs, otherwise just a house. Place it defensively as houses are usually targeted by an opponent who rushes you.
First shipment is 3 villagers. Gather 800f and age up with tower+200g.
- Transition to colonial
Gather 200w and build a TP (always unless you're doing the sea FF). Then put all vills on food but mind gathering 100g if you didn't collect it yet. If it is likely that you will get rushed fast leave 1-2 vills on gold to gather enough for the MM. Only do this if you're confident you will have enough food to age up once the 700g card arrives, otherwise it is counterproductive. Normally queue up to 19/20 pop so that queuing the 5v card won't get you housed.
- Colonial age and transition to fortress age
Send 700g asap and start collecting the 200g from the age up with 1 vill. Decide where to place your tower. Generally you want it in your base for defense but if you plan to be the offender and you know you can hold it, it makes sense to place it forward. If controlling water is important, mind placing the tower near that body of water (but not too close to the edge so that you outrange caravels).
Once 1200f 1000g is collected click on the age up. The usual option is 4 hussars but sometimes it makes sense to use 8 pikes instead (see the variations paragraph below).
Send 700w card and once it arrives use that for a barracks, a market (if you didn't build it yet), and atleast 3 houses. Since your aim is to produce 10 musketeers while researching market upgrades, the vill allocation should be like 5-6 vills on gold, 5-6 on wood (you will soon need more houses), and the rest on food.
The 3rd card in colonial is 5 vills. Distribute them among the 3 resources as best as you think (generally most if not all on gold).
- Fortress age
Assuming you reached this stage relatively unharmed it's now time to get on the offensive. To do that you will spam age3 unit cards, starting from the most powerful ones until you're out of bullets or you decide to send a different card instead (1000w, unit upgrade, etc.). The barracks is meant to produce skirms only (since you lack cards that provide such unit) but later in the game you will probably need more anticav and hence more rods from the barracks.
Generally the best cards to start with are 2 cannons, 4 lancers, 12 pikemen. With this specific BO however it makes little sense to send the latter one as first.
From here you just attack and deal as much damage as possible. Your opponent will be forced to deal with your powerful army so you'll try get the most value out of it (killing as many opponent unit as possible). If you succeed in crushing the opponent's army without much losses you can try ending the game by destroying his base, otherwise it's better to regroup yourself and send 1000w for a 2nd TC, upgrades, etc. A solid combo in mid fotress is skirms/rods/lancers but you can also add goons or do something less usual like rods/cannons.
Variations
The 700g 700w 5v build is basically the in between option in terms of eco, age up time and units produced in the transition. With that in mind it is possible to work on the card order to either increase the eco or to reduce the age up time. In that sense a list of other viable builds is:
- 5v 4v 700w: 8.00-8.30 age up, 10 musks, great eco.
- 700g 5v 700w: 7.30-7.50 age up, 5 dogs, good eco.
- 700g 700w 8 pikes: 7.30-7.50 age up, 10 musks dogs, poor eco.
The first one aims to get the best long term eco. Realistically it is only viable on Texas, or when you are 100% sure the opponent won't harass you.
The second one, is just a more greedy version of the usual build. Basically you assume 10 musks won't be that useful either for defending or even later in the game so you just skip them and make 5 dogs instead (they're very cost efficient units in defending a rush or simply protecting your cannons). You skip 700w as well and send 5v instead in order to get a bit of extra gathering time. I like this one.
The last one is what people do the most nowadays. You sacrifice the 5 vill cards (and perhaps 1 or more vills in the production queue) to get few more units out in the early stage and a little buff in your age up time. It goes without saying that this is an all-in approach since the eco behind the initial push will be way inferior to pretty much every strategy the opponent adopts. I personally don't like this one, but it makes sense sometimes when the opponent is the one who all-in rushes you.
Also, there are atleast 2 more builds that include an extra card in the discovery age. One is the fish booming FF which obviously involves the use of schooners card and the other one is the TP boom FF which instead implies the ATP card. Those cards replace the third card in the colonial age so that the build becomes something like ATP 700g 700w.
Other variables to consider are the number of villagers to produce before clicking on the age3 button and which politician to chose.
Regarding the first point I'd suggest to never cut the vill production unless by doing that you manage to defeat an otherwise unstoppable rush.
In reference to the second point, it is completely situational. With 10 musks it makes more sense to add 4 huss to the composition. Without them it is definitely better to choose the 8 pikemen as extra cover for your cannons. 400w+caravel politician only makes sense when there is no point in having an army boost early on, but this questions the usefulness of the FF in the first place.
______________________________________________________________________________
Musk/huss start
This is a very standard colonial build. You probably heard of this already so I'll be brief. Let me just say that whilst musk/huss is a valid option it also shows why Spain is a weak civ in TAD. Simply put, it is just suboptimal compared to the French or British counterpart. That's why you want to turn this build into a semi FF whenever it is possible (the gap with other civs tend to be closer in fortress rather than colonial).
The deck
Very standard deck with all the common cards in it. As opposed to the FF deck there are less unit shipments in the third age and more focus on long term cards.
The BO
- Discovery age
The start is the same as the previous strategy so just refer to it.
- Transition to colonial
You need quite some wood because of no 400w politician available so put not less than 10 vills on wood (often 12 to 16). Research gang saw and hunting dogs up from the market if you didn't yet. Ignore gold up for the moment.
From here I assume you start with a stable. Build one house and collect additional 200w . Then move 5 vills on gold and the rest on food.
- Colonial age
Send 700w. Build the stable with 2 food vills and use 1 gold vill to collect the 200g. Place the tower so that it covers 2nd hunt/mine (or in TC range if you're rushed).
Once 700w card arrives send 5 vills, make more houses and a barracks. Consider moving more vills to gold and researching placer mines and steel traps.
From here you can chose to semi FF or to stay in colonial and mass musketeers and hussars. In the first case send 700g and consider building a TP with the 700w (age up with 4 hussars). In the second case either send 4 vills, 600w or 700g. 8 pikemen or 6 rods are viable cards too but use them only if you really need to immediately boost your army count.
______________________________________________________________________________
Dual rax xbow/pike rush
Classic rush with archaic infantry. Once again if compared to the French one it may seems suboptimal. However in this case the Spanish archaic rush isn't that inferior to other civs' counterpart. That's because the rush is fueled mostly by the shipments so that Spain bonus proves to be quite useful. Also this strat makes good use of both the 500f politician and 8pikes/6rods cards.
The build I'll describe is meant for rush. To defend rushes there are better builds.
The deck
The deck is the same as the previous strategy but with few changes , namely the 700f card, the HI hp upgrade and the archaic infantry card in age1.
The BO
- Discovery age
Usual stuff again. Build an early market with 200w. This time age up with 500f politician.
- Transition to colonial
This strat requires tons of wood so put all vills on trees. Gather 100f for gang saw upgrade anyway. Build 1 house and be sure to have close to 400w and close to 100f. Send 2 vills for the forward base and switch 4-5 vills back to food. TC rally point is on food.
- Colonial age
Send 700w and 600w. Gather the food crates from the age up and queue a vill. Build the 2 raxes with forward vills.
Once 700w arrives build 1 house, queue 2 bows and build another house. Complete the batches when the units are about to pop out. Repeat with 600w.
Now you can chose from 700f or 8 pikes. 700f makes you spam more consistently for a while. 8 pikes let you siege earlier. I generally prefer the first one even though it's a weak card overall (but you can afford it because by this time Spain got an extra shipment).
From here usual cards are 5 vills, 4 vills and then 700g to switch on cav or economic theory to reinforce your eco. Once your eco starts kicking in you may want to switch to a more solid xbow/musks combo to fight musk/cav (generally Brits or Japan). Since you don't have upgrades for such units it's crucial to stay on top for the whole game. Sometimes it makes sense to capitalize your advantage by aging. Just be sure that by relieving the pressure you don't lose the game.
(to be continued)
