Port Standard Semi-FF (FP 1.0)
Posted: 05 Apr 2016, 20:11
Ctrl-c, ctrl-c from one of my replies to a post. Need help with timings from people with better macro than I, if you could put age up, Huss out, etc timings that'd be much appreciated, I'll edit them in. Also any other changes/modifications, eg a single dock strat variation for water, or a musk variant for vs TPs or vs Spain.
If anyone knows of a good rec for this strat please let me know.
Deck:
Start:
On 200w, get an early TP and chop for a house. Get wood treasures.
On 100w 100c, get early market, get 75c quickly and 50w. Trade 125c for 100w and build the house ASAP once you get the first 25c.
On 100w, just get a house.
On the first 2 age up on 14 vills, on 100w start age up on 13. Age with 400w.
Transition:
If you have the early TP already, chop 250w, get placer mines, mine 275c (you should aim to have 125 of the coin gathered by the time you age). Build a market and get hunting dogs + placer mines in transition.
If you started market, chop 300w, get a TP and placer mines, mine 225 coin (aim to have 125c ready upon aging again).
If you only started house, I'm not entirely sure what the best thing to do is, but I'd recommend gathering 350w and 150 gold for a TP + market and hunting dogs.
Vill allocations: Put almost all vills to wood immediately. Gather only 75 food over your age-up. Once you have placer mines you can start switching vills to gold. Be careful not to overgather on wood especially.
Age II:
Send your first shipment: 700c, followed immediately by 600c
Gather your 400w immediately. All your vills should be on food from now on other than the vills you've tasked to gather the remaining 100c, then swap these to food as well. Put your TC in a defensive position that secures at least one more hunt.
Get steel traps, a stable and a house with your age up wood. Queue one huss with your 100c and complete the batch when 700c comes. It's important to make sure you put enough vills on the crates to finish the huss batch and get a full 5 huss out. Only build vills from one TC for now.
After your 5 huss come out, continue to gather food and the 600c when it arrives and age up ASAP with the fast-aging politician.
You should get your next shipment before you age, exact timing depends on whether you got early TP or not. If you had to send MM, remember to gather the additional 150c.
Send your third shipment: 700w
Build a rax and houses from this wood.
Age III:
There are multiple routes from here. Typically you want to go heavy on the dragoons, but obviously adapt to their composition as you go. If they are trying to contain you and starve you out, try to send mams as your second or third shipment and push out. If you're not sure what to do, I typically like 8 cass first and prioritize goon batches. However, if you're facing an infantry comp like Japan, I'd ship 5 goons --> 1k coin --> Mams and push out after prioritizing cass production, just keeping a few goons around to protect against potential cav switches. The key is to get out Mams before you starve, this is arguably when Port's powerspike is the largest without going industrial.
Note on Ronin, and why I have it in my deck (this one at least): Typically you don't use this card since Mams are simply better. However, there are a few cases where Ronin can arguably be better, especially at lower ELOs. They absolutely destroy cav, especially low HP ones like Sowars, cossacks and ulhans, and can actually add appreciable siege to Port's comp. In matchups where you need to destroy infastructure to win, like vs China, Ronin can create more pressure than Mams and potentially do more damage.
If anyone knows of a good rec for this strat please let me know.
Deck:
Start:
On 200w, get an early TP and chop for a house. Get wood treasures.
On 100w 100c, get early market, get 75c quickly and 50w. Trade 125c for 100w and build the house ASAP once you get the first 25c.
On 100w, just get a house.
On the first 2 age up on 14 vills, on 100w start age up on 13. Age with 400w.
Transition:
If you have the early TP already, chop 250w, get placer mines, mine 275c (you should aim to have 125 of the coin gathered by the time you age). Build a market and get hunting dogs + placer mines in transition.
If you started market, chop 300w, get a TP and placer mines, mine 225 coin (aim to have 125c ready upon aging again).
If you only started house, I'm not entirely sure what the best thing to do is, but I'd recommend gathering 350w and 150 gold for a TP + market and hunting dogs.
Vill allocations: Put almost all vills to wood immediately. Gather only 75 food over your age-up. Once you have placer mines you can start switching vills to gold. Be careful not to overgather on wood especially.
Age II:
Send your first shipment: 700c, followed immediately by 600c
Gather your 400w immediately. All your vills should be on food from now on other than the vills you've tasked to gather the remaining 100c, then swap these to food as well. Put your TC in a defensive position that secures at least one more hunt.
Get steel traps, a stable and a house with your age up wood. Queue one huss with your 100c and complete the batch when 700c comes. It's important to make sure you put enough vills on the crates to finish the huss batch and get a full 5 huss out. Only build vills from one TC for now.
After your 5 huss come out, continue to gather food and the 600c when it arrives and age up ASAP with the fast-aging politician.
You should get your next shipment before you age, exact timing depends on whether you got early TP or not. If you had to send MM, remember to gather the additional 150c.
Send your third shipment: 700w
Build a rax and houses from this wood.
Age III:
There are multiple routes from here. Typically you want to go heavy on the dragoons, but obviously adapt to their composition as you go. If they are trying to contain you and starve you out, try to send mams as your second or third shipment and push out. If you're not sure what to do, I typically like 8 cass first and prioritize goon batches. However, if you're facing an infantry comp like Japan, I'd ship 5 goons --> 1k coin --> Mams and push out after prioritizing cass production, just keeping a few goons around to protect against potential cav switches. The key is to get out Mams before you starve, this is arguably when Port's powerspike is the largest without going industrial.
Note on Ronin, and why I have it in my deck (this one at least): Typically you don't use this card since Mams are simply better. However, there are a few cases where Ronin can arguably be better, especially at lower ELOs. They absolutely destroy cav, especially low HP ones like Sowars, cossacks and ulhans, and can actually add appreciable siege to Port's comp. In matchups where you need to destroy infastructure to win, like vs China, Ronin can create more pressure than Mams and potentially do more damage.