Base Trading

[macacoalbino]

So guys, I have wondered about it a bit. I understand this is not discussed too much because it's not part of an average AoE3 game - as it's kinda cheesy. But i ended up in this type of situation more often than I'd like, and I realized I have no course of action planed for when this happens
So here are my questions:

1. When would this be a viable option?
2. What should I try to kill first once I'm in the enemy's base?
3. How should I hide my villagers? (keep working, bring them with the army or go to the edges?)
4. Reconstructing society: which buildings are the most important to remake? (towers, tc, houses, military facilities, market, saloon?)
5. What if I am being base traded? Should I stay or should I go?

Thanks for the input!

[deleted_user]

It's entirely, 100% situational. Warning, I use male pronouns throughout the entirety of this reply.

1) Depends: Probably when he is in your base and you are close to his base and you think you are able to inflict more damage to him than he to you. Sometimes you almost have no choice but to base trade because the time to travel back to defend will lose you the game outright because of the damage he has already done.

2) Depends: on army size, army composition (can you siege fast), what he needs. For instance, if he has a lot of vills belled up in TC and you can kill it fast, go for that. Else houses vs high pop civs is a good choice, military buildings too.

3) Depends: where is your army and where is his army and where are the available resources? Can you safely move villagers towards you or do you have to hide them until his army is elsewhere?

4) Depends: do you have shipments ready that will greatly influence game? Get a way point first. How many villagers do you have? How many and what resources are you stockpiling? Will more army out right crush his and win you the game or do you need to reestablish eco?

5) Depends: see point 1

[yemshi]

People don't base trade enough. If you have less army just base trade. The best thing that could potentially happen is that he tries to defend, worst thing is a sandwich.
Important things for a base trade:
LOS
Raiding in many places
Eliminating choke points
Luring people into choke points
Prioritizing: Does he defend? If he does, keep him on track, try to deny potential ageups. Does he attack?
Split up vills in order to have the superior eco. You are already behind in res.
Multitasking. Rather save vills than killing them. You might just be better off not putting everything into control groups.

[sirmusket]

Base trade OP, if you have more siege potential you can sometimes base trade and possibly win just off that if you defend your own base in time

[P i k i l i c]

Base trading is funny
German mirrors too

Therefore this video made me happy [spoiler=spoiler][video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4AWOtfdLc[/video][/spoiler]
@EAGLEMUT

notification

[tedere12]

Black_XIIT does this slow ff with many castles in his base as japan vs semi ff. He masses ashi and when you are close to hisbase trying to to some damage, he sieges ur tc with ashis.

[lemmings121]

Black_XIIT does this slow ff with many castles in his base as japan vs semi ff. He masses ashi and when you are close to hisbase trying to to some damage, he sieges ur tc with ashis.

yes that guy loved a base trade...
also, japan is great for base trading, shrines keep some eco, ashis run arround killing stuff and sieging..

[gh0st]

Warning, I use male pronouns throughout the entirety of this reply.

I sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of soaring over the oilfields dropping hot sticky loads on disgusting foreigners. People say to me that a person being a helicopter is Impossible and I'm fucking retarded but I don't care, I'm beautiful. I'm having a plastic surgeon install rotary blades, 30 mm cannons and AMG-114 Hellfire missiles on my body. From now on I want you guys to call me "Apache" and respect my right to kill from above and kill needlessly. If you can't accept me you're a heliphobe and need to check your vehicle privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.

Just when I thought this guy couldn't get any weirder.

[SoldieR]

Base trading is funny
German mirrors too

Therefore this video made me happy [spoiler=spoiler][video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4AWOtfdLc[/video][/spoiler]
@EAGLEMUT

notification

what a tease!

[P i k i l i c]

what a tease!

Haha, I meant, the win or loss doesnt matter here, since the game was good

[pecelot]

Well, the title already spoils it, so what's the deal?

[EAGLEMUT]

Well, the title already spoils it, so what's the deal?

What title?

[pecelot]

of your video

[EAGLEMUT]

of your video

[AOE3] EAGLEMUT vs Phish german mirror - the base trade

I don't see how that spoils who won..? Well, unless people remember the match from elsewhere ofc.

[gibson]

ENTER THE GREAT PHISH

[pecelot]

of your video

[AOE3] EAGLEMUT vs Phish german mirror - the base trade

I don't see how that spoils who won..? Well, unless people remember the match from elsewhere ofc.

Soldier implied that pikilic's words about the base trading spoiled the game, but it's already in the title. No one said anything about the winner.

[P i k i l i c]

Soldier implied that pikilic's words about the base trading spoiled the game, but it's already in the title. No one said anything about the winner.

Really ? If this was what he meant, sorry for misunderstanding. But, well, this is a thread about base trading, so, what do you expect from a video you find there

[howlingwolfpaw]

I find base trading a common tactic I use in FFA, basically you never want to accept that the battle be happening at your walls, if you allow it most likely you will slip and fall at some point. So I always send a party however large to begin to attack their base as soon as they attack mine if I can. If i am traveling and I have bad units like gurkas I will delete them and send my tigers and heros back to my base to defend.

Defense in a base trade is important. And it can be advantageous if equal or above in score to delete a few villies. Basically the reasoning is if he gets in and kills off your town he most likely will get the villies anyway, but if you can use a over poped army to defend and attack then you can beat him back and take his base, then rebuild. hopefully without losing too much infrastructure yourself.

another tactic good with aztecs is to save your big buttons. if you are attacked, use your army to attack their base then use big buttons to defend yours. this works quite well. I like to save the big buttons for emergencies like this.

base trades are risky but sometimes the only choice.

[macacoalbino]

Thanks for your ideas guys!
I think base trading can be a legit strat at times. After I seeing it happen a lot more in SC2 compared to AoE3, I started wondering how viable it could be in here.
The thing is ehen I do basetrade I always find myself lost in the one million decisions you have to take in a splitsecond. Now I'm trying to learn some fundamentals to keep in mind while doing it...

[lemmings121]

Thanks for your ideas guys!
I think base trading can be a legit strat at times. After I seeing it happen a lot more in SC2 compared to AoE3, I started wondering how viable it could be in here.
The thing is ehen I do basetrade I always find myself lost in the one million decisions you have to take in a splitsecond. Now I'm trying to learn some fundamentals to keep in mind while doing it...

i think in starcraft is much more viable because everything has a huge dps compared to aoe... the time an average skirm goon army takes to siege one tc is enough for a full base to be detroyed 3 times in sc xD also, in sc you dont have to kill the army if you somehow kill all the buildings....

[howlingwolfpaw]

honestly i think that is a down side to SC2. it makes games fast paced but much harder to use counter units. I also think it is less clear in SC2 how unit counters work and they seem to be better vs each other all around. one look away from the screen and so much can be lost.

[Ikilled4penguins]

Anticipation is key. Make sure you save your villls. If his army has more seige than your army, build small circular walls around your tc. 1 layer with gate could cost as low as 75 wood. This wall could even scare him into a retreat back to his base, in which case you prob kill his base