Source of old material:
https://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/for ... 9781,0,365
^this isn't clickable for some reason, just copy paste it into the search bar if interested (including the not underlined stuff)
BWKiC - The "Black Watch Kick in the Crotch"
This is an article describing a British Fast Fortress strategy. It plays similarly to a Piroshiki FF. It includes a build order and a recorded game against the AI.
Summary
clik up at 2:45 with outpost guy
click up at 5:20 with 400w + caravel guy
8 Black Watch + 2 Falconets at 7:58
Main Article:
Having trouble with the British? Eaten alive by that Spanish fast fortress? Wondering what keeps you coming back time and time again to such an underpowered civ as the Brits? Maybe it's time for a little help from the Black Watch!
I've tried colonial warfare, I've tried to boom... but both approaches seem doomed in the current FF and shipment-dominated gameplay. Playing with Brits was destroying my record and there seemed to be no way to make the wood-heavy, sluggish Brits get off the ground. What was wrong with them? What was wrong with me?
But giving up is for people who actually care about their record. Not I! To paraphrase Mokon, you get a lot further if you blame yourself than if you blame the civ.
So I sat down and I studied the Brits, wondering what could make their Fast Fortress competitive. I noticed that they had the following things going for them:
The 2 falconet card, an excellent card indeed.
The opportunity to create 8 Black Watch highlanders from the church VERY quickly. Highlanders are great anti-cav units and all-around bruisers.
The Black Watch will always be delivered, even when you don't have enough houses. (This is critical!)
The Black Watch are delivered in seconds, unlike conventional merc shipments, which take 1 full minute.
The Thin Red Line is also available from the church.
Excellent economic recovery due to the manor boom.
It is this combination of highlanders and falconets that is the basis of BWKiC. With good luck and a good map, you can get this lethal combination out anywhere from 7:20 (on Carolina), but typically around 7:45-8:15 in the heat of battle.
To pull this off, you MUST get a trading post ASAP, and you must perform a solid fast fortress. The advanced church must be shipped during the age to fortress, and the falconet card must be shipped as soon as you hit fortress. Even though you will not have sufficient housing, you can still research the Black Watch, and miracle of miracles, they still show up (presumably to sleep in boxes under an overpass.)
That's it -- the rest is all based off of that. There are 2 styles of BWKiC -- the aggressive style and the defensive style. In the aggressive style, we will sneak a forward tower to the enemy base and attempt to bring this highlander + falconet combo right to the enemy's door as close to pre-8:00 as possible.
First some warnings: This is a fun build that could possibly be a nice cheese strategy in a competitive environment. British normally does an 8/9 minute timing push anyways, albeit a colonial one. Never attempt this strategy on a map without a trading post.
The Deck:
Note: This is a modified build order, the original was a TWC build and the timings and exact order were not accurate on the RE/EP patch. For instance churches costed 250w, tps costed 250w, there was a different crate orientation etc.
3 vills to hunts and 3 to food crates. Note that if animals are close enough, you do not need to herd on your first shot. Queue villagers!
Collect wood crates once food crates exhausted. Once done, set all three crate collectors to wood. A villager will just have finished training, causing you to now have 4 hunters total and 3 woodcutters total.
Build a trading post with your explorer before building a manor house.
Set your TC gather point to food.
As soon as 135 is acquired, build a manor and switch all villagers to food. If the house is built with two villagers, it will not cause any idle time and the 3 villagers shipment can be sent on time.
First Card: 3 Villagers
Stop producing villagers at 15 (including the ones from your card.) Eat, eat, eat. Strongly consider eating some livestock (i.e. sheep and cattle) if you feel it will speed you up here.
Age up as soon as you have 800 food age with The Governor for 1 tower + 200 gold. (2:45)
Make sure you have 100 gold before reaching colonial. If you do not, task 3 villagers to gold by your town center.
Task 3 vills to wood by your town center, transfer two of the gold miners to wood as soon as you have 100, and put one back on food. This will keep 5 villagers under your town center for quick crate gathering
Do not queue villagers once in colonial. As soon as you hit colonial, send your 2nd card: 700 gold. Gather this gold, along with the 200 gold from aging up with all villagers near the tc (5).
Place a forward tower with the wagon. Age to fortress using The Admiral of the Ocean Sea. He gives 400 wood and a caravel. I send this even on a land map. (5:20)
During the transition to fortress, 11 vills on food, 5 on wood. The first 135 wood is used on a manor house, next 100 is used on a church.
As soon as you are able, play your 3rd card: The Glorious Revolution (advanced church card.)
You have now hit fortress age. You should have another shipment ready (thanks to your trading post.) Ship your 4th card: 2 Falconets.
Call the Black Watch from your church. Do NOT do this before you have shipped falconets. You will be over pop limit, but you can still call the Black Watch (it's magic!) Set the shipment arrival point to your tower. Also, try to get your caravel either fishing, whaling, or perhaps even harassing for an economy boost.
Attack with 8 highlanders + 2 falconets (8:00)
When attacking, you must use the highlanders to protect your falconets! They are great anti-cavalry.
From here many things can be done.
For a later push, (9:30ish) wait for 9 Highlanders/10 Jaegers in addition to the 8 Highlanders + 2 falconets.
For a more eco intensive build, start house booming while shipping either 8 villagers/1000 wood or more military. Tune your shipments to your enemy -- 5 huss, 9 muskets, 9 highlanders, 10 jaegers, etc.
From there, it's up to you! You should have a jumping economy at this point.
Optional: Research The Thin Red Line (no cost, at the church for extra hitpoints at the cost of speed.) This is useful when under the enemy's TC or in a decisive fight. If a fight will be lost if you don't research this technology, there is no point in not doing it. You could either win the fight and have slower units, or you could lose the fight and the game.
Feedback is appreciated, and once again this guide is not my brainchild. All I did was modify it to fit the current patch.
Edit: In my recording I refused to pick up any treasures, including the 30g muskrat treasures near my base in order to show a baseline for the strategy. The timing push will only get faster with treasures.
