Age 1 Cards without Villagers

[Jeedos]

What are the best Age 1 cards to send when 3 villagers (or equivalent) isn't optimal / available?

Mainly thinking of Portuguese, Russians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese.

Portuguese: Resource crate, save for age 2, eco theory, ATP or colonial militia.
Russians: Wood trickle?
Indians: Trickle
Chinese: Hope you get lucky with a wood treasure for a second village then send Refugees
Japs: Heavenly Kami

[momuuu]

Chinese: chop 100w and ship the villager card, dont actually need to get lucky with treasures
Russia: definitely wood trickle
India: wood trickle no contest
Japan: heavenly kami, 3 fishing boats and I honestly think 2vills and 300w can work sometimes.

[tedere12]

I like 300 wood with russia more

[P i k i l i c]

Explorer card on Yukon with Russia and maybe Ports

[Jeedos]

Chinese: chop 100w and ship the villager card, dont actually need to get lucky with treasures
Russia: definitely wood trickle
India: wood trickle no contest
Japan: heavenly kami, 3 fishing boats and I honestly think 2vills and 300w can work sometimes.

And Portuguese? Situational I imagine. ATP, Eco Theory and Colonial Militia are all viable options dependent on the match up / map.

[Jeedos]

Explorer card on Yukon with Russia and maybe Ports

Portuguese explorer card does seem quite average in comparison to the Russian one? The Russian one gives way more in terms of treasure guardian killing than Portuguese one, which just gives him the standard pupper and an improved spyglass.

[momuuu]

Chinese: chop 100w and ship the villager card, dont actually need to get lucky with treasures
Russia: definitely wood trickle
India: wood trickle no contest
Japan: heavenly kami, 3 fishing boats and I honestly think 2vills and 300w can work sometimes.

And Portuguese? Situational I imagine. ATP, Eco Theory and Colonial Militia are all viable options dependent on the match up / map.

Atp if possible, otherwise Id consider 300w, I personally dont like eco theory.

[macacoalbino]

As china, you can make a tp with the starting wood, chop 100w for a village and send Northern refugees for 2 vills in some MUs. It doesnt help with the FF time but you get na extra card which is nice

[P i k i l i c]

@Jeedos

notification

yes, its why I said "maybe". It could still be funny to have an improved spyglass, but not that useful, so yes, ATP sould be better

[pecelot]

For Ports and Russia of course schooners as well, for the latter perhaps also ATP. Explorer cards I like a lot, I sent one today on Yukon and was able to get rid of the Chinese monk and grab some juicy treasures as a result. It didn't even arrive that late — after the first TP pass and a small XP treasure. Also, I'm of the opinion that the Russian Polar Explorer card is rather superior to the Portuguese Navigator one, as the former provides you with a bonus for your hero against treasure guardians. There's always a 300 wood option, for Russia it's rather cheesy and for all-ins.

[yemshi]

Or Stagecoach FF's.
Good Texas build. Get market, HD, and two TP's in Age I, chop another 100w for a third.

[milku3459]

Wait what is different about Russia's buff explorer? vodka?? What are the bonuses for different civ's explorers? I know Ports get better spyglass and Dutch get cheap TCs

[yemshi]

Russia: Treasure guardian multiplier
French: Healing ability (Age II)
Brits: Swashbuckler (Age II)
Ports: Better Spyglass range
Otto: +1 Speed
Germans: +50% building rate (TC, TP)
Dutch: -50% Wood on TC's
Spanish: +20% on Dogs

All give +50% Explorer HP and a dog (except Spanish one)

[Jeedos]

Russia: Treasure guardian multiplier
French: Healing ability (Age II)
Brits: Swashbuckler (Age II)
Ports: Better Spyglass range
Otto: +1 Speed
Germans: +50% building rate (TC, TP)
Dutch: -50% Wood on TC's
Spanish: +20% on Dogs

All give +50% Explorer HP and a dog (except Spanish one)

Russian and Spanish are maybe the best ones?

[deleted_user0]

Ruski explo card is rly viable in yukon

[momuuu]

Russia: Treasure guardian multiplier
French: Healing ability (Age II)
Brits: Swashbuckler (Age II)
Ports: Better Spyglass range
Otto: +1 Speed
Germans: +50% building rate (TC, TP)
Dutch: -50% Wood on TC's
Spanish: +20% on Dogs

All give +50% Explorer HP and a dog (except Spanish one)

Russian and Spanish are maybe the best ones?

The dutch one is pretty great if youre doing a colonial militia six bank 3 tc FI on yukon xd

[yemshi]

Ruski explo card is rly viable in yukon

And on Himalayas/Siberia is considerable. Gotta have the scouting information though.

[momuuu]

Maybe sometimes on hudson bay. Hudson can have insane treasures.

[pecelot]

I'd rather send it on Yukon and Saguenay/Hudson, Siberia seems too large + you can pick big treasures in a bit different way

[yemshi]

150c, 30% hero HP, 195f etc, 110w. That's not worth to wall.
And once there's mongol riders involved you got a problem as well.

[Imperial Noob]

Russia: Treasure guardian multiplier
French: Healing ability (Age II)
Brits: Swashbuckler (Age II)
Ports: Better Spyglass range
Otto: +1 Speed
Germans: +50% building rate (TC, TP)
Dutch: -50% Wood on TC's
Spanish: +20% on Dogs

All give +50% Explorer HP and a dog (except Spanish one)

Russian and Spanish are maybe the best ones?

The dutch one is pretty great if youre doing a colonial militia six bank 3 tc FI on yukon xd

or playing Lost
Also... isn't this revivable explorer dog + explorer stat boost somewhat equivalent to 3 hussar after short time? I especially mean the british one (melee attack) and the french one (unit HP recovery) In cav-focused games and meta in general rather not, but in match-ups against melee civs like Germany, Aztec or against infantry civs (Otto, Aztec again) etc. I suspect it could be adapted into certain strategies as a casual card...

[pecelot]

150c, 30% hero HP, 195f etc, 110w. That's not worth to wall.
And once there's mongol riders involved you got a problem as well.

You have bigger ones, on Siberia there are of course no Mongol Scouts.

[drsingh]

What do you guys think about the explorer card for india?
50% combat+ enable train tiger

[yemshi]

It's 60%. Still not viable. Tigers are too expensive at that point znd the elifents still go down.

[yemshi]

150c, 30% hero HP, 195f etc, 110w. That's not worth to wall.
And once there's mongol riders involved you got a problem as well.

You have bigger ones, on Siberia there are of course no Mongol Scouts.

Yeah, but for the bigger ones you don't need the Hero card :p
I might have confused some names. But I'm pretty sure that the horse cavalry with that bow is called mongol rider. Correct me if I'm wrong though. Fact is: Once you have two of them your boxing doesn't work. Crackshoting one leaves one which might kill you since you are likely to have less than your starting 400HP.