Road to Colonel

[Kaiserklein]

Well there's several situations where you want crows though, especially against a turtle, or against any civ that doesn't have culvs basically

[deleted_user]

Aoe is just a bad gaem

[Cometk]

ATTENTION EVERYONE! Sensei has officially reached Top 5 Dead or Alive on the ESOC leaderboard.
Please send your congratulations his way by typing "what a civ" in this thread!

[princeofcarthage]

What a civ

[lemmings121]

FI should actually beat the VC ff.

how tho? any recs of that?

Tried it few days ago vs someone my level, and even tho the Fi was kinda fast, by that time brit already has a really large fortress age musk/huss/lb, with insane eco behind

[Astaroth]

Serious question, why does skirmisher get memed so much? I don't know him well, but checking out his stream randomly, his macro/decision making/timing seem really good and his micro isn't horrible.

[Challenger_Marco]

What a civ

[aligator92]

Serious question, why does skirmisher get memed so much? I don't know him well, but checking out his stream randomly, his macro/decision making/timing seem really good and his micro isn't horrible.

I guess because, one year ago he was still a lousy lieutenant, then he started playing china and became colonel

[Astaroth]

I haven't followed closely, but I'm pretty sure he was pr 30+ with France. Reagrdless, Rohbrot became colonel in 6 months.

If China was so OP, we would see it used successfully much mire often, also in tournaments.

[Hazza54321]

Theyre just a type of civ noobs can easily get better with. easy to “micro” army, mastermind build order everygame, great units and free units.

[aligator92]

I haven't followed closely, but I'm pretty sure he was pr 30+ with France. Reagrdless, Rohbrot became colonel in 6 months.

If China was so OP, we would see it used successfully much mire often, also in tournaments.

He has obviously improved massively with other civs aswell but it was going mono-china which started his rise

[[Armag] diarouga]

Ye, China is probably the best civ if you want to reach colonel because it doesn't require a great micro, nor a great game knowledge. Still, macro and defense are quite important, and the guys who reach colonel with China have the same macro/defensive skills as the other colonels, if not better.

[Challenger_Marco]

Ye, China is probably the best civ if you want to reach colonel because it doesn't require a great micro, nor a great game knowledge. Still, macro and defense are quite important, and the guys who reach colonel with China have the same macro/defensive skills as the other colonels, if not better.

i did disagree with game knowledge though ,i can play china but can't win ,prolly not knowing when to push or unit positioning/micro fail.

[Astaroth]

Yeah, I mean I don't want to defend skirmisher here all the time, I don't even know the guy, but in the few games I've checked out of him vs Soldier, his defense, macro and decision making were really good for the most part.

Eg I see even top players make big mistakes as China vs age2 Aztec or Russia just massing units, as in pushing too early in age3 and then get stomped by coyotes, mass of coss etc. Skirmisher in two games instead just went age4 in one and massed army carefully in the other.

These things might seem obvious, but they are done wrong so many times.

[Challenger_Marco]

I haven't followed closely, but I'm pretty sure he was pr 30+ with France. Reagrdless, Rohbrot became colonel in 6 months.

If China was so OP, we would see it used successfully much mire often, also in tournaments.

Not everyone can china their way to brigadier easily ,skirmisher is prolly the best china player ,no one has ever played as much china games recently.

[jesus3]

CometK: Am I no one to you?

[Challenger_Marco]

Yeah, I mean I don't want to defend skirmisher here all the time, I don't even know the guy, but in the few games I've checked out of him vs Soldier, his defense, macro and decision making were really good for the most part.

Eg I see even top players make big mistakes as China vs age2 Aztec or Russia just massing units, as in pushing too early in age3 and then get stomped by coyotes, mass of coss etc. Skirmisher in two games instead just went age4 in one and massed army carefully in the other.

These things might seem obvious, but they are done wrong so many times.

I think Soldier was way too passive on those games ,Technically china shouldn't be able to age 4 easily vs russia or any hard mu for china.

[Challenger_Marco]

CometK: Am I no one to you?

Let him reach colonel first it's hard path ,but his real skill level is prolly lt colo and he has ability to improve drastically.

[Cometk]

Game 15
Chinese vs Indians on Manchac
June 1st, 2020

This was a gruesome game. I go for a Semi-FF to hold his expected pressure. My defense is pretty bad as his 4 Sowars put in more work than they should've been allowed, but I also get a solid 7 Steppe pop as I'm going Fortress that puts Sputnik on the backfoot. He's also committing to the Colonial agenda with Gurkha/Zamb, which is very favorable for me. I bungle my control a lot in Fortress age but my units are just vastly superior so Sputnik takes the L.

Game 16
Chinese vs Indians on Mendocino
June 1st, 2020

I get quite fortunate that Sputnik doesn't go for early pressure here, because rewatching it my execution of my elected build order is quite poor. I age up ~30 seconds late, idle my TC a lot while under no pressure whatsoever, and would've folded to the rush anyway because I didn't wall or get a second village. Anyway, Sputnik didn't rush, instead just chose to take down my TP. We both go Fortress, and he goes for Howdah production. I push his FB and get a decent trade to start off with, but then Urumi pop out a bit later and the trade goes slightly negative for me, and I also lose my mass at this point. I'm still gathering however and can remass, and as long as I don't lose the fights from hereon out and can continue to work my mass up, I should be okay. I'm also aware that Sputnik went up with the Ceasefire wonder, so as long as I'm winning the Skirm war I can exercise a lead.

Even better, Sputnik forgot his Veteran Gurkha upgrade for a very long time. That was game losing tbh and explains why his Gurkha mass kept getting whittled by my Arquebusier. Being able to win the skirm engagements definitely informed how we played this match around the map - I was never pushed off of resources, and at some point towards the end of the game I'm able to take down a TC location of Sputnik's, kill 30 vills and win the fight to boot. Despite some tactical mistakes on my side I end up getting hugely rewarded because of one mishap from my opponent.
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[iNcog]

This thread deserves to be printed into a book.

[Cometk]

Game 17
Chinese vs French on Kamchatka Winter
June 1st, 2020

I think it was just a personal metagame sort of thing but I felt comfortable going for a Chinese rush here. My opponent doesn't do well to defend it and I get a sizable lead early in the game, and it's hard for him to find a way back in.
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Game 18
Chinese vs Indians on Mendocino
June 1st, 2020

Another metagaming thing - I know Sargsyan will go for Karni Mata to Age 2, and harass me with Sepoys later in Colonial. I go up with the 8 Skirm wonder and play early Fortress very aggressively. I get a big raid off while he's busy managing his harassment sepoys, and he loses 5-6v at the 9 minute mark. His ageup time seems slow and I lambaste the front of his base with Chinese units. I do sort of choke at one point and lose my mass to Mahouts but by now I'm so vastly ahead that I don't have to care.

Game 19
Chinese vs Indians on Bengal
June 1st, 2020

Again, I know he's gonna go up Karni Mata which leaves him vulnerable to a rush. I execute on that and it's hard for my opponent to hold.
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[Cometk]

Game 20
Chinese vs Indians on Manchuria
June 1st, 2020

I see my opponent going up very slowly/for a no pressure BO so I want to go for a bit of Age 2 aggression to get the leg up in Fortress. Unfortunately my execution is quite bad, as I don't have a forward village, and get tactically outplayed by my opponent's focus fire on my Pikes and a 4 Sowar pop. This puts me a fair bit behind.

Resource-wise, the first engagement in Fortress age goes extremely well for me. However, my ranged mass had been greatly dwindled, and my opponent still had 5 Howdahs left on the field while instead I had 12 China cav. So I'm forced to go back while I wait for my ranged mass to stack up, and I lost a lot of units in the process as well. Looking at it retroactively, I'm still in a really good position, as we're on equal scores and I have Iron Troops otw.

However, due to really poor map awareness, I am extending out on the map vertically, which opens me up to huge risk as I'm forced to defend midmap resources. It's impossible for me to do at this point, and I lose a TC and 10 vills. Little did I know I had a fucking 5k coin mine tucked at the back of my base, which would've been the (extremely) optimal position for a town center, without any risk whatsoever.

Losing these 10v at this point didn't mean much to me, as I already felt so behind. But I think that if I didn't make this mistake and continued massing up and harassing Opti at various points around the map I still stood a good chance at taking this game.

For one, going for this sort of colonial pressure is most likely a negative EV play when I can simply naked FF and play a bit greedier in early Fortress. That doesn't even put me behind his India eco gameplay, as I'll have a ~40 vill eco equivalent at the 8 minute mark. Then it comes down to playing the early fortress engagements intelligently, which was very accomplishable.
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[[Armag] diarouga]

Ye, just don't ff with the porcelain tower if you can. With repelling volleys and infantry combat, you should smash India in fortress.

[Cometk]

Game 21
Chinese vs French on Gran Chaco
June 1st, 2020

No TP map so I don't feel comfortable going for a very expected FF vs a stronger opponent who will know how to outplay. Instead I send 700w first in Age 2 and follow it up with a unit shipment, and am pushing his base at the 6 minute mark. It goes reasonably well as I temporarily deny his barracks and destroy a house, however at the 6:40 mark he has 8 Huss on the field, calls MM, and with nice control he crushes my 6 pike/7 steppe army. It's not the end of the world though, I have 9 qiang on the way and am still wading the outside of his base. It's getting to about the 9 minute mark in-game so I'm distributing to send 700c next and go up myself. This was a really bad call, as on the other hand my opponent is assembling for a timing push with rolling unit shipments otw (8 xbow and 3 huss). My XP curve feels ridiculously slow, and because I stopped massing units I'm in a really sad spot to defend my forward village and war academy. I cancel 700c and send 8 CKN instead but by now I've kinda screwed myself.
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[Cometk]

Game 22
Chinese vs Iroquois on Tassili
June 1st, 2020

I went for a Semi-FF - here, in hindsight, my build order was pretty bad. I went for 700w/700c/8 bow, but this left me quite vulnerable to his push on my base at the 7:20 minute mark. Just doing 700w/8 bow/700c would've felt a lot better holding this pressure, and it wouldn't have compromised my ageup time either.

Even though I don't manage the Age 2 engagements as well as is probably possible, my opponent never goes for the deathblow so I'm still in a good spot. He seems rather late to go up himself as well, only reaching Fortress at 13 minutes. By then I've got Iron Troops on the field and am able to start applying pressure. He's really behind due to this late ageup and the decisive fight goes handily in my favor.
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