Saloon semi-ff
Effective Against: Semi-FF
Weak Against: Mid Colonial or Early Fortress timing (~9 min)
Acceptable Against: Eco-heavy civilizations
**Special Cases: Otto, Japan (Club Rush), All-in Aggression
Deck
Saloon Briefing
A short explanation about the saloon is necessary here, as it is a very peculiar building, and not very well known by many players.
The saloon lets you produce, in the Colonial Age, units called "outlaws". Those units generally take a lot of population space (until 7 sometimes!), are cheaper than they should be (to compensate for the insane population needed), cost only gold (like all saloon units), and have a very awkward shooting animation (at least for infantry outlaws), making it almost impossible to hit-and-run. Outlaws are NOT mercenaries! They will not be countered by spies or ninjas, and they will not benefit from the Advanced Mercenaries card.
It is also important to point out that they do not spawn randomly. Every map has a given pair of outlaws (though a few maps will let you produce only one kind of outlaw). Outlaws can only be infantry (pikeman-, musketeer- or skirmisher-type units) or ranged cavalry. Most maps have at least one anti-cavalry outlaw. Knowing which outlaws will spawn on a given map will help you a lot; indeed, you don't want to spend 200 wood in Colonial on a saloon that might actually be useless in a given match-up. This wiki page lists the outlaws and their respective maps, so if you're not sure which outlaws spawn on a map, you know what to do now.
However, outlaws aren't the only units you can find in the saloon. Upon Fortress and/or Industrial Age, you will be able to produce two mercenaries in there. Those mercenaries spawn randomly, regardless of the map. You can find the list here (if you wish to find further information about a mercenary, just click on its link). Please note that you need to send a card in order to make Ronins; they will never spawn in the saloon. Moreover, you won't be able to produce Jat Lancers, Iron Troops and Yojimbos, as they are available to asian civilizations only.
I am now going to briefly present the mercenaries:
- Mamelukes, Elmetis and Li'l Bombards are unlocked upon Industrial Age. As it is highly unlikely that you ever reach that age, we might as well forget about those guys and focus on the Fortress mercs. For the record, don't ever train Li'l Bombard, you would regret it.
- Arsonists are bugged. They don't have that "Mercenary" tag. Therefore, they will not benefit from the "Advanced Mercenaries" card, making them even worse than they already are. Don't produce those guys. (Edit: fixed on ep now)
- Landsknechts are just bad, they're too slow to do anything. Winning a game with them is a very infuriating challenge. Same for ninjas, they're a niche unit countering other mercs as well as explorers, which is barely useful in most games.
- All other mercs are at least half-decent, though it depends a lot on the match-up. Jaegers, highlanders, manchus, black riders, stradiots and hackapells are the best mercenaries you can hope for.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that you can make only one saloon, and that the training time for most mercenaries/outlaws is rather long.
The saloon lets you produce, in the Colonial Age, units called "outlaws". Those units generally take a lot of population space (until 7 sometimes!), are cheaper than they should be (to compensate for the insane population needed), cost only gold (like all saloon units), and have a very awkward shooting animation (at least for infantry outlaws), making it almost impossible to hit-and-run. Outlaws are NOT mercenaries! They will not be countered by spies or ninjas, and they will not benefit from the Advanced Mercenaries card.
It is also important to point out that they do not spawn randomly. Every map has a given pair of outlaws (though a few maps will let you produce only one kind of outlaw). Outlaws can only be infantry (pikeman-, musketeer- or skirmisher-type units) or ranged cavalry. Most maps have at least one anti-cavalry outlaw. Knowing which outlaws will spawn on a given map will help you a lot; indeed, you don't want to spend 200 wood in Colonial on a saloon that might actually be useless in a given match-up. This wiki page lists the outlaws and their respective maps, so if you're not sure which outlaws spawn on a map, you know what to do now.
However, outlaws aren't the only units you can find in the saloon. Upon Fortress and/or Industrial Age, you will be able to produce two mercenaries in there. Those mercenaries spawn randomly, regardless of the map. You can find the list here (if you wish to find further information about a mercenary, just click on its link). Please note that you need to send a card in order to make Ronins; they will never spawn in the saloon. Moreover, you won't be able to produce Jat Lancers, Iron Troops and Yojimbos, as they are available to asian civilizations only.
I am now going to briefly present the mercenaries:
- Mamelukes, Elmetis and Li'l Bombards are unlocked upon Industrial Age. As it is highly unlikely that you ever reach that age, we might as well forget about those guys and focus on the Fortress mercs. For the record, don't ever train Li'l Bombard, you would regret it.
- Arsonists are bugged. They don't have that "Mercenary" tag. Therefore, they will not benefit from the "Advanced Mercenaries" card, making them even worse than they already are. Don't produce those guys. (Edit: fixed on ep now)
- Landsknechts are just bad, they're too slow to do anything. Winning a game with them is a very infuriating challenge. Same for ninjas, they're a niche unit countering other mercs as well as explorers, which is barely useful in most games.
- All other mercs are at least half-decent, though it depends a lot on the match-up. Jaegers, highlanders, manchus, black riders, stradiots and hackapells are the best mercenaries you can hope for.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that you can make only one saloon, and that the training time for most mercenaries/outlaws is rather long.
Build Order
Card Order(s):
Palatine Settlements (Age 2)
3SW (Age 2)
700w (Age 2)
Advanced Mercenaries or 1000g (Age 3)
This non-standard build relies entirely on a single military building: the saloon. The idea is to safely reach the Fortress Age, while being very greedy in Colonial, in order to produce only upgraded mercenaries. This build abuses the fact that most mercenaries are stronger than regular units, and that they benefit from a very strong homecity card (Advanced Mercenaries) granting them an extra 20% HP and attack, scaling on their (already scary) Fortress stats. Moreover, mercenaries cost gold exclusively, making the macro for this build very easy and efficient; although it requires a lot of mapcontrol, since the mines will run out of gold extremely fast.
Age 1
- Age with 17-18 villager population and the Quartermaster (400w) politician.
Transition
You want to have a TP and a market with Hunting Dogs + Placer Mines, as well as 125w banked.
Age 2
- Use your 400w + 125w for a Saloon and 3 houses. Keep the 25w for later (so you actually don't need to chop that while aging up, but it's just easier to chop all the wood at once, and usually won't hurt your first batch of units).
- Send Palatine Settlements. This card will make your houses contain 30 population space instead of 10. You now have 130 population space.
- Queue an outlaw in your saloon. As soon as Palatine Settlements comes in, you'll be able to finish your batch.
Usually, the outlaws you want to produce are Renegados/Thugees (skirm-type units), Comancheros (dragoon-type unit) or Pistoleros/Dacoïts (musk-type units). Some maps will let you produce two of these guys; you will choose depending on the match-up.
All other outlaws are more or less garbage.
After Palatine Settlements, ship 3 SW, then 700w. From this wood, you can get Amalgamation and Steel Traps, as well as another TP. You will have an extra 200w: this wood can be used for a stagecoach on some maps (in which case you might delay Amalgamation and another TP instead), or to rebuild/repair buildings after a push. Just keep it if you have no use for it at the moment, it will most likely be useful later.
You can usually train between 5 and 15 outlaws, depending on what your opponent is doing. For example, if he goes for a simple hussar semi-FF, a 5 comancheros semi-FF should be enough to get some free kills and age up safely. On the other hand, against a musk/huss rush, you would rather mix comancheros/renegados and age up a bit later. Either way, if you don't make more than 15 outlaws, you usually gather all the resources to age up to the Fortress Age; otherwise, you can afford to ship 700g and still have a shipment ready upon Fortress Age.
Transition
Keep 4 villagers on food, and switch all others to gold. This will let you produce villagers constantly, while getting the optimal mass of mercenaries out. If you feel like your opponent will push you soon, escape some of your villagers/SW on some other goldmines on the map, so that you can still gather if your opponent comes in your base.
Age 3
- Start producing the mercenary of your choice.
- Ship Advanced Mercenaries if you think you will be able to get away with it. Otherwise, ship 1000g.
At this point, you're likely to get pushed, because you aged up pretty slowly (usually without 700g) and with only a few outlaws. Therefore, you might need to ship 1000g to fuel your mass, because some of your villagers will be idled in your towncenter (even if you escaped a few, you need to keep some in your base, so that your opponent doesn't come in an empty base and realize your villagers are spread on the map). Thanks to these gold crates, you should be able to queue a big batch of mercenaries, or even to ship a mercenaries shipment (usually hackapells, jaegers or blackrider, depending on what you need) if you're not satisfied by the mercenaries available in the saloon.
However, the card that you ultimately want to ship is Advanced Mercenaries, because it makes your mercenaries way scarier. Try to fight only once this card was sent, in order to get the best possible trades with your mercenaries. If you shipped 1000g and/or a mercenaries shipment, send Advanced Mercenaries right after.
Consider shipping Royal Mint after that, as it will grant you a 25% gathering boost on gold, which is a huge boost when most of your vils are on coin, and will still work if you have switch to plantations later on. Also consider shipping Land Grab when you have to switch to plantations, as it will let you save 320w per plantation, and you might need 3 or 4 of them. The church card (20% more speed/10% more cost for all infantry) comes in quite handy as well if you have a melee infantry mercenary, which might perform way better with this speed boost.
Palatine Settlements (Age 2)
3SW (Age 2)
700w (Age 2)
Advanced Mercenaries or 1000g (Age 3)
This non-standard build relies entirely on a single military building: the saloon. The idea is to safely reach the Fortress Age, while being very greedy in Colonial, in order to produce only upgraded mercenaries. This build abuses the fact that most mercenaries are stronger than regular units, and that they benefit from a very strong homecity card (Advanced Mercenaries) granting them an extra 20% HP and attack, scaling on their (already scary) Fortress stats. Moreover, mercenaries cost gold exclusively, making the macro for this build very easy and efficient; although it requires a lot of mapcontrol, since the mines will run out of gold extremely fast.
Age 1
- Age with 17-18 villager population and the Quartermaster (400w) politician.
Transition
You want to have a TP and a market with Hunting Dogs + Placer Mines, as well as 125w banked.
Age 2
- Use your 400w + 125w for a Saloon and 3 houses. Keep the 25w for later (so you actually don't need to chop that while aging up, but it's just easier to chop all the wood at once, and usually won't hurt your first batch of units).
- Send Palatine Settlements. This card will make your houses contain 30 population space instead of 10. You now have 130 population space.
- Queue an outlaw in your saloon. As soon as Palatine Settlements comes in, you'll be able to finish your batch.
Usually, the outlaws you want to produce are Renegados/Thugees (skirm-type units), Comancheros (dragoon-type unit) or Pistoleros/Dacoïts (musk-type units). Some maps will let you produce two of these guys; you will choose depending on the match-up.
All other outlaws are more or less garbage.
After Palatine Settlements, ship 3 SW, then 700w. From this wood, you can get Amalgamation and Steel Traps, as well as another TP. You will have an extra 200w: this wood can be used for a stagecoach on some maps (in which case you might delay Amalgamation and another TP instead), or to rebuild/repair buildings after a push. Just keep it if you have no use for it at the moment, it will most likely be useful later.
You can usually train between 5 and 15 outlaws, depending on what your opponent is doing. For example, if he goes for a simple hussar semi-FF, a 5 comancheros semi-FF should be enough to get some free kills and age up safely. On the other hand, against a musk/huss rush, you would rather mix comancheros/renegados and age up a bit later. Either way, if you don't make more than 15 outlaws, you usually gather all the resources to age up to the Fortress Age; otherwise, you can afford to ship 700g and still have a shipment ready upon Fortress Age.
Transition
Keep 4 villagers on food, and switch all others to gold. This will let you produce villagers constantly, while getting the optimal mass of mercenaries out. If you feel like your opponent will push you soon, escape some of your villagers/SW on some other goldmines on the map, so that you can still gather if your opponent comes in your base.
Age 3
- Start producing the mercenary of your choice.
- Ship Advanced Mercenaries if you think you will be able to get away with it. Otherwise, ship 1000g.
At this point, you're likely to get pushed, because you aged up pretty slowly (usually without 700g) and with only a few outlaws. Therefore, you might need to ship 1000g to fuel your mass, because some of your villagers will be idled in your towncenter (even if you escaped a few, you need to keep some in your base, so that your opponent doesn't come in an empty base and realize your villagers are spread on the map). Thanks to these gold crates, you should be able to queue a big batch of mercenaries, or even to ship a mercenaries shipment (usually hackapells, jaegers or blackrider, depending on what you need) if you're not satisfied by the mercenaries available in the saloon.
However, the card that you ultimately want to ship is Advanced Mercenaries, because it makes your mercenaries way scarier. Try to fight only once this card was sent, in order to get the best possible trades with your mercenaries. If you shipped 1000g and/or a mercenaries shipment, send Advanced Mercenaries right after.
Consider shipping Royal Mint after that, as it will grant you a 25% gathering boost on gold, which is a huge boost when most of your vils are on coin, and will still work if you have switch to plantations later on. Also consider shipping Land Grab when you have to switch to plantations, as it will let you save 320w per plantation, and you might need 3 or 4 of them. The church card (20% more speed/10% more cost for all infantry) comes in quite handy as well if you have a melee infantry mercenary, which might perform way better with this speed boost.
That's it. Imo this build is not strong, except maybe on a few match ups/maps/saloon spawns. I do it regularly because I just enjoy it. But I do think mercs strats have some potential, probably by adding some unit shipments in the deck, shipping 700g to age at a decent time, and mixing units to balance your composition.
) has been slacking lately, I have pinned the guide on the Strategy Wall. 
