ESOCommunity

Hi guys. I'm still pretty bad and am aware that Germany is a hard to play civ, but I still want to learn sometime. So I was wondering if anyone could help me out by explain how to play the Germans and helping figure out what to put in a vanilla German deck.

If anyone has strats or decks they could explain to me, it'd be great

On Vanilla u either want to make an xbow pike rush or cav semi with tp.

Is there write-up of the xbow pike rush somewhere?

http://forum.agecommunity.com/forums/thread/539677.aspx
Haven't read all of it but it seems pretty good.

Cool thanks guys. I know there is a semi-ff on here so I'll adapt that to nilla

The semi ff is basically the same as on tad, except it's a bit weaker for a few reasons : tp costs 250w which both means that you can't get an early tp (which is op for semi ff) and that you will be a bit slower overall (harder to get 5 uhlans out first batch), uhlans are a bit weaker (*0.75 multiplier vs vils, -0.25 speed, and cav overall is weaker on nilla because ranged infantry doesn't have a multiplier against it), and tc fire is 1.5 times better vs cav.
That's why in a lot of match ups you will rather go for a tower rush than for a semi ff. The build is : get an early market with hunt dogs asap (without treasures you might age up a bit late on bad crates starts, so if you really want to rush hard you can skip market I guess). While aging up get gang saw if you had an early market, otherwise don't build a market. Send a settler wagon forward and build a tower asap, then gather 200 extra wood, and when you have those keep settler wagons on wood and send normal vils on food. It should be a balanced way to split your vils and get the best mass possible. Once you hit colonial immediately ship 9 bows in the tower and put down a rax near it, build 3 houses from 400 wood age up and make a 5 bows batch.
You can also go for a 5 pikes batch first if you want to siege down stuff, but if you know you're gonna have to fight early (example : the guy is brit, he aged up earlier than you, and has a rax for lbs or musks) you should make 5 bows. Even if the guy has a stable you can still make 5 bows, because 14 bows + 2 uhlans >> 5 huss. Anyway, you want to harass vils hard and prevent him from gathering as much as possible, and siege if you have pikes.
After that you should send 3 sw for eco because it's an op card. But if you really need it, I guess 3 dops or 700w for mass can do it. Try to finish your market upgrades at some point, like around 6-7 min or sth.
Later on, you want to get a stable up (in your base, to be able to catch raids efficiently), because bow pike is immobile. If you can, aging up with 700 gold is also a good idea, your opponent is going to push your tower and you can micro him with bows (if he doesn't have too much cav) and you will have enough time to get age 3 units.

About the match ups, I think you can tower rush against france, germany, brits, dutch. It's not always the best choice there, depending on the map, but it can work.
Against otto, you need to scout a lot : if he jan rushes, defend with 8 bows and a rax (exactly like a tower rush, except you use 250 wood for a tp, and stay in your base). If he jan abus, start with cav and try to trap him somehow with 8 bows + mm, or to age up. If he ff, you should ff as well (semi ff can work too but I'd rather ff). I think I'd do 3 sw / 700 wood naked ff, which is a bit greedy, but if you're scared of otto mass you can also go for a dirty 700 gold ff. Train a lot of war wagons with skirms and kite him to death.
Against russia you can just go cav and (like vs otto) try to trap him or to age up. You can also defend with bow/cav, or just bows, before aging up. Or even go naked ff with the german tc card lol, but it's gay. If by any chance you see russia guy isn't rushing, just go cav semi.
Against spain ff, go ff (like vs otto ff). If he goes musk/rod rush (which happens) you can defend with bows or cav/bow. Or even dop/bow, whatever, just don't make too many uhlans.
Against porto you should go semi ff (unless he rushes you in which case you defend with cav and stuff). Just make a slow semi and try to get enough uhlans out to burn his tc wagon when he hits age 3, or to burn his tp. You can also go dop semi, which is better for sieging, but the problems are 1- you will keep ununpgraded dops when you are in age 3, 2- If he ages up with 6 caças, it might be a problem for you, 3- you will have a forward rax which you don't always want, since he aged up faster he might destroy it. On the other hand, cav takes a lot of damage from tc fires, siege down slowly and are more predictable than dops, so up to you.

And remember xbow>>all

Yeah nilla xbow are stupid on nilla lol. I still prefer doing a nice German semi. If I do Xbow I prefer France actually, idk which is actually better at it but that's what I tend to do.

German Xbow/pike is one of the strongest rushes on nilla for a few reasons. 1. it is a full 3 unit compostition because of free uhlans. 2. their early eco is very good because of SW shipments. 3. They have a 9 xbow shipment and other very good colonial shipments, as well as cav upgrade cards. Here is the Build order:
split crates get market on 100 wood and coin start, only house on 100 wood. Ship 2 SW and age at 16 or 17 vills with 400 wood. Place forward tower in trasition and make 2 raxes with the 400 wood. Ship 700 wood and make houses and pikes and Xbows. ship 600 wood or 9 xbow/5 uhlan and push. Raid with cav the whole time. Ship 3sw or a military shipment and push or eco and try to age if unsuccessful.

boLol what, how do you pay for a tower + 2 raxes ? What is the tower for if you ship 700w first ? The real build is tower + single rax and ship 9 bows first
Also 5 uhlans is a terrible shipment

Imo the tower isn t worth. I d do the same with a tp instead, it s a bit slower but you just want the map control anyway.

If you ship 9 bows at home it's not a rush anymore, you're gonna be 30 sec late, then it's just not worth shipping bows at all, just go semi

lol doesn't germany suck on nilla

France >
Brits >
Otto >
Spain >

Didn't see that answer lol

Germany is a bit weaker on nilla but it's not a bad civ.
It actually shits on brits with tower rush (maybe unless it's a really high resources map). Ports are an easy win too.
It also beats dutch, either with tower rush or with semi-ff (the match up is much closer than on tad though), and should beat russia too on a decent map.
I think ger vs france is a rather fair match up, probably a bit france favoured because it should be able to hold the tower rush with good micro, and I think it should be able to beat ger semi ff with colonial play.
Ger loses to otto and spain ofc.

In the end, out of 7 match ups, ger wins 4 and loses 2 (or 3 max), so it's a decent civ