new USA meta: 9 highlander at 5:30

[ziper]

with 2 native tp, 2 trade tp, 3 saloon and 1 church. So you can mass outlaw and send native trade card next

[Miyawaki Sakura]

Good bye AOE3

[Scylla-x]

Build order please :)

[Synchro]

with 2 native tp, 2 trade tp, 3 saloon and 1 church. So you can mass outlaw and send native trade card next

See you hmmm or better yet never again

[Kaiserklein]

9 highlanders is only worth about 30 colonial musks, no big deal at 5:30!

[Synchro]

I don't honestly know if it's anything serious, it depends on the mu, the thing that scares the most is that it will switch to cowboy mercenaries and stuff.

[fei123456]

Sounds OP but it needs extreme macro and some good luck. Generally you'll only get 6-7 of them (still scary though).

[Synchro]

I would say easily countered with a nice rush.

[yoqpasa]

You are all old narrow-minded whiners. You just need to adapt, don't blame the game.

[louis293]

You are all old narrow-minded whiners. You just need to adapt, don't blame the game.

blindly ship spies imao

[yoqpasa]

You are all old narrow-minded whiners. You just need to adapt, don't blame the game.

blindly ship spies imao

Exactly, blind ranged spies ggwp

[LionHeart]

5:30 in your base is more like 6:30 in their base with bad eco, doubt its OP

[Synchro]

OP is just gatling

[Kaiserklein]

I would say easily countered with a nice rush.

A nice rush before 5:30?

5:30 in your base is more like 6:30 in their base with bad eco, doubt its OP

You don't need 1 min to cross basically any map. More like 30s most likely. And then unless you have skirms in colo or a billion units as iro or something, how do you kill 9 highlanders at 6 min?
Btw this probably just nukes any fb

[Synchro]

I would say easily countered with a nice rush.

A nice rush before 5:30?

5:30 in your base is more like 6:30 in their base with bad eco, doubt its OP

You don't need 1 min to cross basically any map. More like 30s most likely. And then unless you have skirms in colo or a billion units as iro or something, how do you kill 9 highlanders at 6 min?
Btw this probably just nukes any fb

Iroquois, Aztecs, Russian, Otto. Obviously you scout the buildings and understand what he's doing.

[Kaiserklein]

Iroquois, Aztecs, Russian, Otto. Obviously you scout the buildings and understand what he's doing.

1) You listed 4 civs out of 22
2) These rushes barely come in before 5:30 in your base (I'd say around 5:10 on average), too late to prevent the strat
3) Even if it worked, going all in (e.g fast aging as iro, aging 400w and cutting transition TPs as otto...) is a decision you may have to take before you can even scout their saloons, so it's a gamble

[Kaiserklein]

Btw we can see on the screenshot he was also able to spend resources on MM lol? Or is that part of the highlander thing somehow

[Kawapasaka]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1628405725?t=00h01m25s

it absolutely is op lol

[Kaiserklein]

Also is the eco really "bad"? Sure 13v is ugly but there's also 2 TPs and 3 saloons (though I have no idea what the trickle is for these?), and I guess on some maps the 2 nat posts (no idea why you need these for this strat either) for the native treaties follow up

[Synchro]

Iroquois, Aztecs, Russian, Otto. Obviously you scout the buildings and understand what he's doing.

1) You listed 4 civs out of 22
2) These rushes barely come in before 5:30 in your base (I'd say around 5:10 on average), too late to prevent the strat
3) Even if it worked, going all in (e.g fast aging as iro, aging 400w and cutting transition TPs as otto...) is a decision you may have to take before you can even scout their saloons, so it's a gamble

We say that it is quite risky, Iroquois can do the fast rush only that it is all in if it suits you, you damage and close it otherwise you lose. Let's say that for some civ these 9 highlanders could be a problem. I guess I will have to invest a lot more returns than him to kill higlander, explorer who will surely be in melee and minuteman.Basically Kaiser is right.

[LionHeart]

I would say easily countered with a nice rush.

A nice rush before 5:30?

5:30 in your base is more like 6:30 in their base with bad eco, doubt its OP

You don't need 1 min to cross basically any map. More like 30s most likely. And then unless you have skirms in colo or a billion units as iro or something, how do you kill 9 highlanders at 6 min?
Btw this probably just nukes any fb

Been playing around with it more, and it does seem strong but not convinced it's OP, just watched Shake (1700 elo player) beat it with pure lb. But it does have an ok eco with a strong follow up. Upping Scottish highlanders card to 500 gold would nerf it nicely. 5:30 is also best case scenario, average timing for it is more like 6/6:30 mins.

But lets not go crazy here, it's very beatable.

[Garja]

I tried the strat and unless I'm missing something really important in the BO, it is not that impressive. My BO was Chinese Immigrants, Saloon card, Church card, 9 highlanders. I build 2 extra saloon and one extra church, as well as using Chinese immigrants for 3 TPs (gotta mind the 2nd one or you get one less highlander).
First of all you don't get them at 5.30 unless you find very good treasures (and I assume 1010ing because with normal age up it's not possible to send 2 cards in age2 and get them that early).
Secondly, 9 highlanders is roughly 25 musks. 25 musks in the opponent base after 6 minutes is strong but not impossible to deal with.
Third, the follow up isn't great, you're pretty much forced to spam outlaws to keep the momentum otherwise it's just a somewhat generic aggressive opening into stagecoach or similar. Your eco isn't great because you're skipping 3cdbs and even tho saloon and churches give a decent coin trickle it's still not that much.
Still a viable option but more something to channel the game into a specific direction (rushy game) rather than a new meta strat.

[kevinitalien]

Also is the eco really "bad"? Sure 13v is ugly but there's also 2 TPs and 3 saloons (though I have no idea what the trickle is for these?), and I guess on some maps the 2 nat posts (no idea why you need these for this strat either) for the native treaties follow up

ye and i see no one mention it but on the church you have an unique tech who give a coin trickle ( 2.5c/sec i believe ) so pretty much 4 vills

[kevinitalien]

I tried the strat and unless I'm missing something really important in the BO, it is not that impressive. My BO was Chinese Immigrants, Saloon card, Church card, 9 highlanders. I build 2 extra saloon and one extra church, as well as using Chinese immigrants for 3 TPs (gotta mind the 2nd one or you get one less highlander).
First of all you don't get them at 5.30 unless you find very good treasures (and I assume 1010ing because with normal age up it's not possible to send 2 cards in age2 and get them that early).
Secondly, 9 highlanders is roughly 25 musks. 25 musks in the opponent base after 6 minutes is strong but not impossible to deal with.
Third, the follow up isn't great, you're pretty much forced to spam outlaws to keep the momentum otherwise it's just a somewhat generic aggressive opening into stagecoach or similar. Your eco isn't great because you're skipping 3cdbs and even tho saloon and churches give a decent coin trickle it's still not that much.
Still a viable option but more something to channel the game into a specific direction (rushy game) rather than a new meta strat.

you can get cree cdb after doing some good damage by sending 1 card, i think its enough to get good eco after that, ofc you committed age 2 with this strat though

[Realife_Brahmin]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1628405725?t=00h01m25s

it absolutely is op lol

I'm just happy on who the opponent was on the receiving end of this very strong strategy.