In age3 the main unit composition will be sharpshooters and carbineers, or carbineers and gatling guns.
Timings reference:
- 5 carbineers @5.45
- age3 @7.45
Deck optimized in case you don't expect to be rushed in age2
Deck to be safe (allows age2 play)
In case you fancy to perform a semi FI (for carbineers + horse artillery) then add 3 horse art and/or 2 heavy cannons in place of other age1 or age3 cards.
Build order
Age1
Spread vills among crates and drop a market. One of the starting vills grabs the first hunt, the other vills are tasked to wood and/or gold in order to research hunting dogs at the market.
Getting the right treasures helps (you usually can cut off a vill for the age up) but it's not essential.
Send the capitalism card (coin trickle) and then age with 13/20 pop with the Pennsylvania state option.
Transition to age 2
Move all vills to wood except for 1 or 2 which grab additional hunts. At this point you should have enough coin to trade one tap for 100w. Do it and drop a trading post. Keep chopping wood till you have 125w then all vills go to food and TC rally point is also on food.
Age2
Send the Philadelphia convenction state card (church+unique techs), collect the xp crates from age up and drop a rax with the military wagon. Research steel traps at the market.
When the card arrives drop a church and research the 5 carbineers tech (800f cost) + the gold trickle tech. Trade another tap of gold for 100w and drop a house.
If not rushed, the second card is Virginia general assembly (capitol wagon+free tech). When it arrives drop the capitol defensively and research the fast age up + double xp tech.
Third card is 700c. When it arrives you should already have 1200f or be very close to that, so collect the coin crates with as many vills as possible to speed up the age up process (it's fine if you get a bit of idle TC time). Then all vills go to food again.
Age up selecting Kentucky.
Transition to age 3
Another shipment should be available by this point and it's going to be 700w. With that you will reseatch placer mines, drop a stable, and as many houses you can with the remaining wood.
Once you got 575f get the 5 sharpshooter tech from the church (unless the plan is to go for carbine+gatling) and move about 6-7 vills to mine coin. TC rally point is on coin.
Age3
Collect the books for xp and send either a unit card or 1k wood depending on the situation. 1k wood would be ideal. With that you drop a 2nd rax, some houses and either a 2nd TC or tp+stagecoach.
The next few cards will likely be unit cards (5 carbineers, 7 sharpshooters or even 3 gatlings). Once you feel you have a decent army you can start moving out on the map.
The follow up plan is usually to upgrades your units via the ranged infantry combat card and eventually the arsenal card and keep growing your eco eventually with the refrigeration card and the age1 eco cards.
Alternatively you can go for what is possibly the most powerful option USA have in age3 which is carbineers and gatling guns.
In that case, still send 1k wood first in age3 but use it to drop an artillery foundry as well as 4 houses. The remaining wood will be used to start training gatlings.
Next card will be 3 gatlings and then 1k coin to keep the production going. When 1k coin arrives move all the mining vills to chop wood and research gang saw at the market. TC rally point is still on coin so that you will eventually have the right amount of vills on each resource to train both carbineers and gatlings at the same time.
Keep training units while sending the coffee mill gun card. This card is not just a simple buff to gatling DPS, but it essentially removes the reset time between firing animations, meaning that you can effectively Z move the gattlings and they will oblitarate everything (cav included, despite having a negative multiplier against that).
Carbine+gatling is just an incredibly strong combo. Not only it is a complete combo with just 2 units which also have siege power, but it is also very mobile thanks to the pull trick micro. This is remarkable because artillery weakness is usually mobility, but this specific combo performs possibly better than skirm+goon for that matter.
What to do if rushed
This strat is not supposed to be played against rush civs but you can still turn it into age2 play if you face heavy pressure (and have selected the "safe" deck).
For that I suggest to still send the church card and get the two techs but after that send 700w and start training militia while getting the 5 sharphooter tech from the church. Next card cab be the 6 carbineers for 250f 250w and after that likely 8 militia men and then the range card which also unlocks sharpshooters in the 2nd age.
