What the fuck is going on with USA?

[Kaiserklein]

So this guy just ages at 3:40, gets 5 musks out by 5:00, 15 musks by 6 ish, adds huss and gets a giant mass in age 2. I'm talking about 40+ pop of quality units (huss and superior musks) by 8:15 or so.
I can probably get roughly the same mass of units at every stage I described as France, with a good 12/10 start and top level macro. The problem is, this guy is also SW booming at the same time, what the fuck? Not to mention he has a bank, superior MM and a bunch of XP from mills. (and he's far from top level btw)

I barely won because he totally fucked up his age 2 push (chased 3 WW forever while bleeding huss, then deleted like 10 more huss under my TC) then played poorly overall, but it was way closer than it should have been, though I made some mistakes. Losing the game from his position shouldn't have been possible.

I'm sure you guys are aware of this, but I played vs this for the first time and was confused

[callentournies]

Some players have scary civs. Some scary civs have players.

[look]

USA is the current number 1 in the game!
u forget to metion that the market up is for free!

[Mr_Bramboy]

The German immigrants card was buffed this patch and this strategy was pioneered shortly after. You can see me executing it (and winning) against Revnak in this video on Widgie's channel:

The gist of the strategy is the following. Upon sending the German immigrants card, each mill you build grants a free settler wagon and you can train settler wagons from mills with a train limit of 5. Sending the advanced homesteading card gives two mill wagons. Additionally, all mills act as a house and grant 10 population. Sending one of the Delaware cards from the ageup grants an additional two mill wagons, reaching the train limit of 5 SW for free.

You now have 5 mills which have spawned 5 free SW, generated 400 XP, give huge LOS and grant 50 pop by sending two cards. The second card you send also gives you 6 cows with 150f on them. Build a livestock pen on 700w to fatten these, send hamiltonian economics for free market ups, and watch your economy explode.

And yes, you do this on a 12/10 with very little idle time, so you age 3:40 and train regulars and hussar in the way you describe.

Obviously this is too strong, which is why people have been rating the USA as an S tier civilization in the current patch. Good job beating it.

[Jerimuno]

It is a bit too strong, but these posts clearly scream "overreaction" to me. Try playing vs it a few times.
I played him today and won quite easily with ports, idk if there were grave errors on his part though

[dansil92]

I said years ago when usa was first released that after people finally figured out something optimal out of the 300,000 different ageups and cards and macro and whatever other shit the stupid civ has... that it would be stupidly broken.

[gibson]

Shipping 3 cards(and paying 200w) for 5 sw, 50 pop and 400 xp seems okay but not that great. I guess if you run out of hunts it’s pretty good.

[Garja]

To me looks like a standard brit boom.
Actually you can replicate this type of strat wiht basically every civ. With Germans it would be something like 3sw, 2sw etc. with rax start. You get units out 30 secs later but then catch up.

[yoqpasa]

It's almost impossible for germans to raid against 14 range musks. They are gold expensive, whatever, but who cares when you have a bank since transition. Xbows barely counter them for the same reason, so not a lot to do in age 2 I guess.

[Kaiserklein]

To me looks like a standard brit boom.
Actually you can replicate this type of strat wiht basically every civ. With Germans it would be something like 3sw, 2sw etc. with rax start. You get units out 30 secs later but then catch up.

I've played lots of times vs the classic brit boom and this felt like just more units. Can get mm too and the flag. I wouldn't have struggled so much vs a brit push.
And yeah the 14 range is quite big, means wws only have half the outrange compared to vs normal musks, can barely hit and run with perfect micro. They deal 25 damage too, that unit is just really good. It didn't really use to matter because people wouldn't get this sort of mass in age 2, but it feels pretty obscene now.

[Lukas_L99]

Now I know why certain players were complaining about cassadore's low melee attack.

[Aizamk]

I said years ago when usa was first released that after people finally figured out something optimal out of the 300,000 different ageups and cards and macro and whatever other shit the stupid civ has... that it would be stupidly broken.

kind of no because the broken stuff is only possible after recent patches - the cumulative effect of so many buffs since release e.g. capitalism, bank wagon, carbine cav & sharpshooter animation & stats, and now kentucky hunters & german immigrants.

german immigrants were a thing before but not as good as the current build after the change.

[ShinkuroYukinari]

I said years ago when usa was first released that after people finally figured out something optimal out of the 300,000 different ageups and cards and macro and whatever other shit the stupid civ has... that it would be stupidly broken.

You took that quote from me, but ok.

[dansil92]

prove it

[ShinkuroYukinari]

prove it

Check the forums

[dansil92]

you made the claim, burden of proof is on you fam

[ShinkuroYukinari]

you made the claim, burden of proof is on you fam

I'm lazy and tipsy. I give you the honours.

[iNcog]

the USA is the civ that turned me away from DE. made the game unfun to play, the design of yu gi oh broken shit to ass pull is not good rts design

[abeisfriend]

hey noob af question but how do i view recorded game? I'm trying to use the replay manager by vlad but it says this is not a valid recording

no i am not joking lol

[callentournies]

hey noob af question but how do i view recorded game? I'm trying to use the replay manager by vlad but it says this is not a valid recording

no i am not joking lol

who is vlad?

this is a DE recorded game, so you will need DE, and you will need to watch it on the same patch as the game was played (this is true of this recorded game, no patches since).

1) download the recorded game file (.age3yrec extension)
2) open DE, go to main menu
3) select LOAD
4) select OPEN SAVED GAMES (this should bring up windows file folder)
4a. address should be like (games -> age of empires 3 DE -> bunchanumbers -> savegame)
4b. you can navigate here manually but I find this simpler
5) move the downloaded file into this folder
6) back in DE main menu
7) LOAD -> RECORDED GAMES (under "filter settings"), filename should appear. left click -> OPEN

[andrewgs]

I think explorer skins are still corrupting recs

[LazarosVas]

Well it seems like Julian is smashing it rn with this build.. This on the hands of an insane player is just too good (He also does FF into skirm goon which is great as well)

[Garja]

It's not too good, it is simply good.
As said, the German immigrant strat is similar to a brit boom/age2 boom by any good age2 civ. The (semi) FF strat is on the level of French/German strenght.
Combined, they make USA a competitive civ without relying on some gimmick like in past.

[kevinitalien]

garja those same civ doesn't have a 15 skirm shipment or 2 super broken free mine in deck, so its not on the same lvl than fre or germany and i do not count a goon type unit with 14 range and 2.25 ROF for a cheaper cost than a classic goon

I agree about their SW boom tho but not on the semi FF case or FF, you have to punish that age 2 somehow but with MM and unit from age up and goons from church idk its just hard

[Garja]

The semi FF is roughly on the same level. USA got some advantages but the classic semi FF civs have others. For example German FF is much smoother and with uhlans constantly threatening raids. Early fortress German shipments are better and later Germans have access to mercs while the only comparable (useful) unit shipments USA get in fortress are 10 cons uhlans. Just like Ports (and Dutch to a lesser extent) USA have to keep trading with skirm goon and make good use of the 3 gatlings.

Carbine are good but they're barely any better than goons, I think people are overreacting. They cost less and are worse, maybe not proportionally but it's not a big balance deal. Sharpshitters are better skirms than both German and French ones but that's because those skirms are mediocre (French one actually ok) and those civs have a real hand cav to add instead, while USA don't.

I'd maybe take USA over the legacy semi FF civ but more because they're funnier to play rather than anything else.