Water Maps (as a French noob)

[robo]

So with the release of DE, i'm looking at playing again in the future, for now just starting as the French as that's all I remember from Inter's coaching

Firstly, here is my 1v1 water deck, are there any glaring issues or things that should be changed?



Now what should I be doing on water maps?

Do I play it as if it is a normal land map and only send the caravels if the enemy is making any fish or if there is a choke point I can control?
Are there any situations where I make a dock & fish myself (seeing as Fre lack schooners, is there an age1 card I should send instead if making fish?) or is it purely reactive play?

Any other general advice?

[pecelot]

France lacks crucial European water cards, like the aforementioned Schooners or various combat/range upgrades. IMO, you should usually try to win the game on land, while maintaining enough naval presence not to be overwhelmed at sea. At the end of the day, you have full access to the European arsenal, with frigates and such, which automatically gives you the edge over Native Americans and some Native Asians.

If your opponent invests heavily into maritime units, you should probably get a sizeable artillery regiment, following a Fast Fortress or even a Fast Industrial. Again, with European mortars, culverins, heavy cannons and regular falconets, you should be good in this regard. Therefore, you should probably add a 1000 wood and/or a 1000 coin shipment, replacing infantry upgrade cards (one should be enough; also, that one could be Advanced Arsenal, especially that it offers a technology improving artillery LOS — essential for mortars and culverins), 600 wood, 7 skirmishers and a fort (prone to be bombarded from sea). For water-heavy maps, like the Caribbean or Wadmalaw, the basic water combat upgrade shouldn't hurt, either. One could argue — it's even necessary

[Thrar]

You have a lot of upgrade cards, which makes it look like you're aiming to play the long game. In that case, I think you'll need to actively contest the water or lose against a civ doing a proper water boom in the long run.
The good news is of course that it is possible for French to go for water on EP/DE. 700w really isn't that much worse than Schooners for quite a while; you can make an extra dock (200w) and pay for the cost difference on 25 fishing boats (25x20=500w).

I would make this deck more mid-range by removing the crossbow HP card in age 2 and putting in 600c. This way, if you end up spending the 700c on military due to drawn out fighting in age 2, you can still age up reasonably well with 600c later. In age 3 I'd put in 3 cuirs and 1k wood by taking out the fort and one of the upgrade cards or skirm attack. Jaegers/Black Riders for one or both the eco upgrade cards is a possibility as well.

That said, I was only a captain on ESO so I may be missing something, and I'm not fully familiar with the new cards and balance changes yet.

[[Armag] diarouga]

Your age 2 deck is fine but you have too many eco cards in fortress for 1v1. You need 1000w and 1000c and 3 cuirs in age 3.
1000w is a must have because you want to add a 2nd TC + arsenal in middle age 3. Same with 3 cuirs, you'll need it against civs like Russia, I'll put it instead of the fort. I guess you could potentially play without 1000c but it's really more useful than refrigeration or the skirm upgrade.

If you want, you can add me on discord so that you can send me your French recs.

[Challenger_Marco]

You need to have 1000w in age 3 it's a must ,remove the crossbow/inf hp card and add it & fort isn't used most of the time so can add 1000c or 3 cuirs.

[chris1089]

Don't need refrigeration and royal mint. Put in 3 cuirs. Also need 1k wood, probably instead of the fort.

[Rohbrot]

Dont forget that u can rebuild forts now. -__-
Forts arent that bad anymore

[[Armag] diarouga]

Dont forget that u can rebuild forts now. -__-
Forts arent that bad anymore

Well they are. You don't send the fort shipment to have the ability to rebuild your fort if it gets sieged while building.

[Rohbrot]

Dont forget that u can rebuild forts now. -__-
Forts arent that bad anymore

Well they are. You don't send the fort shipment to have the ability to rebuild your fort if it gets sieged while building.

Was sarcasm, should have been clear with the .

[[Armag] diarouga]

OK, I missed it lol.

[Garja]

1000w and 1000g are very useful cards in fortress you have to cut something else to make room for them. If the game is somewhat macro, 7 skirms is redundant. Ranged attack is good but a bit of a last effort thing. You can cut royal mint but I'd keep refrigeration (just too useful). The fort is a bit meh even tho it has a bit of extra value on water maps to control some choke point.
Depending on how hard you are going to contest water you may want the improved warship card in the 2nd age.
As for the game plan, either stick to standard French land strats and only proceed to contest water as the last thing to win the game or go for fish boom yourself (can do with 70w boats) and then invest more in water play both defensively and offensively. Just keep in mind that French don't have a quick way to mass boom like Ports or Brits do (multiple TCs and manors) so you probably need something extra to keep up (e.g. stagecoach or use your early game efficiency to harass while booming yourself).

[[Armag] diarouga]

Only cut 7 skirms if you're sure you're not going to need it. It's a very useful shipment in a lot of MUs.

[Garja]

Idk it's the first unit card I'd cut off. The difference between that and 1k gold is not huge. In fact with 1k wood first you prob won't send it because of 2 raxes.

[_H2O]

Yeah I would cut the fort and the skirms for the 1k crates. But I wouldn’t even have a frig in my deck. France can’t win water and aoe3 water is basically all in to win it. Can’t imagine building a dock as France in any serious game.

[pecelot]

Maybe that's exactly why you should have a frigate — you don't usually commit enough to build docks. A frigate offers great offshore support, especially on maps like New England or Carolina.

[Thrar]

Yeah I would cut the fort and the skirms for the 1k crates. But I wouldn’t even have a frig in my deck. France can’t win water and aoe3 water is basically all in to win it. Can’t imagine building a dock as France in any serious game.

On mixed land/water maps like those in the quick search rotation (e.g. Patagonia), what would you do as France against an opponent who turtles and booms on water, maybe Japanese, Portuguese, or Inca? Straight FF and push with falcs?

[_H2O]

Try to land boom as best as possible, 3 Tcs quickly. Control middle pond on Patagonia via land. Mid game is denial of land resources for his vils. Late game is mortars, culvs, etc.

It’s quite hard to win if they have whaling and there’s 3+ whales if you don’t do a solid contain and mid game damage.

[deleted_user]

France can boom on water in 5-6 matchups but generally speaking, It is better to go just land in some matchups and it depends on what you exactly want to do, do you want to boom on water? or just push water? after you explain that I could help more.