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Dutch
Dutch suffer from a mild case of close but no cigar. They are a boom civ, and they can get a good economy fairly quickly, but (there’s always a “but” with this civ) it requires a massive investment of 1500w and 1500f for +16 vills. Compared to other boom civs, for example Japan which gets +20 vills by spending 1500 wood, this isn’t great. In fact, due to banks not scaling with market upgrades (if only they did Dutch might’ve been balanced), Dutch’s 4 bank eco is barely better than France’s early colonial eco after 4v and steel traps. And let’s not forget that Dutch’s vills are more expensive than other civs’ vills. Their boom is ok, but not quite good enough. Close, but no cigar.
Dutch have decent colonial potential with skirms and a quick age up, but they don’t have musks and pikes awkwardly cost wood, which means you really don’t want to be making too many of them. This makes musk+huss a devastating comp to face as Dutch. In other words their colonial is ok, but not quite good enough. Close, but no cigar.
And then there’s fortress age, which Dutch generally aim for. Note that they don’t aim for fortress because their fortress is so great, but because they generally can’t win in colonial. As for their fortress, they have a decent eco by now, a fast age politician and ranged cavalry. But they don’t have a 2 falc shipment and their units are nothing special (they even have to upgrade the huss) whereas most civs get something new and game changing in fortress (think cuirs, lancers, urumi, etc). Dutch even has to admit at this point that their eco is barely better than their opponent’s, because they don’t scale very well with market ups. Close, but no cigar.
Dutch are almost always the civ that needs to take the fight into fortress age, because musk+huss simply isn’t beatable with skirm+pike. They also have to invest a lot of resources in ther economy which means their opponent is generally completely free to do whatever they want. Dutch is on the defensive against even the most eco-heavy musk+huss semi-FFs, and in some cases even has trouble ageing up with 4 banks safely. More often than not, they need walls to even reach fortress safely, and if you look at what they have in fortress and at how big their economy is, they shouldn’t have to. Unlike civs like Japs or India, Dutch’s fortress is not nearly good enough to warrant how scared they are for timing pressure in colonial, from a balance perspective.
Dutch also don’t fit into the TP meta very well. They already have trouble getting both a decent defensive mass and banks up in early colonial, and adding a TP really isn’t something they can generally afford. In fact the only time I would build a TP as Dutch is with a 200w start, trying to squeeze one in later is just going to make it even harder for you to reach fortress safely and is most likely going to slow down your bank boom. This means that, because other civs are happily abusing TPs all over the place whereas Dutch aren’t, Dutch will be even worse in the TP meta than they already were before.
The only real strength of Dutch is that they’re creating resources out of thin air, much like Japan. They don’t have to gather all their gold from mines and they don’t use much food, which means the resources in their base will generally last them a while longer than their opponents’. Dutch with access to 3 mines will easily outlast French with access to 3 mines, all they have to do is hold until France runs out of gold. This makes Dutch a civ that will generally rely on defender’s advantage in early fortress and aim for the mid to late game, despite their units not scaling very well.
Dutch, being a defensive eco civ, require some good adaptation. With this civ, it’s very important to scout frequently in order to know if your opponent is ageing up or going for a timing in colonial. It’s therefore hard to describe a build that you can stick to, as you should be changing it based on your opponent’s play. For this reason I will focus more on what your long term plan should be and how to cut corners to get as many banks up as possible while not ageing up too late.
Sending 700g to age up isn’t very popular with Dutch, but it should be. Sure, banks gather gold pretty quickly but your age up will still be significantly faster if you send gold and put most of your vills on food. This can be game changing, use this shipment wisely! (And no, don’t use 700f).
Remember to use walls. A well placed wall with a gate in it can shield your skirms from cav almost indefinitely while you pick off musks. If you want to be really thorough about it, you can even build an entire cage for your skirms to hide in. This is a technique that shouldn’t be underestimated, and is possibly necessary in some match ups as Dutch. After all, if you want to hold without walls and still age up, you’re going to need a lot of units which will significantly hinder your booming potential. Remember, the Dutch eco takes a big investment, so ageing up ánd booming means you will have a lot less units than your opponent.
The Dutch build
You’re going to want to get a TP up if you started with 200w. Chop another 100w for a house.
(1) 3v
Despite chopping 100w you should still always be able to age with 15 vills. If you started with an extra food crate (so no TP) you can even aim for a 14v age up (colonial at 3.40), getting the last 100 gold largely from treasures. With an extra gold crate and food treasures, this is also possible.
If you went for the early TP, consider sending 300w after 3v for a bank during age up. This is largely untested because I don't like to play Dutch much but I do know that you get your first colonial shipment on time if you do this. In theory, it should be worth it.
Your first real choice is immediately an important one. Are you going for a quick bank boom or are you starting 1 bank + military building? The quick boom is generally better if you’re not being pressured in early colonial and/or if you aged up with 14v, it obviously gets your economy up quicker but will have units out later. It’s also more versatile because it gives you the choice of either going for 2 military buildings quickly or going for 3 banks and 1 military building. For the sake of being thorough, I’ll briefly describe the 1 bank start even though it’s only viable against the fastest of rushes:
Gather 350-350 during age up and build a bank. If you don’t have enough XP for a shipment as you hit colonial, get the bank up asap (build with 4v) to speed up your shipment.
(2) Bank wagon
(3) 700w (or 8 pike?)
If you need anticav: If you started rax, build pikes from 700w. If stable, send 8 pikes instead of 700w. Mind housing and note that sending 8 pikes is inefficient; you should probably have started rax in this situation.
In the future, I’m assuming you started with a quick bank boom. Keep in mind though that the strategic principles covered in the next part also apply to the bank wagon start.
(2) 700w
If you scout a colonial build from your opponent and you’re not in a position to age up against it (even with walls), you’re going to have to stay colonial a while longer. Your goal is not killing them in colonial although in some match ups you do have strong timings if they decide to age up before you. Ultimately (and this is an advisable mindset to have as Dutch in any situation) your goal is getting enough of an army out to age up safely.
Depending on how many resources you already have when you start ageing you can either choose to gather 350-350 and get the bank up asap or to gather just 300w and wait for the age up wood to make 700. Either way you’ll use the 400w from age up for another bank, so you’ll have 2 banks early.
From the 700w you can build another bank, a military building and 2 houses (in this case chop 50w if you didn’t gather 350-350), or you can build 2 military buildings and 3 houses. Obviously, the first is more eco-heavy while the second allows for a quick huss+skirm combo and doesn’t spend another 350f on economy, allowing for a bigger mass.
Another variation is building 2 raxes instead of rax+stable and going for dual rax skirm. Your next shipment in that case will be 600w for market/TP and some pikes if necessary, and then 700g to age up. This will beat infantry-based timing pushes but obviously neglects economy somewhat since you'll be ageing up with 2 banks.
If at any point you are thinking you probably need to stay colonial a while longer and can afford to send an eco shipment, send bank wagon. This can enable you to outmass your opponent in colonial in the long run, giving you a chance to age up. Note that squeezing in a TP from 600w is always viable if you don’t really need the wood for anything else.
(3) 600w
(4) 700g (age up if possible)
Or
(3) 8 pike
(4) 700g (age up if possible)
Or even
(3) 700g (quick age up)
(4) 8 pike
Note that with good building placement including walls, you can still be relatively safe against most timings.
In early fortress, send 1000w if you can. Build another bank from it if you can. Upgrade your hussars. Skirm ruyter is nice in theory but in practice it gets countered by skirm+cav, and you're going to want something to tank melee hits. Remember, a 3 unit combo is far superior to a 2 unit combo, and is much harder to counter.
If your opponent is somehow still colonial while you're in fortress, going cannons is often viable. After all in colonial, dealing with art is very tough. Using halbs to shield the art can be worth it, and don't overdo it with the anticav. If they have 50 ashi against 3 cannons and 30 ruyters, you're going to lose that fight. It doesn't hurt at all to mix in a couple of skirms.
