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Hands to Quarters
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Hands to Quarters Home Page American Strategy English Strategy French Strategy Spanish Strategy Russian Strategy America: Besides Russia, America is the best civ for rushing. Because of their unique unit, the Minute Man, you can quickly train a large army. While the Minute Man is not the strongest unit, the ability to train a lot of them quickly allows you to overwhelm your opponent. The Americans are also excellent hunters. They are able to hunt twice as fast as any other civ allowing you to quickly gather food with which to train more Workers (which can then be converted to Minute Men). A good strategy if you are playing America is to use most of your workers on Food and Gold (mostly food though). Make sure though that you keep up with your other resources, because you still need them to train Settlers. When you've maxed out your first Town Center's population, convert most of your food and gold gatherers to minute men. When you have enough resources, build a second Town Center, but in the mean time use your newly trained army to attack any storage buildings that the enemy built outside their territory. Make sure you don't enter the enemy's territory or your Minute Men will quickly be killed off. When you can, quickly train a Siege Cannon and bring that into the enemy's territory to attack their capital along with your Minute Men (you should also have been able to train more of these units). Then because the enemy was weakened from your earlier attacks you should be able to destroy their capital. Otherwise try to take out their second TC and do as much damage with your Minute Men as you can while your cannon is around. England: Without a doubt, England is the most powerful civ when it comes to sea power. And this is a good thing because controlling the water in Hands to Quarters is a very important strategy. When a player has control over the water, that player receives free resources, and units are available faster than normal. A player gains control over the water by having a larger fleet than the enemy. This is easy to do with England because of the lower cost to build ships. England also has an advantage with Fishing which is much more efficient than any other civ. It's usually a good idea when playing England to build a dock as soon as possible and start fishing right away. But not only is England good on the sea, but also on land with their powerful Rocket unique unit. This unit is similar to the Anti-Infantry Cannon, however it has a much greater attack and is also able to damage more units than any other cannon in the game. A good strategy when playing England on a sea map is to use most of your workers on wood and gold right away (unlike other civs when food should be your primary concern). Then when you are able to, build a dock and train as many fishing boats as you can (five is usually good. However if your first Town Center is not near enough to the water, you will have to hunt or forage straight off and build a dock with your second Town Center. Once you have your second TC built, build a Frigate (you will actually get two frigates) and use this ship to scout out the water. By now you should have control of the water so build a few more docks (this will give you more resources). As long as you scout the enemy's shores, you should be able to remain in control of the water for a while with just your frigates. But eventually you'll need to build Ships of the Line. When you do, make sure you use them not only to control the water, but to destroy their land defenses (such as towers and military buildings). Also target any Storage Building locations to weaken the enemy's economy. Then when you are ready to attack with your army, send them through the water (if you have control of it still). That way you can attack from behind where your ships were able to weaken the enemy. France: Because of France's cheaper infantry units and their cheaper settlers, it's best to boom with them. While their economy isn't as powerful as Spain or England, you will be able to guard your territory easily with the help of the Gendarmerie unique unit. These units are not only cheap but very powerful when attacking in friendly territory. Because of these very unique abilities, the best strategy for France is to boom. Start out by keeping your resources fairly even (obviously you want more food, wood, and gold than iron though). As soon as you can, take advantage of your cheaper Settlers and build your second TC quickly. This will give you a large advantage over the other players because owning more territory gives you more resources and locks the enemy's workers out. As soon as you advance to the Second Age, build two barracks and train at least 8 Gendarmerie. These you'll use as your guards while you continue to advance your economy. You can also build an Anti-Infantry Cannon or two and because the French receive the Bronze tech free these cannons will be cheap to build and fast to move. After you have a suitable guard, you should continue to research economic improvements. Also since by now your hunting is probably depleted, build a couple of farms and start farming. When you have enough resources, you will be able to use France's cheaper infantry to the extreme by training as many infantry units as you can. By now you should also have all four of your Town Centers built so to win, all you need to do is keep them standing for 10 minutes. Spain: When it comes to economy, Spain is without a doubt the most powerful civ. Every first age economy tech is automatically researched, so not only do you not have to spend resources on these techs, you also gain the increased gather rates at the start of the game. This can give you a large advantage over another player. However this comes at a price. Spainish infantry are not the best, and their unique unit (the Partisan) while very powerful, is very expensive. Like France, you should use a boom strategy with this civ. Gather lots of resources and try to control as much of the map as possible. Research the Border Patrol and Border Fort techs to help you here. When you have enough resources to sustain an army, then train a good mix of Grenadiers and Marines. You might also be able to afford a few cavalry units to help you out (such as the cuirassier). Russia: If you want to rush, then Russia is definitely the civ you want to choose. Because of their cheap stables and cavalry units, you can create a large army of Hussars easily. And Hussars are the best unit for rushing because they are nearly immune to territory damage...even without a nearby cannon. When you start a game with Russia, you want to gather as much food and gold as you can. This will help fund your army of early Hussars. After building your second Town Center, quickly build two or three stables (depending on how much wood you have) and create as many Hussars as you can. Usually 10-20 is a good amount. Then send your Hussars into the enemy's territory and target resource gathering sites. Try to avoid any enemy infantry because the Hussar is not the best unit against them. Your goal right now should be to stop the enemy from advancing to far. Meanwhile you should have been able to build a third TC by now, so build an Armory Depot and train a Siege Cannon or two. Also use your stables (make sure you have three of them now) and train several Cossacks. Now send in this army to destroy the enemy's capital. 
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