To AOE III experts (if there are any on here)

I got a big lan battle coming up this weekend, its going to be my first AOE III battle against real players. I have a lot of online experience with AOE II and I was exceptionally good at the game but AOE III is a much quicker and more balanced game so old techniques from AOE II don’t work in the same way.

Basically I've been working on two strategies, and I want to know if they sound in theory to be effective against human players, because their very effective against the AI. The two strategies outlined below include building a wooden wall around my base while advancing to the second age, but that’s my only real defence for the first 10 mins of the game. I also play on normal speed starting with the basic resources.

Technique 1
I play as the britts and have developed a quick advancing strategy that allows me to get to the 4th age in I think my best time is 13 minutes using resource shipments. this technique allows me to get to my cannons quickly and also the large unit shipments of 20 long bowmen, 15 musketeers, etc. What this means though is for the first 10 minutes of the game I have no army, but I boom the moment I get into the 4th age. So basically I see this technique as trading advancing resources for big unit shipments ASAP. This conversion technique lets me advance quickly while building an army but i'm thinking the army might come just a little to late. :(

Technique 2
Another technique I've got is a slower one that focuses on the third age. Instead of advancing to the 4th age to get good shipments I focus on getting to the third age in 9 minutes and then build a huge army of cannons, and mainly longbowmen with a few musketeers. With this technique I have a substantially bigger army quicker but I don’t have access to improving my cannons or really improving my infantry or the really good home town shipments until a bit later in the game.

Also I’m interesting in knowing what sort of techniques would work well to counter my techniques. How quickly can people rush in AOE III and what sort of units do they use for the highest rush efficiency? (being rushed is my greatest fear) Would it be advisable to build a small army the moment I get to the seccond age? or would waiting a few minutes to get the 3rd to build cannons be better?

I've also noticed that cavalry have lost their edge due to high costs and the fact they take up 2 population and are murdered by pikemen. Are cavalry used a lot in online gaming or mainly as a counter to artillery?

If you have any other advice from online gaming let me know! Thank you!

Technique 1 is the best. Although watch for flanking movements. Weaker units in large numbers could spell disaster for you with a strong army or not in any case. Cavalry are used to mount strong offensives against weaker units or others such as the wooden artillery. Send them in first. Follow up with artillery launch and a cloud of arrows and flank your enemy from behind following up with an encircling force from the left and right with your main army to thin out the rest of the ranks.

Cavalry would be my best bet for flanking hey? Ive found if I send cavalry in first and they run head on to pikeman they get smashed which is why Ive been using a front line of musketeers defending my long bowmen. Musketeers have 20% defence to hand damage and can take down cavalry while longbowmen work awesome for quickly taking down other infantry due to their fire rate being double that of the musketeers ranged attack.

Longbowmen also have a slight bonus to cavalry, i think its a 1.5 x attack, so their moderatly successful at defending a flanking army trying to attack my rear (hehe) So I wouldnt say long bowmen are weak, their ranged attack is double musketeers because of their faster fire rate and musketeers have a 3x bonus vs cavalry which should put their cavalry attack equal to pikemen.

I do have one question regarding musketeers and pikemen. Do pikemen attack at the same rate as a musketeers hand attack making them equaly effective vs cavalry? musketeers also have more HP but cost slightly more though :( (I havnet had a chance to test this out, I was going to do some more tests tonight)

Technique 2 is safer but technique 1 is potentially more dangerous for the opposition but much harder to pull off. I say go with number 2. Btw if your enemy is good they could be in your base quite quickly putting pressure on you.

I know thats what i hate, both are techniques that are weak against a rush, the only way I can defend is if i prepare for a rush counter, but what are the units usually used for a rush, AOE II had light cavalry, but they were cheap and quick, horses in AOE III are expensive so you would have to use infantry? right? Does any one know what rushes are like in AOE III so I can defend em?

Heh I still play Age of conquerors , that is AOE at it's peak.

hahaha yeah I was playing that right up to a month ago! Then I blew the dust off AOE III and started playing that on my new graphics card :D I would have agreed with you about the conquerors had I not spent so many hours on AOE III. now AOE II just feels boring and lame, the same way AOE I felt in comparison to II.

If ensemble wasnt being shut down I would have loved it if they did a remake of either the 1st or 2nd AOE but with modern day graphics and stratergy. Now I wouldnt trust that game in the hands of any one else :(

That's like 10 years worth of gaming :( , we can only dream.

 it would be fully worth it! look at how many times they've re done the ocarina of time or a mario game lol, maybe the guys from ensemble will make another real time stratergy starting from the very beginning again once they get their independant studio up and running. I couldnt imagen thoes guys making anything else but real time stratergies. And I couldnt imagen real time stratergies existing outside of either a past present or future war zone lol, they dont have much choice :D

deppending on what the other players skill lvl is both of those strats will get crush by good players vs an bad players you could get away with the first one