Archaic & leather canon

The crossbow rush is a build as old as AoE3 itself. However, many civilizations cannot play it comfortably, because the build requires de quartermaster age up. After some experimentation, I managed to find a workaround, that I will present to you in this guide.

Caveat : you need a trade route for the build to work. A wood treasure in base helps a lot.

Game plan :

Use a TP opening and boost your economy with advanced market, to prepare for a strong archaic unit push, that will transition into a leather canon push.

Age I :

Perform a TP+torp opening. Reminder that sweden has only 150f worth of crates, so put 4 settlers on hunts after queueing the settler at the TC. Build the TP first and chop the wood for a torp. Herd toward the torp to increase your food income.

Your first shipment is 3 settlers. Age up at 16/20 with the philosopher prince. In transition, ship advanced market. Keep your settlers on food. you can use one to start herding further hunts. Sell food for coin then buy the wood to research hunting dogs and build a torp. Then bank enough wood and coin to research steel traps in age 2.

Age II :

Research steel traps. Collect the food and convert it to wood at the market to build a barrack and start training pikemen or crossbowmen (scout the military building of your oponent). Ship 700w as soon as you can. Rally new settlers to food for the moment.

Once the 700w arrives build your 2nd barrack, keep training archaic units and building torps. Your 4th shipment is dominion for housing. Start pressuring around this time. you want some map control to build the torps on far mines so you don't have to send your settlers on a big trip. Start rallying new settlers to wood (Research the 1st wood upgrade immediately. It is insanely cheap and will pay off quickly). Your 5th shipment is 600w to keep training units.

Follow up

The deck allows you to alter your game plan depending on the situation

• Against an opponent massing light infantry and cavalry, Julity Styckebruk will help you switch to leather canons that will terrorise light infantry.
• If you are facing raids, the herd of 15 elks will help you keep your settlers safe by delivering a big hunt in your main base
• If you cannot break the turtling, age up with 700c

The deck is designed with a short age 3 in mind. You are intended to go to age 4 quickly with the papal guard to spam discounted dalkarl pikemen backed by infantry guns with reduced population space.

You can also do a timing by shipping the church card, massing pikemen in age 3 then shipping Dalecarlian rebellion in transition to age 4. A recent patch created a powerful combo : if the card arrives in age 4 and you have researched Gustavian guard at the church, the halberdiers will have their guard upgrade researched.

Variant :

You can replace the elks with the 2 leather canon shipments for a stronger timing. I would not recommend using this deck on water. I believe a classic water boom into pikes+leather canons would be a better plan.