Blue Guards timing attack

Many people tend to be complacent and greed against the Dutch. This build is designed to punish such complacency.

Game plan :

Perform a 3 bank fast fortress, then gather resources to go industrial behind the protection of a fort. Then, combine the two heavy canons shipment with the Blue Guards church tech to quickly create a powerful army.

Opening :

Standard dutch opening. One house, mine coin for two merchants. Age up with the quartermaster at 15/20. Priority on coin and food treasures during age I. Priority on wood treasures in transition.

In transition build a bank, mine 100 coin then everyone back to food.

Age II :

At this stage your game plan follows the standard dutch game plan. You want to assess in transition what your enemy is up to (the emissary will scout for you) and react accordingly.

1. If no sign of agression [ideal]
   • Shipments to send : 700w => 700c
   • What to do ? Collect the 400 wood from the age up with two merchants and build your 2nd bank. Collect the 700 wood. Build a market, research hunting dogs, a 3rd bank, a church and a house. Then, macro for 1200f and 1000c and age up with the exiled prince.
2. If early rush (e.g haudenoshaunee messenger)
   • Sipments to send : bank wagon => 700w => 700f OR 700c
   • What to do ? Build a barrack and two houses with the age up wood and train skirmishers. Bank resources to call town militia when needed. With the 700 wood build a market, a 3rd bank and houses. If your hunts are running out, ship 700food. If you still have food in base, ship the coin.
3. If colonial timing
   • Sipments to send : 700w => bank wagon => 700f OR 700c
   • What to do ? Collect the 400 wood from the age up with two merchants and build your 2nd bank. Collect the 700 wood. Build a market, research hunting dogs, a 3rd bank and houses. You will need to train an army to cover your back while you age up. The bank wagon will help you build your 4th bank. Age up with the crates when it is safe.

Assuming you are on path 1 your target time to click the age up is : 7'00". The rest of this guide is written with this assumption in mind.

Age III :

It is advised to ship the fort to cover yourself. However, if you do not spot any sign of agression, skip the fort and ship 1000 food directly. Age with the tycoon around 9'40" if you sent the fort. You can click a minute earlier if you skipped the fort.

In transition put every merchant on coin. You will need coin to pay for mercantilism. Send the church card. Unless you skipped the fort, you are out of shipment. You will need to research mercantilism before doing anything else.

Age IV :

Queue a few merchants then ship the 2 heavy canons. You will be pop capped. Pay for the blue guards tech then the red lancers in this order. Once you have the blue guards and the canons, you can push. You should start pusing no later than 13 minutes.

Branching paths :

• Balanced approach : Gather wood (market abuse and/or gathering manually). Build houses. Restart merchant production and ship units (Belanda Hitam is also good to go) to feed the push while you consolidate your economy at home.
• Extend the push : Considering you are badly housed, the only military shipments you can send are Belanda Hitam and the 9 saxon cuirassiers. Keep gathering coin. Use you coin income to keep your shipment queue busy and pay for the red lancers if you have not already. After that back either restart the boom or revolt. Your push has run out of steam.
• Pivot to a boom : Merchants back on food. Ship the 1600 wood crate. Build houses and the leftover banks. If you already have 5 banks, extend the build limits using the church tech or seize the trade line to maintain the flow of shipments.
• Macro for a revolt : Ship the factories and macro for 1k food and 1k wood with your merchants (the coin will come from the banks). The USA is the preferred revolt because of its synergies with the fort you already shipped. Avoid the shipment of regulars as you will convert your remaining blue guards into an inferior unit. The carbine cavalry shipment has an insane synergy with ruyters as it converts these into higher value units. If you mass ruyters before shipping you can get an insane overpop.

Variant : Brazil revolt

Instead of going for a 12'30" timing, you can revolt as Brazil. Perform the build order as usual, until you reach the 6th shipment. Instead of sending the church card, ship the explorer card stadhouder. Then in age 4 ship the two factories back to back and macro for a revolt. Set the factories on wood. You will need to build an extra house in transition to age 4. Once the two factories are set up, ship the two heavy canons and revolt once they have arrived.

During the revolt, use your explorer to build discounted TCs. You may want to ship banderantes to speed up the process. Buy the wood with the coin from the banks. You can train ruyters from the fort to cover the heavy canons. once you have 4/5 TCs, ship citizenship and start rebooming. You citizen are discounted, and you have plenty of TC to produce them.

Note :

As of the writing of this guide, Belanda Hitam is BUGGED. It does not allow you to train ankobias as promised. This mod fixes the issue but prevents you from playing online :( Replace this card with the 15 Carib allies if you want to play online.