This past week I've been facing a new market abuse this time with Sicilians. I've played against it 6 times and lost 5, won 1. The win came about because I had Incas this time and lamed most of his goats and stopped him from taking his deer and so he resigned at minute 5. This player has abused this strat to get to around 1950 from an initial starting rate of around 1600.
Match I lost - https://www.aoe2insights.com/match/257760569/
I was quite frustrated and plain annoyed to have played vs this strat multiple times with no clear plan in sight to stop it. Here are the reasons why.
1. FC is 20+2 pop with a focus to just get to castle. No lumbercamp made.. Only Gold mine and Mill.
2. As soon as clicking to castle, he places a donjon at his gold and starts market abuse to make sergeants. Reaches castle around 13 min 30 seconds
3. Now the Sergeants have +25 hp, +1/+1 pierce armor, +3 attack and he gets an extra feudal armor for a total of 4 pierce. Archers are pretty much pointless vs this strat. The berries are done before reaching castle after which it is just wood and gold. The donjon usually protects both these res.
4. Comes forward with 3-4 sergeants by around 13 minute mark and builds donjons in my base. Vil fights are useless and he can even fight under TC fire due to the 4 pierce armor.
5. Siege workshop to kill tc next. By this point all the idle time adds up and effectively I am dead in the water sticking to feudal age.
I have tried Scouts and Archers but not Maa as I was not very clear if the civ was picked or random and tried to play normally.
The 25 hp, attack and armor instant boost is what really makes this strat so strong. There is no unit in feudal that can win vs Sergeants.
This along with the Mongol FC steppe lancer strat and maybe the celt FC strat really focus on market abuse and regularly destroy the ability to play strategically. Among all these cheese strats, this one really stands out because the Sergeants can also build donjons effectively nullifying any ability to protect oneself. Either Market needs a nerf in feudal or some of these civs really need a rethink the way they are played.
All these strats are quite tilting to play against and really go against the strategical possibilities of AOE2.
Your thoughts?
Match I lost - https://www.aoe2insights.com/match/257760569/
I was quite frustrated and plain annoyed to have played vs this strat multiple times with no clear plan in sight to stop it. Here are the reasons why.
1. FC is 20+2 pop with a focus to just get to castle. No lumbercamp made.. Only Gold mine and Mill.
2. As soon as clicking to castle, he places a donjon at his gold and starts market abuse to make sergeants. Reaches castle around 13 min 30 seconds
3. Now the Sergeants have +25 hp, +1/+1 pierce armor, +3 attack and he gets an extra feudal armor for a total of 4 pierce. Archers are pretty much pointless vs this strat. The berries are done before reaching castle after which it is just wood and gold. The donjon usually protects both these res.
4. Comes forward with 3-4 sergeants by around 13 minute mark and builds donjons in my base. Vil fights are useless and he can even fight under TC fire due to the 4 pierce armor.
5. Siege workshop to kill tc next. By this point all the idle time adds up and effectively I am dead in the water sticking to feudal age.
I have tried Scouts and Archers but not Maa as I was not very clear if the civ was picked or random and tried to play normally.
The 25 hp, attack and armor instant boost is what really makes this strat so strong. There is no unit in feudal that can win vs Sergeants.
This along with the Mongol FC steppe lancer strat and maybe the celt FC strat really focus on market abuse and regularly destroy the ability to play strategically. Among all these cheese strats, this one really stands out because the Sergeants can also build donjons effectively nullifying any ability to protect oneself. Either Market needs a nerf in feudal or some of these civs really need a rethink the way they are played.
All these strats are quite tilting to play against and really go against the strategical possibilities of AOE2.
Your thoughts?