I just played vs a HRE player on Mongolian Heights. You can view my game under the name RTSKnight (I recently changed it because “UrbanVolcano524” lol well sucks as a name). I’ll try and cast this one as its super juicy.
Now one should expect a wall here from the HRE player as English. This said to any shipyard build becomes highly vulnerable to a double focused eco and army. Me personally unless I can secure the water I don’t find it prudent to get a shipyard or add it into the build until I get Keep up for protection. Mainly as a default as some civs just openly beat English on water. Plus I have to worry about the HRE player fast castle.
I opt for a wheelbarrow double, single scout. I know the map has lots of sheep and its relatively close spawn so I don’t feel the need to try and secure a ton of sheep or gather any sort of “extra” info. One scout should do the job. The early wheelbarrow is due to water and a shipyard shutting down a ram rush should they get ships up. So the fast castle keep I gun for will secure the water and an aggressive Castle Age push on the base.
One that allows me to shipyard behind it (which I thought about late) however the wood is super pressed for Siege and longbows so maybe it was fit in fine.
So with no longbow production unless I needed it with a rax and houses. Wood production was set to 600 in order to build a Monastery as soon as I castle.
I MANAGED TO GET ALL 5 RELICS!!! hahahaha that’s a sweet victory.
Something of note. A shipyard in a build can be likened to a TC. IF and only IF you can properly defend it. Just like a Market can be likened to a TC. With this in mind to my current level of understanding THERE IS NO 3 TC build to be utilized. You should always be adding on a shipyard or market in place of the third TC. In this case a Monastery. So a map rich with options should never have a 2 TC opener.
I would say this build left me open to raids, however HRE is typically not known to be very raid heavy. If I was overly worried about it I would have walled the two outer crossings and focused my army in the middle like I did already.
Hope you enjoy the strat breakdown and my thinking if you find me in the search and watch my game. Its the last one I played for the night.