I am new to the game, and need help! My friends and I play Age of Empires 3 (2007). DE specs are too high for our computers…
My friend plays as Russia and rushes with Strelets, and continues spamming them the whole game. What units are the best choice to counter strelets?
I play as the British and have been using longbowmen. What artillery units are the best to use? Grenadiers? Falconets?
Lastly, my friend and I played a 2v2 vs my other friend (who uses Strelets). My partner plays as the Ottomans. What units are best to use as the Ottomans to combat Strelets? Ottomans have no heavy cavalry.
To counter a strelet rush as the British or Ottomans just produce a few hussars and watch the strelet mass evaporate. Both British and Ottomans have royal guard upgrades for hussars plus a load of home city cards.
You can pair the hussars in later ages with falconets. Watch out for halberdiers tho as these will cut down your hussars!!!
When starting out as the British create this unit composition; hussars, musketeers and falconets
When starting out as the Ottomans; hussar, janissary and falconets
These compositions are basic but should serve you well until you play a good Portuguese player with long range dragoons and cassadors. Then come back to me for a more appropriate combo.
They are just big axe men basically. They’ll normally make up the front row of an army (especially Russian) and are exceptionally good at taking down cavalry but they are pretty weak against everything else. Honestly if your in Age 2 your musketeers should be able to deal with them pretty well if you got a good sized bulk of them. After that just let your artillery deal with them. You only got to worry if your entire army is only cavalry.
As Ottomans use Albus Gunners if you can afford them, or just use janissaries if not.
You need to understand the basic unit counters. Strelets are light infantry so they get countered by heavy cavalry. And heavy cavalry gets countered by heavy infantry such as halberdiers.
This is exactly what I needed! Looks like I should use Hussars and falconets to counter Strelets. Thanks Moozilla! I will use this picture a ton. Very helpful.
Hand shock infantry is the heavy cavalry equivalent for civilizations that don’t have actual cavalry. For example, Aztec Coyote Runners. British can only get them if they ally with a native that has the unit type.
This is more detailed but slightly out of date (ranged heavy cav isn’t really a thing anymore).
Thanks @M00Z1LLA I was looking for these diagrams to better explain.
As mentioned above, it is true that hand shock infantry is strong against Strelets (and all other light infantry). But this shouldn’t be an issue for you if you are only playing European civilisations. @wkriegermusic do you have “The Asian Dynasties” or “The WarChiefs” expansion packs?? Can you play as/against asian or Native American civilisations??
Haha yeah the good old Redcoats and Rockets combo; great for treaty but I don’t think it will stop a rush coz of the slow train time and expense of artillery. Plus you can only start training artillery in Age 3 by which time a good rush will have finished you.
^ culverins
@Moonshadow7475 have you ever tried an early game hussar and longbow spam before? I’ve found it takes a lot of players by surprise, as they’re expecting a musk spam.
If your opponent builds a lot of strelets early game build some hussars that will deal with them as hussars have a bonus against light infantry which is what strelets are classed as, later in the game build falconets or horse artillery, they will peform very well against strelets. You said you play English, If they have halberdiers and strelets build longbows to counter the halberdiers and then flank the strelets with your hussars.
