Dude, I was saying what you said was noobish. No one made you say that a 5% map related boost to mill gathering would impact the number of vills you aged up to 2 with. You said it for reasons that none of us fully understand.
If you think Maltese Crossbowmen can’t kill Musketeers you’re wrong (you need Steel Bolts). And yes, if you use them properly you can beat skirms. Your Crossbowmen cost almost 33% less than skirms (when you factor in Wig Construction vs his normal eco), you just need to micro correctly and find a way to force the fight (hussars can snare, or push somewhere he can’t give up, etc). Your higher base DPS actually makes you do better vs skirms as long as you can overcome the range disadvantage. Push the advantages in late age 3 or early age 4 right after getting Arbs. In early age 3 you’re at a big disadvantage (you really really need Steel Bolts).
It depends on the MU, but I like rushing with Crossbowmen and pikes. If you can force your opponent to stay age 2 with you it should put you at an advantage eventually (+2% with every shipment, Xbow attack, Xbow hp, and better vills from Wig Construction etc). Later age when he does while having a bigger eco. Your rush doesn’t need to kill him, don’t overcommit, kill a few vills and force him to make army instead of aging until you have sent a good number of shipments. The cards he’s sending likely aren’t as useful to him as his age 3 cards. You need to give him the choice; stay age 2, or lose his TC and die.
If you kill him outright, that’s gg. If you don’t, you kept him in age 2 making military, then later consider aging. In age 3, survive until your large xbow mass is upgraded and pump more units than he can deal with. You need Vet, Steel Bolts and Xbow combat. Survive until then. He’ll have a strong push with 2 falcs, but if this is at the 15+ minute mark you can probably deal with them fairly easily. If you take a decisive win at your base and still have a good army go do damage or build more TCs and get more ahead. If you took the eco route, don’t forget to apply some pressure anyway. Keep him off hunts etc. Aging again is also an option. Arbs are crazy good and you can go age 4 with a big discount for your xbow/pike upgrades (if you aged and he wasn’t able to follow, this will look really bad for him assuming he doesn’t take an extremely good fight or two).
At the appropriate time, push with more Xbows than he has skirms and walk into it (stepping forward then shooting, and repeat). If you do it right you hopefully wipe his army (either again, or for the first time depending how the game went) and have no problem remassing. It doesn’t work in every MU, which is why Malta needs more options, not things to improve this one. It also takes some skill to pull off.
Italian Crossbowmen aren’t very good (different problem), and Spain doesn’t have Steel Bolts, which is everything for Xbows.
Having seen your deck in the casted Russia mirror, I don’t think you’re playing with tempo. As a self-described “professional treaty player” who has “better micro any supremacy player” I don’t think any of this is going to get through to you. You’ve had enough success around 1200-1300 elo that you think you know everything, but many of the lessons you’ve learned don’t apply at higher levels. People have more optimized builds, better macro and micro, etc. I’m done arguing with you. I think both myself and @platypus_slayer1 have offered to play you before. If you can out micro any supremacy player, I suggest you show us how badly we suck.