FI into revolt

The last guide of my fast revolt series. This time with arguably the worst civilization to revolt with. Having merchants that cost coin instead settlers that cost food is one of the worst economic penalty in aoe3. Nonetheless it is still possible to revolt by 11'30". While you will be as exposed as malta to enemy timings, you will keep banks upon revolting, allowing you to pay for interesting shipments. This build should be reserved for AI games as the Blue Guard timing attack offers a safer alternative, at the cost of a later timing.

unlike other fast revolts, this build can work on no TP maps, and you only need two herds in base. You will need two silver mines in base or a gold mine.

Game plan :

Perform a 2 bank FF under the protection of a single tower from the governor, then blitz to industrial and revolt.

Age I :

Standard Dutch opening. Build a house, get 200c coin from mining and treasure hunting to pay for 2 extra merchants and age up at 15/20.

The novalty is that we will age up with the governor instead of the quartermaster. The idea is to convince your opponent you are turtling hard and convince him/her to go greed.

In transition build a bank, mine 150 coin, then queue one merchant and shift every merchant but 2 back to food.

Age II :

Build the tower in base and collect the coin. Ship 700w immediately. Once the crates arrive, build your 2nd bank, a house, a church and a market. If you spot agression, abandon the church and the market and build a military building and another house. Ship 700c when possible and macro for age 3. Note : 2 banks are enough to sustian merchant production from the TC. Any merchant mining is bonus coin that will be banked.

Age up with the exiled prince. In transition queue 3 merchants, and split your workers between coin and food.

Age III :

Ship 1000f. Collect food with your merchants until you get 1000. Then put all the merchants on coin. We need to collect 1200 to pay for age 4. Once the 1000f arrives, collect it quickly and age up with the tycoon.

In transition ship all the workers to mines. We need 1500 coin to pay for mercantilism as fast as possible. Once you have paid for it, ship 1000w and queue 2 merchants. The faster you can ship 1000w the smoother the build becomes and the faster you can revolt. You can now shift all your merchants back to food.

Age IV :

Ship the 2 heavy canons whenever you can and collect the crates. You should have 1000w from the earlier shipment and 1000c from the age up. You only need to collect 1000f and queue the revolt with indonesia or the US. Any excess resource can be invested in coin to pay for power shipments or food to train more revolutionaries.

Once you have revolted, push hard.

Who to revolt with ?

For this build you have two main choices :

• Indonesia has a better initial push as you get 4 cetbang canons immediately. You can combine the trickle from your banks with extra resources collected before the revolt to pay for the ottoman expeditionary army. The value is not the best however, it is difficult to turn down to extra great bombards.
• The USA can be a nice alternative if you want to counter revolt. unlike indonesia, you have the possibility of rebooming after the revolt (citizen cost coin while the batavian merchants cost food). The main power shipments are the washington grenadiers and the continental light dragoons assuming you trained a good amount of ruyters beforehand. For extra anticav, the regulars are also worth it as you did not ship any blue guards.

What about Brazil/South Africa ? Rushing to South Africa makes no sense as it is an economic revolt. For brazil adapt the blue guard timing attack build order instead.

Note :

• The deck is setup to look like heavy age 2/3 play. Unlike other euro civs (e.g Spain), your initial push is not as overwhelming. You want to avoid encountering any sort of fort/culverins.
• If you see a colonial timing, don't hesitate to delay age 3. You can send a bank wagon or two towers to hold.
• Likewise, if you are in age 3 and anticipate a push, send the fort or some units.