Fast Five

Pun intended. Refined version of a high octane build featured in a game casted by Lionheart. The build has been tuned to be safer against harassment.

Game plan :

Stay in age 1 for an extra minute then drift to imperial in 13 minutes and a half, using the snazziest shipments available to the USA. Then, drive your shadow tech'ed outlaws into the enemy's base. The build is capable of defending vs age 2. However, unless you abandon the idea of a fast imp, you cannot hold age 3 nor age 4 all-in as you will be too late to age 3 or 4 to set up counter measures.

Age I :

15/20 house+TP opener. 4 villagers on wood, rest on food. Priority on wood treasures until the house is built then everyone back to food.

Ship capitalism followed by Spanish immigrants (tower in base naturally).

Age up with Virginia around 4'00" (one minute later than a usual supremacy build).

Gather wood for a market in transition and research hunting dogs. Ship the bank as soon as you have 300 coins (no need to mine, capitalism will take care of it). Position it in front of your base to form a wall with other natural elements. All villagers on food.

Age II :

Ship hamiltonian economics whenever you can, followed by Virginia general assembly (do NOT research tech in the state capitol unless an attack is impending and you need to reach age 3 fast). In the market, research the food, coin then wood upgrades in order. Macro for 1200f and 1000c. Do not hesitate to market abuse to speed up ageing.

Age up with Kentucky (default) around 7'20" (you are a minute behind a regular ff). You have other options. Maryland (disrupt a water boom). Tennessee (overmountain settlers makes your hunts last longer). In transition build a house (buy from the market, it is cheaper for the moment).

Age III :

This is the part of the build where you can adapt depending on the situation :

• Fort : hold against later timings
• 3 gatlings : hold against earlier timings
• 1000 food : faster age up [no need for 1k coin as you overproduce coins]
• Overmountain Settlers (if you aged with Tennessee and are starting to run out of herds).

Split your villagers between coin and food. Age up with New Jersey.

In transition send Virginia plan to stack shipments. If you have not used the fast age up tech in the state capitol, now the perfect time to research it.

Age IV :

Perform the NJ crate trick. Ship in this exact order

1. Morris canal (your shipments arrive fast and you get 4 infrastructure wagons)
2. New Jersey seaport (all your crate shipments do not need to be picked up and contain 900 extra resources)
3. 1600 coins (+900 from NJ seaport)
4. 1600 (+900 from NJ seaport)

With the infrastructure wagon, build a capitol (for 200 build XP), a meeting house (XP trickle), and estates (greed for more build XP) or towers (to defend natural resources). Age up to imperial with New York.

In transition chop some wood to pay for wild west (outlaws shadow tech) and for housing (you need to get to ~100pop). Then all but 6 villagers to coin. Start pumping cowboys out of your saloon.

Age V :

We are finally here. You will be in imperial at 13'30" if you are untouched. If you had to call minutemen/tercios you will be delayed by ~2min or more. Ship the 1600 (+900) coins again and research new mexico immigration, keep spamming cowboys and harass the enemy's army. Don't commit until you have a big mass of cowboys.

Adaptations :

It is unlikely that someone will leave you untouched. Here are some ideas to defend yourself. General principle : it is better to abandon the fast imperial and live instead of "fast imp into gg".

1. Pivot into an ff : Ship 700c instead of hamiltonian economics. Macro with the help of your market to age up faster (you will have an excess of coin) with New Hampshire. Use the fast age up and defend yourself with gatling guns and the 2 Napoleon guns.
2. Pivot into a regular FI : If you have no shipment left by the time you click up to 4, do not even bother to do the New Jersey crate trick. You can age up with Vermont and still play outlaws in age 4.

Notes :

• Provided you shipped hamiltonian economics, in age 3 wood is collected as fast as coin. Chopping wood is the preferred option over market abuse.
• Considering how greedy it is, consider adapting this deck for team games.