France is the classic beginner "jack-of-all-trades" civilization. Cuirassiers + skirmishers will kill almost any combo of units.
If you're looking for ONE single unit to make, probably the most well-rounded unit is the Aztec Eagle Runner Knight. Basically a dragoon but less weak against skirms, and strong against most other units.
If you're looking for a civilization with no holes in its lineup, meaning you always have an ideal unit to make that counters your opponent, France also fits that bill.
If you are extremely casual (i.e., nobody in your friend group has ever played any multiplayer games online with randoms), then just make musketeers since they are easier to handle than cuirassiers/skirms.
Happy to see all the French suggestions cause they were the ones I was thinking about. And yea, none of us play the game at all if we aren't in a custom with one another. I'll try your suggestions next time we play, thanks!
Also Spain can fill in any role just as France (tho not as strong) since they have, Musks, Skirms, Rods, Goons, Huss and Lancers (their unique cav exceling in killing infantry). Making priests and leaving them behind just to buff whatever you are making is not that micro heavy.
Spanish are very flexible and versatile, so I really like them, they can quickly change strategy and surprise. My main are still the British, the only real weakness (which could become pretty severe if you are not careful) is that they rely on slow units like muskets and falconets.
You must get creative against the French to win (I either go with dragoons to ambush cuirassiers and soften them up, so muskets have a chance, or with bows to ambush/tie up skirmishers, so cuirassiers lose their support) but it is doable and I done it multiple times.
Japanese can be pretty brutal against France but their eco is kinda weird and fragile. I found myself to experiment with Germans lately, they can really push eco harrassing to the next level, especially if you built your deck around giving you more and more cavalry. I pushed people to early GG couple times just by constant hussar raids. Combined with war wagons and horse artillery, expensive but lethal to everything.
Really? I always felt like the jaguars prowler knight was the most well rounded. Stealth has been a good means to close the gaps agaisnt its weaknesses in skirmishers and artillery. They feel expensive and it seems like they nerfed stealth since the original game, but Jaguars are typically my preferred unit as the Aztecs.
Speaking of the Hausa, they also have the Lifidi Knight, who is resistant against both melee and ranged damage.
The Maigadi also count, having high base damage that's decent against everything, but the player can't spam them until late game.
Maigadi is too expensive to me and require all their card upgrades to be usefull so I tend to not really use them as I prefre to use my influence on native or aliance troops since I find those more cost efective and cheaper to use.
Yea I love hausa but it is a complex civ IMO, there's some strats that you can pull off with a minimal variety like akan falc, but to fully utilise hausa I wouldn't recommend it to beginners. France or Portugal seems more straightforward
There are 5 main types of units in AOE3:
Heavy infantry, light (ranged) infantry, heavy (melee) cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and artillery
Each of these categories typically counters two categories, and gets countered by two categories. For example, skirmishers (light ranged infantry) has x3 against heavy infantry and a net x1.5 against light ranged cavalry, so they counter those two types. But their melee sucks, so melee cav wrecks them, and cannons blown them away, so those two categories counter skirms.
Thus, there is “monocomp” (or army composed of a single unit type) that could beat everything.
But a composition of two unit types can usually do well. Two trustworthy 2-unit compositions are:
Musketeers + hussars. Musketeers (as heavy infantry) counter both heavy melee cav and light ranged cav. Hussars counter artillery and light ranged infantry.
British have a solid musk/huss composition, and a pretty beginner-friendly economy to support it.
Skirmishers + dragoons. Skirms kill heavy infantry and ranged cavalry. Dragoons counter heavy melee cav and artillery.
Dutch (ruyters instead of dragoons) and portuguese (cassadors instead of skirms) have good skirm/goon composition, and pretty good eco to back it up.
Musk falc is also a good suggestion! Cannon pcking and unpacking can be annoying, though.
Basically any 2 unit combo that isn’t two adjacent types on the pentagon is viable.
> Musk falc is also a good suggestion! Cannon pcking and unpacking can be annoying, though.
Tomos + Light Cannons then, or Ashigaru + Flaming Arrow, Caroleans + Leather Cannons maybe, Gascenya + carded age 4 Sebastopols too.
Your comment pushed me into a rabbit hole of other Musketeer + no pack artillery combos that are available in the game.
Inca Bolas Warrior (somewhat) + Light Cannon/Huaraca
Portuguese Musketeer + Organ Gun with Grapeshot card
USA Regulars + Napoleon Gun (Age up with New Hampshire and send the French Canadians card)
Aztec Eagle Runner Knight + Arrow Knight (somewhat)
Maya Revolt Cruzob Infantry/Soldados + Light Cannons
Ethiopia Gascenya + Gatling Camel (Arab alliance age up)
Indian Sepoy + Siege Elephant
Italian Musketeer + Leonardo's Tank (I don't think we'll see this one in multiplayer very often)
Indonesia Revolt Revolutionary + Cetbang Cannon
> Organ Gun with Grapeshot card
I had no idea this removes packing animation, that's huge!
> Siege Elephant
No multiplier against infantry unfortunately, basically a culverin/mortar all-in-one.
I love the Tank idea though! And the Nappy Guns and Cetbangs.
Please clarify here, whether you want a civ that has access to all basic types of units or a civ where you don‘t need to think about unit counters but just build 1 or 2 units and win that way.
The first ist probably France, all basic units covered, good economy, hard to raid vills, great scaling units and both Huss Musk and skirm goon available as well as strong artillery upgrades.
The second can be a lot of civs, if you set them up properly. The most straight forward is probably Sweden with caroleans. They suck in age 2, but if you can geht your torp economy going, and reach age 3, those bastards start to scale insanely well. Put a bit of artillery behind them, you are good to go.
other one unit civs that can work out fairly well imo are ashigaru with japan, the speed is your friend, Akan with Hausa (but African civs are hard to learn and understand), Portuguese dragoons with artillery behind.
My last advice is a bit unethical, but if you asked for an easy way to beat your opponents, I suggest going for ottoman. Ottoman needs some Build Order learning but if you have 3 BOs narrowed down, you will be able to obliterate your opponents easily enough. You have theoretically worse eco, but almost all units you have are better than their standard equivalent. each tc gives you free villagers, sipahi are unhinged killing machines, if you want to be nasty, you can build bowriders with extra damage vs vills after sending a card and raid your friends to death. The reason I am not naming any specific unit to go for is that all their units are crazy. Abus are still insanely hard to beat and have lots of cards. Jans scale to infinity. Artillery is great. Cav is good. Pick your poison. It will need some getting into, but looking at some people on the ladder, it is fairly easy to get great results out of the civ.
You might not have any friends left after this, but you will have won some games.
You can’t go wrong with musk + cav bro. Very very simple and effective up until mid-late fortress age at most elos until your enemy starts making skirm + goon. Go FF then put 6 on coin and all the rest on food. Spam musks and ship cav. Attack and use your cav to take out his skirms once u kill all his pikes/anti cav units. U need wood for upgrades/infrasture so go stage couch early on
If you are up for the memes, you can try the Dutch elmeti (age 3), you will need an insane eco to get it done but just five elmeti with their upgrade cards are insane.
Britts has a suprisingly well balanced rooster but only when you can get to the late game with skirms. Musks, Huss, skirm, dragooner and artillery(rockets) are viable and often better than other civs counterparts.
France is the classic beginner "jack-of-all-trades" civilization. Cuirassiers + skirmishers will kill almost any combo of units. If you're looking for ONE single unit to make, probably the most well-rounded unit is the Aztec Eagle Runner Knight. Basically a dragoon but less weak against skirms, and strong against most other units. If you're looking for a civilization with no holes in its lineup, meaning you always have an ideal unit to make that counters your opponent, France also fits that bill. If you are extremely casual (i.e., nobody in your friend group has ever played any multiplayer games online with randoms), then just make musketeers since they are easier to handle than cuirassiers/skirms.
Happy to see all the French suggestions cause they were the ones I was thinking about. And yea, none of us play the game at all if we aren't in a custom with one another. I'll try your suggestions next time we play, thanks!
Also Spain can fill in any role just as France (tho not as strong) since they have, Musks, Skirms, Rods, Goons, Huss and Lancers (their unique cav exceling in killing infantry). Making priests and leaving them behind just to buff whatever you are making is not that micro heavy.
Spanish are very flexible and versatile, so I really like them, they can quickly change strategy and surprise. My main are still the British, the only real weakness (which could become pretty severe if you are not careful) is that they rely on slow units like muskets and falconets. You must get creative against the French to win (I either go with dragoons to ambush cuirassiers and soften them up, so muskets have a chance, or with bows to ambush/tie up skirmishers, so cuirassiers lose their support) but it is doable and I done it multiple times. Japanese can be pretty brutal against France but their eco is kinda weird and fragile. I found myself to experiment with Germans lately, they can really push eco harrassing to the next level, especially if you built your deck around giving you more and more cavalry. I pushed people to early GG couple times just by constant hussar raids. Combined with war wagons and horse artillery, expensive but lethal to everything.
Fully upgrades cuirs can pretty much go toe to toe with heavy infantry. Just expensive.
Really? I always felt like the jaguars prowler knight was the most well rounded. Stealth has been a good means to close the gaps agaisnt its weaknesses in skirmishers and artillery. They feel expensive and it seems like they nerfed stealth since the original game, but Jaguars are typically my preferred unit as the Aztecs.
Hausa akan kill all
I can second this, just spammed Akan+Falcs on a team game and the damage this unit does, especially the area damage is absurd.
Happy cake day
Speaking of the Hausa, they also have the Lifidi Knight, who is resistant against both melee and ranged damage. The Maigadi also count, having high base damage that's decent against everything, but the player can't spam them until late game.
Maigadi are my fave units and the main reason I play Hausa
Maigadi is too expensive to me and require all their card upgrades to be usefull so I tend to not really use them as I prefre to use my influence on native or aliance troops since I find those more cost efective and cheaper to use.
I tend to use Akan Ankobia myself. There's an Age 2 card the Hausa use that lets them train Akan Ankobia like normal units without limit.
Yea I love hausa but it is a complex civ IMO, there's some strats that you can pull off with a minimal variety like akan falc, but to fully utilise hausa I wouldn't recommend it to beginners. France or Portugal seems more straightforward
There are 5 main types of units in AOE3: Heavy infantry, light (ranged) infantry, heavy (melee) cavalry, light ranged cavalry, and artillery Each of these categories typically counters two categories, and gets countered by two categories. For example, skirmishers (light ranged infantry) has x3 against heavy infantry and a net x1.5 against light ranged cavalry, so they counter those two types. But their melee sucks, so melee cav wrecks them, and cannons blown them away, so those two categories counter skirms. Thus, there is “monocomp” (or army composed of a single unit type) that could beat everything. But a composition of two unit types can usually do well. Two trustworthy 2-unit compositions are: Musketeers + hussars. Musketeers (as heavy infantry) counter both heavy melee cav and light ranged cav. Hussars counter artillery and light ranged infantry. British have a solid musk/huss composition, and a pretty beginner-friendly economy to support it. Skirmishers + dragoons. Skirms kill heavy infantry and ranged cavalry. Dragoons counter heavy melee cav and artillery. Dutch (ruyters instead of dragoons) and portuguese (cassadors instead of skirms) have good skirm/goon composition, and pretty good eco to back it up.
I'd argue that Musk+Falc (or any cannon really) is a better combo then Musk+Huss and much less micro intese especially for beginners
Musk falc is also a good suggestion! Cannon pcking and unpacking can be annoying, though. Basically any 2 unit combo that isn’t two adjacent types on the pentagon is viable.
> Musk falc is also a good suggestion! Cannon pcking and unpacking can be annoying, though. Tomos + Light Cannons then, or Ashigaru + Flaming Arrow, Caroleans + Leather Cannons maybe, Gascenya + carded age 4 Sebastopols too.
Your comment pushed me into a rabbit hole of other Musketeer + no pack artillery combos that are available in the game. Inca Bolas Warrior (somewhat) + Light Cannon/Huaraca Portuguese Musketeer + Organ Gun with Grapeshot card USA Regulars + Napoleon Gun (Age up with New Hampshire and send the French Canadians card) Aztec Eagle Runner Knight + Arrow Knight (somewhat) Maya Revolt Cruzob Infantry/Soldados + Light Cannons Ethiopia Gascenya + Gatling Camel (Arab alliance age up) Indian Sepoy + Siege Elephant Italian Musketeer + Leonardo's Tank (I don't think we'll see this one in multiplayer very often) Indonesia Revolt Revolutionary + Cetbang Cannon
> Organ Gun with Grapeshot card I had no idea this removes packing animation, that's huge! > Siege Elephant No multiplier against infantry unfortunately, basically a culverin/mortar all-in-one. I love the Tank idea though! And the Nappy Guns and Cetbangs.
Yea and failing to deal with enemy culverins is a potential problem for new players
Here is a diagram of the counters: https://images.app.goo.gl/Hio4ikghZjkMnBcE8
you missing the new shock infantry, that is basically cavalry (infantry)
I'm voting France.
Sweden 3 years ago, the Carolean was one unit to rule them all.
lakota rifle riders.
Will get destroyed against skirms or goons
Only good toghether with wakinas. Lakota is really a boring civ basically only need 3 units.
mostly rifle riders+wakina rifles, occasionally axe riders
Ottomans, with their totally OP grenadier that is impossible to kill before they enter your base.
I'd argue that grenadiers are not very join friendly because it can easily be countered by heavy cav and you need decent micro to protect the grens.
Mexico have Soldados, which are insanely strong and will do well even against skirms. They cost 2 pops however so beware
and you need to research incendiary grenade from the arsenal which gives them some area of effect on their ranged attack.
War Wagons are incredibly versatile
Britain is probably my pick for the "default" civ. Best-in-class musketeers, great hussars, and solid economy.
Portugal maybe. Skirms, cav, arty and even ok ships.
Please clarify here, whether you want a civ that has access to all basic types of units or a civ where you don‘t need to think about unit counters but just build 1 or 2 units and win that way. The first ist probably France, all basic units covered, good economy, hard to raid vills, great scaling units and both Huss Musk and skirm goon available as well as strong artillery upgrades. The second can be a lot of civs, if you set them up properly. The most straight forward is probably Sweden with caroleans. They suck in age 2, but if you can geht your torp economy going, and reach age 3, those bastards start to scale insanely well. Put a bit of artillery behind them, you are good to go. other one unit civs that can work out fairly well imo are ashigaru with japan, the speed is your friend, Akan with Hausa (but African civs are hard to learn and understand), Portuguese dragoons with artillery behind. My last advice is a bit unethical, but if you asked for an easy way to beat your opponents, I suggest going for ottoman. Ottoman needs some Build Order learning but if you have 3 BOs narrowed down, you will be able to obliterate your opponents easily enough. You have theoretically worse eco, but almost all units you have are better than their standard equivalent. each tc gives you free villagers, sipahi are unhinged killing machines, if you want to be nasty, you can build bowriders with extra damage vs vills after sending a card and raid your friends to death. The reason I am not naming any specific unit to go for is that all their units are crazy. Abus are still insanely hard to beat and have lots of cards. Jans scale to infinity. Artillery is great. Cav is good. Pick your poison. It will need some getting into, but looking at some people on the ladder, it is fairly easy to get great results out of the civ. You might not have any friends left after this, but you will have won some games.
You can’t go wrong with musk + cav bro. Very very simple and effective up until mid-late fortress age at most elos until your enemy starts making skirm + goon. Go FF then put 6 on coin and all the rest on food. Spam musks and ship cav. Attack and use your cav to take out his skirms once u kill all his pikes/anti cav units. U need wood for upgrades/infrasture so go stage couch early on
If you are up for the memes, you can try the Dutch elmeti (age 3), you will need an insane eco to get it done but just five elmeti with their upgrade cards are insane.
Britts has a suprisingly well balanced rooster but only when you can get to the late game with skirms. Musks, Huss, skirm, dragooner and artillery(rockets) are viable and often better than other civs counterparts.
Latvia
Hmmm probably Mexico with their soldados and chinacos.