AOE III

GUIDE FOR BRITISH

By TheJASS
Introduction

British used to be a powerful civilization in the history, Are they

Powerful in AOE 3 too? Yes they are, they have insane economy with
manor boom and their units are very strong. Their best units are
Musketeers and Hussars, however they have their unique units which
can interest you. Longbowmen (lb) and Rockets (available in age 4
from factories and home city shipments) which are unique for this
civilization and lb are the best unit for light infantry as they pay off
really well for their cheap price.
So let’s straight away jump into the game…..So as playing British
you start with 1 explorer, 6 crates and 6 settlers. Having that said what
I need you to do is watch or observe carefully and quickly before the
timer starts what crates have being spawned, Notice that crate spawn
varies each game & it’s not fixed! So you need to follow different
order in age 1 for different crate spawns, which is what I’m going to
explain in this guide, along with various strategies you could do,
timings, macro/micro, deck guide, card order, build order, long term
and short term plan, map guide, switching units, lastly some bonus
contents.
UNIT GUIDE:

Musketeer:

Cost: 75 f, 25 c

Type: Ranged heavy infantry

HP: 150

Attack: 23

Training time: 30s

Hussar:

Cost: 120f, 80c

Type: Heavy cavalry (Melee)

HP: 320

Attack: 30

Training time: 40s

Longbowman:

Cost: 60 f, 40 w

Type: Ranged light infantry

HP: 95
Attack: 17

Training time: 29s

Pikeman:

Cost: 40 f, 40 w

Type: Heavy infantry (Melee)

HP: 120

Attack: 8

Training time: 27s

Dragoon:

Cost: 90 f, 90 c

Type: Light cavalry (Ranged)

HP: 200

Attack: 22

Training time: 38s

Falconet:

Cost: 100 w, 400 c

Type: Artillery

HP: 200
Attack: 100

Training time: 45 s

Rocket:

Cost: 100 w, 500c

Type: Artillery

HP: 350

Attack: 300

Training time: 98s

Caravel:

Cost: 300 w, 100 c

Type: Warship

HP: 800

Attack: 75

Training time: 40s

Frigate:

Cost: 500 w, 500 c

Type: Warship
HP: 2000

Attack: 90

Training time: 40s

Roger’s Ranger:

Costs: 2000 coin

Type: Ranged light infantry

Research time: 15s

Researched at: Church

FIRST STEP: HAVE A GOOD DECK

Having a good deck is essential for optimal play, many times card matters and if
you have bad /wrong cards you might lose the game. I have seen many players
do good strategy but due to a bad deck, players loose, I don’t want that to
happen to you so, I will paste some decks with variations so you can use it. I
recommend having a 60-80+ home city level, now that xp mod is available I
don’t think lack of cards is going to be an issue.
For maps with Trading Posts:

This is the deck you want to use in trading post map if you start with 300w.

Some Variations:

 You can remove those 2 Cavalry HP and attack upgrade cards and
add 4 settlers or 700 f or Advanced Arsenal card + 600 g or The
church card (The Glorious Revolution) or Improved Grenades.
 You can also remove the Fort wagon card and add a unit shipment
in age 3 like 9 Musketeers. (Fort is for map control)
Points to consider:
 You can have 4 settlers card if you’re playing vs a civilization which can
raid you a lot (Example: Germans).
 You can have 700 f + 600 g in your deck if you want to mass more and
push or pressure harder in age 2 and also because of bad hunts you may
have 700 f.
 you can have 9 Musketeers if you feel like fort is not going to do
anything, fort is useful for some mid-late games, generally place fort near
your fb to make it stronger or place near sea or covering a lot of natural
resources.
 You can have the Improved Grenades if your going to cheese with
grenadiers rush (in a rare way).
 You can have the church card(The Glorious Revolution) for 8 Black
watches (Highlanders, cost 1000 f, available in age 3) and 26 Roger’s
Rangers (Guard Skirmishers with slightly increased stats, cost 2000 g,
available in age 4)
 You can have the Advanced Arsenal card. Helpful in long game…again
rarely used.
For maps without Trading Posts:
Some Variations:

 Same variation as the above deck (1v1 TP), you can have 4 settlers card

already so need to worry about raids much 😊.

For Water maps:

This is all in water play deck or full water deck which should be used if you
spawn on a map which has full water like Honshu, Indochina, Bayou, and
Amazonia etc. The reason for going water is that you have less resources on
land so switching to mills and plantations so early is very bad and sea is better
in terms of gathering etc, you might encounter ship wars if your opponent goes
water too. So I have all the right cards in the deck necessary for each different
situation.
Some variations:
 You can remove the Cavalry HP card and add Team Infantry HP card.
Map variation:
 Some maps have water + TP or Land covered with minimal water in that
case, you need to have Semi water deck where the plan is to play on land
and then move on to sea after the natural resources are exhausted.
For Semi Water play:

 Again there are some variations in this deck if you start with 300 w, then
pick a deck with Virginia Company (VC) in it, remove 8 settlers and
replace it with VC.
 I think Fort is good on water maps, so have it. 😊
For Team on Land maps
For Team on water maps:
Same as the 1v1 deck for full water

For Team Semi Water play:

SECOND STEP: LEARNING STRATEGIES

Alright, First step here is to learn the crate spawns first and to do the best things
you need to do before age 2 or in other words being effective to going for age 2.
If you have observed, the crate spawn are different every time, so following the
same build, like building houses when you get a gold start is not wise strategy,
as there is a better option in that case, so I will be teaching you what you should
build and research according to the crates.
Good crate spawns:
I will call the spawned crates are good if you get 600 resources of crates in total
else, it’s a bad spawn, but you can still play the game with what you have it is
not going to affect you that much.

1. 300f 300w

2. 300f 200w 100g

1. Spread all of your vills to each of the crates and queue the first vill asap,
if you’re playing on a TP map get a TP with your explorer and chop 35w
and get a house , so on TP maps, you exactly build 1 TP and 1 House in
age 1.
If it’s a non TP map, you can build 3 manors, so you need to chop 100w and if
by any means you found some good coin treasures you can build 1 market and
research Hunting dogs, so 1 House 1 Market and age.
2. The same thing, spreading of vills all the time. Always 1 vill on 1 crate.
Then, you build 1 manor and 1 market and research Hunting Dogs and
age.

Bad crate spawns:

1. 200f 200w 100g

2. 200f 300w
1. Same as the one mentioned in 2nd case in good spawn.
2. Same as the one mentioned in 1st case in good spawn.
How many vills are you supposed to put on wood?
Most of the time 3 vills on wood to get all the things done as I mentioned above,
rest of the vills on food and new vills onto food too.
General Thumb rule:
1 manor =16 vill age up
2 manors =17 vill age up
3 manors =18 vill age up
For fast age up you need to count down 1 vill from each of the things I said
above, so it goes 15, 16, and 17.
Any big wood treasures you get invest it on manor and you get an extra vill.
The Market Micro:
Ok, many would have been thinking how I utilise the market effectively? I don’t
want to draw out a big drama on this, it’s just simple, sometimes you can just
build market first and then trade gold to wood and get a manor asap (if you
found a lot of coin treasures), this is the most effective way of doing and makes
you a lot faster, it takes 126 gold to buy 100w, if you have 100g just mine 26
more and trade it to wood since vills gather wood the slowest out of all
resources and hence it’s better.
Aging timings:
1. Fast age up before 3:00 mins (ok)
2. 3-3:05 normal age up time (standard)
3. 3:10-3:15+ late age (bad)
It exactly takes 90 seconds to reach age 2.
What politician to pick to age 2?
Always either of these two politicians.
The Philosopher Prince: OR The Governor:
Ships 500 food Ships an outpost wagon
And 200 gold

How to manage macro as brits?

This is a common problem for everyone as there are so many vills and you will
be floating a lot of resources, so you need to manage your vill distribution
perfectly onto three resources food wood and gold, if you start with food and
gold units and then once you have enough vills for full production of those units
, rest of the vills on wood and you need to start booming with manors and get 20
manors in age 2 if you are staying longer in that age, if you’re going with food
and wood type of unit(lb, pike) you need to start switching vills from food and
wood accordingly after you start getting full batches & switch them to gold and
start getting market upgrades etc and balance the resource distribution. If by any
means you happen float a lot of wood invest it on outposts (aka towers) when
your gathering outside the map to help you save you from big raids.
What to do in age 3/age 4?
You can boom hard by making 3 Town Centres and making vills from them and
start sending eco upgrades cards if you’re playing team, and if you reach to age
4 you can send the Estates card and make 20 vills from manors asap but this
rarely happens in 1v1 so yeah in team games.
Finishing with this, we will be jumping onto build orders and strategies.
1. Musketeers + Tower (standard)
2. Cav start
3. lb and pike start
4. X2 musketeers rush
5. 3 Caravel Rush (On Water maps)
6.VC BOOM
Common age 1 card: For all these strategy you will send 3v first.
If you happen to start with 300w and on a TP map get a Trading Post and
always send both 3v and VC so that you can get a manor extra or more during
transition .

The Musketeers + Tower build

Note:
The Build order that I’m about to say is common till 600w/4vills after that
it’s your choice sending, unit upgrades if you have large mass or unit
shipments for more pressure and 700g for aging depends on what your
opponent does, same goes with age 3, The first card is always dependent 2
Falconets for more pressure and rest is Eco cards and Fort is for map
control.
The BO:
 Age 1- 3v
 Age 2- 700w, 5v, 600w, Musketeer/Grenadier damage card or 6
Musketeers (for more pressure to the opponent),
 Musketeer/Grenadier HP card, 700g or 6 lbs, after you ship 700 g,
you need to go age 3
 Age 3- 2 Falconets or 1000 w or Musketeer/Grenadier Combat card,
and military unit shipments (9 Musketeers or 5 Hussars or 10 lbs)
accordingly to counter what opponent has.
 Age 4- 2 Rockets and 2 Factories (Factory wagon and Robber
Barons).
So now there is no need to explain what you need to do in age 1, I guess so, age
with The Governor politician (Outpost wagon and 200 g), after aging all vills on
wood, if you haven’t got a market yet, get it and research Hunting Dogs and
build 1 manor else 2 manors and chop 200w and save it as you age up, send 2
vills forward near hunts/mines and drop down immediately a Barracks and the
Outpost next to it. Collect 200 g from the age up crates with 2 vills each on
single crate and rest of your vills on food, just don’t overgather wood, and
remember to keep constant vill production all the time. So as soon as you
finished building your Barracks, queue 1 Musketeer and make it to 5 and get
full batch. Then put some 3-5 vills on gold rest on food. As soon as 700w
arrives, collect with 3-4 vills and get another Barracks and research Steel Traps
and build as much as manors as you can with the remaining wood. The 2nd
Barracks will be built near you 1st one indeed. So for x2 Musketeer production
have like 8-9 vills on gold now rest on food then 5 v put it on food then ship
600w to invest it in placer mines then manors, at this point you should have
enough food and gold income and now vills go to wood, so research Gang Saw
from your market before that and vills on wood and boom to 200pop i.e. 20
manors, and rest is up to you, you

The Cav start Build

The BO:
 Age 1- 3v
 Age 2- 5v, 700w, 600w, upgrade or unit shipments or 700g.
 Age 3 - Same as the above BO.
 Age 4 - Same as the above BO.
Age with The Philosopher Prince politician (500f). All vills on wood. Here, you
have to get 50 pop before reaching age 2 so build that many manors as you can
during transition. If you’re unable to do that because of minimal/no wood
treasures, you can always send 700w as first card in age 2 ,else you send 5 v
always, so chop and get 50 pop and 200w extra to build a Stable and then put
some 8-10 vills on gold and collect food from the age up crates with 2 vills and
rest on food and when 5 v comes, task them either on food or gold to get full
batch of Hussars, here you don’t need market first, you can get it after you get
700w (and research food and gold up) and manors and 600w invested to manors
etc same as mentioned in the previous build. Only thing varies is 5v first.

Lb and pike start Build

The BO:
 Age 1- 3v
 Age 2- 700w, 600w, and 5v, (same as mentioned above)
 Age 3- Refer to the Musketeers + Tower build.
 Age 4- Refer to the Musketeers + Tower build.
Age with The Philosopher Prince politician (500f). All vills on wood get 2
manors and research Gang Saw, collect 200w and put 5-6 vills on wood and rest
on food and you keep some vills to gold to research Steel Traps then all vills
onto food and wood basically have more vills on wood than food. Send 2 vills
forward before hitting age 2, drop a Barracks immediately and make 5 Pikes
and then lbs, starting with pikes is safer because a lot of civs go for cav start.
Then once you get 700w build another Barracks and then some manors, keep
some wood saved for the units you make too. Don’t completely invest on
manors. Then 600w, 5v after that. You should research 2 food upgrades and 2
wood upgrade then placer mines in your market once you have enough vills to
pump units from x2 Barracks and Make a constant vill production and put vills
on gold and you switch units from here to Musketeer and Hussar or aging up is
up to you.
https://youtu.be/fcUvfBJQwNU

The x2 musk rush

The BO:
 Age 1 -3v
 Age 2-700g,700f,700w,musks upgrades or 5v,musks upgrade,600w
 Age 3-Refer to Musketeers + tower build
 Age 4-Refer to Musketeers + tower build
The Deck:
In this strategy you will either close the game in age 2 or in rare cases age 3
because you are rushing as brits in this build! Your aim is to control the map
and make your opponent starve if your rush isn’t as affective ,and you will have
chances of winning!
Age up with The Philosopher Prince politician (500f).All vills on wood after
clicking. In this build you will focus on getting manors and not other things like
market upgrades etc all you need in this build is more pop space so that you can
survive getting housed ,after getting a lot units early on ,so in age 1 try to get
manors and if you happen to start with gold start mine 26 g and gather 35w and
get a extra manor and with 300w start you can go for tp+VC build on tp map ,if
not 3 manors ,then during transition you get 3-4 manors if VC, else 2-3 manors
and you need to have 400w before hitting to age 2 .At the same time you need
to send 2 vills forward to drop 2 Barracks immediately so 1 vill on 1 rax and
another on 2nd rax so you build x2 rax ~the same time .After you hit age 2 send
700g immediately and send 2-3 vills for collecting 500f and all vills on food and
wait for the 700g arrives ,after it arrives quickly gather it by 2-4 vills and start
queing musks at both rax (x1 & x1) and by the time you finish gold you would
have enough res for getting full batch of musks so you will get 10 musks ,next
batch will also be 10 batch but for the third batch you will need 50 g so after
you get your first batch of 10 musks put some 5 vills on gold and then extra 3
vills on gold after getting 2nd 10 musks batch and then vills made to food
only….So after 700g Send 700f your probably want 1 more manor so switch
some vills from food immediately to wood like 15 vills on wood ,anyways you
will have 700f to get 10 batch of musks so …,then 700w ,then go for muks
upgrade as you will have a lot of musks and then again musk upgrade then
5v……Age up if it goes late.
Recorded game (Vanilla Version):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/lwwivkdtthse4ii/erik-chusik_brit-
brit.age3rec/file

The x3 caravel rush

The BO:
 Age 1- 3v
 Age 2- 2 caravels,700w,600w,5v,700g….etc
 Age 3- Same as above build
 Age 4- Same as above build
The deck:

This build came into existence ,when GUA (GiveUAnxiety) first used it I
think ,and it’s a powerful rush in water which can destroy opponents naval and
end the game . So do the normal age 1 micro and aging to 2 ,age with the The
Governor(Grants 1 tower+200c) ,if you know for sure that your opponent goes
for water by seeing him build a dock and has a water deck you can go for this
build I guess….so all vills on wood during transition you need to gather 200w
asap and get a dock and then chop 300w and mine 100c asap,and some vills on
food to make vills too and you age put tower near your dock so you can defend
your dock if he rushes as well its just safer to put there and collect the 200c with
2 vills spread on each crate and get a 1 caravel asap ,First card in age 2 is 2
caravels put your home city flag near your dock or near to your opponent’s
shore and harass his boats and kill his dock. After that your build can turn into
either pike/lbs or musk huss.

The VC BOOM
GoodSpeed where you at? Probably one of the coolest builds in my opinion, if
you can get away with it of course, the VC Boom, or more commonly known as
the “GS VC Boom” because notably he does it best, is a very greedy British
approach involving 2 prime units, the longbow and pike.
 Age I: 3 villagers to gather crates, 3 to gather food, age with ~14 or ~15
villagers any more than that would be too slow, however if you find a
treasure ranging from 90f~140f either age with ~16 or just age with ~15
 and be faster, up to you, and depends on MU. First card is Virginia
Company (VC), Age with The Philosopher Prince politician (500f), and
in transition all except 2 vills, which will be herding, on wood. Make sure
to build manors after VC arrives, and build a manor before a market. Also
if you started with 200w/100c build market first and gather coin to sell
for wood and get a manor up, that way in transition you will be a lot
faster. Keep making manors, research Gang Saw and Hunting Dogs.

 Age II: Once you have aged gather the 500f with 2v and ship 700w. With
the 700w, build a lot of manors, and add a Barracks, your 2nd Barracks
will be added after the 600w card arrives. You can use 400w right away
for 2 rax, but I prefer more manors/villagers. Start LB or Pike depending
on MU. After 600w either send 5v if you’re staying age 2 longer, or 700g
if you want to age, eg vs Portuguese/Germans you probably want to age
slightly faster to match their age III.

 Age III: So here you can basically send anything, 1000 wood, 10 lb,
Yeoman, it’s up to you how you wish to adapt to what your opponent is
doing. From here the choice is yours, either veteran pike, veteran
longbow or even dragoon/longbow which brings more versatility. It is
also very viable to make 5-8 spies if against Portuguese to deal with the
Mamelukes timing seeing as the lb mass usually is greater than the pike
mass. https://youtu.be/yULN7xAMcik

BONUS CONTENT:
CHEESE BUILD:
BWKiC - The "Black Watch Kick in the Crotch"

Summary
clik up at 2:45 with outpost guy
click up at 5:20 with 400w + caravel guy
8 Black Watch + 2 Falconets at 7:58
Main Article:
Having trouble with the British? Eaten alive by that Spanish fast fortress? Wondering what keeps
you coming back time and time again to such an underpowered civ as the Brits? Maybe it's time
for a little help from the Black Watch!

I've tried colonial warfare, I've tried to boom... but both approaches seem doomed in the current
FF and shipment-dominated gameplay. Playing with Brits was destroying my record and there
seemed to be no way to make the wood-heavy, sluggish Brits get off the ground. What was
wrong with them? What was wrong with me?

But giving up is for people who actually care about their record. Not I! To paraphrase Mokon,
you get a lot further if you blame yourself than if you blame the civ.

So I sat down and I studied the Brits, wondering what could make their Fast Fortress
competitive. I noticed that they had the following things going for them:

The 2 falconet card, an excellent card indeed.

The opportunity to create 8 Black Watch highlanders from the church VERY quickly. Highlanders
are great anti-cav units and all-around bruisers.
The Black Watch will always be delivered, even when you don't have enough houses. (This is
critical!)
The Black Watch are delivered in seconds, unlike conventional merc shipments, which take 1 full
minute.
The Thin Red Line is also available from the church.
Excellent economic recovery due to the manor boom.
It is this combination of highlanders and falconets that is the basis of BWKiC. With good luck and
a good map, you can get this lethal combination out anywhere from 7:20 (on Carolina), but
typically around 7:45-8:15 in the heat of battle.

To pull this off, you MUST get a trading post ASAP, and you must perform a solid fast fortress.
The advanced church must be shipped during the age to fortress, and the falconet card must be
shipped as soon as you hit fortress. Even though you will not have sufficient housing, you can
still research the Black Watch, and miracle of miracles, they still show up (presumably to sleep in
boxes under an overpass.)

That's it -- the rest is all based off of that. There are 2 styles of BWKiC -- the aggressive style
and the defensive style. In the aggressive style, we will sneak a forward tower to the enemy
base and attempt to bring this highlander + falconet combo right to the enemy's door as close to
pre-8:00 as possible.

First some warnings: This is a fun build that could possibly be a nice cheese strategy in a
competitive environment. British normally does an 8/9 minute timing push anyways, albeit a
colonial one. Never attempt this strategy on a map without a trading post.

The Deck:

Note: This is a modified build order, the original was a TWC build and the timings and exact
order were not accurate on the RE/EP patch. For instance churches costed 250w, tps costed
250w, there was a different crate orientation etc.

3 vills to hunts and 3 to food crates. Note that if animals are close enough, you do not need to
herd on your first shot. Queue villagers!
Collect wood crates once food crates exhausted. Once done, set all three crate collectors to
wood. A villager will just have finished training, causing you to now have 4 hunters total and 3
woodcutters total.
Build a trading post with your explorer before building a manor house. 
Set your TC gather point to food. 
As soon as 135 is acquired, build a manor and switch all villagers to food. If the house is built
with two villagers, it will not cause any idle time and the 3 villagers shipment can be sent on
time.
First Card: 3 Villagers
Stop producing villagers at 15 (including the ones from your card.) Eat, eat, and eat. Strongly
consider eating some livestock (i.e. sheep and cattle) if you feel it will speed you up here.
Age up as soon as you have 800 food age with The Governor for 1 tower + 200 gold. (2:45)
Make sure you have 100 gold before reaching colonial. If you do not, task 3 villagers to gold by
your town center.
Task 3 vills to wood by your town center, transfer two of the gold miners to wood as soon as
you have 100, and put one back on food. This will keep 5 villagers under your town center for
quick crate gathering
do not queue villagers once in colonial. As soon as you hit colonial, send your 2nd card: 700
gold. Gather this gold, along with the 200 gold from aging up with all villagers near the tc (5).
Place a forward tower with the wagon. Age to fortress using The Admiral of the Ocean Sea. He
gives 400 wood and a caravel. I send this even on a land map. (5:20)
during the transition to fortress, 11 vills on food, 5 on wood. The first 135 wood is used on a
manor house, next 100 is used on a church.
As soon as you are able, play your 3rd card: The Glorious Revolution (advanced church
card.)
You have now hit fortress age. You should have another shipment ready (thanks to your trading
post.) Ship your 4th card: 2 Falconets.
Call the Black Watch from your church. Do NOT do this before you have shipped falconets. You
will be over pop limit, but you can still call the Black Watch (its magic!) Set the shipment arrival
point to your tower. Also, try to get your caravel either fishing, whaling, or perhaps even
harassing for an economy boost.
Attack with 8 highlanders + 2 falconets (8:00)
When attacking, you must use the highlanders to protect your falconets! They are great anti-
cavalry.

From here many things can be done. 

For a later push, (9:30ish) wait for 9 Highlanders/10 Jaegers in addition to the 8 Highlanders + 2
falconets.

For a more eco intensive build, start house booming while shipping either 8 villagers/1000 wood
or more military. Tune your shipments to your enemy -- 5 huss, 9 muskets, 9 highlanders, 10
jaegers, etc.
From there, it's up to you! You should have a jumping economy at this point.
Optional: Research The Thin Red Line (no cost, at the church for extra hitpoints at the cost of
speed.) This is useful when under the enemy's TC or in a decisive fight. If a fight will be lost if
you don't research this technology, there is no point in not doing it. You could either win the
fight or have slower units, or you could lose the fight and the game. 

For record games click here: https://eso-community.net/download/file.php?id=582

THIRD STEP: WATCHING VODS &

RECORDED GAMES
After reading all the things above, time to get clarity so watch
recorded games of high level players and same with videos on
YouTube, I will link them below:
https://www.twitch.tv/giveuanxiety/videos
https://eso-community.net/recorded-games

https://www.rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?
s=36ae80d9e0bb5291cb548a374ffad289&portal=TAD&act=aoe3_rec_game&cmd=04&version=TAD
FP12

https://pkclan.net/viewforum.php?f=2

https://eso-community.net/community-links.php

FOURTH STEP: KNOWING THE MATCH

UPS
Vs Spain: Hussar Start into Musk/Huss
Not an easy MU for Spain, some would argue it’s even pretty hard and heavily Brit favoured.
I’m too experienced with this MU but based off my knowledge with British I’d have to say
Hussar Start now I chose this over an lb/pike build being if Spain does age, which they
almost. Certainly will with a shipment/dogs and mm to hold, if you are still doing lb/pike
then you have nothing to deal with lancers/falcs, therefore I’d say best way is Hussar Start
and then add a Barracks off 600w and start adding, with 5-10 Hussars to start you’ll slow
down his age up considerably.
https://youtu.be/gCWK7N3xQG4
Vs British: Musk/Tower Start
This is a no brainer, starting Hussars in a brit mirror is simply not viable seeing that if you try
add Musketeers later on you’ll be down in mass by at least double and also down in shipment
progression, lb/pike again won’t cut it vs the Musketeer mass, if you do lb/pike you are also
forced to play defensively and allow the other Brit player to control the entirety of the map.
Adding Hussars later on is viable when villagers begin to spread around the map.
https://youtu.be/VnGxdFJRYw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iq0WxcbSOI&t=13087s
Build 1

VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121716190

Card Order: 6 musk, 6 lbow, 700w, 600w. 

Commentary: New Meta. This video doesn't do it justice. Against previous Meta brit mirror (700w
600w fb mid map) this build is dominating. I've beat players better than me like Risi123,
KingofOsmane, cramper, (GUA?) with this build in quick fashion. Having an explorer at high
health mele'ing units that pop out of the rax is key. Open to being countered by defensive fb and
700w. I want to say this is strictly viable when fbs are mid map on top of each other, but when it
is, oh boy is it good. Optimally off 300w start, (2 starting manors + 3 transition manors = 60
pop). I got housed in this VOD because my opening mass was so good my units didn't die and I
only had 50 pop. Alternatively you can ship 700w instead of 6 lbow as you will most likely have
already broken his fb. 

Build 2 

VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121716679

Card Order: 700w, 600w, musk attack, musk hp

Commentary: Old Meta. I scouted his defensive fb which 6 musk is not great against, so I took
map and did standard boom. Add second rax with 600w for optimal greed. 5v isn't needed for
high musk production, better to get the upgrades in first and engage, imo.

Build 3

VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/121717782
Card Order: 700w, 600w, 5v, musk attack, musk hp

Commentary: Full manor boom. Open defensive lbows; age with 500f. Add musk after ~20
lbows or so and ship musk cards. Pure lbow are shit pushing out vs carded musks but they excel
at defending and when you decide to push out, that amount of lbows is actually nice adding dps
in back and allowing for optimal musk pathing. Ideal on maps with a large amount of hunts in
base as you rely on a slight economic advantage to leverage enough of a military advantage in
time to push out for map. Your eco is so large add a stable too. 

Outstanding Builds

Build 1: 3c, VC, 700w, musk atk, musk hp is one I have yet to experiment with but it sounds
promising as you get your musk cards in one card sooner than any other build. I'm curious
whether full boom off of it is optimal or not.

Build 2: Wicked Cossack's brit mirror build: 500f age up, proxy stable, 5 huss only (raid!), 700w
(rax at home), 700c or 5v? (No 600w). If they push your stable, push their base with musks.

Vs French: Musketeer/Tower Start/VC Semi

Personally hate this MU as Brit, and I don’t exactly know why, but I feel that this MU is
favoured until the point where France ages, because British have a very slow age up to the
Fortress not having the exiled prince option, it makes it hard for British to follow France up
to deal with the dragoon/Skirm/2 falc timing. I would have to say that Musketeer/Hussar
pressure would work effectively however might not be enough to stop France from aging,
thus said if you do reach a considerably large Musketeer/Hussar mass then there is no
shipment that France can ship to directly counter both those units effectively, the problem
here is if France semis with Musketeer/Hussar they can actually hold and then age afterwards
resulting in a very hard position for Brit. The option is a GoodSpeed VC Semi approach,
training either 5-10 pikes to hold off any raids and then shipping 700c to age into vet lb/goon
and falconets of your own gives British possibly a slight edge, however you need to
anticipate the Cuirassier switch.

Vs Portuguese: VC Boom/Age
There isn’t many options here in my opinion, you could Hussar starts and really catch Port’s
3rd TC wagon, slow him down, perhaps kill a few vills but the later the game stretches that
you are still in Age 2 the better it will get for Port. I’d have to say booming with VC and
making pikes to defend any raids is the way to go, you will still age1 min or so slower then
Port to the 3rd but it won’t matter seeing as Port don’t have the tendency to push right away
and rather boom up a little more. You only run 1 risk with this BO, letting Portuguese take
the TP’s, It won’t cause a larger economic different seeing as the VC boom is very effective
however you will eventually need to contest the trade route line, also you should make vet lb/
vet pike or dragoon and 2 falconets shipment to deal with organ guns/cassador mass, again be
aware of the Mamelukes timing.
https://youtu.be/1DDMrA6y4zc
https://youtu.be/fcUvfBJQwNU
https://youtu.be/wXnRd6TzyVM
https://youtu.be/elcPpFLLNFI
https://youtu.be/1Xx0O7n9soA

Vs Dutch: LB/Pike Pressure

Probably a very even MU, some argue British favoured others argue Dutch favoured, it is
ability of the LB that favours British in this MU in my opinion, seeing as Dutch love to mass
Ruyter/Skirm and LB counter both those units very effectively it makes Dutch not so strong
as they would like to be. I’d say the best build here is LB/Pike aggressive pressure, if you
simply allow Dutch to age then you will find yourself in a harder situation that you probably
could have avoided, even though you are pressuring him with a pretty aggressive BO you are
still booming behind it so you aren’t really sacrificing your economy and hoping all ends
meet on this rush, most times start pike, 8-10 and siege houses, then add 5-10 LB.
https://youtu.be/oeMd3Cbr26o
Vs Russia: Stable start
You have probably heard already how bad Russian units are in Age II at dealing with cavalry,
Hussars most of all, there is no better satisfaction cleaning up a mass of musketeers/strelets
and cossacks. With only 10 Hussars and Mninute, and puts British in an excellent position
and commanding lead allowing them to do basically anything they want from that point on,
once the 5/4 coss shipments are used you can basically add a Barracks from 600w and
produce Hussars/Musketeers and win from there, I will say however it isn’t as easy on the EP
seeing as Russia doesn’t really need to push so early and go for a huge timing push with
Boyars and a mass of cossacks/strelets/musketeers and just pressure the hunts early.
https://youtu.be/Hp9SVsdACzM
https://youtu.be/V2uHmQffPuU
https://youtu.be/MfRBtL2l5zo
Vs Germans: VC Semi
Alright hands down the most interesting MU for me, because while it might seem hard for
British it can also be hard for Germans, I’m actually going to link 2 high level games in this
MU~ GoodSpeed Vs Tibia on ESOC Kamchatka1 and one more recent, Soldier Vs
IrishFaithful Autumn Championships 20162. Both these matches you see German win and
you also see British win, Solider plays flawlessly in the game constantly applying pressure to
the hunts and controlling the map, however the game between GoodSpeed and Tibia is one to
look out for. GoodSpeed executed his build perfectly he essentially Virginia company
boomed and then aged slightly after Germans training only 5-8 pikes to deal with the Uhlan
raids, he trained some LB as well early to deal with the Skirmisher shipments and then aged
after. Obviously we are taking arguably one of the best British players and one amazing
German player but none the less It still proves that this MU is somewhat still pretty even, on
the EP despite Germans having a nerf, British still struggle with the pressure on the hunts,
however if they can push out and reward themselves with new hunts each time they can find
themselves in a great position. Also you should expect Germans to really bring out their vills
to mines around the map if Brits can control those mines with Hussars it puts Germany in a
very awkward position.
https://youtu.be/tFUvIkjg3uo
Vs Ottomans: VC LB/Pike/Standard LB/Pike
In this MU British cannot simply mass Musketeers as they would usually like to, because of
how strong the Abus gun is verses Musketeers. You can almost always suggest he will begin
open with an aggressive Barracks, so after you have your Barracks up start LB, ship 6 LB if
you really need to hold and use Minutemen timed equally with your LB timing. You only
need to add pike when you scout he is adding a stable, however until there LB counters
basically Janissary and Abus gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3a1VFatFMc&t=11801s

Vs Japan: VC Boom/Pike/Bow
While Japan might seem to be the god of economy in most eyes, and no way to break that
economy effectively, it’s the point where Japan realise LB> Yumi and get overwhelmed with
a large timing that Japan doesn’t seem so strong anymore. The Musketeers/LB/Hussar
combination is something that isn’t easy for Japan to deal with at all. You just need to watch
out if he tries to age. You should VC boom fast and have a greater economy then he/she does
around 6-7min and then pump LB/Pike from two Barracks very fast, add Hussars if need be.
https://youtu.be/bfQ1hhbkyZY
https://youtu.be/i0pToTCamG8
https://youtu.be/yO2YKZLvTRw

Vs China: Aggressive LB/Pike//Musk/Huss

I’m not going to lie, your options are so limited vs China. This is probably one of the hardest
match ups for Brit, because if China holds and ages, you kind of lose. That being said British
still have a decent chance of winning even if stuck in age II due to their diverse composition.
However you cannot simply allow China to age freely, therefore some sort of aggressive
pressure, not to stop him from aging, seeing as that almost never will be the case, but to slow
that age up considerably and force him to spend more time investing in buildings, e.g.
housing that you would have sieged etc. Another way of playing this MU, is starting with
Musketeers and adding Hussars off the 700w/600w.
https://youtu.be/9NdRy-rIoBs
https://youtu.be/N5CKX3MwuYY
https://youtu.be/Fo2z1oUKDKg
https://youtu.be/PkanCMiTpAQ
https://youtu.be/hyLUS-_bkWU

Vs India: Defensive Musketeer start

A matchup that certainly sparks conflict, in most opinions it is heavily India favoured, and in
others quite even, rarely you will hear it is British favoured. However there is one unit that
India really struggles dealing with, the LB, due to the Gurkha, India’s anti heavy infantry
unit, also losing to the LB there isn’t many options left. Sowars also are just a pretty bad
cavalry unit. However it is not this reason why India wins often times, it is because of the
early Sepoy pressure that really gives India the edge, British will always have their villages
pretty spread out on hunt early on, and due to the immense strength of the Sepoy, it makes
massing pretty difficult early on for British. Also Brits late colonial might be good, but
India’s is arguably the best, coming close with Russia and Japan. That is why around the 15
minute mark when British are forced to expand their villages across the map for hunts, it
becomes difficult protecting those locations and trying to match the mass of India, which
eventually becomes too much for British. Also many people underestimate the economy of
India, thinking that they can simply out boom them when in fact India can out boom British
in colonial with both wood trickles and the early 4v potential from the consulate. Your best
bet is defending early with Musketeers to catch those first 2 batches of Sepoy, then adding
LB, and Hussar as your economy grows. Another thing to add, trying to boom with VC and
going for a LB/Pike timing might sound good, but in theory it just allows India to dominate
the map and even sneak off an age up if your too slow.
https://youtu.be/2HaLS7Zsies
https://youtu.be/cPprJyiVDAw
https://youtu.be/M6zSRwNEQRM
https://youtu.be/iceleFZ6UB4

Vs Sioux:Muks into lb/pike

https://youtu.be/M4PLSN30KDA
Vs Aztecs:Musk huss +lb
https://youtu.be/nKFtl9X2VGY
https://youtu.be/TT5WkHv3g6w
Vs Iroquois :Very hard MU ,defensive start musks huss+lb/pikes
https://youtu.be/9RoeP1y4CpI
https://youtu.be/uGhHjSj7RZQ
FIFTH STEP: PRACTICING VS BOTS
I know it’s hard to remember everything at once by reading so, just
practice the strategies one by one in each different cases against
Expert AI (bots) until you’re confident before testing it out vs real
players.

SIXTH STEP: PLAYING VS REAL

PLAYERS & ANALYSING MISTAKES
After knowing all the strategies, it is time to test it out vs real people
and see how it goes and improve from it, playing vs better players
will help you find flaws in your build and record games so as to see
the mistakes committed by you and analyse them.
Congratulations! after learning all the steps your British is going to be
you main and favourite civilization to play and happy gaming and
rekting players hehe…..
Thanks for reading, I hope it helps and gives you confidence and
understanding of this civ very well.
THANK YOU