German-Argentina in Treaty

Overview

This is a guide on how to play Germans with the Argentina revolution in 40-minute Treaty-games.With the Definitive Edition we got lots of different revolutions. Most players probably dont know much about them yet, since they are rarely used. One thing, that is interesting about the new Revolutions is, that they now can not just be played as “finishers” in normal games, but some of them actually offer quite interesting options for the very late game, or rather: for treaty-games. I am confronted with lots of… ah… lets call it “scepticism” when people see my treaty-decks in-game, many people even insta-leaving. So I guess people cant see the strengths of some Revolutions in treaty yet. So I decided to make a short guide on one of the Revolutions that are usefull in treaty game-mode: Argentina.I dont claim that this is the best revolution or that it is stronger then other treaty-stratgies, but it is definetly viable.

Introduction

This is a guide on how to play Germans with the Argentina revolution in 40-minute Treaty-games.

Why Germans with Argentinia, and not Spanish?
Well: Germans in Argentina[en.wikipedia.org] are actually a thing.
Oh, you mean why not using the Spanish Civ instead of the German? The idea of this playstyle is, to combine the strength of the german economy with the the power of the mounted Granadero – probably the strongest Revolution-unit so far. A spanish-Argentina-strategy, utilizing the strength of Unction, but this would probably a different playstyle I havent tried yet. This strategy is about the Granadero-spam, which needs an exceptional strong economy, which only the Germans can offer.

But first we need to talk a bit about Revolutions in Treaty-mode.
Revolutions have been largely reworked in the DE of AoE3, and if you properly understand them you can know use them very effective in Treaty – if you know about their strengths and weaknesss.
First for their weaknesses (compared to imperial Civs):

• No Capitol: This mainly means no +50% upgrade for all ressources, resulting in a much weaker economy in the long run. It is very unlikely for you, to wear down your opponents economy, unless you fight ALOT more cost-effective then them.
• No Imperial-units: Without any other factors, this means you units have only 3/4 of the health & damage of enemy units. You cant win fights with your basic units, you need to rely on the strengths of the Revolution to defeat your opponents armies.
• Chaos of Revolution: The revolt removes all your villagers and leaves you with a crippled economy and no option to build walls for map control until you have rebuilt your Villagers. So you should only revolt immediately before the treaty ends – this way you can hoard as many ressources as possible. Afterwards rebuilding your economy should be your top-priority.

Those are some strong weaknesses and it is not easy to play around them. What are the strengths of a revolting Civ? Lets have a look.

• Revolutionaries: Your Villagers become an army, giving you a short & small power-spike once you revolt. But dont over-estimate this! Revolutionaries are only strong, if your opponent is in Industrial or even Fortress-age, but compared to an Imperial Musketeer they are terribly weak and will melt away under enemy fire. Actually, this is more of an disadvantage in treaty, as stated above (Chaos of Revolution).
• Defensive-Buildings: While your units and economy are weaker then those of an imperial Civ, your defensive buildings are at least on the same level. Some Revolutions have some mechanics or cards, that boost your defensive buildings beyond the strength of your enemies. (USA, Finnland, Romania, Hungary) Most Revolutions have at least an infinite-Forts-card.
• Natives: Some Revolutions give you access to several Native Units, allowing you to lead larger armies then you enemies. (USA, Canada, Mexico)
• Snow-Balling Cards: Some Revolutions have infinte-sendable cards, that “stack” with themselves, making your Civ stronger and stronger the longer the game lasts. (Indonesia, South Africa, Romania, Hungary)
• Outlaws: Many revolutions grant you Outlaw units, that have their strength greatly increased and that are VERY cost- and pop-efficient. Usually they can be produced instantly with the right combination of cards and upgrades. These units alone often win games. (Mexico, USA, Grand Columbia, Peru, Brasilia, Romania, Hungary, Haiti, Argentina).

So, which of these advantages has Argentina? They have actually 2 of those (one of them twice):
They have a card for infinite forts, giving them a Fort AND increasing the fort-build-limit by 1 everytime they send it.
Additionally, they have 2 Outlaw units: The Gaucho and the Granadero.
The main strength of Argentinia lies in the mounted Granadero (the Gaucho is a usefull unit, but not nearly as much as the Granadero).

So lets have a closer look at it.

The Mounted Granadero

So this is the Unit our hopes are set upon? Dosent seem very impressive on a first look, does it?
Worse stats then a normal Imperial Grenadier, much worse then an Imperial Uhlan.

But there is more to this unit, then meets the eye.

• It is tagged as “Cavalry”, “Gunpowder Cavalry”, “Outlaw”, “Explosiv Thrower” and “Ranged Cavalry”. But NOT as “Heavy Cavalry”, nor as “Light Cavalry”, nor as “Hand Cavalry”. (thx to Beszedits)[forums.ageofempires.com] This means, Dragoons and Skirmishers will not get any bonus damage against it! Usually every Cavalry unit is countered by at least one of those. This is huge!
• Its high armor against ranged attacks (50%) makes it eben more resistant against most ranged units (Muskets, Skirms, Dragoons).
• Its explosiv damage (without negative damage-modifiers) makes it strong against everything with high resistance (Artillery).
• Its AoE-Damage makes it very effective against large groups of enemies, which can be found very often in Treaty.
• Being fast and ranged makes sure, that all Granaderos can help in a fight and dont get stuck at each other. Giving them an advantage in huge battles. This is increased by the fact, that they dont get countered by any ranged units.

These attributes make the mounted Granadero usefull against most Units it encounters. The only real counters to it are Melee-units, especialy those with bonuses against Cavalry (like Pikes and Hellbards – but Hussars, Coyote-Runners etc can be dangerous as well).
Mounted Granaderos are a very flexible and versaitle unit, best paired with light Cavalry (like the Gauchos) and Skirms, to defend it against enemy Melee-units.

However, this still isnt enough to win you games against imperial units. But dont worry: The main strengths of the Granadero lie somewhere else:

• Its Ressource Cost is only 120 food (same as the Gaucho). The same food-cost as a Grenadier, but that one needs an additional 60 gold. Costing only food allows you to concentrate your economy on food, making up for the lower efficience of your workers.
• It only takes up one pop-slot (same true for Gaucho). So you can have twice as much of these guys then Grenadiers or Uhlans. This makes up a bit for them being weaker stats-wise, compared to imperial units.
• Since it is considered an “Outlaw”, its production-speed is reduced by the “Wild-West”-Technology. Combined with the “Mass-Cavalry”-Upgrade and the “Riding-School”-Card The production-speed can be reduced to zero (0) – meaning they can be produced instantly (unfortunatly this dosent work for gauchos). This allows the unit to get around Lanchester’s square law[en.wikipedia.org], meaning (in a nutshell): Since your reinforcements arrive so fas, that casulties dont lower your fighting strength, you can often overwhelm an enemy and fight alot more cost-efficient then the strength of the units should allow you.
• Last but not least: Even so the unit is cheap, takes only 1 pop-slot and can be produced instantly, it gives you 24 production-XP. This means, you can spam the unit for XP and get new Cards incredibly fast. This is a very nice combo with strong cards, and the infinite Forts card is a strong card.

Btw: These advantages work the same way for most Outlaws granted by Revolutions (Cowboys, Hadjuks, etc). The only exceptions seem to be Ottoman-Hadjuks and Gauchos.

So you now can see our gameplan as Argentina: Have a strong eco producing almost only food, Spamming Granaderos to overwhelm your enemie armies and generate XP to spam forts for defense and map-control.

Pre-Revolution

Before the Treaty ends you play mostly like you would with a normal treaty-deck, except you will not go to the Imperial-age:

• Build a strong economy and gather as much ressources as possible during the treaty-period (Exploit all natural ressources before you build Mills and Estates; I build at least 10-12 Mills and 1-2 Estates)
• Do all the needed upgrades (dont forget the “Wild-west”-Upgrade in the Saloon)
• Wall yourself in (3 walls behind each other at maximum distance, another ring of walls around your eco-buildings, towers and unit-production-buildings between the 2 rings)
• Build an army for the first clash (actually, with my deck the only military units I build are 2 Monks, the rest are Uhlans send from the Home-City with the cards – make sure to build the monks before the last card)

I also build 6 Livestock Pens next to each other and produce as much Sheep in them as possible. Once the revolution starts the free Gauchos will go there and harvest the sheep and you will send cows there.
In a 40-min-Treaty you will be able to send in around 13 Cards before the Treaty ends.
After you revolted, you can no longer send cards from your original Homecity, so your deck dosent need more then 13 cards, and these 13 cards should cover everything you want (dont forget that Germans send some Uhlans with most cards, so dont get housed!).
Send economic cards first: once you go Industrial, you should immidiatly be able to send both factorys).
You should revolt somewhere between 1-2 minutes before the treaty ends (making sure you have gathered as much ressources as possible and still giving you enough time, to move the Revolutionaries to the front-lines before the fight starts).

This is my Argentina-Deck for treaty games.
The Core cards are “Riding-School”, 2 factorys and “Germantown-Farmers”. Everything else is more or less up to you.

To explain my choice of cards:

“Riding-School”: You need this to make your mounted Granaderos be produced instantly. It also helps you produce Gauchos faster.

Factorys: Should be a no-brainer: a significant boost to your economy. They cant be rebuild , so place them as far away from harm as possible.

“Germantown-Farmers”: This allows you to produce Settler-Wagons (up to 20, worth 40 pop). Not only does this allow you to farm more ressources before you revolt, but more importantly it allows your economy to recover alot more quickly after revolution: If you have 10 Mills you need only produce 2 Settler-Wagons with each to have 40 pops of workers back. This will give you a total of 140 pops of Villagers to feed your never ending stream of mounted Granaderos.

“Improved buildings” Stronger Forts and walls. Your Forts are a vital part of your strategy. Giving them more HP is usefull.

“Team Food-Silos”: You want lots of food, and your team will be thankfull for the xtra-ressources as well.

“Stockyards”: Your Gauchos will be working on Cows. You cant improve the work-rate of the Gauchos, but you can improve the rate your Cows will get fat at.

“Team Cavalry Attack”: Good Card for the team. Benefits your Gauchos (not you Granaderos unfortunetly)

“Advanced Arsenal”: Not really needed, but helps you Revolutionaries, Skirms and Mortars.

“Refrigeration”: Best upgrade to boost your food-centred economy.

“Long Range Infantry Hitpoints”: Small boost for your Skirms.

“Castrametation”: You need at least 1 Fort before the treaty ends, so you can research fort-upgrades before the battle starts. This card gives more value then the other cards that give you a fort (dont forget to build the second fort before the treaty ends – you will prbly not want to build forts with your explorer later, since you will have more then enough of them through cards).

“Spanish Riding School”: Pretty weak card, but the only card that improves your Granaderos. Allows reinforcements to join the fight even faster and might be good for some High-IQ-Flanking manouvers.

The last Card you send should be an Industrial-age-card (IV), so you get higher above the normal pop-limit.

The politicians I use are normally:

• Commerce: “The Naturalist” (best long-term boost for economy, I guess if you value baloons “The Inventor” might be an option as well)
• Fortress: “The Bishop” (Solid for the economy; if you have the ressources I guess “The Exiled Prince” might be better to get “Germantown-Farmers” asap)
• Industrial: “The Viceroy” (allows you to have more then 20 Settler-Wagons before you revolt; If you go Industrial before you got all your Settler-Wagons queued up “The Tycoon” is prbly better)

Post-Revolution

Once you Revolted you will get 10 Gauchos & 10 Cows, your Villagers and Settler-Wagons will turn into Revolutionaries and your deck will replaced with the Argentine deck:

The first card you should now try to get ASAP is “Citizenship”. It will send 6 Villagers (because of that you will need to have at least 1 free pop-space) and allow you to produce new Villagers and Settlers (switching their food-cost to gold). Once you send this produce Villagers from all Town-Centers, but even more important: Produce Settler-Wagons from all mills. This will bring your economy back on its feet very fast. You want to max it out: 99 Villagers + 20 Settler-Wagons (+ at least 10 Gauchos on cows). Your mass production of Granaderos will need lots and lots of food, so you are gonna need alot of economy. You might even want to turn you factorys towards food-production.

Use your initial Gauchos to farm the sheep at your livestock to have at least some kind of Economy. Lead the initial cows there as well to let them get fat. At least 10 Gauchos should always work as additional workers at the Livestocks. Once you have send your Granaderos, your Gauchos can produce new Cows without the Ranching card, giving your food production another boost.

Move your Revolutionarys towards the fight. Try to avoid using the “all military”-button (since you want your gauchos to stay in place)- but do so, if you have to.
The first fights will be hard, since you will be using Guard-Units against Imperial-Units. Fortunatly your units are a good combo: Uhlans can attack skirms and Cannons, who are the main threadt to your Revolutionarys. These Units of yours are weak and will fall quickly, still you should use them to maximum efficiency.
Once you need to replace your troops (because you cant build enough Villagers at once) and dont have mounted Granaderos yet, you should mostly build Gauchos, as long as the enemy troops are no hard counters to them. Gauchos are not produced instantly, but are still very cost effective and give 24 production XP while taking only 120 food and 1 pop (same as Granaderos). This will allow you to get the “Granaderos”-card quickly.

The second card you get should always be Granaderos. This will give you your main unit. Start spamming them right away. The card also increases your maximum Cows and gives you 10 of them, but be carefull: There seems to be a bugg, not allowing you to send Granaderos if you have to many Cows. So better dont build any cows with Gauchos before this card has been sent.

After this the only card you should get except for the forts are the “argentine mortars”, for the imperial-mortar-upgrade. Best send this card once you are at the offense and need to break enemy fortifications (Granaderos are surprisingly bad at that, so you will need the mortars).

“Revolutionaries”, “Gatling Guns” and “Cattle-Drivers” are not usefull enough to be taken over Forts. So Forts it is. Send those bad-boys without a second thought. Cover the map with them! They can get shipments (more forts), produce Granaderos (XP for even more forts) and give you some fire-support on their own.

Your Gameplan will mostly be trying to fight beneath your forts, using them for fire-support and instant-reinforcements. Push your forts closer and closer to the enemy, destroy artillery attacking them from afar with quick Granadero-raids. Once the enemy army is standing in the fire-range of your forts you start spamming Granaderos till his troops are overwhelmed and pushed back – then continue pushing forward with forts. Mix in some Gauchos, Skirms and Mortars if the enemy resists with Handcavalry, Melee-Infantry or fortifications. Consider building some monks to save ressources.
If you can manage to get a villiager, your Explorer or a Fort-Wagon behind enemy lines: build a fort or a stable + Outpost, send your army in until you got enough free pop, then rebuild the entire army within second behind enemy lines. If you can take out a few factories the game is won.
If the enemy threatens to break through friendly lines / fortifications: place a single fort at the most vulnerable points. This will allow you to quickly produce an army of Granaderos if needed.

The key to victory lies in the unlimited instant-production of your Granaderos.

I hope this guide helps somebody to utilize the new revolutions.

If you have any suggestions on improving this guide, feel free to comment.