STANDARD RUSH FOR RUSSIANS

[JUGGERNAUTMASTER]

Hello all,
I've played Russia a lot. 150+ games and at level 51. After receiving every one of Russia's HC cards/politicians/etc., I think I've found out the most standard and powerful strategy of Russia in most cases. Oddly enough, it can be preformed at almost any HC level. Therefore, I would really like people to try this out (as if trying an ottomen jan rush) and see how it works for them:

Basically:

Cards- 300f -> 13 Strelets -> 5 Cossacks -> 700g -> 700w
Units- 23 Strelets -> 5 Cossacks -> Mass 30~ Musketeers -> |3rd} Mass Upgraded 40~ Cossacks -> 2 Falconets
Economy- 10%+ hunting -> 20%+ hunting -> 10%+ woodchopping -> 10%+ gold mining -> |3rd| 10%+ farms
Buildings- Blockhouse -> 3 Houses -> Market -> Stable -> Trade Posts -> 5 Houses -> |3rd| Farms -> Plantations

It's called a Standard Russian Rush.

The Break-Down:

1:- 1 vill to shoot hunts toward TC.
2:- Other vills to individual food carts.
3:- Query vills at TC, waypoint hunts.
4:- Then, all vills to hunts.
5:- Except 1 vill to wood cart, build house, then, shift to hunting.
6:- Explorer explores.

Leave gold/extra wood alone. Keep hunting gathering effective. If possible to build market AND upgrade with hunting dogs (TIP: If map is Carolinas OR if Explorer found 50w + 50g treasures with initial 200w/0g, OR if Explorer found 150w with initial 100w/100g), build the market and precede to upgrade. Otherwise it is a waste to build market.

7:- Shipment 1: 300f. ASAP. (TIP: Try to get EXP treasures)
8:- 2 vills to 300f. ASAP.
9:- Advance with 500w politician.

There might be idle TC time- that's ok. Try to just be effiecent as much as possible. Once advancement starts:

10:- Vills 8w/6f
11:- 1 Vill hunter moves forward.

Chop wood near TC to build a blockhouse and continue to hunt. Hunting will be the main provider of food. 8 vills wood and 6 vills hunting. Send 1 hunter to forward hunting base to prepare to build a blockhouse. Once wood chopppers have gathered the 250w:

12:- 3w go to hunts. (5w now)
13:- Build BH.
14:- Query vills.

During age up, scout with Explorer to find enemy hunters, or vills closest to the forward BH. Have 3 vills queried at TC. Once you hit colonial:

15:- 3 vills to 500w crate.
16:- Ship 13 strelets.
17:- Build 3 houses, market.
18:- 3 vills back to wood.

Make sure to have economy all set, because the attack is about to start. Hunting is micromanage dependent, so shift click the vills to hunt in the next patch once a patch is about to end. Once BH is built:

19:- Have BH receive shipments.
20:- Build 10 strelets.
21:- Take your 13 strelets to closest enemy vills.
22:- Take your 23 strelets and go into TC area.

Use strelets to focus fire on vills and hit and run while in TC area. Maybe 3-5 strelets will die to TC fire. If 2-4 vills died, that's great. Hit and Run, and use effectively. Run from oppenant long ranged units/minmute men. Strelets are ineffective against ranged units. Pick off pikes though. The best thing about 13 strelets vs. the 5 cossack card early on is that cossacks die hard to the early TC fire and aren't range which doesn't cause as much harrassment damange. Strelets MUCH more effective at killing early around TC and last longer early on being the most cost effective.

Keep the eco focused on hunts. Have the some wood cutters (of the 5) to gather gold for awhile to afford upgrades to BOTH hunting techs (50w, 50g) + (125w, 125g). Once the 3rd shipment comes, keep the rush going strong.

23:- Ship 5 cossacks.

Use the cossacks to aid against ranged units, but keep them moving to stay away from pikes and musketeers. Have them in battles though for every added effect early on. Use to scout also.

Once food supply is good by hunting, send some vills to gold and start sending resource cards.

Either:

Build musketeers as they are more pop effective than the strelets and save a lot more on constant wood. Plus musketeers have more attack against the TC and better all around unit. So, set up economy for massed musketeers:

24:- Ship 700g.
25:- Build musketeers.

Or build strelets/cossacks if the enemy is building a lot of pikes or musketeers or the famous janisaries/abus gun combo, set up economy for cossacks/strelets:

24:- Ship 700w.
25:- Build stable + cossacks.
26:- Build strelets

Should be able to to have a large enough army to take out undefended TC at 8-9 mins. However, defended bases should be avoided and just allow your map control/economy let you win the rest of the game until cannons come into play.

Use this build. Post your example games, and tell me some things that counter this and ways to avoid that. Thx and GL!~