Transcription
I know there are a lot of multiple TC enjoyers out there, and I'm pretty sure you have heard how 2TC is dead and Abbasid is the worst civ ever. And at the pro level, this is true. But for the vast majority of us mortals, you can still play any civilization really effectively. So today, I got two games that showcase how to perform 3TC Abbasid like a god. Let's get into it.
Okay guys, um, so we're going to take a look at this game that I played against an Abbasid player as Rus. Um, so first of all, sorry for my voice. I've been sick for a couple of days, so not in my best shape, I would say. So let's talk first about why Abbasid is considered bad in today's meta. Um, the reason for that is basically because of the strength of professional scouts. Uh, you can very easily with some civilizations just go bro scouts, then go full feudal, and um, killing TCs after that should be pretty straightforward.
So, yeah, the strength of uh Abbasid 3TC comes in that you only need two resources. You only need food, which is these berries and these deer, uh sheep right here, and you only need um wood. That makes it so Gorge is actually a very, very good map for going multiple TCs because, as you can see, you always spawn with this beautiful woodline on the back of your base, uh, as I did as well here. And in this case, I don't think Rus is a very, a very good matchup uh against this guy. He goes for three TCs eventually, actually, and he does so not because he just wants to do it, but because he understands that uh the uh the map and the matchup uh has the right conditions uh to do so.
Uh, so as I was talking about, Rus is a really slow civilization to get started uh or to get going uh because you have to build, you need a ton of wood. Hunting cabins cost 100 wood. Uh, you need professional scouts in most cases. You, you can also play it without, but in most cases, you will want pro scouts. You want wooden fortresses for the extra 20%. So that makes it so the military production of Rus uh is actually very slowed. So he understands this and decides to go for 3TCs. He went for economic wing uh to reduce the cost of economy buildings by 30%. And he goes for 3TCs because he understands that he will be able to do so uh uncontested because Rus takes a while to start off. Even if I went for a knight or something, um, it's 520, which is really, really fast, and he's almost already done with all the stone he needs for for three TCs.
So when you're playing Abbasid 3TCs or 2TCs or whatever, you need to understand the map and the matchup and when it is actually viable to do so. So if I was playing French, for example, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't go for three TCs or he wouldn't be able to because a knight would interrupt his his stone gathering.
So, it's 6 minutes 20, and he's already going for uh, he's already almost uh finishing his 3TCs. 650. So, pretty nice build from him. Uh, which by the way, I won't cover on this on this video. I was, I will just analyze what he does and and how he reacts against me. So in this case, I went, uh, I understand that if I let him uh breathe too much, uh, he will definitely destroy me pretty soon in economy and in everything else. So I start pumping out knights uh and I start building two archery ranges and I will soon get um a blacksmith so I can start killing these these TCs. And take a look at the positioning of these TCs, by the way. Look at how heavily he's protecting his wood. He's protecting from both sides and also protecting uh his gold a little bit.
So, he saw my knights coming and immediately sent his villagers back, and it seems like he didn't get that many sheep. Uh, so he's already going into farms, which are discounted too, by the way. Um, so this is, this might actually look really bad for him um because he's already having to go into farms, but as long as he has wood, he uh he will still have food to work with. And I, in this game, I did not start my aggression. Like, it took me a really long while to start the aggression. As you, as I said, Rus is really slow. So I really didn't know how to approach uh this.
And right now, I have a problem because, let me, let me slow it down here. Uh, so I can talk about this. So when you are going for this knight archer composition, uh, like I'm going as right now, uh, you run the risk of getting cocked by a horseman in the middle of the map. As you can see, he, he understands this and he's going around with his um, with his horsemen and he's looking for my archers. Uh, which by the way, yeah, as you can see, should be coming at at that uh at that point.
So, here he understands this and he starts to take advantage of that. Uh, and he even sneaks up, uh, he sneaks out some villagers uh to the outside. And you need to start doing this because many players, uh, up to Conqueror, by the way, get really, really uh tunnel vision on the gold because you think you're going to go up uh as Abbasid and there's really no need to focus this much on the gold because because you don't really need gold. You need to make units in feudal, like he's doing right here, uh to survive. Uh, and he's only going for horseman, spearman composition, which is really, really good against this uh against what I am doing. So this is really, really bad for me. I already took some damage from the horsemen, I think. Uh, and look at the, he's already 30 villagers ahead and he's almost in equal amounts of um, uh, uh, of army value.
Uh, here I sent my uh ram without waiting for my army to to be in position. Uh, so another mistake for me. I'm committing a lot of mistakes here, and I already gave him way too much time. This to me, uh, right now, analyzing it, uh, on retrospective, this already looks like GG because he's 30 economy ahead and he's already has almost the same amount of army as me.
So, when you're facing this 3TC, when you're facing this 3TC uh strategy that is really, really well protected, as my uh opponent is doing so here, um, you need to look for the production. Imagine if those two rams were here instead of uh focusing on the gold. Uh, I would have been able to take out his his production, his blacksmiths, uh, and then I would have easier access to his woodland, which is what we need to interrupt. So, as long as Abbasid has woodline, he will be safe.
And now, in the front, um, we, we make a fight here, but his army composition is way easier to to micro than mine. I need to micro archers back, uh, kill the spearman, uh, micro my knights uh to deal with the horsemen. So he has a, a really nice composition that allows him to to just A-move and and be better than mine. Meanwhile, I need to keep microing my archers back and killing the spearman. So this is already GG. Look at the, I am technically winning this. Uh, but he's 40 villagers almost ahead. So I needed to win this battle and then go here and then clear everything else. But as I said, Rus is really slow. So I am not able to do so on here. Uh, I think I already know it's GG. So I will probably soon tap out.
So, as you can see, when you know when to use Abbasid, if you know your opponent is slow, um, if you know your opponent is uh is not going to attack you for a very long time, then take advantage of that. And also see, see what he did. Uh, as soon as he saw that my units were no longer here, he immediately took the opportunity to take the berries to wall this off. Uh, and then he can sneak off things to the side like this. And even if I found this, it doesn't really matter. Uh, he already took almost every uh berry. And losing seven villagers, let's say I kill every single villager, which is probably not going to be the case because he has um, plus 25 HP. Even if I kill all of these villagers, he's still going to be ahead by a ton of economy.
So, uh, as Abbasid, you need to take advantage of the tunnel visioning of, um, of your opponent. And if he is really focused on one side, then go on the other. Uh, look at how all of his production is on the opposite side of where I was attacking. So, really, really nice uh play from him. Now, at this point, I, um, yeah, I'm not going to be able to do much damage here. I take one villager out. Uh, and when I see the Hup, I just, I just step out.
Okay, now let's go into the second game. I actually got two games back to back against this player. This is a, I think he's sitting at 1750 uh rating right now. So really, really ahead from me, but still, he's a really nice player, a really good player, and and this time I know uh my previous uh army composition is not going to work. Uh, so I need to switch it up. I still do the professional scouts build because I, I was worried about his horsemen. So, I didn't want to go out on on um on foot normally. Uh, because at that point, I'm just playing like a budget French, right? I'm just playing uh French by going out uh out on the resources and um trying to aggro. But in retrospective, maybe if I went for a boar, a really early boar, uh that would have given me an edge, I think, instead of professional scouts.
Anyhow, I still go for pro scouts, but I wanted to switch up my military composition. So, instead of going spear, uh, what's it called? Knight, archer, as I did before. Um, this time I am going to go the three unit types. So, spearman, archer, knight. Uh, and the reason for that is because I wanted to prevent him uh from going horsemen, spearman, uh because that composition is really, really good against siege rams and um, and just uh really generally good.
So right here, I know he's going to do exactly the same thing. So I try to, I try to uh delay him as much as I can. So this time I go for um, for the mining camp burn with my scouts uh instead of just doing nothing with them. So I try to deny him, but look at, look at what he's doing. So he's just repairing it with one, and he's still going to get a pretty nice timing with u uh with this many villagers and stone.
So I see, uh, sometimes uh Abbasid players when they try to go 3TC, they go for stone, they immediately place the TC, and then keep mining stone, and then place his their third TC. He instead goes for all the stone he needs for all three TCs uh immediately. Uh, and I went back because I went for a super fast timing on the professional scout. So I needed my scouts back ASAP. And right now, I need stables. I'm going for the stables first, and then I'll go for the archery range and the barracks. Uh, so 111 composition. And as you can see, he's already building his his two TCs at the same time. And again, look at what he does. He protects his woodline like it's his his lifeline because it is his lifeline. If if he has wood, he can survive. He can make farms. He can make units. Uh, he can make everything. And this time, I think he got more sheep than the last game. Uh, but yeah, now I'm, I know I'm on a timer, so I immediately start rallying stuff.
Uh, this time his gold is much less protected. Uh, and what I want to do is I want to see where he puts his his military production. Uh, last time I went for his gold. That was a mistake. Uh, this time I want to go for his production. So here I immediately see he's going for a barracks. Uh, so I start delaying him as much as I can with my knight. Uh, and I also have uh Spearman coming as well. I actually went for two barracks, and this, this was a mistake, and this is going to cost me a lot later on, as you will see. Um, but yeah, right now he's here, and because he doesn't have the TC to protect him like last time, he went for a tower. Um, and look at how he spends his his gold. Actually, he just goes for um, he doesn't have much gold now, but he spends it for his um, House of Wisdom upgrades and then his economic upgrades first. So, no blacksmith. Uh, and he, look at how how good he reacts. He's looking all the time at my base. This is something you need to do. Uh, if you're playing an Abbasid, uh, you need to keep looking. Keep looking at what your opponent is doing. See their military production buildings. Uh, he sees, let me actually switch the um, to his point of view. He's scouted this, so he knows what I'm going for. He knows I have barracks. He knows I have only one archery range and one stable because he's on my knight. Uh, so he's spamming spearmen like crazy. Uh, in the past game, he went for a lot of horsemen because I had archers, and now he adapted uh to what I was doing and he made spearmen instead. Uh, so just to counter the knights and to counter my own spearmen.
So at this time, what I decide to do is, okay, I don't want to, I don't want to focus too much on the gold, but I don't want to let him mine gold either. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go for this uh tower rush here, fortress rush, which will allow me to deny the gold and then focus on everything else. Um, so he decides to put his houses and his blacksmith here. Uh, so I wanted to attack here. Um, and then later I can go into this TC and start uh denying his his wood. So that is what I'm doing. Uh, right now I see that you, uh, you can, we can see that I have a a big military lead, but I am, I am on a really, really um, a really bad timer. Look at how many villagers he already has, and I still haven't dealt any damage.
So, this is the problem with um, uh, with some civilizations like Rus, by going, they're way too slow. And I think this is why I told you that um, maybe professional scout was a mistake because pro scouts, yeah, it gives me a lot of safe deer, but it actually slows down my push. This could have been like one or two minutes earlier uh if I didn't go um professional scouts.
So, right now I'm just trying to house him. Uh, and I think I see this uh on the minimap, on the fog of war. I see the deer moving. So, I will soon send my cavalry over there. Uh, but look at what he's doing. He immediately goes to the other side. So, this is something that I need to work on a lot. Uh, I get tunnel vision way too much on. Wow, this is, I don't remember this, but this was actually a really bad mistake. Uh, so I lose a knight there for free. Uh, but I, I take out a lot of of uh of buildings. So, this is bad for him, but not the end of the world because he can still go on the other side of the map.
So now, uh, this is kind of good for me, but I need to react quickly by going into the other side and keep doing uh what I was doing, which is just um kill off all of his buildings. Uh, but look at how many spearmen he has. 25 spearmen here. And I only have 11 archers. This is why I told you uh that the two barracks were a mistake. If I had two archer ranges instead, I would have had a lot more archers. Um, and yeah, it also seems like I am not spending my resources correctly. It actually seems like I was going for a castle here. Um, I think this was not the play. And then I really didn't know what to do. This is something that many players, and I include myself here, are really bad at. We get really tunnel visioned on one side of the map. Look at how I am really focused on this side, and there's really nothing to attack here. Like, why, why am I attacking the House of Wisdom? Not sure. Um, but I am just giving him time. And as Abbasid, all the time that you can buy is precious because look at all of the things you can do on other sides.
Uh, this is why Gorge is actually really a good map for Abbasid because you can have all of the wood on the back. Imagine if he had a wood, a woodline on the front. It would be a completely different story. Um, so yeah, right now he has way many, way more archers than me, way more spearmen than me. So I try to take this fight, but actually, uh, the rest of my cavalry are here, and I take this opportunity to to get a few kills. Uh, but I, because I went on the other side with the with my cav, and I didn't have enough army here to defend, uh, he just A-moves and completely cleanses me up.
So, right now, I actually didn't see this game before. I didn't know I was this behind. So, right now, it seems like it's almost over again. Uh, but I thought I had a chance. So, what I did is I wanted to go into castle, and maybe with castle units like um, I would be able to deal with this, but he already has way too many units. Way too many units.
Uh, so yeah, I was just using my cavalry to look for damage on on either side, but look at what he does. I attack on the right, he moves to the left as soon as my army leaves. So take account of that. Like, always be conscious of where the enemy's army is. Always be conscious of that and take advantage of it. Like, if if they go into one side, then just go to the other one. And he even does a cheeky stone wall here just so I cannot deny his his gold. But actually, he's already on on the other side, uh, here with a lot of other villagers.
So, this is, okay, at this time I have all my upgrades. These are better on archers and uh veteran knights, but walls actually give a lot of um of uh range damage resistance to the units that are on the top side. So this is actually really, really, really, really nice from him uh that he went for this wall, and there's nothing I can do about it. It doesn't matter if I have uh plus two and plus two and I have better better units. This is just really, really uh impossible to break, even if if I have better units. I was also pumping some melee units to deal with the spearmen, but yeah, I haven't made any damage yet, whatsoever. I started finally getting some kills here. Uh, but still, I would need like a hundred kills right now to come back from this game, and as soon as he ages up, he can go for composite bows, better veteran upgrades, and then I am just dead.
So, and also the the camels are really, really nice uh to defend against the knights, the two camels that come out of the melee wing. Um, and yeah, that was my last chance to to win. And I understand that uh if I don't do anything here, then I'm just done. And and in all this time, I never discovered this gold, by the way. And he just goes everywhere on the map. So, see how he makes use of his scouts, how he makes use of knowing where my army is, and how he abuses the fact that I am a tunnel visioned person that can only attack from one side.
So that was really two interesting matches that showcases how even if, even even if you see Abbasid on the bottom of of tier lists, they can still be used in the correct maps and in the correct matchups to great effectiveness. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that uh seeing me getting spanked uh like that.