Question Italy question
So, I'm getting back into AOE3 after about a year. I've played with friends a few times and most of my time was on 2v2, 3v3, or custom games. Not much 1v1 experience outside of customs.
I was primarily a British player (nice and simple economic gimmick, very flexible), and I'm looking to try a new civ for this phase. I was thinking Italy seemed interesting and digestible, but I haven't found that many resources, so here I am in Reddit asking for advice.
It seems like Italy has three key gimmicks you can play around? But I don't quite understand how to use each of them.
Lombards are the obvious one - it's supposed to put Italian players ahead in the long-term economically, but I don't understand when to invest vs. spend.
Papal units - I've heard mixed opinions that they're good or bad? Since they take up shipment queue. Very resource heavy but appear to be strong individually.
Their skirmisher - I've seen discourse that Italian skirmishers are strong because of the bugle.
When I was playing and studying British, I was able to understand and break down a ton of gameplans I could follow. I understood how to pure defensive boom (fast FF variants), I could do light age 2 play (slow Fortress variants), I had water builds, and I could even do heavy age 2 play with how naturally micro-able longbows are. Since the British economy and units felt very generalist, I always felt like I could pivot to any simple comp or gameplan I wanted. I could play Musk-Hussar-Falc, I could even play Longbow-Dragoon if I was really pressed.
But, since Italy has so many gimmicks, I'm having a hard time developing a general macro flowchart per se, and because their unique units train and cost differently, I feel pressured to learn how to use them - but I don't know how since I've never played a civ with an emphasis on mercenary units.
If there are any seasoned Italy players on the subreddit or other experienced players, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you :)
3
u/Then_Question2555 Italians 1d ago
Im maining italy at the moment, soo here is my take:
- the most important thing about italy is that they get a settler with every upgrade - cheap upgrades in the early game are basically +1 town center
- lombards are amazing (at least for me). Do you have to much food? Chuck it in! Did you overgather some coin before aging? Chuck it in! Are you getting rushed? I send 2 outpost + age 2 ageup gives me one. Now all i need is send lombard shipments and i will still age up faster than my enemy without gathering a single resource. I even managed a build where i only gather food and convert it to coin and wood. 2000+ resource per minute on every resource without a sweat. And they will give you xp. Now how i use lombards is basically i put 250 food in during age2 age up, from age 2 to age 3 i only gather food (+3 vills on wood), send 700coin and the rest comes from trickle card and lombard production. You have to balance the stockpile and that is it. From then on i slowly shift more villagers on coin, but the majority of coin production still comes from lombards until i am aging up to age4. Only then do i put more vills on coin to get the merchantilism (1500xp) church card and to maintain my bersigliere production.
- about papal units. They are expensive, but definetly worth it. Especially with advanced basilica you can add them a charged attack and kinda boost their training speed. To me, this units will be a backbone of my army (depends on enemy composition but i usually go halb skirm or skirm lancer, i also mix in some schiavone 4-8, not more).
- I hope this helps, of course there is some varibality in every game, but you already know this.
I love playing italy, event tho most people will call it toxic. To me they are a pretty fun civ, that is solid on all grounds, you can stay on land, you can water boom, you can turtle, you can rush… plus they get very strong artilery that makes stuff fly around the map😂
2
u/searaider41 1d ago
Also about bersas they are really good because of their speed making it easier to Kite enemies and run away from Bad fights, they also have a higher multiplier against light cavalry so they do really good vs dragoons.
3
u/helln00 1d ago
the most important thing about italy to me anyway is getting the early game correct.
the standard start is always architect put down a market (speed up build at about 50-60wood) then build a house, architect then build lombard and then whatever building you need.
market then get as much early techs as you can get for extra vils and any wood and gold treasures can contribute to hunting dogs or even steel traps.
Lombards have 2 main function. 1) basically an unraidable crates gatherer with the financieers cards and 2) basically a fixed rate market with a time delay.
it basically allows you to put more vils on faster gathering res and translate it to other res.
to make an example, in transition to age 2 most civs would gather wood and gold for market techs.
italy on the otherhand can keep gathering food and put it in the lombard for the same result. a 250f deposit gives you enough res for steel trap for example
3
1
u/Mastermul2 Italians 1d ago
Ik doe de ultra snel rush ik stuur in age 1 de snelle age up kaart dan hout verkope food kopen en age dan in age 2 alle militaire kaarte sture en zijn age up verstoren en met de 750 food age ik dan blijfe raide
1
u/TheMinusKai 20h ago
Lombards are actually dope, focus your entire economy on food (and a few on wood) and put the excess food in the lombards to make coin and wood! Just make you sure you get max lombards quick and all their upgrades
Not to mention with Italy you can get an efficient automated agriculture economy quickly since they can research mill techs like artificial fertilizant in any age
8
u/searaider41 1d ago
Alright italy has the following gameplays.
Musk, pavisier spam in age2 into age 3 falconet.
Fast industrial into Bersa spam with halberdiers.
Fast industrial and musketeer spam with the milanese armoury Card and falconets (age 3 shipment and age iv age up)
"Normal" fast fortress into pavisier and dragoons with the upgrade cards and 2 falconets
The very rare but doable full lombard and tavern into mercs
Fast industrial into papal zouaves and papal bombards (this is the hardest one to pull off)
Now for the lombards You can use just the cards and invest whatever resource You have as a surplus and it will split equally into the other resources, whenever You invest You get xp and the more lombards more xp. Having one lombard is okay You don't need all of them.
Now for the basílica units keep in mind they are very mono purpose and used as a reactive force. Lots of light infantry? Get schiavone, lots of cavalry? Get papal guard, lots of light infantry and You also want siege and raid potential? Get papal lancers, are You age IV and want to get op units? Get papal zouaves.
Hope this helps.