I've never seen a 3 barracks German start before... :-)
All wins are good, I know you can improve on that start though. Try this, or a variation that works given how you're doing: your first 3 villies.. 2 food, 1 gold, then 3 food, 1 gold, 2 food, 2 gold, 2 wood; barracks around 2:15, same builder builds University (free!); while you're pumping out Soldats, (if it seems appropriate) do Physical Education research at University (80g 80w) then build a quick Armory (100 w). This give you fast firepower (mortars w/gas) plus faster/tougher villagers (improved defense and economy for the rest of the game).
You should have 7 Soldats and a Mortar Inf. by 10 mins., and with Mortar's Toxic Cloud and Germany's TC healing, you should easily defeat (all but the very best) massed rush of infantry in that time frame. At very high levels of the game this is much more difficult, but generally it should be doable for players up to around 1300-1350 AM rating...
Most of the time you don't need more than a single barracks in the first 9 mins of the game as Germany. If you're under a severe rush just make sure to concentrate Soldat fire on one attacker(focus-fire) and micro your units and heal them at your TC, and make sure to use Toxic Cloud (not used in this game against any units!)
You should be able to repel all but the best rushes (first Soldat around 4 mins or less) and if you micromanage your forces well, you'll have a good chance to play the middle/late game when (given a good economy) Germany has most of the advantages.
Make sure your dog scouts both the enemy and the area around your base for food (Deer, pigs, sheep, bears, etc.) - which is absolutely key around the 10-11 mins mark.
The best thing about this game is your counter-attack following an incursion by your opponent early in the game. It completely takes your enemy by surprise, which is most often the key to victory in military actions.
Take a look at Dojo's site for GT20's win over a France rush (top 50 game) to see how a really good German player handles a very good France player.
[Edited on 03/15/04 @ 03:47 PM]
RTEHistDesign File Author
Posted on 03/17/04 @ 04:00 PM
Hey Chrona,
Thanks for the feedback. I took your advice and you are right. I don't need more than one barracks early on. And I completely forgot about the university being free for Germany. I still have a tough time against the better players, so I still might have to adopt France as a more competitive automatch civ. But thanks for the info. :)