Ancient Domination = Horses

Likely Candidates:
Persia (Creative/Expansive; Immortals; Agriculture/Hunting)
Egypt (Creative/Spiritual; War Chariots; Agriculture/The Wheel)
Mali (Financial/Spiritual; Skirmishers; The Wheel/Mining) (This one is questionable as to whether it fits with the strategy)

This strategy is for an ancient-era warmonger. It depends only on TWO things:

1. Having Horses
2. Proper Execution

#1 is random--I can't help you there; but #2 is what I'm here to try to expound upon. Comments and constructive criticism welcome.

The strategy is simple-- (one worker)+(HORSES)+(Roads)+(Animal Husbandry) and then you are ready to roll to victory.

No mussing about with tech after tech after tech to get rolling...no need to rush-chop (immediately--the option is still there of course) or make settlers right away---TAKE what you want :D

Step ONE--- 4000BC--- "W" your settler, move your warrior. Has your warrior found horses yet? If so, make sure the settler will create a city very near the horses (in order to create a camp, your worker must be inside your cultural border). No horses? Found your Capital, MAKE A WARRIOR, tech to Animal Husbandry.
Step TWO--- That first warrior is on a mission--- FIND HORSES.
Step THREE--- Once the warrior is finished, make a worker, then a barracks.
Step FOUR--- If you haven't found horses by now, it's time to ABANDON this strategy and go for something more traditional. Tech Bronze, chop rush a settler or something. Go find another guide :D (Note--- the rest of this assumes you found horses)
Step FIVE--- If you HAVE found horses, but they're way far from your capital, tech bronze & chop-rush a settler, OR just get a settler and tech to something else important to you (I like religions--good cultural foundation for your imminent conquests)
Step SIX--- By now, your worker has built a camp on some horses and has built a road to your capital, allowing you to build CHARIOTS and their UU equivalents.
Step SEVEN--- Once that first warrior has secured the horses, it's time for him to find your first victims. If you find multiple civs, this is the order in which to attack them:
Aztecs (no resource Jaguars), Greeks (Phalanx), Rome (Legions!), then everyone else...
Step EIGHT--- Make two Chariots; meanwhile, your Warrior has scouted around the victim's empire, paying special attention to resource locations. Your worker is BUILDING A ROAD toward the victim's empire.
Step NINE--- Once BOTH Chariots are finished, declare war (I always like to make an outrageous demand first...more personal that way :p), have your warrior enter the enemy territory, preferably sticking to defensive terrain and continuing to look for enemy resources (Bronze, Iron, Horses, especially).
Step TEN--- Those Chariots are swarming toward the enemy down the road you built, right? Keep building them. Seriously. Don't stop until you run out of enemies on the continent.
Step ELEVEN--- The Chariots (initially) DO NOT ATTACK. They DENY resources to the enemy. Pillage his resources.
Step TWELVE--- Wait for 3:1 unit superiority (more if he built some spearmen before you spiked his bronze mine) before attacking his city. The strongest thing he can support is Archers without resources. Kill them all. Take his city.
Step THIRTEEN--- Make more chariots. Find more cities. Repeat ad naseum.

ADVANTAGES--- Chariots are fast--fast to build, fast to tech for, and have a move of 2, which means they can pillage two improvements per turn.
Horse Archers (and Horseback riding) take FOREVER to tech for--if you have yours out functioning first, they'll never get any horses. (Horse Archers also cost TWICE what chariots cost)
YOU CAN STILL TECH WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT!! This strategy was developed so that I could tech to my offensive unit EARLY, and not have to spend lots of time teching military. This makes your empire MUCH stronger and more stable in the long run, after your military conquests.
It stops your enemy from playing on HIS terms and forces him to play on YOUR terms. He might have been trying for a wonder, or a settler rush. Who's going to send out a worker to chop-rush when you've got chariots pillaging across his country?
DISADVANTAGES--- Requires total commitment. The price of failure is lots of p'o'ed neighbors.
Requires PATIENCE. Pillaging is Job #1---you don't want to have to face a bunch of Spearmen. ONLY WHEN STATISTICALLY ASSURED OF VICTORY should you siege the city. This requires waiting for the odds to be all on your side.
Chariots, and mounted units in general, DO NOT GET DEFENSIVE MODIFIERS (EDIT: apparently Immortals DO get defensive modifiers); therefore, they are ill-suited for garrison duty. "Stick and move."

LIMITATIONS--- OK, I've played enough to let you know this: Once you start seeing Longbows, Crossbows, Pikemen and Macemen, it's time to sue for peace and work on your infrastructure. The chariot rush is over; The raw strength of the enemy is now enough to blunt even Combat 5 Chariot's charges. Tech up. Bide your time. Consolidate your Empire---you've earned it.


Did I neglect anything? I tried to be thorough. Let's discuss this :D

having worker building a raod to enemy border? may get ur worker hijacked
and very time consuming too

having worker building a raod to enemy border? may get ur worker hijacked
and very time consuming tooWell, obviously you're not just sitting your two chariots in your capital while the worker is building a road. :D Besides, you haven't declared war until you have enough muscle to distract the opponent from anything except defense and counter-attack.

Time-consuming? No, it's a shortcut for the chariots. And when you capture the city, you have most of a trade network already.

The biggest disadvantage is the risk of NO HORSES. You're going to be significantly behind in getting your first settler out, and that worker is useless while you research bronze.

I covered that in step four, "No horses = Plan B" :lol: Plus, the worker is not useless, you can make farms...and pastures...and camps...while you look around for horses...

Well one thing which can mess things up a bit, at least from the point of view of denying resources, is the computer AI's can and often will trade resources. I've been in situations where I have tried to cut off resources to a civ, but it just trades for it.

An adaption I might try is to make friendly with any civs I can, then single out the one who is least cooperative for attack. Ask my buddies to quit trading with him (might cost you some resource or gold).

Yeah, hadn't considered Resource trading... What tech is required to trade resources? (Although, not many CIvs have resources to spare THIS EARLY---remember this is within the first 20 or 30 turns...)

I would give this strategy a big thumbs-up as a way to coordinate an ancient age rush. However, it does seem like rushing in the early game would stunt your expansion severely if not carefully done, so it needs to sufficiently cripple the other serious contenders if it doesn't buy you enough land to compensate for fewer settlers.

I like this strategy, though.

Ah, the classic zergling rush. Just a couple things to point out, make sure the distance to the enemy isn't too large (although your highway to destruction should help out against this, it is still something to consider), make sure the enemy doesn't have a superior infrastructure (it might be impossible to wait for 3:1 odds), and be wary of a counter-attack or another opponent booming while you are waging war. But nevertheless, :goodjob:.

I would give this strategy a big thumbs-up as a way to coordinate an ancient age rush. However, it does seem like rushing in the early game would stunt your expansion severely if not carefully done, so it needs to sufficiently cripple the other serious contenders if it doesn't buy you enough land to compensate for fewer settlers.

I like this strategy, though.
In researching the kinks, I discovered that the two Civs with the UU-chariots are BOTH creative---helping IMMENSELY with border stability...

Yes, though---I did cover that in the "disadvantages" section :)

@Specious5 --- I *DID* neglect to mention some basic strategic considerations that, while *I* might be thinking about, might be overlooked by some people.

Hmm, why Mali?

Hmm, why Mali?
Two reasons---they have a VERY early UU... Archer, with +1 strength and +1 first strike... I figured it could be useful for Mali to try, as their UU is very early.... I did say "Maybe not" tho' :lol:

I would just like to point out that a unit with 2 movement can only pillage one square a turn (1 movement to pillage and 1 to move to next square), but 2 improvements on the same square.

Whereas a unit with only one movement, has either the choice to pillage one improvement on the square it is on, or move to the next square, wait a turn then pillage that next square.

wouldnt you be running into serious gold deficit with the number of chariots you are supporting outside your borders? not to mention the city distance maintenance after u capture the enemy city which is 20 tiles away.

but i like the strategy anyway :D

yes this strategy is good to look at it, but it has a big hole - money problem. To support so many units this early is very hard. But i believe that author somehow manages his financial situation. Also do not forget that you can wipe out one or max two civilization with this strategy. But the third one surely gonna have lots of spearmens, horse archers - i mean more advanced units. This strategy would work great in duel, but it is not so great in 4+ players games.
I myself prefer warmongering a bit later, when i have 2 - 3 quite good cities to support army i am going to create.

Well, I tried this out on Prince on the Ice Age Map/Scenario...

IT HAS WORKED LIKE A CHARM.

I got lucky, my settler was 2 squares west of some Horses (I hear the patch makes horses invisible until Animal Husbandry...hmmm...another drawback)... However, I didn't find any of my neighbors' borders until I'd built my THIRD city /doh... By that point, though, I was ready to attack!!

Two chariots & a warrior (the "Scout" who found the border in the first place) start pillaging----Persepolis had 8 pop at the time I found it. They had 3 cities total, like me ... My chariot machine starts pumping out reinforcements---at 25 hammers, ONE CHARIOT per TURN :D ...

I was patient---I didn't rush right into the cities, I took my time, killed all thier farms and mines... (Getting gold in the process!) and waited for my overwhelming numbers so I could be SURE to take the cities when I attacked them... The beauty of PATIENCE is that the AI can't stand being strangled, so it kept sending out "Raiding Parties" of archers...which my greater-strength chariots took out with 87% (or greater as XP mounted up) success... I capture all three cities, and Persepolis has starved/"slaved" down to 4 pop from 8 pop.

The above two posts ask about money problems---Yes, they exist. NO, they're not fatal---yet. I've had to dip to 80% for brief periods, but after conquering the three Persian cities, I have a BIG Gold cushion to run at 90% for the forseeable future...

I'm going for the Incas to the West next --- Genghis Khan is to the East and he already has Swordsmen, so I need to scout his territory really well for the Iron mines before I can go after him...

Oh, I just teched to Catapults, so I'm planning on sending stacks of 2 Chariots, 2 Catapults, an Axeman and an Archer for my next round of conquest! Wish me luck!

I begin every game by Zerging the first Civ I find. Not just with chariots mind you , but with anything, constant harrassment and denial until they are eliminated.
I get a wee bit behind if it drags out but usually they cant make anything but Archers and have one city. I get tons of workers killing their Settler Escorts and usually change to a second city closer after working out a settler of my own between military.
Similar to your strat I guess but I always do this and always have, I am just a zerger at heart I guess.

Classic. I noticed that fast in this game too, like the original Civ, Chariots are just nuts for when you get them! I'd just be a bit worried about retaliation, if for some reason a unit slips past and you can't see them, without defense you could be in serious trouble.

Nonetheless, I otherwise like it. Even if you only KO 1 or 2 civ's that way, if you aggressively settle and build cottages you can quickly make those cities profitable and you now have twice or three times the land area you would have otherwise. This is a good way to get a commanding lead I'd say. Just gotta be quick to adapt it once you find an opponent it won't manhandle.

I've been saying this repeatedly -- the worker-->bronzeworking-->chop-->settlers route isn't necessarily the best.

There's more than one way to win.

I've sued Mali recently, persia is awsome, never tried egypt thou. I also youse Mongolians, pretty deadly and ignores terrain cost!

However next patch will make it a bit more difficult :(

Have had good success with this approach on noble/pangea/temperate. It keeps the game simple and can lead to very early wins. Worker, clear cut, barracks, chariots, attack, repeat. Raze all cities except capitals to keep costs down and with captured workers chop and build roads to the next civ. I have rarely run out of forests as cities keep expanding to provide more lumber (mines are good too). Build archers for backline protection from barbs and maybe some axemen if they can be built close to the frontlines and copper/iron is available without building a settler. Only research the early basics then accumulate for upgrades to horse archers. Could be more powerful by sending a couple of fast units to worker snip outlying civs. They will eventually dispatch units but they just become target practice for your growing supply line. There may be enemy scouts buzzing around your back lines but they can’t attack anything. I also like the idea of using cheap scouts with the healing promotion for faster recovery on to the next conquest. I haven’t tried Persia but with two flanking promotions their UU’s would be quite Immortal. The other civ with chariots and +50% against archers could also be devestating as archers are the vast majority of city defenders early on. There is the occasional spearman but if you immediately cut off copper/iron they can’t even finish a unit already in production (different than civ3). You’ll take your lumps against cities on hills with spearmen or strong defensive UU’s but attacking in swarms with flanking allows you to nibble away and eventually land that first hit point (not actually not a hit point now) and after that it’s easier and easier to land punches. It's surprising but the new game actually favors rapid conquest as conquered cities are quickly productive and close the next point of attack.

If horses or forests are not available then of coarse this doesn't work. Don’t get me wrong, I like the longer games too but sometimes I just simply want to go on a rampage. No trading, no tech, no buildings, no religion too…there’s a Beatle song in there somewhere.

This is especially useful if you have a UU Horse Archer...upgrade your high exp chariots to Horse Archer UU's and essentially dominate the Ancient Era. I played on the 18 civ world map as the Russians, and wiped out Frederick, Louis, Isabella, Caesar and Alexander by 1600BC, yes I ran a research deficit but from the gold pillaged by taking out cities I had enough to support this. To boot I had 12 size 4-5 cities and locked off my 'settling land' I built only 2 settlers and a worker but had 10 workers and a bunch of cities. With a strong army to dissuade any potential enemies, now I'm ready to settle down and build up until I get Kossacks. I have 4 27xp chariots awaiting an upgrade and a bunch from 10-20 making an already fiercely powerful force.

Further update from my Ice Age/Prince game... I've taken all four English cities and three of the Incan... The incredible distances I had to transfer the army from the SE (English front) to the Western Incan front caused my treasury (& research) to shrink to almost nothing for a few turns...but a city full of plunder sure salves that wound ;) ...

Incas have 4 cities left (already took their capital) and juuuust teched to Longbows...but so did I ... and there's nothing like a promoted war chariot to take the sauce out of a Longbow trying to attack... :D I have about ten Chariots, 6 Catapults in the field, and archers/axemen/spearmen coming from my territory for garrison duty.

One of Genghis Khan's cities just flipped to me :king: ... but he declared war soon after ;) ... Time to swing the army back East :lol:

Above poster playing Russia: Nice...It'll be quite a while before I get cavalry, but I can see how that ancient XP will come in handy at that time... I'm not in a position to upgrade to horse archers--only 1 strength more than my UU-chariots, and every gold piece I save is more research :D Part of my strategy is to NOT get Horseback Riding until the last possible moment--because the Chariots cost HALF as much...

This is especially useful if you have a UU Horse Archer...upgrade your high exp chariots to Horse Archer UU's and essentially dominate the Ancient Era. I played on the 18 civ world map as the Russians, and wiped out Frederick, Louis, Isabella, Caesar and Alexander by 1600BC, yes I ran a research deficit but from the gold pillaged by taking out cities I had enough to support this. To boot I had 12 size 4-5 cities and locked off my 'settling land' I built only 2 settlers and a worker but had 10 workers and a bunch of cities. With a strong army to dissuade any potential enemies, now I'm ready to settle down and build up until I get Kossacks. I have 4 27xp chariots awaiting an upgrade and a bunch from 10-20 making an already fiercely powerful force.

I saw somewhere that upgrades knock you down to 10XP. Can anyone confirm or correct?

Yes, they knock you down to 10 xp...but they don't take away the old promotions :goodjob:

Chariots, and mounted units in general, DO NOT GET DEFENSIVE MODIFIERS; therefore, they are ill-suited for garrison duty. "Stick and move."[/list]

Did I neglect anything? I tried to be thorough. Let's discuss this :D

Yeah, you neglect that there are 2 mounted units having defensive bonus: immortal (!!!) and conquistador. :)

REalllllly? Immortals get defensive bonuses? :eek: Wow...that's ... Uber :lol:

REalllllly? Immortals get defensive bonuses? :eek: Wow...that's ... Uber :lol:

That's why they are immortal. :D
It's hard to find out, because you just see "no defensive bonuses" for most mounted units, and the lack of this phrase is hard to notice.

Yes, they knock you down to 10 xp...but they don't take away the old promotions :goodjob:

That's interesting because it supports making multiple upgrades to reset the ever increasing number of XP needed for additional promotions.

Well, obviously you're not just sitting your two chariots in your capital while the worker is building a road. :D Besides, you haven't declared war until you have enough muscle to distract the opponent from anything except defense and counter-attack.

Once you DO declare war that worker on the frontier can capture that enemy capital. :eek:

The AI finds an undefended worker totally irresistable... so much so they'll weaken the city to go chase him down. Position your worker so that no unit, not even a mounted unit, could nail it in one movement turn (remembering that they'll have a movement boost if there are AI roads down)

The AI is almost certain to send out something to chase your worker down. If it's a foot soldier just have your worker lead it on a merry chase around the world. If it's something faster move the worker under cover of defensive units. In the meantime tho the unit(s) sent out by the AI to chase your worker have just sealed the doom of the city they left :goodjob:

@Vizzini -- Nice! Worker-Bait :lol: ... I usually get the AI's capital SO CHOKED up with chariots that it ACTUALLY sends two archers and a settler out of the city to expand its economic future ... but all that does is take out two of his capital's defenders :lol: ...

Once you DO declare war that worker on the frontier can capture that enemy capital. :eek:

The AI finds an undefended worker totally irresistable... so much so they'll weaken the city to go chase him down. Position your worker so that no unit, not even a mounted unit, could nail it in one movement turn (remembering that they'll have a movement boost if there are AI roads down)

The AI is almost certain to send out something to chase your worker down. If it's a foot soldier just have your worker lead it on a merry chase around the world. If it's something faster move the worker under cover of defensive units. In the meantime tho the unit(s) sent out by the AI to chase your worker have just sealed the doom of the city they left :goodjob:

Ha, this kind of worker bait is present in civ 3, is that still applicable in civ 4? If true, emm ... :smoke:

Yup - still works. One of my early conquest games my Persian Immortals got to my third victim and discovered 4 archers, 1 spearman, and 3 axemen holding that capital. Eeek! So while I was waiting for more Immortals to arrive to make sure of the kill I had more workers than jobs for them to do (already killed two Civs off) and decided to road the invasion route with two workers.

As soon as the workers got within about 3 tiles of the city out popped all 3 Axemen. They chased those workers in circles for the next 3 or 4 turns until the capital fell and they *poofed* :lol:

Yes the Horse domination works...on a continants map with a few civs nearby. I tried it last night with Immortals. These guys are awesome BUT you must rush them out early before enemy civs get copper.
Immortals may not look very strong but they get bonusses against archers AND they can fortify. So if the enemy doesn't have copper they're screwed.

Immortals come early (animal husbandry?) so they're ideal for early rushes as they can hold on to cities as well.

One final note though. Don't get greedy and try to hold on to captured cities. Just take the capitol. I found out the hard way last night (on noble btw) and I quickly bankrupted my economy. And guard those workers building roads to enemy civs, nothing can piss you more off then watching barbs warp (they love to do that if you're at war) in and kill them.

Yes the Horse domination works...on a continants map with a few civs nearby. I tried it last night with Immortals. These guys are awesome BUT you must rush them out early before enemy civs get copper.
Immortals may not look very strong but they get bonusses against archers AND they can fortify. So if the enemy doesn't have copper they're screwed.

Immortals come early (animal husbandry?) so they're ideal for early rushes as they can hold on to cities as well.

One final note though. Don't get greedy and try to hold on to captured cities. Just take the capitol. I found out the hard way last night (on noble btw) and I quickly bankrupted my economy. And guard those workers building roads to enemy civs, nothing can piss you more off then watching barbs warp (they love to do that if you're at war) in and kill them.
I would say that it "WORKS BEST" before the enemy gets copper, but by no means is your rush over... In the (Prince Ice Age) game I'm STILL playing ( :goodjob: ), everyone's got Longbows, Swords, Axes, & Spears.... so I crank out Catapults (A side note---Siege in this game is VERY POWERFUL, but RATHER "EXPENSIVE" -- You MUST be prepared to sacrifice one catapult for every defender in a city...or you might as well not take the cities at all...)

Back on topic---sure, the enemy has bronze etc. etc. but if you can send in your cheap-cheap-cheap Chariots en masse, he'll be forced to abandon any dream of counter-attack and his economy will tank while the chariots wait for the catapults to weaken everyone in the city...

And, unless you're still in the INITIAL rush, there's no reason not to sign open borders with your next victim to scout out all his horses/iron/copper ...and something I found out doing just this: Park chariots on all the enemy camps/mines THEN declare war --- I don't know if it was a fluke or not, but my guys PILLAGED the improvements before they were banished from the territory!

To sum up:

Chariot/War Chariot/Immortal = 25 Hammers
Spearmen/Axemen (move of ONE) = 35 Hammers

Fill his territory with cheaper, faster units... choke his resources... wait for Catapults and final victory. (Or if you haven't gotten to catapults yet, just build a few axemen of your own to counter the spearmen/axemen still inthe cities)...



And on the "Raze don't Capture" front---I disagree, only so far as SOMETIMES the AI puts cities where you would put them... Bankrupt? Yeah, wait until Markets, Libraries, trade routes & resources kick in... I'm running 40% research, but I have so many cities (TWENTY) that are just on the early edge of booming that I'm only behind two or three techs from the AI with the next-most score...

This is almost what I do when I play Mongols/Egypt/Persia/Greece. Mongols are my favorites though for the no movement over terrain penalty (UU). Using the basic concept of sending my units out and denying any iron/copper mines has won me alot of games on monarch. I'm trying to get a cultural win on emperor, so I have not done the basic war approach on emperor yet.

This is almost what I do when I play Mongols/Egypt/Persia/Greece. Mongols are my favorites though for the no movement over terrain penalty (UU). Using the basic concept of sending my units out and denying any iron/copper mines has won me alot of games on monarch. I'm trying to get a cultural win on emperor, so I have not done the basic war approach on emperor yet.:eek: Woah, I did not realize that little tidbit...

On Emperor, the basic strategy should play out --- just bring overwhelming force before declaring war, as the AI's production bonus should start to bite back at you at this level---so make sure they can't spam Spearmen at you! :D

OK, edited the first post to add this:

Once your enemy has teched to Longbows, it's time to Strategically Withdraw. Even Combat 5-promoted chariots cannot stand up to the units that follow (Macemen, Pikemen especially)... It's not the Longbows specifically; it's just that the Longbows are harbingers of your impending technological inferiority.

Withdraw. Sue for Peace (if you must--yuck :lol: ). Consolidate your Empire. Build your infrastructure. Tech up. Prepare for future wars? :crazyeye:

Agreed, mujadaddy. Longbows approaching is a time to withdraw. Another thing to be afraid of is if catapults start popping out. That's when you need to start wrapping things up.

Most of the time, though, if you do a horse rush properly, you should be able to kill at least one civilization entirely well before the medieval era.

The ideal horse rush should cut off your opponent before they've hooked up copper -- even if that means slowing down your own expansion. It's worth it to take an enemy capitol.

Most of the time, though, if you do a horse rush properly, you should be able to kill at least one civilization entirely well before the medieval era. Medieval? You should have one BEFORE Classical and one or two DURING Classical :DThe ideal horse rush should cut off your opponent before they've hooked up copper -- even if that means slowing down your own expansion. It's worth it to take an enemy capitol. Yes, I believe I advocated doing the rush ASAP.... In the (Prince, Ice Age) game I just ran, the only reason I built Settlers is because I couldn't find my neighbors' borders until I'd popped out two more cities :lol: (BTW, entering the Medieval Era, I had built four and captured SIXTEEN cities :crazyeye: )

Have really enjoyed using this strategy playing on the Noble level. It keeps the game short and straighforward (usually only about 100 turns long finishing in BC or sometimes a bit longer in early AD). Have improved by sending out the first few chariots to as many civs as possible to “bash and dash”, stealing workers and pillaging improvements. They will create another worker so you get two workers per civ and that accelerates the snowball effect of this approach. Once the war machine starts rolling I’ve also been successful making demands for technology…I can usually get at least one per civ. Of coarse I’m not popular but I am surprised to usually find that after declaring a war, stealing a worker, destorying a couple of mines, a pasture and some roads then disappearing within 10-15 turns we’ve made peace…then a few turns later I demand a tech and after all of that they are sometimes just “Annoyed” with me. Another thing that I found to be really helpful is the Creative trait as conquered cities quickly expand to 10 and 100 with the free 2 culture points providing more lumber, better hammer production tiles and not to mention, score. It’s hard to replicate this expansion benefit without seriously getting off the pure military track with building an Oblisk (which is OK for the 10 milestone but won’t get you to the 100 threshold before the game is over) or maybe a Monistary if religon is present but it usually isn’t this early.

My question is...without the Creative trait and assuming you want to stay in a mad military rush mode as much as possible...what is the best strategy to give conquered cities enough culture growth to expand, preferably to the 100 mark in a reasonable timeframe (i.e., before the game is over in 100-150 turns)?

I've also toyed with a couple of other ideas but haven’t tried them yet such as (1) chop rush graneries in cities with 4 or more growth potential (to their pop ceiling). With Expansive and only 30 granery cost the granery seems to generate a significantly positive hammer return as long as there is 4 or more growth potential. A granery would also make pop rushing fairly lucurative. Also (2) I wonder if it would be possible to get a great artist early enough and without slowing down the war machine for a culture bomb. Getting to Drama may be possible without too much pain but money is tight with this strategy. Maybe one library and one theater can hash out one great scientist and one artist, then use the scientist to pop Music. Two well placed culture bombs could lead to a very early domination win without having to conquer the last civ…would be a big score boost too.

On the culture front, I would typically chop-rush the stonehenge wonder after I have three cities, it is quite handy since it acts as an oblisk in every one of your cities. Then I get every city to build two archers, then barracks, and start spamming swordsman/axeman if the enemies are close, or chariots if they are far away, and always remember to park an axeman on top of your strategic resources (i.e. iron, copper, horse) so they don't get pillaged.

Mutax2003

@Vizzini -- Nice! Worker-Bait :lol: ... I usually get the AI's capital SO CHOKED up with chariots that it ACTUALLY sends two archers and a settler out of the city to expand its economic future ... but all that does is take out two of his capital's defenders :lol: ...
LOL, I just saw this in a War Chariot rush I was inflicting upon Cathy. She pulled two garrison-promoted archers out of Moscow to escort a Settler right next to a stack of my Chariots. Truly a bad move, giving me a free worker and a much easier fight to take the city. But I think that this is actually an advantage (though perhaps a cheesy one) of the chariot rush - it's highly likely that an enemy capital will be producing a settler by the time your chariots reach it, and the AI's stupidity in escorting makes your conquest easier.

I really like your strategy- doesn't seem like your getting enough praise for your inventive and aggressive policy. it also seems like u know what ur talking about with this one- well done

if i was playing against you this would seriously mess me up!!:goodjob:

Started yesterday in an emperor game next to horses. Didn't have time to finish my game but it was total pwnage on my continent, wiped out the persians very quickly, then the greeks with more difficulties, they had a copper source next to their major town. And nearly finished with the spanish. After that I will have to build a fleet and conquer the next continent :).

I was playing the english which is not even the best civ for this.

The most important in this strat is to pillage the enemy resources as you want him to have mostly archers for defense.

There is a big advantage in declaring war on everyone early and catching their units 'on the move'. You get to kill unfortified archers, AND, you will see that the AI switch to building army units/settlers. I had games where it gets close to 1AD, and I'm the first one to FINALLY build stonehenge. So this solves the whole 'what if I don't have a creative leader problem'. Still priority is copper/iron. Denying that to the AI is sticking them to archers/longbowmen/catapults, until they hit gunpowder...which is a LOOONG time. Oh and a nice thing to do is to send in units and pillage ALL their city tiles, to make up the needed money to keep your crap economy going while it plays catchup to your conquest nature ;p. Make sure you leave his borders afterwards though, otherwise the comp won't rebuild to let you raze again :D.