I have a strategy to share that works particularly well with Alexander, or another philosophical leader, but also might be flexible enough to work with non-philosophical leaders including industrious leaders and more.
One of the best aspects about this strategy, is that since you go for capitulation, you don't have to waste your time completely eliminating neighbors. As a result, instead of focusing all your resources on finishing off one neighbor, you force capitulation and then send your remaining troops to a second or third pre-longbowman war. Plus, on top of that you end up with a lifetime vassal that can still get a pretty decent power ranking and that still likes you! Plus, you get the happiness vassal bonus early when it is still useful
Basically, this strategy relies on getting feudalism as early as possible and then forcing a neighbor to capitulate while they still have time to recover and become a contributing vassal. They key to doing this is bull-rushing your opponents capital and one other decent city. If the opponent is a non-warmonger civ, he will be very likely to capitulate while he still has two or three other cities that he can use to recover.
I found two ways to get feudalism very early. The first way is very reliable on monarch, the second way is very iffy.
1) Build the great wall ASAP. This is where the philosophical leader comes in. You want to get your great engineer right away, and particularly, before getting pottery. Get iron working out of the way, and avoid pottery to ensure that your great engineer can pop feudalism immediately after you research monarchy and writing. I suppose that if you are industrious you could build the pyramids instead of the great wall to get the great engineer, which may be better as this strategy has lots of synergy with the specialist economy.
2) This is the iffy way that I have only gotten to work on monarch once. Build the oracle and stop one turn before completion. Rush your butt off to research writing and monarchy, and on the next turn use the oracle to pop feudalism. One way to improve your chances is to almost build the stonehenge and then fail, which gives you gold so you can deficit research towards monarchy+writing. Unless you skip a bunch of key early techs such as animal husbandry, wheel, you are likely to get beat to the oracle. Skipping those early techs is inadvisable, because you need to be strong for your war.
This strategy works really well if you have a fast moving unique unit, which allows you to turn two or even three neighbors into vassals. Remember, good vassals are leaders that typically trade tech. The last thing you want is a vassal that researches the tech according to your instructions, and then refuses to trade with you even though he is pleased! You should find that your vassals really like you because you probably only declared war once and never raised their cities. As you enter your second or third war you will start getting lots of diplomatic bonuses with your decently strong first vassal.
One last note. Some of you might be thinking, cool, early longbowman war! Not exactly, I recommend preparing a swordsman/axeman/chariot army while you are still researching monarchy and/or writing. That way, you can actually start your war before you have feudalism and time the discovery of feudalism to coincide with the taking of their second city. That way, you still have time to go for a second or third vassal before the AI starts building the hated longbowman.
In summary, this isn't the best strategy by any means, but it is decently strong and lots of fun! The one weakness in the strategy, is delaying pottery
I love having vassals that can really contribute though, and with an SE economy its worth it if you ask me!
One of the best aspects about this strategy, is that since you go for capitulation, you don't have to waste your time completely eliminating neighbors. As a result, instead of focusing all your resources on finishing off one neighbor, you force capitulation and then send your remaining troops to a second or third pre-longbowman war. Plus, on top of that you end up with a lifetime vassal that can still get a pretty decent power ranking and that still likes you! Plus, you get the happiness vassal bonus early when it is still useful
Basically, this strategy relies on getting feudalism as early as possible and then forcing a neighbor to capitulate while they still have time to recover and become a contributing vassal. They key to doing this is bull-rushing your opponents capital and one other decent city. If the opponent is a non-warmonger civ, he will be very likely to capitulate while he still has two or three other cities that he can use to recover.
I found two ways to get feudalism very early. The first way is very reliable on monarch, the second way is very iffy.
1) Build the great wall ASAP. This is where the philosophical leader comes in. You want to get your great engineer right away, and particularly, before getting pottery. Get iron working out of the way, and avoid pottery to ensure that your great engineer can pop feudalism immediately after you research monarchy and writing. I suppose that if you are industrious you could build the pyramids instead of the great wall to get the great engineer, which may be better as this strategy has lots of synergy with the specialist economy.
2) This is the iffy way that I have only gotten to work on monarch once. Build the oracle and stop one turn before completion. Rush your butt off to research writing and monarchy, and on the next turn use the oracle to pop feudalism. One way to improve your chances is to almost build the stonehenge and then fail, which gives you gold so you can deficit research towards monarchy+writing. Unless you skip a bunch of key early techs such as animal husbandry, wheel, you are likely to get beat to the oracle. Skipping those early techs is inadvisable, because you need to be strong for your war.
This strategy works really well if you have a fast moving unique unit, which allows you to turn two or even three neighbors into vassals. Remember, good vassals are leaders that typically trade tech. The last thing you want is a vassal that researches the tech according to your instructions, and then refuses to trade with you even though he is pleased! You should find that your vassals really like you because you probably only declared war once and never raised their cities. As you enter your second or third war you will start getting lots of diplomatic bonuses with your decently strong first vassal.
One last note. Some of you might be thinking, cool, early longbowman war! Not exactly, I recommend preparing a swordsman/axeman/chariot army while you are still researching monarchy and/or writing. That way, you can actually start your war before you have feudalism and time the discovery of feudalism to coincide with the taking of their second city. That way, you still have time to go for a second or third vassal before the AI starts building the hated longbowman.
In summary, this isn't the best strategy by any means, but it is decently strong and lots of fun! The one weakness in the strategy, is delaying pottery
I love having vassals that can really contribute though, and with an SE economy its worth it if you ask me!
