Very early war and tanking economy

[Rub'Rum]

Yes, but at this point it's not really a "very early war" anymore, is it. Archers warriors and spearmen thus have no role except hunting barbs and being upgraded.

[Piousflea]

I've tried "zergling rush" wars (Ancient era units only) quite a bit, and their success rate depends a LOT on your race and ability to sell resources and rush buy units.

If you are really set on doing a zergling rush, you NEED to be a race with UU or early game economy bonuses. Attila is obviously the strongest, but Montezuma and Persia are not terrible, and Spain with lucky +gold bonus can buy a TON of units.

Then you need to spawn fairly close to +gold tiles. (Gold, Gems, that kind of thing) Unit maintainance costs are incredibly steep when you only have 1-2 cities, without +Gold tiles you are hosed.

Given the above, you can easily overrun a King or Emperor difficulty AI with a small handful of units. Immortal AIs have a nasty habit of rush-buying Walls as soon as you DoW them. Even with Attila there is no way you're taking down Walled cities (plus other defending units) with Ancient-era units.

[AdamGM]

Originally Posted by triheptyl

Since G&K I've noticed cities are much stronger now. I would't even dream of taking one without 3-4 melee units, 2-3 catapults, and then some archers to kill his army. I find now early wars are something you really have to prepare for, whereas it used to be "3 archers and a couple warriors? the continent is mine!"

Agreed. I haven't figured out how to do something like a cultural game for this reason, because when going for culture early means I'm about to get smashed into the ground.

[The Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Rub'Rum

Yes, but at this point it's not really a "very early war" anymore, is it. Archers warriors and spearmen thus have no role except hunting barbs and being upgraded.

You can easily rush with archers and warriors/spearman when conditions are right.
Meaning:
1. You have a decent bunch of easily acquired luxes, preferably Mining based and lots of trading partners to sell them to asap.
2. You have a decent production in capital.
3. Your target is close and his terrain favors you. Non hilly capital, enough tiles to place archers on and no obstacles on your way like marches, hills, forests etc...

If your map meets all conditions, you should be able to amass ~7 archers and a spearman (upgrade) or two warriors otherwise around turn 45. Attack and finish the war before turn 55. At 50 AI already has archers, so you'll lose units. If you see that this goal is not reachable, don't even try.
Exploration is everything in this scenario. Building order should be something like: scout, scout, worker, archers, if you go Tradition. Scout, scout, monument, worker, archers, if you go Liberty. In this case try to settle on top of the lux to save turns. You should be able to hard build 3-4 archers and rush buy the rest. After you've got all the archers, build settlers and infrastructure.
Research-wise obviously luxes techs first, Archery, Writing. Improve luxuries and sell them immediately (including unique ones).

One thing to take into consideration, on king AI doesn't have additional cities on turn 50, so you'll get a harsh diplo hit from everybody for wiping a civ out completely. And of course works best on pangaea or big continent with rich AI.

[Rub'Rum]

Originally Posted by The Pilgrim

One thing to take into consideration, on king AI doesn't have additional cities on turn 50, so you'll get a harsh diplo hit from everybody for wiping a civ out completely.

Even for civs that didn't even know I or the vanquished civ even existed?

[The Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Rub'Rum

Even for civs that didn't even know I or the vanquished civ even existed?

Not sure. Personally, I rarely play continents, and afaik there is still no consensus in this community.

[smallfish]

Originally Posted by The Pilgrim

Not sure. Personally, I rarely play continents, and afaik there is still no consensus in this community.

Somewhat. Civs on other continents, even when they are literally in the Medieval era and thus haven't met anyone else but you, will still know you are at war on your home continent.

The really big thing is "declaring war on your friends" - that really sticks with you wherever you go the entire game.

[Tabarnak]

Originally Posted by Rub'Rum

Even for civs that didn't even know I or the vanquished civ even existed?

It doesnt' apply if any other civ entered in contact haven't contacted the dead civ( i hope it makes some sense).

There was a few games in vanilla that related this diplo part.

Example :

You kill civ #1. Civ #1 entered in contact with civ #2 before dying. You then find civ #2 and immediately get a huge diplo hit.

If civ #2 doesn't find civ #1 before he dies you don't get any diplo hit. But, if civ #3 did find civ #1 and also find civ #2, i don't know if you also get a diplo hit with civ #2(he probably told him about what happened i dunno).