Besides Huns, which civs are best for early rushing?

Athenaeum

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Would you put Germany in 2nd place?

Outside of Huns and Germany, and perhaps Spain and Shoshone, I'm not sure who else is extremely well-suited for early rushing.
 
I don't really think Germany has any special advantage with this kind of thing, other than being able to afford more units.

The Zulus get even more of a discount though.

I hate Assyria more than Attila. Attila seems to have a really narrow window to make trouble. When other civs start getting spearmen to attack his horse archers and those battering rams he has real trouble. Assyria can stay viable a lot longer. You might actually not want to upgrade on or two to trebuchets until cities can one shot them.
 
If you're just talking about executing an early rush, Egypt can do it pretty darned well too.

Also, HA are nasty. Move + shoot keeps spears off them.
 
It depends a little bit on what difficulty level you're on, as Classical Era units will have a very short window of effectiveness on Deity, for example.

Atlatists are another option, since they can be spammed very early without going to Archery.

Egypt, as previously mentioned.

On lower difficulty levels, civs like Greece shine better at early rushes.
 
All civs that have Chariot Archer UU are good, so Egypt and India.

Germany can get some military from barbs, but it is way too situational.
Maya and Babylon can also make some damage, but you need to move fast, and continue with CBs, and the CB rush is pretty hard with just a small window, so you need to eventually tech machinery and get XBs.

Arabia and Mongolia are also good, start building Chariot Archers pretty fast and then beeline chivalry. In the mean time chariot archers level up and when you hit chivalry it's pretty much game over.
 
What about 'em?

If you think there are so great for early rushes, maybe you could explain why?

The Bowmen are stronger than regular archers, if not as strong as composites.

He also might be referring to how quickly they can tech up to catapults. I imagine they can get to mathematics quicker than anyone else who doesn't get lucky with ruins.
 
Early rush is dependent on game settings. Quick speed games will make civs with strong medieval units like Mongolia and Arabia shine. Epic speed games will tend to favor earlier UU civs like Persia and the Aztecs. Babylon will shine in almost any settings because slower speeds will allow the Bowmen to be relevant longer while the UA to research faster will allow Babylon to keep up or surpass tech levels with any rivals.
 
I agree with Babylon. The Bowman is a very powerful unit; same defence strength as a Composite and a ranged attack of 9 (11 comp, 7 archer) for the same 40 hammer cost.

Their extra science UA means that you won't lose out if you beeline early military techs like horsemen/swordsmen to supplement the rush. Catapults are possible too but they're quite weak/must be set up and you're probably better off with bowmen.
 
I have a talented friend who tried Assyria for awhile and condemns them. I can kind of see why. Someone up there knocked Attila's battering ram and praised Assyria's siege tower, but really they have the same fatal flaw - put a scout in front of them and they can't attack a city. Of course the Siege Tower can still provide that siege bonus to the units around them, but it isn't too hard to neutralize their ability to attack a city directly.

I agree that Horse Archers are nasty and honestly they're probably more useful than the battering ram itself, although the two synergize well.

I could see Babylon being an early rusher with the Bowmen and early rush catapult and swordsmen. I play Babylon pretty often and their bowmen are so dang handy.
 
Sunbeam said:

I don't really think Germany has any special advantage with this kind of thing, other than being able to afford more units.

Really? They can bring barbarians to their side...I've early rushed with them many times and experienced a lot of success. You can amass a giant army really quickly right off the bat.
 
Really? They can bring barbarians to their side...I've early rushed with them many times and experienced a lot of success. You can amass a giant army really quickly right off the bat.

Yup. Plus you can cherry pick which barbarian unit you'd like to acquire by killing the unit spawned in the barbarian camp over & over until you get a unit type you want.
 
Yup. Plus you can cherry pick which barbarian unit you'd like to acquire by killing the unit spawned in the barbarian camp over & over until you get a unit type you want.

Please refresh me really quick...don't you have to kill the camp itself in order to obtain the unit inside? Or does it include any wandering barbarian that you kill?


But yeah, this is why I suggested Germany be in 2nd place for best early rusher in the OP.
 
As Assyria, 3-5 Composites and a Siege Tower or two is really all you need, just make sure to get to Mathematics and Construction and have your army ready before NC.

Babylon works nice as well, they get an early science boost with the free academy, just get Pottery, Archery, and then Writing and build up your army.
 
As Assyria, 3-5 Composites and a Siege Tower or two is really all you need, just make sure to get to Mathematics and Construction and have your army ready before NC.

Also, if one can keep their Siege Tower(s) alive long enough, they can make later assault-forces pretty stupid (such as parking a ST on top of a Frigate/Privateer...)
 
Please refresh me really quick...don't you have to kill the camp itself in order to obtain the unit inside? Or does it include any wandering barbarian that you kill?
Yes, you have to kill the camp to get the unit. But which unit you get is determined by the last unit to occupy the camp. So you can select which unit you get by killing the camp unit over & over with archers until you get a unit you want (I usually shoot for archers or axemen) and *then* you occupy the camp.
 
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