Creating an Invincible Army

I found this awesome military strategy and thought I'd share it. Make Alhambra your highest-priority wonder, and also make sure to grab Brandenburg gate. If you can grab Statue of Zeus, all the better. Construct all of these in your capital. Finally, build all three XP buildings (Barracks, Armory, Military Academy) in your capital.

Once you've constructed Brandenburg Gate, your capital can churn out virtually-invincible melee units. Each melee unit trained in the capital gets FIVE promotions upon being produced (with one promotion being Drill I). I've found an incredible combination is Drill I/Drill II/Drill III/Blitz/Charge. With this combination, every single melee unit can attack twice, has a 45% bonus in rough terrain, and has 33% extra strength against wounded units.

When I managed to do all these things, I ran over every single opponent (playing on King). Obviously, there are a few flaws, like the possibility that you're playing on a flat map or that you didn't manage to get a high-production capital, but for the most part, all capital-trained melee units are pretty much invincible.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that finishing off Autocracy is really helpful, too. It can serve as a substitute for Brandenburg Gate.

What do you guys think? Am I missing something, or is this a really great strategy in general for games with your goal being a Domination victory?

There is a significant weakness in this strat.
You have to get Alhambra, and the Brandenburg gate. This can be difficult on higher difficulties.

Nyanko said:

There is a significant weakness in this strat.
You have to get Alhambra, and the Brandenburg gate. This can be difficult on higher difficulties.

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Does the AI really beeline them? As I said, I only play on King (although I'll probably move up next game). As long as you can snag Alhambra, all of your capital-trained melee units still get five promotions.

Alhambra is a high priority of the ai because it is such a great wonder, brandenburg gate is less prioritised so you could get away with building it.

animalguy said:

Alhambra is a high priority of the ai because it is such a great wonder, brandenburg gate is less prioritised so you could get away with building it.

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What difficulty do you play on?

Also, I just realized that combined with Caroleans or Hussars, this strategy would be CRAZY powerful (provided you can snag Alhambra).

Since Alhambra has +20% culture too, I saw Ghandi's building that many times.
And yes, It's not easy to build.

Charge? March is a far better promotion, keeping the speed of the conquest going.

pretty imposible on deity, hard on immortal. Rest levels you could just outtech ai and attack with arties and ranged instead of going special melee .. i agree its fun enough but many people do play above emperor, and strategy is ok on lower difficulties to have fun.
In hi diff usually u need to keep up with tech and repell ai attacks so normally u wont have much time to build those 2 wonders + 3 xp buildings

In my experience Alhambra is one of the wonders the AI won't put off and let you build - Temple of Artemis is now also an AI priority and hard to get unless you beeline or play at a low difficulty. Though it is far enough down the tech tree that you could beeline it on higher difficulties to give yourself a fair chance but that means leaving yourself exposed.

If you have the Great Wall and are playing on a water heavy map like Continents or Fractal, just ditch going for Dynamite and head for Battleships, Bombers and Rocketry. Keep delaying artillery for as long as you need to smash everyone else through GW.

DavidCAD said:

In my experience Alhambra is one of the wonders the AI won't put off and let you build - Temple of Artemis is now also an AI priority and hard to get unless you beeline or play at a low difficulty. Though it is far enough down the tech tree that you could beeline it on higher difficulties to give yourself a fair chance but that means leaving yourself exposed.

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On Immortal, you can get ToA by going straight to archery and build a worker first. Then mining for fast chops and mines. On a good start, you can finish it around turn 30-34 which is usually fast enough.

I only managed to get Alhambra once and it was quite disappointing. I was going for culture but the wonder didn't seem to help a lot, especially because you have to delay universities and opera houses in order to get it.

And in general, I prefer flat terrain and cover promotions on most of my melee units, at least for offensive wars.

RealHuhn said:

... especially because you have to delay universities and opera houses in order to get it.

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This.

BGate is easier, but even the player doesn't prioritize it during the era it can be constructed.

I usually use BBGate and all 3xp building so eventually my aircraft has Air Repair and my ships if possible, has +1 range/repair the moment they spawn out of town. It's particularly more useful for ranged units because you can get March much faster than their melee equivalent.

Aaron90495 said:

What difficulty do you play on?

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On immortal it is usually gone before I have the required tech. (alhambra)

animalguy said:

Alhambra is a high priority of the ai because it is such a great wonder, brandenburg gate is less prioritised so you could get away with building it.

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This really depends - I mean, on hiatus Immortal game as Huns, Brandenburg Gate got built by Sejong long ago... but Sydney Opera House and that New Castle Wonder are still buildable (built the latter, but not SOH yet).

I guess the constant is New Castle Wonder - AIs love building Machu Picchu, but not it...

Erneiz Hyde said:

I usually use BBGate and all 3xp building so eventually my aircraft has Air Repair and my ships if possible, has +1 range/repair the moment they spawn out of town. It's particularly more useful for ranged units because you can get March much faster than their melee equivalent.

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This. If you're going to build Brandenburg Gate, you want it in a coastal city (except maybe on pangea maps).

I'm not a big fan of March. Isn't just 5 HP a turn healed a bit underwhelming?

Do this as the Inca! Never leave the mountains, travel at double-speed, and kick it with +45% in rough terrain (plus defensive bonuses when applicable). However, I share the view that getting Alhambra is challenging.

Aaron90495 said:

I'm not a big fan of March. Isn't just 5 HP a turn healed a bit underwhelming?

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March means normal healing, even if your unit performed an action. Outside your borders it is 10HP, inside it is 20. Inside a city is 25HP, and with a medic nearby it is 5HP more then normal. And Defender of the Faith means 50HP adjacent to a city. That 50HP every turn, is a great way to defend at Deity as I've experienced.

It is most of the time more powerful and useful than Blitz.