Take the Feudalism Pop Rush Challenge!

So yeah I hear there are some good players around, so Take the Feudalism Pop Rush Challenge!

In the attached mapfile from C3C, you will play as the Aztecs in 1275AD, and will have most of the population converted to scientists, researching metallurgy. Can you win this game or at least take over a large part of land?

I will share with you my plan, and it is to obtain the metallurgy technology, at which point the Portuguese will offer peace. I will convert the scientists to to taxmen, and will accept the peace and 200 of my gold coins in exchange for military tradition and whatever else they will give up. Then declare war right away.

The question is, pop rush cavalry right away from all of my cities, even the productive ones in the core? Or wait until the productive ones produce cavalry (all the core cities are already set at 6 with no food production), and then attack? The second question is, who to attack first, second and third? Thirdly, from whom to obtain the horses to create the cavalry, as perpetual war with Japan means that 2 civilizations will be asking for peace for me, which means double the technology?

This is quite a challenge indeed: 1285 AD and still Republic is not yet discovered. We have 6 medieval techs, while the AI is already halfway through the industrial age (Spain has Infantry => Replaceable Parts, Russia has metropolises > 12 => Sanitation, Carthage has a Fascist government).

DamImLookinGood said:

The question is, pop rush cavalry right away from all of my cities, even the productive ones in the core?

Click to expand...

There aren't any productive cities and no core... (Even the capital is making only 13spt. For me a "productive" city in 1285 AD would mean one that already has rails, a factory and a power plant and is making 40-50 spt.)
Not sure whether pop-rushing will solve this problem: soon you will suffer from severe pop-rush unhappiness, and also, if your Cavalry is up against Infantry, you will additionally suffer severe losses which means high War Weariness.

Did you really win that game using this plan?

Lanzelot said:

This is quite a challenge indeed: 1285 AD and still Republic is not yet discovered.

Click to expand...

Who needs the Republic in the Feudalism Challenge? I think the government choice may be an intentional part of the challenge.

But I agree that it looks like quite the uphill battle. Beyond the fact that Deity is above my difficulty level, I don't see many promising situations. We have mediocre at best infrastructure, a noteworthy tech deficit, are last in essentially every demographic category, and don't have a very good military. The lack of horses is a particular problem, as it means that the military is primarily Pikemen and Warriors. If there were a lot of Knights to upgrade to Cavalry, I'd have a better feeling about the likelihood of that strategy.

On the plus side, the 46 workers ought to be able to improve the infrastructure at a decent rate.

I'm curious to see what the Deity-level players can pull off with this one. It certainly looks challenging to me.