Anyone have rush tips?

Dominion is probably the way you want to go to win before 1000 AD. The other victory types are possible, but require a lot of micromanagement. Choose the Arabs or Aztecs, send out 1-2 warriors to collect gold, research Horseback Riding and build horse armies (rush them with gold because you'll get plenty more gold) until either you've won or you hit a wall you can't beat.

A lot of the time you can just win outright like this. If not, you just need to tech up to catapults or knights. Add a cruiser fleet if need be. To make sure you get there in time, just do some early expansion, like one settler out of each city. Then you could go to Republic and double again, which should put you in the 12-20 city range, which is plenty to have cruiser fleets before 1000 AD. Don't worry about improving your cities much. Just focus most of them on tech, then have 1-2 for production with a barracks.
 
Arabs worked well for me going for a domination victory. The +1 attack from Fundamentalism counts for a lot in the beginning, and free Mathematics gives you early Catapults to finish things off. I did the following:

Didn't build any warriors. Just set all the workers to science and researched Horseback Riding. When I got that, changed to production and build 3 Horsemen. Have the Horsemen scout the land and when you find an enemy capitol, bring them together, form an army and take it (except the Chinese and Greek, because their defences are better in the early game.)

After that, research cheap techs until you hit the Medieval period and get Mathematics for free. Then stop research completely, and switch all cities over to gold and hammers, building Catapults and some Archers here and there to defend the Catapult stack. Found a city close to the next enemy capital you want to take (and/or let your Horse army hang around that capital so it can take over a city that the AI founds), use the gold to buy roads between your cities and race your catapult army over. Rinse and repeat.

You only need one Barracks really because and Army will be Veteran as long as one of the three units is Veteran. While you're researching towards Mathematics you can build a few more Horsemen to scout out the rest of the land.
 
The Germans are good for a fast victory. Build a barracks in one city. The warriors built there will be born with elite upgrades. Keep each one separate and try to marry them to warriors from other cities. You can finish your armies after you get Iron working, since legions cost the same as warriors. Ignore all tech that is not on the path to Feudalism. Once you have 8-10 elite armies, accelerate your tech to Feudalism. All of your elite warrior/legion armies will now by elite knight armies. Now there are just three things left to do: Crush, kill & destroy. (two groups of 4-5 armies should do the job. You may need a few spies, especially if you are up against the Greeks (always have pikemen) or the English (nasty longbowmen are equal to pikemen).

The Americans are also good for this. Basically, you can horse-rush or not at your discretion. Either way, rush your tech up to Feudalism. Make sure you have a Barracks or two. A Great Leader cannot go wrong, either. Anyway, now you are just going to set all cities to gold production and use your almighty special ability to rush units for half cost to pump out some veteran knight armies. Now, as before, crush, kill, destroy.

Under any early conquest scenario, getting the Religion tech and entering Fundamentalism government never hurts.

These are pretty much all-or-nothing strategies, especially for the Americans. They are great if you just want early conquest. However, if you are playing a game of the week or whatever, be aware that failing to conquer with your Horses/Knights means you will not win the game at all, much less in impressive fashion.
 
I don't think it is much of a problem that we are discussing all-or-nothing strategies here, after all the question is how to get the win by 1000 AD on Kign achievement. The strategies don't even have to work in every game, as long as it only takes 2 or 3 tries to get the achievement.
 
Didn't build any warriors. Just set all the workers to science and researched Horseback Riding. When I got that, changed to production and build 3 Horsemen. Have the Horsemen scout the land and when you find an enemy capitol, bring them together, form an army and take it (except the Chinese and Greek, because their defences are better in the early game.)

I used to do this, but it's actually a bit faster to send out two warriors to pick up gold. If you research HBR first then you get your first horse out in 3000 BC. If you send two warriors first, then you finish researching in 3000 BC. It's possible you'll have 100 gold by then and can rush horses in 3000, 2900 and 2800, which is a good date to get your army together. If you are that fast, any nearby civ will fall, especially on king difficulty.

Also spending your first 5 turns researching can really get you dead fast if you're playing online. It's vitally important to get some units into the field to get the lay of the land and find out what's coming. 10 turns in and just one horseman will not do you much good if somebody's warrior army trundles up from the other direction.

The Germans are good for a fast victory.

The outlined strategy isn't particularly speedy compared to an Arab or Aztec horserush. I have conquered all capitals on deity level with the Aztecs in 20 turns (2000 BC) by getting a lot of fast gold, having all my enemies close to me, getting religion off the Arabs (this is very good as you note) and doing nothing but producing horsemen. German warrior upgrades will not be going off that quickly. With practice you'll have the dom victory before 1000 AD, but I think the Arab and Aztec strategies are easier. The German one is fun though. Can work well online too.

These are pretty much all-or-nothing strategies, especially for the Americans. They are great if you just want early conquest. However, if you are playing a game of the week or whatever, be aware that failing to conquer with your Horses/Knights means you will not win the game at all, much less in impressive fashion.

I don't really agree with that. The AI is massively dumb and will accept peace at times when it could just take you out. I mostly play online where the AI difficulty is the same as the King level AI. I can recall one game where the AI threatened war unless I gave it valuable knowledge of Pottery...and it was after 1000 AD! Another game I was way behind in tech and getting crushed by a player who had tanks and artillery, but then that player left the game (probably a disconnection) and the AI remained at war, but just couldn't do anything right. I was able to defend myself fine with a single catapult army against the AI's highly advanced weaponry.

The point is if you feel like trying to salvage a game after your rush has failed, it's probably doable. The main thing to go for is big expansion, especially to islands. The AI never builds enough cities.
 
Ya I looked at the strategies and I found that the Aztecs are really good for rushing and on my first try I almost got the achievment I just couldn't find the French.

Some maps aren't great for that achievement, like if one civ is tucked away on an island somewhere or worse, if you are. It's still doable, but it's going to be a lot harder. Most maps are decent for it though, so if you miss due to the sneaky French hiding on an island somewhere, just try again.
 
I used to do this, but it's actually a bit faster to send out two warriors to pick up gold. If you research HBR first then you get your first horse out in 3000 BC. If you send two warriors first, then you finish researching in 3000 BC. It's possible you'll have 100 gold by then and can rush horses in 3000, 2900 and 2800, which is a good date to get your army together. If you are that fast, any nearby civ will fall, especially on king difficulty.

Also spending your first 5 turns researching can really get you dead fast if you're playing online. It's vitally important to get some units into the field to get the lay of the land and find out what's coming. 10 turns in and just one horseman will not do you much good if somebody's warrior army trundles up from the other direction.



The outlined strategy isn't particularly speedy compared to an Arab or Aztec horserush. I have conquered all capitals on deity level with the Aztecs in 20 turns (2000 BC) by getting a lot of fast gold, having all my enemies close to me, getting religion off the Arabs (this is very good as you note) and doing nothing but producing horsemen. German warrior upgrades will not be going off that quickly. With practice you'll have the dom victory before 1000 AD, but I think the Arab and Aztec strategies are easier. The German one is fun though. Can work well online too.



I don't really agree with that. The AI is massively dumb and will accept peace at times when it could just take you out. I mostly play online where the AI difficulty is the same as the King level AI. I can recall one game where the AI threatened war unless I gave it valuable knowledge of Pottery...and it was after 1000 AD! Another game I was way behind in tech and getting crushed by a player who had tanks and artillery, but then that player left the game (probably a disconnection) and the AI remained at war, but just couldn't do anything right. I was able to defend myself fine with a single catapult army against the AI's highly advanced weaponry.

The point is if you feel like trying to salvage a game after your rush has failed, it's probably doable. The main thing to go for is big expansion, especially to islands. The AI never builds enough cities.

Again, we're not talking about general strategies, just about one to get a specific achievement, preferably one that is usable by the more casual player.
 
Again, we're not talking about general strategies, just about one to get a specific achievement, preferably one that is usable by the more casual player.

I know that. I still recommend two warriors (or just one if you're on a peninsula) to start. Most of the time the gold they pick up (or sometimes free tech) will help you get your horses out faster which leads to a more successful game. At worst, the map knowledge will keep you from wasting time sending your horses in the wrong direction.
 
Personally when I rush, it is with the aztecs germans or arabs.

with the aztecs you can rush out a warrior army, and start gaining combat promotions while you head outward. if you can get infiltrate it is worth it to attack the capitol. I've been able to hit before they get an army of archers up.. this results in their death usually.

if you have to stop and heal, it can get a lot tougher! try to have 2 armies when you hit the capitol for certain success

the germans have it good, but their upgrade to legions is a risky gamble. by the time you get iron working the AI (and certainly a real player) will have bronze working and an army of archers. def 12-15 is really hard to crack with just legions, even promoted ones.

with the arabs you just REX and gear up for catapults. hitting someone in the face with a couple armies of those tends to knock cities down. but be aware this is the slowest and least likely to work.

for the 1000 ad achievement, the advice here is good and it is easy to pull off w/ the right map

NaZ
 
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