Spearman Rush

Gooblah

Gooblah

Heh...
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
4,282
I tried this out this morning while playing as Charlemagne. On a small peninsula north of Aachen lied Willem van Orange of the Dutch. He built the Great Wall, and my second city was founded near a copper at the peninsula's isthmus, blocking him. He founded his third city, the Hague, 3 tiles away from my second. Now, said city was accompanied by an Archer, as well as a Chariot that was doing some scouting. Knowing the Chariot bonus vs Axes, I switched to full production of Spears and whipped 7 in 7 turns. (chopped as well). Discovered Iron Working, built two Swords, then DoWed. The Hague was a low hammer site, so I razed it. Got the "citizens fleeing and forming resistance" event, then captured the capital. Great city site: The Great Wall, 1 Sheep, 1 Horse, 2 Crabs, 1 Corn! Fortifed my Swords, captured a Worker, and went on to the second city. Okay. I killed two archers, but my Spears died when attacking a Guerilla II Warrior. I was mad, but captured the city.

Okay, so here's the final analysis: Spear rushes work when facing an opponent with horses and/or no metals. Otherwise, don't try em.
 
You know your Axes only get slaughtered by Chariots on the defensive right?

Next time, build a single Spearman and then only Axes for your stack, and you should see better results... :)
 
+100% doesn't mean its strength is 12, it essentially means enemy strength -100%. Its pretty complicated, but

Ex. 1: Landsneckt (6) vs Pikeman (6) on plains
Pikeman 6/(1 + 100%)= 3
So its 6 vs. 3

Ex. 2: Landsneckt (6) vs Pikeman in city with walls/castle/+60% culture
Pikeman 6*(50%+50%+60%-100%)=9.6
So its 6 vs. 9.6
 
Holkans are actually pretty god rush units. they don't need any copper, and they are immune to first strikes. Give them cover, and some cr promotions, and they can handle any archer.
 
The Holkans strong point is that you can use them before the enemy has any archers, just research hunting. 4 strength is no joke when you're up against warriors and culture gives only +20% if you attack early enough.
 
dragodon64 said:
The Holkans strong point is that you can use them before the enemy has any archers, just research hunting. 4 strength is no joke when you're up against warriors and culture gives only +20% if you attack early enough.
Click to expand...

Strangely, you also need Bronze Working to build holkans :)
 
dragodon64 said:
The Holkans strong point is that you can use them before the enemy has any archers, just research hunting. 4 strength is no joke when you're up against warriors and culture gives only +20% if you attack early enough.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, on Monarch and up, that doesn't work because the AI starts with Archers...
 
Spearman is a crap unit it is no worth but defending from mounted. You have to have only few of them in the game. But historically spearmen were more progressive than axemen because they could to fight in close ranks. as far as pikemen were much more better than any other type of meelee troops and were a core of late medieval and renaissanсe armies. and what about macemen unit - it is absolutely a nonsence.
 
Mattimeo said:
My Holkan rush begs to differ.
Click to expand...

Thanks at King Flevance for helping me in english :)

Well, I don't see why you would disagree; as the Civilopedia states, you need BW to build holkans. And just to be sure, I started a game as Pacal, teched to hunting, and has no possibility to build Holkans.
 
Being allowed to build any Strength >3 unit without having to hook up a resource or tech much of anything would be an extremely powerful ability, so I see why Pacal and his Holkan can't do that.
 
kazapp said:
You know your Axes only get slaughtered by Chariots on the defensive right?

Next time, build a single Spearman and then only Axes for your stack, and you should see better results... :)
Click to expand...

I usually build two spearmen to put in my axe/sword stack. If the AI attacks with horses, it will take twice as many. I generally promote them with healing since they hardly ever get attacked.
 
morchuflex said:
Huh? So does that mean enemy strength is zero? :confused:
Click to expand...

Nope; when the attacker has more bonuses than the defender, the defender strength is divided by 1+bonus, and the attacker's is unchanged.

So if a basic spearman attacks a basic chariot in basic circumstances, the spearman's strength remains 4, and the chariot's is 4/(1+100%) = 2.
 
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