First, has anyone done an article on the Quechua Rush? Because if so, I'd really like to see it.
Next, some thoughts on Huayna Capac and the Quechua Rush.
HC lends himself to what I call the Two Capital Strategy. It's simple enough... you take someone else's capital away, and then you have two. The key to this strategy is your wonderful UU, the Quechua.
What to do. You locate your neighbors, pick one, and kill him.
Who to kill. Often you won't have a choice... you'll have only one neighbor, or anyone only one who's close enough to be a plausible victim. Still, if you do have a choice, here are some things to consider
Who not to kill. Anyone with an early UU that can ruin your day. In particular, Mansa Musa and Sitting Bull should be avoided. Montezuma is a borderline case -- the Jaguar needs no resources, but it takes a while for him to get Iron Working. On the plus side, he often founds a religion. If you're going after Monty, be prepared to chop and whip to build your army faster.
Early teching. HC starts with Meditation and Agriculture, so you have a shot at an early religion. Think carefully, though... do you have a couple of farm resources in the BFC? Or do you have resources that need other techs to develop (mines, animals, etc.)? If the first, go for a religion. If not, maybe you should concentrate on worker techs, and hope to snag a religion later.
Whether you get the religion or not, go for worker techs thereafter. Make Animal Husbandry and Bronze Working early priorities so that you can see where the Horses and Copper are. If you have Horses nearby, hook them up. If not, consider researching Archery -- it's not bad to have a non-Quechua unit or two in your army.
(Note: if you have Copper nearby, DO NOT hook it up yet! Once you have Copper online, you can no longer build Quechuas.)
Early builds. Good players disagree about what's better -- build a unit or two until your city grows to Size 2, then a Worker, or just build the Worker first. Do whatever seems best for you. But then build a Barracks, and then build Quechua-Quechua-Quechua-Quechua. This will go faster than you might think, because your city will be growing all the while.
Do not even think about building Wonders; this strategy sacrifices them. (What's better, killing an early rival and having two capitals, or Stonehenge?) If you're lucky you might get a wonder that someone else has built, but don't count on it.
Do not build Settlers. You're going to take someone else's cities, not waste hammers building them yourself.
Do chop and whip. One chop or one whip = 2 Quechuas. With chopping and whipping you can build an army very quickly.
Once you have your strike force, you can consider chopping or whipping a Granary... sorry, a Terrace. But build your army first.
When to attack. When you have enough Quechuas (see below).
If you can sharpen your claws and pick up some xps fighting barbarians, do so. Have a Quechua or two out patrolling, so you have a good picture of the neighborhood. Watch for civs getting ready to hook up copper or horses -- Axes and Chariots mean the end of the Quechua Age.
You may be tempted to snag a Worker, since a Quechua can resist counterattack from an Archer. If you do this, do it from a distant civ that's not your primary target. You don't want to alert your target. An AI civ that's at peace will build Workers and Settlers to create new cities... more targets for you... and might even build a Wonder. An AI civ that's at war will build no Wonders and might build a Wall. You don't want the Wall. You want to hit the AI fast and by surprise, thanks.
How many Quechuas? Here's a rough and ready calculation.
Have twice as many Quechuas as there are Archers in the enemy city. For every City Garrison archer, add another Quechua. If the city has 40% culture, add another Quechua. If it has 60% culture, add yet another Quechua. If it's on a hill, add another Quechua. If it has 60% culture and is also on a hill, add yet another Quechua.
So, a barbarian city with 2 archers = 4 Quechuas. An enemy plains capital with 60% culture and three archers, one of whom is CG1 = 9 Quechuas.
If you don't know how many Archers there will be, guess. The AI rarely keeps more than four in a city early in the game, though, even in a capital.
Expect to lose at least half your Quechuas in every assault, and don't forget garrison units. So if you're going to attack the barb city before the enemy capital, you'll need to build 12 Quechuas (lose 2, keep 1 for garrison, leaves 9). Assaults on hills, holy cities, capitals and Protective opponents can be very bloody indeed; it wouldn't be unusual to hit an enemy capital with 10 Quechuas and have just one or two survive. Do not be alarmed by attack percentages in the low single digits... Quechuas are cheap, and if your first attack injures the defender, you're doing fine.
How to attack. Move your stack as close as possible and then declare war. (This is especially true in BtS, where the AI may whip extra defenders in a hurry if threatened.) Strike for the capital first if you can; pick off satellite cities later.
Watch your back -- there's nothing more frustrating than taking Berlin, only to have Cyrus declare war on you two turns later with a couple of Immortals.
What next? If you've done your rush quickly and everything has gone well, there's a chance you might be able to kill a second neighbor the same way. But don't count on it, and don't worry if you can't. You now have two capitals, plus maybe another city or two that the AI settled, plus perhaps a barb city. You also have about twice as much elbow room as any AI.
In the short run, army support + city maintenance costs will crash your economy. That's okay. You're Financial; start spamming cottages. Beeline for Alphabet and then Code of Laws. Your economy will recover.
Militarily, it's time to hook up the Copper or Iron and build a defense force -- the Age of the Quechua will be ending, and you'll need something better to hold on to your new empire.
Thoughts?
Waldo
Next, some thoughts on Huayna Capac and the Quechua Rush.
HC lends himself to what I call the Two Capital Strategy. It's simple enough... you take someone else's capital away, and then you have two. The key to this strategy is your wonderful UU, the Quechua.
What to do. You locate your neighbors, pick one, and kill him.
Who to kill. Often you won't have a choice... you'll have only one neighbor, or anyone only one who's close enough to be a plausible victim. Still, if you do have a choice, here are some things to consider
- Does your neighbor have a good capital location? Capitals are usually in good spots, but some are better than others.
- Is your neighbor a long-term threat? Well, all neighbors are, but some are more than others. Attack Montezuma or Shaka before Roosevelt or Gandhi.
- Does your neighbor have a religion? Holy cities are harder to capture, but not that much harder, and they're worth much more.
- Is your neighbor Industrious? An Industrious civ is likely to build an early Wonder, or try to. At a minimum, he'll burn hammers building the Wonder instead of building units or a Wall. If all goes well, he'll finish the Wonder, and then you can take it.
- Civs with Stone in the BFC. Yes, this will tempt them to build an early Wonder, but it also means they'll be able to build or whip a fast Wall.
- Protective Civs. Not only do they get defensive bonuses, but their Walls are cheap. If your only close neighbor is Protective, you may want to give up on the Quechua Rush.
- Capital cities on hills. Not a deal-breaker, but it's going to cost you.
Who not to kill. Anyone with an early UU that can ruin your day. In particular, Mansa Musa and Sitting Bull should be avoided. Montezuma is a borderline case -- the Jaguar needs no resources, but it takes a while for him to get Iron Working. On the plus side, he often founds a religion. If you're going after Monty, be prepared to chop and whip to build your army faster.
Early teching. HC starts with Meditation and Agriculture, so you have a shot at an early religion. Think carefully, though... do you have a couple of farm resources in the BFC? Or do you have resources that need other techs to develop (mines, animals, etc.)? If the first, go for a religion. If not, maybe you should concentrate on worker techs, and hope to snag a religion later.
Whether you get the religion or not, go for worker techs thereafter. Make Animal Husbandry and Bronze Working early priorities so that you can see where the Horses and Copper are. If you have Horses nearby, hook them up. If not, consider researching Archery -- it's not bad to have a non-Quechua unit or two in your army.
(Note: if you have Copper nearby, DO NOT hook it up yet! Once you have Copper online, you can no longer build Quechuas.)
Early builds. Good players disagree about what's better -- build a unit or two until your city grows to Size 2, then a Worker, or just build the Worker first. Do whatever seems best for you. But then build a Barracks, and then build Quechua-Quechua-Quechua-Quechua. This will go faster than you might think, because your city will be growing all the while.
Do not even think about building Wonders; this strategy sacrifices them. (What's better, killing an early rival and having two capitals, or Stonehenge?) If you're lucky you might get a wonder that someone else has built, but don't count on it.
Do not build Settlers. You're going to take someone else's cities, not waste hammers building them yourself.
Do chop and whip. One chop or one whip = 2 Quechuas. With chopping and whipping you can build an army very quickly.
Once you have your strike force, you can consider chopping or whipping a Granary... sorry, a Terrace. But build your army first.
When to attack. When you have enough Quechuas (see below).
If you can sharpen your claws and pick up some xps fighting barbarians, do so. Have a Quechua or two out patrolling, so you have a good picture of the neighborhood. Watch for civs getting ready to hook up copper or horses -- Axes and Chariots mean the end of the Quechua Age.
You may be tempted to snag a Worker, since a Quechua can resist counterattack from an Archer. If you do this, do it from a distant civ that's not your primary target. You don't want to alert your target. An AI civ that's at peace will build Workers and Settlers to create new cities... more targets for you... and might even build a Wonder. An AI civ that's at war will build no Wonders and might build a Wall. You don't want the Wall. You want to hit the AI fast and by surprise, thanks.
How many Quechuas? Here's a rough and ready calculation.
Have twice as many Quechuas as there are Archers in the enemy city. For every City Garrison archer, add another Quechua. If the city has 40% culture, add another Quechua. If it has 60% culture, add yet another Quechua. If it's on a hill, add another Quechua. If it has 60% culture and is also on a hill, add yet another Quechua.
So, a barbarian city with 2 archers = 4 Quechuas. An enemy plains capital with 60% culture and three archers, one of whom is CG1 = 9 Quechuas.
If you don't know how many Archers there will be, guess. The AI rarely keeps more than four in a city early in the game, though, even in a capital.
Expect to lose at least half your Quechuas in every assault, and don't forget garrison units. So if you're going to attack the barb city before the enemy capital, you'll need to build 12 Quechuas (lose 2, keep 1 for garrison, leaves 9). Assaults on hills, holy cities, capitals and Protective opponents can be very bloody indeed; it wouldn't be unusual to hit an enemy capital with 10 Quechuas and have just one or two survive. Do not be alarmed by attack percentages in the low single digits... Quechuas are cheap, and if your first attack injures the defender, you're doing fine.
How to attack. Move your stack as close as possible and then declare war. (This is especially true in BtS, where the AI may whip extra defenders in a hurry if threatened.) Strike for the capital first if you can; pick off satellite cities later.
Watch your back -- there's nothing more frustrating than taking Berlin, only to have Cyrus declare war on you two turns later with a couple of Immortals.
What next? If you've done your rush quickly and everything has gone well, there's a chance you might be able to kill a second neighbor the same way. But don't count on it, and don't worry if you can't. You now have two capitals, plus maybe another city or two that the AI settled, plus perhaps a barb city. You also have about twice as much elbow room as any AI.
In the short run, army support + city maintenance costs will crash your economy. That's okay. You're Financial; start spamming cottages. Beeline for Alphabet and then Code of Laws. Your economy will recover.
Militarily, it's time to hook up the Copper or Iron and build a defense force -- the Age of the Quechua will be ending, and you'll need something better to hold on to your new empire.
Thoughts?
Waldo
No need for barracks since you can level quechas from fighting barbs/rival civ archers. (this is actually easier on diety/immortal since the AI's will have workers sooner)
from scratch. And send them around scouting, there is no point this early to deploy Q as a SoD. Sneak until you see archers out of a city escorting workers or settlers(The BTS AI proudly sacrifices archers on worker protection duties
).
