Arabs Strategy

[MorteEterna]

Let's talk about their bonuses:

Start with Religion
Ancient: +50% gold from caravans
Medieval: Free Mathematics
Industrial: +1 attack for horsemen/knights
Modern: 2% gold intereset.

They got good bonuses, +1 culture per city (from religion), and fundamentalism. That's great to rush any civilization. The +50% gold from caravans doesn't work, really bad. Free Mathematics is great to get galleons easy or other technologies. You got 2 techs for free, and you only have to research the first 4 to reach medieval era.
The industrial era is great, too, if you want to use knights. Combined with fundamentalism and a barracks, knights would be really hard to beat.
2% interest is not bad.

Start producing 2 warriors working on two trees. Don't move your settler, that's too risky and you already got 2 water tiles, 2 grasslands and 2 trees. Use that first warrior to explore and build 2 more, and keep working on trees. By now you should have a veteran warrior that. Move the other two warriors if possible to build the army and search a neaghbour. Attack him, and don't heal if you know you won't need, but you should at least have 4,5 to kill them. Set up workers on two grasslands and if you got 100 gold, move the settler in a good position, with at least 2 grasslands and 1 tree, plus 2 water tiles. If you haven't got it, after you reach 3 population, set 2 workers on trees and one in a grassland, and build a settler. In 5 turns you are getting it and you can do the same. By doing this you would have 2 population instead of 1.

So continue with the warrior army that should be like elite if you killed some units. Build an army of horsemen if you want, use barbs to get the veteran upgrade and it has got 13.5 (18 if you attack from a hill). So you can start to dominate your enemies. If you can see techers in the game, press them as fast as you can, and with everything you can use. If you got enough cities and you don't need fundamentalism anymore, than you can build libraries and switch to despotism, but fundamentalism plus many cities is still good. Archers can counter attack units like horsemen also. With arabs you should usually get a great humanitarian or a great artist, that should happen 75% of the times or more, at least it does on me. Use the humanitarian to get +1 population or the artist to defend against rushers. If you don't need defence, then you can flip a city, but remember, look at the flag, and if you see it is really huge, it means the enemy has got a lot of units (it's sure), and flipping it would be a good idea. Remember also, flipping a city you get the best unit in it, nothing else.

Never stop expanding, keep building cities, and if the enemy could defend, you can still use catapults or knights to finish him. Don't let your enemy expand and reach modern era, you can still do a lot of things, but you would lose many of your advantages here.

I will improve it soon, it's too old and it's about their advantages and what to do until industrial at least

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

I like to use the first settler I make(or get from 100 gold) a science/gold city, and the second near an enemy, close to my enemy.

That way you can abuse the Arabs quick catapults + fundamentalism by rushing cats close to their homes
That's why the Arabs get +50 gold from caravans I think (you get a few caravans from barbs if you deliver them to someone else fast).
-Now you can say that bringing in those caravans is bad, because you give your enemies gold, but they can only make archers!
You on the other hand will have good catapults smashing their puny defences.

A great way to rush in both ancient and medieval eras : use Arabs

 

[MorteEterna]

I like to use the first settler I make(or get from 100 gold) a science/gold city, and the second near an enemy, close to my enemy.

That way you can abuse the Arabs quick catapults + fundamentalism by rushing cats close to their homes
That's why the Arabs get +50 gold from caravans I think (you get a few caravans from barbs if you deliver them to someone else fast).
-Now you can say that bringing in those caravans is bad, because you give your enemies gold, but they can only make archers!
You on the other hand will have good catapults smashing their puny defences.

A great way to rush in both ancient and medieval eras : use Arabs

Uhm, maybe you can't realize that Arabs don't even get the 50% gold bonus from caravans..

 

[Kadazzle]

They do for the Caravans you create in your cities, don't they? I know you don't get the bonus from barbarian caravans, but I'm fairly certain you get the bonus if you create it in your own city.

 

[MorteEterna]

They do for the Caravans you create in your cities, don't they? I know you don't get the bonus from barbarian caravans, but I'm fairly certain you get the bonus if you create it in your own city.

No, you don't get the bonus, period. I have tried it a lot of times. If you want to know I have played more than 500 games with arabs and I could never see the 50% bonus.. Then they got only 4 bonuses, 1 pretty useless (2% interest in modern)

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

You use the barb villages to get to 250 gold fairly quickly.

The point is: get 250 gold ; currency, make caravans to convert hammers into more gold, and rush rush rush!

 

[MorteEterna]

You use the barb villages to get to 250 gold fairly quickly.

The point is: get 250 gold ; currency, make caravans to convert hammers into more gold, and rush rush rush!

Uhm, maybe you don't understand that it's a waste of time, simple because if the other is in medieval you get 75 and he gets 25, while if you convert hammers you spent 90. - 15 for you and +25 for the enemy. Then, that's not a good point. Why getting 250 gold and not using it ? Bad idea

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

Just a suggestion...but should you get a quick 7 cities of gold....I bet you'll at least try...

Anyways, it worked well offline (deity)


And this has just come in : I'm ranking 6th on GOTW deity econ win
-First playthrough on this map lolz
And not even taken cities from the ai lolz

 

[MorteEterna]

Just a suggestion...but should you get a quick 7 cities of gold....I bet you'll at least try...

Anyways, it worked well offline (deity)


And this has just come in : I'm ranking 6th on GOTW deity econ win
-First playthrough on this map lolz
And not even taken cities from the ai lolz

And, what does that mean? Being good at the Game of The Week doesn't mean you automatically know how to play the game well. It just means you know how to play the game and can use some tricks to beat it. It doesn't work, if you get 75 gold and others are in medieval that's normal

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

Hey, GOTW was just a laugh
-I normally never play it, but I was waiting for some friends to play with....so I played the GOTW.


Now back to the point of Arab strategies....how can you make full use of the caravan gold bonus

(aside from caravan-spamming Econ win tactics, which I have used online; Modern Era, Island city of your ever so weak ai neighbour whom you have given some techs and gold to let him defend against the other players for a while and be at peace with you, and bring in the caravan-filled boats!
-Guaranteed to put a smile on your face when you go from 1/8 of your econ victory to 8/8 in just a couple of turns )

Now I think we all know that Arab catapults can be a pain in your hiney when they have quick armies (12 attack + 3 from fundamentalism = better have some fortified archers/pikemen!)
BUT if Arab has won some fights with their catapults....(12+3) + 50% = 15+7.5(50% of total)=22.5! (for at 'worst' 12+6(50%)+3(fundamentalism)=21, but that beats archer armies!
-----Does fundamentalism add with the normal to gain more from the 50% veteran bonus? I didn't get that much sleep to have a clear mind atm

Archer army = 6 + 3(veteran) + 6 (fortified) = 15 defence

and should they have pikes (or be English)... = 9 + 4.5(veteran) + 9 = 22.5

Knowing that, you should just get yourselves a spy each city (yay for spies ) and your on a roll.


Worked great offline (saved 2 spies from huts, so had a small advantage), but can't wait to see it finish off others online




Morte, please confirm/improve this!

 

[MorteEterna]

Hey, GOTW was just a laugh
-I normally never play it, but I was waiting for some friends to play with....so I played the GOTW.


Now back to the point of Arab strategies....how can you make full use of the caravan gold bonus

(aside from caravan-spamming Econ win tactics, which I have used online; Modern Era, Island city of your ever so weak ai neighbour whom you have given some techs and gold to let him defend against the other players for a while and be at peace with you, and bring in the caravan-filled boats!
-Guaranteed to put a smile on your face when you go from 1/8 of your econ victory to 8/8 in just a couple of turns )

Now I think we all know that Arab catapults can be a pain in your hiney when they have quick armies (12 attack + 3 from fundamentalism = better have some fortified archers/pikemen!)
BUT if Arab has won some fights with their catapults....(12+3) + 50% = 15+7.5(50% of total)=22.5! (for at 'worst' 12+6(50%)+3(fundamentalism)=21, but that beats archer armies!
-----Does fundamentalism add with the normal to gain more from the 50% veteran bonus? I didn't get that much sleep to have a clear mind atm

Archer army = 6 + 3(veteran) + 6 (fortified) = 15 defence

and should they have pikes (or be English)... = 9 + 4.5(veteran) + 9 = 22.5

Knowing that, you should just get yourselves a spy each city (yay for spies ) and your on a roll.


Worked great offline (saved 2 spies from huts, so had a small advantage), but can't wait to see it finish off others online




Morte, please confirm/improve this!

I confirm that the caravan bonus doesn't work and it's just like not researching mass production with english because you think they get half price riflemen

Fundamentalism is added to the base attack

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

....It says the Arabs get the bonus from caravans, but the English don't get half priced rifles.


yay for fundamentalism and veteran

C'mon Morte, more strategies!
-What to do with all the bonusses?
-> +1horseman/knight attack + fundamentalism + veteran = great attacks

horseman : (2+1+1)+2 = 6 for 1 unit at the cost of 20 hammers but it's industrial age for the +1horse attack, so you prob won't have horses anymore, but knights.

knight : (4+1+1)+3 = 9 for 1 unit at the cost of 25 hammers -> 100(?) gold for 1 knight
-army = 27 attack for 75 hammers...but you won't need a hill or infiltration to beat those pointy pikes!

Morte, does the +50% gold from caravans work from the ones you make yourself?
-I think it does, and seeing that you have mathematics after only 5 techs enables you to get a quick navigation, and thus enables you to send early caravans oversea with a for that early time huge income.

In the medieval age it costs 60 gold to rush-buy a caravan, so assuming you can get at least 75 gold out of it....I'd say pump out some settlers and rush-buy yourselves some gold

Industrial it suddenly becomes 120 gold for a caravan, so the income may slow down, unless someone is really far away from you/on an island.

Also it is best to make caravan trains to decrease the income your adversary gets....and be sure to send in some spies to take back that gold as well (again, yay for spies!)

Now if you are doing all this, and your in the medieval era, you can try something...
-settler on a 1-tile island (doesn't even need bonus resourses) and just rush yourselves a harbor for 300 gold, Colossus for 600 gold, ...

Since your gaining huge piles of gold, you can basically just be lazy and never go offensive (and I know you want to react on this Morte, but first read on).
Just rush-buy all the units you need!

you can have your cities have nothing but food for example, just grow and buy settlers, make a new city, buy defenses, grow whilst rushing caravans, ...

Just be sure to have at least one science city



.....off to play with the Arabs

 

[MorteEterna]

....It says the Arabs get the bonus from caravans, but the English don't get half priced rifles.


yay for fundamentalism and veteran

C'mon Morte, more strategies!
-What to do with all the bonusses?
-> +1horseman/knight attack + fundamentalism + veteran = great attacks

horseman : (2+1+1)+2 = 6 for 1 unit at the cost of 20 hammers but it's industrial age for the +1horse attack, so you prob won't have horses anymore, but knights.

knight : (4+1+1)+3 = 9 for 1 unit at the cost of 25 hammers -> 100(?) gold for 1 knight
-army = 27 attack for 75 hammers...but you won't need a hill or infiltration to beat those pointy pikes!

Morte, does the +50% gold from caravans work from the ones you make yourself?
-I think it does, and seeing that you have mathematics after only 5 techs enables you to get a quick navigation, and thus enables you to send early caravans oversea with a for that early time huge income.

In the medieval age it costs 60 gold to rush-buy a caravan, so assuming you can get at least 75 gold out of it....I'd say pump out some settlers and rush-buy yourselves some gold

Industrial it suddenly becomes 120 gold for a caravan, so the income may slow down, unless someone is really far away from you/on an island.

Also it is best to make caravan trains to decrease the income your adversary gets....and be sure to send in some spies to take back that gold as well (again, yay for spies!)

Now if you are doing all this, and your in the medieval era, you can try something...
-settler on a 1-tile island (doesn't even need bonus resourses) and just rush yourselves a harbor for 300 gold, Colossus for 600 gold, ...

Since your gaining huge piles of gold, you can basically just be lazy and never go offensive (and I know you want to react on this Morte, but first read on).
Just rush-buy all the units you need!

you can have your cities have nothing but food for example, just grow and buy settlers, make a new city, buy defenses, grow whilst rushing caravans, ...

Just be sure to have at least one science city


.....off to play with the Arabs

You fail in a lot of points, and if you would read my posts, I wouldn't take it so "aggressive".

Arabs DON'T get the caran bonus. NO CIVS can rush a caravan. You CAN'T rush a caravan. The gold you get depens on the ENEMY's era. I am the first Arab player that got the real strategy, and many players only copied me. No players could reply my Arabs strategy and I'm sure about that. No players know how to play Arabs like me, and if you don't know the caravan bonus doesn't work, you would fail again. I have talked about knights, but I will re-write the strategy (I said it, too).

Then, you would build a caravan (30 hammers = 90 gold in medieval) just to get 50-75 gold (depending on the enemy era). It's dumb then, you lose gold and you give gold to the enemy. Maybe you are just writing a strategy you have never tried, and you are talking about things you don't know. I've had knights with more than 50 attack, or catapults with more than a regular tank army, with like 40 attack.

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

Ok, now I can confirm it, the Arab and other civs get the same from caravan income.
BUT it depends on the distance to your enemies (120 gold in medieval is pretty normal from my experience).

Rushing caravans indeed can't be done (my mind was sleeping it seems) but a production city having no war can do this easily.

use the caravans supplementary IF WANTED, you can win using arabs easily without it, but I'm more of an econ player, so you'll often find me discussing rushing units and 'depending' on gold.

Anyways, back to the point!
-starting by having 3 wariors exploring (but still at relatively close distance to each other) and making an army to take a first capital is good, most likely the best start you can have.

-Settling around is not only good for production and trade, but you'll have 1 culture in each city as well (not much, but due to the fact that it can get you your first and second GP way faster than usual is a big plus imo) without downside.

-Arab knight-beelining while having saved up production in a city or 2 (more if you have more cities so you can afford it) is really worth it!
that can help you dominate your neighbours easily, but should you play good players who had some luck (worst case scenario: they already have rifles due to beelining, science GP's, Atlantis, ...) use your knights to pick off units venturing outside their cities.

That will keep the pressure on them and again give you more expanding and breathing space.

 

[Gejost]

I will improve it soon, it's too old and it's about their advantages and what to do until industrial at least

I would really appreciate it if you would update this. Arabs are my favorite, and because i'm new to this game (better late then never ), I can use all the help I can get.

 

[potts81]

[hi new to this website but wondering if you can help me out, i read someone’s thread saying if you settle on four plains = 20 gld early on in the game? If this is right is there other special resources apart from the obvious?