I am trying to pick a new strategy for R&F on Immortal or higher.
I know it depends of the situation (which leader, religion, ressources etc.), but for arguments sake here is a suggestion. I am very interested in seeing your ways of doing this.
1. Start with a scout (prioritize production)
2. As soon city level=2 start producing a settler
3. Build a slinger
4. Research Writing and produce a Camp
5. Sell luxeries and get around 160 Gold/piece.
6. Purchase a Builder (200 Gold) and improve three tiles
7. Build 2 more slingers (if possible with the policy card supporting this)
This is quite solid and supports the eurekas and not getting into dark age. I am unsure what more I need to start a war from here to gain more land, but maybe a horse and a catapult?
I am similar when I play deity.
- Production focus (with obvious alterations if some key resource is too good to turn down).
- Scout first, always.
- Builder, because you really need to get the Craftmanship Eureka ASAP, because Agoge is an essential card.
- Settler
- You should be getting Craftmanship researched around now. So get Agoge in immediately. Build a warrior, because I find that building a warrior is far more important than a slinger. You will probably be declaring war a number of turns ago, so the first unit out is important. Slingers are too vulnerable until you get 3-4 of them, while a second warrior means you can hold off most attacks, or even capture a city if they are really close.
- My first expansion city start with a slinger. Capital now builds slinger.
- I like to get 3 warriors (including original) & 4 slingers in total.
- Build 8-10 heavy chariots in capital. Expansion (and captured cities) build monuments.
- Build lots of settlers. 6 is the BARE MINIMUM, I prefer 8 or even 10 if there is room.
Always build on luxury resources, unless there is a particularly juicy bonus resource to build on. Sell everything.
Buy a monument in your capital ASAP.
I don't build another builder until Feudalism. Production focus every city.
War should happen early. I will be at war before my second warrior is complete most of the time, then I stay at war all game. The units I list consist of one "army", then I get a second of the same configuration. Then a third. A fourth. etc. So I will try and have as many civs under siege as possible. Obviously adding in siege towers or battering rams as needed.
Even if you did settle on a luxury, my only comment is that delaying the Builder means delaying improving 3 tiles around your starting city, which means yields from your starting city are lower, slowing everything else down. Would it be better to swap a Builder into point 2 and around point 6 you can both buy a Settler and hard build a second Settler? Probably depends on how much more quickly you can get your first Settler out under your plan and how good the city site spot is for your second city.
The second city doesn't need much to be good. It needs a few shields and that's about it. You probably won't grow it above size 4 ever, and it massively increases how quickly you can get an army into the field. Delaying it means you will probably be under far more of a threat.
Thank you, you are right! Actually it is good (I think) to settle on a luxury, but I should switch between 5 and 6.
It is good to build on them, but often a bonus resource can be better. It depends on the situation. If you have someone to sell to and you haven't bought a monument yet, then definitely a luxuary. If you have a monument and/or you don't have anyone to sell to then it is often better to found on a production giving bonus resource.
Immortal you can get away with it. On deity in half the games you can expect to be attacked during step 2 or even step 1... You wont see this in the online LPs of course... They dont bother uploading their t10+ losses, nor in the Gotms as they would make rather boring games. But in real life this is what happens. Scout first outside of a cooked map carries a lot of risk.
Disagree. I always go scout first on Deity and I do not reload and it rarely causes issue. I have happily played out being swarmed by barbarians (all I do is either go settler 2nd, then get it onto my original warrior for an escort away. Or rush a second warrior if the terrain won't allow my settler to escape. The barbarians really don't matter because improvements aren't overly important until later, so eh). As for getting invaded, I find you need to be aggressive in your defence. If you wait to get DoW'd then you are in trouble as you are defending at your city, so you will be overwhelmed because the enemy has all their units together and at your borders. I will march my lone warrior to my enemy's borders and DoW them. Then I can dance my warrior around to keep in terrain, while letting him get attacked to weaken the enemy. The enemy units are far more strung out this way and you can ensure you can only be attacked by 1 at a time (or none if you choose). Then I am usually back into my borders around the time my new warrior is completed, so my damaged warrior is now fortified on defensive terrain while my new warrior is assisting. This usually means I wipe the enemy's army and can advance on their territory. If it is reasonably far away I will get there and pick off new units, or pillage until more units arrive. If it is close, you can sometimes capture a city with just those 2 warriors.
This is why getting a second warrior before a slinger is so important, because a slinger would be killed while trying to aid your other warrior. A warrior is far more durable.
