All tactics discussed in this guide have been tested successfully (and repeatedly to iron out RND elements) at Immortal difficulty, Normal speed, using Darius/Persia to rush Montezuma. This means Immortals instead of chariots, but the same principles apply to both.
Success here means taking the enemy capitol, or multiple secondary cities, or both.
My goal with this little study was to identify :
1) the key tactics to a successful rush
2) the key RANDOM factors that can get in the way and how to ELIMINATE them
3) as a result of #2 we won't rely on luck and will plan to overcome worst case scenarios
In a nutshell :
1) Timing : you have to attack before 1000BC, even sooner if you see an opening.
2) Production : you have to make 10+ immortals, 15+ is possible with favorable terrain.
3) Logistics : you have to identify optimal rush routes to target cities and take them less than 3 turns after you start the war. Advanced scouting and dividing your troops also helps.
4) Sabotage : cut the enemy access to copper mine ASAP if some cities survive your initial assault.
Early Preparation
Exploration
You have to find the enemy capital and reveal as much terrain as possible in its BFC. This so you know if he has key resources that can complicate your rush. (Copper -> Spearmen.)
To do this a) explore near the coast to reduce your chances of losing the scout/warrior to barbarians and animal 2) explore in the direction of the enemy unit if you cross path with it 3) once you find the capital, circle it to reveal the inside of it 4) backtrack to reveal the terrain between your city and the enemy city then 5) go back to circling his capital to see where he will expand.. this is important, read on.
Ideally you want to find the city and be done circling it in the first 20 turns / before 3200BC. Don't lose the scout if you can. (See optional reading for in depth explanation.)
Espionage
As soon as you discover the enemy, it is a good idea to go into the espionage screen and concentrate all your EPs on him by increasing his EP ratio to 1 and leave all others at 0. The main benefit is you will be aware of his technologies, especially if/when he will get BW. In some rarer cases you might even gain visibility of his cities, which is extremely useful to reveal weakness and best attack points.
Decision : Is the rush feasible?
Scouting should have revealed the enemy position. The distance is very important here, you don't want to rush someone very far from you. As a rule of thumb if you can place more than 3 cities directly between you and your enemy, then a rush is both risky and a bad strategy. The reasons are 1) because of the distance your units/reinforcements will take a long time to get there and 2) the maintenance cost for far off cities is high and capturing them can easily crash your economy early.
If the enemy is far away it means that you have enough room to grow. This suggest rapid expansion as a better starting strategy than a rush. (Even if you prefer warfare, you should expand then attack at a later moment with better units than chariots.)
Research
Start with AH first to reveal horses, and if they are not in your capitol BFC, expand near it so you can work it without having to get a border pop. (We rather make an extra immortal than a monument!)
Next you want Wheel, Mining, and BW. Then get stricktly what you need and ideally try to get writing before you rush. (Writing lets us open borders -> scout to see units inside cities.)
BO / Build Order
It seems that the optimal number of cities is 2. Meaning your capitol + an extra city.
Capitol builds : Worker -> barracks (until growth) -> Settler -> warrior and/or extra worker -> *Chariots
Second city builds : Worker -> *Chariots
Start with a worker to improve your capitol surroundings, especially food resources ASAP to speed up settler building and in preparation for whipping. After that build barracks until you have enough population to use all the food resources in your BFC (and floodplains after you build a farm on them). As soon as you grow enough, switch to a settler (CTRL+click on build settler).
Ideal situation : Horses are in your BFC and you can start producing Immortals a few turns after you finish both settler and barracks.
-> In these few turns either make an extra worker or a warrior if you still need growth.
-> Use your settler in an area with a maximum number of forests in the small 3x3 city borders. You can optimize placement for later growth, but for now we don't care about resources or hills, only forests because they mean extra Immortals for the early rush.
WCS (worst case scenario) : The horses are not in your BFC and you have to settle near them + build roads. This might slow you down by up to 10 turns, but it is nothing rush breaking.
-> Settle near the horse while maximizing forests access.
In both cases first thing you make on your second city is a worker for chopping. No barracks, no monument, no granary. These things can wait until the first rush is finished and you are preparing for a second attack... for now we need as many chariots as possible.
Special case : If you are extremely lucky and find yourself in a sea of forests, you might want to make an extra worker in your capitol. (2 from capitol and 1 from second city for a total of 3.)
To steal or not to steal
Some people like to steal workers, but I find this inefficient at higher levels. First you have to divert from your proven build order to make a warrior to steal a worker. Second you have to declare war, and thus at higher level the AI will start spamming units and complicate your rush.
However at lower difficulty levels where the AI won't be as reactive with unit spam defense, you can get away with stealing workers. It might even be desirable as they can speed up making a road from your city to the target city.
Fog busting
I would not bother fog busting. First if something gets near, you can whip protection. Second you want barbarians or animals in the area as it can give free experience for the first chariot you make (he comes soon enough that you won't be vulnerable for long). With a bit of luck you can get enough experience for the Flanking + Sentry promotions, which will help see more deep into enemy territory.
The attack : Key tactics
Choose your target
Picking the right target is key. The capitol is high on the list of priorities, and so is the city controlling the copper mine. Slight preference for the mine, because even if you take the capitol and other cities you won't be able to hold them for long if you let the enemy keep spamming you with spearman. In my test on immortal difficulty, it seems the AI is smart enough to spam spearmen if you attack it with mass chariots.
Using Chariots properly : Speed, attack angle, and mobility
Most people fail at chariot rush (including me until recently) because they use them as fancy Axemen and don't understand their proper use :
1) Hit fast and hard. You can mass chariots and be on the enemy borders in a blink.
2) Attack from an optimal position. Your odds skyrocket if you can reach a city in 2 turns or less, because the enemy has little time to whip defenses, and can't reinforce efficiently. (Your chariots basically move at the same speed as an archer or spearman on a road, so you can get there first.)
3) Mobility. If you reach a city and see that odds are not favorable, you can move and attack another city or position.
These are things a chariot can do and an axeman can't. They are also the primary reason why good players often choose to rush with chariots instead of axemen.
Using the best attack angles available
Have a look at the screenshot :
If you position yourself on the left, POSITION A, you will need 2 turns to reach the city because there is a forest and a hill on your way. However if you go from the bottom left corner (SW), you will be able to reach the city in 1 single turn as only grasslands are on your way.
You generally can reach a city with less than 100 culture in 1 turn. This is because a city with less than 10 culture will have the small 3x3 area (8 workable tiles), and a city with 10-100 culture will have a BFC (20 workable tiles). If one corner has forests or hills on the way, you just have to circle it until you find a clear path.
Each city has 4 corners, so unless there is another nearby city blocking you with its cultural borders you have good chances to find an optimal path. But even if you can't find one (worst case scenario) it is not a problem, even 2 turns to the city is an acceptable speed.
There is one situation where it becomes hard to reach a city in 2 turns or less, and this is with cities having more than 500 culture (in other words the capitol after 1000BC), since their cultural borders are much larger than a BFC.
L&G meet the huge fat cross (HFC?) :
As you can see if only flatlands are on your path, you need at least 2 turns to reach the city. But seeing as most maps have a decent ammount of forests around capitols early on, you are likely to get the WCS where you need 3+ turns to reach the capitol , and this is where problems start to happen. Again 3 turns is all that the enemy needs to reinforced its position with more troops. (See optional reading for in depth explanation.)
Eliminating Copper
If you have done enough exploration, you should know even before the attack where the copper is located exactly.
First you have to ask yourself : is attacking the copper mine necessary?
You don't need to worry about the mine if :
1) capture all the enemy cities in a 2-3 turns
2) you can capture the city working the copper first, or early enough
If you can't do that however, meaning the war will be longer war than ideal, you have to raze their copper/iron resources to stop them from making any more spearmen. In all cases consider the possibility of cutting roads between the copper mine and the cities if it is easier/faster than attacking it. (One unit for this task is usually enough, don't divide your forces more than necessary.)
Divide and conquer
In this case it is not the enemy we divide, but ourselves. If you were able to get writing and scout enemy cities, you know exactly how many units there are in each. If you evaluate that you can take multiple cities at the same time if you divide your army, then do it.
If the enemy has been REXing, the classic example you will see is a city with 1 archer, and another with 2 (yes even the capitol). In this case you can take the 1 archer city with 2-3 Chariots, and advance on the other city with what's left of your army.
Dealing with existing spearmen : luring
Apparently it is possible to lure spearmen out of a city, if you leave a single chariot exposed as bait. After the spear moves on the chariot, you can kill it outside easier without all the city defensive bonuses.
However there seems to be a random factor in how the AI decides to attack the chariot or not. Or maybe there is an ideal placement I still have to find. Thus unless some of our local AI gurus can explain the behavior, use this technique but don't depend on it or let it slow you down.
Keep in mind also that :
What happens after the first 2-3 turns attack
As explained, the first 2-3 turns of the war are where you hit fast and hard and do most damage. This was when your enemy was unaware of danger and unprepared, and hopefully you were able to cripple him enough to be in good position to finish him off. This will happen slower, since the enemy is now massing troops. But without access to copper and/or a strong production capital you have the upper hand.
After clearing all nearby forests, your workers should make a road from your cities to the area near the enemy cities. Keep making chariots, whipping, and massing enough units to take what cities are left. Cut roads, pillage resources (if you can't take the city fast), post troops outside his cities to watch out for settlers, and don't let the enemy recover.
CASE STUDY (with screenshots)
Optional read
Final thanks
Thanks go to the Immortal University which provided the map I used for the case study. Also to mirthadir & Tempesta13 for their precious advice at the university on making this rush work at the immortal difficulty level.
Success here means taking the enemy capitol, or multiple secondary cities, or both.
My goal with this little study was to identify :
1) the key tactics to a successful rush
2) the key RANDOM factors that can get in the way and how to ELIMINATE them
3) as a result of #2 we won't rely on luck and will plan to overcome worst case scenarios
In a nutshell :
1) Timing : you have to attack before 1000BC, even sooner if you see an opening.
2) Production : you have to make 10+ immortals, 15+ is possible with favorable terrain.
3) Logistics : you have to identify optimal rush routes to target cities and take them less than 3 turns after you start the war. Advanced scouting and dividing your troops also helps.
4) Sabotage : cut the enemy access to copper mine ASAP if some cities survive your initial assault.
Early Preparation
Exploration
You have to find the enemy capital and reveal as much terrain as possible in its BFC. This so you know if he has key resources that can complicate your rush. (Copper -> Spearmen.)
To do this a) explore near the coast to reduce your chances of losing the scout/warrior to barbarians and animal 2) explore in the direction of the enemy unit if you cross path with it 3) once you find the capital, circle it to reveal the inside of it 4) backtrack to reveal the terrain between your city and the enemy city then 5) go back to circling his capital to see where he will expand.. this is important, read on.
Ideally you want to find the city and be done circling it in the first 20 turns / before 3200BC. Don't lose the scout if you can. (See optional reading for in depth explanation.)
Espionage
As soon as you discover the enemy, it is a good idea to go into the espionage screen and concentrate all your EPs on him by increasing his EP ratio to 1 and leave all others at 0. The main benefit is you will be aware of his technologies, especially if/when he will get BW. In some rarer cases you might even gain visibility of his cities, which is extremely useful to reveal weakness and best attack points.
Decision : Is the rush feasible?
Scouting should have revealed the enemy position. The distance is very important here, you don't want to rush someone very far from you. As a rule of thumb if you can place more than 3 cities directly between you and your enemy, then a rush is both risky and a bad strategy. The reasons are 1) because of the distance your units/reinforcements will take a long time to get there and 2) the maintenance cost for far off cities is high and capturing them can easily crash your economy early.
If the enemy is far away it means that you have enough room to grow. This suggest rapid expansion as a better starting strategy than a rush. (Even if you prefer warfare, you should expand then attack at a later moment with better units than chariots.)
Research
Start with AH first to reveal horses, and if they are not in your capitol BFC, expand near it so you can work it without having to get a border pop. (We rather make an extra immortal than a monument!)
Next you want Wheel, Mining, and BW. Then get stricktly what you need and ideally try to get writing before you rush. (Writing lets us open borders -> scout to see units inside cities.)
BO / Build Order
It seems that the optimal number of cities is 2. Meaning your capitol + an extra city.
Capitol builds : Worker -> barracks (until growth) -> Settler -> warrior and/or extra worker -> *Chariots
Second city builds : Worker -> *Chariots
Start with a worker to improve your capitol surroundings, especially food resources ASAP to speed up settler building and in preparation for whipping. After that build barracks until you have enough population to use all the food resources in your BFC (and floodplains after you build a farm on them). As soon as you grow enough, switch to a settler (CTRL+click on build settler).
Ideal situation : Horses are in your BFC and you can start producing Immortals a few turns after you finish both settler and barracks.
-> In these few turns either make an extra worker or a warrior if you still need growth.
-> Use your settler in an area with a maximum number of forests in the small 3x3 city borders. You can optimize placement for later growth, but for now we don't care about resources or hills, only forests because they mean extra Immortals for the early rush.
WCS (worst case scenario) : The horses are not in your BFC and you have to settle near them + build roads. This might slow you down by up to 10 turns, but it is nothing rush breaking.
-> Settle near the horse while maximizing forests access.
In both cases first thing you make on your second city is a worker for chopping. No barracks, no monument, no granary. These things can wait until the first rush is finished and you are preparing for a second attack... for now we need as many chariots as possible.
Special case : If you are extremely lucky and find yourself in a sea of forests, you might want to make an extra worker in your capitol. (2 from capitol and 1 from second city for a total of 3.)
To steal or not to steal
Some people like to steal workers, but I find this inefficient at higher levels. First you have to divert from your proven build order to make a warrior to steal a worker. Second you have to declare war, and thus at higher level the AI will start spamming units and complicate your rush.
However at lower difficulty levels where the AI won't be as reactive with unit spam defense, you can get away with stealing workers. It might even be desirable as they can speed up making a road from your city to the target city.
Fog busting
I would not bother fog busting. First if something gets near, you can whip protection. Second you want barbarians or animals in the area as it can give free experience for the first chariot you make (he comes soon enough that you won't be vulnerable for long). With a bit of luck you can get enough experience for the Flanking + Sentry promotions, which will help see more deep into enemy territory.
The attack : Key tactics
Choose your target
Picking the right target is key. The capitol is high on the list of priorities, and so is the city controlling the copper mine. Slight preference for the mine, because even if you take the capitol and other cities you won't be able to hold them for long if you let the enemy keep spamming you with spearman. In my test on immortal difficulty, it seems the AI is smart enough to spam spearmen if you attack it with mass chariots.
Using Chariots properly : Speed, attack angle, and mobility
Most people fail at chariot rush (including me until recently) because they use them as fancy Axemen and don't understand their proper use :
1) Hit fast and hard. You can mass chariots and be on the enemy borders in a blink.
2) Attack from an optimal position. Your odds skyrocket if you can reach a city in 2 turns or less, because the enemy has little time to whip defenses, and can't reinforce efficiently. (Your chariots basically move at the same speed as an archer or spearman on a road, so you can get there first.)
3) Mobility. If you reach a city and see that odds are not favorable, you can move and attack another city or position.
These are things a chariot can do and an axeman can't. They are also the primary reason why good players often choose to rush with chariots instead of axemen.
Using the best attack angles available
Have a look at the screenshot :
If you position yourself on the left, POSITION A, you will need 2 turns to reach the city because there is a forest and a hill on your way. However if you go from the bottom left corner (SW), you will be able to reach the city in 1 single turn as only grasslands are on your way.
You generally can reach a city with less than 100 culture in 1 turn. This is because a city with less than 10 culture will have the small 3x3 area (8 workable tiles), and a city with 10-100 culture will have a BFC (20 workable tiles). If one corner has forests or hills on the way, you just have to circle it until you find a clear path.
Each city has 4 corners, so unless there is another nearby city blocking you with its cultural borders you have good chances to find an optimal path. But even if you can't find one (worst case scenario) it is not a problem, even 2 turns to the city is an acceptable speed.
There is one situation where it becomes hard to reach a city in 2 turns or less, and this is with cities having more than 500 culture (in other words the capitol after 1000BC), since their cultural borders are much larger than a BFC.
L&G meet the huge fat cross (HFC?) :
As you can see if only flatlands are on your path, you need at least 2 turns to reach the city. But seeing as most maps have a decent ammount of forests around capitols early on, you are likely to get the WCS where you need 3+ turns to reach the capitol , and this is where problems start to happen. Again 3 turns is all that the enemy needs to reinforced its position with more troops. (See optional reading for in depth explanation.)
Eliminating Copper
If you have done enough exploration, you should know even before the attack where the copper is located exactly.
First you have to ask yourself : is attacking the copper mine necessary?
You don't need to worry about the mine if :
1) capture all the enemy cities in a 2-3 turns
2) you can capture the city working the copper first, or early enough
If you can't do that however, meaning the war will be longer war than ideal, you have to raze their copper/iron resources to stop them from making any more spearmen. In all cases consider the possibility of cutting roads between the copper mine and the cities if it is easier/faster than attacking it. (One unit for this task is usually enough, don't divide your forces more than necessary.)
- You can tell if an AI has Bronze Working by their civics, AIs always (as far as I know) revolt to slavery ASAP. If the AI isn't in slavery, your chariot rush just entered easy mode. (No Bronze working means no spearmen, no advanced metal units, and no whipping.)
- You can find worked metal tiles without having the needed tech (BW/IW) by examining tile yields; turn that feature on and any hills showing more than normal must contain metal if events are off (if events are on, then it is possible for those to drive up tile yields). Plains/grassland/desert mines are obvious.--mirthadir
Divide and conquer
In this case it is not the enemy we divide, but ourselves. If you were able to get writing and scout enemy cities, you know exactly how many units there are in each. If you evaluate that you can take multiple cities at the same time if you divide your army, then do it.
If the enemy has been REXing, the classic example you will see is a city with 1 archer, and another with 2 (yes even the capitol). In this case you can take the 1 archer city with 2-3 Chariots, and advance on the other city with what's left of your army.
Dealing with existing spearmen : luring
Apparently it is possible to lure spearmen out of a city, if you leave a single chariot exposed as bait. After the spear moves on the chariot, you can kill it outside easier without all the city defensive bonuses.
However there seems to be a random factor in how the AI decides to attack the chariot or not. Or maybe there is an ideal placement I still have to find. Thus unless some of our local AI gurus can explain the behavior, use this technique but don't depend on it or let it slow you down.
Keep in mind also that :
- Warriors are more effective against spears than chariots (in terms of damage inflicted/hammers). Even better if you are able to build archers.
- Baiting the spearman does not always require you to actually kill it. If you can lure the spear off the road network it will take one turn to get back on it, by which time you should control the city it left. If the AI is dies/you make peace before that, the spear is a non-issue.--mirthadir
What happens after the first 2-3 turns attack
As explained, the first 2-3 turns of the war are where you hit fast and hard and do most damage. This was when your enemy was unaware of danger and unprepared, and hopefully you were able to cripple him enough to be in good position to finish him off. This will happen slower, since the enemy is now massing troops. But without access to copper and/or a strong production capital you have the upper hand.
After clearing all nearby forests, your workers should make a road from your cities to the area near the enemy cities. Keep making chariots, whipping, and massing enough units to take what cities are left. Cut roads, pillage resources (if you can't take the city fast), post troops outside his cities to watch out for settlers, and don't let the enemy recover.
- Watch out for "born generals" events, and if you had enough losses for the enemy to get a general, watch where he was born and make that city your next target. You don't want that city massing freshly upgraded units (city garrison archers are a pain) for long enough to cause you problems.
- It can be extremely helpful if you can deficit research alphabet (or get it via trade from aesthetics if you are SURE you can make the trade with another AI) off your conquest cash. On immort you have just taken a major blow to your economy, leaving the AI with one city while extorting tech is an extremely good rush recovery technique; using spies can also be fruitful.
- Once you've crippled an AI you can come back for seconds easily if he has no metals. If he does, you can either mass axes/swords (hopefully you capture some Cu during this war) or gun for pults. CIII chariots + pults are a viable tactic. I've had some crazy Egyptian and CHA games where I end up running around with mass chariots/trebs/stack defenders.--mirthadir
CASE STUDY (with screenshots)
Spoiler :
Optional read
Spoiler :
Final thanks
Thanks go to the Immortal University which provided the map I used for the case study. Also to mirthadir & Tempesta13 for their precious advice at the university on making this rush work at the immortal difficulty level.
than normal must contain metal if events are off (if events are on, then it is possible for those to drive up tile yields). Plains/grassland/desert mines are obvious.
Just my luck.
