Lucian Rushing

[LockerStalker]

I found Lucian wasn't very useful when using Charadon. Because Charadon is Barbarian, there aren't any units for Lucian to kill, and he's not a real 'Hero', so he can't gain experience without going after the other civilizations. Lucian isn't strong enough to defeat a fortified warrior in a city, and Scouts easily evade him. If you wait until Siege to attack an opponent, Lucian's as strong as your average axeman and that's not really an early rush anymore. Any tips on how to use Lucian as Charadon?

 

[UncleJJ]

Just use him in the second wave attacks to finish off badly damaged units. Eventually he will pick up enough promotions and enchantments to tackle tougher targets but he'll never be a lot better than a highly promoted axeman. As a melee hero his advantage is that he has the heroic promotions which can increase his base strength by +2. That sort of means he will eventually become a 'champion'. Just don't expect too much

 

[Horatius]

What UncleJJ said.

Also, you can try to level him up with animals escorting him with a scout to avoid spiders and such.

But instead of thinking of Lucian as a city cracker you can think of him as a very earlier harasser.
Depending on the difficulty level, instead of just trying to crack a city in any way, just make Lucian go very early with a group of beastmen and choke an opponent.

Pillage, attack their warriors on the field to level up, prevent them from expanding.

Meanwhile, you expand freely without worrying about barbarians - this is how you take advantage of the aggressive and barbarian traits.
Expand in the land that was supposed to be theirs - you don't need to defeat them right there and then.

Charadon has a much easier time doing this than most leaders. Usually you expand and prepare first and attack later.

Actually this leader kind of needs to do what I was saying or fall behind. But he's playable with some work.

This is more difficult to do on highest levels because you can easily face a strong counterattack.

If you start a war you have two options: you can take out opponents or cripple them.

If you can't take them out, take advantage of a well supported Lucian to do the later.
Do it early.

 

[LockerStalker]

As a melee hero his advantage is that he has the heroic promotions which can increase his base strength by +2. That sort of means he will eventually become a 'champion'.

Heroic promotions means Heroic Strength/Defense right? Don't you need the Hero promotion to get those?

 

[UncleJJ]

Heroic promotions means Heroic Strength/Defense right? Don't you need the Hero promotion to get those?

According to the Civilopedia you do need the Hero promotion, so I guess that part of what I wrote was wrong I stand corrected. To be honest I have never used Lucian. It seems that he is just a standard axeman.

 

[Horatius]

It's easy to get confused since Lucian is more important than the nasty war machine in the lore perspective.
I always feel bad when Lucian dies, lol.

He is the strongest unit when the game starts. It's certainly better to have him than not to have him.

 

[Azhral]

Lucian makes the Doviello the best early rushing civ, by far. Him + a couple of beastmen (+25% city attack) should pretty easily be able to take a nearby city or two from the AI who will hopefully only have warriors by the time you get there. If you use him properly, by the time one gets Axemen he should be a highly promoted terror, and usually gets retired around when Battlemasters show up, which is Iron Working and a long way aways.

 

[LockerStalker]

Lucian makes the Doviello the best early rushing civ, by far. Him + a couple of beastmen (+25% city attack) should pretty easily be able to take a nearby city or two from the AI who will hopefully only have warriors by the time you get there.

I find you need a lot more Beastmen then the opponent has Warriors. Beastmen get +25%, which makes them better than regular Warriors for attacking cities, but the defenders also have +25% fortification, +25% from city (for Warriors), etc. The Beastmen's odds are usually around 50% and Lucian's around 75%. It's still pretty easy to lose combat at 75% (and it seems to happen more than 25% of the time.)
I don't deny that the Doviello are probably the best at rushing, but I don't think Lucian gives them a massive advantage.

 

[Horatius]

I find you need a lot more Beastmen then the opponent has Warriors.

But, but... if you are not using siege or magic, you always need more units to attack than to defend...

Did you expect to crush others easily in the early game if you used Doviello? It wouldn't be fun if it was that simple.

They do have an advantage in the early game and they can win games because of it. They must use that advantage smartly.

 

[BvBPL]

I don't deny that the Doviello are probably the best at rushing, but I don't think Lucian gives them a massive advantage.

How many capitals do you need to take and how many civs do you need to knock out in the first 100 turns to turn a rush in a massive advantage?

Spoiler :

Two.

 

[Azhral]

Recently started up a Doviello game with Mahala on Emperor, crushed the Khazad, took Khazak and razed the others, and also smashed up the Hippus, taking Atheriol ta-Mealtheial (but leaving them alive) all within about 400 turns (on marathon). Game is now easily mine with a bunch of ridiculously highly promoted Battlemasters with iron while everyone else still has axemen.