15 shield Guerillas! 20 shield Cavalry!

[SimpleMonkey]

Dunno if this counts as an exploit or not, but it worked pretty good for me in my current game as the Aztecs.
The disadvantage to a civ with a super-early UU (like the Jaguar warrior) is that if you go to war with them early in the game, you end up with a golden age for just 5 or 6 cities that are rotting under despotism. Try this instead.
Don't build your UU at all at the beginning of the game. If you must go to war (and if you're the Aztecs, it's all about lots of war), use warriors, archers, swordsmen, MI, knights, etc. As long as you haven't had a golden age, the game will still let you build that UU ... NO MATTER HOW ADVANCED YOUR TECHNOLOGY. So you can be near the end of the Industrial age and still taking just one turn to crank out lots of Jaguars or War Chariots or whatever, which can then be immediately upgraded to something formidible. Yep, you still have to pay for the upgrade (but you did build or conquer Leonardo's, right?), but the whole point is to build units at top speed. Start your Golden Age when you can use it best by building a Wonder or smacking down a redlined unit with your last, non-upgraded UU.

 

[DaveMcW]

So you're saying I should build a war chariot in my cities that make 80 shields per turn?

 

[Tomoyo]

Not really. Well, actually, he is.

But you can always stockpile your UU when you have 20 shield per turn cities and upgrade them later.

Although that's not really exploitive, is it?

 

[Game_Addy]

That's interesting, I didn't think that UUs upgraded

Michael

 

[Desertsnow]

All UUs upgrade in the manner of the units that they replace.

 

[DBear]

What does not using your ancient age UU right away have to do with 15 shield guerillas? Even if you get Leonardo, they'll still cost more than that. Are you playing with accelerated production?

 

[TimBentley]

It would be more accurate to say the guerillas cost 15 shields (jaguar warriors) and 225 gold (112 or 113 with Leo's).

 

[Tomoyo]

All UUs upgrade in the manner of the units that they replace.

Except for the Swiss Mercenary.

 

[axehaxe]

This Kind of reminds me of the article in the War Academy about building 100's of chariots in the ancient age with ICS city strategy and then in the Medieval Age, upgrading all those chariots to knights and staying invincible until the Industrial Age.

 

[Game_Addy]

Except for the Swiss Mercenary.

Why can't they? Don't they replace the pikeman? Why can't the lowly zulu not be able to do this

Michael

 

[Tomoyo]

They replace the Pikeman, but they upgrade to Rifleman, not Musketmen. If the Dutch build Musketmen (they can't unless they don't have iron but have saltpeter), they can upgrade the musketmen to Swiss Mercenaries for 0 gold.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

It would be more accurate to say the guerillas cost 15 shields (jaguar warriors) and 225 gold (112 or 113 with Leo's).

Yep. That's the point. A city doesn't have to be super-productive to pump out 15 or 20 shield units every turn. (Use those 60 or 80 shield cities for what they're meant for, the up to date units.) The point isn't the cost, but the speed in cranking out military fast. The cost to upgrade can hurt a little, but by the time this strategy could pay its dividends -- say around the middle of the Industrial Age. -- you should have built up a sizable bank account and be able to afford it. Having Sun Tzu's to put barracks in every city for the upgrades is nice. Having Leonardo's to cut the cost is a must.
I'm thinking of trying this again next game with the Egyptian War Chariot.

 

[nullspace]

This trick is probably most useful in the late medieval age when you've got marketplaces and banks, but no rails or factories. You can get a similar effect by disconnecting a resource to build a cheap unit, and then connecting it again to upgrade them. But I think that is typically forbidden in succession games.

 

[Offa]

Repeated resource disconnection, a pretty standard tactic, will achieve the same thing, without the drawbacks of avoiding a GA or a UU victory. Horses to knights/cav is the usual route, but warriors to sword/MI is an alternative.

 

[Aegis]

Although that's not really exploitive, is it?

I do not think so, since there is such a substantial gold amount required per unit.

 

[TruePurple]

How do unique units trigger golden ages?

 

[ainwood]

How do unique units trigger golden ages?

Win in combat.

 

[Own]

LKendter, and I agree with him, calls I.E. disconnecting iron to build warriors for upgrades with excess cash. This is kinda like that, but guerrilas require no resources, so this could be called, an "exploit."

 

[Chose]

They replace the Pikeman, but they upgrade to Rifleman, not Musketmen. If the Dutch build Musketmen (they can't unless they don't have iron but have saltpeter), they can upgrade the musketmen to Swiss Mercenaries for 0 gold.

this is true for more that one unit. the celts, gallic swordman to medieval infantry. and im not shure but i think also the carthaginian, numidian mercenary to pikeman.

 

[Tomoyo]

No, the Swiss Mercenary is unqie because it upgrades from a more advanced unit. Gallic Swordsmen upgrade from less advanced units or are the first unit in the upgrade chain.