Alternates to worker-chop?

[Arkalius]

Animals don't enter your cultural borders so your worker must have strayed too far from home.

Animals will enter your borders to attack something at the edge of them, but only then.

 

[Gufnork]

There's the chariot rush, swordsman rush and horse archer rush (have yet to try the last one). Should preferrably be used with a civ that has the correct UU. Especially useful in multiplayer, any choprushers will be mincemeat if they end up next to you.

Actually, scratch swordsman rush, that requires choprush start.