Axe rushes on Deity

[SittinDown]

You don't need to bulb. To throw out there, I wouldn't suggest playing Deity games w/out a minimum of a decent+ start location (7+ out of 10). Immortal can be won on games w/out a single resource (literally. I.e. AP abuse) but not so on Deity. Focus should be on keeping your Empire small and cities in close proximity to one another, thus maximizing city overlap and tile sharing (especially your Capital via cottages).

Like my example from my previous posts link, a new city with nothing more than 1 farmed tile can whip units extremely fast. You wanna streamline your build and throw out everything you don't need or have time for - including the kitchen sink (you can get another sink in a new city!). Throw in some chops and good ole anger (much whipping!) to get the ball rolling as fast as possible. That momentum is key.

I meant beakers, not bulbs, sorry! I get your line of reasoning - just wondering when about you're actually starting your first war with the elepults.

i've been playing on emperor lately, and working on my openings - and quitting between 500 AD and 1000 AD regardless of the situation.

had a game with Churchill where I was boxed into a thin peninsula with nothing but ivory (no horse, or metal), so I built GLH, and crammed in 5 cities as tight as I could. elepulted 1 city before everyone started trading around feudalism (got iron out of it). is that about normal, or too slow? i bailed after the counter-attack from the city capture left me with 1 elephant left it looked like a long slog ahead of me.

in another game as the Khmer, I had BFC horses, and teched HBR in 1360 BC, and took out the Ottomans in 775 BC, capturing a holy city without a shrine, next target likely Mongolians who I have a 1.5x power advantage, and they have a bunch of good looking river land, and another holy city. that seemed to be going well, but then I look at the game and every city is building a building. ugh, must have been playing too late at night and just clicking buttons.

in another game recently, I had egypt and nearby horses, so I did a War Chariot rush. I decided to see what would happen if I went all-out attacking. only built 1 settler. I DOW in 1560 BC and defeated the an AI in 1480 BC, capturing 2 holy cities - easy culture pops! I made some mistakes in the 2nd war, losing valuable experienced WC's to spearmen in open field, and it took from 1250 BC - 250 AD to defeat #2 (with a few cease fires in there). I teched Construction in 150 AD, and had 3 turns left on HBR. my science was +147 at 100% at 250 AD. I teched feudalism, and capitulated a #3 by ~550 AD, wasted time building a several courthouses, stared the pyramids for failgold, and wound up almost building it, then I got a DOW from Alexander ~600, and realized I was going to lose several cities, because my army was over in Korea, and all beat up, and I couldn't whip long bows fast enough. should have been building up the army instead of consolidating the economy. classic mistake for me. so I abandoned. could have used some wonder bread, since i was IND and had nearby, but undeveloped marble and stone.

in a last one I'll mention, I was Ghengis. The land was BAD for commerce. All rivers were brown, and no gold / gems. I had some ivory. Horses were far away or on bad city sites, so I bailed on the HA rush idea, and with poor commerce, I figured Construction was not going to come quickly either. ...I expanded towards commerce, and secured a double-gems and gold mine with the IMP help on cheap settlers, but they were far ...and I 0%'ed my economy waiting for iron working and had to finish it with library scientist specialists. it's 575 BC and I just got HBR. ...I avoided fishing, since I saw no sea resources, and bulbed Math with my first GS, since my capital had such low commerce. Ethiopia just got Alpha, and I'm the first to math and HBR. ...I don't see an elepult in my future in this game. I may take out Boudica nearby who seems to lack metal, and then turtle until cur's, or rifling, since I have a good chunk of land, and may be able to space with the early-land grab + 1 AI capture.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

Short answer: yes, you can rush Deity (esp. BtS Deity) with Axes on some maps (and on some of those some maps it will be the move to win you the game too). Axes being somewhat weaker at most limits appropriate axe-rush starts to ones with somewhat higher production.

Long answer: the secret to being a successful Deity rusher is not in how to produce, move, and promote your units. These are all crucial core skills, but if you are serious about mastering Deity you already possess them. The secret is to know how to rebound your economy as fast as possible; which in itself is a subset of knowing the tiers of economic development in the game and always keeping an eye not only on where you are, but where you will be next.

Here are some old posts on the matter:

The first one is from the pre-500 AD spoiler thread of BotM 10 and discusses the early phases of economy

Second one is from the Immortal University game mentioned in the previous link; while only Immortal it is a surprisingly good map to test your rush rebound skills - if the saves are still up even play it before spoiling yourself from this post on

Finally, a more general post about economic development in CIV aiming to answer common questions about cottages, as well as say a bit about Deity-winning mindset.

 

[Imploding]

@Unconquered Sun! Like the systematic breakdown of different economic tiers in your first link! I took the liberty to post them again. (with my "city-limit" comment in bold)

Economic tiers:
1. when the palace is the main contributor (1-2 cities)
2. when resource tiles are the main contributor (3-5 cities, depending on the tile)
3. when Writing or Pottery come around (former allows scientists, latter cottages) (4-7 cities)
4. when a converter tech is available (alpha or currency) (6-10 cities)

This is basically exactly what I have in the back of my mind when I Axe rush, and I Axe rush quite frequently on diety. I just want to add what i recon is a idk.. city range you will need to aim for before you have to reach the next economic tire. If you don't.. you will pay! Either by teching at snail speed, or by revolting and loosing units.