Axe Rushing

[Smartbluma]

First time on Civ Fanatics Forum

Anyways, I have a strategy for Axe Rushing and I want to know if it's effective or not. I start with Boudica for her Aggressive bonus and for less XP per promotion.

I start with Hunting, so I send my scout out to find the nearest enemy. Is that what I should do? Starting with Mysticism is kinda useless, but I try to find a religion later.

So I'm focusing on Mining->Bronze->Wheel->Agriculture or Fishing (To unlock Pottery)->Writing->Math. Is that the kind of thing that I should be doing?

My build for my city is Worker->Barracks. Then Bronze should be done. If I have access to bronze, then Axe->Axe->Axe->Settler

If I don't have access to bronze, then Settler->Worker->Axe->Axe->Axe, settling to where there's copper.


So do I have the general idea of this or do I need to change my plan a bit?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Welcome to the forums!

Sisiutil did an axe rush guide, you can probably find it in Strategy and tips/strategy articles sub-forum. It was called "The early rush" I think. I'll edit and put in a link later.

I play with barbarians on so I put a few warriors out first (EDIT: After a worker though). I normally whip a barracks with slavery after bronze working and use the overflow hammers for the first axe though.

EDIT2: Here's the link http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=244075

You sound like you have the right sort of idea anyway.

 

[Smartbluma]

Welcome to the forums!

Sisiutil did an axe rush guide, you can probably find it in Strategy and tips/strategy articles sub-forum. It was called "The early rush" I think. I'll edit and put in a link later.

I play with barbarians on so I put a few warriors out first (EDIT: After a worker though). I normally whip a barracks with slavery after bronze working and use the overflow hammers for the first axe though.

EDIT2: Here's the link http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=244075

You sound like you have the right sort of idea anyway.

Thank you for the link

I'm going to take a little look at it. Do you have any personal tips from experience?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Don't attack archers on hills unless you have a ton of swords or axes About 3:1 is best.

My walkthrough in Strategy and Tips (just finished, Cathy Queen of Culture 2) has an example of a good first rush with chariots followed by a dodgy sword rush against Egypt's last city on a hill.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Don't attack archers on hills unless you have a ton of swords or axes About 3:1 is best.

For further advice, I'd add that you should try to avoid rushing Protective civs in the early game unless you have no alternative choice (or unless you're really, really quick about it). Particularly Protective civs with cities on hills!

If you have two neighbours, one Protective and one not, you should seriously consider rushing the non-Protective one unless there is a vital strategic resource in the Protective civ's lands that you can't get any other way. I've had a lot of bad experiences with those City Defence II and III Archers in the early game, and I can assure you that they're not fun to deal with.

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums Smartbluma.

 

[Smartbluma]

Welcome to the Forums Smartbluma.

Thank you, thank you for the greeting.

Whenever I axe rush, how many cities should I take before I should retreat my axemen? And how many axemen are ideal for the job?

I don't worry about protective civs with archers because out of my ten times axe rushing, I've only seen archers twice. If I'm fast enough I can get them before their archers pop up xD

And any good guidelines on what cities to keep or raze?

 

[vicawoo]

At 0% cities, 1:1 with a few spares (maybe 1.5 to 1, round up). At 40%, 2-2.5:1. Basically 2 to 1 should do it but expect bad luck (2 to 1 might take a second turn).

If they don't have archers, well, you can send one axemen.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Whenever I axe rush, how many cities should I take before I should retreat my axemen?

Depends on the game. A good guideline is to watch your research slider. If it starts dropping below about 50%, then you should think about stopping the war (or else switch to razing cities instead of capturing). Of course, different circumstances warrant different approaches - often I've let the science slider drop down to 30% or even lower to capture a particularly nice or strategic city before the war ends. The main thing is to consider whether you can afford to drop your research temporarily before you go and capture another city.

I don't worry about protective civs with archers because out of my ten times axe rushing, I've only seen archers twice. If I'm fast enough I can get them before their archers pop up xD

Okay. Beware that on the higher difficulty levels, you certainly won't experience this though: other civs will have Archers very early on, or even right from the start of the game. So if you're considering moving up in difficulty levels anytime soon, you might want to rethink your Axe-rush strategy, and bring along more reinforcements.

And any good guidelines on what cities to keep or raze?

Generally, the main factors are (a) resources that the city has access to, (b) strategic value, and (c) distance. Generally capital cities are very good with respect to (a), so most capitals should be worth keeping as opposed to razing. With respect to (b), if a city blocks off a key choke point or secures a good "fort" that will safeguard the rest of your cities, it's probably worth keeping. The final item, (c), is more important in the early game than later on. Basically, if a city is miles away on the other side of the continent, then even if it's in an awesome location with many great resources, it's usually not worth taking. The maintenance and time spent to connect the city with your empire is often just not worth the trouble.

 

[Smartbluma]

Okay. Beware that on the higher difficulty levels, you certainly won't experience this though: other civs will have Archers very early on, or even right from the start of the game. So if you're considering moving up in difficulty levels anytime soon, you might want to rethink your Axe-rush strategy, and bring along more reinforcements.

Thank you so much for your input, now I understand this a bit better

Do you know when does the AI start putting up archers?

 

[Joshua368]

Thank you so much for your input, now I understand this a bit better

Do you know when does the AI start putting up archers?

Monarch+, the AI begins with Archery.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you're used to axe rushing, it's not harmful to attain cities right up to 0% slider. Just make sure you don't strike, and that the cities you capture can grow (aka good sites, and you have enough to do it).

If you strike you're a sitting duck though, and if it gets really bad you even get workers disbanded, so do try to stop short of that.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I've played as Rome before, where I was at 0% research and losing gold. However, I managed to keep myself afloat just by continuing to war... the gold from razing cities saved me.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I've played as Rome before, where I was at 0% research and losing gold. However, I managed to keep myself afloat just by continuing to war... the gold from razing cities saved me.

Another good trick is to buffer. Turn the slider off well ahead of rushing, and between city capture and the buffer you have time to recover before strike.

I used this trick to win madscientist's 1st lawless hammarabi map - a game where you're not allowed to attain the code of laws tech and therefore can never build courthouses (or tech past a certain point). It was on monarch so domination around 1000 AD was the order of the day.

Very hard, without courthouses you need to spam every trick in the book. Markets in commerce and shrine cities are very strong. Cottages can help slow the bleeding. Extorting/trading techs can be huge...so can selling resources.

Once you get currency some cities can build wealth too...

The best things to get in games like this are those per city wonders like spiral/sankore/AP. Shrines on large or crowded maps tend to be incredibly potent too, so if you can buy enough time to reach one you might never actually strike, even if you're at -40 GPT @ 0% science for a while...

But generally speaking, you have to really know what you're doing to pull nonsense like this off. For people just learning, my best advice is "expand by war, but avoid strike at least".

For me keep vs raze is a function of how well developed/improved the city currently is, and if razing it means losing the spot to another AI.

 

[kensington888]

i like tanks

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Who doesn't, but you're not going to be using them in the BCs without cheating, and in many games you've won or lost by the time tanks are a factor.