Martin Alvito
Real men play SMAC
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 2,332
The idea here is to exploit the free GS from Meritocracy, as well as the Babs' free GS, to duplicate the functionality of Scientific Revolution in the old Babylonian Rifle Rush. Research Agreements get you to Gunpowder, and from there two free bulbs will get you to Rifling.
This is attractive for two reasons. First, it can be completed as early as turn 80 or so. Your opponents shouldn't have anything that can stay on the field with you for a long, long time. Second, you can stay small, let the AIs colonize the map and improve it, and then puppet like mad and win by Culture quickly.
You can do this with anyone if you're willing to wait for about ten extra turns to block Chemistry, but the Babylonians are the fastest at this since you can get two Great Scientists without ever making a move to Education.
1) Play a standard NC first start. The opening is up in the air right now with all the changes in the patch. IIRC, I went Scout -> Worker -> NC, buying the Library. The attached game was a little lame, since I found El Dorado. I threw that at a Cultural city-state to get Landed Elite ASAP.
2) Tech order should be Pottery -> Writing -> luxuries -> Philosophy, unless you settled on something that can be Mined. Even then, my experience has been that you want to push Writing at present, unless you're going to deploy a Worker with nothing to do before Mining finishes.
3) Once you have the NC up, you need to do some research and some blocking. You need to block the following:
- Sailing
- Trapping
- Horseback Riding
- Theology
- Currency
- Machinery
and you also need to research Engineering, Iron Working and all prerequisites. Blocking Machinery is a pain because you have to research Engineering first.
4) You also will need a minimum of four Research Agreements, so you'll need Scouts to find everyone.
5) Finally, you'll need to secure a source of Iron so you can upgrade Warriors.
6) Pick a target, insert Rifles in a very uncomfortable place (not the back of a Volkswagen) and pull the trigger until it goes "click".
If you want to do this with anyone else, you'll need a delayed RA behind the first four, so that you have time to block Chemistry. Then you can collect Metallurgy with the RA and bulb Rifling. Songhai would be perfect for this approach, as the tripled pillage would let you upgrade an absolute horde of Warriors.
This is attractive for two reasons. First, it can be completed as early as turn 80 or so. Your opponents shouldn't have anything that can stay on the field with you for a long, long time. Second, you can stay small, let the AIs colonize the map and improve it, and then puppet like mad and win by Culture quickly.
You can do this with anyone if you're willing to wait for about ten extra turns to block Chemistry, but the Babylonians are the fastest at this since you can get two Great Scientists without ever making a move to Education.
1) Play a standard NC first start. The opening is up in the air right now with all the changes in the patch. IIRC, I went Scout -> Worker -> NC, buying the Library. The attached game was a little lame, since I found El Dorado. I threw that at a Cultural city-state to get Landed Elite ASAP.
2) Tech order should be Pottery -> Writing -> luxuries -> Philosophy, unless you settled on something that can be Mined. Even then, my experience has been that you want to push Writing at present, unless you're going to deploy a Worker with nothing to do before Mining finishes.
3) Once you have the NC up, you need to do some research and some blocking. You need to block the following:
- Sailing
- Trapping
- Horseback Riding
- Theology
- Currency
- Machinery
and you also need to research Engineering, Iron Working and all prerequisites. Blocking Machinery is a pain because you have to research Engineering first.
4) You also will need a minimum of four Research Agreements, so you'll need Scouts to find everyone.
5) Finally, you'll need to secure a source of Iron so you can upgrade Warriors.
6) Pick a target, insert Rifles in a very uncomfortable place (not the back of a Volkswagen) and pull the trigger until it goes "click".
If you want to do this with anyone else, you'll need a delayed RA behind the first four, so that you have time to block Chemistry. Then you can collect Metallurgy with the RA and bulb Rifling. Songhai would be perfect for this approach, as the tripled pillage would let you upgrade an absolute horde of Warriors.
, and although it's down the military line you need most of those techs to clear the Industrial bottleneck. Also, only settling two cities means that SPs will come in a hurry.
