So I finally decided to give Persia a shot. I also thought it would be such a shame if i couldn't put the Immortal UU to good use. So I sat down and did some thinking and testing. I tried the strategy I came up with 3 times on Immortal difficulty(small map), and it worked every time! Here's what I did:
Settle your first city, build a scout, then a monument. Focus on finding your closest neighbors and choose one of them for the rush - if the target has 2 luxury resources, then that is great!
Social policies: Liberty, Citizenship, then Representation - if you're quick enough, the GA from the SP should line up perfectly either right before the rush or during the rush.
For techs, beeline straight to Bronze Working. Start pumping out Immortals. Prioritize luxury resources with your worker. You should get Trapping and Writing ASAP after Bronze Working - other than that, pick what is needed. Animal Husbandry isn't a bad idea if you have horses/cattle/sheep. You might want to get Calendar too, if you need the money. Sell Open Borders to everyone and sell ALL your luxury resources. You can also sell horses for some easy cash.
Keep building and buying as many Immortals as possible, I find that 6 should do the trick. Also try to hit some Ruins with your Warrior - if he gets upgraded to an Immortal, you can rush faster.
When you're ready, move your mighty troops towards the target. If you're feeling exploitative you can rob him of his gold before declaring, but it's not really necessary. DO NOT denounce him before you attack! Doing so will just give you more enemies.
It is VERY important that you don't lose any of your troops early! You have double heal speed and 3 movement, use it to move your wounded units out of range to heal. Give the Medic promotion to all your Immortals.
Once you have disposed of all the enemy warriors, just slowly surround the city - use Fortify as needed. Make sure you capture any workers/settlers so you can quickly turn the city into a puppet gold farm! When they're in position, take the city out.
If the AI already has two cities, no big deal. Just don't lose any units and kill all the warriors and you will easily be able to conquer both cities - in fact, this might even be a good thing
It will most likely give you your first Great General for an extended GA, plus more promotions for your units.
From here on you can do whatever you want. You have a very strong start with lots of gold income and happiness. You can do a delayed NC start(that's what I did). You can settle some more cities(I settled 2-3) and you will still have a strong culture output. You can beeline Civil Service and use the GE from Meritocracy to rush build Chichen Itza for some sweet long-lasting GAs. You can try to conquer another AI, but it might not work and will probably make you public enemy #1.
In the game I finished, I went for a builder approach after the initial rush. I used the Immortals to defend against barbs and deter other AIs from attacking me. Washington became my best friend, but some of the other AIs became guarded/hostile. I bribed Washy to DoW the hostile ones to keep them off my back.
Eventually I did a rifle/cannon rush and won the game with my sweeeeet upgraded Immortal/riflemen
So what do you think guys? Is it a valid strategy? Is it worth taking Representation?
I hope the post was written well enough
I get easily confused by my own writing, lol.
Settle your first city, build a scout, then a monument. Focus on finding your closest neighbors and choose one of them for the rush - if the target has 2 luxury resources, then that is great!
Social policies: Liberty, Citizenship, then Representation - if you're quick enough, the GA from the SP should line up perfectly either right before the rush or during the rush.
For techs, beeline straight to Bronze Working. Start pumping out Immortals. Prioritize luxury resources with your worker. You should get Trapping and Writing ASAP after Bronze Working - other than that, pick what is needed. Animal Husbandry isn't a bad idea if you have horses/cattle/sheep. You might want to get Calendar too, if you need the money. Sell Open Borders to everyone and sell ALL your luxury resources. You can also sell horses for some easy cash.
Keep building and buying as many Immortals as possible, I find that 6 should do the trick. Also try to hit some Ruins with your Warrior - if he gets upgraded to an Immortal, you can rush faster.
When you're ready, move your mighty troops towards the target. If you're feeling exploitative you can rob him of his gold before declaring, but it's not really necessary. DO NOT denounce him before you attack! Doing so will just give you more enemies.
It is VERY important that you don't lose any of your troops early! You have double heal speed and 3 movement, use it to move your wounded units out of range to heal. Give the Medic promotion to all your Immortals.
Once you have disposed of all the enemy warriors, just slowly surround the city - use Fortify as needed. Make sure you capture any workers/settlers so you can quickly turn the city into a puppet gold farm! When they're in position, take the city out.
If the AI already has two cities, no big deal. Just don't lose any units and kill all the warriors and you will easily be able to conquer both cities - in fact, this might even be a good thing
It will most likely give you your first Great General for an extended GA, plus more promotions for your units. From here on you can do whatever you want. You have a very strong start with lots of gold income and happiness. You can do a delayed NC start(that's what I did). You can settle some more cities(I settled 2-3) and you will still have a strong culture output. You can beeline Civil Service and use the GE from Meritocracy to rush build Chichen Itza for some sweet long-lasting GAs. You can try to conquer another AI, but it might not work and will probably make you public enemy #1.
In the game I finished, I went for a builder approach after the initial rush. I used the Immortals to defend against barbs and deter other AIs from attacking me. Washington became my best friend, but some of the other AIs became guarded/hostile. I bribed Washy to DoW the hostile ones to keep them off my back.
Eventually I did a rifle/cannon rush and won the game with my sweeeeet upgraded Immortal/riflemen
So what do you think guys? Is it a valid strategy? Is it worth taking Representation?
I hope the post was written well enough
I get easily confused by my own writing, lol.
What I really like with the Liberty start I used is that you can also get Chichen Itza with Meritocracy very quickly for those awesome super-long GAs. And you will gain SPs slightly faster after settling new cities.
