T-hawk
Transcend
I'm probably about the millionth person to discover this, but I've found an unstoppable strategy against the AI is to beeline for Military Tradition and Cavalry.
In my current Emperor level game, I had a group of about 10 cavalry beat back a horde of over 30 swordsmen and longbows with barely any losses.
The AI simply can't deal with the sheer speed of Cavalry. The trick to using them is the ability to hit-and-run made possible by the 3 speed. They can take one or two steps on a road to the edge of your territory, attack into enemy territory to kill a unit, move back over the border and then one more step to safety. This is important!
Declare or provoke war, and let the AI come to you for a few turns to tear apart their army with hit-and-run tactics. If you do this right, no move-1 unit can ever attack you! Horsemen can't dent cavalry, and the AI doesn't seem to figure out to build Knights until the cavalry have already done their damage.
Military Tradition is quite a low priority for the AI to research (they seem to love Physics and Theory of Gravity) so you'll likely have the Cavalry game to yourself for several dozen turns.
Also, the AI doesn't build musketmen very fast. If you can get to Military Tradition within about 30 turns of the AI getting Gunpowder, you'll see at most one musketman defending each city. Elite cavalry can often beat that; or another way is to form a cavalry Army once you get a leader and use that to root out the fortified musketman in each city.
One last thing that Cavalry are very good at is rushing into enemy territory to pillage the saltpeter. If you can pull that off, the entire enemy civ is yours if you want it.
Once you reach the Middle Ages, feel free to completely ignore the Education side of the tree. Build Horsemen in the meantime. When you reach Military Tradition, turn off the research entirely, use the cash to upgrade all the horsemen (snagging Leonardo's along the way is a great idea), conquer a civ or three, and the game is won.
In my current Emperor level game, I had a group of about 10 cavalry beat back a horde of over 30 swordsmen and longbows with barely any losses.
The AI simply can't deal with the sheer speed of Cavalry. The trick to using them is the ability to hit-and-run made possible by the 3 speed. They can take one or two steps on a road to the edge of your territory, attack into enemy territory to kill a unit, move back over the border and then one more step to safety. This is important!
Declare or provoke war, and let the AI come to you for a few turns to tear apart their army with hit-and-run tactics. If you do this right, no move-1 unit can ever attack you! Horsemen can't dent cavalry, and the AI doesn't seem to figure out to build Knights until the cavalry have already done their damage.
Military Tradition is quite a low priority for the AI to research (they seem to love Physics and Theory of Gravity) so you'll likely have the Cavalry game to yourself for several dozen turns.
Also, the AI doesn't build musketmen very fast. If you can get to Military Tradition within about 30 turns of the AI getting Gunpowder, you'll see at most one musketman defending each city. Elite cavalry can often beat that; or another way is to form a cavalry Army once you get a leader and use that to root out the fortified musketman in each city.
One last thing that Cavalry are very good at is rushing into enemy territory to pillage the saltpeter. If you can pull that off, the entire enemy civ is yours if you want it.
Once you reach the Middle Ages, feel free to completely ignore the Education side of the tree. Build Horsemen in the meantime. When you reach Military Tradition, turn off the research entirely, use the cash to upgrade all the horsemen (snagging Leonardo's along the way is a great idea), conquer a civ or three, and the game is won.
