China Rider Strategy

[Divaythsarmour]

I struggle to win domination strategies on small maps playing at monarch level. I have an idea for how to do it with China. Here it is:

• China is industrious and militaristic.
• Build a barracks first in the capitol and then toggle between archers and settlers at proper intervals maintaining optimal happiness
• Build workers first in every new city and barracks, archers if economy can handle it.
• Spread out as quickly as possible.
• Try to find other civs and uses workers (ind) to build roads toward them.
• Study wheel and iron and hook those resources up as soon as possible.
• Beeline research toward monarch next, then chivalry... and don't worry about research after chivalry.
• Take every opportunity to capture AI cities pop 2 or higher (don't bother with pop 1's). Build temples first in every AI captured city. Hurry the build when possible.
• Take every AI Capitol possible.
• Should be able to win domination strategy with Riders.

If this strategy resembles someone elses, then it's coincidence. I welcome all thoughts and ideas. Now I need to go make it happen.

 

[Yoda Power]

+ Go for Republic. Small maps means short wars, so war wearness won't be a big problem.

I don't see the point in going specifically after ai capitals.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

I suppose taking the capitals is more of an early game idea as they won't be destroyed the same as population 1 cities.

It would be interesting to compare republic and monarchy with most other variables equal. My concern with republic's higher unit cost. But I suppose it has other advantages and I can imagine getting to chivalry quicker with republic.

 

[Buttercup]

If the purpose of the game is to win with Chinese Riders then all you're concerned about is getting to Chivalry and then going for it. If that's the sole objective then I recommend the following adjustments:

1. Do a little cheat first. Run the map on Ceiftan level and learn where all the resources and luxuries and rival are, how they spead out etc. Then do the map in Monarch knowing how best to allocate workers and settlers.

2. Produce 1 settler from your capital city then prioritise it for economy and military production. Use your second city to spam settlers and workers. You'll probably only need 3-5 settlements before you lose it all to corruption anyway, time to go beat up the nearest civ with all those units the capital has produced and the others are just starting to produce.

3. Bee-line research for Republic, try and get to Philosophy after Code of Laws before the other civs to jump to Republic for free. Switch immediately and suffer a 6/3/0 economy for a while then gradually build it back to 3/6/1. This should get you to Chivalry quicker. Once at chivalry it wouldn't hurt any to go ararchy for a couple of turns then use Monarchy if you have the tech. If not just stick with republic.

Sounds like you have a good plan there overall

oh, and someone here suggested waiting for libraries to culture your towns and use the slider if need be to make towns keep happy (using entertainers instead for long distance corrupt towns) and I have to say I seem to be getting along ok with this as it frees up 4 or 5 gp and a lot of production time in the early stages. I might switch back to temples first at some point, especially for domination or culture victories, but for a military victory you just need a lead in the tech, enough money to pump units and enough production at one town to pump one unit every 2 or 3 turns with some neat back-up from slower towns at 5-6 turns per unit.

 

[pol1]

consider going to war much earlier with horses.
building riders from scratch would be much more difficult than upgrading existing army. extra gold form REP roads helps a lot.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

I've played Civ 3 for eight years and I still didn't know you could change difficulty levels after you've started a game. How do you do that?

 

[Divaythsarmour]

consider going to war much earlier with horses.
building riders from scratch would be much more difficult than upgrading existing army. extra gold form REP roads helps a lot.

Heck I went and took Delhi and Bangalore with a stack of 5 archers. Then I demanded Gandhi give me 3 techs.

Your point is understood and well taken.

 

[Ataxerxes]

@Div - Welcome back! I haven't seen you post for a long time. Your avator is memorable. I don't think you can change the difficulty mid game. I think what Buttercup means is to start a game and then save the map as a scenario to pick up later.

@Buttercup - I don't think most people would endorse looking at the map first. Feels like too much of a cheat. And I'd want to build more than 3-5 towns for unit support if nothing else.

The Republic slingshot is what you're describing works for almost any strategy unless you prefer Monarchy. It's how I approach most starts and is one reason I like Commercial so much.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

Thanks Ataxerxes! It's good to be back.

I was able to win a domination game, although technically speaking I had cavalry at the time of the win. Most of what got me there were the horsemen and then the riders. It was the strangest game I ever played.

I was way behind on techs all the time. I chose Representation as advised rather than Monarchy. I took one of the AI Capitols and captured the Great Library. That didn't get me to Chivalry but it sure helped. Once I got to Chivalry I turned the research slider all the way off and just used the gold for rush building etc.

I had a technologically superior Mongolia next door that was more powerful for most of the game. He declared war on me a couple of times and it was all I could do to hold on to my border cities when he attacked. My preference was to not fight him any more than I had too. At one point I even gave him 50gpt for peace.

One thing about rider armies - they are super tough. I found that if there's a barracks in my city, and a couple of musketmen, my rider armies could survive just about anything that Mongolia threw at them. There were times when huge stacks from Mongolia were destroyed by my much smaller forces that included army's with Elite riders.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I'd recommend ignoring archers and barracks in the early game and just build warriors and settlers. Give in to AI demands and just expand.

once you've expanded as far as you can go (making sure you have horse and iron, of course), then build the barracks for the riders...

 

[del62]

I would also learn engineering if lots of rivers about.

 

[WWTVICTOR]

China's shunned government is monarchy, isn't it?

 

[del62]

The shunned government only has an effect on when the AI is that CIV, is not in that government and your are in that government. The effect even then is low, just for attitude for things like UN vote.