Chinese Riders .......

[SunZsu]

are awesome! . . . . by concentrating on Military and Gold, was able to "relieve" Babylonians of the Great Library .... built a few Riders initially, then stupid Shaka declared war on me, so I wasted his Impis with a Rider, which began my Golden Age - and big military build-up .... later needed saltpeter to upgrade my Pikeman .... Alexander wouldn't trade or sell it, so I "convinced" him to give it to me in Peace Treaty, along with a few other Techs ..... nothing like watching Riders roll over Hoplites and archers . ... didn't kill him or Hammy completely yet - seems good to let them do Tech research for me, then when they have a couple that I want, I send 10-15 Riders to level their capital, and then they are all to happy to provide them to me ......
eventually they got Knights, and had some success against my Riders when they attacked first .... but, when Riders attack, they win quite frequently against Knights, Pikemen, etc ... and for fighting a 2 front war, they can quickly move from one end of your empire to the other (mp of 3 is great) .... and the really good part is that they upgrade to Cavalry, so while everybody else is going for democracy, etc. I push research toward military tradition (and then Cavalry) ..... along the way was able to build Leonardo's Workshop thanks to a leader, so when I get Military Tradition will mass upgrade Riders to Cavalry .... everyone is "furious" with me, well "TS", because the THE GOLDEN HORDE WILL RIDE ON EACH OF THEM IN TURN!!!! :vampire:

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The ground trembles at the approach of the Great Khan's Riders - THE GOLDEN HORDE!

 

[Barker]

That's the spirit.

I love it when my own hordes of Riders overrun the infidels

 

[Bifrost]

Chinese riders - another Enigma of Civ3. Playing Chinese, I cant find the riders more useful than, for example the immortals, but the computer with riders is a 100% death for everyone.

Once upon a time I downloaded an elite 1-1 game from civtourn site. I Developed rapidly - I found a settler in a hut, and then met Japanese - they were so close to me that i decided to exchange science with them to get warrior code, and without building a settler in Moscow, started producing archers. I easily defeated them (they even didn't manage to built the second city!!! - hahaha ). then i defeated them once and once more until the advisor informed me about their disappearing. Then I made englishmen and Germans (to the north) fighting each other, I gathered a strong military and captured all German towns. I made a lot of towns on the southern end of continent - so I had the largest territory, the best score. I prepared my forces to attack Englismen,my last(and the world last too) tech was chivalry but suddenly the chinese totally defeated french and came to my land with 2 armies!!! In the begining of midages!!! they also had about 20 riders - they moved so rapidly!!! They captured a lot of my cities , because though my army was much larger than theirs and consisted of Knights, they defeated my offensive forces in 4 turns after they declared war!
That was the real Great Horde - rapid and deathbringing

 

[Hades]

I don't like the knight class of units. 4 attack is simply not enough to attack pikemen with 3 defense and bonus against mounted units and they are too expensive to build.

 

[JuicyCivNewbie]

Which is why you should upgrade them from horsemen They are invincible when upgraded to cavalry too and even with the 4 attack remember they can still retreat when losing in combat which gives them considerably more survivability.

Riders are just great though. They move fast enough in the period they exist to blitz through enemy territory. They also make up for the lower defence vs Samurai by their manouvreability.

 

[Moonsinger]

Yup, Chinese Raider is my favorite special unit.

 

[Hades]

I still use my good old swordsmen in early middle age. They are cheap to build and good enough attack level to fight pikemen. 80gp is too expensive to upgrade, especially when I have several hundred per turn payment from buying techs and military alliances.

 

[JuicyCivNewbie]

I make sure to save up as much cash as possible in preparation for knights. It's the only big upgrade you'll have to do in the game though, the others are much cheaper (20 gold to upgrade to cavalry!). Then I use the knights to force peace treaties on my victims for techs. As for military alliances, the only time I get into them is when my opponent is offering gold for me to declare war.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I love the Rider too; the +1 mp can be a real life-saver. It makes for a great mobile defense unit, esp when you have long borders or two or more borders at different ends of the empire.

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by Hades
I don't like the knight class of units. 4 attack is simply not enough to attack pikemen with 3 defense and bonus against mounted units and they are too expensive to build.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're mistaken: in civ3, there's no bonus against mounted units.
You're right about the 4 attack strength though. But then again, the power lies in multiples. Plus that knights retreat half of the time, which saves you some unit.
By the way, knight vs. pike is a better matchup than cavalry vs. rifle.

 

[SunZsu]

at the beginning of this thread that I was playing at Monarch level.... so it is quite satisfying to kick the AI's butt since it cheats so much anyway at this (and from what I have heard) higher levels . . . . use the Rider wisely i.e. en masse, Raze large cities (so you don't have to garrison heavily or worry about revolts), and follow-up the advance with Settlerss escorted by Pikeman ...it's a real treat to watch a smug AI suddenly become humble as you conquer his territory, raze his cities, and then found your own . . . the AI seems to become much more receptive to your peace treaty terms after a few rounds of this treatment ....

The Khan and His Glorious Golden Horde take no S_hit from anybody - especially a machine!!!!

 

[Hades]

I remember reading from other threads that Spearmen and Pikemen have defensive bonus against mounted units. Can't prove or disprove this but I have assumed that it is true because my cavalry units always have more difficult time fighting pikemen than musketeers.

 

[bbaws]

Fast units are nice but a mixed force is my preference and I'm delighted with it. All these mad cavalry charges must knacker you for war weariness. It's like the two bulls. Young bull "Let's run down there and f*** one of those cows, dad!" "No, son, let's walk down and *uck them all."

 

[dannyevilcat]

My games don't really begin until I get knights-type units. They are worth every shield.

I assure you there are no defensive bonuses against mounted units in Civ3. There were in Civ2, though.

 

[bbaws]

I'm not entirely convinced about this no bonus issue. Pikemen seem to die a hell of a lot quicker to swordsmen than knights.

 

[Neomega]

nope, no pikeman defensive bonus. If there were it would be editable in the scenario editor, and it aint.