Well, I just won that game. I swept all but Montezuma and Suleiman off the map- Suleiman was on another continent and Monty had Swordsmen when my immortals finally reached him, so I didn't declare war.
I got Monty to declare war on Suleiman and went into peaceful builder mode for a bit, then switched back into military production once I got access to musket men because my relative military power was seriously dropping off.
Then I built up a bit more, all the while preparing my infrastructure for one massive strike on Monty. I started cranking out tanks like there was no tomorrow....
And then I won a diplomatic victory.
Usually I NEVER win those, so I wasn't really expecting it to go in my favor
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Just out of curiosity, how do you guys start off when playing as Cyrus? Usually I start cranking out scouts while I research animal husbandry, then mining, then bronzeworking (generally around bronzeworking I switch to warriors to secure sites that have horses or bronze nearby).
Of course the scouts are out there frantically looking for horses or bronze.
Ruiling a full contninent sounds nice but expect to get technologically behind the AI unless you get optics early, trading speed it up,
Yeah, I know. It seems somewhat counterintuitive though- if its the same number of cities doing the researching, what does it matter that they all belong to me (as opposed to having some of them belong to an AI with whom I trade techs)?
Is it because of maintenance costs bogging my economy down?
and the point of owning a whole continent is so you DONT have to spam setters but can do it as your economy can bear.
It just drives me insane when I'm eyeing this juicy spot, but I don't want to strain my economy, and when I finally get around to it, the AI has taken that area -_-;.
Dont you mass your forces on their boarder strategically before going to war?
Of course.
Ussually becasue of hills and forrests Calvary rush is not faster or barely faster than axeman rush, Typically the AI has three teir culture, so two moves and one round of attack (Becasue I assume we are talking way preseige)
Well, in ultra early game you can often get your stack in the little corner of the fat cross, allowing you to declare war and attack in the same turn.
Also, reinforcements arrive sooner with mounted units. Anyway, remember that Immortals are chariots, not horsemen (graphic notwithstanding).
As for resources, If your lucky enogh to have a builder society close they may not get archers for quite a while (and if there is a hill near their city you can see what is in their city at teir 2 culture)
Yeah, the sad thing is that I don't really mind the builders- its the aggressive types I want to get rid of ASAP... and naturally those are the ones who spam archers and bunker up at the first sign of danger
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If you get archery fast you can sometimes get a second capital with as few as three archers, but this situation is rare, you must build archers FAST, and I doubt it ever happens above prince.
This sounds like a job for... BOWMEN!...
Well they've gotta be used for SOMETHING
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In the end though I like Cyrus becasue of his high level late game units more than his early game UU, Geting Combat 4-5 units out of training is amazing with tanks
BTW, in lategame does anyone switch back to vassalage/theocracy when producing lots of units? Is it worth it to do so when you have west point and a bunch of military instructors in the same city, or do you get wtfpwnt by diminishing returns?
How about with a charismatic leader?
