Darius!

[paulcarri]

Ok so after far too many island games, and far to many games as the english i decided to roll a pangea game with a random leader (emp difficulty)..

And got darius- start was ok, 2 cows and a marble hill to settle on.. teched AH , saw horsies 6 tiles away and settled next to it.. popped mining and fishing with scouts, so teched the wheel and bronze working


Then, i decided to whip and chop a horde of immortals and.... well what can i say?

They are just so effective, good against archers, can defend ok too and are a quick unit for pillaging..i cut off romes copper (didnt want to meet spearmen) and not long later.. i have a bunch of roman cities..possibly the smoothest rush ive done?

Looking at darius traits - fin and org? it looks like he should be great for an economy and also be able to handle lots of conquered cities better than most..plus cheap courthouses? makes that easier still

So.. darius seems pretty much a perfect leader... can someone spot a downside??.

If anything it seems easier than incans since immortals are slower to go obsolete?

Finally im curious, do people playing darius tend to go immortal crazy as soon as they have horses? or can you afford to settle a few cities first?

EDIT

in this game i didnt wait.. because i was worried about rome getting iron working and praetorians.. in reality how quickly do you see that happening on emp??

 

[Quibblesome]

Last time I tried to take cities with archers with immortals it did not go very well, especially ones on hills. What were your combat odds like?

The main issue with the Persians is that the Egyptians UU is billions of times better.

 

[Xunin]

Playing Darius feels like playing the game at one or even two difficulties below chosen settings. Provided he can at least claim horses, even questionable starts turn into complete roflstomps. While Immortals aren't as good as War Chariots in terms of raw power, having two economic traits (org being the most important) greatly helps in settling the captured cities, making Darius better (imo) than the egyptians at rushing.

 

[paulcarri]

Last time I tried to take cities with archers with immortals it did not go very well, especially ones on hills. What were your combat odds like?

The main issue with the Persians is that the Egyptians UU is billions of times better.

Ill have to check the odds when i get home, but generally to kill 2 archers i lost 3-4 immortals (i built 20) ...it worked out better than an axe rush though which is what i would normally do as the english.

I chopped down acres of forest in the process.

And hmm just looked at war chariot, it does look better, but i think darius traits are better though?

 

[paulcarri]

should add

when axe rushing, inevitably i start facing axes fortified in cities, which contributes to it rolling to a halt

With these, axemen arent an issue?.

 

[Fippy]

but i think darius traits are better though?

Questionable..both Ramsy and Hatshy also have great traits, and 1 better starting tech.

 

[paulcarri]

Questionable..both Ramsy and Hatshy also have great traits, and 1 better starting tech.

I guess it depends on the map?

In my game, i had my marble hill to settle (love 3h in city tile) and two cow, normally i groan when cow is my starting food

being able to go straight to AH was perfect for me.

 

[CivMcNut]

I love playing Darius too. I have more games in my hall of fame with Persia on them than any other civ, and some of my Persia games were the highest score. Yes a War Chariot is better than an immortal, but still having a chariot that can take out archers is a huge boost. I like Darius' traits the most, I love having financial and being able to get extra commerce from tiles. Then you throw in organized with cheaper government and easy to build courthouses and you really have a great combo for your economy. This makes winning a dominatoin game a whole lot easier.

 

[silverjack100]

Funny that you post this, I just played my first Darius game the other day and couldn't believe how awesome the UU was. I DoW on Monty and Kublei in the same turn with two stacks and take 4 cities early off. Wiped em both off the map and went on to win my highest scoring and earliest win ever. I think its time to up the difficulty next game.

 

[paulcarri]

Funny that you post this, I just played my first Darius game the other day and couldn't believe how awesome the UU was. I DoW on Monty and Kublei in the same turn with two stacks and take 4 cities early off. Wiped em both off the map and went on to win my highest scoring and earliest win ever. I think its time to up the difficulty next game.

It can go wrong though if they get metal up and decide to spam spearmen

Having played both the immortal, and the quechua recently, i still think the quechua is the most broken unit ever...every time i play inca i end up with too many cities

The ai should start building other units the second they see incans on the border...

 

[CivMcNut]

I keep hearing about these Incans on here, I guess I had better give them a try. A unique unit you can build at the begining of the game sounds awesome. I am enjoying playing Babylon, they have a tough unique unit that comes early for defense and have that aggresive trait helps out all their metal units.

 

[Cort Haus]

I've never used his UU but his traits are a superb combo.