Does Anyone REX?

[Peacemongerer]

I'm trying to see if the increased happiness you get from G&K makes REXing a more effective strategy... the AI actually outpaced me and Genghis had 4 cities before I hit city 3 (Although nobody else had passed 1 yet). I'm too much of a wonder-hog to devote all the time needed to building settlers and also like the National College too much.

Anyone else experimented with spamming cities quickly post G&K?

 

[grandad1982]

I haven't gone super fast but I have noticed I stay above my happy cap more than I used to in vanilla.

With the rearranging of Liberty I've been finding my REX has slowed down. Also with a nicely buffed Tradition I've been going a bit taller that I perhaps used to in the early game.

 

[Miravlix]

I'm not sure, but since I'm happiness starved in the G&K games I play, I don't think there is a clear happiness boost in G&K.

Sure post-industrial and later you can be drowning in happiness, but expanding fast in the early game doesn't seem any easier than before, religion does give a little extra, but even that boost takes a while. 6 citizen towns, building certain classical buildings, etc.

 

[Slvynn]

GnK have imo 5 civs which are good and desined for rexing. Combined with required addons religion can provide REX is very solid thing in gnk using certain civs for this. Carthage, France,Rome and Arabia..also Byzantium... any GnK REX involves religion involvement

 

[Mesix]

I tend to not REX in CiV that much (neither Vanila nor G&K). I like to develop 3-5 tall cities in the early game regardless of my end game strategy. I find this is good for happiness, provides enough , , and to suit my growth goals, and does not punish me too much for national wonders or civic costs.

 

[Adjuvant]

Rex doesn't have to be "at the beginning". You can build 3-4 "core cities", get your college, then rex 4 if you have the room. I do this often.

 

[ggmoyang]

Rex doesn't have to be "at the beginning". You can build 3-4 "core cities", get your college, then rex 4 if you have the room. I do this often.

Since REX stands for Rapid Early eXpansion, I won't call this as REX.

 

[Adjuvant]

Meh. It's rapid expansion in my book, and "early" is a relative term. I can argue "if I do it before 500 AD, it's early".

"Plopping down" 5 or 6 cities in the first 3000 years only works on prince and below.

 

[Slvynn]

Rex with Carthage :
2 beakers for each city > Library, this allows to postpone NC, and actually boosts early tech before others get NC.

Rex with Arabia : Like Carthage, involves free worker and workers, roads, and gold. Selling more resources and chunking traderoute cash is nice combined with messenger of the gods

France: culture/per city rocks....

Rome: discounts on said libraries/ monuments/shrines is huge.

Byzantium : one megacity (capitol) and almost ics with shrines to get faith edge early, messenger of gods later, and huge pressure from numerous cities combined with Religious Texts, Interfaith (or Tithe) and Preachers? Well that's insane

Rex as it is working well, but only with certain civs + correct map combinations.

 

[Adjuvant]

Rome: discounts on said libraries/ monuments/shrines is huge.

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but think about something... If you're "rex'ing", even as I proposed the term, you're not building these things in "the correct order" for Rome's UA benefit. You'll build scout or warrior, maybe monument, but then you have to build at least one settler and you'll usually want an early wonder... those likely aren't going to be built in your secondary or tertiary cities, at least not in the first few thousand years.

Just saying, the Rome benefit comes later, generally.

 

[Slvynn]

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but think about something... If you're "rex'ing", even as I proposed the term, you're not building these things in "the correct order" for Rome's UA benefit. You'll build scout or warrior, maybe monument, but then you have to build at least one settler and you'll usually want an early wonder... those likely aren't going to be built in your secondary or tertiary cities, at least not in the first few thousand years.

Just saying, the Rome benefit comes later, generally.

Order may vary depending on your rivals and level.
If you are on Immortal +
Rex involves, imo, per-city benefit, in terms of G&K very good example is Messenger of The Gods. You are not going for any early wonders. You will take them later, and build wonders after medieval. Capital builds workers and necessary buildings for REX. Optimal order is actually : Shrine > Library > Monument (sometimes Monument before Library)
Using early small research buff and another few beakers from Messenger you could get Philo earlier, and by time you get it, you should be able to crunch out NC.

2nd city will start with shrine > worker or warrior, and then gets to normal building procedure.

Thus you get really nice resource grab and +4-+5 faith p/t without natural wonders (those are just matter of luck)

Then you get NC despite having lots of cities (which continue to grow)

The issue here is happiness > but for that you luxury hunt.
Early trade routes should put your economy in ok state.

Free worker from Liberty should come before Free settler

 

[Adjuvant]

Shrines are horrible. I haven't built one in the opening line-up since the first week.

 

[RealHuhn]

I'm trying to see if the increased happiness you get from G&K makes REXing a more effective strategy... the AI actually outpaced me and Genghis had 4 cities before I hit city 3 (Although nobody else had passed 1 yet). I'm too much of a wonder-hog to devote all the time needed to building settlers and also like the National College too much.

Anyone else experimented with spamming cities quickly post G&K?

It definately pays off when you have enough space.

In my last game as The Celts, I went Liberty and as soon as it was available, quick Piety opener and Organized Religion (cheaper shrines and temples, and +1 faith for both).
I quickly gained 50 faith per turn and could purchase a Pagoda (+2,+2,+2) every 4th turn which (combined with +1 per city from Liberty) completely eliminates the additional happiness per city.

So I quickly got 15 cities without any major happiness problems and as soon as I got universities and filled the scientist slots, my science per turn jumped from 200 to about 500 and with public schools and a few more policies to 1200 beakers per turn without Rationalism. (that was on turn 230 on standard speed).

So yeah, given the right map and civ, it works much better than in vanilla. On emperor+, you need a strong military though because the AI will get mad at you more often than not.

 

[Slvynn]

Shrines are horrible. I haven't built one in the opening line-up since the first week.

Religion and Pantheon necessary for REX in GnK. Shrines give you edge which needed to take Religion at hi lvls and to make it functional.
Shrine/Temple +2 food +3 faith is very good things, and if one don't build shrines in any game thats perhaps his mistake because in many cases you want those shrines.
Messenger of Gods is very powerful. Then Pagodas / Shrine-Temple food, and Religious texts combined with Tithe/CB.
If you play w/o shrines you neglect Religion, and in many cases seems weakness to me.

ps: such rex strat is only way Byzantium can get religion without luck of having faith wonders at Immortal+ levels = rex shrine spam

 

[Adjuvant]

The closest I come to "having a shrine early on" is when I spend cash to buy one. If I'm not playing Celts or Ethiopia, and I have no nearby holy mountain or religious city for which to kill barbarians, I beeline stonehenge, or if that fails, hagia sophia. The closest I came to "not founding a religion" was this...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=467753

 

[Karmah]

Order may vary depending on your rivals and level.
If you are on Immortal +
Rex involves, imo, per-city benefit, in terms of G&K very good example is Messenger of The Gods. You are not going for any early wonders. You will take them later, and build wonders after medieval. Capital builds workers and necessary buildings for REX. Optimal order is actually : Shrine > Library > Monument (sometimes Monument before Library)
Using early small research buff and another few beakers from Messenger you could get Philo earlier, and by time you get it, you should be able to crunch out NC.

2nd city will start with shrine > worker or warrior, and then gets to normal building procedure.

Thus you get really nice resource grab and +4-+5 faith p/t without natural wonders (those are just matter of luck)

Then you get NC despite having lots of cities (which continue to grow)

The issue here is happiness > but for that you luxury hunt.
Early trade routes should put your economy in ok state.

Free worker from Liberty should come before Free settler

I m trying to picture rexing early game. I see how you try to stack little +1 /+2 by multiplying cities. I don't really see the timeline tough , especially for the settlers.

Where do the settlerS fit in this build order ? do you wait until you get your fourth SP to get your second city ? and then what about the third , after monument in the second city ?


EDIT: thx for the answer

 

[RealHuhn]

I m trying to picture rexing early game. I see how you try to stack little +1 /+2 by multiplying cities. I don't really see the timeline tough , especially for the settlers.

Where do the settlerS fit in this build order ? do you wait until you get your fourth SP to get your second city ? and then what about the third , after monument in the second city ?

I always go free settler first, otherwise it takes ages to get it and your REX is delayed.

Actually, a very good trick is to sell your gold per turn for cash. A worker costs 310 on standard size/speed and you often get around 200-250 gold before turn 30 by scouting city states, selling embassies, finding ruins etc. Selling 4gpt gives you 90 gold and then you can rushbuy a worker.
Which is much faster than the Liberty policy anyway.

Of course, it only works when you scout well enough and have gold tiles in your capital.

In general, when you want to rushbuy in early game, a worker has the best hammers per gold ratio. Shrines and monuments have the worst ratio, so I wouldn't recommend to rushbuy them.

 

[Slvynn]

I m trying to picture rexing early game. I see how you try to stack little +1 /+2 into a lot of cities. I don't really see the timeline tough , especially and it s key,the settlers.

Where do the settlerS fit in this build order ? do you wait until you get your fourth SP to get your second city ? and then what about the third , after monument in the second city ?

Obcourse settlers are being built, i just didnt mentioned, Its hard for me to give you exact map when and why because i am not before my Rome game. You generally chop them.
First one goes early - chopped - the queue in cap is liek this : Monument > Worker started > (pottery ticks in) Shrine > Worker finished> Warrior > Settler > Settler > Library
2nd city is : Shrine > Warrior or Worker > Monument> Settler > Library
3rd > Shrine > Monument > Library > Warrior/Archer
4th > Shrine > Monument > Library (or Lib before M)
etc...as far as i remember it, may be i am not so precies, but this is general order.
You chop settlers, settle on (yes, right on!) or near lux (worse for rex, better long run)), do quick roads.

gold could be used to buy moneument or shrine in later cities.

 

[Adjuvant]

Now I feel argumentative, but in an immortal game, how are you building 3 cities with your 2 warrior defense?

 

[RealHuhn]

Obcourse settlers are being built, i just didnt mentioned, Its hard for me to give you exact map when and why because i am not before my Rome game. You generally chop them.
First one goes early - chopped - the queue in cap is liek this : Monument > Worker started > (pottery ticks in) Shrine > Worker finished> Warrior > Settler > Settler > Library
2nd city is : Shrine > Warrior or Worker > Monument> Settler > Library
3rd > Shrine > Monument > Library > Warrior/Archer
4th > Shrine > Monument > Library (or Lib before M)
etc...as far as i remember it, may be i am not so precies, but this is general order.
You chop settlers, settle on (yes, right on!) or near lux (worse for rex, better long run)), do quick roads.

gold could be used to buy moneument or shrine in later cities.

How the hell do you want to REX effectively when you don't know your surrounding land? You definately should build a scout first or second after monument.
a) for scouting good city locations and luxuries
b) for getting gold, meeting civs, getting CS quests etc.

Other than that, it's a good buildorder!