Early Aggressive Shoshone Strategy

[El Caballerion]

So I had about 2 hours to play last night (resulting in my being barely awake at work right now), and found a cool way to rock out as Shoshone in an aggressive way in the early game (FYI, I was playing on MARATHON & IMMORTAL).

Basically, settle ASAP and start building a Pathfinder. Then, with your current Pathfinder (since you start the game off with one), find a ruin and immediately choose the option to upgrade to a composite bowman. Immediately attack ANY civilization that has a scout (a great idea since enemy scouts will take away all those tasty ruins that you need to become a powerhouse). Keep doing this while exploring, and even if you find yourself at war with 3 civs (no more than 3), you'll still have the most powerful unit of the game thus far.

When the next Pathfinder is found, upgrade him as well upon finding a ruin. Obviously, you'll eventually run out of ruins, but you'll grab some good tech/culture/religion bonuses.

Use your two Composite Bowmans to terrorize surrounding CIVS, kill their units, raze their improvements, and hopefully kidnap a worker or two. You wont be in a position to actually capture a city, but by turn 50 or so, you'll be able to sue for peace, and grab around 400-500 in gold from each civ.

If all goes well, you'll grab the first pantheon, an early SP, and some gold from being such a badass. Plus, because the game is so early, most civs that you were at war with will be cool with signing DECLARATIONS OF FRIENDSHIP, as if nothing ever happened. I wouldn't recommend building more than 1-2 Pathfinders in addition to the one you get for free.

The only downside to this strategy is that because I was so focused on early- warmongering, I did not found a religion at all, and so, quit the game to retry later tonight.

Any variations on this idea that you've come across with?

 

[DeutschDachs]

That was my exact thought for multiplayer. CB, kill other civs units, they're defenseless initially and you get to scoop up extra ruins with less competition

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Sounds like a legit strategy to me.

I only played for a bit last night. I found that I had a bad start with crap production (and all the luxes require Calender plus either Masonry or BWorking, quite an investment). I did get a Bowfinder going and a second Pathfinder. I went Liberty and got a Worker from that. I also built a Shrine, but that pretty much tapped out my GPT for maintenance. Unfortunately when I got a ruin and chose the Faith option another civ popped a Pantheon on the same turn, and then another one shortly thereafter (6 pantheons beat me in fact). So I am 20 Faith behind on getting a Pantheon.

If I don't start over again, I will see about rushing a caravan with the gold I've been collecting from bullying city-states with my Bowfinder and taking out barb camps. There is a city-state near me that I can trade with. Hopefully that and improving my resources will help my GPT problem.

 

[Buccaneer]

I wonder if playing marathon immortal still equals standard king? The game was (is) not balanced at all on marathon, allowing a much greater advantage against the AI - esp. to be able to conquer better.

 

[MonorailCat]

This strategy works especially well on marathon. Movement cost doesnt scale.
So you can explore most of the map with the strongest unit while every other civ need a long time to tech up.
On Standard speed the Pathfinder would be obsolete quicker.

 

[pintocat]

I haven't played Shoshone yet... so the thing where you can choose each ruins perk once... is that on a per-unit-finding the ruins basis then? Does it reset after you've picked all the perks?

 

[Mercade]

I haven't played Shoshone yet... so the thing where you can choose each ruins perk once... is that on a per-unit-finding the ruins basis then? Does it reset after you've picked all the perks?

It's not per unit. It keeps track of all ruin benefits you've selected, but when you have taken a few ruins it makes the earlier choices available again so you don't have to go all the way down the list to choosing barb maps by lack of anything better.

 

[rastak]

I haven't played Shoshone yet... so the thing where you can choose each ruins perk once... is that on a per-unit-finding the ruins basis then? Does it reset after you've picked all the perks?

Resets after 2 or 3 huts.

 

[damnyankees]

Also, this might seem like a dumb question, but I assume it keeps the rule that you can't upgrade the same unit twice, right? Even if the choices reset, that one doesn't?

 

[Mercade]

Also, this might seem like a dumb question, but I assume it keeps the rule that you can't upgrade the same unit twice, right? Even if the choices reset, that one doesn't?

Yes. You cannot upgrade the same unit twice.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Also, this might seem like a dumb question, but I assume it keeps the rule that you can't upgrade the same unit twice, right? Even if the choices reset, that one doesn't?

Yeah. I never saw the upgrade option again for my Bowfinder.

 

[El Caballerion]

Also, this might seem like a dumb question, but I assume it keeps the rule that you can't upgrade the same unit twice, right? Even if the choices reset, that one doesn't?

Damn. That would make the Pathfinder the most OP unit in the history of CIV. Imagine an upgraded GATLING GUN by the Classical Age?

 

[damnyankees]

Damn. That would make the Pathfinder the most OP unit in the history of CIV. Imagine an upgraded GATLING GUN by the Classical Age?

In Civ V Vanilla you could do that. I mean, you couldn't choose to do it, but it was definitely possible for the same unit to get multiple random upgrades. It was, indeed, game-breaking. This is why the ruins upgrade thing never made sense to me. It shouldn't be an upgrade - it should be a free promotion.

 

[BluegrassGeek]

Yeah. I never saw the upgrade option again for my Bowfinder.

Okay, that's just an awesome nickname. I'm going to start using that.

 

[El Caballerion]

Had time to play a longer game with Shoshone last night. Yep. 2 Pathfinders turn 'Bowfinders' allows you to seriously cramp your neighbor's style, perfect for having an easy time in the early game especially when playing on immortal. If you're lucky enough, you can keep their entire growth in check just by destroying any new military units they make.

 

[Browd]

Okay, that's just an awesome nickname. I'm going to start using that.

Zippier name than "scarcher."

 

[josephricafort]

Cool guide. I agree that early aggressiveness is the key to Shoshone.

By the way, I am personally creating infographics for CIV. Please check out the infographic strategy guide for the Shoshones'. Let me know what you think of it.

http://gofort.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/make-the-most-out-of-the-shoshones-civilization-v-brave-new-world-infographic/

 

[Dogmouth]

This makes sense to me. Because there isn't much of a DOW warmonger penalty (as I understand it), and there is no penalty for taking civilian units, pillaging, and killing military units, I would strongly consider keeping 1 civ in a permanent state of war after the initial onslaught. You can harvest their civilian units and pillage them without any major repercussions. Use your UA and extra GGs to completely box them in. We might as well take advantage of silly warmonger mechanics.

 

[Exterminas]

While this is a decent strategy the effect is severely enhanced by playing Marathon.

Everything war-related gets a huge buff in the slower speeds, since you can move and attack a lot more before things outgrow your unit's strength. City size for example. If you tried this on normal speed you'd probably find your bowman being obliterated by the cities pretty soon, when you try to raze anything there.

But killing off the scouts as you meet them is a neat idea.