Early offense rush, how?

[atreas]

You don't need Aggressive trait but you need the most overpowered UU of the game. Of course, everybody would trade aggressive (+10% but +20% effectively) for a unit that's +35% stronger than the average swordsman.

 

[thordk]

the reason, at least my reason, for early "rush" is to cripple nearby enemies. sometimes your able to get their capitals, but it's not nescessary to get all of their towns. just get those that haven't any cultural defense yet, pillage everything that's in sight and you have a little more room to expand.

5-6 axemen are enough for such task. when the war is going well, your cities are productive and you're not crippling your research you might push out some more axes/swords and wipe the civ off. losing 10 axemen is a good price sometimes to get rid of a rivaling civ this early (early = long before 1 AD)

 

[lawren65]

I play catherine (fin, cre) on emporer and early rush all the time.

I use the rush not to eliminate my neighbor, but to grab important resources (luxuries), expand my empire, and secondarily weaken my neighbor.

The first trick is picking your enemy. Scouting is key. I try to attack one of my weaker neighbors (best if they don't have copper). I look for a target with 2-3 jucy cities (ones with good resources/locations) within easy stricking of each other. You want fresh cities (from a non-creative opp) so they have little defense bonus. While I'm building up my forces, I seek out barbs with the early units so they can get city raider 1 and II (I from barracks, II from barbs). I'll also preposition units near stategic resources at this point. I've found the key is to make sure you have a killer stack with 3:1 advantage for the first city before starting. At the first city, you'll lose some units, but if you plan your attacks right you'll leave with promoted units. I find after 3 cities, my killer stack runs out of steam, but by then the civ has been weakened enough to not be a threat and is willing to sue for peace.