Emperor: Win Every Game with Horsemen

[Mac2411]

Well I finally got around to playing Greece and I have to say that the horsemen strategy is every bit as good as is represented. IStandard Map and King difficulty. I didn't even rush horseback riding but instead took my time and built a few Wonders early on in Athens and started a second city. I then built my CC Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and essentially burned the rest of the world to the ground. It was all over before we ever got close to the Renaissance. I think I could have won faster had I not wasted a time at the start. I think I'll have to agree with others that this is a bit overpowered.

 

[Buccaneer]

What I dont get is why you keep playing Civ5 that way?

You all agree it is imbalanced and apparently "lame". Yet you keep doing it. Why?

I don't do that, since its apparently un-fun. And I play to enjoy the game in fullest. Sometimes to have a challenge as well.
Rushing the AI in ancient times with horsemen just leads to an hour of game, is always the same nad, at best, lets you see 10% of the content. I really try to understand why you keep doing it.

I mean, just to get your daily virtual fix of success?

The game I mentioned took me between 20-25 hours to play over 10 days (I play slow and methodical). I used Knights and Cavs because those were those units I always fought with in my Civ4 games.

Just to clarify, I had no more than 11 Cavs at any one time and two ended up dead. Just got a lot of mileage of the ones that I had since I was playing a Lakes map (think mostly all land).

 

[avandol]

After playing around with this I must clearly state that the Horsemen strategy only works on certain maps and settings. So it is with most things:
Whats good at one time, is often bad at another.
It will still give you a good headstart, even at higher difficulties, I grant that much.
While this makes a pangea map easy to handle, archipelago or continents is not even nearly as certain a win.

Right now I have a game running where I am restricted to 3 horsemen, since I started off in desert and the closest horsies even were 15 tiles away.
To save some time I placed my second city right on them and look around but saw no others.
In my game the AI had spearmen. diff level is emperor.
I still managed to beat the first four AIs on my continent, but until I see the second one I dont even have to send me horses.

 

[javaja]

To add to that, use up the first 3 Honor social policies and add the Great General to the army and the AI has no chance. The only thing I could suggest to you is play continents. By the time to get to the other contiinents, they would probably have Pikes.

I played this on Deity with continents and no Honor policies / GGs, and by the time I got to the other continent they DID have pikes, but were attacking with mostly spears and archers anyway. AI upgrade priority is very low...

I won the game, though a Military City state that I *accidentally* allied due to a quest that aligned with my own interests gifted me a catapult at a crucial time, which helped a lot too. (May not have pulled it off without that.)