Feudalism Slingshot - Nice OCC strategy

[Divaythsarmour]

I've been playing around with this strategy in Warlords. It's not a new idea. Many others have written about variations. But I'm surprised just how effective it can be.

I've been doing it in an OCC game (easier). I also like to play marathon (easier). Gandhi is the best for this strategy. His philisophical trait allows for more rapid GP which is essential. I'm also making it easier with a tiny great plains map.

The essentials are to build Stonehenge immediately after the worker. Research agriculture (for all the farms you'll be building), AH (if you have cows) and all the religious techs. It's necessary to be careful about the religions. The last thing you want is for someone to attack you before you finish your plan. But it might be necessary to found more than one religion and you don't always get attacked.

I like to build the Great Wall, because pillaging barbarians can also make a real mess of your plan. Wait until you get your first great priest before you finish researching writing. Use him to bulb monarchy after you've researched monotheism. You have to build the Oracle after you research writing. Line all of this up and build the Oracle before the AI does and you'll have Feudalism (somewhere around 1000BC).

You can now switch to Vasalage and get two promotions on all of the longbowmen you'll be building. In Warlords, construction is right after math and the research is pretty quick with the OCC type game. But you can easily get warring with a stack of 6 or 7 longbowmen at this point. Try whatever you want with the promotions. I'm sure people would debate and find the highest odds for going up against the AI at that point. I find the toughest units to be swordsmen for some reason, so I like to promote for +25% melee, which also covers axemen.

You may want to wait until you get catapults before you take on the AI capitols. If you can catch a city with 20% defenses, you may not lose any longbowmen. Use the first GG to build a super medic/leadership. Choose the medic that heals while moving if possible, so you can keep your stack moving, pillaging and razing. Mop up with the GG unit and he'll continue promoting quickly.

 

[UWHabs]

My problem with a OCC and warring early is that if I don't keep killing, someone will go fill in that space. My general rule is that I'd prefer to build out to a good point to start invading (usually cannons), then just war until the end of time.

 

[tycoonist]

saladin would be better for this strategy

 

[Joshua368]

saladin would be better for this strategy

Sitting Bull would probably be best with totem poles, but of course he's only in Beyond the Sword...

 

[Indiansmoke]

Feudalism slingshot is great...but not for OCC....you need to be peacefull that early in OCC....much better to get metal casting if you are coastal or CoL..

 

[Divaythsarmour]

My problem with a OCC and warring early is that if I don't keep killing, someone will go fill in that space. My general rule is that I'd prefer to build out to a good point to start invading (usually cannons), then just war until the end of time.

Often you can raze those new little cities with a single longbowman who's on his way up to the front. The defenses are non existent. If there are two archers defending, it'll just take two turns.

Another thing that happens, is you capture a lot of workers. I just put them to work building roads to the front. It's nice to put them in their own stack so that you can more easily defend them.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

Feudalism slingshot is great...but not for OCC....you need to be peacefull that early in OCC....much better to get metal casting if you are coastal or CoL..

I wouldn't say "you need to..." Why not war early in an OCC? Is it supposed to be some sort of a finesse game or something? I never got that memo.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

saladin would be better for this strategy

Why would Saladin be better?

 

[JammerUno]

I agree, attacking early in an OCC will more often than not lead to one civ dominating, and it not being you. If there's someone like Mansa Musa on the map, he'll expand into the territory. Longbowmen vs. fortified skirmishers isn't good. And the risk of any creative civ defending cities with axes is too big as well.

 

[dubrown]

There are times that an early rush is preferable even in an OCC. I remember one OCC I played where I didn't rush early and I regretted it up until my final defender fell. Off course, that was a tiny Pangea where Monty set up capital 10 tiles of my city and soon had my city encircled in Monty green. It's safe to say that there wasn't much peace anytime in that game.

 

[Mantic0re]

I am so frustrated with this game right now. I'm on something like a 12 game loosing streak in CiV4Warlords OCC on warlord difficulty. I keep getting owned in the early BC's by barbs, or getting starts with no food/happiness (for trade) resources in the first 3-4 rings, or getting starts with only 2-3 hammer output if I don't chop. I hate moving my first settler, can't seem to get a break with my starting locations. A slingshot idea seems great but I'm getting beat to every wonder so I can't seem to make these cool ideas work.

Do you guys hand pick a start or is there some trick I'm missing? Lately it seems like my options are to bend over and spread em or drop back down to Chieftan.

 

[UWHabs]

At least regenerate until you can get a decent one. It doesn't always have to be ideal (like my current game with 2 gems, a gold, and a corn, as well as 3 riverside grassland ivory squares), but at least make sure in the tiles you can see that you have a few good resources. Nothing wrong with using the "regenerate map" feature.

 

[Divaythsarmour]

I am so frustrated with this game right now. I'm on something like a 12 game loosing streak in CiV4Warlords OCC on warlord difficulty. I keep getting owned in the early BC's by barbs, or getting starts with no food/happiness (for trade) resources in the first 3-4 rings, or getting starts with only 2-3 hammer output if I don't chop. I hate moving my first settler, can't seem to get a break with my starting locations. A slingshot idea seems great but I'm getting beat to every wonder so I can't seem to make these cool ideas work.

Do you guys hand pick a start or is there some trick I'm missing? Lately it seems like my options are to bend over and spread em or drop back down to Chieftan.

There's always a risk of getting so frustrated that you walk away for a couple of weeks. Weeks can turn into months. IMO it's better to drop a level and work out the problems of a difficult start.

It's unusual events that make the game fun for me. I love it when the defenders of a city are vastly outnumbered and somehow survive the onslaught. Or when you manage to get into just the right synergy of civics so that you can accompish something interesting.

I got a big kick out of a recent game where I had succesfully managed a pre-industrial economy where the commerce slider had hardly any impact on my research rate. I was better off keeping it low and building up money so that I could later upgrade the units that my research would be opening up to me.

Good players know how to make things like that happen at will. For me it's more rare. I tend to stumble into it. If I can re-create something, then at least I know that I understand how it happened. Then I might post it. This site is a very thorough peer review process.