First MP game with friends, need pointers to crush them all.

[bobbobjack]

Actually i did not play Civ5 much at all, but i was and avid Civ 4 player that's why i need a few pointers for my first MP game. The game will be next weekend so i have a week to prepare...

I've gathered some Intel on the opposition:

5 (human) Players.

One will be playing the French, mostly balanced, not overly aggressive. Kinda neutral, but will defend the small nations. Experienced player.
One will probably play the Vikings. Very aggressive. Likes to sneak attack. Very experienced player.
One will play India. Very neutral, not aggressive, mostly a peaceful guy, maybe a builder. Not-so experienced from what i've heard.
The other guy i don't know much about.

The speed will be Epic on a supposedly "Lake" map (water in the middle of the map, surrounded by land. There will be Ai although i don't know how many.

---

I want to crush them hard and early, if possible assert my domination by the end of the medieval era. That's my preferred style. I have no morals and will abuse City states, steal workers and kill settlers passing by undefended. I don't plan on having any open border agreements, attack any scouting units that may be too close to my borders and if i can harass my enemies by pillaging their precious resources.

So my questions are:

What are some good civilizations that suit my goals?
What are the best strategies around?
What are some good pointers and tips i should keep in mind, generally?

Thanks!

 

[Hasire]

You could do mongols and crush them. You would probably have to play a few games to get used to kheshik tactics. The basic idea is you have maybe 4 kheshiks and one khan to a group. They move in and ranged attack a unit, than retreat out of range. You need a horseman or something to finish off cities. Vikings, IMO, is probably the strongest civ for an inland sea map, with a standard berserker rush.

 

[Deau]

You will probably be able to gather more info in the MP forums since some "powerful" SP strategies are terribly easy to counter in MP.

As a general statement though, MP can't be played pacifist. Keshik rush is pretty strong and somewhat unbalanced. The thing is it comes in sightly later than LS rush with the lack of RAs in MP and thus you could lose before having your keshiks up if you land near the agressive experimented player...esp since vikings' UU is broken for MP LS rush.

You could always use Iawatha's UA+UU to provide a very, very strong defensive position and then use their UB w/ Landed Elite start to provide a significantly higher production than your friends to field bigger armies and go offensive. Using the UU upgrade path allows you to have "shock" promoted units that still put out great in forests/jungles tiles. The only issue with this is if your forested start isn't so forested, you turn a very strong civ into a standard civ

You could also refer to Vexings' thread about babylonian steel rush. the double GS is sick. The hard part is getting enough gold to mass upgrade in MP. You would have weaker baseline units than vikings player but you could hit him while his units are still warriors/swords.

 

[Mr. Sulu]

By "Vikings" do you mean Denmark? If so, I personally for your strategy recommend doing them, as they pay no movement cost to pillage and Berserker-rush is extremely powerful as they're Longswords with more movement and amphibious promotion. But is you can't do that, then go Mongols as the others have said as Keshiks in numbers can steamroll everyone else and Khans will make it easier to continue your military campaigns

 

[Tabarnak]

Askia is a really good contestant. His UA fits perfectly well in a mp games. I have real fun to gather a lot of money from barb camps and destroying some CS. If you can manage to kill an AI(probably the easiest way) or a Human civ and take some cities you will also get a good amount of gold.

Some Mandekalu Cavs are excellent units to go at war, and you can build the very useful Himeji Castle on the way.

You have 3 strong paths(with NC built):

Blitz : Build 1 extra city. Go Liberty, save a GE from Meritocracy and go straight for Chivalry. Build Himeji. Build horsemen and upgrade them. Add 1 or 2 cats if possible(form a conquered CS for example).

Good if a human player is close, not enough close CSs and no iron. Add some pikemen if possible.

Production(Units) : Build 1 extra city. Go Tradition for Landed Elite and Monarchy. Go for Metal Casting and Steel if enough iron. Then Chivalry. Build workshops. Run a GE, save him for Himeji. Build swordmen and upgrade them. After workshops, build horsemen and upgrade them. Your puppets will provide gold and your 2 cities will build units.

Good if many CS around but not much land to settle. Attack CSs with swords. Upgrade, attack human with LS and 1 or 2 cats.

Science + production(turtling) : Go Tradition, LE then Monarchy. Build 3 extra cities, libraries then NC. Build 1-2 extra cities if possible. Research Metal Casting-Currency-Education-Chivalry. Build granaries, workshops, markets and universities in all cities. Unlock all NWs. Save a GE for Porcelaine Tower(or Himeji if a competent player seems to be a real threat). Build Oxford. Your empire will be self sufficient and you can wait to have a big tech advantage before warring.

Good if many different lux around and land to settle, some CSs to conquer and a good spot to defend against a human.