Preamble:
On the Oasis map, the player always starts in the southern green areas where Copper, Gems and Food can be found.
It can be an advantage to choose a corner where one can avoid detecting or being detected by the AIs. However, when ready to conquer the world, it is better to start near the middle of the map. The latter is probably more important, because the AI doesn't start arriving with stacks of more than five units until around turn 100; that's plenty of time to found many cities and build up their defenses.
Horse can be found in the north near the northern shore. Any source of Horse must be captured from the northern Civilizations; it is unlikely to be able to move a Settler and MP unit north and settle a Horse City "peacefully".
Iron, Ivory and Oasis can be found in the middle band of desert plots between the northern and southern areas. This strategy requires settling near both Iron and Ivory.
As much as possible, early core cities will be founded on hills for the 25 point defensive bonus plus an extra 25 point defensive bonus with Archers.
First there are alternative strategies such as moving the Settler north with the hope of settling near Horse (by accident) and researching Animal Husbandry and Horseback Riding for a Horse Archer rush or even a Conquistador rush (see the end of this post).
Engineering rush via Civil Service for the Oasis Map and Always War:
Some steps end in "a" where a research Archery plan and build an immediate Warrior is used, delaying everything else by 8-10 turns. Corresponding steps end in "b" which gambles on Bronze Working revealing a Copper site that can be settled; this alternative also starts the Worker immediately for a good chance at an earlier win.
1) Try to find a start with Deer and several Gems plots with a Hill to settle on for extra defense. Optional Stone would be great for building Walls and Citadels. Gold and Ivory would be awesome, but these rare resources are probably only found in the desert band between the north and the south. A start with several food resources is best, since many things will need to be whipped in the capital.
2a) Optionally research Hunting -> Archery to build Archers for city defense and resource defense versus wandering Archer explorers. I never noticed a 1 move unit pillage an improvement, so city defense seems to be the major focus.
3a) Optionally start building a Warrior as fast as possible while growing to Population 2. Wandering AI Archers may visit as soon as turn 6 and the our initial Warrior will have only Def 20 + Hill + 5t Fortify. The second Warrior may be required for city defense before Archers can be built.
2b) Research the main food unlocking technology, preferably Hunting for Deer. Otherwise research Agriculture. Research Hunting -> Animal Husbandry, if Pastering food plots is required, but this takes a lot of time and all the Horse plots are north, out of reach, so there is no strategic reason to research it.
3b) Start with a Worker on t0 or t1 (Settler climbs hill on turn 0). This is very risky, since only the starting Warrior will be used for defense. The capital must be on a hill for the extra 25 points of defense. The Warrior must build up 5t of fortification for another 25 points of defense. The Warrior has a intrinsic 25 points of defense too. After 5t, the city will also have 20 points of cultural defense too. A total of 95 defense versus an unpromoted Archer attachers is quite good. Versus a Drill I Archer isn't too bad either. This can be a good trade off to get the Worker out 8-10 turns sooner; the extra turns of improved ploted may snowball into an earlier victory; well worth the risk.
4) Research Mining -> Bronze Working
4b) If no Copper, research Archery.
5a) After Warrior is completed use two Warriors for city defense, and build a Worker.
5b) After the Worker is completed, build a Warrior. At population 2-3, build a Settler to secure the nearest Copper site.
6) Research The Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing.
7) Build Archer -> build Granary -> whip Library -> finish Granary. Work two Scientists to generate a Great Scientist; use GS to construct an Academy in the capital.
8) Research Polytheism -> Priesthood
9) Build or whip 1-2 Settlers, using one to secure Copper and Ivory, if available. Grow the capital while building The Oracle.
10) Research Masonry -> Monotheism or Code of Laws for a religion and Organized Religion from Monotheism. Research the one missed. Convert to the first religion founded. Adopt Organized Religion and Caste System (Isabella's spiritual trait allows us to switch between Slavery and Caste System every 5t and all the whipping needed can be done in 5t and regrow can be a bit slower while working a few specialists in CS.
11) Research Iron Working -> Mathematics. May need to delay Iron Working to ensure that The Oracle is completed before an AI completes it.
12) Time the completion of The Oracle with the completion of Mathematics, so Civil Service can be chosen as the free Technology. I have been getting The Oracle around t75 in this gauntlet, wonders (Stonehenge, The Great Wall) seem to be completed quite late in this gauntlet, so this could be delayed to maybe t80 or later, if necessary. None of the AIs are Industrious and Marble seems rare on the Oasis map plus this is Monarch difficulty and the AIs tend focus more on unit production while at war, so the AIs might complete The Oracle much later than normally expected. Adopt Bureaucracy.
13) Research (Iron Working ->) Metal Casting.
14) Whip a Forge in each city that can grow fast enough to sustain moderate whipping with fast regrowth.
15) Build Courthouses in all cities to reduce maintenace costs.
16) Research Currency and build a Market in each Commerce city (may be only in the Capital).
17) Build Wealth in cities with completed infrastructure to increase Research slider.
18) Research Construction and whip a few Catapults used solely for bombardment or high odds barraging to get up to 5 XP for CR1 and Accuracy promotions.
19) Research (Animal Husbandry ->) Horseback Riding.
20) Build 1-2 Stables and continue building War Elephants in these cities.
21) Research Machinery and connect Iron.
22) Build Crossbowmen in several cities while waiting for Engineering.
23) Research Engineering (1380B) keeping in mind that we plan to GE bulb 1000 + 3 * Pop = bulb beaker amount, so leave that much for the GE bulb, unless we get a Great Prophet or can manually research the rest of Engineering in less than roughly 6t. Without a GE to bulb, Bureaucarcy should allow completion in as little as 15t, so lack of a GE isn't a game killer.
24) First Great Person after Machinery: Bulb either Enginering (Great Engineer) or Theology (Great Phophet) for Theocracy. Great Prophet can also construct a Holy Shrine. Great Scientists can be settled in the capital.
25) Great Generals: First one should attach to an Axeman and promote to C1Med3. Others should settle in high hammer cities in the absence of Theocracy and Vassalage. With Theocracy or Vassalage, Barracks and Citadel will be enough to produce CR3 Trebuchets.
26) Build Citadels in cities that will build only Trebuchets or citites that are often attacked by AI stacks.
27) Spam Trebuchets in high production cities with Citadels and generate at least 10 XP for CR3 and maybe some can be combination city raider/collateral promotions for weaker defenders.
28) Spam Crossbowmen and a few Pikeman (to deal with War Elephants).
29) Research Theology for Theocracy.
30) Research Aesthetics -> Literature for The Heroic Epic and possibly The Great Library, Statue of Zeus and Shwedagon Paya (especially with Marble, which is not very likely).
31) Research Alphabet for Spies.
32) Kill remaining AIs and research Monarchy -> Feudalism -> Guilds, if necessary to maintain the Technology edge over the AIs. Longbowmen will help along with Citadels with the defense of cities. Knights should be quite useful on offense and for pillaging improvements.
33) This strategy guide will most likely be improved upon in future posts based on experiences in actually winning a game.
I am even more sure an Engineering rush can win this game due to the Civil Service sling-shot and use of Bureaucracy in a strong Hammer/Commerce Capital.
If started early enough with a sufficient number of high hammer core cities, the Conquistador rush as suggested by shulec (earlier in this thread) via Liberalizing Military Tradition and securing a source of Horse in the north may be quicker and easier way to win this gauntlet.
Sun Tzu Wu
