This one has really gotten me stumped. I never seem to be able to use pop rushing to get any reasonable results. It seems like the number of citizens lost is prohibitively high and makes the remaining citizens unhappy on top of that. What's the secret?
How do you use pop rushing effectively?
- Thread starter phizuol
- Start date
Mercade
the Counsellor
There isn't really a good way to use population rushing. 
Using money is far more favourable. One thing you can do is use extra luxuries to battle the added unhappiness, but that's about it. Also, the amount of times you use it in a city naturally plays a role. If I'm in a government system that has whipping citizens to hurry construction, I only use it for something I really need, whereas with money I just pay up all the time to speed production.
Using money is far more favourable. One thing you can do is use extra luxuries to battle the added unhappiness, but that's about it. Also, the amount of times you use it in a city naturally plays a role. If I'm in a government system that has whipping citizens to hurry construction, I only use it for something I really need, whereas with money I just pay up all the time to speed production.
I rarely use it. In the early game, when it is available via Despotism, it is hard to balance this with luxuries (you don't have that much luxuries, except in some lucky situations) and in the final stages, when it is available via Communism, my cities are productive enough so I don't have need for it.
I almost never use it, but IIRC, it is one citizen for every 20 shields (or fraction thereof) rushed.
BillChin
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2002
- Messages
- 494
Pop rushing is a good move in certain situations. One situation is to get the last 20 shields for a Temple, as the Temple will take compensate for the unhappiness. If the town needs a garrison, a player can rush a spearman. If the unit stays in town it makes up for the unhappiness (Despotism, Communism). Pop rushing defenders is an option to defend against a Barb uprising, or a surprise attack by an opponent.
In one-shield towns far away from the capital, pop rushing (Despotism, Communism), money rushing (Monarchy, Republic, Democracy), and forest cuts are about the only way to build things.
It takes 20 turns for the unhappiness from the pop rush to wear off. Excessive use of pop rushing is not recommend (though it used to be a sound strategy with previous versions of the game).
+ Bill
In one-shield towns far away from the capital, pop rushing (Despotism, Communism), money rushing (Monarchy, Republic, Democracy), and forest cuts are about the only way to build things.
It takes 20 turns for the unhappiness from the pop rush to wear off. Excessive use of pop rushing is not recommend (though it used to be a sound strategy with previous versions of the game).
+ Bill
Pop rushing is a good option when you have taken a large enemy city.
- First turn your units pacify the resisters.
- Second turn entertainers end the civil unrest.
- Third turn you pop-rush a temple which simulataneously reduces the number of ethnics and creates a necessary improvement.
After that your army is ready to march on to the next city...
- First turn your units pacify the resisters.
- Second turn entertainers end the civil unrest.
- Third turn you pop-rush a temple which simulataneously reduces the number of ethnics and creates a necessary improvement.
After that your army is ready to march on to the next city...
TheNiceOne
Emperor
In the very early game, pop-rushing is an important tool, especially if you're religious.
First, the facts: When pop-rushing, you need one citizen for every 20 shields you rush (so if you lack 21 shields you need two citizens), you cannot use more than half of your citizens (so a size 3 city can only pop-rush 1 citizen), and you get one unhappy citizen for every citizen that was pop-rushed. This unhappiness disappears after 20 turns.
Then, the use:
Many of your new-founded border cities (the cities that are far away from your capitol, and close to enemy cities) will only produce one shield per turn. After 10 turns, the city will grow to size 2 and have produced 10 shields, leaving 20 shields left to finish a temple.
This is the time you should definately pop-rush the temple. Your city goes back to size 1, but you get an instant temple. The temple will after a few turns give you a full city radius and those early temples mean a great culture lead early on.
The unhappiness from the pop-rush doesn't matter, because it will disappear after 20 turns when you're still size 2, and with a temple youre one unhappy citizen becomes content. On emperor and deity, you will have one more unhappy citizen, but this one is made content by one military unit.
So what you loose is one citizen and 10 turns of production for the gain of one temple, but both of your losses will soon be paid back by the fact that you get the extra 12 squares to work on .
Also, this is a great tactic if the enemy beats you to a resource by building a city adjacent to this resource. Build a city yourself adjacent to this resource, just outside the enemy's city radius, and as soon as you get the temple, your border will expand and give you the resource - and possibly culture flip the city to you some turns after that as an additional bonus.
Now, this becomes more difficult if you're not religious, since your temple need 40 shields before you can pop-rush it by using one citizen. This is actually one of the greatest benefits of religious, IMO. But you can still use this with non-religious civs, you only need to wait until you get size 4 and have produced 20 of the 60 shields needed.
Start using pop-rush this way, and you'll be able to see other opportunities, like sometimes rushing a courthouse in your size 8 city on flood plains, or pop-rushing the remaining part of your attack force before your first war.
First, the facts: When pop-rushing, you need one citizen for every 20 shields you rush (so if you lack 21 shields you need two citizens), you cannot use more than half of your citizens (so a size 3 city can only pop-rush 1 citizen), and you get one unhappy citizen for every citizen that was pop-rushed. This unhappiness disappears after 20 turns.
Then, the use:
Many of your new-founded border cities (the cities that are far away from your capitol, and close to enemy cities) will only produce one shield per turn. After 10 turns, the city will grow to size 2 and have produced 10 shields, leaving 20 shields left to finish a temple.
This is the time you should definately pop-rush the temple. Your city goes back to size 1, but you get an instant temple. The temple will after a few turns give you a full city radius and those early temples mean a great culture lead early on.
The unhappiness from the pop-rush doesn't matter, because it will disappear after 20 turns when you're still size 2, and with a temple youre one unhappy citizen becomes content. On emperor and deity, you will have one more unhappy citizen, but this one is made content by one military unit.
So what you loose is one citizen and 10 turns of production for the gain of one temple, but both of your losses will soon be paid back by the fact that you get the extra 12 squares to work on .
Also, this is a great tactic if the enemy beats you to a resource by building a city adjacent to this resource. Build a city yourself adjacent to this resource, just outside the enemy's city radius, and as soon as you get the temple, your border will expand and give you the resource - and possibly culture flip the city to you some turns after that as an additional bonus.
Now, this becomes more difficult if you're not religious, since your temple need 40 shields before you can pop-rush it by using one citizen. This is actually one of the greatest benefits of religious, IMO. But you can still use this with non-religious civs, you only need to wait until you get size 4 and have produced 20 of the 60 shields needed.
Start using pop-rush this way, and you'll be able to see other opportunities, like sometimes rushing a courthouse in your size 8 city on flood plains, or pop-rushing the remaining part of your attack force before your first war.
anarres
anarchist revolutionary
TheNiceOne's last words:
'...or pop-rushing the remaining part of your attack force before your first war.'
Nothing could be more useful in the ancient era.
One downside to rushing is the unhappiness, but if you time it right, you can rush swords/spears/archers/horses simultaneously in all your cities (or within a turn or two). The advantage of this is you can increase the luxury rate to counter the side-effects of the mass rush. Just remember that corrupt cities won't get any entertainers from the luxury increase, so your few warriors (still kept for garrison duty) should move to garrison the smaller towns.
'...or pop-rushing the remaining part of your attack force before your first war.'
Nothing could be more useful in the ancient era.
One downside to rushing is the unhappiness, but if you time it right, you can rush swords/spears/archers/horses simultaneously in all your cities (or within a turn or two). The advantage of this is you can increase the luxury rate to counter the side-effects of the mass rush. Just remember that corrupt cities won't get any entertainers from the luxury increase, so your few warriors (still kept for garrison duty) should move to garrison the smaller towns.Sometimes you have a lot of islands which only have grasslands and fish. They get a lot of food but nothing else. So use pop-rush there. I use to get a lot of islands and pop-rush a lot of ships, like privateers. If the islands are really good or you bother to work on it, you can even rush subs later in the game.
