How to build a battleship in 5 turns in a totally corrupt size-6 city

[Dragon2]

I haven't actually done this, but I see no reason that it wouldn't work under Communism.

The assumption is that corruption limits you to 1 shield.

Turn 1: Get 1 shield, rush-build a longbowman (cost 40), switch to Fighter (costs 80)
Turn 2: Get 1 shield more (41), rush-build the fighter, switch to Destroyer (costs 120)
Turn 3: Get 1 shield more (81), rush-build the Destroyer, switch to Aegis Cruiser (costs 160)
Turn 4: Get 1 shield more (121), rush-build the Aegis Cruiser, switch to Battleship (costs 200)
Turn 5: Get 1 shield more (161), rush-build the Battleship

As an alternative to keeping your population and ending up with 1/6 of a Swordsman, this looks pretty good.

Has anyone found similar sequences with 50 , 90... ,60, 100... or 70, 110... for cases where you start with shields already present?

This trick is almost on a par with the well-known SMAC technique of "downgrading" crawlers to expensive models with fission reactors and two special abilities, then using them to rush secret projects in one turn.

A simpler version with Longbowman(40) ->Rifleman(80) might be useful in the late stages of Despotism. I think that you can also use this approach to get a good start on the Forbidden Palace.

Who would have thought that divisibility by 40 would be such a valuable property of a unit?

 

[Paeanblack]

Just bring 5 obsolete units along...disband one, rush, switch...rinse and repeat until you are at battleship level, all in one turn.

 

[PaulNAdhe]

Originally posted by Dragon2
I haven't actually done this, but I see no reason that it wouldn't work under Communism.

The assumption is that corruption limits you to 1 shield.

Question? As the communist how do you rush without destroying your cities? When I'm playing commie and rush it asks if I really want to sacrifice the citizens.

 

[Ferd]

Paul, that's the general idea. In Despotism and Communism, you sacrifice citizens to get the job done. It kind of implies that they die of exhaustion, but I prefer to think they just get disgusted and leave the city.

Heh, Paen. Do one on "How to turn 5 workers and 5 warriors into a battleship in one turn".

And I don't think this will help on the forbidden palace. Last time I tried rushing anything, I couldn't switch to any wonders, great or small, or a normal palace, either.

 

[PaulNAdhe]

OK. So, you'd need at least a city of 7 before this 'digestion' would work?

I like it. It might be a way to finish off the malcontents left over after my war machine rolls through their helpless towns. I've been razing the city instead of having to garrison a bunch of troops there.

I think I'll try that tonight.

THX

 

[Dragon2]

Very nice -- I'd been trying to find a use for those warriors.
Of course, if you have some obsolete workers, you can rebuild the population on the same turn.

This means that 2 warriors+2 workers = 1 marketplace or 1 library.
Disband 1 warrior, rush a longbowman(40).
Disband 1 warrior, rush a marketplace(80)
Use 2 workers to rebuild the population.

If you have good luxury access, the marketplace will probably combat the unhappiness from the rush building.

I also tried an experiment where I was 69 shields short of a knight.
Direct rush build takes 3 population.

Rush a barracks (40) takes 1 pop
Switch to knight (70) and rush build takes 1 pop.

This means that rush building with more than 1 population is never the right thing to do.

A sequence like 1->40->70->100->130->160 can be done in a single turn if the right units or improvements exist, but I'm not sure if there's anything that costs 130.

It might be worth having a "worker factory" city that produced 5 shields and was cut off form iron. Every two turns this could produce a worker, who would then travel to the frontier to help with rush-building barracks and walls for an invading army. With two workers and two warriors, you can have a barracks and walls in a beachhead city within two turns! This culd kill a lot of enemy tanks.

 

[Paeanblack]

Even late in the game, the Aztecs, can use their medium-to-heavy corruption cities to sneeze out a jaguar every turn or two. Jags are fast enough to generally keep up with your tanks on the roll, they can garrison resisting cities (troop strength does not seem to matter, in my experience), ....

and jags + conquered citizens + commie/despot = new troops, built where you need them: on the front lines NOW!

 

[PaulNAdhe]

THANKS Dragon2

This idea is where I'm going to use my old warriors and swordsmen that I'd been using for cannon fodder in the modern age. I can turn out workers in 1 turn back in the homeland and rail them to the front to repopulate the city.

 

[tetley]

Actually, I use the corrupt cities themselves to produce a few Warriors, even in Democracy. A FEW warriors are nice when you're all railroaded up, because every so often just 2 shields will shave a turn off of something big you're producing in those big 50-shield+ cities. Compare: waste 8 shields from disbanding a Warrior vs. waste 47 shields because your turn multiples don't quite come out right.


P.S. Isn't it interesting how George W. has suddenly become a "dictator" now? Just a couple months ago he was "ineffective" and "tentative". It's gotta suck being President. Or worse, it sucks being a presidential intern. Hee hee hee....