how to play boudica?

[Keilah]

I was giving boudica a few shots and I fail with her =p


She's agg/cha so I'm doing some sort of early rush, even if it isn't the 100% most optimal thing (it might be though) it's obviously the most fun/fitting. And using unique units is fun so I prefer that =]


Thing is I keep running into these problems:

-Enemy gets copper/iron in a position where I can't deny it (settle on top, have to go through a city to reach it, etc) and the war becomes horribly inefficient

-My economy is utter fail after I rush IW (with usually a single food tech and the wheel) and the AI seems to take forever to reach Alphabet so I can't even extort techs for peace.

Immortal difficulty btw. Been playing Pangaea to make certain i have a rush target.


Anyone have any useful tips to throw my way? Not including maps cuz I wouldn't want to play the same map twice (foreknowledge sucks).

 

[OneLeggedRhino]

Failgold is the key to keeping your economy going in an early rush / hard expansion opening. And teching to IW before getting the techs to improve all your tiles is probably also part of the problem. Try rushing with axes, and taking a more well-rounded approach to techs. Or post a game with screencaps.

 

[Gwynnja]

The optimal approach is to play the map regardless of the leader

 

[Mylene]

Choking is your friend
If an AI is near keep them small, and self-tech IW. One way i did it.
The hills stuffs line of promotions for the GW is interesting.
No need to settle much yourself, barb cities should pop up (don't fog bust) and easily taken out with GWs.

 

[ahcos]

The optimal approach is to play the map regardless of the leader

This. It's not too clever to play a strategy regardless of how the map is... if you really want to do a swordrush, try to reroll your start until you have at least one source of high commerce (gold/gems etc) on top of some forrests, that makes rushing alot more easy. Choking might be clever regardless

Overall, i don't like Boudica for rushes. Weak starting techs and no economic trait to either set up rushes quickly or to recover from the rushes quickly...

 

[GenerallyGreat]

You don't have to rush. Get to construction and bring lots of the UU and watch the promotions grow.

 

[m00n]

If the map supports an early rush, here is how you do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgqieGoKkxQ&feature=channel_video_title
It's a recent Immortal Pan. Norm. Game by Absolute Zero. And it starts with 1 1/2 Celtic warrior rushes. It should be exactly what you're look for.

 

[Keilah]

1 1/2 = one and a half? what's that mean?

'play the map, not the leader/strat' is advice that i'm aware of but explicitly stated in the OP that i'm choosing to ignore. So there =D

heh, in the AZ vid he starts with gold and an oasis =p

 

[m00n]

Means he tries to take a second AI, doesn't pilliage the two visible sources of copper, and is beaten back by axes, so he techs to Construction and finishes the job with cats+celts. I'd say the second war is not a normal Celtic Warrior rush to the end. So I wrote 1 1/2
He also gets the highest promoted nutcracker unit I've ever seen. I've not finished it yet. I wonder when it will die

 

[Keilah]

One interesting thing I tried (and it actually worked) was teching agri (my only food source) -> archery and going worker -> barracks -> archer -> archer for the choke

Obv not an 'optimal' build but i was able to steal a worker to make up for it and unlike warrior chokes an archer choke isn't going anywhere until metals... which the AI will never be allowed to get =)

Not 100% sold on the barracks but it's 1/2 price from AGG and my archers start with an edge, plus a single fight from anything opens up cover or guerilla2, both of which are very nice for the choke. Barracks lets me build a medic warrior if i choose, too.

Anyone else do archer chokes? Like/don't lke/tips?

 

[Ataxerxes]

One interesting thing I tried (and it actually worked) was teching agri (my only food source) -> archery and going worker -> barracks -> archer -> archer for the choke

Obv not an 'optimal' build but i was able to steal a worker to make up for it and unlike warrior chokes an archer choke isn't going anywhere until metals... which the AI will never be allowed to get =)

Not 100% sold on the barracks but it's 1/2 price from AGG and my archers start with an edge, plus a single fight from anything opens up cover or guerilla2, both of which are very nice for the choke. Barracks lets me build a medic warrior if i choose, too.

Anyone else do archer chokes? Like/don't lke/tips?

Chokes are often good play, but teching Archery has a cost. I usually am too busy with Writing, Bronze Working, worker techs to go for archery. I usually get Archery as a throw-in on a trade. If Agri is your only food source there's a very good chance for Horses or Copper in the BFC. An early warrior choke on a forest next to the only city can cripple an AI. However, another AI may take advantage of all that open space and grow huge.

An early warrior choke will often cut the AI off from metals because the workers can't come out. Even if the AI gets an Archer a fortified Warrior in the forest can defend well against an archer.

 

[squall78]

If the map supports an early rush, here is how you do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgqieGoKkxQ&feature=channel_video_title
It's a recent Immortal Pan. Norm. Game by Absolute Zero. And it starts with 1 1/2 Celtic warrior rushes. It should be exactly what you're look for.

argh everytime i check out a civ vid i lose a couple hours

it was very informative though.

 

[Kid R]

The questions (how to deal with enemy axes, how to keep economy afloat and beeline IW at the same time) apply to all leaders not just Boudica. Agg+cha and the slightly superior GWs make sword war a bit easier for her, but in general IMO sword *rushes* are very rarely good play because of IW's position on the tech tree and how dicey the economy is around that time of the game. Same as everyone else said really

Axe rushes can be done with two cities and not tank the treasury because BW comes early and the resulting 4 or 5 city empire is sustainable and competitive with AIs still bumbling about with their keystone-cops workers building roads instead of farming corn and so on. Sword rushes take a lot longer, and you have much more established enemy empires against yours which is already somewhat crippled by beelining IW. Plus there is a high probability they have a strong counter unit, and in any case even if they don't your swords are not *that* much of an upgrade on the axes you could have sent more economically 50 turns earlier.

Charismatic+Aggressive+Gallic warriors is IMO even more tempting than Imperialistic+Praetorians for getting into inappropriate wars. So my advice is DISCIPLINE SOLDIER! Keep your powder (and/or iron) dry, leverage charismatic for some good large cities, and get some use from agg later on.

 

[GGracchus]

Mass draft rifles/cannons?

 

[GenerallyGreat]

Here you go I've rolled an immortal Boudica map. I wanted to avoid very easy high commerce starts so I moved the settler away from coast with gold to make the start a bit more standard. Eh turns out I don't have a starting screenshot so here's the capital and the rest of the scene:

Techs went AG, AH, mining, bronze, road and now iron. I sent the starting scout out looking for a choking victim while I started a worker. Once I found the french I switched to the best hammer tile and a warrior. A lap of the city didn't get me a worker so I waited for the settler to go out for the worker that would follow to connect:

After that I planted the warrior on the forested hill outside the capital and built two more to choke the second city. I followed with a monument and a barracks. Two settlers were chopped out and I built a third worker to speed up the copper connection. I didn't build the two cities straight away as I wanted to delay barbs entering my borders. (not sure if I've got the mechanics of that right but it seems to work in delaying them a bit.)
I didn't figure on the AI getting a view into my unguarded city but I guess they did and I've lost my 2 warriors delaying an archer attack while I get my first axe out. As things stand I have what will be two good production cities and a useful gold/great people city. The UU is only 7 turns away and I only have archers to go up against.

 

[GenerallyGreat]

975BC:
After milking some experience killing off archers wandering around I attacked France with a coupld of axes and a bunch of the UU. With combat 1 and CR2 and CR3 on my swords the war was over quick.

Spoiler :

425BC:
The trade screen and some scouting showed that Cathy had only one source of metal hooked up. I had about 14 melee units on hand so I split them up and picked off cities as the AI jockeyed defenders around.

Spoiler :

I took peace in exchange for all of her techs. One junk city would be easy to pick off in 10 turns.

The next part was tricky as I had to use my great scientist for a golden age to avoid strike. I built a bunch of cottages and built research to get currency. Building wealth got me to construction. HC was looking like a runaway candidate but we all know that he'd rather build wonders than units early so he got to die next.

275AD lots of pics:

Spoiler :

Crossbows are nasty against swords but they don't stop massed catapults.

I've just declared on Saladin. He'll waste his units on my vassal's longbows and crossbows while I move my ancient stack over. I have a lot of 6-7 promotion units, I might try to win domination with only giant stacks of ancient units. Boudica is fun I've been at war for about 90% of the game.

 

[GenerallyGreat]

1040AD: Saladin caps out in one turn of war after losing one city.

Spoiler :

1300AD: I'd forgotten how much of a pain castles were. I had to tech trebs for my last two victims.

Spoiler :

1400's and conquest:
Sitting Bull is his usual stubborn self and single movement units are slow but the game has hit the steamroller stage.

Spoiler :

I'm not sure how informative this was but I had fun.

 

[Keilah]

<3 well played game GG, I like how you made a combat great general, looks fun ^^

After a few more playthrus my most success has come from pimping out CHA to grow big and then whip like a madman when it's time to hit, still the most fun came from turbo-rushing. If perfectly played i think it could be good, gives a lot of opportunities to mess up troop movements which is actually really fun =)

One thing I really hate about rushing IW is that if I'd waited just a liiiiitle longer and teched something else I could have gotten it for 'free' from an AI :/

I think I like stonehenge with her, both for the insta-monuments and the GProphet around t85 to bulb theo just in time to start whipping units. Probably be better with Brennus of course.


BTW has anyone considered Brennus as a decent HA rusher? Hunting + myst usually suck but you could go AH -> Oracle HBR or use mysticism to failgold Stonehenge so you can slowtech HBR in time. CHA obv nice for HAs!


EDIT: LOL 80-unit stack =D

 

[GenerallyGreat]

I almost always use super hero GG's with CHA. I'm sure it's not the best option but it's fun. I've made a horde of horse heroes before and I've tried siege heroes with mobility too with mixed results. I like the extra happy to run a few big cottage cities to keep the strike at bay. Getting to currency earlier would also work though.