ArkhanTheBlack
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2008
- Messages
- 153
I was playing around with some strategies for the fastest rush to infernals. I wanted to know if it's possible to use in my multiplayer games with 1 - 2 friends on small maps with quick tech.
I tried a lot of races with different strategies and I found the result quite surprising. The Calabim were pretty much the only race who could manage a Hyborem rush almost reliable in about 75 turns. My fastest result was 73 turns with a good start. It's possible to be even faster by finding researches in villages or getting similar boosts by special events.
There are some very interesting conclusions for this very short teching time of ~75 turns:
Long term teching strategies are pretty much impossible. Researches like writing for libraries are simply to expensive and won't pay back in this short time. Even mining for gold and gems is too expensive except you get at least 2 of them in your start city. It's still a problem since they don't produce food and you have to employ a priest in your city for great prophets. In order to succeed you need two great prophets. One to research 'Corruption of spirit' in one turn and another one to get about 2/3 of the 'Infernal pact' research. They can't be replaced by great sages (unfortunately) since they don't have enough time to make an impact. Therefore you need a leader with the philosophical trait. I experimented a bit with the extra golden age of the Balseraphs which also increases greater person growth for 20 turns. However, it was not enough.
The great advantage of Calabim is their world spell. If you trigger it as soon as you've built you first city, you can start with a pop 3 city which is a huge economic boost. A hills/plains as starting place is also important for the extra hammer and defense.
There are two basic working strategies:
1.) If you have a starting place with dyes or similar productive plantation places, you should immediately research agriculture and calendar. Build some warriors at the start and then a worker which should be ready when calendar is ready. Both a 1 or 2 city strategy is possible in this case.
2.) You can also go fishing if you have some good fresh water lakes. It saves some research points since Calabim start with exploration, but you need to play a two city
strategy to get the required research power. This strategy has the advantage that you don't have to worry about barbarians destroying upgraded tiles too much.
Both strategies continue with ancient chants and mysticism. If you want to play a 2 city strategy, you should start building a settler now. As soon as mysticism is researched switch to god king and pacifism and immediately build a pagan temple. The temple has 100% priority. Interrupt the settler if necessary and switch everything to production. You need to employ a priest as soon as possible or you won't be able to get your second great prophet in time. The first one is easy. If you haven't finished the temple by round 30 - 35 you're too slow. After you've employed your priest, you can continue with the settler and/or building up your city. If you build a second city then build it very close and connect it by roads. You need a fast connection because you have to send the savant from ashen veil later to your starting city since it's usually no founded in the capital. The order of research of philosophy, knowledge of the ether and way of the wicked is not important. As soon as you can start corruption of spirit, finish it with a prophet in one turn and change your religion to ashen veil. Then start infernal pact. Usually, you don't have you second prophet by this time. Since he can't research infernal pact in one turn you've still some time. Build the temple of veil ASAP in your capital, even if your research suffers. If you have two cities, you probably have to move the savant to your capital first. Therefore you need the roads.
When you've finished the temple of veil you can employ a second priest which will give the greater prophet growth rate a tremendous boost (=15 growth rate). Finish infernal pact as soon as you get the second great prophet and change to the infernals.
Possible improvements.
- If you have a close AI neighbour you can make a warrior rush instead of building a settler. Alexis has the aggressive trait and the economic boost of a pop 3 city at the start should give you a huge advantage. In this case you can build a pagan temple in both cities at the same time and try a double priest employment. Finish the first GP in one city and the second in the other. I think it should be possible to get < 70 turns with this strategy. However, the enemy city shouldn't be too far away or the city distance upkeep could kill your research.
- Kuriotates might also be a strong tech civ, however I didn't like the good civ goes demons scenario...
I'm open ears for better or improved strategies
. So far I tried Hippus, Sheaim, Sidar, Balseraphsa and Amurites, but they were all too slow.
I tried a lot of races with different strategies and I found the result quite surprising. The Calabim were pretty much the only race who could manage a Hyborem rush almost reliable in about 75 turns. My fastest result was 73 turns with a good start. It's possible to be even faster by finding researches in villages or getting similar boosts by special events.
There are some very interesting conclusions for this very short teching time of ~75 turns:
Long term teching strategies are pretty much impossible. Researches like writing for libraries are simply to expensive and won't pay back in this short time. Even mining for gold and gems is too expensive except you get at least 2 of them in your start city. It's still a problem since they don't produce food and you have to employ a priest in your city for great prophets. In order to succeed you need two great prophets. One to research 'Corruption of spirit' in one turn and another one to get about 2/3 of the 'Infernal pact' research. They can't be replaced by great sages (unfortunately) since they don't have enough time to make an impact. Therefore you need a leader with the philosophical trait. I experimented a bit with the extra golden age of the Balseraphs which also increases greater person growth for 20 turns. However, it was not enough.
The great advantage of Calabim is their world spell. If you trigger it as soon as you've built you first city, you can start with a pop 3 city which is a huge economic boost. A hills/plains as starting place is also important for the extra hammer and defense.
There are two basic working strategies:
1.) If you have a starting place with dyes or similar productive plantation places, you should immediately research agriculture and calendar. Build some warriors at the start and then a worker which should be ready when calendar is ready. Both a 1 or 2 city strategy is possible in this case.
2.) You can also go fishing if you have some good fresh water lakes. It saves some research points since Calabim start with exploration, but you need to play a two city
strategy to get the required research power. This strategy has the advantage that you don't have to worry about barbarians destroying upgraded tiles too much.
Both strategies continue with ancient chants and mysticism. If you want to play a 2 city strategy, you should start building a settler now. As soon as mysticism is researched switch to god king and pacifism and immediately build a pagan temple. The temple has 100% priority. Interrupt the settler if necessary and switch everything to production. You need to employ a priest as soon as possible or you won't be able to get your second great prophet in time. The first one is easy. If you haven't finished the temple by round 30 - 35 you're too slow. After you've employed your priest, you can continue with the settler and/or building up your city. If you build a second city then build it very close and connect it by roads. You need a fast connection because you have to send the savant from ashen veil later to your starting city since it's usually no founded in the capital. The order of research of philosophy, knowledge of the ether and way of the wicked is not important. As soon as you can start corruption of spirit, finish it with a prophet in one turn and change your religion to ashen veil. Then start infernal pact. Usually, you don't have you second prophet by this time. Since he can't research infernal pact in one turn you've still some time. Build the temple of veil ASAP in your capital, even if your research suffers. If you have two cities, you probably have to move the savant to your capital first. Therefore you need the roads.
When you've finished the temple of veil you can employ a second priest which will give the greater prophet growth rate a tremendous boost (=15 growth rate). Finish infernal pact as soon as you get the second great prophet and change to the infernals.
Possible improvements.
- If you have a close AI neighbour you can make a warrior rush instead of building a settler. Alexis has the aggressive trait and the economic boost of a pop 3 city at the start should give you a huge advantage. In this case you can build a pagan temple in both cities at the same time and try a double priest employment. Finish the first GP in one city and the second in the other. I think it should be possible to get < 70 turns with this strategy. However, the enemy city shouldn't be too far away or the city distance upkeep could kill your research.
- Kuriotates might also be a strong tech civ, however I didn't like the good civ goes demons scenario...
I'm open ears for better or improved strategies
. So far I tried Hippus, Sheaim, Sidar, Balseraphsa and Amurites, but they were all too slow.
