Unconquered Sun
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,462
Imperialistic gambit is a strategy I'm currently testing. The basic idea is to build a settler right away while researching AH or bronze and settle it on horses/bronze for ultrafast rush on the AIs.
Testing was done on normal speed, all-standard fractal, deity difficulty. So far I've tried a few games with Cyrus and started the first one with Cathy.
Barring exceptional starting positions, imperialistic civs can build a settler in 15-20 turns. For Cyrus, this is fast enough to explore some with the scout and research AH.
Prior to the test I was mostly concerned about beasts/barbs and not finding horses. After location, the scout fogbusts/baits for the settler. Once Immortals roll, incoming barbarians must be attacked. Attacking is lower win % than city defend, however it gives more xp and Immortals promote the first two times. After that, the promoted Immos go to conquer the AIs and newly built Immos go to the barbarian training ground.
Games went like that:
-found the horses, settled, conquered the nearby AI and it turned out I'm all alone on the continent, with city upkeep too high to try any meangingful solo research v. deity AIs.
-found the horses very far away. Nonetheless I settled them but the Romans and the Ottomans expanded and cut any chance of liking my horse city to my capital.
-found the horses somewhat away, settled, Immo lost v. barb archer despite the odds and the archer razed the horse city
-found the horses, settled, built an army, invaded the AI, disconnected its two bronzes, however it managed to pull out exactly three spears which stalled the offensive.
-found the horses, settled, warred and in 1070 AD the game looks winnable (will discuss it below).
Test results for Cyrus: finding and settling the resource is not as hard as expected. Somewhat ironic, deity is so hard that panthers/wolves go away nearly instantly removing the only threat matching the maneuverability of scouts/settlers. Rushing the AIs is reasonably successful, but spears can be a big hindrance.
In the game with Cathy I found and settled the bronze, neighbours look powerful but we'll see...
Back to the Cyrus winner (I hope). The game started as a true classic: Alex DoWed me 1 turn before I was going to DoW him, this happens a lot to me with deity Alex. Kicked his ass, then Peter's, then Saladin entered the fray DoWing me and losing cities as well. So much for ancient warfare. Medieval warfare - split Peter between me and Asoka. Post-cavalry I'm doing the same to Saladin and plan to finish off Alex after that.
Warfare: outstanding. Economy: passing. I'm running some strange hybrid economy I did not plan to, I got cavalry and enough gold to insta-upgrade my immortals in 1010 AD, however it was the wierdest tech path to there. The way things go I'm getting Biology before Education.
Diplomacy is OK, somewhat friendly Asoka and me on the big continent, Ramesses and HC on solo small continents. Asoka is the only military threat.
The present problem: Saladin got Rifling a few turns earlier than he should have and it won't be a cavalry walk anymore. I want Mecca and I don't want to see Saladin vassalized to Asoka before that.
The world 1070 AD
Testing was done on normal speed, all-standard fractal, deity difficulty. So far I've tried a few games with Cyrus and started the first one with Cathy.
Barring exceptional starting positions, imperialistic civs can build a settler in 15-20 turns. For Cyrus, this is fast enough to explore some with the scout and research AH.
Prior to the test I was mostly concerned about beasts/barbs and not finding horses. After location, the scout fogbusts/baits for the settler. Once Immortals roll, incoming barbarians must be attacked. Attacking is lower win % than city defend, however it gives more xp and Immortals promote the first two times. After that, the promoted Immos go to conquer the AIs and newly built Immos go to the barbarian training ground.
Games went like that:
-found the horses, settled, conquered the nearby AI and it turned out I'm all alone on the continent, with city upkeep too high to try any meangingful solo research v. deity AIs.
-found the horses very far away. Nonetheless I settled them but the Romans and the Ottomans expanded and cut any chance of liking my horse city to my capital.
-found the horses somewhat away, settled, Immo lost v. barb archer despite the odds and the archer razed the horse city
-found the horses, settled, built an army, invaded the AI, disconnected its two bronzes, however it managed to pull out exactly three spears which stalled the offensive.
-found the horses, settled, warred and in 1070 AD the game looks winnable (will discuss it below).
Test results for Cyrus: finding and settling the resource is not as hard as expected. Somewhat ironic, deity is so hard that panthers/wolves go away nearly instantly removing the only threat matching the maneuverability of scouts/settlers. Rushing the AIs is reasonably successful, but spears can be a big hindrance.
In the game with Cathy I found and settled the bronze, neighbours look powerful but we'll see...
Back to the Cyrus winner (I hope). The game started as a true classic: Alex DoWed me 1 turn before I was going to DoW him, this happens a lot to me with deity Alex. Kicked his ass, then Peter's, then Saladin entered the fray DoWing me and losing cities as well. So much for ancient warfare. Medieval warfare - split Peter between me and Asoka. Post-cavalry I'm doing the same to Saladin and plan to finish off Alex after that.
Warfare: outstanding. Economy: passing. I'm running some strange hybrid economy I did not plan to, I got cavalry and enough gold to insta-upgrade my immortals in 1010 AD, however it was the wierdest tech path to there. The way things go I'm getting Biology before Education.
Diplomacy is OK, somewhat friendly Asoka and me on the big continent, Ramesses and HC on solo small continents. Asoka is the only military threat.
The present problem: Saladin got Rifling a few turns earlier than he should have and it won't be a cavalry walk anymore. I want Mecca and I don't want to see Saladin vassalized to Asoka before that.
The world 1070 AD
