In Case of Emergency...Chop!

[KnuckleHead]

Here's a juicy little nugget pertaining to defense of the fatherland.

The construction of an archer is usually a good idea sometime around (or before) the founding of your 3rd city.

Pre-chop a forest down to 1 turn before completion. Do this in your most central (or Barbarian attack prone) city. If a barbarian rears his ugly head at an inopportune moment (as they always do), chop that archer into existence in one turn! You might want to spend 1 or 2 turns building the archer in order to get the necessary hammers for a 1 turn completion if need be.

This is, of course, no substitue for not having a proper defense network with roads. It might potentially save you 6 or 7 turns early on when you could be building something more economically worthwhile like a settler, monument, etc.

By the way, I haven't actually put this into practice yet. Any comments and criticisms are welcome.

 

[Charou]

What if the dreaded barbarians come next to the tile where you prechopped ?
You might loose your worker or/and not be able to rush your archer.

Slavery is the way to go. if possible save forest for post mathematics chops (+50 %).

 

[frob2900]

The construction of an archer is usually a good idea sometime around (or before) the founding of your 3rd city.

If you have bronze, iron or horses, the construction of an archer is NEVER a good idea.

If you don't have any strategic resources, then you can just whip archers while you're beelining to construction. I don't understand the idea of prechopping the archer. Just chop it as normal.. without strategic resources your going to need quite a bit of units for fogbusting anyway.

 

[hotstuffjsn]

Frob, I love your Avatar!!

Christopher Walken is an awesome actor

 

[KnuckleHead]

My thoughts pertaining to this idea were more about achieving a maximum efficiency in a non-warmongering play style rather than a blanket technique, I think. Personally, I would hate to chop a forest to produce an archer for quick defense.

Depending on your playing style though, it might be a technique to think about. I would definitely not subscribe to "building an archer is never a good idea." Archers are made for defense and are "priced" accordingly. Plus, sometimes you have no choice. When the barbs come a knockin' they don't care if you're ready or not.

I don't know if Slavery is a better technique or not. I never use it to produce military units. I'm not married to the idea of not using it this way, I've just never tried it.

Like I said, I haven't actually done it. Real world testing has a way of putting some ideas to bed early.

 

[frob2900]

I would definitely not subscribe to "building an archer is never a good idea." Archers are made for defense and are "priced" accordingly.

If the player started with the archery tech, then an archer or two might be worthwile in some circumstances, but generally access to strategic resources will make them completely unnecessary.

The need to research the archery tech (and possibly hunting) which gives no early advantage in economy or warfare (archers are very bad at attacking cities compared to e.g. CR axes) is just not worth the beaker investment.
(Probably only when you don't have resources for axes/swords/chariots and lots of surrounding fog.)

Also, if you dont use slavery to build early units then:

a) You must have some ridiculously high hammer early city sites
or
b) You will have problems winning at Monarch+

 

[OldDays]

If you have bronze, iron or horses, the construction of an archer is NEVER a good idea.

I think this is very true!!! Maybee if you are protective... but the best defence is a good offense, so I would always prefer an axe

 

[InFlux5]

frob, I agree that researching the tech is a waste of beakers. But that's not the same as saying that you shouldn't build Archers. If I pick up Archery from a hut or a trade then I will build Archers.

Given a choice between an archery unit and a melee infantry, I prefer to have the archer defending my city. Why? Because they cost less. When I make my big, strong melee unit stand in a city on garrison duty I feel like I wasted a lot of hammers. I want all my infantry on the front lines. Better to spend half the hammers for a cheap defender.

And if I need to strike at an invasion force in my borders? That's what mounted units are for.