Inca Very Early Emperor Capital Rush Strategy

Astromancer

Chieftain
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Feb 5, 2006
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I've began playing at Emperor level, and I've discovered it's possible to have three powerful, resource rich cities very early without the production of a single settler; also the clearing of a large swafe of unclaimed virgin territory for your future gleaful settlement; and a few free workers to boot. All with the powerful Incan civilization (Ind/Fin).

Its rather simple. As soon as the game begins - ideally your starting location will be a plains-hill (for the extra hammer) and have at least acceptable levels of food - you produce only warriors (the Incan UU obviously, I forget the name). By the time you come around to BW, you will have at least 6 units. Send these troops to your nearest enemy city. Declare war and capture in three turns max.

It's possible to catch even Alexander off guard with as little as 2 defending archers. Even if he has three you are more likely to win the battle than your opponent.

The key is to give your opponent no indication of attack. If you give them time to respond, the computer will produce more troops than you are able to defeat and this is inevitable. Surprise and swiftness are key. Declare war and capture in three turns.

After you capture your first foreign capital, rush barracks in your own capital. Pump out 6, 25% against archer units warriors and join these to the remainder army from the previous incursion (which could be beefed up by capture city and whipping). Send immediately to second enemy capital (possibly have 2 cities by this time). Capture. (It is wise to have some idea to second opponents defending abilities through a well-placed scout, which is possible if terrain is favourable to the tactic (hills in corner of borders), and if said city has not founded a religion.

Then if you are successful proceed to establish a stable economy whilst slowly expanding into your fresh, untouched, probably resource heavy God-given homeland.

A good tactic is to send any living troops to explore and fog-bust to limit barbarian activity. It is possible, in fact easy, to get Hinduism along with all this (if you research the relevent technology as soon as game begins) as well as.

This is all achievable on Emperor.
 
And is it still rather simple when you're not lucky to get those two opponents right next door to you?
 
What's with the cynicism. If you don't have two next door, the chances are you'll have one. In which case it's still a rather good strategy to sorting things out earlier. Besides if there aren't enemies sufficiently nearby, you would proceed to build a few wonders and expand normally as the Incas do very well at already. Happy now?
 
If you don't have a neighbor, you make a few cities, then use the Quechuas to take ones Barbarians build for you while having your cities focus on infrastructure and military buildup.

The real bane of the Incans isn't a lack of a close neighbor, it's close neighbors who defend their cities really well. Whether it's by spamming cities on hilltops, or by being protective, or by having an archer UU, or by beelining Bronze and getting retardedly lucky finding it, there are ways for people to stop a Q-rush dead and you will encounter them.

Of course, it feels great and pays off huge when it does work, since capital city locations are rigged to be so badass in this game.
 
The Incas have a fabulous UU. Its archer killing capacity is almost broken in its goodness. Although the objections raised are certainly valid, the Incas are probably still the best super-early rush civilization.

I can't be bothered to look them up, but there are a number of threads about this on the forum. Also, check the Hall of Fame for some ridiculously early wins on high levels using exactly the Quecha rush.

I for one actually avoid using the Incas because I consider their archer killing power to be almost game-breaking (much better than e.g. Cyrus, who perhaps comes a close second).
 
Many people here would have you believe that you pull off the magic quechua rush on any level, even Deity, to even more extreme success than Astromancer's original post.

Players like Moonsinger have got it down to a fine art where they can neutralise 5 enemies right from the start of the game with only one quechua per enemy.

They do this by sending one quechua to each capital and having them float around outside. If you get it right the enemy will send out archers that you can pick off in the field, giving you the promotions you need to take out the lightly defended city soon enough. In the meantime, the enemies send out no workers, their civs don't develop, and hey presto, ultrafast conquest victory.

It's no coincidence that just about ALL the top games in the Hall of the Fame are with the obscenely overpowered Incans.
 
I attribute that to the AIs' tendency to overrely on archers. Warriors are about as good as archers when facing Quechua, at nearly half the hammer price. Technically, a deity AI can swarm your Quechuas in warriors. Except, they never do it because they have rigid military production scripts which don't take under account who the enemy is.
 
I attribute that to the AIs' tendency to overrely on archers.

Agreed! This is really a bad flaw in the AI. I can't imagine it would take much coding to make them spam warriors at the sight of a quecha (they could whip 2 for 1 pop), which would effectively nerf the Quecha in a fair and balanced way.

I'm now going to test if BetterAI does this :)
 
I tried this rush 10 times in a row and succeded 0. Every time my 6 quenchas lost to either 2 or 3 archers! I guess you have to find a capital of a non protective civ, that is not on a hill and that has 2 not 3 archers! But when I found that combination the AI had produced a warrior!
 
Well, I like to let the AI develop their capitals a bit and perhaps build a wonder or two, before I pursue a 'hostile takeover'. :)
 
I just wish the AI would build warriors at the sight of quechas, or better yet discovering the Incan civilization, so that they don't feel so freakin' exploitable. Because generally Incas are enjoyable to play, but the UU is just too strong. When I play them I don't quecha rush because I feel it's pretty lame tbh.
 
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