Is this opening gambit/rut hardwired into the game?

[Victoria]

I'm gonna take over that city, so why would I burn it down first? Unsporting.

It does not cost builder charges to repair, pillaging districts I sometimes do not do although they reduce the strength of the city but I suspect you want to hand out tea and biscuits to the native population when you take a city, things did not happen exactly like that.

 

[SCBrain]

You are forgetting the crumpet revolution of 1452!

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Personally not a fan of horseman rushes, but that's partially because I play exclusively with random tech tree atm on Deity. I oftenndont know when I can expect to get horsemen up, but usually it's a lot later than rushing them with the standard tech tree. The same goes for swordsmen/men at arms.

For both random and standard tech tree however, I am a big fan of a warrior-based rush into swordsmen with battering ram support. Especially on random, doing a warrior rush off of 2-3 cities while looking for battering ram and swordsman tech have been giving me some decent results. The drawback is of course that random tech tree can screw you over if you dont unlock craftsmanship and political philosophy early, or battering rams and swordsmen follow diverging paths unlocked by a bunch of senseless techs that give you no immediate benefits. The benefit on random is that warriors are at least consistent in that you can always build them regardless of bad tech luck, even though they fall off hard compared to a standard horseman rush where the tech tree is known. Therefore the window of opportunity is also (usually) smaller on random.

In the end though, rushes like these are indeed a "gambit" (to use chess terms), in that you are putting your eggs in one basket and hoping to develop quickly enough to exploit a weakness in order to secure a favourable middle game.
Like Victoria, I do not recommend a pure archer rush on anything above Emperor. Mixed as support for other units (esp warriors/swordsmen), sure, but not as the main force.

 

[pkaem]

I always read these posts and think "yes, builder first when I have coast in my neck" or "I'll give that horse push another go". Always to end up with two cities, surrounded by barbs and cleopathra as neighbour. Alt + F4 after 45 rounds of non stop chariot archer killing without any siginifanct lowering of her military score. So this time, no. If I load up this game, I'll defend and expand. Rushes are for good players.

 

[PenngwynXVII]

On Deity with Tech shuffle, I always go 3 slingers, not for the rush, but for the defensive necessity.

As Derrick says, who knows how far away horseman or swords are, and if you don't have some archers up, you're likely going to get rolled while you're trying to research them.

 

[kaspergm]

I can't claim I was ever much of a warmonger nor a good rush-attacker, but I figured I'd try the archer-thing just for fun, and at the same time maybe get the rough-rider Teddy entry in my HOF. Well of course I start with no other civ on my sub-continent (so no +5 bonus for easy start), in fact nearest civ is a mile away (when does that ever happen when you want it to?), and nearest civ is Alexander, with Cleopatra as the third civ residing on our continent. So much for an easy rush. I did manage to take Alexander out by end of classical, but only because I found some Iron and he didn't, so I could get swords before he did. Taking out Egypt afterwards was not easy either, because her swarm of chariots proved really lethal whenever I tried to enter open ground, so it was only once I got to Men At Arms I could really dominate her. That was on Immortal difficulty for the record. I won't say I felt the archer opening was an instant win-button, but then again, maybe someone more trained and aggressive than me might have done a better job.

 

[Victoria]

That was on Immortal difficulty for the record

A very important part of the post. Archers are for defence primarily and often vital. On attack facing +3 ranged troops with fast promotions they get eaten. In fact barb archers at high level can be frightening.

 

[Kotofei]

. Well of course I start with no other civ on my sub-continent (so no +5 bonus for easy start), in fact nearest civ is a mile away (when does that ever happen when you want it to?), and nearest civ is Alexander, with Cleopatra as the third civ residing on our continent. So much for an easy rush.

Yeah the early rush is great....unless there's no neighbor to rush. Or it's Cleo with those chariot archers.

 

[Thormodr]

Lol. Whenever I start a game and want to have close neighbours, inevitably it never happens. I feel your pain.