JAG Rush

[Lkysam]

Hi! Has anyone noticed that on the higher levels it is very difficult to be a diplo? Well my strat evelvolved from peaceful builder on cheiftan to viscous warlord on monarch. I developed this strat to help fight the cpu bonuses.

Okay for this strat to work the best civ to pick (IMHO) are the aztecs. This is a military strategy very early on so the Jaguar warriors work GREAT ! (hence the name JAG rush)So what you do is this:With your first city build 2 JW(Jaguar Warriors) and start scouting like heck then build a settler. Found 2 cities and have them all pump 1 extra worker and 4-6 JWs. By now your scouts should have found your first foe. Have all of your jags attack his cities (because JWs retreat you should lose few) Even if he has spears your numbers should win out. At home continue building JAGs.By now all your foes original cits should be gone and he is probably restarted with 1 cit in a location to distant to bother with. Ask for peace and get everything you can out of this. Hopefully by now your second foe is marked out. Once you have around 10 JWs (or however many you need) Start pumping sttlers and workers. Once spears become commonplace switch to Horses. Archers are kinda slow and this strat depends on surprise and lighning speed.


What do you think?

 

[God]

They are good but the problem is on any level higher than monarch the AI will have too many settlers and spearmen for you to destroy quickly.

In a warlord game I once destroyed 4 civs with JAG rush.

On monarch I find I can finish one, and sometimes 2 off before there are too many spearmen to beat. And the GA is sooo early it will screw you up.

But then I saw Sir Plebs diety victory with the Aztecs so you never know.

 

[Lkysam]

Actualy I never intended for this strategy to be used to wipe out everyone. My goal was to counter the AI's expansion advantages and get an early boost. Hopefully the eleminated oponent +tribute will help you keep up with the pack. Generally I go for 1-2 civs.

 

[SirPleb]

Originally posted by God
But then I saw Sir Plebs diety victory with the Aztecs so you never know.

I never actually fought with a Jaguar warrior in that game! I chose the Aztecs for it because of the militaristic/religous combination. (Not Japan because that game was with 1.16 and Samurai were not upgradeable then.) I used the Jags for exploring but did not want such an early Golden Age, did not use them for fighting.

 

[Andre]

But jags,regardless of just how many there literally are, just don't stand or last when directed to battle against defending spearmen of other cities...and they just keep falling...I mean--it just has an attack and defense value of 1 and only moves twice as much, that's all...but capability-wise....

 

[Sullla]

This strategy will work extremely well about 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 of the time it will fail, and you will have to start a new game. Those aren't odds I like at all.

A conquest game on Monarch or Emperor is much easier IMO if you wait until later to start fighting, when the AI bonus starting units are no longer a factor. I personally like the upgrade from horsemen - > knights as the time to start fighting. In short, if you're a gambler go ahead and try a Jag rush. But I think you can ALWAYS win by trying less risky strategies.

 

[Lkysam]

Yeah but if you wait until later u r likely to have already been out expanded.

 

[harrisp]

Am playing Aztecs at Deity at the moment and the JAGs definately helped give a good start..good scouting so you get early contact and useful in conjunction with Archers in early war when I saw off the Iroquois.

Am now in mid-game and still have a few JAG survivors who are being used as lookouts and to opportunistically pillage enemy improvements.

 

[Scyphax]

I use a version of the JAG rush.
Initially I create a barracks and some jaguar warriors.
I then concentrate on creating my next city. Then more cities, barracks, and jaguar warriors.
My research goals are first spearmen, then horsemen.
The jaguar warriors explore and when they come to an AI civilisation they pillage all inprovements.
Both times I played this I was on a continent shared with 2&3 other AI civs.
When I research spearmen I sent 1 spearman to occupy the high ground near each city. This proves both a safe base for the Jags to retreat too and they keep an eye on the enemy civs activities.
Jags would either wait protected by the spearmen or more than one square away from cities. From there Jags pillage and attack units with a defence of 1 (warriors and bowmen).
Most jags are elite by now as I send any veteran units to destroy barbarians, the enemy is usually regular or sometimes veteran.
By the time I had researched horsemen I had explored the entire continent, contained each AI civ to 1-3 cities and denied them all resources. A group of horsemen then captured each city one-by-one.
Both times because of the good start I had an easy win.
One game was played at Regent, one at Monarch level on the standard map.
I haven't tried it on Pangea.
This stragegy whould be useless on islands, probably would not work against the Zulu.

 

[civzombie]

Ahh the jag rush strategy... remember that if you wait until Ironworking you can upgrade jags that retreated and have only one hit point left to full hitpoint swordsmen and immediatly send them back to battle.

This is really useful if you conquer and enemy city with iron access. You use the fast movement of the jags to run them over there, then you upgrade and attack!



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Brains.... BRAINS....! (zombie growl) braINS!.... Use your brains to win at civ!
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[Hellfire]

Originally posted by Andre
But jags,regardless of just how many there literally are, just don't stand or last when directed to battle against defending spearmen of other cities...and they just keep falling...I mean--it just has an attack and defense value of 1 and only moves twice as much, that's all...but capability-wise....

FYI Andre, Jags have an attack value of 2. That's what makes them so useful in this strategy.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Jags have an attack of 1 (unless you are playing some mod).