All of those things are not early, and civ specific. Each can be countered. If you can have catapults, I can have assassins. Assassins kill all cats before they get near the city. Pyre Zombies? Priests destroy undead. I just get the tech I need to counter what you will have. And let's not forget, you are talking about 1 move units attacking in quick game speed. Hah! Golems and catapults, moving one and being eaten alive by assassins, aren't owning anything. After my assassins kill your catapults and adepts, your golems are dead meat. Seriously, this verbal pissing contest is pointless. Anyone can come up with any various scenarios to counter and counter-counter and counter-counter-counter. Not impressed, and not continuing that silliness.
In summary: No, I am not relying on charm. I am relying on any combination necessary of: charm, hunters, treetop defense, blur, assassins, priests, etc.
1) You don't need FoL. Did you not see the post above yours? If you are just going to ignore the discussion and spout crap againt svalt empyr, go away.
2) Even if you don't found FoL, you get the religion. Ooooo didn't think of that one?
3) Empyr is the problem. You pretty much have to beeline it (sometimes FoL first), then get poisons, then law. Any other parts of the strat are optional.
Again, you are welcome to join us for MP anytime, despite:
Spare me the grammar nazi crap.
First, let me correct some of the mistakes in your arguments:
"Pyre Zombies? Priests destroy undead." Slight problem there. Pyre zombies come around over 1975
before priests. Given early game research rates, that is very significant (easily significantly over 50 turns). So Pyre Zombies would
still own your strategy.
"If you can have catapults, I can have assassins." Again, slight problem there; namely that catapults are 525
before assasins, or catapults and golems available 925
before assassins (via the Luchuirp world spell). Thus, there is a slight problem in fielding assassins to counter catapults and possibly golems (namely: your opponent would be able to field and mass catapults and/or golems before you are even able to build assassins).
By the way, assassins get reduced strength when fighting nonliving units due to their relying on poison damage...
" Empyr is the problem. You pretty much have to beeline it (sometimes FoL first), then get poisons, then law. Any other parts of the strat are optional." What? So you expect to field assassins to counter any of the plethora of units I listed
after researching Honor? Ok...
The above quote illustrates my entire point across all of the posts that I and others have made. Specifically: Given
enough time, your strategy will work. Against the AI (on any settings, really), just about anything works given enough time. In multiplayer, this strategy has far too many holes to be viable against an opponent that wants to eliminate you early on because of the lack of perspective for the first 100-150 turns, essentially. All of your strategies' components ("charm, hunters, treetop defense, blur, assassins, priests, etc.") come hundreds, sometimes thousands of
after the most basic and standard military units available, many of which can annihilate your particular unit set/strategy via earlier more
efficient wars.
I'm not saying your strategy can't work, If given enough
time it will. Problems arise in an inadequate defense during the time when you can't field assassins and priests (I'm ignoring charm because, as I've shown there are any number of ways to counter it, to say nothing of the +40 resist it now possesses), and the opponent can field catapults, golems, pyre zombies, etc.