Oromos vs Longbows

[Leventis]

Playing as Zara for the first time at the moment, and wanted to test out that cool looking UU of theirs which comes with free Drill I & II promotions among other things. Now I've heard a lot of good things about people drafting these Oromos and having a lot of success with them, but I wanted to know just how effective they would be in my current game. Brief recap: playing emperor, fractal, epic, managed to chariot rush Shaka while blocking off Hammurabi, then peacefully expanded out to 8 cities (have room for fillers still). So my continent is basically half mine with Babylon the only other civ. That's the short of it anyway.

Now I have a huge tech lead over everyone since I popped Lib --> Nat while teching Gunpowder. So I'm really curious as to whether spamming/drafting/whipping Oromos would be a good idea given that they'll be going up against longbows mostly. Also, I expect many of Hammy's lbows to be upgraded bowmen (his UU), so I'm really unsure as to how a war would play out. Anyone who has used Oromos in a war before, I could really use some advice here since I have no experience in how they'd fare as city capturers. Should I war now, or should I just wait for steel, rifling (which isn't too far off, but I've been there done that plenty of times ) Oh, and a final note: I've infiltrated Hammy twice with GSpies for tech stealing and still have heaps of EPs available for wiping out his cultural defences instantly. Cheers.

 

[mice]

I'd attack soon with the Oromos even if just becasue you've "been there done that" with rifles and cannon.

Oromos stand up to rifles if promoted with pinch. Against Hamu's longbows it will be about shear numbers overwhelming him, as draft can do.

First Oromo withdraws (drill 2) , second Oromo wins.

 

[oyzar]

Omoros are pure gold until the enemy get knights. After that they are still decent but not overly amazing as the knights are immune to first strikes.

 

[SnowlyWhite]

the 1st oromo will be kicked, the 2nd probably will win... just like any other musketman vs a fortified longbow

what I liked about them was the fact they retain the drill when promoted, so I started with some drill 2/other things rifles, but otherwise, 1st oromo I doubt it'll get more then 20% chance or so, and that on a flat terrain city

knights aren't really a problem since they start with drill 2 and with barracks and theocracy you'll gain another promotion even on drafted ones, so you can put them to drill 2/formation, but ok, they won't shine against knights either. They should have some 65% or so chances with formation

 

[Leventis]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I'll attack if only to satisfy my curiosity. Good to know that those Drill promotions carry over to rifles, so if this attack goes belly up I'll just build some more, do a mass upgrade once I hit rifling and hit him again .

 

[dragomaster]

Build pikes during you draft oromos so you have a counter against the ai's mounted units. In my only game as Zarah I teched thowads Steel during building an army of oromos and pikes. when I had enough of those units I started to build reserch and gold and when steel came in started to whip and build canons, when I had like six canons i attacked and continue to build cannons.

no one can stop you if no ai have rifling. you can litteraly stemrole a whole continent. the pikes take care of any mounted units the oromos attack citys and the canons take care of the city's cultural defence.

Edit. This game was my best warfare game ever. not only did my Oromos start with drill one and two a random event gave them pinch to, when i got rifling many oromos had drill four, strenth 3 and pinch. my uppgraded oromos to rifles realy was extreamly heavy.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I have no specific experience with Oromo Warriors, but I do have experience warring with musketmen, and I imagine Oromos function pretty much as a beefed up musket. I would wager that, in spite of having surplus espionage points, it would still be worth it to bring siege engines with you. At base strength of 9, muskets and Oromo Warriors have shaky odds against longbows, even without terrain defense. If Hammurabi is close to or already has Guilds, you'll also need some units to defend against knights. Combat and formation promoted Oromos may suffice, but pikes work far better and remove the need to give your Oromos promotions you may not want to them to have (i.e. you may want to get to drill IV).

 

[Immaculate]

You can get early gunpowder and go to town though.

Have a look at this screenshot:

(arboreal map, monarch difficulty, 9 starting opponents)

EDIT: I saw this thread and wanted to post in it, but first i had to finish the game so i could show this screenshot. I just got this screen not even 5min ago.