Please explain "pop rush" in detail

[SkyRattlers]

I've seen many references to people "pop rushing" in order to produce things quickly. I believe that I understand the concept but it seems that whenever I try it it goes so slowly or turns against me that it doesn't seem like a good strategy.

Could someone please explain the ENTIRE process of pop rush using extreme details. Maybe some examples and pro's and con's....maybe what kind of results I can expect and how long the process usually takes.

Basically I think it would be helpful to see an entire strategy article on this topic.

 

[MrFrodo]

is right here

There ought to be a law against it...At least when multiplayer comes out there ought to be a preference to add additional
penalties (more unhappiness, cultural penalty, lowered reputation, something), or outlaw it alltogether.
Because everyone will be forced to use it if they want to win.

 

[WUM]

In fact there is some kind of 'penalty'.
You have to be in a rather primitive government-type. I.e. not being a democracy of republic.
I think that´s penalty enough. I love pop-rushing early in the game. And considering mp: they all can choose to do this.

 

[MrFrodo]

I guess I just don't want to see only one viable strategy that
everyone ends up doing in multiplayer. Maybe you leave
pop-rush alone, but give some nice rewards for staying peaceful,
building culture and not building offensive units. Peace loving
civs wont have a chance against nearby pop-rushers in
multiplayer. Only chance they might have is early defensive
units (hoplites or impi vs. horses) or running away.

I would like to see something like peaceful civs with temples that convert enemy units inside the city radius, or some god-like
intervention on behalf of a civ that stays peaceful over a period
of time. Or maybe the peaceful creation of great leaders that
was discussed in another thread.

Anyway, there are a lot of things I'd love to see in Civ3, that I
probably never will. So I am going to have to leave it for another
game. At least until scenarios/multiplayer comes out...

 

[Chieftess]

I just tried a pop-rush in Civ2 (I'll try Civ3 next) as the Chinese (since they have the most room to expand), and I ended up with 10-15 cities (Chieftain level, of course), when the comp. only have 2-3. Once I got to the Egyptians and Carthagians, they had 5-8, where I had 20-25.

I usually end up stopping after 15 cities (some of those 25 cities were conquered or "discovered" - about 5 of them).

But, when I do it, it's only a 50% success in Civ2. I wonder how Civ3 will be.