Power Windows

ssadamar

Chieftain
Joined
Jun 29, 2020
Messages
5
Hi everyone,

Long time reader, and have recently become able to win regularly on Deity thanks to all the amazing threads here, so thank you!

One thing that has fascinated me in my games is seeing which tech/military advantages open up power windows for conquest, and how long they tend to last. Some of these like an early archer or horseman rush seem reasonably agnostic to civ choice, whereas I've read about some pretty unique ones in these forums as well (really enjoyed doing a Llanero Industrial rush in this month's GoTM, and about to try Mr. Shadow's Singing Hussars strategy next).

I am curious to learn more about what tech/military power windows you all tend to enjoy most in general, how you prioritize arriving at them, as well as some unique or civ-specific ones you may have tried, and what tech/event tends to close them. For example, I've noticed that my early archer rush will generally continue until I spot the first couple xbows on the map, and then it's time to pack it in. Other windows, like rushing to flight/aluminum in the 200's on standard seems to end games on the spot though. For the fast players, I am sure there are other game ending windows that come up in the 100's.

TLDR: what power windows do you prioritize and why?

Thanks to all.
 
I find that a quickly upgraded Renaissance-era push around t120-140 works really well to close out a domination game or expand your advantage in a science game. Muskets and bombards deal with the cities, while coursers pillage and crossbows and knights clear out units. All it takes is gaining tech parity in the early 100s, pre-building swords, catapults, horsemen/heavy chariots with the appropriate production policy cards, finding niter, and getting an appropriate general for the bombards. The great thing about it is that you don't need to halt the domination roll until the end of the game, since corps, cavalry, and artillery come pretty quickly once you're mass pillaging.

The Ottomans are probably uniquely suited for it (super cheap Janissary upgrades from swords, very powerful bombards, a Governor for taking down cities quick), but Hungary also shines (levy some swords, upgrade for super cheap, accompany them with the Black Army). Russia can be very good at it as well, if you get your military faith purchasing from Grandmasters Chapel up and running. And obviously Gran Colombia is great at it, though based off this month's GoTM, they're probably best off just keeping a classical era horseman or sword push going.
 
Muskets and bombards deal with the cities, while coursers pillage and crossbows and knights clear out units.

What you describe requires a lot of various units and thus production, gold and techs sunk into it, especially for the proposed turn window, no?
 
What you describe requires a lot of various units and thus production, gold and techs sunk into it, especially for the proposed turn window, no?

I should note that I’m not talking about having a ton of units. Maybe 3 muskets (upgraded from warriors and swords), 3 crossbows (upgraded from archers), 2 bombards (upgraded from catapults), and a mix of 3-5 heavy/light cavalry as strategic resources enable. That’s plenty of units to fill a single front.

Production-wise, this basically amounts to supplementing your early game army with about 5-10 turns of building classical-era troops right before they go obsolete. Gold-wise, you need to save up around 1000 gold and use the 50% discount policy. Its $125/archer, $115/musket (or $15/janissary), $80/courser, $125/bombard. If you're gold-poor in a game, with no trading partners, you can upgrade the cavalry first and use them to pillage gold for the rest of your upgrades. Tech-wise, I think this kind of mid-sized army is almost always a net-benefit, as it lets you get most of the military-based eurekas and pillaging pays dividends. And honestly, this timing push works pretty well even if your research is delayed from the t120-140 timeline I gave originally. As long as the AI doesn’t have renaissance walls or field cannons, you’ll be fine.
 
Hi everyone,

Long time reader, and have recently become able to win regularly on Deity thanks to all the amazing threads here, so thank you!

One thing that has fascinated me in my games is seeing which tech/military advantages open up power windows for conquest, and how long they tend to last. Some of these like an early archer or horseman rush seem reasonably agnostic to civ choice, whereas I've read about some pretty unique ones in these forums as well (really enjoyed doing a Llanero Industrial rush in this month's GoTM, and about to try Mr. Shadow's Singing Hussars strategy next).

I am curious to learn more about what tech/military power windows you all tend to enjoy most in general, how you prioritize arriving at them, as well as some unique or civ-specific ones you may have tried, and what tech/event tends to close them. For example, I've noticed that my early archer rush will generally continue until I spot the first couple xbows on the map, and then it's time to pack it in. Other windows, like rushing to flight/aluminum in the 200's on standard seems to end games on the spot though. For the fast players, I am sure there are other game ending windows that come up in the 100's.

TLDR: what power windows do you prioritize and why?

Thanks to all.

Cup holders are way more important than power windows.
 
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