Tested some pyramid rushing.
This is of course a lot more dicey on emperor+ because of AI free worker, (the strat sort of works without pyramid but the mids accelerate it).
Requirement is coast and having enough production tiles, if you spawn in flatlands with no hammers in cross this makes less sense (a very hilly start with mining resources and fish lux is probably optimal).
Best civ is Spain, with Carthage and Denmark as decent options, all have coastal bias.
The idea is for capital to produce monument (shrine) -> pyramids -> settlers.
Open Tradition for the extra 2pop, spain get faith on settle so no need for shrine, with settler from pyramid spain gets a belief and you take god of the sea (non spain needs to shoehorn a shrine).
Techpath something like mining->trapping->pottery->fishing .
Policy tradition opener -> authority.
Build priority in new cities, monument -> workboat (boats=hammers+faith)
Carthage is sort of similar but free lighthouse instead of faith on settle.
Denmark can possibly recover on the culture loss thanks to runestones but will struggle with workboat purchases.
These civs will be slower on pantheon which also slows down this strat a bit compared to spain.
Benefits:
The pantheon gives you lots of food (as long as you can settle coast) and some free faith and even more if you have sea resources, it allows you to build a lot of settlers quick.
You take pyramids from your opponents.
The gold from settle allows for workboat purchase which accelerates this further.
You end up with 8-10 very early cities, and everything just grows fast so you can just keep on expanding if you have the room.
Drawbacks:
Well you're not getting any barracks, walls, librarys or spearmen soon due to tech paths (note as spain/carthage you can afford to purchase units to defend no problem).
The very early expand slows down early policys, on some maps authority -> hunting barbs is possibly just better.
Because of slower policys and dip into tradition you also don't get much from imperium (authority left path).
If someone takes god of the sea from you (usually a low prio belief) it all falls flat.
This is of course a lot more dicey on emperor+ because of AI free worker, (the strat sort of works without pyramid but the mids accelerate it).
Requirement is coast and having enough production tiles, if you spawn in flatlands with no hammers in cross this makes less sense (a very hilly start with mining resources and fish lux is probably optimal).
Best civ is Spain, with Carthage and Denmark as decent options, all have coastal bias.
The idea is for capital to produce monument (shrine) -> pyramids -> settlers.
Open Tradition for the extra 2pop, spain get faith on settle so no need for shrine, with settler from pyramid spain gets a belief and you take god of the sea (non spain needs to shoehorn a shrine).
Techpath something like mining->trapping->pottery->fishing .
Policy tradition opener -> authority.
Build priority in new cities, monument -> workboat (boats=hammers+faith)
Carthage is sort of similar but free lighthouse instead of faith on settle.
Denmark can possibly recover on the culture loss thanks to runestones but will struggle with workboat purchases.
These civs will be slower on pantheon which also slows down this strat a bit compared to spain.
Benefits:
The pantheon gives you lots of food (as long as you can settle coast) and some free faith and even more if you have sea resources, it allows you to build a lot of settlers quick.
You take pyramids from your opponents.
The gold from settle allows for workboat purchase which accelerates this further.
You end up with 8-10 very early cities, and everything just grows fast so you can just keep on expanding if you have the room.
Drawbacks:
Well you're not getting any barracks, walls, librarys or spearmen soon due to tech paths (note as spain/carthage you can afford to purchase units to defend no problem).
The very early expand slows down early policys, on some maps authority -> hunting barbs is possibly just better.
Because of slower policys and dip into tradition you also don't get much from imperium (authority left path).
If someone takes god of the sea from you (usually a low prio belief) it all falls flat.
