Rushing Sitting Bull with Immortals

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I JUST fired up a random game and drew Darius. 4 turns in I bump into Sitting Bull, who is only 4 tiles away from me. Before I go any further in this game I need some advice. I HATE rushing protective civs as it's a giant pain in the ass, and Sitting Bull is even worse of course. BUT since I'm playing as Persia and he's only 4 tiles away, is an immortal rush a good idea? I don't even know if I have horses yet so I'm getting ahead of myself.

I haven't explored nearly enough yet to know the lay of the land but it does look like I could block him, but block someone only 4 tiles away? Seems like a bad idea.

Difficulty is emperor, btw.

 

[UWHabs]

If you get horses or copper, rush. Yes, it sucks to rush protective civs, sitting bull even more so, but it's close enough that you'll be fine.

 

[PaulisKhan]

Rushing sitting bull early with Immortals is still slightly better than rushing normal archers with normal chariots (+50% attack vs +25% defense +0.5 free strike).
If you get him early enough most of his archers will have been built before he brings the totem pole/barracks online, so you're just facing normal protective archers.
If he's this close to you and you have horses then I would absolutely consider rushing him.

If he's on a hill with totem pole/barracks enhanced archers then it's time to either move on or have a good stack of promoted Immortals (I prefer flanking+2 for those scenarios).

 

[Maronae3]

At that distance there's really no choice. Although, sometimes it takes SB a while to hook up totem poles since he probably won't go for one in his cap (at least, the few times I tried rushing him, since he failed to get Henge, he did not use totem poles until he had settled his 3rd city).

Therefore, with horses, rushing is certainly the best option. Your main concern as far as I can see should be whether he settled atop a hill. Also hope he diverges towards bronze working and consider it a blessing if he actually puts some dogs in his cities, unless you lack horses. And if you are without horses, you need to get things moving very quick.

 

[Belisar]

Immortals are about the best early rush units against SB you will ever have.

 

[DampRain]

Rush him, if you don't think you can take his capital, just choke him until you have cats. You really couldn't ask for better (unless he settled on copper). Archers have no chance of ever breaking free of choke against immortals (well okay maybe a 10% chance if that ).

 

[mboettcher]

You can take his capitol if you beeline and chop. You may lose a few immortals but you'll have two prime capitol spots and have the industry up for more empire building.

Don't be afraid to lose units but if he is that clsoe there is like a 90% chance of getting him b4 he has much of anything to stop you. If he does build a totem pole he may only have 2-3 units built before you hit him at best so losing 4-5 immortals at most isn't usch a big deal (thats if he is on a hill)

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Thanks for all of the advice. Here is what happened if anyone wants to know.

So it turns out I actually had 2 close sources of horses (wow that rhymed)...so I took out SB rather quickly (you guys were right, no totem pole in the cap)...and then I found out Ragnar was close by as well and I took him out too. Never owned 3 capitals this early in the game (well, not counting quechas). Guess it's in the bag from this point.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Loui]

Thanks for all of the advice. Here is what happened if anyone wants to know.

So it turns out I actually had 2 close sources of horses (wow that rhymed)...so I took out SB rather quickly (you guys were right, no totem pole in the cap)...and then I found out Ragnar was close by as well and I took him out too. Never owned 3 capitals this early in the game (well, not counting quechas). Guess it's in the bag from this point.

Thanks for the help!

Good action, well done! Try playing Germany on the Earth18 scenario, you can take out France, Spain, Rome and Greece in no time, then follow up with England and Russia. Europe is just packed!

 

[DMOC]

Nice job.

The 2 move feature for immortals really helps to prevent AI whipping with the ability to capture a city on the first turn of the war.

 

[muxec]

Immortal rush against SB is just as good as War Chariot rush against Mansa Musa. Even better as sometimes you want MM alive.