Rushing to Volunteer army tenet.

[Arksa]

Found this strategy quite powerful, especially for empires that are not focused on military side of tech tree you can acquire 6 foreign legions when everyone else has longswordsmen on Immortal difficulty.

I just went for Industrialization ASAP as a commerce strategy, then rush bought 3 Factories and got the 2 free tenents, then one more policy unlock and BAM. You can have really advanced offensive army. I had to use Oxford university for it but I think it can be worth it if you decide to go to war against someone. I did this with Assyria and got some nice techs by capturing some babylonian cities .

Can support the legions with some Gatlin guns, and ofc build the Big Ben too!

Maybe it's a bit too powerful strategy to get powerful infantry way before anyone else. Does it need balancing?

 

[Mesix]

Sounds like a neat tactic. I'll have to give it a try next time I go for the Freedom ideology.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Just cross your fingers that you have coal in your borders, or it may take longer or cost more in rushing than you expected.

 

[Arksa]

Just cross your fingers that you have coal in your borders, or it may take longer or cost more in rushing than you expected.

Yeah, that's a slight gamble, and it is somewhat probable if you have very small empire.

 

[Gyra Solune]

If you're the tech leader and can save Oxford for rushing Industrialization right after getting its prerequisites, alongside having a policy coming up really soon, this is a definite strategy for getting a sudden kickass army that can easily crush cities with only minor siege support, if any. If anything, it makes Freedom extremely good for a domination victory if used right.

 

[Mesix]

In my last domination game as the Assyrians, I had taken over 6 of the 8 civs on the map by the time I researched Industrialism...and I still had no Coal in my borders!!!

Luckily, there was a patch of Coal just outside of the next city I was set to take over (which I decided not to burn down for this very reason) and I was swimming in GGs, so a well placed Citadel got me the required resource.

 

[Byzantine Bomb]

Hell yeah. This strategy works very well.

As the English, I began a massive buildup of Ship-of-the-Lines for an invasion of the Aztecs across the sea. (I done told you to stop with the missionaries!) My cities were able to focus on naval vessels the entire time while my foreign legions were an effective and 100% cost free invasion force. A nearby CS ally gifted me a cannon, making this a force to be reckoned with. A good strategy but as mentioned by others, it needs coal to get it right away. If you expand moderately, you're likely to find a source. Perhaps save a Great General for the sole purpose of getting it.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think there's a good argument that there should be a tech prerequisite for them because this strategy could be unbalanced.

 

[iconocast]

defiantly sounds broken, but ill wait and see after i try it out

 

[eldiablonoche]

If you're an entire era of military tech ahead and have a few thousand gold to sink you should be able to crush your enemies under most circumstances, no?

 

[greedyfly]

i did this the first game i played (deity) and it worked perfectly. definitely powerful.

i also ended up having to switch ideologies later in the game because i had over 40 unhappiness from ideologies so the volunteer army was great because they cant take those away when you switch.

 

[MarshalN]

Yes, I could've done it if I wanted to - I got volunteer army because I didn't build a lot of units, and all of a sudden I had an army that was an era ahead of everyone else's (they were mostly rifleman, some were still muskets). I do agree it should probably be capped/limited in some way, otherwise it's a bit unbalanced.

 

[kingofsealand]

This is the best policy on earth for military slackers. It essentially allows you to spend the whole first part of the game producing buildings or wonders/pumping out settlers/not making any more units than are absolutely necessary for defense and then obtain a powerful fighting force. This is exactly what i did in the very first game of BNW i played as poland. Was on an earth map and spent so much time trying to colonize Australia and the surrounding islands that I was never making units. Aztecs started just to my north so as you can imagine this was not good. Took this policy and some 20 turns later i had kicked the aztecs off the asian continent entirely using nothing but these guys and some cannons. If youve been putting off unit building get this policy

 

[stealth_nsk]

I wouldn't say the strategy is broken. You need:
1. Tech lead.
2. Access to coal (with tech lead it's highly possible city-states will not have access to it by the time you open Industrialization).
3. Rush 3 factories.
4. Spend 1 policy afterwards.
5. Have some ranged units to match.

And remember, the Foreign Legion is weaker than Great War Infantry (though stronger than Rifleman). So, it's not that unstoppable.

Also, Freedom is not suit very well with offensive war.

 

[wigwam]

You can also save a couple Great Scientists, tech to Scientific theory (queue Electricity and Radio), rush Public Schools, wait eight turns, and then bulb your way to the Modern era without needing any Coal at all.

The Foreign Legion has 50.4 Strength outside your territory, so it's only weaker than Great War Infantry if you take promotions and other bonuses into account. And it's definitely not fighting GW Infantry; it might not even be fighting Rifleman. Think about 50.4 Strength going up against Musketmen, Cannons, and Lancers.

 

[de_baser]

Used this tactic in my first BNW victory as Venice on Immortal.
Had 5 puppets and great diplomacy except for Carthage acting as a noisy neighbour.
A few turns before that they had invaded and wiped out Ethiopia, the neighbouring civ.

I popped volunteer army, and 12 turns later Carthage was reduced to a tundra outpost, i had claimed Carthage and Addis Adeba, and Adwa, another crap village, was once more returned to the forever grateful mr. Selassie.

In other words, this move alone won me the game. Potentially broken, indeed.

 

[Fronx]

Powerful, and slightly "too easy". Even if it is a gamble (=> delayed if you don't get 3 coals), the downside isn't bad (you just get them later).
You can get them when opponents still have weak army.

 

[Bino]

Just popped volunteer army in my current game where Catherine and her enormous empire are staring at me badly...she's hostile but ate the celts instead of me, maybe 6 more modern infantries made her change her mind, who knows...

 

[FrostK]

Hardly can be used on large maps. (You will get some small cities, cause capitals are usually quite far - is it good?) Hardly can be used on deity or immortal. (comps will for sure have rifls and a lot of other units, so 6 units can be just not enouph) Since is not imbalance.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I think there's a good argument that there should be a tech prerequisite for them because this strategy could be unbalanced.

It sounds to me like the tech prerequisite is Industrialization.