I've never played competitively so sorry if these seem like crappy strategies, but recently I've been thinking about what I can do with these underdog civilizations so they could be worth using over some of the other civilizations.
Greek:
1)Fill up university with 3 scholars, and scout the land.
2)research commerce, and produce a villager and let that villager build a market ASAP.
3)Send 2-3 villagers to wood
4)Send 2-3 villagers to scout
5)After market is built, send that villager and another villager to build farms.
6)If a scout can get a ruin, great, otherwise, it'll take a while to gather up 45 wealth to research science. Research science.
7)Research civics, then military. Build a second university and market at the second city. Always fill up universities when you have enough wealth. Make a caravan.
8)Here's the part that the greeks can do that other nations can't - researching commerce 2 at ancient age without food costs. So research com 2 and fill up wood up to 150. Build 5 farms in all 2 cities.
9) Research civics 2 and build a third city, along with another market and a third university, and caravans.
10)Next research commerce 3. By now you should have ~300 knowledge, and com 3 only costs 135 wood, which is as much as a barracks. Research that. Get your food and wood to the max.
11)Go classical. Your enemy will 99% of the time be ahead of you but don't worry. DO NOT fill up anymore universities at this point.
12) At classical, IMMEDIATELY build a stable, and bring 10 citizens from wood camps to mind camps. Produce 5 villagers to mine camps, thus filling only 15 mine slots. DO NOT PRODUCE MORE. Research military 2.
13) Right when the stable is built, produce 4 companions and 3 horse archers. Sell all excess wood.
14) Build a tower and research attrition.
15) Here's now where the greeks can propel ahead of age: Build another library (costs only 28 wood so why not?). Right now you should have around 200 food and 100 wealth. Research science 2 and medieval age simultaneously.
16) Build a senate and research despotism.
17) In medieval age, because of the +200 in food production, as well as +150 in metal, you're going to stock up 400 food and 150 metal rather easily. So research military 3 and gunpowder age.
18) By this time, all of your stable units should be produced, as well as republic. Send all your units to enemy area, researching stratiotai, dragoon, and monarchy (while selling excess food and wood).
19) You'll be in Gunpowder age while your enemy is either in late classical age or medieval age. Your units will do heavy damage to the citizens, especially with the monarch bonus.
Spanish:
I've thought of a good way to maximize the ruins bonus, despite the measly 30 + 26*science that you get. Keep in mind that a) You can see ruins in your territory, b) You get ruins at twice the rate due to having two scouts, and c) Having 7 or 8 extra can make a big difference if you're talking about WEALTH in ancient age.
What I do is research three, yes THREE science techs at the beginning. It may seem inefficient, but it pays off. This only works if there are 2 ruins at the start though, which is the case 80% of the time.
Produce ONLY two villagers, and get them close to the ruin. Get the two scouts, and each WHILE NOT TOUCHING THE RUINS in your boundary, send them to the edges of the map. Research Science 1.
Look at the map closely. If you see a scout approaching a ruin, use the hotkeys to stop that scout. Ditto with the other one. Right now you should be close to four ruins.
Get one of the citizens to touch the ruin. You end up with 106 wealth. Pile up your wood so that it's ABOVE 106 and have the other villager touch the other ruin. You end up with 162 wealth.
Research Science 2. Get the two villagers to wood camp. Wait for Sci 2 to finish researching, then allow the two scouts to touch the ruins. One will add 82 to food, and the other will add 82 to gold. Send one scout onto a trail to a place where a ruin will obviously be found, such as one of the corners. That last ruin will get your gold up to 206.
Immediately get two villagers to build 2 farms. Wait for food to go up to 240, then research Science 3.
Now make trails for the two scouts.
Is this inefficient? The way I see it is that you're behind several seconds, but your scouts now have crazy LOS, and get 108 for every ruin, so you make up for it later. Moreover, a) everything is now 30% cheaper, and b) you NO longer have to worry about wealth until the Gunpowder Age because all three science has been researched, so you can forget about building a second and third market and save a lot of wood in the process.
So far the Spanish is the only civilization that can do this, it seems.
Persians:
I find this civilization boring TBH because the capital bonus is there ONLY so you don't get a countdown after the opponents sack one of your capitals, and the rest of the bonuses are A B and C are cheaper.
But one trick I find is that they can Vassalage far earlier than most other civilization and still not get really behind, because it's free. Vassalage coupled with the 4 cities you can build because of cheaper civics means that you'll receive a hefty amount of gold.
Research two civics before classical age, along with building three cities, and right when you get there, build a university and research the third civics while building a fourth city right after that. The fourth city will cost 160 food, but you can use the market to buy food using your crazy wealth production.
Does anyone know how well they rush? I don't know... but I find that usually when I get to classical age after building three cities, the computer opponent already has an army before I mass together ranged HI and archers.
Greek:
1)Fill up university with 3 scholars, and scout the land.
2)research commerce, and produce a villager and let that villager build a market ASAP.
3)Send 2-3 villagers to wood
4)Send 2-3 villagers to scout
5)After market is built, send that villager and another villager to build farms.
6)If a scout can get a ruin, great, otherwise, it'll take a while to gather up 45 wealth to research science. Research science.
7)Research civics, then military. Build a second university and market at the second city. Always fill up universities when you have enough wealth. Make a caravan.
8)Here's the part that the greeks can do that other nations can't - researching commerce 2 at ancient age without food costs. So research com 2 and fill up wood up to 150. Build 5 farms in all 2 cities.
9) Research civics 2 and build a third city, along with another market and a third university, and caravans.
10)Next research commerce 3. By now you should have ~300 knowledge, and com 3 only costs 135 wood, which is as much as a barracks. Research that. Get your food and wood to the max.
11)Go classical. Your enemy will 99% of the time be ahead of you but don't worry. DO NOT fill up anymore universities at this point.
12) At classical, IMMEDIATELY build a stable, and bring 10 citizens from wood camps to mind camps. Produce 5 villagers to mine camps, thus filling only 15 mine slots. DO NOT PRODUCE MORE. Research military 2.
13) Right when the stable is built, produce 4 companions and 3 horse archers. Sell all excess wood.
14) Build a tower and research attrition.
15) Here's now where the greeks can propel ahead of age: Build another library (costs only 28 wood so why not?). Right now you should have around 200 food and 100 wealth. Research science 2 and medieval age simultaneously.
16) Build a senate and research despotism.
17) In medieval age, because of the +200 in food production, as well as +150 in metal, you're going to stock up 400 food and 150 metal rather easily. So research military 3 and gunpowder age.
18) By this time, all of your stable units should be produced, as well as republic. Send all your units to enemy area, researching stratiotai, dragoon, and monarchy (while selling excess food and wood).
19) You'll be in Gunpowder age while your enemy is either in late classical age or medieval age. Your units will do heavy damage to the citizens, especially with the monarch bonus.
Spanish:
I've thought of a good way to maximize the ruins bonus, despite the measly 30 + 26*science that you get. Keep in mind that a) You can see ruins in your territory, b) You get ruins at twice the rate due to having two scouts, and c) Having 7 or 8 extra can make a big difference if you're talking about WEALTH in ancient age.
What I do is research three, yes THREE science techs at the beginning. It may seem inefficient, but it pays off. This only works if there are 2 ruins at the start though, which is the case 80% of the time.
Produce ONLY two villagers, and get them close to the ruin. Get the two scouts, and each WHILE NOT TOUCHING THE RUINS in your boundary, send them to the edges of the map. Research Science 1.
Look at the map closely. If you see a scout approaching a ruin, use the hotkeys to stop that scout. Ditto with the other one. Right now you should be close to four ruins.
Get one of the citizens to touch the ruin. You end up with 106 wealth. Pile up your wood so that it's ABOVE 106 and have the other villager touch the other ruin. You end up with 162 wealth.
Research Science 2. Get the two villagers to wood camp. Wait for Sci 2 to finish researching, then allow the two scouts to touch the ruins. One will add 82 to food, and the other will add 82 to gold. Send one scout onto a trail to a place where a ruin will obviously be found, such as one of the corners. That last ruin will get your gold up to 206.
Immediately get two villagers to build 2 farms. Wait for food to go up to 240, then research Science 3.
Now make trails for the two scouts.
Is this inefficient? The way I see it is that you're behind several seconds, but your scouts now have crazy LOS, and get 108 for every ruin, so you make up for it later. Moreover, a) everything is now 30% cheaper, and b) you NO longer have to worry about wealth until the Gunpowder Age because all three science has been researched, so you can forget about building a second and third market and save a lot of wood in the process.
So far the Spanish is the only civilization that can do this, it seems.
Persians:
I find this civilization boring TBH because the capital bonus is there ONLY so you don't get a countdown after the opponents sack one of your capitals, and the rest of the bonuses are A B and C are cheaper.
But one trick I find is that they can Vassalage far earlier than most other civilization and still not get really behind, because it's free. Vassalage coupled with the 4 cities you can build because of cheaper civics means that you'll receive a hefty amount of gold.
Research two civics before classical age, along with building three cities, and right when you get there, build a university and research the third civics while building a fourth city right after that. The fourth city will cost 160 food, but you can use the market to buy food using your crazy wealth production.
Does anyone know how well they rush? I don't know... but I find that usually when I get to classical age after building three cities, the computer opponent already has an army before I mass together ranged HI and archers.
