Strongest early game start

[omnimirage]

I'd like to know: what early game start and strategy would give a player the best chance of winning when playing on Diety and a map like Big and Small, creating a powerful early game position?

Would it be maybe playing as Inca, starting with a good food source next to fresh water, with plenty of forests to chop, alongside close neighbours with good capitals to conquer?

Or maybe as Hatty or Darius, again with good food source and a source of Horses, to go on a War Chariot/Immortal rush?

Or maybe as Gandhi, starting with a lot of forests and a gold hill to mine, with a nearbye settler location to make a good specialist city?

Or would it be some sort of Industrious leader like Ramesses starting on a Plains Stone hill to build the Pyramids and start an early game specialist economy?

Or maybe it'd be Mansa Musa, starting with gold on a hill to mine, and a nearbye Civilization to do a Skirmisher rush against?

 

[Snowbird]

Inca with 3 hammer tile to settle on and forested PH in big cross - no plans to make own worker naturally. Non isolation ofcourse, but that is given on big and small, I think.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Inca as mentioned, Darius with a good commerce source and some food. Skirmisher rush on Deity is not recommended. Rome are a popular choice, takes longer to get going but Praetorians are less variable in stomping AI cities.

 

[crashmon]

I have a question on the Inca? I can understand how powerful the terrace is (and HC also has great leader traits) but on the higher difficulty levels (I'm talking about Imm and Deity), why are Quechua so powerful, as I doubt you will be able to Quecha rush other civs in most maps on those levels. So I assume its owing to the fact most barbs in early game are archers, so having Quechua gives you major bonus vs barb's in terms of fogbusting.

So is it mainly for Barb busting, and if so, would it change things in terms of the Inca power if you went with a map with no Barb's in it

I only play on Monarch right now, hence asking the question on the higher levels

 

[Zavior]

as I doubt you will be able to Quecha rush other civs in most maps on those levels

you can and this is what makes them strong, easily the strongest civ in the game if such strategies are what you want to go for

 

[Anysense]

@crashmon , it is quite the reverse. The Inca are the strong on Immortal and Deity mostly because of its UU. But on lower difficulty levels Quechua is much less useful because AI is a pushover and can be easily killed with any units.

 

[crashmon]

Hi Both, I can see this on a Pangea map but we are talking about continents types maps here where 50% of AI won't be reachable until Astronomy by which time Quecha won't be as useful (by then you would be up vs LB's / Knights or worse).

Thats why I asked the question

 

[Anysense]

The point of Quechua is not to be useful long term (it can't be, regardless of the map), it is to rush a couple of AI's before any other civ can even get an army ready to attack. If you are isolated, than, obviously, Inca's UU is useless other than for keeping barbs at bay.

 

[Zavior]

50% of AI won't be reachable until Astronomy by which time Quecha won't be as useful

You kill the closest neighbour and take the land that civ was supposed to have. Not to mention the capital is bound to have a good spot anyway. Send the quechuas to choke the next closest civ. Just tech away at this point and play like normal. Just that you got a free few cities and workers to speed things up.

 

[crashmon]

Thanks guys really helps, (not that I'm close to be playing at IMM level any time soon)

 

[6K Man]

I have a question on the Inca? I can understand how powerful the terrace is (and HC also has great leader traits) but on the higher difficulty levels (I'm talking about Imm and Deity), why are Quechua so powerful, as I doubt you will be able to Quecha rush other civs in most maps on those levels. So I assume its owing to the fact most barbs in early game are archers, so having Quechua gives you major bonus vs barb's in terms of fogbusting.

So is it mainly for Barb busting, and if so, would it change things in terms of the Inca power if you went with a map with no Barb's in it

I only play on Monarch right now, hence asking the question on the higher levels

Quechas are great for killing AI Archers in their cities, before they have much culture or hook up metal/Horses. The 100% bonus vs Archers means Quechas do better against Archers than they do against Warriors. For that reason, rushing as Inca is easier on Monarch than at lower levels (when AIs start with Warriors and not Archers), ironically.

So yes, Quecha rushes are a real thing (but beware of Protective Civs or those with Archer UUs).

 

[omnimirage]

Why isn't Skirmisher rush recommended on Deity?

 

[sampsa]

Why isn't Skirmisher rush recommended on Deity?

Because... it's not easy to make it work? You will never outproduce deity AI (their archers cost what, 10?) and will attack with what, 20% odds?

 

[omnimirage]

I've had success with it by fighting a war of attrition by pillaging their all improvements, since their archers have bad odds attacking Skirmishers. I find that the first few cities taken isn't usually that difficult but their last city accumulates such a high amount of Archers that it becomes quite costly to take it, and quite a large unit upkeep cost is charged when building up for that fight which strains the economy.