There won't be any screenshots here, but you don't really need them. My nickname is "SuperPro," and it really does reflect on my skill - so far I've dominated almost every single game I played (at least in the earlier ages).
So what is harassment? Warcraft 3 players will be familiar with this strategy and it DOES apply to civ 3, especially in the beginning of the game. The basic idea is to have a "pretend war". To stress out your oponents and make them think they're fighting, without you actually slowing down your production. Here's the general flow:
(I only play on small/tiny maps with a lot of people, and I don't think it would work too well on bigger maps).
1) I set my city on "emphasize growth"
2) I make 2-3 warriors and use them as scouts / send them in different directions
3) After making those warriors, I would build 1 worker, and then just keep on building warriors - I wouldn't build any settlers for a while.
4) Once you have explored a bit and found the civs close to you - it's time to start. Declare war on all the civs near you (yes ALL, I generally have 3-4 wars going on 10-20 turns into the game).
5) Move your warriors into their territory and position them in the forest/jungle/hill/across river and fortify them. If there are any improvements there - pillage them (assuming they're also on the forest/jungle/hill - you wanna have good defense at all times)
THE PRESENSE OF YOUR WARRIOR WILL DO MORE DAMAGE THEN YOUR WARRIOR CAN. And this is largely psychological. Your oponent will hesitate to expand, release workers, etc. This will give you time to develop your capital and pump out even more warriors, while your scared oponent is building warriors.
6) Now you already have the advantage. The oponent psychologically believes he's at war. He cannot send troops towards your capital (which in my case is almost always undefended). He is going to sit there and build warriors, while you can fortify on his resources and slow down his growth. Meanwhile, your capital will be developing with your worker working freely.
REMEMBER - the idea is not to attack his units or cities - if you do you'll most likely loose your warriors. The idea is to station your units in good defensive positions and keep the emotional pressure on your oponents. In 99% cases your oponents will not expand, they'll not have build any improvements, and they'll just sit there and make warriors, who cannot kill yours because you'll be in the jungle + 25% fortify defense, making you nearly invulnerable to their early attacks.
7) As you make more warriors - send them over to their cities and keep up the pressure - no attacks or anything. Now you can build maybe a settler, or maybe some improvements. Still, build occasoinal warriors and send them over to harrass. At this point, if you're doing well harrasing 2-3 oponents, you can expand behind THEIR borders and harrass their neighbors too.
Using this strategy, I would typically have a score of about 1700, while everybody else is still less than a 1000.
Appendix A: Counter Measures
I have not seen anybody implement these counter measures, and they are pretty simple: harrass whoever's harrassing you. In fact, you'll probably take his capital. If someone declares war on you and starts harassing - keep one unit fortified in your capital, then build one warrior and send him over to his capital and do the same. No attacking - just harrasement.
Appendix B: Overpowered Mongolians.
Ahh Mongolians, my favorite nation to harrass with. Their special unit (skirmisher) replaces archer and has str of 4 instead of 3, plus 25+ bonuses to defenses in hills and jungles and stuff. These units are EXTREMELY overpowered. I would have wars with every single nation on a small terra map with 8 players, and i would successfully harrass ALL of them, while I expand. My capital would be able to build 1 skirmisher per turn when its size is about 6, and the skirmisher is THE strongest unit in that era. NOBODY can kill him. But he can kill anybody.
So, grab mongolians, research Archery right away, and show them all what harrasement is all about.
Appendix C: Countering Mongolians.
Since they're overpowered, you can't really counter them, with 1 exception - Incas. They're the only nation that has an early anti-archer unit, which's their warrior who gets a +100% vs archers. Therefore a warrior will be just a bit weaker than the skirmisher in the early era.
I might even post some screenshots and a game flow from an actual game later on. But remember, YOU ARE NOT FIGHTING A WAR, you're merely harrassing. If you try to fight a war, you'll loose right away (maybe not loose, but you will develop slower). So keep that in might and happy harrasin'
So what is harassment? Warcraft 3 players will be familiar with this strategy and it DOES apply to civ 3, especially in the beginning of the game. The basic idea is to have a "pretend war". To stress out your oponents and make them think they're fighting, without you actually slowing down your production. Here's the general flow:
(I only play on small/tiny maps with a lot of people, and I don't think it would work too well on bigger maps).
1) I set my city on "emphasize growth"
2) I make 2-3 warriors and use them as scouts / send them in different directions
3) After making those warriors, I would build 1 worker, and then just keep on building warriors - I wouldn't build any settlers for a while.
4) Once you have explored a bit and found the civs close to you - it's time to start. Declare war on all the civs near you (yes ALL, I generally have 3-4 wars going on 10-20 turns into the game).
5) Move your warriors into their territory and position them in the forest/jungle/hill/across river and fortify them. If there are any improvements there - pillage them (assuming they're also on the forest/jungle/hill - you wanna have good defense at all times)
THE PRESENSE OF YOUR WARRIOR WILL DO MORE DAMAGE THEN YOUR WARRIOR CAN. And this is largely psychological. Your oponent will hesitate to expand, release workers, etc. This will give you time to develop your capital and pump out even more warriors, while your scared oponent is building warriors.
6) Now you already have the advantage. The oponent psychologically believes he's at war. He cannot send troops towards your capital (which in my case is almost always undefended). He is going to sit there and build warriors, while you can fortify on his resources and slow down his growth. Meanwhile, your capital will be developing with your worker working freely.
REMEMBER - the idea is not to attack his units or cities - if you do you'll most likely loose your warriors. The idea is to station your units in good defensive positions and keep the emotional pressure on your oponents. In 99% cases your oponents will not expand, they'll not have build any improvements, and they'll just sit there and make warriors, who cannot kill yours because you'll be in the jungle + 25% fortify defense, making you nearly invulnerable to their early attacks.
7) As you make more warriors - send them over to their cities and keep up the pressure - no attacks or anything. Now you can build maybe a settler, or maybe some improvements. Still, build occasoinal warriors and send them over to harrass. At this point, if you're doing well harrasing 2-3 oponents, you can expand behind THEIR borders and harrass their neighbors too.
Using this strategy, I would typically have a score of about 1700, while everybody else is still less than a 1000.
Appendix A: Counter Measures
I have not seen anybody implement these counter measures, and they are pretty simple: harrass whoever's harrassing you. In fact, you'll probably take his capital. If someone declares war on you and starts harassing - keep one unit fortified in your capital, then build one warrior and send him over to his capital and do the same. No attacking - just harrasement.
Appendix B: Overpowered Mongolians.
Ahh Mongolians, my favorite nation to harrass with. Their special unit (skirmisher) replaces archer and has str of 4 instead of 3, plus 25+ bonuses to defenses in hills and jungles and stuff. These units are EXTREMELY overpowered. I would have wars with every single nation on a small terra map with 8 players, and i would successfully harrass ALL of them, while I expand. My capital would be able to build 1 skirmisher per turn when its size is about 6, and the skirmisher is THE strongest unit in that era. NOBODY can kill him. But he can kill anybody.
So, grab mongolians, research Archery right away, and show them all what harrasement is all about.
Appendix C: Countering Mongolians.
Since they're overpowered, you can't really counter them, with 1 exception - Incas. They're the only nation that has an early anti-archer unit, which's their warrior who gets a +100% vs archers. Therefore a warrior will be just a bit weaker than the skirmisher in the early era.
I might even post some screenshots and a game flow from an actual game later on. But remember, YOU ARE NOT FIGHTING A WAR, you're merely harrassing. If you try to fight a war, you'll loose right away (maybe not loose, but you will develop slower). So keep that in might and happy harrasin'
). If a player who was about as good as me used this strategy, I could nearly guarantee that I would beat them.
