The chariot archer rush!!

[RealHuhn]

Since the lancer got buffed quite a bit in GnK, you should give other units a second chance as well.

Chariot archers were pretty useless in vanilla because they were extremely vulnerable to any kind of melee attack. Normal archers had better stats overall.

Stats vanilla:
Chariot Archer
Strength: 3, Ranged: 6
Range: 2
Movement: 4
Cost: 60

Stats GnK:
Chariot Archer
Strength: 6, Ranged: 10
Range: 2
Movement: 4
Cost: 56

Normal Archer (unchanged):
Strength: 5, Ranged: 7
Range: 2
Movement: 2
Cost: 40

As you can see, a few important statistics have changed.
1) Ranged strength is considerably higher compared to archers (10 vs 7).
2) Combat strength +3 compared to vanilla. They survive spearmen attacks now.
3) Hammer costs slightly decreased, 56 or 260.

The rush works best against cities surrounded by flat terrain because chariot archers lose all their movement points when entering hills or forest tiles.

Tech path:
Animal Husbandry or Pottery -> AH to see horses early -> Wheel/lux techs
Build Order:
Scout -> Monument -> Worker
Social Policies:
Liberty -> free settler to settle a location near horses (if needed, on top of horses) is the easiest way but Tradition/Honor also work well.

Rush with 4 chariot archers and a warrior somewhere around turn 50. Say bye bye to your neighbour.

By the way, they also work great on defense and against barbs for CS quests. And you don't have to research Construction because they easily replace the composite bowmen (11 ranged strength vs 10).

As for their upgrade path to knights, you can get "cover" as your second promotion or "march" as your third. It's not optimal but they aren't useless later in the game.

Seriously, it's a great unit now and this is arguably the strongest early rush in the game (against the AI).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'm glad to hear they got buffed. I never built them before because they were so weak. I'll have to give your strategy a try.

 

[Gucumatz]

Yep Chariot archer rushes are an effective strategy now. Most people go composite bowmen to kill people - but chariot archers are both cheaper to produce, faster, and earlier and on the way to some other techs.

The speed on flat land can give you a lot of momentum. The problem is a lack of defensive bonuses. You will need to swarm quickly and retreat and heal. I like to use them in combination with regular archers/comps in multi and let the regular archers/comps tank.

 

[Babri]

Huns are even better with this rush. Horse archers are both cheaper, stronger & faster than chariots + rams simply steamroll cities.

 

[GrayingGamer]

I coulda swore chariots had slightly better ranged attack than normal archers in vanilla... so something like 8, not 6.

 

[FeiLing]

Archers were 4/6 btw. So they were also "buffed" (adjusted) in G&Ks.

My main problem with Chariot Archers is: the movement penalty. Sure my neighbor is surrounded by flat land, I can use chariot archers to kill him.
But warriors/spears can do the same - just that they will also roll over the next enemies taht sit in hill/forest terrain.

And of course, when upgrading to knights you suddenly have promotionless units that have a penalty vs cities. Bummer.

 

[elprofesor]

Chariot archers were 4/7. Not that it mattered...

 

[prince_caspian]

CAs and Egypt chariots are quite good now, the caveat is you have to hard build but 56 hammers is not too bad (see below), I do wish they do something about war elephants though. Something about it just doesn't feel right even though on paper it looks balanced. Then again the same could be said of the UA.

You know, something like maybe give it 12 range strength instead of 11. Given a choice between CBs and WEs I'd still choose CBs simply because they are upgradeable. It's really not attractive to hard build WEs because of the hammer cost (70) - almost the same as a CB (75), but with the same range strength.

 

[RealHuhn]

CAs and Egypt chariots are quite good now, the caveat is you have to hard build but 56 hammers is not too bad (see below), I do wish they do something about war elephants though. Something about it just doesn't feel right even though on paper it looks balanced. Then again the same could be said of the UA.

You know, something like maybe give it 12 range strength instead of 11. Given a choice between CBs and WEs I'd still choose CBs simply because they are upgradeable. It's really not attractive to hard build WEs because of the hammer cost (70) - almost the same as a CB (75), but with the same range strength.

When you want to rush you should sell all your luxuries and rushbuy as many chariots as you can while producing 1-2 by yourself. You can buy one chariot archer per luxury.

The timing is everything here. Rush as fast as possible and you only have to fight warriors, archers and cities with maybe 10-12 strength. The AI cannot counter this, at least not on Immortal.

And after teching The Wheel and building 1-2 units, you can immediately switch back to your usual buildorder, build libraries, NC etc.

A cbow rush also works well but needs more resources and techs to pull it off.

 

[nefloyd]

I like to play with tech costs increased by 100-200%, so I tried chariot archers out, and they do work pretty well. Of course, it really depends on the map. I played Russia on a Great Plains plus and they worked quite well. It's too bad they don't have move-after-attack, though that would be kinda OP I guess.

 

[prince_caspian]

@RealHuhn: I hadn't thought of the rushbuying part just now but I agree. Though not so doable with WEs as they cost 310 but then again that's India. :/

 

[RealHuhn]

I've just realized that the combat strength is indeed 6, not 4.

Which makes the chariot archer even stronger. (composite bowmen is only +1 strength, +1 ranged)

 

[Poopin Thelift]

Nice strategy for the mongols, you don't have to worry about the upgrade path.

 

[Anvari]

Nice idea, i didn't use them at all. I think i'll give them a few trys now. Thank you.

 

[Glassmage]

this is a lol strat with Mongol. Chariot rush + get CS gift Horse archer -> upgrade to Keshik.