Axe rush
Purposes:
- destroy a neighbor civ in the early game
Requisites:
- presence of copper (or iron) in your land
- other CIV nearby
- a lot of forests (suggested)
This strategy consists in setting up an army of axemen and attack an enemy very early in the game, when he hasn’t prepared a proper defense yet.
Steps:
- beeline to Bronze Working and reveal copper
- found your second city, and hook copper
- if copper is out of range, you can beeline Iron Working and hook iron
- make your cities build axemen; six of them should be able to conquest a city; ten of them should take them all over
Variants:
- if you have a unique unit that requires iron or horses and if this unit is better in attacking cities, of course use this instead of axeman.
Best applications:
- Romans praetorians
References:
Sisiutil guide:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=244075
Other interesting threads:
none
Use the whip
Purposes:
- Increase early production
Requisites:
- good food production (suggested)
“Use the whip” is an expression used instead of “sacrifice population to complete a production”.
This option becomes available when a civ adopts slavery.
It is extremely useful expecially in the early game, when the happiness cap prevents a city to grow beyond a certain size, and since then any further citizen is of no use, and so he’s better to be sacrificed.
This strategy allows to enhance city production, building the most useful things in a while. If your city produces enough food, sacrificed people is recovered in short time. The other side of the coin is some unhappiness that will affects your city for ten turns.
Steps:
- beeline to Bronze Working and adopt Slavery
- depending on city grow rate, city size, and the importance of current building, you can decide to whip 1 pop, or more pops. In other words, you can decide how long to wait before to whip, sacrificing a specified number of citizens (each sacrificed citizen gives 30 hammers).
- you might have to manage the caused unhappiness. Besides, each whipping gives the same amount and duration of unhappiness, regardless of how many citizens have been sacrificed.
Best applications:
- Aztecs can halve unhappiness duration from whipping with their unique building, the sacrificial altar.
References:
VoiceOfUnreason guide:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=193659
Other interesting threads:
none
The Oracle gambit
Purposes:
- various
Requisites:
- build the Oracle
- start with Mysticism (suggested)
- have marble (suggested)
- be industrious (suggested)
The Oracle is a cheap early wonder, so it’s relatively easy to complete. Building it allows a number of different strategies, depending on which free tech you choose.
Some strategies are:
- To pick a tech which allows to found a latter religion
- To pick a tech which enables important civics, wonders, or units (e.g., Civil Service, or Machinery, or Feudalism)
- Simply to save time, by picking the most expensive tech available
- To pick Metal Casting, which, apart of being the most expensive tech in early game, allows to build a forge, to have an engineer specialist, and to produce a Great Engineer in some time, who can be used to complete another expensive Wonder (like the Piramids).
Steps:
- beeline to Priesthood and start building the Oracle
- research any required tech for the free tech you’ve chose
- finish building the Oracle
Best applications:
- Huayna Capac of Incas starts with Mysticism and is Industrious, and this makes him the best leader to build the Oracle with.
References:
none
Other interesting threads:
Oracle slingshot:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=207776
