Tried the Poland Hussar Start. It's Pretty Nice

[MarigoldRan]

Hussars hit later than knights, but work all the way through Renaissance.

It's the early game that's iffy since you have to found a religion and on Deity that means you have to sacrifice a ton to get it.

Moderator Action: Edited your post to remove inappropriate language. leif

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Hussars do not "hit later", but "hit really late" than Knights. They can't be upgraded to, so when you build up a bunch of Hussars, you already have a lot of Cavalry.

 

[MarigoldRan]

No, I'm talking about the Mercenary Beeline with founding a religion and getting choral music for culture. It's map dependent- don't try it if Genghis is a neighbor or there are no nearby mountains- but when it works you get to buy Hussars with Faith and get a bunch of Hussars running at around turn 150 on Epic speed (about turn 100 on Normal).

It's based on the idea that Mr. Shadow posted about Polish hussars.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

No, I'm talking about the Mercenary Beeline with founding a religion and getting choral music for culture. It's map dependent- don't try it if Genghis is a neighbor or there are no nearby mountains- but when it works you get to buy Hussars with Faith and get a bunch of Hussars running at around turn 150 on Epic speed (about turn 100 on Normal).

It's based on the idea that Mr. Shadow posted about Polish hussars.

150 Turn on Epic is not 100 turn on Normal, since the scale is not just a ratio. It is actually ~120 turn in normal speed. (Achieving sth. at T50 in online speed is much more difficult than achieving that at T150, or even T120 at epic.)

As of cavalry, if you tend to hurry cavalry it is not difficult to get an army of cavalry around T110 at normal speed on a random map, actually. (Yes, if you want them before T100 that's quite uneasy even if you are Korea or Macedon, but T110 is just fine)

As of number, I mean at least a dozen.

 

[Socrates99]

Found a religion, take choral music, hoard faith while you beeline Monarchy and Mercenaries. Build the GMC and faith buy a bunch of Hussars. No need to prebuild, faith acts as your hammers here. Just build a defense army while you stockpile and chew through the civics. Once you start crushing cities your faith and science both blow up and you can often buy a hussar every turn or two. Snowballs fast.

It's actually a pretty solid strategy for Poland even on Deity. Can you do other things better? Sure. Does anybody want to play the same game every time? It'd get pretty bland if you did. The point of the strategy is it specifically focuses more on culture and faith than beakers. You can ignore science completely and still dominate with this strategy. It's fun and it is geared towards Poland's uniques. No need to criticize.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Poland really shines on the huge maps, with lots of area, where you have room to expand and don't have to worry about an immediate DOW. It's very easy to get a Classical Dark Age, as Poland gets no early bonuses and then explode with a heroic Medieval Age.

Use the faith you accumulated to mass produce settlers with monumentality, get the free builder government plaza building, and expand like mad using faith to buy settlers. Poland + Monumentality + Room to Expand = Auto Win because Polish Holy Sites are the best in Civ 6.

Is Poland as good as Nubia or Aztecs? No. But they're definitely up there with Germany in that somewhere around the Medieval era they explode in power. And Poland has a much better UU.

The Hussar in my games (huge maps, epic speed, Pangea, low sea level) is almost an afterthought. Poland has a lot of surprisingly strong economic bonuses that kick in midgame, like Germany.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Personally I just really enjoy using the Hussars. I fell in love with them while playing Jadwiga's Legacy and was looking for a way to use them at the Deity level. I'm sure there's always a faster way to win so I doubt this strategy is of interest to Lily. The Hussars are a lot of fun and it's refreshing not to have to count breakers. It's easy to get in the habit of playing the same way every time and it's fun to mix it up. I'm glad you've been enjoying it