War chariots or axes

[druidravi]

I have been trying hatty on emporer a lot these days with se/fe . I am loving warchariots when they come, they are 25 shields to 35 of axe, 100% attack vs axes, immune to first strikes so even at low propabilty attack on city garrison arches you do good amount of damage, the 2 movement, and retreat possiblity

However spears counter them very bad , and i don't want to even mention about what agressive phalanxs or impis can do to them . Also they don't get city raider and cannot be upgraded till knights and aren't that great at city defence . You are left with a lot of useless chariots in the whole midgame. And since I go for literature path I do not have ironworking for a long time.

If you get copper however you can build axes , and spears to counter any chariot or sword rush against you. And axes do get city raider and can be upgraded to maces which dominate medeival city taking and later granadiers.

So my question is what do people in genearl prefer to go for in second city if 2 are available at good locations and you can't get the other site later due to ai settlement.

I am at present going for horses since there will usually be a ai without bronze since it is so rare from 2.08 but I want to see what others think about it.

 

[gettingfat]

I'll go for the horse. It's easier to start an early chariot rush because of their mobility and lower cost. Besides, the AIs seldom build more than 1 spear per city in early game. If you pull the rush early they might not even have any. On average two war chariots will take out one spear if the spear does not fortify in a highly cultural city. You can take that city with copper quite easily anyway.

 

[majk-iii]

-Hear hear!
Besides: War chariots being a UU, i'd really like to see them rolling out ASAP... it shouldn't matter, but it does... of course it does.
Get the horsies and then let them take the rest for you.

 

[CivSetä]

I don't build chariots if I have chopper nearby. As druidravi mentioned, those chariots are almost useless after first rush, but you can upgrade axes to maces and finally to important CR grenadiers/rifles/infantry.

 

[cabert]

the 2 moves is more of a good thing than you seem to say.
It's very easy to start a war while building reinforcements, and those reinforcements come in due time to your target, thanks to the 2 moves.
Of course axes are better city takers, but they are slow.

 

[LostCrumb]

I prefer War Chariots over axes. Once I overrun all three neighbours on my continent with them, and I didn't face a single phalanx. You will lose lots of War Chariots in the rush, so it doesn't matter, if you think they get quickly obsolete. The surviving units won't serve you in battle against another civ, but they can handle the barbarians for a long time.

LC

 

[Dirk1302]

As Egypt i'd go for the horses unless there really is no enemy anywhere near in which case i can settle both sites regardless. You have to be quick with war chariots. If circumstances are right they're very effective.

 

[oyzar]

upgrading units in the early game is kinda a waste in the early game as you should get enough cities to use pretty much everyone as happines boosters anyways. War chariots arevery nice if close civs dont have metals yet or you can take the metal out before they get loads of spears. The fact that they are useless most of the rest of the game is kinda irrelevant since unless your playing MP you would just use them as hapiness boosters anyways assuming a rapid expansion rate. If your going up against an oponent with established defences and metal you are gonna need metal units yourself though.

 

[Naismith]

Don't forget that the war chariots are also going to be much more effective against barbarian axemen. The extra movement comes in handy, as well. You don't need as many to prevent barbarian pillaging.

 

[Polycrates]

Definitely the war chariots, even if you're using BetterAI. Against regular AI, you'll probably have a sufficiently quick, cheap and powerful rush to just bash your way against any cities they've got, and they probably won't have spearmen anyway.
Against BetterAI, you'll have a much harder time. I'd be inclined to go straight for AnHus, link up any potential horses ASAP, get maybe 3 chariots out and declare war straight away by stealing their workers and moving straight onto any source of copper they may have (you'll probably have bronze working anyway by this point, but its easy enough to see where it is anyway). With the extra movement and the solid strength, you should be able to maneouvre round and take out a non-capital city, as well as pillaging the hell out of their empire.
Keep building troops while they stagnate, with an eye to picking up copper yourself if feasible and getting some axes too, withdraw to let them try rebuilding their shattered empire, then attack again in force when they're absolutely crippled. Also a good idea to sacrifice a chariot or two drawing out any remaining spearmen they have, then taking it down in the open. Since they then can't build any more, you only have archers to deal with, which is a much easier proposition.

Or you could just go for the easy targets (peripheral cities, workers, improvements), leave them fatally bleeding and move on to the next target. I'd be inclined to first attack Alex, Shaka, anyone with copper, or another aggressive opponent so you can deal with them before they get spearmen in numbers.

As someone else mentioned, they're also great against barbarians, plus they make fine medics. They also make good extra garrison troops, since you can quickly move them to anywhere they may be needed, and under Hereditary Rule, you can also quickly shift them to cities that need a bit of a happiness boost.

 

[druidravi]

I am beginning to love warchariots now. As Cabert mentioned that 2 movement helps you catch ur reinforcements catch up with the rest of the stack. And also pillaging copper mines helps. Later I have been using them for herediary rule hapiness. Their 2 movement helps in shuffling them between cties .

I even found an use for Egyptian UB . Early on Hannibal finds both Hinduism , Judaism in a single city. And after a bit of a rush I capture it. Judaism has spread well and my great Library is neraly complete and it would have been tough if i just ran 2 priest specialists in that city to keep up with Great Library. So obseliks- 2 priests + 2 priests from temples 12gpp gave me a Prophet in 9 turns .

But I had to run Buddhism which my dear friend Izzy found . I captured all her cities and pillaged her capital to stone-age. It had however 10 archers at 60% culture defence . But no problem Izzy i'll pay you a visit with Jumbos and catapults soon .

My 2 friends Augustus who was neibhour, ( I am treading very cautiously with Augustus . He has iron. ), Mao who are neibhours are buddhists and I need to trade with them. The rest are Ragnar and Napolean who built almost all wonders and has a frightening power graph as well

 

[JimT]

I just skim read so it may of already been mentioned

But with war chariots you should be able to quickly pillage a neighbours copper, capture the nearby city, replace the mine and solve the dilemma. He may already have one or two spearmen but once their rid he can't build any more.

 

[gettingfat]

While a chariot rush may lose steam as more and more AIs get metal, I still consider chariots a good supportive force even in medieval era.

• They are perfect pillagers. You can include a few chariots in your stack of doom consisting of mostly 1 movement units and use the chariots to raze anything along your path.
  
• Always promote a few chariots into medic I and they become your field doctors.
  
• Because they are so cheap to build, they can be used as suicidal units. Give them flank II. They will have 50% withdrawal chance (60% if using immortals). Flank II is a very under-rated promotion. It doesn't matter how weak you are, you still have 60% chance of survival in a battle. I use them like cats before construction.
  
• If the resource is well protected, doesn't matter. Pillage the roads. You may even draw their force out of the cities.
  
• Playing Romans, build chariots if you have AH. Praets are great alone, but they are invincible with chariots.