When does one rush?

[elisk]

Hi. I am still kind of a novice at Civ IV and I am wondering when when should chop, whip, and buy rush things, and what to rush. I know the basic mechanics of the game, but I haven't really figured out a lot of the strategy yet. I'm playing at noble.

 

[Yngvi]

For what it's worth, a few rules of thumb I follow:
I chop for wonders, and early on settlers/workers. I keep an eye on the city health, and I never like to deplete all the forests around a city.
I whip buildings. Usually in food rich, hammers poor cities. Get a granary early, it helps the whipping process. Keep an eye on the unhappiness in the city though.
I rarely buy something. It usually costs too much. I often keep slavery until very late in the game (until 6 or 7 unhappy citizens demand emancipation)
In an emergency (Shaka invades!), I chop and whip as much as needed: units, buildings, whatever. Sometimes the cities have to be unhappy and unhealthy for a while.
Hope that helps. Just remember, all games are different. I've had games with really productive cities where I needed to whip very little and I went to caste system early: another excellent civic.

 

[6K Man]

Rush as soon as you have access to your early UU (e.g. Praetorians) and have built 8-15 of them.
Rush when you find you have no room to expand to more than 4 or 5 cities.
Rush when you have a dangerous, aggressive opponent near you (e.g. Shaka).
Rush when you see your neighbour build the Pyramids or the shrine of a popular religion.

and so on.

Having an extra capital city site is usually worth the sacrifice of a few forests - particularly forested hills or riverside forests that you'd be mining/cottaging/farming anyway.

 

[mechaerik]

I believe this will help you. It sure helped me to decide when to charge into my enemies capitol.

 

[Cashew]

Rush as soon as you have access to your early UU (e.g. Praetorians) and have built 8-15 of them.
Rush when you find you have no room to expand to more than 4 or 5 cities.
Rush when you have a dangerous, aggressive opponent near you (e.g. Shaka).
Rush when you see your neighbour build the Pyramids or the shrine of a popular religion.

and so on.

Having an extra capital city site is usually worth the sacrifice of a few forests - particularly forested hills or riverside forests that you'd be mining/cottaging/farming anyway.

I don't think he meant "rush," I believe he meant "hurry production."

 

[elisk]

What do you/does he mean by having an extra capital city site? And I meant hurrying through slavery, and gold, as well as chopping forests by saying rush.

 

[mechaerik]

By "extra capitol', he meant your nearest neigbors capitol.

Most people associate "rush" with axes and swords.

 

[dirtyparrot]

You should find this article useful in helping you to "whip" optimally (btw, when you say "rush" most people are going to take that to mean rush attack one of the civs in the game):

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/whip.php

You might also find this guide useful:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/hammer_overflow.php

But, most of these questions have some type of answer in the War Academy located on the left side panel of the main page.

 

[6K Man]

Oh. LOL. I should have figured that as a novice, you didn't mean rush as the popular slang for rushing an opponent.

Anyway - you want to rushbuy things that give you a lasting advantage that outweighs the cost of whatever you are sacrificing to rush (for the sake of argument, we'll assume population (whipping) or trees (chopping) and ignore cash rushing as that comes into play fairly late, usually).

Population is usually a pretty easy call in the early game. Most capitals have food surpluses, often big ones if they have lots of seafood. So they grow fast, often right up to your happiness or health cap. Or they'll grow to the point where they're working unimproved tiles. In either case, whipping away the excess population (at least 2 at a time, to keep one step ahead of the face that comes with each whip) doesn't cost you anything except population that wasn't going to work anyway, or that was working an unproductive tile. So - need an army to kill off a rival? Whip Barracks and some Axemen. You just conquered your rival and your science rate is at 20%? Whip Libraries (and run Scientists). And so on. Best to whip once you have a Granary (or whip the Granary first), so your population will grow back faster.

Chopping is harder to rationalize, as trees don't grow back as fast as population (or sometimes, at all). So I generally chop trees only for a key wonder (like the Pyramids if I will be running a specialist economy, or the Great Lighthouse if I am coastal, Great Library for my GP farm, etc) or if I will be axe-rushing someone and need an army faster than building/whipping it. The exception, of course, are tiles you would chop and improve anyway, like riverside grassland or forested hills - I'll chop those just to get my Granary up or whatever, since they are superfluous. I try not to chop down non-riverside tundra or plains forest, but sometimes it can't be helped... it's a judgment call. And remember that trees give your city health - don't chop down trees unless you have health to spare or are prepared to deal with the unhealth.

An extra capital city site is the AIs capital that you captured with your Axe/Chariot/Quecha/Praetorian/whatever rush. While it's not quite the same as having 2 capitals (the Palace gives the biggest boost in the early game), you'll notice that most capital city sites have excellent resources. Consequently, an AI capital will be a MUCH better city to have than your 2nd or 3rd city site, usually, and will give you a big edge in your game.

 

[S.ilver]

As 6K said, it is best to rush build if you have a food surplus. Almost all cities you found SHOULD have food resources to work, so while the city is smaller (and takes less food to grow), you want to be whipping it to put up critical buildings. Critical buildings are very dependent on situation, but you ALWAYS want to whip a granary (or chop it) as soon as possible because it increases efficiency of your food, and food is power.

Other good buildings to whip include a source of culture if you are not creative (library is ideal, but a temple/monastery works, and if you are desperate, so does a monument), a forge as it increases production, and the courthouse as it takes down maintenance. If you get any discounted buildings as well, you might want to whip them because it is more cost effective.

 

[elisk]

Thanks! I will try these strategies out. I'm very grateful for the advice from better Civ players than I.

 

[WuphonsReach]

6K nails it... only chop buildings that will give you a long-term boost to production or economy. The same concept applies to what to build during Golden Ages, one goal within a Golden Age should be to exit with higher production / commerce.

I will hardly ever chop units (or build them during a GAge).

 

[Spartan117]

"When in doubt....ATTACK!" - Antony from Rome.

Whether or not this is applicable for every situation is debatable. But the quote is amusing enough.

 

[Cashew]

"When in doubt....ATTACK!" - Antony from Rome.

Whether or not this is applicable for every situation is debatable. But the quote is amusing enough.

When in doubt, read the original post to find out what he actually wants to know.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Off-topic: When does one rush? When one is in a hurry.

I frequently find myself rushing particularly culture buildings because when you are in direct competition with your neighbour for land, getting the culture up fast is critically important, especially early in the game because after 1000 years the culture from a building doubles.