Which is your favourite rush means in the new BTS??

[Ricci]

I'm realy interested in hearing about some rush favourites now that there are some new civs, UUs, and trait combination options.
I assume many will still be talking about the old & good axeman/hombre hacha/horde of axeman thing. But maybe i am wrong, or maybe some creative players have an edge in this fantastic (even though flawed) expansion.
Personaly I have found the Mayan Holkan to be a great UU for a truly early rush, as well as a great defender in a rush being held against the mighty Mayan nation:

- You can always rush at a more or less determined time, financial helping in the early part (rather than be dependant on the not so common copper).
- The Holkan is superb against the powerful anti axe and also early chariot/war chariot.
- You will eventually have it around if rushed first, lets say by quechuas, bowman, skirmishers or even warriors (mostly MP games).
- It has an advantage vs archers (immune to first strikes)
- It is so early that you may certainly have your firsts gain veteran status by razing the local wildlife.
- Not so good as axes in taking cities but better than regular spearman.
- You can always get BW or Hunting from contacting a tribal village.

It is true that a common axe is a hard foe. If you manage to eventually combine the Holkan with chariot you have an excelent attack force for the entire ancient times.

 

[Rusty Edge]

So far , just a Carrack rush. I found that on a terra map I could reach the new world before the barbs had longbows, capture a couple cities, create a colony, heal my invaders and move on . Add the captured cities to the colony, which spawns it's own defense. I have the resources tied up by the time the Dutch arrive. Then concentrate on privateers. Then concentrate on corps. Game Over.

 

[futurehermit]

I wouldn't call it a rush because these units come so late but I've had good success with tanks, gunships, and bombers

 

[meatwad4289]

swords men and chariots... I've found that in the begining push those two as much as possible and you will always win a war or atleast hold them off til they give up. I had built 15 swords and 20 chariots for a stack, which also contianed 5 axe 5 spear. I was able to take an enemy city as soon as war began, and moved thru his territory. Ofcourse I had to retreat, when Ganglamesh sent out his UU in huge stacks, so I retreated to defend, and it took 4 stacks(with 20+ cateracts(think thats it its a horse UU) to knock me down to one single swords men. Rather than attack next turn they healed... for 5 turns i was safe, I already had huge bulk of spear, sword, axe, and bowmens on the way so I produced even more. I built mostly sword and spear because they were horses so spear was best offense/defense and sword incase the took the city beforei got there. they sent wave after wave and I held my ground, unlike the first attack each stack came seperately, making it much easier as i had a chance to heal. then economy collapsed production slowed, and i couldnt produce troops fast enough to replace them. Spies kept destroying roads, and then it happened. 6 stacks of mace men and trebuechets and cataracts. I lsot two cities, and had become vassal of someone else as my military was lost.

This was the only case that my sword push failed. and if i had more time to create my 5th and 6th stack i woulda been fine/

 

[Shawnosaurus]

Damnit, you took mine with the Holkan. I have my best all time victory ever thanks to an early Holkan rush that wiped out my 2 neighbours. I got Holkan super early, made a heap of them, and then had those units around for a long time since they got so much xp early on.

Those scrappy little Holkan are my choice so far of rush units

 

[Thalassicus]

Holkan are like better, but more expensive, Quecha. 4, the same as Quecha against archers but have 1 first strike, negating the Archers' first strike, and the higher base strength means promotions have greater effect. You'll have less early on but they're useful longer and have no weakness to Warriors.

 

[phungus420]

Had really good luck with a Numidian Cavalry rush. Those little buggers had a 60% withdrawl rate straight off the line, and being near equivalent to thier counter, they really are quite good.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Vultures are obvious. It is like a clasic axe-rush woth Swordsmen.
On difficulties below Monarch you can pull a very early rush with Babylon as long as the next civ is close enough and you can find them while they are still defending with Warriors.
Build a Barracks in Babylon and then spam Bowman.Three or four are enough to take an AAI capital. You should promote one of them with Medic after he won a battle and give Shock o the others.
On Prince I managed to eliminate Ganhdhi 3000BC and got the hol city of Hinduism with this tactic.

 

[Drakan]

Had really good luck with a Numidian Cavalry rush. Those little buggers had a 60% withdrawl rate straight off the line, and being near equivalent to thier counter, they really are quite good.

I thought their withdrawal chance was only 20%.

 

[Ricci]

I thought their withdrawal chance was only 20%.

It is actually 30% with the inate flanking I promotion. It can get FII right out of the barracs for 50% withdrawal, don´t know where the surplus 10% mentioned came from though.. but anyhow, people seem to bring interpretations out of their pokets in the passion of the game.

 

[AbbieRevo]

i've been playing around with a NA archer rush, no luck yet, but I have hope.

A horde of archers with drill III is pretty cool, any thoughts?

 

[jason77024]

Given the extent to which many here have been talking about how tough Sitting Bull can be in the early going, I decided to hit him last night with a 3-warrior rush.

He was my only neighbor, and could have bottled me up fairly easily. But with the new siege rules and no ivory at hand, the idea of rushing a dozen axes just seemed like a real pain, even if I did get copper. And iron turned out to be in his fat cross, not mine... well ok, it was my fat cross by the time it popped.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

I still rely on that good old tried and tested rush method, the settler rush

It beats fighting

 

[greggbert]

SKIRMISHER RUSH. Hit them before they know how to make fire! A 4-stack of skirmishers can do a HELL of a lot of damage so long as you can keep your enemies away from copper! Even if they have axemen you can still pound on them with sheer numbers.

 

[phungus420]

It is actually 30% with the inate flanking I promotion. It can get FII right out of the barracs for 50% withdrawal, don´t know where the surplus 10% mentioned came from though.. but anyhow, people seem to bring interpretations out of their pokets in the passion of the game.

Ah, my bad, thought they had a base 30% so with a barracks they came out with 60% instead of 50%. Oh well, my point still stands, they are awesome rush units. Using them pre catapult, it's likely that you start attacking cities with 2/3 survival rates, because of thier withdrawl. And while spears hurt them pretty bad, you still end up with 1/2 survival chances attacking them.

I haven't tried the vulture yet, but I'm sure bar none it's the best early rush unit in the game. But i just love the survivability of the Numidian Cav.

 

[Zetetic Apparat]

War Elephants seemed to work well against Hammurabi. Idiot loves his silly Bowmen too much.

 

[Ricci]

SKIRMISHER RUSH. Hit them before they know how to make fire! A 4-stack of skirmishers can do a HELL of a lot of damage so long as you can keep your enemies away from copper! Even if they have axemen you can still pound on them with sheer numbers.

This is actually a beautiful rush, done it myself some time. Skirmishers are still very good against axes with their 1-2 first strikes indeed.

 

[Ricci]

Ah, my bad, thought they had a base 30% so with a barracks they came out with 60% instead of 50%. Oh well, my point still stands, they are awesome rush units. Using them pre catapult, it's likely that you start attacking cities with 2/3 survival rates, because of thier withdrawl. And while spears hurt them pretty bad, you still end up with 1/2 survival chances attacking them.

I haven't tried the vulture yet, but I'm sure bar none it's the best early rush unit in the game. But i just love the survivability of the Numidian Cav.

Indeed, this formidable light cavalry truly has that attack damage and retreat factor coming along very accurately in the game. Moreover, against spears it manages the 50% withdrawal plus still a very good chance to win, giving an aproximate 75% survival rate (depending on spearman promotions). Sumed up with Hannibal's charism it is pretty sure you will be riding FII, combat I/shock Numidians in due time. Even now upgraded with this flanking damage, they make an exeptional force. Combined with charismatic spearman this force is mighty.. mighty... MIGHTY!!

 

[Chazumi]

I must admit I am not the best Civ4 player and I have never been past prince but I do play prince regularly. With the new unrestricted leaders feature (which I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE) I am a huge fan of using the roman praetorians. Ironworking is easily within 100 turns of the game on marathon if you skip a few techs which doesn't hurt if you dont have resources to need it right away.

Freddy with Rome is what I am currently playing, his traits don't really coincide with the UU but I used him for his phil/org trait. 125% GP, but if you were to use an aggressive leader with creative bam, get your great general after your first or second city and you could be spamming 8str 25% archers 20% city attack stacks of doom.

 

[Neo Guderian]

Sumeria is the uber early rush civ imo. Not so much because Vultures are better than swords (if you are fighting axes), but because the Ziggurat UB synergizes with the early rush.

Get Bronze, then priesthood, and then try to oracle alphabet.
The zigs give you an esp advantage, and alpha gives you spies. This means you do not need cats but instead can revolt every city in your path, allowing your SoD to irradicate....