Would some vets mind posting some build orders?

[Soronery]

If you go tradition+maritime ally you'll be pumping out swords is 2-3 turns, horses in 2-3 turns and catapults in 4 turns by the time you get to building them.

 

[Wargizmo]

This is a build that usually beats Emperor level pretty well:

scout, worker or scout, warrior, worker depending on surroundings then pump settlers for every luxury and strategic resource location (3-5 settlers depending), use your first 440 gold to rush buy one of the settlers. Settle on the resource itself if you're struggling for happiness otherwise settle next to it, if you can find locations with access to 2 or more resources then all the better. Trade off duplicate luxuries for $$, also if you're swimming in happiness then trade your luxuries.

Tech path:
Tech your nearby luxuries then go straight for iron to reveal iron by the time your 2nd or 3rd settler comes out. After iron tech any additional luxuries you need, then go for writing, then philosophy, then start filling out the tech tree as you normally would, grabbing things like colloseums, mathematics etc, after that depends on your strategy.

The cities you settle before writing train warrior and/or monument then library when you get writing, later cities go library straight away. This should give you 3-5 warriors to roam around looking for workers to steal, often barbarians will steal workers and you can steal them back so you don't have to go to war with a city state. Otherwise just go to war with a city state and make peace after you steal their worker, only do this once or all city states will hate you, if you can steal workers from barbarians it's much better.

Obviously most of those warriors should be upgraded to swordsmen once you start mining iron.

Once the capital has finished training settlers then it builds a library and maybe monument, colloseum or more units while you're waiting for National College to unlock.

Once you have libraries in your initial rushed cities then go for the national college in your capital. After that you can invade someone or pump more settlers or play more passive depending on what kind of game you want to play.

Social policies: you should take initial liberty policy first to speed up your settlers, then go tradition to help your capital grow. If you are France or otherwise have enough culture for a 3rd policy before Medieval era then take Aristocracy, you might even be able to get this before starting the national college which will help a lot. After you reach medieval era then I like either the left side of the patronage tree or the right side of the commerce tree depending on my strategy and the map, the initial freedom policy is good too once you get to the renaissance.

Spending:
After rush buying one of your settlers it's best to save money for upgrading your warriors, also try to ally a maritime city-state, you also might need to rush buy a worker if you settle a luxury a long way from your capital.

 

[Rittmeyer]

I prefer :

scout
worker
warrior
settler
settler
warriors in 2 settled cities and monument in cap
3 libraries
2 settlers and NC simultaneously (settlers for extra iron)
monuments
turn 55ish....build extra swordmen-warriors
turn 60-65 upgrade to longswordmen with all the cash you saved (no CS allies or patronnage)
Go honor and oligarchy for an amazing 33% + 20% (+10%? if possible)= 53%*18=27.54 in your territory
If immortal(or emperor?) or lower, go for Oracle for the extra 10%

Best record so far(without RA, luxuries selling or allies) : 6 longsowrdmen for turn 64, 4 once at turn 59. But what is nice is....if you wait enough, you can have 10-12 LS around turn 80 with nice tune up...without AI tweaks.

The thing is you must be the warmonger for the rest of the game in most cases.

Care to explain how you manage to get 12 iron in that stage of the game, with only 3 cities and not even a CS ally?

 

[comablack]

Care to explain how you manage to get 12 iron in that stage of the game, with only 3 cities and not even a CS ally?

reread the post, 5 cities

 

[Tabarnak]

Care to explain how you manage to get 12 iron in that stage of the game, with only 3 cities and not even a CS ally?

To get 12 iron it's luck based. But in the case you get 12 or more (easier with Russia) you can use all your 5 cities to build a mix of LS and swordmen between turn 65 and 80 jumping your army from 4-6 to 10-12. Triggering a golden age around turn 60-65 is optimal to get a mega army by turn 80 but this is not easy.

Cities with at least 8 hammers are needed and some nice gold tiles. You need a total of 900-1000 gold for 12 LS at turn 80ish.

This is not an average. It's one of the best attempts possible from my own. I guess it's easier with some luxuries sell. But in multiplayer it's harder to make money outside.

@Soronery : I understand your path and this is a nice approach. But with 5 cities i will go happiness bankrupt many times so a maritime CS is a bit useless in my case. I will want the extra 250 gold to upgrade 2-3 more LS.

Edit : Don't forget this is on quick speed.

 

[Smote]

Consolidated Strategies...
Martin's are likely best for vs AI. Tabarnak's are deadly vs players. Noticeable missing strategies: (Rifle rush w/ no AI gold, for multiplayer). Otherwise use Martin's Research agreement rifle rush.

Basic game plans post-patch:

National College First

- Main line: Scout -> Worker -> Library -> National College. Tech order is either Pottery -> Writing OR luxury you settled -> Writing. Latter tech order will require a build between Worker and Library. First 250 goes to a Maritime. Second 250 goes to a Maritime. Maritime > Settlers in the early game, even if you aren't Siam, because the makes Settlers build much faster.

- Library rush variant: as above, but rush buy the Library with . I can't see why you'd forego in the capital given a choice, but sometimes there are no Maritimes.

- City state rush variant: Warrior -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Library -> National College, otherwise as above. Puppet the CS until you complete the NC, then annex the CS and use it as a Settler pump. CS's luxury offsets the Happiness hit. Make sure two of your four Warriors have between 5 and 9 XP from barbs/Worker theft so they can grab a heal promotion. (Attack from rough terrain. Next turn promo becomes available. Attack again, then heal.) Should not sustain losses if executed properly.

ICS

Main line: Scout -> Settler -> Settler -> Settler... Tech your luxuries, then Construction for Colosseums. Steal Workers with the Warrior and/or Scout.

2/1 tile variant: Warrior -> Settler -> Settler -> Settler... As above, but build a Warrior since it will finish as the city grows to size 2.

Worker gambit: Scout -> Scout -> Scout -> Settler -> Settler -> Settler... A brave Deity opening. Scouts are used for aggressive Worker theft. Yields up many improved tiles very early on, at the risk of getting overrun by multiple angry opponents.

Iron rush

Main line: Warrior -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Settler. Beeline Iron Working. Warriors explore and steal Workers. Settler is used to settle iron. Some is used to upgrade the Warriors to Swords. The remainder can be spent on a Maritime or multiple Research Agreements for quick Rifling. If you go the RA route, you need to build the National College to clear Classical. Two rounds of RAs should get Rifles if you "manage" them properly. (You can leverage AIs' research of Philosophy if you want on Deity, and never bother pushing past Writing.)

Babylon Iron rush: Same build order, but beeline Writing, build an Academy, tech your luxuries and then take Iron Working. Delays the acquisition of IW by only a few turns.

Longsword rush

I prefer :

scout
worker
warrior
settler
settler
warriors in 2 settled cities and monument in cap
3 libraries
2 settlers and NC simultaneously (settlers for extra iron)
monuments
turn 55ish....build extra swordmen-warriors
turn 60-65 upgrade to longswordmen with all the cash you saved (no CS allies or patronnage)
Go honor and oligarchy for an amazing 33% + 20% (+10%? if possible)= 53%*18=27.54 in your territory
If immortal(or emperor?) or lower, go for Oracle for the extra 10%

Best record so far(without RA, luxuries selling or allies) : 6 longsowrdmen for turn 64, 4 once at turn 59. But what is nice is....if you wait enough, you can have 10-12 LS around turn 80 with nice tune up...without AI tweaks.

The thing is you must be the warmonger for the rest of the game in most cases.

 

[Smote]

My addition:

ICS Hoplites

Nation: Greece/Persia

This strategy is total war from turn 0, and is best in a duel situation, or one where you really want kill your neighbors.


Tech path: Mining, Bronzeworking, Pottery/calender/masonry/animal husbandry/trapping (you decide based on luxuries), Horseback riding or Iron Working

Policy path: Liberty only (will never get anything else)

Build order:
Capital builds scout->settler->settler->settler->settler->settler...
Every other city only builds hoplites, and stays at either 1 population (working unimproved hill) or 2 population (1F2H square + another).

Never build workers. If you want one, you must capture one. Since you will never improve luxuries, build your cities on luxuries to get them. This strategy will use all available hammers for army, while doing a decent job maximizing hammers.

All gold must be used to support massive army. Do not buy stuff, because you will likely operate at negative gold, supported by conquest.


If you want to later switch to econ after killing neighbor, disband almost all your troops and try to build a national college.

Note: ICS hoplites works best with SURPRISE. Do not allow your opponent to ever see more than 1 hoplite, before you attack with 4+.