When you think about it, what is the most powerful unit in the very early game? A promoted pathfinder-turned-CB? What if I told you there was a unit with the strength close to that of a CB with several times the health, with march and indirect fire promotions? And the said unit's combat power grows stronger as the turns go on without need of xp or promotions?
That is what your settler is, esp your starting one. Used well, it is your greatest weapon and can completely screw up AI early.
How many times have you decided to start up a game and get a bunch of sugar marshes, tundra, snow, or just riverless desert and you realize there is no way you can or want to settle on spot? (then you play the game anyway and you realize you've spawned next to an neighbor who just happened to get salt)
What do you do? Do you move somewhere else away from his lands and settle (VERY LATE) where you think he'll have trouble attacking you?
At this point, how many of you ragequit or reroll?
This is not a real guide, just a rather nascent idea I've been experimenting with and works even on deity (the cheese works very well on all difficulties but I've been testing it on deity solely; simply because on deity it makes the greatest impact).
How many of you say you can take Ulundi on t40+ and outright kill deity Shaka on t50 using archers and chariots? While your starting terrain has just river and forest spices? Well, that's what I did, and many will attest to my VERY poor warmongering skills. (in fact the only time I warmongered in a serious game since moving up to deity was a prince lvl Gotm and got an abysmal finishing time)
That used to be what I would do... but not so much anymore under certain circumstances. Let me stress that THIS IS NOT THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION FOR EVERY GAME, but I'm sure if you keep an eye out for it, there will be circumstances where you'll find this is useful (around 20-30% of my games actually)
Note: this strategy works best with Incas, Aztecs, or Shoshone (although Shoshone might be tricky to pull this off AGAINST) and maybe America but works for all civs, and works best when you are in open terrain. Strictly speaking you must meet your victim and see his capitol before or at ~t5 for it to work.
Here is the rough layout for the plan
1) Take your settler and the warrior with him, and search for victim (only do this intentionally when you think your starting terrain is bad/ you plan to save your starting space to expand back to later because it is a choke pt/peninsula/whatever, or you simply want to troll the AI and try this strat)
2) If tiles are not awful (meaning that at least you have workable tiles like cows, deer, wheat, and not just blank grassland or plains), settle right next to (or very near) your victim. (Optional for deity only) If he still has his starting settler, settle two tiles away from it (this will make sure it does not get bumped out of your borders) such that you can be poised to strike and block with your warrior (or spearman/CB is you got lucky with ruins generally promotion ruins suck but here it's quite useful).
3) Get your warrior into good position (because of ZoC, this might mean moving one tile first), then DoW him and attack his warrior who his guarding settler with your city and warrior. Use ZoC to make sure you get another round of attack. Produce scouts with your city. Research either pottery or mining and play as a normal game but make sure you get archery in a timely manner.
4) Two attacks each from your city and warrior will bring you target down, netting you a free worker (unless he is Shaka in which case he will promote to heal so make sure you get another round in) . At this point he may send his warriors at your city. Block them from escaping using your scout, and shoot them down. His workers are now probably unguarded if you did this right.
5) With your scouts, pillage, worker steal, plunder his caravans, proceed to own your target. Once deity AI lose their starting settlers often they will stupidly start producing settlers instead of warriors. Take them as free workers for your empire.
6) Eventually you can wipe him out completely (if you are isolated and no other civ has found you, you can bury him because dead men tell no tales), keep him as a chump buffer against aggressive AI, plunder him over and over for gold, get enough archers and farm his city for a GG which you can use to steal his land (assuming you settle right next to him, you take his good tiles which your city can use) etc.
The next post will contain pictures from actual games. I played these game blind, mind you, but say, if you are replaying a deity challenge, it works even better if you know exactly where your victim is.
Important things:
1) ALWAYS send your warrior and settler in the same direction. They need each other to trap the enemy settler.
2) Use settler "radar" (trying to move your settler whose circle will turn red if you click on impassable terrain) to your advantage. I'm sure everyone knows this trick.
3)Know when to use this strat and when not to. If your starting location has 6 salts and wheat chances are it's better than getting a worker early.
4) Get archery soon if you plan to REALLY screw the AI.
That is what your settler is, esp your starting one. Used well, it is your greatest weapon and can completely screw up AI early.
How many times have you decided to start up a game and get a bunch of sugar marshes, tundra, snow, or just riverless desert and you realize there is no way you can or want to settle on spot? (then you play the game anyway and you realize you've spawned next to an neighbor who just happened to get salt)
What do you do? Do you move somewhere else away from his lands and settle (VERY LATE) where you think he'll have trouble attacking you?
At this point, how many of you ragequit or reroll?
This is not a real guide, just a rather nascent idea I've been experimenting with and works even on deity (the cheese works very well on all difficulties but I've been testing it on deity solely; simply because on deity it makes the greatest impact).
How many of you say you can take Ulundi on t40+ and outright kill deity Shaka on t50 using archers and chariots? While your starting terrain has just river and forest spices? Well, that's what I did, and many will attest to my VERY poor warmongering skills. (in fact the only time I warmongered in a serious game since moving up to deity was a prince lvl Gotm and got an abysmal finishing time)
That used to be what I would do... but not so much anymore under certain circumstances. Let me stress that THIS IS NOT THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION FOR EVERY GAME, but I'm sure if you keep an eye out for it, there will be circumstances where you'll find this is useful (around 20-30% of my games actually)
Note: this strategy works best with Incas, Aztecs, or Shoshone (although Shoshone might be tricky to pull this off AGAINST) and maybe America but works for all civs, and works best when you are in open terrain. Strictly speaking you must meet your victim and see his capitol before or at ~t5 for it to work.
Here is the rough layout for the plan
1) Take your settler and the warrior with him, and search for victim (only do this intentionally when you think your starting terrain is bad/ you plan to save your starting space to expand back to later because it is a choke pt/peninsula/whatever, or you simply want to troll the AI and try this strat)
2) If tiles are not awful (meaning that at least you have workable tiles like cows, deer, wheat, and not just blank grassland or plains), settle right next to (or very near) your victim. (Optional for deity only) If he still has his starting settler, settle two tiles away from it (this will make sure it does not get bumped out of your borders) such that you can be poised to strike and block with your warrior (or spearman/CB is you got lucky with ruins generally promotion ruins suck but here it's quite useful).
3) Get your warrior into good position (because of ZoC, this might mean moving one tile first), then DoW him and attack his warrior who his guarding settler with your city and warrior. Use ZoC to make sure you get another round of attack. Produce scouts with your city. Research either pottery or mining and play as a normal game but make sure you get archery in a timely manner.
4) Two attacks each from your city and warrior will bring you target down, netting you a free worker (unless he is Shaka in which case he will promote to heal so make sure you get another round in) . At this point he may send his warriors at your city. Block them from escaping using your scout, and shoot them down. His workers are now probably unguarded if you did this right.
5) With your scouts, pillage, worker steal, plunder his caravans, proceed to own your target. Once deity AI lose their starting settlers often they will stupidly start producing settlers instead of warriors. Take them as free workers for your empire.
6) Eventually you can wipe him out completely (if you are isolated and no other civ has found you, you can bury him because dead men tell no tales), keep him as a chump buffer against aggressive AI, plunder him over and over for gold, get enough archers and farm his city for a GG which you can use to steal his land (assuming you settle right next to him, you take his good tiles which your city can use) etc.
The next post will contain pictures from actual games. I played these game blind, mind you, but say, if you are replaying a deity challenge, it works even better if you know exactly where your victim is.
Important things:
1) ALWAYS send your warrior and settler in the same direction. They need each other to trap the enemy settler.
2) Use settler "radar" (trying to move your settler whose circle will turn red if you click on impassable terrain) to your advantage. I'm sure everyone knows this trick.
3)Know when to use this strat and when not to. If your starting location has 6 salts and wheat chances are it's better than getting a worker early.
4) Get archery soon if you plan to REALLY screw the AI.
but I have a soft spot for Theodora and I'm really not into killing AIs that I like, esp. when she offered DoF and sent caravans to Paris instead of Cusco)
