so I've tried a few MP games, and well nothing is quite solid yet.

I've tried to do the mad dash swordsman rush and it is very powerful (if you are lucky with the iron).

but how to defend against it, in theory at least.

it includes pikemen, and Oligarchy, 33% combat strength in own territory.

fortify them on hills/forests and try to go to crossbowmen, while defending.

crossbowmen are quite effective vs swordsmen, if you click fast enough, remember to use b, for ranged attacks, so you accidently don't move the unit, if he has moved his swordsmen during your click.

during the defending against the evil marauders, you'll hopefully have a river close by and get the magic +1 food from farms near river tiles, thus getting more pop and more stuff, keep pumping pikemen out, check demographics to see what the difference is between the armies.

if you've picked the german civ, their pikemen cost only 170g!.. for a 10 str unit this is insane imo.

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I can see problems if he goes long swordsmen.

perhaps go knights instead of crossbowmen.

might need gold to buy tiles, as it gives 33% combat bonus. Monarchy might be the way to make them dirt cheap, since it the prereq for it is Oligarchy

anyways just some random thoughts.

Oligarchy is also nice after you puppet an enemy city.