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I've been experimenting lately with a strategy I like to call the Oracle Machinery Gambit. It is a start solely focused on getting to Machinery by mid to late BC. I find it works best for the Chinese, but could potentially be applied to any civilization. The basic goal is to slingshot to Machinery using the Oracle wonder, and to dominate the late BC to Mid AD era with crossbowmen(Cho-Ko-Nu). This is a specific application of some of the discussions going on in Vel's Strat Thread on using the Oracle as a tech Whip.
Keys to the Gambit Succeeding:
1. A strong starting location preferably along a river network that will let you have at least one other city on the river. The location should include a number of forests to chop.
2. Bronze-Working and Worker are the first Tech and Unit produced. This unlocks forest chopping which you can use to greatly accelerate your early settler and warrior production.
3. After Bronze-Working research Pottery in order to build Cottages along rivers. With the financial trait this gives them a 2 coin boost which continues to grow.
4. After Pottery research to Priesthood to unlock the ability to build the Oracle Wonder.
5. After Priesthood research Metal Casting and time to completion of the Oracle to happen on the same turn you finish Metal Casting. This will let you then pick Machinery for Free.
6. The Industrious trait to decrease the build time of the Oracle.
7. The Financial trait to provide enough beaker production to finish the necessary research in time.
Taking Advantage of a Successful Oracle Machinery Gambit:
1. Research Iron-Working and hook up Iron as quickly as possible, and research to Archery.
2. Additional Important Support Projects:
a. Build Barracks in any City you will produce Crossbowmen from
b. Research Theology/Feudalism for the bonus +2exp from Theocracy and Vassalage.
c. Research Mathematics for Catapults to help reduce city walls.
d. Use your workers to build a road network to speed their movement to the front lines.
Even if the Gambit Fails:
1. You will still have expanded quickly thanks to the early chopping to get out settlers.
2. The early cottages will provide a strong economy with which to quickly research the early techs you were avoiding.
3. The few higher end techs you have will be tradable for techs you missed (Metal Casting in particular)
Vulnerabilities of the Gambit:
1. Since you are military weak in the beginning, you will be at risk to early attacks from chariots/horse archers. If you have time to hookup bronze it can reduce this risk considerably.
2. It does not allow for researching some key early techs such as animal husbandry and fishing without considerable risk that the gambit will fail.
3. If someone gains early access to marble, they will very likely beat you in producing the Oracle. (Ghandi seems to love to do this.)
4. You won't know until after the gambit if you have iron
nearby. You can move iron-working to before Metal Casting, but this adds another 7-10 turns to the gambit which is a long time.
Variations on the Gambit:
1. If you have several special resources that need farms, start by heading to Polytheism instead of Bronze-Working. Then research Bronze-Working, and start chopping. This is somewhat slower, but has the bonus of most likely getting you Hinduism.
2. Before researching Metal Casting, research Hunting and Archery. This increases the risk of missing the Oracle, but decreases the risk of being attacked early as you’ll have archers instead of warriors to defend with.
3. Use a civilization other than the Chinese. With the Japanese go for Civil Services as your free tech and then research the cheaper Machinery.
A look at the Cho-Ko-Nu:
The Cho-Ko-Nu
Power 6
2 First Strikes
Does Collateral Damage
50% Bonus Vs. Melee Units
The most important features of the Cho-Ko-Nu is that it does Collateral Damage without any upgrades. This allows a stack of Cho-Ko-Nu to devastate defenders, as each attacking Cho-Ko-Nu not only potentially kills one defender, but usually weakens 3 other defenders. Making each successive attack on a stack easier.
The extra first strike is also important as it effectively nullifies most ancient age unit's first strike ability while still allowing the Cho-Ko-Nu a first strike. When upgraded to Drill 4 (Which is very doable) a Cho-Ko-Nu has 5-8 first strikes! Even with just 2 upgrades a Cho-Ko-Nu has 3-4 first strikes. All of this first striking means more Cho-Ko-Nu survive lightly damaged or even undamaged after a battle. Meaning you can continue right on to the next city.
These features in combo are what allow an army of Cho-Ko-Nu to dominate for a long while, as more of your units survive to be upgraded and once upgraded they will sometimes be able to kill units without giving them a chance to hit back.
An Ideal Game Save to try the Gambit on:
A Short Walk-Through on applying the Gambit
Qin Shi Huang's leader traits are Industrious and Financial, which are both key parts to making this gambit work. The Chinese starting technologies of Agriculture and Mining are equally important. I will describe how to accomplish the gambit using Qin Shi Huang, but I’ll point out that I discovered this somewhat accidentally using the Malinese.
The gambit will not work without a strong starting city, as you will need plenty of research beakers to accomplish the gambit (~1200 all told by the tech chart). An example of a perfect starting location is pictured in the screenshot below.
My settler started off on a plains/hill, and I decided to found there instead of moving to include the gold in my starting cities radius. One reason is by moving my warrior onto the gold I could see that I had two additional plains/hill city locations and #2 could take advantage of the gold. Since Beijing has access to 7 Flood Plains, it will have more than enough commerce. Flood plains are perfect for this strategy as with the Financial trait a flood plain with a cottage starts at 3 food 3 coin, and only gets better with time. Founding a city on a plains/hill is a big advantage as your city starts with 2 food, 2 hammers, and 1 coin instead of the normal 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 coin. The extra hammer makes a huge difference in the early game. (And bonus defense never hurts)
The other important feature are plenty of trees in the area, some of which I know I have to chop down to build plantations for example on the silk. I also know I’m going to found a city at #2 so I’ll chop there first if at all possible.
Start the gambit by researching Bronze Working and building a worker. With this start on Noble they both finish after 12 turns. (Use your warrior to explore as normal.) As soon as the worker is done start a settler and start chopping down trees. At the same time switch to the Wheel for your research, and when that finishes pottery. If the timing is all right you should chop out your first warrior and then reach a flood plain just as pottery finishes.
When your first Settler finishes send him where you like best, I personally would head west along the river so both my initial cities get a 1 coin bonus from the river trade route between them. I initially build a warrior at this expansion city to let it grow to size 2. Obtaining as much research as possible is absolutely vital for this to succeed. Also continue to produce warriors with your home city until it is at least size 2. I usually build them until it reaches size 3.
Your worker should build several cottages on flood plains around your main city, and secondary cities if applicable.
Since you’ve finished Pottery head for Priesthood through Buddhism. We need Priesthood in order to build the Oracle wonder.
Once you’ve finished researching Priesthood switch to Metal Casting, and look at how long it will take you to build the Oracle. I usually build it in my capital, and time it so that it finishes on the same turn that I finish researching Metal Casting. Because Metal Casting is so expensive you should have time to produce 1-2 additional settlers, with the aid of forest chops, and the Oracle before Metal Casting finishes. (While building the additional settlers it helps to build a mine or two to boost production for the Oracle.)Your built up store of warriors will let you guard them all. I often send the warriors ahead to places I will build cities so they don’t slow down the 2 movement settlers by grouping with them. Your secondary cities are also used to produce warriors/settlers for expansion. Though I usually let them grow first to keep them from costing to much gold and reducing tech below 100%.
If all goes well the Oracle will finish before anyone else produces it (The Industrious trait helps ensure this.) When it completes you choose Machinery as your free technology and in the same turn pass through the Classic period into the Medieval period. We’ve done this early to ensure that we are able to accomplish the slingshot using the Oracle. Now we need to play catch-up in the early techs. I go for Iron-Working as Iron is needed for Crossbowmen, and then for Archery. After that its time to get all the technology that you may have dearly wanted such as Animal Husbanding and fishing (or if you were lucky you got them from a goody hut.) In any case it will probably take you at least another twenty turns to hook-up iron and research the remaining technologies you need, but then you have Cho-Ko-Nu. If you upgrade them with Drill 1-4 they become an unstoppable army for many turns, with any neighbors easily falling before they could possibly build the necessary troops to defend. They need the support of Catapults for large cities and Spearmen against horse archers, and at least one unit with the healing promotion is key to keep your advance moving.
A Succesful Gambit finished in 1800BC
Success!
Though at this point I still don't know if I will find Iron nearby, even so that is one of the risks of the gambit.
Keys to the Gambit Succeeding:
1. A strong starting location preferably along a river network that will let you have at least one other city on the river. The location should include a number of forests to chop.
2. Bronze-Working and Worker are the first Tech and Unit produced. This unlocks forest chopping which you can use to greatly accelerate your early settler and warrior production.
3. After Bronze-Working research Pottery in order to build Cottages along rivers. With the financial trait this gives them a 2 coin boost which continues to grow.
4. After Pottery research to Priesthood to unlock the ability to build the Oracle Wonder.
5. After Priesthood research Metal Casting and time to completion of the Oracle to happen on the same turn you finish Metal Casting. This will let you then pick Machinery for Free.
6. The Industrious trait to decrease the build time of the Oracle.
7. The Financial trait to provide enough beaker production to finish the necessary research in time.
Taking Advantage of a Successful Oracle Machinery Gambit:
1. Research Iron-Working and hook up Iron as quickly as possible, and research to Archery.
2. Additional Important Support Projects:
a. Build Barracks in any City you will produce Crossbowmen from
b. Research Theology/Feudalism for the bonus +2exp from Theocracy and Vassalage.
c. Research Mathematics for Catapults to help reduce city walls.
d. Use your workers to build a road network to speed their movement to the front lines.
Even if the Gambit Fails:
1. You will still have expanded quickly thanks to the early chopping to get out settlers.
2. The early cottages will provide a strong economy with which to quickly research the early techs you were avoiding.
3. The few higher end techs you have will be tradable for techs you missed (Metal Casting in particular)
Vulnerabilities of the Gambit:
1. Since you are military weak in the beginning, you will be at risk to early attacks from chariots/horse archers. If you have time to hookup bronze it can reduce this risk considerably.
2. It does not allow for researching some key early techs such as animal husbandry and fishing without considerable risk that the gambit will fail.
3. If someone gains early access to marble, they will very likely beat you in producing the Oracle. (Ghandi seems to love to do this.)
4. You won't know until after the gambit if you have iron
nearby. You can move iron-working to before Metal Casting, but this adds another 7-10 turns to the gambit which is a long time.
Variations on the Gambit:
1. If you have several special resources that need farms, start by heading to Polytheism instead of Bronze-Working. Then research Bronze-Working, and start chopping. This is somewhat slower, but has the bonus of most likely getting you Hinduism.
2. Before researching Metal Casting, research Hunting and Archery. This increases the risk of missing the Oracle, but decreases the risk of being attacked early as you’ll have archers instead of warriors to defend with.
3. Use a civilization other than the Chinese. With the Japanese go for Civil Services as your free tech and then research the cheaper Machinery.
A look at the Cho-Ko-Nu:
The Cho-Ko-Nu
Power 6
2 First Strikes
Does Collateral Damage
50% Bonus Vs. Melee Units
The most important features of the Cho-Ko-Nu is that it does Collateral Damage without any upgrades. This allows a stack of Cho-Ko-Nu to devastate defenders, as each attacking Cho-Ko-Nu not only potentially kills one defender, but usually weakens 3 other defenders. Making each successive attack on a stack easier.
The extra first strike is also important as it effectively nullifies most ancient age unit's first strike ability while still allowing the Cho-Ko-Nu a first strike. When upgraded to Drill 4 (Which is very doable) a Cho-Ko-Nu has 5-8 first strikes! Even with just 2 upgrades a Cho-Ko-Nu has 3-4 first strikes. All of this first striking means more Cho-Ko-Nu survive lightly damaged or even undamaged after a battle. Meaning you can continue right on to the next city.
These features in combo are what allow an army of Cho-Ko-Nu to dominate for a long while, as more of your units survive to be upgraded and once upgraded they will sometimes be able to kill units without giving them a chance to hit back.
An Ideal Game Save to try the Gambit on:
A Short Walk-Through on applying the Gambit
Qin Shi Huang's leader traits are Industrious and Financial, which are both key parts to making this gambit work. The Chinese starting technologies of Agriculture and Mining are equally important. I will describe how to accomplish the gambit using Qin Shi Huang, but I’ll point out that I discovered this somewhat accidentally using the Malinese.
The gambit will not work without a strong starting city, as you will need plenty of research beakers to accomplish the gambit (~1200 all told by the tech chart). An example of a perfect starting location is pictured in the screenshot below.
My settler started off on a plains/hill, and I decided to found there instead of moving to include the gold in my starting cities radius. One reason is by moving my warrior onto the gold I could see that I had two additional plains/hill city locations and #2 could take advantage of the gold. Since Beijing has access to 7 Flood Plains, it will have more than enough commerce. Flood plains are perfect for this strategy as with the Financial trait a flood plain with a cottage starts at 3 food 3 coin, and only gets better with time. Founding a city on a plains/hill is a big advantage as your city starts with 2 food, 2 hammers, and 1 coin instead of the normal 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 coin. The extra hammer makes a huge difference in the early game. (And bonus defense never hurts)
The other important feature are plenty of trees in the area, some of which I know I have to chop down to build plantations for example on the silk. I also know I’m going to found a city at #2 so I’ll chop there first if at all possible.
Start the gambit by researching Bronze Working and building a worker. With this start on Noble they both finish after 12 turns. (Use your warrior to explore as normal.) As soon as the worker is done start a settler and start chopping down trees. At the same time switch to the Wheel for your research, and when that finishes pottery. If the timing is all right you should chop out your first warrior and then reach a flood plain just as pottery finishes.
When your first Settler finishes send him where you like best, I personally would head west along the river so both my initial cities get a 1 coin bonus from the river trade route between them. I initially build a warrior at this expansion city to let it grow to size 2. Obtaining as much research as possible is absolutely vital for this to succeed. Also continue to produce warriors with your home city until it is at least size 2. I usually build them until it reaches size 3.
Your worker should build several cottages on flood plains around your main city, and secondary cities if applicable.
Since you’ve finished Pottery head for Priesthood through Buddhism. We need Priesthood in order to build the Oracle wonder.
Once you’ve finished researching Priesthood switch to Metal Casting, and look at how long it will take you to build the Oracle. I usually build it in my capital, and time it so that it finishes on the same turn that I finish researching Metal Casting. Because Metal Casting is so expensive you should have time to produce 1-2 additional settlers, with the aid of forest chops, and the Oracle before Metal Casting finishes. (While building the additional settlers it helps to build a mine or two to boost production for the Oracle.)Your built up store of warriors will let you guard them all. I often send the warriors ahead to places I will build cities so they don’t slow down the 2 movement settlers by grouping with them. Your secondary cities are also used to produce warriors/settlers for expansion. Though I usually let them grow first to keep them from costing to much gold and reducing tech below 100%.
If all goes well the Oracle will finish before anyone else produces it (The Industrious trait helps ensure this.) When it completes you choose Machinery as your free technology and in the same turn pass through the Classic period into the Medieval period. We’ve done this early to ensure that we are able to accomplish the slingshot using the Oracle. Now we need to play catch-up in the early techs. I go for Iron-Working as Iron is needed for Crossbowmen, and then for Archery. After that its time to get all the technology that you may have dearly wanted such as Animal Husbanding and fishing (or if you were lucky you got them from a goody hut.) In any case it will probably take you at least another twenty turns to hook-up iron and research the remaining technologies you need, but then you have Cho-Ko-Nu. If you upgrade them with Drill 1-4 they become an unstoppable army for many turns, with any neighbors easily falling before they could possibly build the necessary troops to defend. They need the support of Catapults for large cities and Spearmen against horse archers, and at least one unit with the healing promotion is key to keep your advance moving.
A Succesful Gambit finished in 1800BC
Success!
Though at this point I still don't know if I will find Iron nearby, even so that is one of the risks of the gambit.
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