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...a Civ 4 strategy guide, in the same spirit of the SMAX guide.
My first question is...would there be any interest in such a work?
Before you answer that question, here's an excerpt from the proposed manuscript, as a bit of a teaster. Please let me know what you think!
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Introduction
This guide was written to honor Sid, Soren, and all the fans who love the game they have made, and who can't wait to fire up the computer and play "just one more turn."
It is my sincere hope that those people out there who may feel a bit overwhelmed by the complexity and sheer number of choices that the game presents, will find this work of value in terms of guiding them through the process of not only setting up a viable Empire, but also of training the brain think about Civ in a certain way, and fostering good gaming habits which will serve you well, long after you have no need of whatever assistance this work can provide.
And that, I think, is all the introduction that is needed. You don't want to sit wherever you are and read about me rambling, you want to dive into the meat of Civ IV, and I don't blame you, so I'll not keep you waiting....onward!
-=Vel=-
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Notes and Provisos
1) I am basing my observations off of a standard speed game, Monarch level of difficulty. Please understand that the numbers I throw out originate from here, and that if you are playing at some other speed and/or difficulty level, those numbers will change slightly (but the gist of what I'm saying will remain the same).
2) There are essentially two schools of thought where formulating strategy is concerned. One is to build your strategy around the maximization of your strengths, paying secondary attention to covering your weaknesses, and the other is to be primarily concerned with covering those weaknesses, letting your natural strengths more-or-less take care of themselves. In my opinion, the former approach is the superior approach, and so, these writings are geared that direction. If your playstyle favors the latter, , then some adjustment will need to be made to make these writings apply well to you. I will attempt to at least broadly outline how the latter could be made to work, but my primary focus will be on what I feel is the superior "maximize your strengths" methodology. Thus, there is a certain bias built into these writings, and you should be aware of it.
3) There is another bias built into my work. One that you may or may not agree with. In my opinion, food is the resource of primary importance in this game. Then commerce, and finally hammers. Note that I said "hammers" and specifically not "production." This is because there are many alternatives to boost production, and "hammers" are but the most common. I like building things fast (as you will see), but I'm not willing to sacrifice my ability to research and/or the money in my pocket to shave a couple turns off of something I'm building unless I have to. If there's another way (and there usually is), then I'll take it. So note the bias in your reading. If you favor hammers over commerce, then again, these writings will need some adjustment to make them fully applicable to you.
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General Concepts and Terms
To get us started, and ensure that we're on common linguistic ground, the following are terms you'll see me use in these writings, and what I mean by them:
Builder, Hybrid, Momentum
These are terms coined in the days of Sid's "Alpha Centauri" game (which is still installed on my hard drive, btw). They describe the three basic "states of being" that players tend to fall into.
Builders exist at the "peaceful end" of the playing spectrum, and don't care much for warring. They are drawn to Civ because of their endless fascination with the process of growing and nurturing the "perfect" empire. Warfare is typically seen as a distraction from the business of building and running the Empire (or, in the best case, they'll see it as a necessary evil).
Momentum players are all about conquest (and obviously, they occupy the extreme opposite end of the spectrum from Builders). The Empire is secondary for them, and only exists to serve as the platform from which to launch the next campaign, and they're happiest when mired in the mud of some war or another.
Hybrid players exist somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, and in truth, probably define the greater bulk of players. Still, players who tend to prefer building over warring tend to identify themselves as "Builders" while players who prefer warring will tend to refer to themselves as "Momentum" players, even when the vast majority are more than willing to do a bit of both. The Hybrid player seeks to strke a balance, understanding that warfare is a necessary (and fun!) component of the game, but is only a means to a greater end. In my opinion, Civ 4 has done an excellent job at bringing the two extremes together
Choke
A warfare tactic, involving parking a unit in enemy terrain to deny him use of that tile. This puts your enemy in the less-than-enviable position of having to decide whether or not he values the tile sufficiently to try and roust you from it, or if he'd rather hole up and hide in his city. Most frequently used as a prelude to a general invasion, to keep your opponent weak (and less productive) while you're building the army that will spell his doom.
Lockdown (or simply "Lock")
The point in the game at which your victory is assured. The more quickly you can achieve this state the better, and typically, the game is won or lost in the Ancient Era. Your performance here will be more important than all the other ages combined.
Pop-N-Chop
Available at BronzeWorking, this is the key to unlocking ancient era productivity, and it involves a powerful one-two punch that enables you to build infrastructure and/or an ancient-age military with terrifying swiftness. On the one hand, the switch to the Slavery civic allows you to trade population points for production, in exchange for a temporary unhappiness hit. On the other, it opens the door to a new worker action, "Chop," which is all about cutting down those trees in exchange for production NOW. Of the two new doors it opens up, population is your near-infinite resource. It is highly predictable and renewable--that is to say, you can tell exactly how long it is going to take your city to recover the population loss and recover from the unhappiness--whereas forests are essentially non-renewable. Yes, they may grow back, but you have no real control over if or when they do, and as such, you cannot base a strategy around it. Thus, while you are free to pop rush as fast as your growback will allow, and to whatever unhappiness threshold you can stand, each chop should be carefully considered, and only made when it is to your extreme advantage. The rule is, when in doubt, don't chop. If you can pop instead, always do so and save your trees, because once they are gone, they're gone for good. Do remember that not all pops and chops are created equally. A pop or chop done while running Organized Religion will net you 25% more hammers than one done without it. A chop done after mathematics will net you more hammers than one done before, and either one will net you more hammers when building one of your Civ's "double speed" improvements. Also remember that these benefits are cumulative, such that if you are running Organized Religion AND you have mathematics, AND you are building one of your double speed improvements, you will get significantly more hammers than if you just chop from turn one and clear cut. There's a tradeoff to be had, of course, and each game is different. There will be times that chopping before any multipliers in your favor is a good idea. Chopping out a second worker, for example, is almost always a good play, as it will vastly speed the rate at which you can crank out roads and other terrain improvements. Chopping out a fast second settler--especially for Imperialistic Civs--is a hugely strong tactic that can get your game off to a blazing fast start. Likewise, chopping out an early attack force--one of the all-around best uses for unmodified chop, btw--is a masterful way to build a properly terrifying ancient era army. These points aside, however, and as much as is possible, the trees should be preserved until they can net you the maximum possible benefit. Sometimes fastest is best, and sometimes it isn't. Learning to read the game and discern which is the best move is an artform in and of itself, and is something that only comes with practice and time. If you do not feel that you're at the point yet where you have a high degree of confidence in your ability to "know" when to do which, just use the guidelines above, and the rule of thumb, "when in doubt, delay the chop," and you'll be fine the vast majority of the time.
Seminial Techs
The Seminal Techs are the ones that unlock all the basic terrain improvement actions for you, and for this reason, their power cannot be understated. They are:
Agriculture
Mining
Hunting
The Wheel
Fishing
Pottery
Animal Husbandary
These techs represent the very foundation of the game, and are the keys to unlocking the productivity of your lands. With these few, simple tools, you will see the productive capacity of your Empire explode
The Window
Beginning at turn one, and running some unknown number of turns into the future, there is a "window" of time available to you, during which, you may develop in almost complete safety. Only wild animals to contend with, the AI is buisily participating in the peaceful land grab, and there are no barbarians. The exact duration of this window is never set in stone (at least not as far as I have been able to determine), and varys wildly depending on your particular game's settings--ie, your "window" will be significantly smaller on huge maps with few civs and raging barbarians turned on, while your window will be significantly longer in "kinder" map settings. "The Window" is the most crucial part of the game, and whatever you are able to accomplish during those opening turns will shade the entire rest of your game. Make no mistake about it, this is the most pivotal point in the whole game, so your performance here really counts. There should be no wasted moves, no second guessing yourself or backpeddling. The Window is your opportunity to set the stage. Don't ever squander even so much as a single turn of it! My experience indicates that you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-odd turns in this window to get yourself set up. Thirty-odd turns before the barbarians begin appearing. Make the most of it.
Turn Advantage
Doing stuff faster than your rivals are doing stuff. As a simple example, if you can build an Axeman in 5 turns, and it takes your opponent ten turns, then you are gaining five turns over your opponent with every Axe you build...that is to say, while your opponent is still struggling to get his Axeman out of the production queue, you've already finished yours and are on to something else (maybe a Library, or maybe another Axeman)...the point is that you have what amounts to "free turns" of production....or Turn Advantage over your rival. Turn Advantage is the mechanism that will invariably win you games, no matter what the prevailing conditions in the world, and like interest, its power has a compounding effect. Since you cannot earn "interest" in Civ, Turn Advantage takes its place as the most powerful force in the Civ-Universe. Of all the concepts in the game, creating Turn Advantage is the most important one for you to learn. You simply cannot win the game consistently without creating Turn Advantage (in fact, the lower levels of the game are made easier by creating it for you...that is the mechanism at work when you get production and research bonuses over the AI).
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Broad-Based Early Game Strategies
In the most general of terms, the following are the various approaches one can take to playing a game of Civ. Understand that it is possible to change your focus during the course of a game, but that whatever focus you choose in the Ancient Age, will resonate loudly through the entire rest of your game. Even changing your focus later will not completely quiet the stir of echoes that those early hammers make as they resonate through your holdings. Remember it, and choose well. What follows immediately below is not an in depth explanation of these various approaches, but rather, a generalized description. As we explore the various Civs, and different types of openings that are possible with them, we'll get into the particulars of the various gambits (or if you prefer, "recipies") that are outlined below.
Assets Game
A general catchall category for games that do not appear to follow any particular plan. In truth, most of these games are likely following a strategy, just not one with as much focus as the ones listed below. Instead, these types of games tend to focus on terrain assets...building cities to capture this or that resource, expanding borders or participating in limited wars to deny a rival a particular resource, etc. Games that don't fall into this or any other category may well fall into....
Classic Rush Game
Achieve quick regional superiority in troops, and use them to smash one or more of your near neighbors.
Early Religious Gambit
Be the first on your block to found a Religion, and use it to drive your economy and your diplomacy for the rest of the game.
G-Man Game
Focuses on the early and constant use of Specialists (usually supported by selective wonder-grabbing) to generate an inordinate number of Great People
Later Religious Gambit
Usually this is not so much a strategy in and of itself, but is a nice side effect to some other strategic play (for example, the Civil Service Slingshot, successfully executed, will typically see you being the first player to Code of Laws, which allows for the founding of Confucianism. Likewise, if you beeline for Philosophy and get there first, you'll pick up Taoism.
Selective Wonder Grab
This is actually an umbrella of gambits, each tied to a particular wonder, and each with its own aims, and they deserve a brief mention here:
* Pyramids Gambit - Typically used in conjunction with a specialist style game because it allows for the running of "Representation" which gives your specialists a bonus to research beakers. It also has the effect of generating points toward a Great Engineer, which makes snagging future wonders a snap.
* Great Wall Gambit - Usually used as a "helper" Gambit for something else, it does carry some goodish advantages on its own (the end of barbarian troubles, to name but one). But its real importance is in the ability to generate those rare Great Engineer points, and again (like the Pyramids) help you snag additional wonders, later in the game.
* FarSeer - An Oracle trick, whereby you time the completion of the Oracle with the completion of research on Pottery and BronzeWorking, which then allows you to take Metal Casting as your free tech, and unlock the power of Forges, very early in the game.
* CS (Civil Service) Slingshot - Another Oracle trick, whereby you time the completion of the Oracle with the completion of your research on Code of Laws, which allows you to select "Civil Service" as your free tech, and thus, make the switch to Bureaucracy. This, combined with an Academy built in your Capitol can dramatically speed your research.
WAS
"Wandering Aimlessly Strategy"
I can't take credit for the name, but I also cannot find the thread where this term was born...still, it stuck in my mind, and I thought it a fantastic way to describe those games that just...amble. They have no particular grand plan in mind. They simply....unfold. In terms of strategy, I can't say I recommend it, but it is a fascinating way to play now and again...
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General Guidelines
The following is true for any Civ you play.
* Whenever possible, found your cities on plains hills--you get an extra +1 hammer per turn in production for doing this. Even better, founding your cities on plains hills containing copper, coal, iron, marble, oil, stone, aluminum, horses, or ivory will net you +2 hammers on your city site--of these, only stone, marble and ivory are available at game start, so definitely keep an eye out for them!
* Also keep in mind that if you settle on Dye, Gold, Gems, Incense, Furs, Silk, Silver, Spice, or Wine, and if those resources are next to a river, it will net you an additional +1 commerce per turn--note that it is typically a waste to use gold, silver and gems in this fashion, but the others, and especially spice--and wine, to a lesser extent--can be used to wonderful effect in this way.
Doing either of these things will make "The Window" that much more productive a time for you...so much so that it is probably worth 2-3 turns of your time to scout the area with your settler before selecting a city site, if for no other reason than to see if you can find such a location that will also provide food resources of some kind.
Mongolia
The Mongolian Civ is a quite powerful, Aggressively-based Civ with two different leaders to choose from. Whichever leader you select, you will start the game with the following techs:
The Wheel
Hunting
Your special unit is the Keshik (replacing the Horse Archer), and your special building is the Ger (replacing the Stables).
Now, before we go further, there is something of note that should be pointed out.
Civs that start with the Hunting tech have two constant (and important) advantages over many of other civs, and one situational (sometimes) advantage. These advantages are:
Constant:
1) You are only one tech away from Animal Husbandry, putting all three of the food enhancing techs (Agriculture, Fishing, and Husbandry) within your grasp, immediately. Only the Agricultural Civs share this trait with you).
2) You start with a Scout, which enables double speed exploration and guarantees good results from huts
Situational:
1) If you have any animals that benefit from a camp (beaver, deer), you can act on them the moment you get your first worker out, and it's either going to mean a food boon (ie., deer) or a boost to research (ie., bever). Agricultural civs can get the food boost (if there's a farmable resource present), and Mining civs can get the gold boost (if there are precious metals or the like present), but because of the bonuses conferred by animals requiring a camp, you stand to get potentially ANY of it (coin, hammers, or food) (bever, elephant, or deer, respectively).
Let us begin by taking a closer look at the redoubtable....
Ghengis Khan
In addition to the above, Ghengis lays claim to the traits "Aggressive" and "Imperialistic"
Specifically, his Civ-Starting bonuses are these:
* Free "Combat I" promotion for all melee and gun powder units
* Double production speed of Barracks (available at game start) (50h) and Drydock (available at Steel) (120h)
* +100% Great General Emergence
* +50% Settler Production Bonus
Strategic Implications of your starting techs and bonuses
The thing that strikes me first about this Civ is that it is geared for battle. Not completely, mind you...the Imperialistic trait gives them faster settlers, which is a peacetime bonus, but every other bonus they've got, including their unique building, is geared for war, including your starting Scout, which will enable you to find neighboring Civs quickly and efficiently.
Note that the Civ's bonuses fosters the notion of combined arms. The "Combat I" promotion is unavailable to your Keshiks when you begin to build them, so if you want to make use of it, then you'll need to build Melee units (Axemen/Spearmen).
So lets explore some possible opening moves with this Civ and see how they play out.
The Classic Rush
Pros: Deadly to an unprepared near neighbor, and with the speed we'll be bringing it all together, your target won't have a prayer. You're gonna crush him like an ancient era horn of honey mead, and build your Empire on the ashes of his own.
Cons: If you find out that you are alone on your starting land mass, or have no copper, or have no reasonably close neighbors, then you will be saddled with attack heavy techs that you cannot use, while your development lags behind your rivals. In short, if conditions do not favor a rush and you prep for one, then you could bite yourself in the arse.
Notes:
* We start with a Scout, which should greatly increase the speed and efficiency with which we find a near-rival. Let us use him to great effect, not only in terms of getting goodies from huts, but via smart exploration, uncovering as much of the map as we possibly can. This will mean making use of his full movement whenever possible, exploring away from the coast, and in a zig-zag pattern to uncover as much of the map as quickly as we can. Of course, whenver possible, we want to END our Scout's movement in "safe" terrain (hills or forests), so this must be taken into account when planning our starting exploration unit's moves.
* Keshiks are a relative poor unit to attempt to rush with, so they will not factor heavily into our strategy...at least not initially. Instead, our first goal will be to make the rush happen along more classical lines, and plan to use Keshiks in support for the next invasion, after we've already killed our nearest rival and confiscated his lands.
* If we have a choice between rushing a Civ who founded a religion and one who did not, we will opt to rush the Civ who founded the religion, so we can find God in our own way.
Where the classic rush is concerned, there are only two questions that matter:
1) How long until we can Pop-N-Chop?
and
2) Where is the copper?
Everything else is secondary.
Now you may think that you are at a disadvantage where rushing is concerned, because you did not start with Mining. In truth, you're actually ahead of the game, because you start with the Wheel, and thus roads, and thus, the means to hook the copper UP. Wheel costs 89 beakers, while Mining costs 74, so you're actually fifteen beakers ahead already. That's a good thing.
Thus, our first techs to research seem obvious enough....Mining and Bronze.
But let us throw a couple of wrinkles into the mix, shall we?
First, let us recognize that the "Warrior" sucks eggs. He's the weakest unit in the game, and if possible, we want to avoid building any of them. We already have "Hunting," Archery is right next door, and we'll need it anyway for the Keshiks we'll want later, so let us plan to research Archery sooner, rather than later, so that we can lay the groundwork for our Keshik Horde that will eventually come.
Let us also plan for some "elective" techs, based on the terrain around our starting city. Do we have food specials that require farms? Animals that need to be put to pasture? Seafood specials that need tending? Or, none of the above? Choose ONE of these four (whichever is most applicable to the terrain you started with), and plan on researching that tech as well. We shall call this tech "Elective," because essentially we're desiging a curriculum for your Civ, and that's precisely what the tech in this slot is
So...in all then, we have:
1) Elective
You want to do this tech first because the overriding goal here, is to jumpstart the food production of your city. We want to give the population a good amount of time to grow, because we're gonna be sacrificing it like mad to speed-build an ancient era army capable of terrorizing our region.
2) Archery
You want this next, because you do NOT want to build any Warriors if you can help it, and there's not much we can drop into our build queue at present to keep the city occupied.
3) Mining
This is a stepping stone to Bronze, so even if you don't have the first hill in your city's workable radius, this tech is a must-have.
4) Bronze
This is our goal. The mechanism by which we will perform the conquest. Everything hinges on getting to this tech, switching to Slavery and finding that copper!
This is a very economical package, and with these four techs (coupled with the two we start with), we will have given ourselves an impressive array of ancient era attack and defense options. We'll have:
* Pop-N-Chop
* At least one good food tile in our workable radius--assuming we got a fairly normal start
* The best, most cost-effective city defender of the era (Archer)
* The counter to enemy horse troops (Spears)
* The mainline attack unit of the age (Axes)
It should be quite easy to accomplish all of this inside the timeframe of "The Window" too, which means that when the Barbarians start calling, we'll be well prepared to recieve them, and they will be, to us, little more than target practice, and the opportunity to gain an extra promotion before the fight with our rivals truly begins.
Okay, so we know what we're gonna be doing with our starting unit, and we know what techs we need to research, and in what order...the next thing is deciding what to fill up our build queue with, so that's what we'll look at next.
The first question you need to ask is:
* If I build a worker first, is there something constructive for him to do? Yes, he can build roads, but at game start, you don't really know where your rivals are, so building random roads is not exactly a productive use of your worker's time. On the other hand, if there's at least one resource special in your workable area, then he could road build to that tile, if nothing else, in anticipation of something more important to do. Worker first is almost always a strong build, and in this case, unless your "Elective" tech is Fishing, Worker first would be a strong, strong play, because three of the four techs we are researching are geared toward giving said worker jobs to do.
* If you don't want to build a worker first, then the a second Scouting unit would be highly recommended. That's exploration at the rate of four tiles per turn, instead of two, and may well net you some additional hut goodies.
* Warrior first is not a good play here, for reasons already mentioned.
* Barracks first is no good either...we want to save our barracks for a chop!
* Settler first is an intriguing choice, but comes with its own problems. On Monarch, at least, we only get one other "free" city before maintenance costs start kicking in, and while a second production center would be great for us, it's another candidate for chop (in fact, chopping a settler with the IMP trait will provide us with 50% more hammers than normal), and we want to wait until we know where the copper is before committing to a second city site.
And that's it. Those are our choices. Thinning the herd, it really comes down to Scout or Worker, as the two strongest plays here. If the terrain will support it, then go with worker first, because it will give you the best, fastest growth potential. If the terrain is marginal, and you don't have any specials to exploit, then go Scout first and get a better lay of the land.
If you went Scout first, then you'll want to start on a Worker as soon as your Scout completes. If you went Worker first, then you'll almost invariably have Archery researched by the time he completes (and in fact, you can engineer this to make it so, by switching to a high commerce tile if possible), and as such, your second build should be an Archer.
Meanwhile, when the worker completes, his job is to get busy making your best food tile more productive (and then road connecting it).
At this point, we have two variants of essentially the same plan:
Option #1 Build Orders:
Scout
Worker
Archer
(Archer)
Option #2 Build Orders:
Worker
Archer
(Archer)
Note: Parenthetical entry indicates the next build in line.
The goal here is to keep your queue brimming until you get BronzeWorking, and we're not building fluff stuff, either. That second Archer is important cos he'll be the garrison for our second city, and the moment we get BronzeWorking, we're gonna know where the copper is, and as soon as we know that, we're going to Pop-N-Chop a settler. As has been mentioned, this is extremely efficient for an Imperialistic player, because you get 50% more hammers for either a pop or a chop. Now, based on our earlier established rule of thumb, which do you think we're going to use, in order to speed build our settler?
If you said Pop, you're right on the money. We've already established that we're at least size two, so let's burn a point of that renewable population and get the settler out the gate quickly.
We're not going to escort him, either.
Instead, as soon as we have information on where the copper is we're going to pull both garrisons out of the capitol and string them along a path extending away from our capitol (on the high ground), and toward the new city site. In this manner, our Archers will "clear a path" through the fog of war, allowing our settler to travel at his full movement rate, unescorted, but quite safe, to the proposed site. Very efficient, and once he builds, then one Archer will return to the capitol, and the other will move in to garrison the new city, and just like that, we have doubled the productive capability of our fledgling Empire.
To keep this essay "on topic," we're going to run with the following assumptions:
a) We found a source of copper in the neighborhood of our capitol
and
b) We found a rival in our region
Once we play this basic scenario out to its logical conclusion, we'll backtrack and ask some hard questions, such as:
"What if there was no copper?"
and
"What if we don't have a near neighbor?"
But for now, let us stay focused on the Classic Rush game, and assume that the above two conditions (a & b) are true, and in that case, securing the source of copper is of paramount importance. To do that, we must remember that we are NOT playing a Creative Civ, and further, we have not researched any tech that will provide so much as a single point of culture in our new city, once we build it, so the building site must be chosen with care.
We have two choices, where the copper source is concerned. Either we can build the new city ON the source of copper, or we can build the new city immediately adjacent to the copper. To make the determination about which we're going to do in this case, we'll rely on the terrain information we have, and our knowledge of the current game settings.
Reasons for building ON the copper:
* The site selected is toward the enemy position, and we are concerned about the possibility of enemy pillagers in the area
* You're playing with raging barbarians and do not feel that you'd be able to adequately defend the copper mine against them
* You're feeling pressed for time and have no wish to spend valuable worker turns building a mine and a road to connect the coper
* Doing so will, once the city's borders expand, provide you with more total resources in the city's workable area than building adjacent to the copper would
Reasons for building adjacent to the copper:
* You want to take maximum advantage of the boost in hammers that a mined copper tile provides
* You feel secure in your ability to properly guard the mined resource
* You don't feel pressed for time, and don't mind spending the extra worker turns to bring the resource on-line
* Building adjacent to the copper source would provide you with more total resources in the city's workable area than building ON the copper source would
At any rate, once you have determined where you want the city to go, build it and we move to the next phase, which is the rush itself.
There are two ways to run a rush. The fast way and the right way. I'm going to show you the right way, but understand that you can coax a bit more speed out of the process by cutting some obvious corners.
Once your second city is established, you need:
A second Worker
and
Barracks in both cities
See what I mean about cutting corners? Sure, you can do without the barracks and put your attack force together a bit more quickly, but why would you want to? By building a barracks (which you build with lightning speed, given that it's one of your "double speed" buildings), and given that your newly trained Axemen will start with TWO promotions for your trouble, there's no downside to taking the plunge and building the barracks. Especially not when a single chop will cause them to fall right into your lap.
Now, you just pop rushed at your capitol, so your people are a little steamed. What better way to let them cool their jets than to stall growth in the capitol and build a second worker (the new city gets started on a barracks immediately, as its first build, and again, we see the extremely efficient use of hammers...each hammer in the new city counts twice when building the barracks, and while we're doing that, the city has an opportunity to grow). All of this is based on the assumption that the second city is the city near the copper. If you have copper in the capitol's working radius, then you want to reverse it. Whichever city has the quickest access to the copper builds the barracks, and the other city (that needs a road connection to use the copper) builds a second worker.
Now we are down to simple logistics. You're going to need at least four, and preferably five Axemen to take out a rival's city, and these Axemen, collectively, are going to cost you more than the price of an extra worker, so the sooner you get started on that project, the better off you will be.
The worker's first priority, of course, is to mine the copper and road connect it to the city building the barracks. That way, when said barracks is complete, the city that built it can begin immediately cranking out Axemen, while the worker races off to chop out the second worker (and once the second worker is finished, then that city will also begin work on a barracks, while your two workers lay down a road to connect the two cities, such that both of them can make use of the copper resource.
Time it such that the road network is in place before the second city's barracks completes, so it can begin working on Axemen straightaway. You don't want any other extraneous builds, at this point. Stay focused on putting together an ancient era strike force.
To that end, as soon as the road network is in place, the workers will divide, with one worker at each city site. Their mission will be to chop out Axemen until the city hits size two, at which time, you're going to sacrifice a point of population to further speed production of your Axemen.
For the most part, you're going to want the "City Raider" or the "Cover" promotion, but make sure at least one of your Axes takes the "Medic" promotion, and guard him well. Your goal is to generate a promotion for him by cherry picking your battles, so that your army has *at least* this one medic unit. Very important!
Also important is the fact that as soon as your first Axeman completes, he leave at once for enemy territory. You're scouting for workers that might be doing terrain improvements. If you find one, declare war, kidnap the worker and send him back to your territory. That's free hammers for you, and hammer denial for your enemy. Yes, you have advertised your intentions, but so what? Likely, your oppoonet has nothing but Archers, and if you select favorable terrain (forests, hills, cross-river, or forested hills) to hide in, it's going to take 2-3 (and possibly more) enemy Archers to root you out of your position, so let him attack you if he will.
This is a very basic "choke," and as you complete additional Axemen, you'll want to send them into enemy territory as well, and park them on the rival's best terrain tiles, denying him their use. Thus, your "choke" strengthens, and the enemy's position weakens, until you are ready to launch your attack.
For a city on flatlands, guarded by two Archers, four Axemen should be more than enough to take it. If the city is on a hill, I'd wait till you out-numbered his troops nearly 3:1 (5-6 Axes for 2 enemy archers, fortified on a hill). You may not need that many, but if you do, you'll already have them on scene.
Because of the size of the force you need, in order to be sure, Pop-N-Chop is extremely important. If your city is growing faster than the unhappiness is wearing off, and for the sake of speed, you may want to risk a second "Pop" before the first wears off, just to get some more hammers put into your strike force that much more quickly.
Now, if you built your barracks first, odds are good that your rival had time to toss up a second city, so you are probably going to wind up with a total of four, after the dust settles, and unless your rival's second city is just in a wretched location, I'd advise keeping it. Your primitive economy can likely support four cities, and it's free hammers for you (you almost never want to destroy the AI's capitol, because capitol sites are quite good, so keep enemy capitols if it is at all possible.
And that's it. That's how you put together a classic style rush.
My first question is...would there be any interest in such a work?
Before you answer that question, here's an excerpt from the proposed manuscript, as a bit of a teaster. Please let me know what you think!
Civ IV
Introduction
This guide was written to honor Sid, Soren, and all the fans who love the game they have made, and who can't wait to fire up the computer and play "just one more turn."
It is my sincere hope that those people out there who may feel a bit overwhelmed by the complexity and sheer number of choices that the game presents, will find this work of value in terms of guiding them through the process of not only setting up a viable Empire, but also of training the brain think about Civ in a certain way, and fostering good gaming habits which will serve you well, long after you have no need of whatever assistance this work can provide.
And that, I think, is all the introduction that is needed. You don't want to sit wherever you are and read about me rambling, you want to dive into the meat of Civ IV, and I don't blame you, so I'll not keep you waiting....onward!
-=Vel=-
Notes and Provisos
1) I am basing my observations off of a standard speed game, Monarch level of difficulty. Please understand that the numbers I throw out originate from here, and that if you are playing at some other speed and/or difficulty level, those numbers will change slightly (but the gist of what I'm saying will remain the same).
2) There are essentially two schools of thought where formulating strategy is concerned. One is to build your strategy around the maximization of your strengths, paying secondary attention to covering your weaknesses, and the other is to be primarily concerned with covering those weaknesses, letting your natural strengths more-or-less take care of themselves. In my opinion, the former approach is the superior approach, and so, these writings are geared that direction. If your playstyle favors the latter, , then some adjustment will need to be made to make these writings apply well to you. I will attempt to at least broadly outline how the latter could be made to work, but my primary focus will be on what I feel is the superior "maximize your strengths" methodology. Thus, there is a certain bias built into these writings, and you should be aware of it.
3) There is another bias built into my work. One that you may or may not agree with. In my opinion, food is the resource of primary importance in this game. Then commerce, and finally hammers. Note that I said "hammers" and specifically not "production." This is because there are many alternatives to boost production, and "hammers" are but the most common. I like building things fast (as you will see), but I'm not willing to sacrifice my ability to research and/or the money in my pocket to shave a couple turns off of something I'm building unless I have to. If there's another way (and there usually is), then I'll take it. So note the bias in your reading. If you favor hammers over commerce, then again, these writings will need some adjustment to make them fully applicable to you.
General Concepts and Terms
To get us started, and ensure that we're on common linguistic ground, the following are terms you'll see me use in these writings, and what I mean by them:
Builder, Hybrid, Momentum
These are terms coined in the days of Sid's "Alpha Centauri" game (which is still installed on my hard drive, btw). They describe the three basic "states of being" that players tend to fall into.
Builders exist at the "peaceful end" of the playing spectrum, and don't care much for warring. They are drawn to Civ because of their endless fascination with the process of growing and nurturing the "perfect" empire. Warfare is typically seen as a distraction from the business of building and running the Empire (or, in the best case, they'll see it as a necessary evil).
Momentum players are all about conquest (and obviously, they occupy the extreme opposite end of the spectrum from Builders). The Empire is secondary for them, and only exists to serve as the platform from which to launch the next campaign, and they're happiest when mired in the mud of some war or another.
Hybrid players exist somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, and in truth, probably define the greater bulk of players. Still, players who tend to prefer building over warring tend to identify themselves as "Builders" while players who prefer warring will tend to refer to themselves as "Momentum" players, even when the vast majority are more than willing to do a bit of both. The Hybrid player seeks to strke a balance, understanding that warfare is a necessary (and fun!) component of the game, but is only a means to a greater end. In my opinion, Civ 4 has done an excellent job at bringing the two extremes together
Choke
A warfare tactic, involving parking a unit in enemy terrain to deny him use of that tile. This puts your enemy in the less-than-enviable position of having to decide whether or not he values the tile sufficiently to try and roust you from it, or if he'd rather hole up and hide in his city. Most frequently used as a prelude to a general invasion, to keep your opponent weak (and less productive) while you're building the army that will spell his doom.
Lockdown (or simply "Lock")
The point in the game at which your victory is assured. The more quickly you can achieve this state the better, and typically, the game is won or lost in the Ancient Era. Your performance here will be more important than all the other ages combined.
Pop-N-Chop
Available at BronzeWorking, this is the key to unlocking ancient era productivity, and it involves a powerful one-two punch that enables you to build infrastructure and/or an ancient-age military with terrifying swiftness. On the one hand, the switch to the Slavery civic allows you to trade population points for production, in exchange for a temporary unhappiness hit. On the other, it opens the door to a new worker action, "Chop," which is all about cutting down those trees in exchange for production NOW. Of the two new doors it opens up, population is your near-infinite resource. It is highly predictable and renewable--that is to say, you can tell exactly how long it is going to take your city to recover the population loss and recover from the unhappiness--whereas forests are essentially non-renewable. Yes, they may grow back, but you have no real control over if or when they do, and as such, you cannot base a strategy around it. Thus, while you are free to pop rush as fast as your growback will allow, and to whatever unhappiness threshold you can stand, each chop should be carefully considered, and only made when it is to your extreme advantage. The rule is, when in doubt, don't chop. If you can pop instead, always do so and save your trees, because once they are gone, they're gone for good. Do remember that not all pops and chops are created equally. A pop or chop done while running Organized Religion will net you 25% more hammers than one done without it. A chop done after mathematics will net you more hammers than one done before, and either one will net you more hammers when building one of your Civ's "double speed" improvements. Also remember that these benefits are cumulative, such that if you are running Organized Religion AND you have mathematics, AND you are building one of your double speed improvements, you will get significantly more hammers than if you just chop from turn one and clear cut. There's a tradeoff to be had, of course, and each game is different. There will be times that chopping before any multipliers in your favor is a good idea. Chopping out a second worker, for example, is almost always a good play, as it will vastly speed the rate at which you can crank out roads and other terrain improvements. Chopping out a fast second settler--especially for Imperialistic Civs--is a hugely strong tactic that can get your game off to a blazing fast start. Likewise, chopping out an early attack force--one of the all-around best uses for unmodified chop, btw--is a masterful way to build a properly terrifying ancient era army. These points aside, however, and as much as is possible, the trees should be preserved until they can net you the maximum possible benefit. Sometimes fastest is best, and sometimes it isn't. Learning to read the game and discern which is the best move is an artform in and of itself, and is something that only comes with practice and time. If you do not feel that you're at the point yet where you have a high degree of confidence in your ability to "know" when to do which, just use the guidelines above, and the rule of thumb, "when in doubt, delay the chop," and you'll be fine the vast majority of the time.
Seminial Techs
The Seminal Techs are the ones that unlock all the basic terrain improvement actions for you, and for this reason, their power cannot be understated. They are:
Agriculture
Mining
Hunting
The Wheel
Fishing
Pottery
Animal Husbandary
These techs represent the very foundation of the game, and are the keys to unlocking the productivity of your lands. With these few, simple tools, you will see the productive capacity of your Empire explode
The Window
Beginning at turn one, and running some unknown number of turns into the future, there is a "window" of time available to you, during which, you may develop in almost complete safety. Only wild animals to contend with, the AI is buisily participating in the peaceful land grab, and there are no barbarians. The exact duration of this window is never set in stone (at least not as far as I have been able to determine), and varys wildly depending on your particular game's settings--ie, your "window" will be significantly smaller on huge maps with few civs and raging barbarians turned on, while your window will be significantly longer in "kinder" map settings. "The Window" is the most crucial part of the game, and whatever you are able to accomplish during those opening turns will shade the entire rest of your game. Make no mistake about it, this is the most pivotal point in the whole game, so your performance here really counts. There should be no wasted moves, no second guessing yourself or backpeddling. The Window is your opportunity to set the stage. Don't ever squander even so much as a single turn of it! My experience indicates that you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-odd turns in this window to get yourself set up. Thirty-odd turns before the barbarians begin appearing. Make the most of it.
Turn Advantage
Doing stuff faster than your rivals are doing stuff. As a simple example, if you can build an Axeman in 5 turns, and it takes your opponent ten turns, then you are gaining five turns over your opponent with every Axe you build...that is to say, while your opponent is still struggling to get his Axeman out of the production queue, you've already finished yours and are on to something else (maybe a Library, or maybe another Axeman)...the point is that you have what amounts to "free turns" of production....or Turn Advantage over your rival. Turn Advantage is the mechanism that will invariably win you games, no matter what the prevailing conditions in the world, and like interest, its power has a compounding effect. Since you cannot earn "interest" in Civ, Turn Advantage takes its place as the most powerful force in the Civ-Universe. Of all the concepts in the game, creating Turn Advantage is the most important one for you to learn. You simply cannot win the game consistently without creating Turn Advantage (in fact, the lower levels of the game are made easier by creating it for you...that is the mechanism at work when you get production and research bonuses over the AI).
Broad-Based Early Game Strategies
In the most general of terms, the following are the various approaches one can take to playing a game of Civ. Understand that it is possible to change your focus during the course of a game, but that whatever focus you choose in the Ancient Age, will resonate loudly through the entire rest of your game. Even changing your focus later will not completely quiet the stir of echoes that those early hammers make as they resonate through your holdings. Remember it, and choose well. What follows immediately below is not an in depth explanation of these various approaches, but rather, a generalized description. As we explore the various Civs, and different types of openings that are possible with them, we'll get into the particulars of the various gambits (or if you prefer, "recipies") that are outlined below.
Assets Game
A general catchall category for games that do not appear to follow any particular plan. In truth, most of these games are likely following a strategy, just not one with as much focus as the ones listed below. Instead, these types of games tend to focus on terrain assets...building cities to capture this or that resource, expanding borders or participating in limited wars to deny a rival a particular resource, etc. Games that don't fall into this or any other category may well fall into....
Classic Rush Game
Achieve quick regional superiority in troops, and use them to smash one or more of your near neighbors.
Early Religious Gambit
Be the first on your block to found a Religion, and use it to drive your economy and your diplomacy for the rest of the game.
G-Man Game
Focuses on the early and constant use of Specialists (usually supported by selective wonder-grabbing) to generate an inordinate number of Great People
Later Religious Gambit
Usually this is not so much a strategy in and of itself, but is a nice side effect to some other strategic play (for example, the Civil Service Slingshot, successfully executed, will typically see you being the first player to Code of Laws, which allows for the founding of Confucianism. Likewise, if you beeline for Philosophy and get there first, you'll pick up Taoism.
Selective Wonder Grab
This is actually an umbrella of gambits, each tied to a particular wonder, and each with its own aims, and they deserve a brief mention here:
* Pyramids Gambit - Typically used in conjunction with a specialist style game because it allows for the running of "Representation" which gives your specialists a bonus to research beakers. It also has the effect of generating points toward a Great Engineer, which makes snagging future wonders a snap.
* Great Wall Gambit - Usually used as a "helper" Gambit for something else, it does carry some goodish advantages on its own (the end of barbarian troubles, to name but one). But its real importance is in the ability to generate those rare Great Engineer points, and again (like the Pyramids) help you snag additional wonders, later in the game.
* FarSeer - An Oracle trick, whereby you time the completion of the Oracle with the completion of research on Pottery and BronzeWorking, which then allows you to take Metal Casting as your free tech, and unlock the power of Forges, very early in the game.
* CS (Civil Service) Slingshot - Another Oracle trick, whereby you time the completion of the Oracle with the completion of your research on Code of Laws, which allows you to select "Civil Service" as your free tech, and thus, make the switch to Bureaucracy. This, combined with an Academy built in your Capitol can dramatically speed your research.
WAS
"Wandering Aimlessly Strategy"
I can't take credit for the name, but I also cannot find the thread where this term was born...still, it stuck in my mind, and I thought it a fantastic way to describe those games that just...amble. They have no particular grand plan in mind. They simply....unfold. In terms of strategy, I can't say I recommend it, but it is a fascinating way to play now and again...
The Civs
General Guidelines
The following is true for any Civ you play.
* Whenever possible, found your cities on plains hills--you get an extra +1 hammer per turn in production for doing this. Even better, founding your cities on plains hills containing copper, coal, iron, marble, oil, stone, aluminum, horses, or ivory will net you +2 hammers on your city site--of these, only stone, marble and ivory are available at game start, so definitely keep an eye out for them!
* Also keep in mind that if you settle on Dye, Gold, Gems, Incense, Furs, Silk, Silver, Spice, or Wine, and if those resources are next to a river, it will net you an additional +1 commerce per turn--note that it is typically a waste to use gold, silver and gems in this fashion, but the others, and especially spice--and wine, to a lesser extent--can be used to wonderful effect in this way.
Doing either of these things will make "The Window" that much more productive a time for you...so much so that it is probably worth 2-3 turns of your time to scout the area with your settler before selecting a city site, if for no other reason than to see if you can find such a location that will also provide food resources of some kind.
Mongolia
The Mongolian Civ is a quite powerful, Aggressively-based Civ with two different leaders to choose from. Whichever leader you select, you will start the game with the following techs:
The Wheel
Hunting
Your special unit is the Keshik (replacing the Horse Archer), and your special building is the Ger (replacing the Stables).
Now, before we go further, there is something of note that should be pointed out.
Civs that start with the Hunting tech have two constant (and important) advantages over many of other civs, and one situational (sometimes) advantage. These advantages are:
Constant:
1) You are only one tech away from Animal Husbandry, putting all three of the food enhancing techs (Agriculture, Fishing, and Husbandry) within your grasp, immediately. Only the Agricultural Civs share this trait with you).
2) You start with a Scout, which enables double speed exploration and guarantees good results from huts
Situational:
1) If you have any animals that benefit from a camp (beaver, deer), you can act on them the moment you get your first worker out, and it's either going to mean a food boon (ie., deer) or a boost to research (ie., bever). Agricultural civs can get the food boost (if there's a farmable resource present), and Mining civs can get the gold boost (if there are precious metals or the like present), but because of the bonuses conferred by animals requiring a camp, you stand to get potentially ANY of it (coin, hammers, or food) (bever, elephant, or deer, respectively).
Let us begin by taking a closer look at the redoubtable....
Ghengis Khan
In addition to the above, Ghengis lays claim to the traits "Aggressive" and "Imperialistic"
Specifically, his Civ-Starting bonuses are these:
* Free "Combat I" promotion for all melee and gun powder units
* Double production speed of Barracks (available at game start) (50h) and Drydock (available at Steel) (120h)
* +100% Great General Emergence
* +50% Settler Production Bonus
Strategic Implications of your starting techs and bonuses
The thing that strikes me first about this Civ is that it is geared for battle. Not completely, mind you...the Imperialistic trait gives them faster settlers, which is a peacetime bonus, but every other bonus they've got, including their unique building, is geared for war, including your starting Scout, which will enable you to find neighboring Civs quickly and efficiently.
Note that the Civ's bonuses fosters the notion of combined arms. The "Combat I" promotion is unavailable to your Keshiks when you begin to build them, so if you want to make use of it, then you'll need to build Melee units (Axemen/Spearmen).
So lets explore some possible opening moves with this Civ and see how they play out.
The Classic Rush
Pros: Deadly to an unprepared near neighbor, and with the speed we'll be bringing it all together, your target won't have a prayer. You're gonna crush him like an ancient era horn of honey mead, and build your Empire on the ashes of his own.
Cons: If you find out that you are alone on your starting land mass, or have no copper, or have no reasonably close neighbors, then you will be saddled with attack heavy techs that you cannot use, while your development lags behind your rivals. In short, if conditions do not favor a rush and you prep for one, then you could bite yourself in the arse.
Notes:
* We start with a Scout, which should greatly increase the speed and efficiency with which we find a near-rival. Let us use him to great effect, not only in terms of getting goodies from huts, but via smart exploration, uncovering as much of the map as we possibly can. This will mean making use of his full movement whenever possible, exploring away from the coast, and in a zig-zag pattern to uncover as much of the map as quickly as we can. Of course, whenver possible, we want to END our Scout's movement in "safe" terrain (hills or forests), so this must be taken into account when planning our starting exploration unit's moves.
* Keshiks are a relative poor unit to attempt to rush with, so they will not factor heavily into our strategy...at least not initially. Instead, our first goal will be to make the rush happen along more classical lines, and plan to use Keshiks in support for the next invasion, after we've already killed our nearest rival and confiscated his lands.
* If we have a choice between rushing a Civ who founded a religion and one who did not, we will opt to rush the Civ who founded the religion, so we can find God in our own way.
Where the classic rush is concerned, there are only two questions that matter:
1) How long until we can Pop-N-Chop?
and
2) Where is the copper?
Everything else is secondary.
Now you may think that you are at a disadvantage where rushing is concerned, because you did not start with Mining. In truth, you're actually ahead of the game, because you start with the Wheel, and thus roads, and thus, the means to hook the copper UP. Wheel costs 89 beakers, while Mining costs 74, so you're actually fifteen beakers ahead already. That's a good thing.
Thus, our first techs to research seem obvious enough....Mining and Bronze.
But let us throw a couple of wrinkles into the mix, shall we?
First, let us recognize that the "Warrior" sucks eggs. He's the weakest unit in the game, and if possible, we want to avoid building any of them. We already have "Hunting," Archery is right next door, and we'll need it anyway for the Keshiks we'll want later, so let us plan to research Archery sooner, rather than later, so that we can lay the groundwork for our Keshik Horde that will eventually come.
Let us also plan for some "elective" techs, based on the terrain around our starting city. Do we have food specials that require farms? Animals that need to be put to pasture? Seafood specials that need tending? Or, none of the above? Choose ONE of these four (whichever is most applicable to the terrain you started with), and plan on researching that tech as well. We shall call this tech "Elective," because essentially we're desiging a curriculum for your Civ, and that's precisely what the tech in this slot is
So...in all then, we have:
1) Elective
You want to do this tech first because the overriding goal here, is to jumpstart the food production of your city. We want to give the population a good amount of time to grow, because we're gonna be sacrificing it like mad to speed-build an ancient era army capable of terrorizing our region.
2) Archery
You want this next, because you do NOT want to build any Warriors if you can help it, and there's not much we can drop into our build queue at present to keep the city occupied.
3) Mining
This is a stepping stone to Bronze, so even if you don't have the first hill in your city's workable radius, this tech is a must-have.
4) Bronze
This is our goal. The mechanism by which we will perform the conquest. Everything hinges on getting to this tech, switching to Slavery and finding that copper!
This is a very economical package, and with these four techs (coupled with the two we start with), we will have given ourselves an impressive array of ancient era attack and defense options. We'll have:
* Pop-N-Chop
* At least one good food tile in our workable radius--assuming we got a fairly normal start
* The best, most cost-effective city defender of the era (Archer)
* The counter to enemy horse troops (Spears)
* The mainline attack unit of the age (Axes)
It should be quite easy to accomplish all of this inside the timeframe of "The Window" too, which means that when the Barbarians start calling, we'll be well prepared to recieve them, and they will be, to us, little more than target practice, and the opportunity to gain an extra promotion before the fight with our rivals truly begins.
Okay, so we know what we're gonna be doing with our starting unit, and we know what techs we need to research, and in what order...the next thing is deciding what to fill up our build queue with, so that's what we'll look at next.
The first question you need to ask is:
* If I build a worker first, is there something constructive for him to do? Yes, he can build roads, but at game start, you don't really know where your rivals are, so building random roads is not exactly a productive use of your worker's time. On the other hand, if there's at least one resource special in your workable area, then he could road build to that tile, if nothing else, in anticipation of something more important to do. Worker first is almost always a strong build, and in this case, unless your "Elective" tech is Fishing, Worker first would be a strong, strong play, because three of the four techs we are researching are geared toward giving said worker jobs to do.
* If you don't want to build a worker first, then the a second Scouting unit would be highly recommended. That's exploration at the rate of four tiles per turn, instead of two, and may well net you some additional hut goodies.
* Warrior first is not a good play here, for reasons already mentioned.
* Barracks first is no good either...we want to save our barracks for a chop!
* Settler first is an intriguing choice, but comes with its own problems. On Monarch, at least, we only get one other "free" city before maintenance costs start kicking in, and while a second production center would be great for us, it's another candidate for chop (in fact, chopping a settler with the IMP trait will provide us with 50% more hammers than normal), and we want to wait until we know where the copper is before committing to a second city site.
And that's it. Those are our choices. Thinning the herd, it really comes down to Scout or Worker, as the two strongest plays here. If the terrain will support it, then go with worker first, because it will give you the best, fastest growth potential. If the terrain is marginal, and you don't have any specials to exploit, then go Scout first and get a better lay of the land.
If you went Scout first, then you'll want to start on a Worker as soon as your Scout completes. If you went Worker first, then you'll almost invariably have Archery researched by the time he completes (and in fact, you can engineer this to make it so, by switching to a high commerce tile if possible), and as such, your second build should be an Archer.
Meanwhile, when the worker completes, his job is to get busy making your best food tile more productive (and then road connecting it).
At this point, we have two variants of essentially the same plan:
Option #1 Build Orders:
Scout
Worker
Archer
(Archer)
Option #2 Build Orders:
Worker
Archer
(Archer)
Note: Parenthetical entry indicates the next build in line.
The goal here is to keep your queue brimming until you get BronzeWorking, and we're not building fluff stuff, either. That second Archer is important cos he'll be the garrison for our second city, and the moment we get BronzeWorking, we're gonna know where the copper is, and as soon as we know that, we're going to Pop-N-Chop a settler. As has been mentioned, this is extremely efficient for an Imperialistic player, because you get 50% more hammers for either a pop or a chop. Now, based on our earlier established rule of thumb, which do you think we're going to use, in order to speed build our settler?
If you said Pop, you're right on the money. We've already established that we're at least size two, so let's burn a point of that renewable population and get the settler out the gate quickly.
We're not going to escort him, either.
Instead, as soon as we have information on where the copper is we're going to pull both garrisons out of the capitol and string them along a path extending away from our capitol (on the high ground), and toward the new city site. In this manner, our Archers will "clear a path" through the fog of war, allowing our settler to travel at his full movement rate, unescorted, but quite safe, to the proposed site. Very efficient, and once he builds, then one Archer will return to the capitol, and the other will move in to garrison the new city, and just like that, we have doubled the productive capability of our fledgling Empire.
To keep this essay "on topic," we're going to run with the following assumptions:
a) We found a source of copper in the neighborhood of our capitol
and
b) We found a rival in our region
Once we play this basic scenario out to its logical conclusion, we'll backtrack and ask some hard questions, such as:
"What if there was no copper?"
and
"What if we don't have a near neighbor?"
But for now, let us stay focused on the Classic Rush game, and assume that the above two conditions (a & b) are true, and in that case, securing the source of copper is of paramount importance. To do that, we must remember that we are NOT playing a Creative Civ, and further, we have not researched any tech that will provide so much as a single point of culture in our new city, once we build it, so the building site must be chosen with care.
We have two choices, where the copper source is concerned. Either we can build the new city ON the source of copper, or we can build the new city immediately adjacent to the copper. To make the determination about which we're going to do in this case, we'll rely on the terrain information we have, and our knowledge of the current game settings.
Reasons for building ON the copper:
* The site selected is toward the enemy position, and we are concerned about the possibility of enemy pillagers in the area
* You're playing with raging barbarians and do not feel that you'd be able to adequately defend the copper mine against them
* You're feeling pressed for time and have no wish to spend valuable worker turns building a mine and a road to connect the coper
* Doing so will, once the city's borders expand, provide you with more total resources in the city's workable area than building adjacent to the copper would
Reasons for building adjacent to the copper:
* You want to take maximum advantage of the boost in hammers that a mined copper tile provides
* You feel secure in your ability to properly guard the mined resource
* You don't feel pressed for time, and don't mind spending the extra worker turns to bring the resource on-line
* Building adjacent to the copper source would provide you with more total resources in the city's workable area than building ON the copper source would
At any rate, once you have determined where you want the city to go, build it and we move to the next phase, which is the rush itself.
There are two ways to run a rush. The fast way and the right way. I'm going to show you the right way, but understand that you can coax a bit more speed out of the process by cutting some obvious corners.
Once your second city is established, you need:
A second Worker
and
Barracks in both cities
See what I mean about cutting corners? Sure, you can do without the barracks and put your attack force together a bit more quickly, but why would you want to? By building a barracks (which you build with lightning speed, given that it's one of your "double speed" buildings), and given that your newly trained Axemen will start with TWO promotions for your trouble, there's no downside to taking the plunge and building the barracks. Especially not when a single chop will cause them to fall right into your lap.
Now, you just pop rushed at your capitol, so your people are a little steamed. What better way to let them cool their jets than to stall growth in the capitol and build a second worker (the new city gets started on a barracks immediately, as its first build, and again, we see the extremely efficient use of hammers...each hammer in the new city counts twice when building the barracks, and while we're doing that, the city has an opportunity to grow). All of this is based on the assumption that the second city is the city near the copper. If you have copper in the capitol's working radius, then you want to reverse it. Whichever city has the quickest access to the copper builds the barracks, and the other city (that needs a road connection to use the copper) builds a second worker.
Now we are down to simple logistics. You're going to need at least four, and preferably five Axemen to take out a rival's city, and these Axemen, collectively, are going to cost you more than the price of an extra worker, so the sooner you get started on that project, the better off you will be.
The worker's first priority, of course, is to mine the copper and road connect it to the city building the barracks. That way, when said barracks is complete, the city that built it can begin immediately cranking out Axemen, while the worker races off to chop out the second worker (and once the second worker is finished, then that city will also begin work on a barracks, while your two workers lay down a road to connect the two cities, such that both of them can make use of the copper resource.
Time it such that the road network is in place before the second city's barracks completes, so it can begin working on Axemen straightaway. You don't want any other extraneous builds, at this point. Stay focused on putting together an ancient era strike force.
To that end, as soon as the road network is in place, the workers will divide, with one worker at each city site. Their mission will be to chop out Axemen until the city hits size two, at which time, you're going to sacrifice a point of population to further speed production of your Axemen.
For the most part, you're going to want the "City Raider" or the "Cover" promotion, but make sure at least one of your Axes takes the "Medic" promotion, and guard him well. Your goal is to generate a promotion for him by cherry picking your battles, so that your army has *at least* this one medic unit. Very important!
Also important is the fact that as soon as your first Axeman completes, he leave at once for enemy territory. You're scouting for workers that might be doing terrain improvements. If you find one, declare war, kidnap the worker and send him back to your territory. That's free hammers for you, and hammer denial for your enemy. Yes, you have advertised your intentions, but so what? Likely, your oppoonet has nothing but Archers, and if you select favorable terrain (forests, hills, cross-river, or forested hills) to hide in, it's going to take 2-3 (and possibly more) enemy Archers to root you out of your position, so let him attack you if he will.
This is a very basic "choke," and as you complete additional Axemen, you'll want to send them into enemy territory as well, and park them on the rival's best terrain tiles, denying him their use. Thus, your "choke" strengthens, and the enemy's position weakens, until you are ready to launch your attack.
For a city on flatlands, guarded by two Archers, four Axemen should be more than enough to take it. If the city is on a hill, I'd wait till you out-numbered his troops nearly 3:1 (5-6 Axes for 2 enemy archers, fortified on a hill). You may not need that many, but if you do, you'll already have them on scene.
Because of the size of the force you need, in order to be sure, Pop-N-Chop is extremely important. If your city is growing faster than the unhappiness is wearing off, and for the sake of speed, you may want to risk a second "Pop" before the first wears off, just to get some more hammers put into your strike force that much more quickly.
Now, if you built your barracks first, odds are good that your rival had time to toss up a second city, so you are probably going to wind up with a total of four, after the dust settles, and unless your rival's second city is just in a wretched location, I'd advise keeping it. Your primitive economy can likely support four cities, and it's free hammers for you (you almost never want to destroy the AI's capitol, because capitol sites are quite good, so keep enemy capitols if it is at all possible.
And that's it. That's how you put together a classic style rush.
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