Your rush strategy

[Fleme]

Hello!

I figured that everyone must have their own take on this, and I'm curious to see how you maintain your economy prior and after the rush. I play Marathon.

I personally don't rush very often since I find it to hamper my economy and I am a builder at heart and it just somehow tends to ruin my game if I don't get any of the early wonders I want (mainly Pyramids).

Now, there's one strategy that allows me to do this and rush, though. My favorite rush strategy on Monarch (my regular level) is the Incan Quechua rush where I send my first guy, the one I have from the get-go to hunt for my enemies. If he finds barbarian animals on the way then so be it, either he'll die and I'll cancel my "rush" or he'll get 2 experience and get cover. Usually the latter.

Now, by the time I reach the first AI it's usually around 3500-3000 BC and the AI's Archer usually has a slim chance of surviving the attack but from what I've seen, usually doesn't. So, I end up with a second capital spot quite early. So, now my Quechua has gained CRI and move on. The city can be left unattended since there's no-one who's going to take it that early. By the time it's 2500~BC I usually find the second civilization if there is one on my continent. Now, this AI will also have just one archer defending it's capital and will also fall since my Quechua is now +10 Str, +125% against Archers, +20% against city with a base strenght of 2. Again, this won't work if the city is on a hill but if it's not, then I have a good chance of succeeding.

From this, my Quechua usually gains CRII if he survives and my one-unit rush continues. Same as earlier, my Quechua abandons his post and goes out to look for enemies. I can usually take out three AI's before they garrison up more than I can take. Haven't tried against Protective AI's but I did manage to conquer the Babylonians in my latest game, although I had to ship in 3 additional Quechuas to take it down. My original guy ended up with Cover and CRIII and I ended up with a huge continent all to myself. I had to raze Babylon because the maintenance would have killed me.

Now, this is all good if you like being alone on your land and especially so, if the land is limited.

Anyways, the previous example is from a game I'm currently playing. I first tried it with keeping Babylon but ended up having to run science at 0 so I reloaded and razed it, allowing me to run 50% science. Naturally I fell behind of the other continent(s) in techs but given that I had stone in my capital's BFC I managed to get the Great Wall, Stonehenge and the Pyramids without too much contest. I then proceeded towards CoL while having all my three capitals running 2 scientists and Representation and got it. With Code of Laws I got a religion and was able to reduce maintenance, run science at 70% and had (or have, since the game is still going) three capital spots which were all very good for production and GP farming.

My favorite strategy, that. Yes, it's risky and can fail at a number of occasions but when it succeeds you really get paid off. So, what's your story?

[joncnunn]

Well I play normal speed, but in my current game I decided for the first time ever in my Civ IV experence that I needed to rush.

This was as the Dutch and my target was the Celts.

In 4000 BC, I saw a cow within my CR and made AD my first tech choice. By the time I discovered it (3560 BC) I had met a neighbor WAY too close for comfort and when AD revealed a Horse next door, I decided on a Chariot rush.

I then beelined to Archery (for Archers); got it in 2720 BC. I then started Mining

In 2560 BC I completed Baracks in my capital, and started construction of Chariots.

In 2480 BC I started Bronze Working

In 2080 BC, I decided my inital force of 4 Chariots was probably adqueate to start the rush and started moving it to the borders.

In 2040 BC, discovery of BW revaled no Copper anywhere in sight. (It would later turn out there were two on the landmass, both on the far side of the Celts and both deep in the freezing cold no where near food resources.) At this point I started researching Sailing since the war would most likely be over long before Iron Working. (As it turns out there was no Iron at all on the landmass anyway; it was on a neighboring island that I had to conquer from the barbs.)

In 2000 BC, My force reached the border and I declared war and kipnapped one of his workers on an Ivory

1920 BC was the battle of the Celtic Capital:
First Chariot : loses to Archer
Second Chariot: loses to damaged Archer
Third Chariot: Beats Warrior
Fourth Chariot: Beats heavilly damaged Archer
Install a new Governor.
The Celtic Cilivilzation is destroyed.

The main reason this worked is I'm fairly positive the Celts were in the middle of building a Settler when I declared war.

Post Rush: I treated the Celtic capital as a second starting city. About half the settlers I built came from there. The Celts had been kind enough to found Hinduism there so I adopted it as my own state religion. And I think I probably got my Great People from the Celtic capital than my own. Oh and instead of building the FP there I built Versalles.

The distance between my capital and his was such that I only ended up building 2 priority and 1 marginal/ in-fill cities between the capitals. And on my side of the capital there was only room for a Moi Statue city.

Far side of that foreign capital, I built 2 high prority cities, 1 decent fishing community, 2 freezing coastal take in resource or luxary cities, and much later on, 1 take in remaining coastline city.

I also conquered an island from the barbs to get access to Iron, capturing 2 cities, the bigger of which became the FP. I also built 3 more cities there to fill out resource gathering.

[jbp26]

1 unit rush, thats ballsy. my rush strategy is pretty formuliac.

1) locate copper/iron/horses.

2) expand towards enemy until i have 3 cities

3) link path to enemy with roads, build nothing but axemen, a few spears, and libraries.

4) smash.

i can typically absorb two opponents before my economy is redlined and i need to step back and fix it. the whole time i beeline for literature so i can grab the great library.

[absimiliard]

I'm w. jpb, my rush is pretty straightforward.

1. Determine I need to rush: typically this is easy enough, got a nearby neighbor??? Rush!

2. Find a resource. Any resource.

3. Hook up resource: this usually is done by settling city2 nearby.

4. Pump out units, while building roads toward enemy.

5. Rush!
a. Raze everything non-holy or non-capitol.

Recovery can be a bit trickier if you've rushed a distant opponent, due to distance maintenance costs. If you've done it right and rushed a nearby one you usually do okay though.

After the rush I usually have three cities; my cap, their cap, and my resource gathering city. I might or might not build another before COL/Currency, depends on how the three are. Regardless now is the time to consolidate. Build cottages, mine gold, farm like crazy, however you get your economy going now is the time to do it.

After this the game's usually won. Not always, but often it's in the bag, barring errors in play later.

-abs

[Modo44]

I only did a proper rush once. It was on Prince, and I was playing the Native Americans, on a huge map. I got a lot of gold from huts, so I just upgraded one of my Warriors to a Dog Soldier, and sent him to Rome. The Romans had just two Warriors defending, no Archers yet. Tough luck.

[Theben]

Depends on how close my enemies are and who I'm playing. Washington is a better builder and I can usually rush settlers to the resources I need, but I have used early rushes from him to knock out close neighbors. More warlike civs will go on the warpath to acquire my early city growth.

[Hauptman]

One major rush, usually not my tactic. I tend to take advantage of next generation units to conquer/dominate neighbors one at a time. Such as macemen vs archer, riflemen vs longbows, infantry vs grenadiers. Thus expanding a large amount quickly followed by a period of "rebuilding".

Then by the time I gain armored units, the next 'rush' leads to game victory.

Obviosly, when I dont have the generational advantage, there is no major expansion, exepting someone else attempting to rush me, and failing miserably.

[johnmcd]

I'd like to see an 'Allow AI Rush' option.

[Jvstin]

Originally posted by johnmcd
I'd like to see an 'Allow AI Rush' option.

I am a builder by nature. One game, though, I decided that if the conditions were right, I would rush.

I picked Darius, found horses nearby, as well as a couple of nearby Civilizations (the Americans and the French). I built up a force of Immortals, and smashed the Americans *easily*. The French, who had more time to build, were tougher, but since he didn't have copper or iron yet, he really had nothing to counter me. And so his territory became mine, too.

I settled down after that and only fought a couple of wars after that.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Jvstin


I am a builder by nature. One game, though, I decided that if the conditions were right, I would rush.

I picked Darius, found horses nearby, as well as a couple of nearby Civilizations (the Americans and the French). I built up a force of Immortals, and smashed the Americans *easily*. The French, who had more time to build, were tougher, but since he didn't have copper or iron yet, he really had nothing to counter me. And so his territory became mine, too.

I settled down after that and only fought a couple of wars after that.

immortal rushes are awesome. they require a lot of things to go right- basically you need to be on top of your enemy before they can hook up iron or copper, so you need horses at your capital or very close to it. but if you can pull it off theres no stopping it, sometimes for multiple opponents.

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by Jvstin


I am a builder by nature. One game, though, I decided that if the conditions were right, I would rush.

I picked Darius, found horses nearby, as well as a couple of nearby Civilizations (the Americans and the French). I built up a force of Immortals, and smashed the Americans *easily*. The French, who had more time to build, were tougher, but since he didn't have copper or iron yet, he really had nothing to counter me. And so his territory became mine, too.

I settled down after that and only fought a couple of wars after that.

I really meant for the AI - you tick the box, and don't come crying to the forum when six axemen turn up with a keg on turn one hundred.

[smbakeresq]

I have had good luck with rushes with Washington since the units promote so easy. You can get WoodsmanIII promotions and CRIII easily, and it seems that whenever I play the Americans I get Indians, Chinese or Charlamagne near me, none of which have an early unit.

I have tried rushes with Japan before but I cant seem to get a good situation with them. Maybe its because I play on large or huge maps and everyone is far away until roads get going.

[Crossfire]

I tend to play fairly well populated maps and if I take too long to kill the first civ, by the time I am ready to start making settlers again there isn't much room left and I end up with only 4 or 5 cities. This almost always means my death to a larger civ later. So I tend to spam settlers until my research is down to 20-30% and then work on getting CoL and Currency and then attacking when I can gain a generational difference for my military. Sometimes that never happens though and I will go defensive and just try to stay out of fights the whole game. So I generally don't rush at all. Once in a while though I will pick a civ just for warmongering but generally I find Domination victories less satisfying than Spaceship or Cultural ones.