Barbarian Hordes

[Pizza]

Has anyone tried the barbarian hordes strategy ? At the start of the game build about six warriors and set them off as a stack. Then when you encounter a civ either conquer it or do as much damage as possible.

[vmxa1]

Warrior rushes are fairly rare, especially above emperor.

[Rowick Hepan]

I agree with vxma, the AI will have spears and bow by the time you get anywhere near them

[Last Conformist]

Tiny Pangaea, Vanilla or PTW, Aztecs.

[Vince278]

By building six of anything early you're killing yourself by not building other things.

[Dunnagan]

Originally posted by Vince278
By building six of anything early you're killing yourself by not building other things.

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"I like encouraging people to use their heads, whether they like it or not." - Vince278, Apolyton OT Forum

If I started out on a tiny pangea next to you and picked Aztecs, six warriors is probably a really good idea especially if you have a spearman. (if no spearman, 3 or 4 should do)
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[Vince278]

Walls are a big help. So is the city defense bonus. My point is that if you don't take me out then I'm leaving you in the dust. However, I may try this in a game just to see what happens.

(Thanks for enlarging my sig line, most people miss the point. )

[Dunnagan]

Originally posted by Vince278
(Thanks for enlarging my sig line, most people miss the point. )

No problem at all, it was my pleasure, really.

[player1]

The problem is that on difficulties higher then Regent, AI start with several units, so it's not possibile to do effective super early rush.

But in MP...

[Rowick Hepan]

But in MP...

The problem is that on difficulties higher then Regent, AI start with several units, so it's not possibile to do effective super early rush.

Even so, why not quickly research warrior code and rush them with archers?? I would imaging that you would have better luck with a mixed archer/warrior rush than with pure warriors.

ie. Archers to score quick kills, warriors to provide cheep defense and mopping up of workers etc.

[gunkulator]

Of course your early SOD has to find the AI first. You could march them around for centuries and find nothing but barbarians harassing your stack.

[lmtoops]

Originally posted by gunkulator
Of course your early SOD has to find the AI first. You could march them around for centuries and find nothing but barbarians harassing your stack.

It would be better to keep your options open and not totally commit to the SOD.

[vmxa1]

Speaking of looking for the AI, I have a vague memory of a few games in vanilla civIII where I started with a civ right on top of me and rushing it.

That is something I have not seen in a long time on a std map.

[Kuciwalker]

If you have a lot of water and pangea, it's not too hard to find the AI quickly.

[Dominae]

You can do significant damage with a Warrior rush on Monarch difficulty and below. It's not really clear whether this is better than rushing a little later with Archers. I prefer Archers because you rarely lose them if you set things up right, while with Warriors its always about attrition.

I would not recommend a Warrior rush on Emperor, unless you're feeling rather lucky. I'm sure you can make it work once or twice, but in those cases you could always do better with Archers instead.

On Demigod and above, wait for Sworsdmen.

In PBEM MP, this sounds like a great strat in theory, but in practice is difficult to pull off. You have to:

1. Find your opponent very quickly.
2. Get your Warriors to his/her capital quickly.
3. Hope the left his/her capital with few defenses.
4. Hope the capital does not have many Shields accumulated so that it cannot switch to an Archer/Spearmen.
5. Gamble that someone else does not drop by your undefended capital.

However, the payoff is amazing: you've taken another player out of the game in the first 40 turns, and therefore have that much more land to expand into.