A Medieval Attack

[HalfLotus]

Well all bets are off with the recent "discovery" that early Classical and delayed Classical are nearly identical in economic terms given generic starting conditions. Kudos to O4B, he knows squat about early attacks, but at least he has the good sense to question the status quo. I guess we should pay attention when a cryptic 3 sentence blurb on TWC forums in mid-July alerts us to new discoveries.

Here's a link to the ongoing discussion at MFO:

http://www.mrfixitonline.com/readTopic.asp?PostingId=1438523

Everything regarding the boom/build up phase for this strategy is up in the air at this point. The only thing I can say for certain about a Medieval attack is that you should get about 3 siege units, a supply wagon, and a decent sized army that can handle cavalry and ranged units. Sorry that's the best I can do on short notice.

Because of bonus German production and early granary, it might still be best to go delayed Classical. I may provide a less strict BO and allow you to factor in different kinds of rares (ie-wood/food vs metal/knowledge).

I'm also going to test researching the first granary upgrade while building fewer farms, this may allow me to save quite alot of timber. Stay tuned for a new and improved Medieval Attack!

[Ecthy]

I'm a perfectionist, so I never attack before industrial.

[Out4Blood]

I'm also going to test ...

Hooray!!
I knew I could suck you in man!

[HalfLotus]

There's several things I want to experiment with, but I'm having too much fun with fast raiding and rushing to do much testing.

[Out4Blood]

I'm a perfectionist ...

... so I never attack before industrial

How are those two related?

I could easily say, "I am a perfectionist, so I always rush in ancient."

[Ecthy]

Building up perfectionist then, getting everything on max levels or at least on nice looking units before attacking.

I need all the resources to expand in ages earlier than industrial.

[HalfLotus]

I see what you're saying, there's lots of folks who like to play that way. 25 minutes of pure building isnt my thing though. I'd prefer to attack early or least raid while still expanding my economy.

I started doing this attack precisely because everyone on gamespy booms to gunpowder or later before they attack. I've lost only once with it, and that was to a playtester. I wonder if a boomer to Industrial Age could stop this attack. Me thinks not.

[Solver]

True... I don't attack before Gunpowder, usually. But again, RoN is the game where I first take my time with building. If I want a really fast paced attacking game, I play AoM - where the fighting starts at 5:30-6:30 with decent players involved, and before 7:30 at any rate.

[Out4Blood]

Almost all of my games involve fighting starting at anywhere from the 2:00 mark to the 4:00 mark - even against Mayans - D'OH! Of course, these have all been pick up games and the player quality is suspect. However, today I bumped into _RU_Raven who fell victim to my resource equalization attack in this game

[HalfLotus]

Yeah I played alot of warcraft 3, and its like AoM with the fast pace and all. The beauty of RoN is that you can win with almost strategy as you long as you carry it out smartly and efficiently. Thanks for posting that game O4B, I'm quite interested to see it.

[Out4Blood]

here it is

[HalfLotus]

Ah thanks, I couldnt find it on Carch's site (havent looked lately tho). I think I'll grab a snack for this one. =)

[HalfLotus]

Here's another game on Mediterranean. I want to reiterate that this is the greatest map ever created for an RTS game, ever.

This match isn't very competitive but illustrates a different way of carrying out a Medieval attack. I go Sci 1, Comm 1, Sci 2, Comm 2 and get a nice little boom going. My second city was on the center island. I wasn't planning a Medieval attack from the start as I wanted to try this new tech order, but when I found myself swimming in resources around the 7-8 minute mark, I knew what had to be done. You should know well by now too.

He had no naval presence so I escorted my army from the middle island to the front doorstep of his capitol. Athens fell without a fight, and his military buildings were so far away (at our land border) he could not get an army there before the capitol timer ran out. Not sure why so many people wait until the 12 minute mark to start building military, but they will learn. Oh yes, they will learn.

In other news, I lost using this strat vs a Mongol on Medit. I ran off his raiders, but left several miners in a TC (the "auto all clear" option unchecks itself periodically) My army made good headway into his empire, but I wasnt able to fund enough reinforcements to take a city. I didn't recover from the raiding as well as I should have.

I told him we should rematch when patch3 comes out and mongols are nerfed, and he said "Raiders are only a decoy." Whatever that means.

Here's Germany vs Greece on Medit with Sci, Comm, Sci, Comm:

[Out4Blood]

"Raiders are only a decoy"

What he should have said was a "feint." And by this, it means that the player will react to the raiders when in reality they are there only to cause him to react, not to do any real damage. He'll do the same strategy with patch 3 mongols, and it will be surprisingly effective. Not as devastating, but people will still lose micromanagement bandwidth dealing with it.

As for attacking early, you are right.

It's so hard to find decent players. One game I was booming along and made some hops, attacking an expansion city at the 12:30 mark. The player says, "I hate rushing! Bye" and quits. 12:30 is rushing?!?!

[HalfLotus]

I gathered his meaning, I made a joke because he was full of it. He abused Mongols the same way every player does. He gets military 2, builds 2 stables and makes Heavy Cav. to counter my light cav. He spent a ton of early resources on military, and went straight for my villies. Clearly his intent was destruction. Had he made only one stables and no HC, I might consider that a feint. Either way I didn't have to react, I was already making lots of cavalry for my medieval attack.

In patch 3, he'll have 4 HAs instead of 6, a significant difference. And while it'll still be effective, it stopped being surprising 3 months ago. Picking overpowered civs every time is lame.