044. Hanoi turned out to be not a very good city. First, the city has to be annexed so the 6X Iron tile could be purchased manually. The initial investment is quite significant, but the real problem comes with the constant barbarian invasion from the southern desert. A little garrison army will be required to keep the Iron supply. But at this stage I can't really afford to split my army.
046. And soon I need to face a major Spanish invasion after taking Hanoi. Isabella first sent out a wave of warriors. They are of course no match to the Pikeman + Archer army. Isabella soon pulled off her invasion, and instead piled many units within her borders.
047. I tried to fight the archer horde a bit, but under standard speed, the war progresses too slowly. Spain simply has too many units (about 10 of them stationed in Seville) and they are replenish quickly due to Level 9 AI's 300% production.
So the Pikeman rush didn't work.
049. So I resort to the familiar Longswordsman rush! Instead of buying Immortal, I started buying warrior. I can get 5 Warriors in time for the rush.
Also, I decided not to fight Spain, for Spain has way too many units and Isabella is always bankcrupt - I don't think taking her cities is going to make me a lot richer. The richest is actually Egypt - quite a surprise since there is no river in Egypt.
The Longswordsman rush therefore goes to Egypt!
045. I also learned that there is an additional 6X Iron deposit just west of Persepolis. What I shame I missed this area in my 2 runs of exploration! I can simply sit a settler on top of the Iron mine and the barbarians can't do anything to my Iron.
Well, they still try to take my settler. (Note: This screenshot also comes from a previous run. In the final run I did a few things differently to optimize the rush. But the city's location is the same.)
The idea is still to open an Academy with the Great Scientist from Meritocracy, and manually research Iron Working and Steel. Compared to the popular way of rushing Steel with the Great Scientist, I get a slightly delayed Steel. However, I get the long-turn benefit of the Academy.
051. But delaying a short-term benefit hurts a lot. So I decided to not wait for Steel, but to rush Egypt with 5 Swordsman. Egypt used to have lots of chariot archers, but they happen to be out to attack Ottoman! This is a great oppurtunity for Darius. (Level 9 is supposed to be hard and therefore a little luck is required.)
052. Took Alexandria and its Wine! Good stuff. And I had been saving for the mass upgrade to Longswordsman. Now there is nothing to stop me from running over Egypt!
053. Well there is one thing - I noticed that my resource sells less than the full price to Harun of Arabia. Harun already declared war to Egypt once in the past. Now I realize Harun is after Alexandria, which is under my control now. So Harun is after me - although he pretends to be friendly.
054. Took the second Egyptian city with ease! Elephantine has 3 Dyes. Very juicy.
055. I am going after Diplomatic victory, and I certainly need help from the City States to boost my research as soon as possible. So the next three policy points will head to Patronage, until Scholasticism.
056. At this stage nothing stands in the way of a Longswordsman horde! The Egyptian capital is down, too!
057. Thebes have 5 Dyes - 8 Dyes + 1 Wine, that's why Egypt is so rich. Now the fortune belongs to Persia!... after the riot is over, of course. Besides fortune, I am also going after Egypt's Stonehenge. At this stage I am too poor to afford Cultural City States (and all 4 of them are Hostile). So Stonehenge, free, is poorman's Cultural City State!
p.s. The Longswordsman Rush has become obsolete with the .1.332 patch! I agree it is overpowered once the player is familiar with the steps.
No comments:
Post a Comment