How to defend against the rush
I still find that the typical on-line players on gamespy are unable to deal with a quick HI rush. I don't rush all the time, but when I have, I've won. About 50% of the time I rush, I win out right by taking both of their towns, or by them resigning. The other 50% of the time I usually manage to capture the capital and, even though they recapture it, use the sack bonus and the disruption of their economy to gain an early advantage - which has always proved fatal. So far.

Given that, I thought I'd discuss techniques for 1)recognizing the early rush, 2)stopping it, and 3)winning the rest of the game.

Recognizing the rush. If the enemy is both late getting to classical AND late making a second city (based on either scouting or territory score), you can assume he's doing an ancient rush. If you're playing conquest victory only (territory score are not shown), scout the enemy early enough (~2:00) so that you can get a sense for whether he's expanded or not. I wouldn't count on finding his barracks. A good rusher won't have the barracks near his town. He'll want it closer to his borders and it could be easy to miss.

Stopping the rush. If you get a sense that he's rushing you (see above), but no hard evidence (i.e., no sign of troops yet), I'd go ahead and research MIL1 and then build a barracks or a stable. I generally don't bother with a tower that early - they are slow to build and level 1 attrition won't save your capital. If you elect NOT to build a barracks, I'd keep a timber reserve of 120 on hand so you can plop one down in a hurry, but this is risky. A good rusher will bring slingers and even maybe an archer to deal with villagers making defenses. It can be tough to get a building up quickly if he catches you in the act, and a few seconds delay can be the difference between winning and losing.

Once you've gotten a barracks up, you should be pretty safe from an out right loss. You'll have a bigger economy and you'll be able to make counters for his troops, so you can eliminate the attacking force and recover any cities he's managed to capture.

Another trick is to use your villagers to make sure the captured cities stay reduced so you can quickly recapture them if you have more troops or if he wanders off to the next city.

Winning the rest of the game. If he doesn't get your capital, then you should still have a better economy, even despite the disruption to your production. Winning should be fairly straightforward. One option might be to queue up some HI of your own and send them with your other troops to his (soon to be made) second city, or even his capital.

If he did manage to sack your capital (and you recaptured), then he might have more immediate resources than you do, but he'll still be behind in production. Focus on getting back on track and replacing any villager losses you incurred. He'll use that +500 bonus to ramp up very quickly, so you won't have much of an advantage, if any. The key here is to get back into your rhythm and recover as quickly as possible.
posted by Tim at 3:02 PM