Here's another game to demonstrate the effectiveness of the "Expansion Rush." This is the same rush we pulled on _RU_Raven 2 weeks ago. In this game against DaLocust, I hit his expansion city a few moments after it goes up. He has nothing there but for 1 villager farming, and a half built temple. I quickly capture his expansion and then send reinforcements to ensure I'm able to hold it. Meanwhile, I work on expanding my economy.

A little bit later, he makes the big mistake (in my opinion) of trying to retake the city immediately. My forces easily beat off his attack, and I assimilate the city. There I start building a market, temple and university, as well as a tower and stable. He finally builds a new city further back, but by now the game is virtually over. I do some raiding, border pushing, and aging. Unfortunately, my wife shows up and I have to resign. But I'm way ahead and the point was made.

Tactical questions:
Should he have finished the temple? I say no. He was going to lose the town anyway. Once he loses it, he's not likely to get it back and I'm going to need a temple there. Deleting it saves him the resources, and prevents me from getting a free temple. Keeping it would only have saved him 15 sec or so. Not enough time to save the town.

Should he try to retake the city? I say no. I think trying to retake is a mistake. After losing the town, he has little intel on the type of forces with which I reinforce, and he won't be able to force larger numbers of troops given my already big lead. Also, I don't need to send many more troops there to have a big enough force to ensure I can hold it against anything he can send prior to assimilation. Once I assimilate, he's not going to get it back until he can make a very sizable force.

It's really hard to be ready for this. And once you lose that city, it's tough to respond correctly. I'm not 100% sure of the right response. But I am sure I haven't seen it yet.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT a rush I would recommend for team games. You're not taking them out, you're merely equalizing resources. So, just a small early force from your victim's ally will spoil all your plans as you lose your military and your shiny new city.
posted by Tim at 6:00 AM