HalfLotus posts yet another great strategy over at RON Universe. This time it is a German +200 Medieval-Gunpowder attack.

This strat uses the insane German economy to get to +200 cap quickly and with only two cities. You will avoid getting Civics 2, a third city, and Science 3. The resources saved will be spent reaching for the +200 cap and launching a furious Medieval/Gunpowder attack.

Germany can build smelters and get the granary/mill resource upgrades with just SCI 2, and the resource upgrades are cheaper. They can reach +200 in short order; it's an ultra-boom of sorts.

I haven't tried a strategy like this yet, but coming HL it's gotta be good. One point I'd like to make about this and other strategies like it. The key to winning with these strategies is having the right mindset. To be most effective you have to plan ahead and say to yourself, I am attacking in this age with this force and not spend resources that don't contribute to that goal. In other words, you have to play differently than if you were just progressing through the ages.

This seems like a blindingly obvious insight, but it's not so obvious watching most people play. This is easiest to see if you think about an ancient rush. With an ancient rush you research MIL1 (or maybe SCI1 first) and that's it. The rest of your production goes toward making troops, and you attack. Wasting even the 80 wood on a market could mean the difference between winning and losing.

HL's strategies are different only in that they wait longer to attack, but the principle of the lean build still applies. As an example, you don't want to waste a lot of wealth on scholars. You want to get knowledge early, but you only need a set amount to get to your age to start attacking. After that, extra knowledge just helps you keep up with the enemy in case your attack fails, and the wealth would probably have been better spent on troops rather than those sickly scholars.

My advice when refining your play to perform these is to choose what economy and force size you want to attack with and then practice practice practice to get your initial attack start time down as low as possible.
posted by Tim at 9:45 AM