Multi Player Strategies

The Rush

by Aloha_Mokupuni a.k.a. Angel Zeus

What to look for:

Tool rushing must be my strong point, send me to bronze and the rest of the game should be cleanup, unless I'm playing against some exceptionally good players, but even then I do sometimes get lucky :)
First thing to look for is the map type and settings. Almost everyone I know plays with default resources etc so I wont even get into that, but there are some differences in maps. My first good advice would be not to rush on a Hill Country or Highland map unless you have an exceptionally good spot with alot of food. If you do plan to rush try to do a minor bow and/or slinger rush after you hit the bronze upgrade.
Next, you must always be aware of your surroundings, look for alot of food and some good sized forests, try to locate as many food sources as possible, and be sure to get a nice sized lake with alot of fish for a good rush with an OK bronze time.

Starting the game:

It is always good to locate water asap, but most times you just have to go granary first, so lay down a granary and send the first 5 vills on berries, for me I make my 6th vill lay down my 2nd house but some people prefer the first 2 houses first (in my opinion the time it takes 2 vills to lay down one house can be used to explore the extra land to look for that crucial food your going to need to start gathering, or fishing.) It is good to leave 5 vills on berries if they are keeping up with vill production, you must start chopping as soon as possible to gain maximum speed, if food falls short then send another vill to gather. Pit near your wood when you can and build a dock once you achieve 100 wood. An average dock time is probably about 5 minutes, although this time can vary drastically, sooner the better. Always try to build a dock with 2 vills, 1 vill just takes way to long.
You should always explore with 2 vills, 1 slightly leading the other. Your 11th and 12th vills would be a good set to send exploring, although sometimes to get maximum coverage sending out a lonely 7th vill with a backup down the line is sufficient. Send the vills along the edges of the map rounding the corners until you find your closest enemy, rushing an enemy who is not next to you leaves a risk to your safety, 1.) because the closer enemy will attack you sooner if he knows your there and will be slow from the rush, and 2.) because your tool army will be farther away from your town in case your going to need it for defense.
Once you find an enemy try to keep the vills clear from enemy site and run behind a forest or other land obstacle, be sure to stay clear of any resources the enemy may send vills to. If the enemy does happen to see your vill(s) run the leading vill through his town and locate all the town features and where his resource gathers are, especially choppers considering people dont change forests much. Your other vill should try to retreat and circle around to a good barracks location where he wont be seen.
During the time you did all of the above you should have tried to get down 2 docks in good locations. Pump out about 4-5 boats per dock at first (depending on wood income) You should want to get 24 real vills made, about 10 on food and 14 on wood. Once you find a location for your barracks as stated above your going to want to save up your wood and place a minimum of 2 barracks. After you get your 24th vill you will obvioulsy want to save for tooling. After you have your 2 barracks payed for start pumping the fish boats until you have about a total of 38-40 peons (yes thats 16 boats 24 peons). Get a couple more docks if you can because fish dont last long with a good supply of boats.

Tooling:

Try to start tooling as soon as possible (duh) but a good average time is to start tooling around 8-9, many players boom and are late to tool so 8-9 mins should be sufficient, even starting tool at 10 mins is becoming popular but I would try to stray from that time (keep in mind that this strat should be modified for single player).
As soon as you hit tool you should relocate a few choppers onto a food source and keep the other 10 food gatherers gathering. Start pumping club man as soon as you see you have enough food to build them (50 food a piece). Save up your wood during the tool upgrade because you will need it. Once you hit tool immediatly get the infantry armor upgrade, build an archery near the barracks or another location by the enemy, and build as many scout ships as you are allowed, throwing in a market at this time helps too if you have enough wood. Send your clubmen into the enemy town after about 50% of the armor is upgraded, locate his vills and destroy. If the enemy offers resistence (bows) then get a couple slingers and upgrade to axes if food permits, also you should try to get a couple bowman. I would prefer you not get slingers UNLESS the enemy is using bowmen. I believe slingers are not worth the 2 attack when you have clubs/axes that hit 3 times as hard (Also, after the infantry armor is done it would be prefered you get the +2 attack upgrade). Send your scout ships up to the enemy territory and search for fishing boats, it is uncommon an enemy wont have fish boats on a water map.
If the enemy runs his vills and axes cant keep up then you have 3 options. One, put all your axemen on his TC and hope to take it out before he bronzes, then send the bows out scouting. Or, build a stable and get a scout and scout around for the vills then send the army there. Third, if you belive you did superior damage to his economy already and there wont be a huge threat of him bronzing right away then it could be beneficial to send your tool army into his allies town just to throw him off guard and possibly knock out a couple vills.
You shouldnt invest in too big of an army unless your prepared to defend your town against a bronze invasion with a tool army, most times you will know when an army will be good enough, keeping track of your food will be the deciding factor. Be sure to wall off during rushes too! Be sure to invest that 50 food you have on the wall upgrade right after you hit the armor upgrade.

Vill Rush:

Vill rush!? why do that.. there are only a few circumstances you will want to vill rush. First off, you will never want to vill rush in any other age besides the stone age. Vill attack yes (on cats etc) is reasonable, but there is no such thing as a vill rush past the stone age, vills would get slaughtered.
There are 3 main civs that perform the best vill rushes, Sumerian because of the extra HP vills, Palmyran because of the armor on vills, and shang because you can out-produce the enemy in vills. Attack with vills seems to be most vill rusher's weakness, I see the enemy pour all his vills onto one of mine attacking his, but what he should do is allocate 2 vills on every one of mine. This method will reduce mouse click time and will destroy more vills faster.
Try to avoid vill rushing whenever possible, situations where vill rushing would be beneficial would be if an enemy is living "REALLY" close to you, usually these situations only occur on small/tiny map. Another situation would be if your fighting over critical resources that you must have to advance, ex: your in the middle of nowhere with 1 forest and your enemy is chopping it also. Other then these few examples there should be no reason to do a vill rush, the outcome can really damage an economy.

Aftermath:

Good rush combos-
Here are my opinions on the best rushes, usually all with clubmen because you can start getting them during tool upgrade. Also I prefer a rush with at least 2 units instead of 1 standard unit. Adding scout ships to any of these combos would be superior.

club/axe, bow -
club/axes - kill buildings, slingers, and vills.
Bows - kill running vills, enemy axes.

club/axe, slinger-
club/axes - kill buildings, slingers, and vills.
slingers - kill enemy bows and vills.

scouts -
killer rush that uses much food, fully upgraded scouts can deal a damging blow to anyone. Instead of building 2 barracks only build one and then build a few stables once tool, pump the scouts like a madman and destroy. Add an axe or bow combo to this for the running vills and/or razings (buildings).

My opinion of bad rushes-
The lone bowman rush is definitly not out but should not be carried through too long without support, building a defensive for this rush is not difficult at all.
The slinger rush (praised by many) is not my most favorable rushes, you get to spend 50 resources on a unit with a ranged attack of 2, instead you could invest in bowman (50 resources) with a ranged attack of 3, and you can invest in the club/axeman (50 resources) with a non-ranged attack of 5 that can be upgraded and have more hit points. Slinger rushes can be countered by merely vills clubbing them, and a couple axes will crush twice the amount of slingers.

Counteract a rush:

One big mistake that many people do to try to counteract a rush is to advance to the bronze age, in most cases the rush comes before you push the upgrade button. If you see a tool rush heading your way, DO NOT go bronze, instead make an army to counter the attack, keep in mind that:
slingers - kill bowman
bowman - kill axes/clubs and scouts
axes/clubs - kill slingers, some bows if there arent many of them, and scouts.
Dont forget to wall and if you have fishing boats make a scout ship or 2. Once you feel secure then advance to bronze.
If:
you are not bronzing yet and the attack comes unexpectedly, keep your vills safe and build army as same as above, but you will have to move much faster to get those units pumping, dont be discouraged about spending much of your food on a tool army, saving your life will pay off in the long run, especially if it is team games, a smart tactic would be to have an ally bronze rush the rusher on you and then that would cripple him leaving the game mostly a 2v3 and you being able to bronze. All cases are different tho. I have been in countless games, and Im at fault also, where my allies tell me after they are dead, that they are dead. Be sure to communicate, sometimes if you cant get those vills on resources because of the rusher's army, you will need an army, and you may even need asistence from your allie's army.
In RoR Tc's are visible from the start, be aware of your locations, if you know your playing against players that rush then try to decide which player is most likely to get rushed, usually the middle person will not. Explore around and locate your enemies, if you see someone close by then a smart tactic would be to holler to the middle man and have him build his military buildings on your land so that you will be more safe in case of a rush, having the ally tower and wall for you would also help out alot.
IF:
you started bronze upgrade and you get rushed. This is a hard one to describe, most cases the rusher will die once you start pumping them bronze age units, but you must keep track of your resources, keep 120 wood handy and relocate your villagers to another forest to keep resource production going. As long as you store the necessary res in the bank (food wood sometimes gold for cav/camel/comp civs) then you should be able to defeat the rush with just a couple bronze age units. The reason I suggest you dont go for the bronze and make army instead is because it takes 2+ mins for the bronze upgrade, in 2 mins more then half your vills could be dead, once you upgrade to cas (or produce the cavs/camels) your food will lower drastically and food will be scarce for a while before you have enough vill power to get more. Also, some axe rushers go for the TC if they see they must chase the vills around the map, axes on a TC could be devastating to a player in the middle of a bronze upgrade being rushed.
And that is my Rushing Strategies, if you have a problem with it then too bad!

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