I started fiddling with the Honor policies because they should work well with certain Civs-- my first diplomatic victory was with Germany. The trick there, incidentally, was to get better barbarian units by selectively killing off weak ones with bows so that stronger units would enter the encampment, ready to join the empire.
To make Germany and the Honor opening policy stronger, I took the Raging Barbarians option. Turns out I like that setting. It makes the early game more interesting to me, so I use it a lot, and not just with Civs that have war bonuses.
However, I haven't made Honor work as a standalone policy. The tree here is criticized as a weak return on investment compared to the flexibility of Liberty (get a free engineer!) or Tradition (good hammer savings!). A couple posters, though, attest to the utility of Honor as a strong early game policy set early in the game.
The most extreme Honor strategy I've noticed was posted by warmonger.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpo...8&postcount=26
Basically, and I want to make clear that these are not my ideas but warmonger's,
The idea is that highly promoted bows (two open, two cover, all get logistics) will shred the AI with the assistance of anti-mount units.
China seems like it would be well suited to this strategy. I've been trying it on emperor with unsurprisingly bad results-- unsurprising because I haven't won any emperor games, Honor or no. Part of the problem is that I don't receive any convenient DoWs early in the game where the AI marches all its units conveniently into range, which is due to me playing on a lower level than immortal/deity, for which warmonger wrote the strategy.
I think warmonger's strategy probably will work, but will require some false starts until I get an AI dumb enough to declare war early. This probably isn't a fault of the strategy but more likely my implementation.
Anybody else going straight Honor? I'll send warmonger a message that I started this thread in hopes that he'll answer questions like:
Why open and cover for promotions, do you take rough on the cover units?
Is marathon speed an advantage? I've been using standard.
My economy tanks under the weight of a large army, leaving me without cash to upgrade, how should I handle that?
What civs are preferred?
Is an early tune up (post Military Tradition policy) war against a City State advisable?
I thought the topic interesting enough to merit it's own thread and naturally welcome any considered opinions. I'm interested mainly in single player. I like inland sea maps and added an extra AI player to make it more crowded.
To make Germany and the Honor opening policy stronger, I took the Raging Barbarians option. Turns out I like that setting. It makes the early game more interesting to me, so I use it a lot, and not just with Civs that have war bonuses.
However, I haven't made Honor work as a standalone policy. The tree here is criticized as a weak return on investment compared to the flexibility of Liberty (get a free engineer!) or Tradition (good hammer savings!). A couple posters, though, attest to the utility of Honor as a strong early game policy set early in the game.
The most extreme Honor strategy I've noticed was posted by warmonger.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpo...8&postcount=26
Basically, and I want to make clear that these are not my ideas but warmonger's,
- build 4 ranged + 2 melee and promote to level two by harvesting barbarian culture
- build walls and a library
- key techs are pikes and composite bows (later crossbows)
- complete Honor ASAP, starting with the left side
- stay at war
The idea is that highly promoted bows (two open, two cover, all get logistics) will shred the AI with the assistance of anti-mount units.
China seems like it would be well suited to this strategy. I've been trying it on emperor with unsurprisingly bad results-- unsurprising because I haven't won any emperor games, Honor or no. Part of the problem is that I don't receive any convenient DoWs early in the game where the AI marches all its units conveniently into range, which is due to me playing on a lower level than immortal/deity, for which warmonger wrote the strategy.
I think warmonger's strategy probably will work, but will require some false starts until I get an AI dumb enough to declare war early. This probably isn't a fault of the strategy but more likely my implementation.
Anybody else going straight Honor? I'll send warmonger a message that I started this thread in hopes that he'll answer questions like:
Why open and cover for promotions, do you take rough on the cover units?
Is marathon speed an advantage? I've been using standard.
My economy tanks under the weight of a large army, leaving me without cash to upgrade, how should I handle that?
What civs are preferred?
Is an early tune up (post Military Tradition policy) war against a City State advisable?
I thought the topic interesting enough to merit it's own thread and naturally welcome any considered opinions. I'm interested mainly in single player. I like inland sea maps and added an extra AI player to make it more crowded.
