HOW TO ESCAPE A FLUSH
Difficult, but not impossible
Understand a few things about the "chinese" flush. They are
still the #1 best flushing civ for a few reasons. China will
on average have 2 extra villagers for the duration of the dark
age period, around 10 minutes. During this time these
villagers are collecting resources and creating a significant
advantage in the early feudal age. This means that China can
feudal in the exact same time with a larger population, a very
big advantage. They enjoy a nice savings in wood at a critical
time by not having to rebuild their farms as quickly and also
have the slightly cheaper techs which is nice. You combine all
this and it makes them in my opinion the #1 flushing civ in
the game.
Having said this, their advantage is not so significant that
it cannot be overcome by some smart play with lots of other
civs.
The main idea behind the recent flushes is to
A)Feudal in 10 minutes
B)Build 2 archeries
C)Overpower you early with more units, militia, spears and
archers, maybe even skirms although that is rarer.
D)Use the army to tower push you all over your base.
I am assuming you want to defend and win that way, so I will
write this post with a "Defensive" strategy.
First of all try and feudal in no later than 11 minutes..go
with 23 or 25 pop and do not be significantly slower then your
opponent or you will not be able to defend yourself
adequately.
When I am going for defense I try and build 3-5 farms in the
dark age and use that food to build extra militia and
skirmishers once in feudal.
If you are going for pure defense you should use your scout to
look for his forwards. Put him on Patrol in some of the "key"
areas. Look at your map and say.."If I was flushing me, where
would I build." Usually you will see a nice hill or key spot
that is perfect for dropping a couple of archeries and many
times you can catch your opponent before he even builds his
buildings on you. A couple of outposts at the 8-9 minute mark
in those "key" spots can often win you the game.
As soon as you know you will be flushed build a couple of
militia, start stone(if you haven't), and use some partial
palasides to choke off sections of your spot. Build an archery
in feudal and start making skirms ASAP, if you see he has 2
archeries you will need 2 also or you are going to get
outgunned.
Do not let yourself be pushed around, be aggressive with the
flusher. If you see him dropping a tower on you with a small
army take 8-10 vills with your army and rip that tower down
kill his units and tower up his archeries. The most effective
flush stops are very aggressive counter attacks. Even if you
lose a couple of vills its counteracted by you killing his
forwards and taking his archeries from him. Then you are ready
to counter-attack. Do not hesitate to send an army to his
base. Many flushers expect you to play all defense and they
leave nothing in their base to protect. A pack of 12 units can
do enormous damage if you catch him by surprise.
Understand one thing, this is easier said then done. Defending
is harder then attacking, so you will have to play well to
win.
Other good civs for flush defense(china is best)
Aztec - very fast building units, a descent econ bonus, and a
good scout make them a good choice.
Briton - Fast building units, a descent econ bonus(although
dark age dependent) make them ok too.
Mayans - Good scout, longer lasting berries, deer and boars
means later farming and more wood early to build archeries.
Also cheaper archers.
Celts - Very strong wood chopping means more vills on food and
a similar feudal time, faster walking militia are strong vs.
archers.
Vikings - no dark age bonus, but free wheel means a good
feudal age economy that gets stronger as the game goes on. Not
my top choice.
Mongols - better for attacking, but they can hold their own
with a nice hunting bonus and good scout.
Good luck, Remember if you are choosing to defend you must win
with economy and punish your opponent for being faster and
smaller. Get your econ. upgrades early and try not to have too
many idle villagers or villager losses.
