Defending Rushes, a primer on avoiding the awake SC pretender

[WraithLord]

One more comment. I totally agree that over research early on is not worth the investment. If I see a small-medium nation with high research I may very well think - "hey, here's a good target" - a player who rushes to const. 8 or conj 9. or whatever and dislikes or not willing to commit his mages to war.

I personally like my mages out there fighting with my armies rather than sitting at labs researching. So I do very much like Squirrelloid suggests: Plan ahead. Build a research path that is optimal for my situation. I then invest in research just to get those key spells on time.

Example: In one of Pasha's early RANDs I got Marverni. I had an awake F Dragon SC. That wasn't enough to neither deter nor stop EA Pan's rush at me. So I had those druids out in no time with the spells I made sure to research. Them druids absolutely decimated Pan. I remember I was quite surprised at how effective they actually where.