The General Rush is a delayed, age II rush that is available to all nations in general and utilises the General (despot). It is a more general version of El_Capitan's Roman Despot Rush. The despot rush relies upon the roman free military and extra gold income to fund a HC supported rush. The General Rush does not rely on this.
The plan is to attack in mid-classical with a force of 6HI, 3LC and the Despot, with an economy capable of providing good support with other units and the ability to hold a captured position.
Start off with an economic sequence of Sci 1 followed by either Com 1 or Civ 1 depending on if fishing is available.
Build a city or dock as appropriate and rapidly grow to an economy of +120/+120. You should be aiming for a research track like Sci 1, Civ 1, Com 1, Sci 2
Now go Com 2, and Mil 1.
Hit classical with a 1/1/2/2 library.
Immediately build a senate, mine, barracks, university and if wood permits, stable. If wood does not permit, consider buying some, but usually you will need to buy food.. Continued growth is important so look to make more citizens to populate the mine. If Com 2 try to increase to at least +120/+120
As soon as the senate is up, research the despot to reduce the cost of your HI. But don't wait for this, queue 1 HI immediately the barracks is built as HI production is your time limiting step. Monitor your resources to ensure that you have the food/metal for HI and the food/timber for LC. Be prepared to sell excess wood to buy the food you will require, or lay extra farms to gain the food completion bonus, even if you can't afford a citizen to man them, the benefit will come now and the investment will come good later.
Get a couple of scholars at the university, you are aiming for a near jump to Age 3 but with Com 2 and Sci 2 already you won't need too much knowledge at this time, better to use the gold on food for the attack.
While this is going on, your scout should be working hard in the enemy land finding what defences are there. If there is no defence then your attack can hit the capital. If there are units there then you can make a decision on hitting a soft target to gain an economic advantage before pressing on, or you can create a few counter units to defeat them. eg. if you spot a few HI then making 2 FA could carry you through.
You have one use of your Despot special ability so choose well depending on what you see, generally you will use forced march to strike fast at the enemy capital, but also consider decoys to provide extra sustainability. Using ambush to close on enemy ranged units can also give you the ability to wipe them out before they can respond or garrison. You may be able to use a special ability early, say to gain an extra couple of decoys, and have time to use it again.
Preferentially attack the enemy capital. The sack bonus makes this the prime target, along witht he inevitable disruption that removing most of the enemies economy at such an early stage. Do not attack an expansion city unless your scouting tells you that there are good defences that will prevent you from taking the capital. If you can't take the capital you will have to hit hard and fast at nearby expansion and hope to do sustained damage over time.
Use your HI to take down the city or any tower. Also look out for any enemy cavalry and peel one HI off of the city to deal with it. Your LC are there to cover the HI by quickly dispatching any defending FA, keep them out of city and tower fire, spend most of your time micromanaging your LC. Your Despot will boost your troops defence so try to cover them in his radius but avoid city fire.
If you have any other troops like the free LI Aztecs get or some archers, keep them away from the capital, manage them against any enemy barracks units and scout/raid the eneies second city to check on his plans to repel you.
On sacking the enemy city, click the upgrade to Age 3. this is vital! More on this below. Begin razing, start with a farm and then hit all wood camps and mines simultaneously, farms are a priority as they are quick to raze so you can get them all. As each farm is razed, raze another and when they are done, anything else. Libraries and senates are the last to raze as libraries are so cheap to replace at 40 timber and senates take forever. However, keep an eye on what you are razing and don't reduce the city below 5 buildings.
Go on a big shopping spree with your plunder and get your economy really going with extra citizens, temple upgrades, library research and scholars. But also start trickling more units into the enemy position as you should have a very good chance of holding the capital from here unless there is serious intervention from another enemy player. In this case your team mates will have a free boom or undefended assault themselves in Age 3 or 4
Once you have sacked the capital, now the fun begins. Clicking the advance to Age 3 is your first act of defending your new prize. The reason for this is that the city is on zero hit-points and is easy to retake just by having superior numbers. But by achieving Age 3, providing you have left 5 buildings from your razing spree, you will instantly upgrade the enemy capital to a large city and you will benefit from an instant jump in hit points. This will buy you a lot more time to assimilate the city
If you can get assimilation you are in great shape, first priority is to get citizens to build towers and a temple if there isn't one. You can build citizens now, or you can bring some from your own territory prior to assimilation.
Other priorities are to repair the city, your enemies elimination timer will be counting down and this is the focus of your efforts, and is worth sacrificing your force there to achieve. Garrison your standing army to heal, build barracks there and trickle more units in via a safe route to reinforce. Your economy should be in good order and the sack bonus should give you plenty in the bank, make sure you spend it, and don't forget your market.
Should the enemy look likely to recover their capital and fend you off, start razing everything and hold them off as long as possible to achieve maximum damage. The enemy economy will be in tatters with a denuded capital, your advantage will be massive.
This is tricky, it's a very nasty attack. Your best bet is to spot it early, you can then develop the correct counter of about 2FA and 2HI. Your defence priority is to kill the enemy HI, they are what hurt you, your FA are excellent at this. Your HI are there for one purpose, to protect your FA from the enemy LC, only when these have been dealt with can they join in against the enemy HI and Despot. As soon as the rush is spotted you should ramp up army production.
Use all the ancient rush defence techniques. Garrison no more than 2 or 6 citizens. Build a tower, built a temple, what you can do will depend enormously on what military capability you have at this point. The attack will usually be after 7 minutes, if you have no military capability by this time then you have lost because you gambled on a high risk boom strategy.
If you can get to Age 3 yourself then do so, use the same city upgrade trick as he will want to to gain valuable hitpoints on your city.
If you have a tower up anywhere (and you should) then research militia, then turn all your citizens at your capital, this will have a big impact on the battle if the attacker is not paying attention. They will kill the LC very quickly and eat into the HI if left alone. When your capital is reduced, the militia will help to keep it falling.