On Towards the Stars: The Timing Push
Probably the most important military tactic in Civ 6
[This post is part of a larger strategy guide for Civilization 6]
Three important facts about civ 6:
Every civilization gets a unique unit that is cheaper and stronger than its equivalent unit in the same era.
Upgrading units with coin is cheaper than building a new unit from scratch.
Once you unlock an upgraded unit, you cannot build the previous era's unit (i.e. once you unlock swordmen, you cannot build warriors1)
These three axioms underlie one of the most important tactics in civ: the timing push.
In short, a timing push is a military attack that hinges on the timing of a certain technology or civic. You build up units in the lead up to unlocking the tech/civic. Then you use the bonus from the tech/civic to quickly and cheaply upgrade or improve your units. The massive, rapid improvement gives you enough of an edge to surprise war your opponents.
Let's walk through a classic example in detail: the Roman legion timing push.
Ensure you have a consistent source of iron and coin as a prerequisite.
About ten turns before unlocking legions, change your cards. Ideally you've unlocked your first governments, thanks to Rome's free monuments. Switch to Autocracy. Slot Agoge (+50% to Ancient and Classical era ranged and melee units) as your military policy. Use Urban Planning to give yourself just a bit more production. Slot Strategos (+2 Great General points) to try and land a great general.
Start building warriors in all of your cities. Stop spending any coin or iron.
One turn before unlocking legions, determine if you have enough warriors. If you'd like to build more, switch to some other technology until you're ready.
Trigger the timing push by unlocking legions. That same turn, use your accumulated iron and coin to upgrade as many warriors as possible to legions2.
As soon as possible, switch to Oligarchy (+4 combat strength to melee units).
If executed correctly, you should have the strongest military in the game by far. Declare war on a neighbor. Go to town.
There are obviously things you can do to make this even stronger, like building a few archers, or ensuring you have a battering ram for walls. But the rough outline — use cards that allow you to quickly build a unit in the build up to a relevant technology, then upgrade a bunch of stuff on the back of that technology — is a core strategy in starting and quickly winning offensive wars.
A Timing Push can be for any unit
Timing pushes that revolve around unique units are often extra effective. The cheaper upgrade cost and higher strength make it harder for opponents to catch up. But really, you can plan and execute a timing push at any unit upgrade point — warrior to swordsman, chariot to knight, galley to caravel, and more.
Some civics, like Nationalism (corps) or Mobilization (armies) are also fantastic timing push points, because they also let you increase the strength of your troops.
Infra wave: expanding the timing push concept
The infra wave is a tactic that applies the same timing push concept to infrastructure development by taking advantage of card unlocks. A classic example is the builder wave:
Start by slotting ilkum (+30% production to builders)
Build builders in all cities. Once the builder is one turn from completion, stop building and switch to something else.
Unlock feudalism and slot in serfdom (+2 build charges to builders)
Complete all of your builders from before; each builder was built with an effective 30% discount for 5 builds each.
The general idea of pre-building a unit or district, only to complete it after an unlocked tech or civic, can cross apply to timing pushes. For example, Byzantium and America (Lincoln) both get free units when building districts. Coordinating an infra wave with a timing push can often just win a game outright.
Overall, I think civ really rewards you for planning your game such that you can do a lot of the same thing at the same time. Cards like Limes (+50% to walls), Veterancy (+30% to Encampments, Harbors, and buildings in each), Machiavellianism (+50 to spies), Land Surveyors (reduce tile costs by 20%), and of course Colonization (+50% to settlers) all encourage coordinating your cities. Saving a bit of production on a building or some coin on a tile may not seem like much, but civ is a game of long term optimization. Those tiny edges add up.
Technically, you can still build warriors if you don’t have iron. But generally you do not want to bank on NOT having a resource available.
Though this is rarely relevant for legions, later in the game you can use the Mercenaries card to make these upgrades 50% cheaper.