Okay so it seems to me that ceasefire has a really strong potential to counter an Isis FH (or any FH for that matter).
The key to ceasefire is that it prevents the building of offensive buildings, including migdols. This essentially will amount to a 1 minute delay in their ability to get their migdol up, giving you time to build up a stronger classical army that can overpower them once ceasefire is over.
For instance, a really solid Isis FH would be around 7:50. Realistically, if you centaur/hipp raid and the opponent makes some mistakes it will probably be later than that, but we will assume your opponent is really good. Anyways, you can pretty much just cast ceasefire a few seconds after they hit heroic. This way, it will be past 9 minutes before they can start spamming migdol units at all. If you have done your best to get a classical army made, you could likely have a full pop army by this point. If you've done really well for yourself, you could probably even have a full pop classical army, AND be able to make a forward TC during ceasefire.
In any case, a good Isis FHer will have some barracks up. They will be able to make barracks units, a couple MUs, and some priests during the 1 minute ceasefire. They will also have their free MU and maybe a few barracks units they made before they hit heroic. However, I fail to see how an Isis player will ever be able to have an army ready that could come even close to competing with a full pop classical Greek army (possibly even a 2 TC full pop army).
With that said, though, whatever army they do have, plus a/e, plus free towers, plus mercs will probably mean you shouldn't just attack their base. However, you can easily get map control during the period after the ceasefire. Take a forward TC if you havent already. Raid them constantly. Your army will be stronger than theirs, so they cant stop your raiding by forcing the issue with their army. You will lose some units, but youll have the economy to replace them. Control all the gold mines near your opponent. Stop them from getting a migdol up near any of them. They will probably use a/e on you if you do that. At this point, you may be able to actually engage their relatively weak army plus the ancestors and win. Focus centaur and hero fire on the ancestors. Focus tox fire on the priests to keep your centaurs alive.
If you win that battle, it's gg, but if your opponent is good enough and has enough of an army that you wont win that battle, then run away (unless they go for your forward TC, in that case fight under TC fire. Youll be fine.). If you run away, you have a couple options. Either go heroic (you shouldve been full pop for a while now and have been stockpiling resources) or take another TC. If you go heroic, you should be able to strangle them with ranged seige, and use Bronze to win a key battle. If you go for a 3rd TC, then you will have great map control and be able to simply outnumber them by a lot and use that to beat their mostly lame classical army after a/e is over.
Either way, their 7:50 FH will have turned into a situation where they cant have a considerable number of CA until well past the 9 minute mark. That means your economy will go unraided until very far into the game. If they use a/e to get up their migdol and you run away, they will only have a minute to make their migdol and get CA out. That means less than 10 CA along with an eggy classical army. Even if they have a full pop army by the time a/e is over, your 2 TC full pop, well upgraded (because you should have the economy to upgrade a lot) Greek army will still be much stronger.
Essentially, this strategy is good for a few reasons:
1. It assures that you cant get CA raided for an extra minute. Your economy will be really strong because of this.
2. It forces your Isis opponent to make a classical army or be destroyed the second ceasefire ends. Greek classical army > Egyptian classical army, so this is perfect.
3. It allows you to take a forward TC AND make a big army before they can get their migdol up, giving you a great chance at establishing map control.
Alternatively, one could use this strategy in conjunction with a Zeus fast mythic. It will still stop your opponent from raiding you until very late. Because of this, you will be able to get a good mythic time somewhat unmolested. At that point, you simply start spamming myrmidons and colossi and that is hard for an Egyptian player to beat.
Why is the use of ceasefire at the start of heroic not a widespread anti-Isis strategy for Poseidon and Zeus? Am I missing something?
The key to ceasefire is that it prevents the building of offensive buildings, including migdols. This essentially will amount to a 1 minute delay in their ability to get their migdol up, giving you time to build up a stronger classical army that can overpower them once ceasefire is over.
For instance, a really solid Isis FH would be around 7:50. Realistically, if you centaur/hipp raid and the opponent makes some mistakes it will probably be later than that, but we will assume your opponent is really good. Anyways, you can pretty much just cast ceasefire a few seconds after they hit heroic. This way, it will be past 9 minutes before they can start spamming migdol units at all. If you have done your best to get a classical army made, you could likely have a full pop army by this point. If you've done really well for yourself, you could probably even have a full pop classical army, AND be able to make a forward TC during ceasefire.
In any case, a good Isis FHer will have some barracks up. They will be able to make barracks units, a couple MUs, and some priests during the 1 minute ceasefire. They will also have their free MU and maybe a few barracks units they made before they hit heroic. However, I fail to see how an Isis player will ever be able to have an army ready that could come even close to competing with a full pop classical Greek army (possibly even a 2 TC full pop army).
With that said, though, whatever army they do have, plus a/e, plus free towers, plus mercs will probably mean you shouldn't just attack their base. However, you can easily get map control during the period after the ceasefire. Take a forward TC if you havent already. Raid them constantly. Your army will be stronger than theirs, so they cant stop your raiding by forcing the issue with their army. You will lose some units, but youll have the economy to replace them. Control all the gold mines near your opponent. Stop them from getting a migdol up near any of them. They will probably use a/e on you if you do that. At this point, you may be able to actually engage their relatively weak army plus the ancestors and win. Focus centaur and hero fire on the ancestors. Focus tox fire on the priests to keep your centaurs alive.
If you win that battle, it's gg, but if your opponent is good enough and has enough of an army that you wont win that battle, then run away (unless they go for your forward TC, in that case fight under TC fire. Youll be fine.). If you run away, you have a couple options. Either go heroic (you shouldve been full pop for a while now and have been stockpiling resources) or take another TC. If you go heroic, you should be able to strangle them with ranged seige, and use Bronze to win a key battle. If you go for a 3rd TC, then you will have great map control and be able to simply outnumber them by a lot and use that to beat their mostly lame classical army after a/e is over.
Either way, their 7:50 FH will have turned into a situation where they cant have a considerable number of CA until well past the 9 minute mark. That means your economy will go unraided until very far into the game. If they use a/e to get up their migdol and you run away, they will only have a minute to make their migdol and get CA out. That means less than 10 CA along with an eggy classical army. Even if they have a full pop army by the time a/e is over, your 2 TC full pop, well upgraded (because you should have the economy to upgrade a lot) Greek army will still be much stronger.
Essentially, this strategy is good for a few reasons:
1. It assures that you cant get CA raided for an extra minute. Your economy will be really strong because of this.
2. It forces your Isis opponent to make a classical army or be destroyed the second ceasefire ends. Greek classical army >
3. It allows you to take a forward TC AND make a big army before they can get their migdol up, giving you a great chance at establishing map control.
Alternatively, one could use this strategy in conjunction with a Zeus fast mythic. It will still stop your opponent from raiding you until very late. Because of this, you will be able to get a good mythic time somewhat unmolested. At that point, you simply start spamming myrmidons and colossi and that is hard for an Egyptian player to beat.
Why is the use of ceasefire at the start of heroic not a widespread anti-Isis strategy for Poseidon and Zeus? Am I missing something?